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HAM for the man that doesn’t eat Pork

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International_amateur_radio_symbolAnyone who reads my blog, at all, knows I’ve been repairing a lot of gear for the last while. But, I’ve wanted to take it up another notch, and repair some radio equipment… mainly HF/VHF/UHF transceivers. Now, while there’s nothing against doing that and being unlicensed for Amateur Radio, I thought it would be more responsible to actually have a license so I could test said gear rather than just pumping it into a dummy load.

So, I spent a couple weeks studying, and took the Amateur License Exam 2 weeks ago, and passed Technician with no problem at all. Sadly, I was able to take the General exam right after for free, and missed it by one question! So, I have my license, and right now, have a call sign of KG7VJC, which is fine, but I have applied for a Vanity Call Sign. That takes a while, so I’m holding off on saying what that call sign may end up being.

As for a radio, I initially planned on just buying a Baofeng radio, but after never hearing anything overly great about them (other than cheap), I started watching eBay and Craigslist for used Yaesu/Icom/Kenwood HTs (Handheld Transmitters). I quickly found one, in Portland, for a Yaesu VX-8DR, a pretty high end HT that looked awesome. So, I saved up a bit, and just last week bought it while up in PDX for a bit more than I’d have liked, but I’m sure it will serve me well, and radios really seem to hold their value (I can always resell if I need to).

Anyway, I’m now a ham. I’ll post a review of the radio (and probably other radio gear as acquired), as well as be adding some repairs of transceivers once I have some to repair. I’ll also be joining a local club… as that was suggested by the person I bought the radio from (lamenting he hadn’t joined one earlier). Joining the ARRL, though, may not happen anytime soon. It’s kind of spendy.

Spiders, spiders everywhere!

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Weather-StationI recently was out in my back yard when it was breezy, and when I glanced up at my weather station, I noticed the anemometer cups weren’t spinning. They’d twitch just a bit, but not spin. I had a feeling I knew what was up (A spider had “tied” them down), but it required a trip to the roof to check.

Once on the roof, I took the station down (my 10ft mast detaches at the half way point so I can work on the station). And indeed, an industrious spider had managed to put a web in each cup, and then linked each cup to the ISS (Integrated Sensor Station). Impressive. I cleaned the station up with some paper towels (including the solar panel), and got the spider down to the ground (attached him to the roof line, and let him lower himself down). Then put the station back up.

Checking my submitted weather data, at first, I thought I had lost a month worth of wind data, but checking again, showed about 12-16 hours of it missing (can’t really tell when the wind was zero MPH vs when the anemometer was stuck). Then the question became, how do I keep this from happening again, and me losing a week+.

First, software. I submitted a request for Weathercat to notify me when wind data remains at zero for a long time. Others on the forum also suggested I sign up for AWEKAS, which apparently WILL notify if sensors stop making sense (no wind for days/weeks). So, here’s my station on AWEKAS.

Second, how do I keep spiders off the station. I’ve thought about putting “Tanglefoot” on the mast, but that seems like a pain. I’ve also heard flea collars will repel them, so I think I’m going to try that up by the station next time I’m on the roof. For now, though, if you own a weather station, you may want to check your station in the summer to make sure a spider hasn’t made a home and wrapped up the whole thing disabling any of the moving parts. =)

Tektronix

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tektronix_logo_designsparkA year or so ago, when the Tektronix MDO3000 series scope was released, I signed up to win one from Tektronix. At the time, I used my personal email and home phone number since it was a competition (why would I used my office phone)? Shortly after, the calls from Tektronix started asking me if I wanted to buy anything, was looking to buy anything, etc (sales/marketing calls). Most of the time, they’d just call early in the morning (8-9am), or somehow, right when my one year old was taking a nap. =/

They would also send an email follow up, though they wouldn’t leave a voicemail. After the second time it happened, I emailed them back and said “please don’t call my home phone, call my work phone xxx-xxx-xxxx”. No response. Then a mouth or so later, another call and email. Respond to email, no response. The third time, I finally got a response to the email saying they would have to talk to their supervisor about removing me from the list. A follow up resulted in nothing, but also no calls for at least a month. Then another call at 8am one day, and I lost my patience. I emailed their main PR/Marketing email address on the Tektronix website with something rather stern, and commenting that I grew up across the street from Tektronix, and many of my family members, as well as my wife’s father, worked there for years. For a couple weeks, I heard nothing, but then I heard from a Senior Communications Manager apologizing, and saying she would look into where the process failed, and had me removed from their lists. Also, she said she was going to mail me a gift as an apology. I provided my mailing address, and a couple weeks later, got an overnight notice from UPS that something was due for delivery. What did it have?

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