70cms Portable Operation

Last Tuesday evening was the 70cm UK contest. So guess what I did?

After years of lying in my shack I unplugged my Yaesu FT817 and decided to go portable! All I needed now was a suitable 12 volt connector to plug into the car...surely I must have on somewhere. After scrapping around in the attic on my hands and knees I finally found one that I could use. I brought down my multi-band vertical from the attic as well. Next I connected it all up in the car and listened to the contest...

Then I thought that I would go up to Matchmoor Lane on Winter Hill and try it out up there, maybe work a few stations...so off I went!

I was amazed at how many stations that I could hear on 70cms with just the multi-band vertical!

My only disappointment was when I tried to work some stations, when I pressed the PTT the radio turned itself off...why was this? I then realised that the power adapter was originally from a mobile phone charger and possibly had overcurrent protection built in. I was right! When I came home I managed to find another adaptor with a direct connection, this one worked a treat!

Gosh...its a long time since I took some equipment out for some portable work, now I want to make some beams for portable use along with my existing HB9CV for 2m.

Record Deck

Yesterday I had a JVC Record Deck delivered. I bought it from e-bay at just £15! Now I can listen again to my old vinyl LPs and singles. A nice deck...magnetic cartridge, anti-skate, cue lever and pretty solid metal turntable. I'm sure that people like me are now beginning to think about their 'vinyl' past. My LPs are all in plastic covers and like new...I am proud of them!

Also yesterday I received the CD I ordered 'The Old Grey Whistle Test - 40th Anniversary' It came in a cheap and nasty cardboard case and actually looked 40 years old! The songs are great, but the thing I bought has no value to me at all. I loved buying LPs, you felt like you had bought something special, great artwork, nice and big to hold and even lyrics that were big enough to read. CDs have no personal value, I have lots, but I don't have anything attached to any of them.

Today I looked through my LPs and each one had a personal memory, I even remember saving up and going to the shop to buy them!

What will the kids of today look back on? Do they have anything personal to music or are they just digital memories!

Easter garden project

Gosh...what an Easter! Bolton Wanderers at Wembley, Royal Wedding, two Bank Holiday Weekends and amazing weather...oh and they found Bin Laden!

I had some decorating to do inside if the weather was bad during my two weeks holiday. Instead I worked in the garden and built a new patio area at the back of the garden. Today it was finished!

Royal Wedding

I watched the Royal Wedding live...I didn't intend watching ALL of it especially the service, but I just couldn't move away from the television, it was compulsive :-) I think it was sooo good for people in our country. All we have seen on television are bad things, this was amazing watching so many people enjoying themselves instead of protesting and fighting.It was fun reading the comments on fb, especially the ones about Prince Harry (Williams's brother) and the chief Bridesmade, the bride's sister!

Fantastic digital HD coverage, the last Royal Wedding relied on 625 line analogue colour television. The strange thing about all this is that the technology gave the whole world satellite HD coverage. Many millions of people aroung the world are watching...but the production remains the same. It looks the same now as it did in the 1950's!

Sweden covered their Royal Wedding last year, but the coverage was much more intimate including coverage of the reception. Maybe it is time for us to be a bit more liberal and less reserved!

Barbeque weather...in April?

What a fantastic Easter Holiday! Super weather and now another holiday....the Royal Wedding and then Mayday! The weather has been unbelievable, wall to wall sunshine for over two whole weeks...never seen it like this...and its still April!

Gosh...I remember going to Drayton Manor Radio Rally this week many years ago it started off sunny, then as we drove down the M6 it snowed and the motorways were blocked. Drayton Manor Rally had marquees for the outdoor events and most of the dealers got stuck in the snow!

Yes...we have had lots of barbys in the last few weeks...now what about Summer?

Lightbulbs!

Gosh...and I thought choosing an Android mobile phone was difficult...what about choosing a lightbulb?

I remember the time when you went to the local ironmongers to buy a lightbulb and had a very simple decision.... Pearl or Clear? 60watt or 100watt? ....simple eh?

OMG...what happens now if you need a lightbulb....a nightmare! Have you been to B&Q or Homebase and seen the number of lightbulbs now? Oh....and they are now withdrawing the 'normal' lightbulbs because they are destroying the planet! So now you have to decide whether to go green and buy 'energy saving' bulbs which vary from 10p each to £10 each. Why there is such a difference in price is beyond my comprehension. Halogen spot lamps don't last 5 minutes let alone 5 years regardless of the price and buy a super light array from NEXT will leave you changing bulbs everyday for a living! I am now considereing replacing my multi halogen spotlight arrays with a simple one bulb energy efficient light bulb....simple? Not really...what about the base? Bayonet, large Eddison screw, small Eddison screw, push-in...the choices are without limits!

Did I mention LED lightbulbs? ....the future?

Did you know that CFL's (Compact Fluorecent Lamps) contain Mercury Vapour...not good for the environment eh!

What was wrong with the simple lightbulb? Lights your house and warms the room as well!

Mr Eddison you would turn in your grave if you could see what you have done!

Android

Last week I decided to buy a new mobile phone...a Smart Phone!

For years I have struggled to send text messages with the silly numeric keyboard on my present phones...too many menus...to many button presses! I can send morse code quicker, why have analogue technology on a mobile phone!

then...along comes ANDROID!

OMG...this technology is amazing!

Soooo simple to use, touch screen, internet, e-mail thousands of apps!! Suddenly I feel like I am in the 21st century! I can text, e mail, facebook, twitter, blog...like having a PC in my pocket.

Well done Samsung, a quality smart phone at a super price...I could even update this blog on my phone if I wanted to...cool!

So what is ANDROID?

The Android open-source software stack consists of Java applications running on a Java-based, object-oriented application framework on top of Java core libraries running on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring JIT compilation. Libraries written in C include the surface manager, OpenCore[21] media framework, SQLite relational database management system, OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API, WebKit layout engine, SGL graphics engine, SSL, and Bionic libc. The Android operating system consists of 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML, 2.8 million lines of C, 2.1 million lines of Java, and 1.75 million lines of C++.[22]

If you can make sense of this you are definately a Digital Native! I understand most of this ...but... what happens if you type in 12 million lines of code and you make a typing error?