Month: September 2014

Hey, Mr. Postman

Just knocked out my first ever set of QSL cards for the Route 66 On the Air stations I managed to contact. All told I hit 9 of 21 which isn’t awesome by any stretch of the imagination but it was my first HF experience. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve written that much in longhand since I graduated.

MEMO TO SELF: break down and buy some ink for the printer and make with some mailing labels already.

FUD

I found the preppers’ net. Tuesday – Saturday at 0100UTC on 3.86000. Things that are going to bring down society in the near future:

  1. Ebola virus which is going to mutate to being communicable in airborne form
  2. The D86 virus making the rounds could mutate into something much more dangerous
  3. El Niño which is going to bring a colder, wetter than normal winter and disrupt energy supplies

They’re all super prepared! Are you??

Some choose to wear the minimum

So there is a bad ass solar flare [1] punking up the radio bands tonight. Everything is extra noisy and pulling in stations is proving difficult. Even so I found W6S (don’t forget Winona) on the 40 meter band and checked another station off the Route 66 On the Air event [2].

One benefit, I suppose, is that we might be in a prime location to see aurora borealis [3] even as far south as Western Iowa into north central Nebraska.

[1] http://gizmodo.com/an-extreme-solar-flare-is-blasting-its-way-to-our-pla-1633372360
[2] http://www.w6jbt.org/2013site/route-66-on-the-air/qsl-card-routing-and-station-website-addresses/
[3] http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/northern_lights_viewing_condit/33834457

XAML

What I love about XAML: Magic glue and event routing.

What I hate about XAML: Magic glue and event routing.

When it all works it’s really slick. When it doesn’t, finding out what bits of magic need tweaking really sucks. As in a full work day of suck.

At least there’s home made chicken pot pie in my future.