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Okay, this is a couple of days late but I've been sick with something akin to the flu since Thursday evening. I probably got it from a sick coworker sitting near me, who probably got it from me when I had it a few weeks back.

We had a little shaking here Friday morning. Being sick I had a terrible night and was up most of it, and happened to be up around 5:00 looking at the clock, wondering if I could squeeze at least a few hours of sleep in. around 5:30 I could hear the garage and walls shaking, kindof like it does when someone opens and shuts the door coming from our garage into the house, so I immediately jumped up to look for an intruder while Nicole pointed out that the ground was shaking. It all stopped for a few seconds, and then started up again. Total about 20 seconds.

At first it was reported a 5.4, later downgraded to a 5.2, about 80 miles from us as the bird flies. Having sat through a 5.6 quake in san jose last year just 7 miles from the epicenter, this one wasn't as fun. :)

The house shook quite a bit through the quake and a 4.5 aftershock later in the day, but I noticed one big difference from the CA quake: our house here didn't shake enough to need to re-settle. After the CA quake, every night for at least a week after the quake, you could hear the small popping of wood in the rafters and walls as the wood and nails re-settled. It was enough to keep me up a couple of nights. Everything is quiet with our house here.

And by the way, congrats to Danica Patrick on her win in Japan today!!! I told you this was her year.

(sorry for all of the consecutive ham radio posts.. I'll post pics of the kids soon, promise)

I don't know what it is about mini barns, but when you buy a house with a mini barn it seems that the unwritten rule is that it will be filled with junk that the previous owners did not care to clean out or take with them. Well this time we ended up with a weed trimmer, dog carrier, an old sump pump, and lots of tent pole pieces.

Tent pole pieces.. I smell a new antenna! So I looked at my options, I have some 1", 3/4", and 1/2" poles. Would be cool to make a long telescoping dipole but realistically I need poles closer in diameter to make a proper (and strong enough) taper. I settled on the idea of a rotatable dipole for the 6m band since I've been pretty anxious to work 6m.

At Lowes last night I looked around for possible parts. Found a couple of U-bolts that would fit an antenna mast, and in the hardware drawers I found these nice little 3/4" rubberized mounting clamps perfect for the poles. I've got scrap wood at home for a mount, along with a spare chassis-mount so-239 for the coax connection. Total cost to me: about $5

So, my antenna theory is a bit spotty in places and I know that the element size (diameter) can play a bit of a game in the spacing of a yagi antenna but was not sure about how it might affect a plain dipole. Figured I would model this one out before building it. I settled on using the 3/4" poles. The poles themselves are 41" in length with 2" on one end tapered for an extension of the pole. This is handy since I need a bit more than that for a resonant length on 6m. Figuring around 52mHz, each side of the dipole needs to be about 54" even. I figure this can mount on a mast under our TV antenna for now, and eventually I'll have it up above a rotor where I can turn it. So the models are figuring a 20ft height above ground. Here is how things end up looking across the entire 6m band:

And here are the radiation pattern plots for the model:

7.67 dBi with 19.13 dB front to side is not too bad for spare parts and $5 from the hardware store. I played with different element sizes in the model all the way down to #14 copper wire and nothing changed enough to make a difference with this being just a dipole. The 3/4" poles should prove to be sturdy and last long.

I'll be putting this one together in the coming days (will take all of 30 minutes.. largest part of building this will be finding some spare pl-259 ends for the coax cable). Will post pics and report when it is done.

Homemade 2 meter (144-148mHz) directional Yagi antenna

I've been telling people that I'd post pictures of the yagi I made a couple of weekends back. Well, this weekend's project was to mount the TV antenna on the roof, and the tripod I got allowed me to hold the new yagi up for a photo shoot:

From Ham Radio

(click for a larger view)

It is a 6 element, 2m YAGI made with aluminum tubing and PVC pipe. I used the W4RNL design from the 2008 ARRL Handbook, page 22.61.. (picked it up at the Monroe County library) Cost was about $40 in parts. Commercially, a 6 element 2m beam is in the range of about $150-$250.

The boom is about 58 inches long, and the driver element is larger than the reflector and directors. As you can see below I modified the mounting setup a bit to allow easy vertical or horizontal use. The PVC mast I am using there is temporary, ideally you can use larger PVC for a more stable base. Right now I don't have a plan for semi-permanent mounting and it is in the garage.

From Ham Radio

(click for a larger view)

For performance, I haven't had the chance to properly tune it yet (I'll probably grab a VHF SWR meter at the Dayton hamfest), and I've done very little testing. My HT battery died into a quick QSO on a repeater about 30 miles away. So, not doing bad at all on about 4-5 watts. The specs claim 10.2dBi gain with about 20dBi front to back ratio. So far it hasn't proven itself to have a farther reach than my favorite antenna, the Cushcraft AX2b "Ringo Ranger 2" (omni vertical documented at 7dBi gain). To be fair, neither the yagi or the ringo ranger have been mounted at an optimal height for performance. My hacked-up test case will be to put my antennas up against each other in 24 hours of APRS. Xastir has an option of hiding digipeated stations giving you a view of people you heard directly, though both ways are important as digipeaters are critical. The point is that since APRS packets carry a position with them, you can get a good idea of an antenna's range and reach. So now I have 3 2m antennas: the Cushcraft Ringo Ranger (did I mention that its my favorite? love that thing), this yagi, and an MFJ 1/4 wave groundplane with 3 radials (simple, cheap, and works very well. George got me this antenna about 14 years ago when I first got my license, and I still use it). I'll have to put them all through the APRS test sometime and post the results.

The yagi is easy to disassemble and pack up, though the aluminum elements are easy to bend if bumped. If needed, I'll probably take it to field day this June and use it for a low power-draw APRS station (point it at the closest wide area digipeater). I imagine that the radio and TNC on low power could run all weekend with a good deep cycle battery.

Conclusion of the yagi: Even without further tuning it works great on low power. It is very lightweight and very portable. With this in mind, it makes a great antenna for emergencies. (How many hams practice emergency communications but would be crippled if they had to leave their house and vehicle?)

More pictures of the antenna are in the album I setup, just click on any of the pictures in this post to see the rest.

Antenna entry into the house

I've got a couple of holes through the wall in my computer/radio room, taken up with TV coax. Punching more holes is not really what I'd like to do, especially when I plan on adding more antennas. I had enough space in one hole for my grounding wire (#6 copper) but thats it. My solution is a patch panel for the window:

From Ham Radio

(click for a larger view.. yes, the ringo ranger outside is at eye level. I mentioned already that it's not at an optimal height or permanent mounting yet)

This is simple. Grab a handful of PL259 "pass-through" connectors a couple of inches in length. Cut a piece of wood to size. Paint. Mount the connectors.

I used some sticky insulation for windows and doors around the edges, and filled in any gaps on the side with some round "caulksaver" poly foam. Used the same poly foam at the top of the window where there was now a gap from moving the window up. We've had some cold windy days since I installed this and after adding insulation, no drafts come in. We have leakier windows in the house than this one with the panel installed.

Use a large dowel or piece of wood to wedge at the top of the window to keep everything snug (and to keep the window shut from intruders).

Now, when I start adding HF antennas everywhere I won't be leaving behind a huge hole in the wall as I have with previous houses we've owned. ;)

(for my non-ham readers I'll try not to lose you so quickly this time)

I spent the day providing communications across campus for the Indiana Jr & Sr high school "Science Olympiad". Its more of an obligation then a thing to do for fun.. Its nice to help out though, activities like that are critical for encouraging creative thinking to teenagers.

I had a few minutes left on campus after I finished, so I stopped by the K9IU radio room for a bit. I didn't realize until today that there was a contest going on this weekend. For those of you non-hams, a contest on high frequencies is typically where you try to make as many contacts as possible in a period of time, usually an entire weekend. You typically get score multipliers for each country you contact. Since most people are participating together, it behooves everyone to contact each other as the scores on both ends of the contact increase. Its fast-paced and pretty fun. In this particular contest you exchange a number with the other end, and the number you give is the "count" of that person in your contest log. We were getting numbers from other people upwards of 1500, meaning they had made over 1500 previous contacts within the past 24 hours. Awesome.

Within a 30 minute time early this evening I had worked 12 contacts on 7mHz/4m (most of them within the US and Canada, the band was just opening) and 14mHz/20m (Europe was great for us). Made contacts in France, Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Canada, and quite a few in the states. Mexico and Brazil were coming in clear but I wasn't able to get a full contact out of them, there was too much interference coming out of California on adjacent frequencies. If I had more time I could have aimed the antenna a little better and pulled them in.

Had a contact with NE1C, a boy scout venture crew out of Massachusetts. I have a soft spot in my heart for these clubs, as a teenager I was a part of an amateur radio explorer post. The operator was a girl at the time which is cooler still (yes they allow girls in certain boy scout venture and explorer groups), between cell phones and the internet it is hard to get young people into the hobby, let alone both genders.

So, while I only pulled a dozen contacts or so (not enough to count as a real shot at the contest) it was a fun way to spend some time. And when cell phones go out during an emergency, the internet goes down, etc.. ham radio still works.

The next big contest that I'll be jumping in on is Field Day in June. This contest involves operating from..... wait for it..... a field. The idea being that you are far away from a permanent antenna and radio installation and require some kind of temporary setup (including generated electricity). Great way to simulate disaster communications, and people all around the world do it for 48 hours every year. Last field day I participated in was in Terre Haute eons ago. I'm stoked for this year.

Want to learn more? http://www.hello-radio.org/

Ahh.. the 2008 Indy Racing League started tonight with Homestead-Miami. There are a lot of changes this year with the merger of Champ Car with IRL. Tonight's race was pretty good, and its nice to see the drivers back after such a good season last year. Here are my random thoughts and opinions (and they are my opinions, so that means they are right)

* Champ car merger sucks. I've dreaded it and still do. The Champ drivers aren't experienced with high speeds on ovals, they are flooding the championship field, and given there are fewer races around now you'll see higher ticket prices (common supply and demand). Marco Andretti got screwed in the end of tonight's race by an oval rookie. I was hoping he'd grab a win tonight. Then Tony Kanaan got taken out likewise while he was in first place with a few laps to go. Yeah, its just part of racing, but dang..

* Thank you, IRL, for bringing back more fuel mixture options. Last year they limited the drivers options to their fuel mixture to just a green flag setting and a yellow flag setting. There is a lot of strategy to be had in fuel consumption and conservation, so this year should be good.

* Get Milka Duno off the track. She was dangerously slow at Indy last year, and she has problems finishing (taking others out in the process). Sometimes I wonder if she is racing or going out for groceries.

* I'm still a big fan of Andretti-Green Racing (good luck guys!). I'll be rooting for Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick, and Marco Andretti. I'm gonna miss Dario Franchitti.. He was a good sport and very classy.

* Danica Patrick is finally going to win a race this year.. I can feel it. ;)

In the 9 months that we were in California last year, we left a lot of boxes unopened. Woodworking and amateur radio ("ham radio") gear sat untouched for most of the year. Kindof a bummer given all of the hours that I sat in traffic in the bay area and could have easily hit countless repeaters. There just wasn't time to unpack and settle.

I've got a lot more time now.. Pretty much all of the boxes are unpacked, and I'm starting to enjoy some of my old hobbies again (when I can afford to break away from the kids).

Starting to get my ham gear setup. I've got some temporary antenna setups for 2M now that are working pretty well. I hope to add a 40' push-up mast when the weather gets better. I would prefer a tower and no doubt someday I'll add a tower, but the mast is just $80 and comparatively that price can't be beat.

A couple of weeks ago I took the test and upgraded to General (callsign KB9JHU). This is something I've had on my mind for about 10 years and just never got around to it.

So now I'm preparing to work HF bands from the house. I've setup for antenna entry into the room (allowing 4 connections now, with more later) and have found that the grounding in the house needs a little work along with adding an RF ground near the den since the den is a bit too far from the house wiring ground, and I don't want grounding wires to become resonant on 20m. I'll take advantage of one of these wet spring days and drive an 8' copper ground rod into the ground near the den, tie it into the house wiring ground with a #6 copper line, and setup a copper pipe inside the den for a grounding point.

Contemplating HF radios, and I'll probably splurge for one at Dayton in may. I really like the Kenwood TS-480HX right now, but would definitely want an antenna tuner to go along with it. Josh has good things to say about the Yaesu FT-450. We'll see. I've always been a big fan of Kenwood's amateur radios.

In the meantime I'm still on 2m, playing around with some APRS projects I have in mind (while taking a beating on the aprssig list anytime I post.. couple of real jerks there). You can catch me on the K9IU repeater, IRLP node 4031 mostly during drive time and lunch time. Echolink is on there as well but I can't remember the ID. Stuart Longland from Australia (VK4FSJL, a Gentoo developer) is the only one I've ever spoke with on there via echolink. Most people connect and disconnect right away (-shrug-).

Its good to be back on the air. Just in time for the spring storm season, too! (weather spotter training is this Friday, can't wait)

This one had me going for a while this morning. I finally found the solution and figured I would copy it here in the hopes that someone's future googling for this problem would become easier.

The problem:

When running OSX, using iTerm, I ssh into an Ubuntu box. The "delete" key works fine as a backspace in the command line, until I run screen or enter a running screen session. Then, the delete key no longer backspaces but performs like a true "delete" key (reverse backspace). I've never had this problem in Gentoo, and the $TERM variable and 'stty -a' output are identical between Gentoo and Ubuntu, both inside and out of a screen session.

The quick fix:

By setting the $TERM variable to "screen" before you run screen it works properly. I don't have an explanation for this because $TERM is set to "screen" when you run screen anyway. But alas, this fixes the problem so I won't dwell on it longer.

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc and then either source that or log out and back in:

alias screen='TERM=screen screen'

Kudos to the final post in this thread by Hayalci for the fix:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=90910

I like to give something a review when it is extremely good... because I tend to do too much complaining when its not. So, after much anticipation for playing the game, Nicole got me a copy for the PS3 on my birthday (true love!). I must say, I haven't had as much fun with a driving game since San Francisco Rush and hit the arcades.

The Burnout series has always capitalized on an aspect of racing games that you just don't find elsewhere: sometimes you just enjoy crashing. In Burnout Paradise that is the underlying theme. You have a massive virtual city to drive around in, complete with traffic, a freeway, winding hillsides, and chances to off road.

There are objectives to be met by just driving around town, or there are objective races and matches to be found at every intersection. The seamless gameplay of driving around and being entertained between races is just brilliant. To top it off there are objectives to be met that rank up against friends online, with or without playing alongside them.

The driving is fun, the graphics are gorgeous. The crash physics and sounds that go with them are just phenomenal. If you have a chance to try this game (PS3 or XBOX360) then don't pass it up. If you've got the PS3 version, be sure to add "cshields" as a friend on PSN and catch me online sometime.

You can even track game stats online (yourself, friends, others) which is pretty cool. Mine are located here.

Today's "This Modern World" is spot on. Check it out by clicking here. Personally, I get sick at what the war is doing to our economy. Sure, one could blame the subprime market, especially since subprimes were marketed at people who could least afford a rise in their rates to begin with, BUT, one could also speculate that people would be better prepared for those rising rates in a better state of economy. Anyway.. tangent.. Americans can't afford the debt they live in as consumers, and sadly the shroud that tells us otherwise exists up in the ranks of government as well, people who I'd hope would know better. Plus it is sickening to think of all of the positive things that could have been done with all of that money (another link worth clicking). *sigh*

On another note.. This server I'm on will be taken down and moved sometime this week, so my site will be offline for a bit. I'll need to move it again a month or so down the road (soon as I find a more permanent spot for it)

*EDIT* ok, for some reason they redirect you to salon.com when you try to click the link through to the comic.. ugh.. Alright, if you didn't see the comic I copied it to my server, you can click here for it until they ask me to take it down. :P

*EDIT 2* haha... looks like CNN is frontpaging a story about this today, too. See here.

The Mozilla Firefox web browser creates a lot of buzz and publicity. This is a good thing, and there is a huge global effort behind creating what in my opinion is the best web browser available. So what of its little sister, the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client? It works. I use it for my non web-based email. But there doesn't seem to be much new innovation out of the Thunderbird camp these days.

Expect that to change.

Last week Mozilla announced the creation and funding of the Mozilla Messaging subsidiary. They have been seeded with $3mil USD, and are already assembling a team to work full time in these efforts. Like the Mozilla Corporation, it is a for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, but don't let that scare you. The intention is to drive open standards and open source in messaging, much in the same way as they do for Firefox and web browsing. Leading the pack as CEO will be David Ascher, who is one of the brightest people in open source (and a heck of a good python programmer/author).

So what does it all mean? First of all, a push for Thunderbird 3.0 and integrated calendaring. So far the only combination to get this right, in my opinion, is the Exchange/Outlook combination. And even that solution sucks because it is built upon proprietary standards. I can't make it work right on all platforms. So, this team has their work cut out for them here.

Most people would agree that "e-mail is broken", and I often joke that I long for the days of FidoNet when a message round trip could take up to a day (and there was no spam). The way we communicate online needs some fixing. I see the Mozilla Messaging team as a source of hope in this arena, but it will be some time to see the fruits of their labors. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Good luck David and the rest of your team! For everyone else, if you are interested in helping or providing ideas and suggestions for your communication needs, let them know and get involved!

Other Links:
Mozilla Messaging announcement
David Ascher's blog post on the topic