Projects

Ah, back from a refreshing four mile walk. I mentioned that I have been keeping busy.

For over a week I was immersed in a complete re-write and major update of our local ham radio club website. I know it doesn’t seem like much but I spent a lot of time scanning and editing pictures, rewriting every line of xhtml, css, and what have you. Be forewarned it’s probably not wise to look around the photo section too much, as there are some really awful ones of me in my younger days! I posted them nearly two weeks ago and I still feel nauseated. 🙂

Next I tackled my own repeater web site. It is still something of a work in progress but has undergone a complete face lift and reorganization. For those not into radio stuff, a repeater is an automated relay station that extends the range of small hand held and vehicular two-way radio systems. Providing a repeater for this area is one small thing I can give back to a hobby that has been very kind to me over the years, and it benefits my community as well. This morning, as I was walking down Main Street, I was using my small portable radio (“walky talky”) to chat with a friend who was in his car about 30 miles from here, by way of the repeater. Yeah I know… in these days of cell phones what’s the big deal? 🙂 Still, systems like this have their application, and sometimes are the last thing still working in a disaster, long after other means of communication have failed.

For the past few days I have been working on equipment that will soon be installed at the repeater site. Although the system is operational, I am still trying to recover from some unexpected failures quite some while back.

It is good to finally have energy for these projects! Today, though, I’ve got to do an emergency repair on one of my antennas here at home. Hastily installed atop the 80 foot tower several weeks ago, it has partially broken loose in the wind. I need to get up there and re-attach it (or take it down) before it comes completely loose and causes other damage. I have plans to re-do everything on that, the shorter of my two home towers, later this Spring.

Unfortunately, with this extraordinarily early arrival of Spring, it will soon be time to do yard work. Ugh. I hate raking the lawn! What’s to love? Boring work, blisters, sore aching muscles… oh yeah, fun stuff! It takes about 30 hours to rake my lawn each Spring, and usually I get a window of only a week or two between the mud drying up and furious growth of the grass.  Or, uh… assorted weeds… which are more prevalent than actual grass around here.