My first Ham contact

Last night I made my first ham contact. But first, a discussion about antennas.

As I previously posted, for my first radio I picked up a Yaesu VX-5RS handy talkie ("HT"). As with most other HTs, it came with a "rubber ducky" antenna. Rubber duckies are good for compactness but not much else. They don't work well if you don't have direct line of sight to the other party to your radio conversation.

One way to improve the situation is to use a J-Pole antenna. They can be constructed cheaply from 300 Ohm twin-lead TV antenna wire. So, over the weekend I picked up a 50 foot lenght of the stuff, along with a 10 foot RG58 coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors on both ends.

The problem I ran into when making the J-Pole was that I kept breaking one wire or another when trying to strip off a length of it. After several tries and many cusswords, I decided to look around the house and see what other kind of wire I had that I could use. Then I remembered I had a bunch of Romex 3 conductor electrical wire, as used in AC house wiring. I had a scrap piece that was about the right length. Bingo!

The Romex conductors are solid copper, rather than the stranded conductors found in twin-lead. Also, they are a much heavier gauge. After I stripped off the outer sheath, I used the two insulated wires, setting aside the uninsulated wire used for a ground. I was then easily able to strip a couple of inches off the end of each wire. I bent about a quarter inch at each end and soldered them together after placing them in a vice.

Then I cut one BNC connector off the piece of coax, stripped it so a length of the center conductor was exposed, and twisted the braided shield into a wire. The center conductor got soldered to the white piece of Romex, while I soldered the braid to the black piece.

I cut the black piece to the same length as shown in the linked diagram, you don't need the piece above the cut. The white piece was cut to 54". To keep the two wires separated, I took some wood pegs I had on hand and used them as spacers, holding them in place with electrical tape. The soldered joints were also taped.

Finally, I made a loop with a plastic cable tie and taped it to the end of the J-Pole, so the whole thing can be hung up.

I'll admit, it looks like a Bubba job, but as I found out, it works pretty darn well.

I took my new antenna and the radio into the den and looked around for something to hang it on. Nothing, so I went back into my shop and got a 4 foot plastic level, which I jammed vertically in between the cushions on my sofa, and hung the J-Pole on it using a tie wrap. Bubba indeed!

Connecting the coax to my radio in lieu of the rubber ducky, I tuned to around 145 Mhz and started scanning. I quickly came upon the Wednesday night WB3JOE MARC net on 145.130 MHz. After RTFMing, I setup the Yaesu to connect to the repeater and join the net.

It should be noted that the repeater is located in Paoli, about 15 miles away from me in Plymouth Meeting. So, it seems to me that the antenna works pretty well considering (a) the distance I am from the repeater, (b) the fact that I was inside at ground level, and (c) the low power -- 5W -- I was transmitting. It should work even better outside with the antenna elevated more.

The net had participants from as far away as Lancaster, PA and Avalon, NJ, although I'm not sure if they were connecting via linked repeaters or directly. Net control was handled by Ian, KB3JAH. Everyone was very welcoming to this newbie and I'm looking forward to future nets.

Got my ham ticket today

Damn that was fast. I checked the FCC's ULS database online today and the "paperwork" (in quotes because it was submitted electronically) for my no-code Technician's license was processed. I now have my call letters and can start transmitting.

w00t!

Fun with ifconfig on Mac OS-X

One of the UNIX utilities I use all the time on OS-X is ifconfig, the command line program for configuring your computer's network interfaces. Since I often have a terminal window open, I find it faster to use ifconfig to find out my IP address than to open the System Preferences > Network utility. If you run ifconfig in a terminal without any arguments, you get output that looks like this:

Dave-Markowitzs-Computer:~ davemarkowitz$ ifconfig
lo0: flags=8049 mtu 16384
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
gif0: flags=8010 mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863 mtu 1500
inet 10.25.10.51 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 10.25.11.255
ether 00:0d:93:70:ed:44
media: autoselect (100baseTX ) status: active
supported media: none autoselect 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 10baseT/UTP 100baseTX 100baseTX 100baseTX
en1: flags=8863 mtu 1500
ether 00:11:24:26:23:5f
media: autoselect () status: inactive
supported media: autoselect
fw0: flags=8863 mtu 2030
lladdr 00:0d:93:ff:fe:70:ed:44
media: autoselect status: inactive
supported media: autoselect

If you just want to find out your IP, pipe the output to grep, like so:

Dave-Markowitzs-Computer:~ davemarkowitz$ ifconfig | grep inet
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 10.25.10.51 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 10.25.11.255

As you can see, it's a lot easier to sort out your IP address with grep.

Something I've been using a bit lately in the lab when testing equipment on one physical network which has two logical networks running on it, is to use IP aliasing. With IP aliasing you can use ifconfig to assign your network interface a second IP, simultaneous address.

For example, as you can see from the above example, my Ethernet port currently is assigned the IP address 10.25.10.51. If I need to also be on the 192.168.0.x network, I can add an address in that subnet, like so:

Dave-Markowitzs-Computer:~ davemarkowitz$ sudo ifconfig en0 alias 192.168.0.20 255.255.255.0
Password:
Dave-Markowitzs-Computer:~ davemarkowitz$ ifconfig | grep inet
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
inet 10.25.10.51 netmask 0xfffffc00 broadcast 10.25.11.255
inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 255.255.255.0

Notice that you need to prefix the ifconfig command with sudo, because ifconfig needs to run with administrative privileges. When you get the password prompt, enter your user password, not the root password. (Sudo implementations on other OSes may differ. E.g., on SUSE Linux you'd need to enter the root password.)

Finally, to remove an incorrect or unneeded IP alias, do this:

Dave-Markowitzs-Computer:~ davemarkowitz$ sudo ifconfig en0 -alias 192.168.0.20

More information about how to use ifconfig can be found by reading its man page ("man ifconfig").

Incidentally, I've replaced Apple's default Terminal.app with iTerm. It's open source and more configurable than Terminal.app, and most important to me, offers tabbed console windows. I highly recommend it.

Passed the Ham test

I passed the no-code Technician's amateur radio license exam yesterday morning. ASSuming that my forms don't get lost in the mail, I should have my call letters by the end of the week.

The exam wasn't very difficult; 35 multiple choice questions. It probably took me less than 10 minutes to finish the test. I used three things for studying:

1. "Now You're Talking!" published by the American Radio Relay League.
2. "Amateur Radio No-Code Technician License Examination Study Guide and Workbook," by Bruce Spratling, W8BBS. (PDF document.)
3. The free online tests at QRZ.com.

If you're interested in taking the Tech exam, my suggestion is to read through Now You're Talking!, and review all the questions at the end of each section. Then go through the PDF. Finally, take as many of the QRZ.com tests as you have time for.

I've found some good websites about ham radio, too:

1. eHam.net has a very nice equipment and vendor review section, plus forums.
2. Hamforum.com
3. ar-jedi from AR15.com has a real nice portable setup.

Amazon Associate Program

This morning I signed up for the Amazon.com Associate program. With how long I've been on the 'net I should've done this a long time ago. I'm good at procrastinating, though.

The first item I'll link to as a recommendation is the Keystone USA-19HS USB-DB9 serial adapter. I have an Inland USB-serial adapter but it's apparently not Mac OS-compatible. I wanted something so I could use my iBook to access the console port on network elements. So, after some googling, I found the Keyspan unit, ordered it from Amazon, and it came yesterday. It requires a driver to be installed but doing so is very simple. For a console program I'm trying ZTerm. So far, so good.

Back in the lab

Today I'm back in the lab over in Moorestown to resume my streaming video testing.

When I left here on Friday I had five MPEG-2 streams running through our Blonder-Tongue MegaPort Gateway. When I came in they were all dead. I was able to login to the MPG and everything looked OK, but when I tried to start a stream it died within a couple of minutes. So, I rebooted the MPG and tried again. This time the video stayed up for a few minutes then tanked. I'm not yet sure if the problem is with the BT or the nCube server. Either way, I don't think trying to stream video over the BTs is going to be a vialbe solution, with the low number of simultaneous streams it can handle.

Wireless site visit

Yesterday I had to swing by the golf club where I installed a wifi hotspot back in the Spring. One of the guys there was concerned about low signal levels and wanted to ensure that it would be working OK for a conference being held there this Thursday.

I got there yesterday afternoon and fired up my iBook. I saw that the signal levels were fine, just as good as when I replaced the SMC WAPs with Netgears. We simultaneously checked with another employee's Dell laptop sporting a Linksys Wireless-G card. Afterwards, I doublechecked with my Dell with its Netgear Wireless-G card.

Being able to check with three different computers eliminated the possibility that a bad NIC would skew results. It also served to demonstrate that radio reception is dependent not only upon how strong a signal is being transmitted, but by how good the receiving antenna is.

As I've previously noticed, my iBook has a very good antenna built-in for the Airport Extreme card. The Netgear and Linksys PCMCIA adapters in the two Dells, however, don't have as much gain, and therefore have inferior reception.

One can buy wireless cards with high gain antennas for PCs. If you find yourself using hotspots but handicapped with poor reception, you might look around and see what's available with a high gain antenna. (I don't have any recommendations, unfortunately.)

The Rally Point - Saturday 8/20/05

As seen on TFL:

Pennsylvania- The Rally Point- Saturday August 20th

Place: Water and Wings gun club.
9173 Janes Lane
East Greenville, PA 18041
215-679-6633

Range : 50yd pistol range and 100-500yd rifle range.

Time: 9am-5pm

Admission fee: $20 admission $5 for food


www.JSHolsters.com
www.Amback.com Your American Backyard

We have several things in the works and some interesting guests that may be attending. As of now the schedule is this:

10am-12pm, Utah CCW class.
http://www.packing.org/state/index.jsp/utah
Currently, there are twenty-five states that honor the Utah non-resident
concealed carry permit. The closest states for PA are OH, DE & VA. The
course runs two hours and includes range time. The normal course fee is
$50 but for the shoot we will discount the course for the price of
admission (course fee will be $25). If you are interested in the
course, please reserve a spot as we will need to prepare course packets
prior to the event.

1:45pm
Group photo

2pm-3:30pm
Glock Owners Workshop.
Bring your Glock. During the 90 min course we will demonstrate detailed
disassembly/reassembly. We will also discuss routine maintenance (what
little there actually is) as well as resources for Glock parts on the
Internet.

We will also have a table with our holster line and JSHolsters, LLC logo
wear. For those who attend the shoot, we will offer a 15% discount on
holsters ordered through our online store for 30 days after the event.
Those who stop by our table will have a chance to enter a drawing for
free holsters and logo wear, as well as certificates for training
courses we offer.

We will also have NRA Pistol Instructors present to offer gratis
instruction for first-time shooters. New shooters are welcome.

All responsible firearms owners are welcome!

Please be accomodating to others that attend. Everyone will get range time and please share your toys!

People from all the popular gun boards will be attending.

Seeya there!!

Keep an eye out for future updates and check out www.firearms.org for more info. Please introduce yourself when you come out.

Jamie Young
aka Soda Pop

Swedish Mora Knives

Recently I've seen on a couple of mailing lists and forums very favorable comments about the Mora knives made in Sweden. They are supposed to be good quality knives, but very inexpensive -- under $20 each. I decided I wanted to try one out, and so on Sunday night I surfed over to eKnifeworks and tried to order this one. As I tried to complete the checkout I got an error in my browser. I tried one more time and got the same database error, so I didn't think the transaction went through, especially since I never received a confirmation email. (But see below.)

Apparently striking out at eKnifeworks, I pointed my browser at Ragweed Forge, where I ordered a Mora #780 from Ragnar's Swedish Knife Catalog. Ragnar's ordering system is a secure web form, not really a shopping cart. Still, I received an email confirmation of my order within a half hour.

The #780 arrived in the mail yesterday. The haft is made of textured plastic and is comfortable for me. The carbon steel blade was lightly oiled and quite sharp, as a bare spot on my right arm will attest. :-)

Surprisingly, the Swedish Army Knife ("SWAK") from eKnifeworks arrived today. Apparently, my order did go through. I'm not upset, though, because (a) between the two knives I spent only about $30, and (b) it gives me the chance to compare a couple different model from the Frost's Mora line.

Unlike the #780, the SWAK has a stainless blade, and the plastic handle and scabbard are OD green instead of black. Aside from color, the hafts and scabbards of both knives are identical. The scabbards hold the knives pretty securely, certainly secure enough for around the home or farm. I might want something with a strap if I was carrying them in the woods, though.

While the #780 came very sharp, the SWAK came scary sharp. Like new razor sharp.

The knives are light enough that they'd make good neck knives. The blades are fairly thin, which combined with the acute grind makes them good slicers. They are pointy enough to stab with, although they certainly aren't daggers.

Today was trash day so I tested both knives a little after I got home from work. I had a couple of large cardboard boxes that needed to be cut up so they'd fit in a garbage can. The cardboard was pretty heavy and on one box was doubled up, so it made a good test medium. I normally use a Stanley utility knive with the snap-off blade for boxcutting but took the opportunity to try out the Moras.

Both knives sliced through the cardboard well, but cutting the boxes was noticeably easier with the SWAK. After the box was taken care of, I whittled an inch-thick gumwood stick into a fuzzstick, as if I wanted to start a campfire, then contiued all the way through to make a stake. I did this twice, once with each knife. Afterwards, both knives could still shave hair off my arm, although they were noticeably duller than before I started. The stainless blade on the SWAK, being harder, retained its edge better than the carbon steel blade on the #780.

After I get the chance to get both knives dull I'll post about how easy (or hard) they are to sharpen.

My initial impressions of both knives are very favorable. Each came very sharp, ready to use out of the box. Combined with what appears to be good steel and a very good price, they make good knives to have around the house or truck, and I'd feel very comfortable stepping out into the woods with either one on my belt.

Yaesu VX-5RS

I mentioned last week that I decided to get my Ham license. My copy of Now You're Talking arrived the other day and I've started studying. Obviously, the ticket isn't much use without a radio, so I did a fair bit of research at various ham sites online, including reading product reviews at eHam.net.

Several factors were considered when looking at radios:

• Transmit frequency bands
• Receive frequency bands
• Tx and Rx audio quality
• Ease of use
• Ruggedness
• Reputation for quality
• Price

I decided to pick up a Yaesu VX-5RS from Universal Radio, who has a good reputation from what I've read online. The VX-5R has actually been discontinued but it'll still come with a warranty, and received very high user ratings. I wanted a portable unit so I can use it at home, in my truck, or out in the woods. I also wanted something that can transmit on at least two bands; this radio does three. Finally, the cost is reasonable.

Along with the radio I ordered a DC power adapter for use in my truck, and an adapter to allow me to connect an antenna with a BNC connector to the unit's SMA connector. I also ordered a small, fold-up pocket reference for the radio's features.

Today I got an email with the UPS tracking number. Hopefully, I'll get the radio next week and can at least start to listen on the Rx bands, even if I can't transmit for awhile.

Streaming video system

Reader Al S. requested some details on the streaming video system that I'm testing. I'll have to be very general. The system consists of several parts:

• A *NIXish server running a custom app which provides the end users with a portal that they can order videos.
• A managed 10/100 switch with a Gig-E uplink.
• A server running a *NIX-like OS with a ton of RAID-5 disk space, on which the videos are stored and streamed from. This box has a 10/100 port for management and a Gig-E port through which the videos are streamed.
• Set top boxes which connect to the TV, and which also have an Ethernet port, where the videos are received. The STBs convert the MPEG-2 video streams from IP data to something TV-compatible.
  

I'm in the midst of testing the system against our in-room Internet access product we sell to hotels. We need to see how both the video and Internet systems work when large amounts of IP video are sent across our existing setups.

We got everything racked and configured on Wednesday over in Moorestown. Yesterday, I started testing the system against our SMC Ethernet switches. I made good progress but it was slow going. I want to have an STB connected to each port on the SMC, but before I can start a video stream, I need to flash the firmware in the STB. This uses TFTP, gettng the new firmware from the portal server, and takes about 15 minutes per box for it to download and apply the firmware, then reboot. This is taking longer than I'd hoped.

I'd planned to return today to finish the SMC part of my eval, but Judith came down with some kind of respiratory infection so I had to stay home with the kids, who aren't in daycare during the summer. I'll go back Monday.

Still here

Yup, I'm still here. I've been busy at and after work for the last week.

My biggest headache this week has been making arrangements to have a big pile of streaming video gear sent over to Moorestown so that I can do interoperability testing with our hospitality Internet access product. I'd hoped to do the testing here in Philly, but the rack of video equipment draws about 15 amps when powered up, and our lab's AC power is maxed out.

Outside of work, something I've been looking at for awhile is getting my ham license. Although I don't know a lot about radio, it's always been somewhat interesting to me. Besides, I don't have enough expensive geeky hobbies. :-) So, today I ordered a copy of Now You're Talking from Amazon, and should get it next week. This seems to be the most popular book for ham newbies. I'm going to get my no-code Technician's Class license first, and go for a General Class if I really get into it.

As a side benefit, the RF knowledge gained from getting my ham license may be beneficial in dealing with CATV RF issues at work.

AR-15 & Hakko Scope Range Report

Last month I mounted a Hakko 4x21mm scope to the carry handle of my Colt AR-15A3. Today I was able to sneak out for an hour and a half to the range to try it for the first time.

My results were a bit frustrating. I got to the range only an hour and a half before closing time so I didn't really have enough time to troubleshoot why I couldn't get the windage correct. I placed my target at 50 yards, and with a center hold on a 100 yard smallbore target, my group was about 3" low near the left edge of the paper.

I think that out of frustration I cranked it over to the right too much and now my groups are off the right edge of the paper. I decided that until I can get to the range again with a larger target backer, I'd just be wasting ammo to continue trying to zero the scope. So, I took it off and shot the rest of the afternoon with irons.

Although the carry handle scope is mounted rather high, I can get a consistent weld on the stock using my chin, rather than my cheek.

I had better luck with the Wolff spring I put into one of my 20 round Colt mags. I have three old Colt magazines, the style with the aluminum followers. The springs in them seem a bit weak, so I got a 3-pack of Wolff extra power mag springs. I replaced one and was concerned that because it differed somewhat from the GI springs that function wouldn't be 100%. But based on today's outing it seems OK.

The Colt digested ~90-100 rounds today; 40 rounds of Federal/LC XM-193 Ball, the remainder Ultramax .223 Remington 55 grain FMJBT reloads. The XM-193 is noticeably hotter than the Ultramax, but the rifle functioned perfectly with both loads.

Islamists strike again

In case you've been living under a rock, a series of bombings -- almost certainly perpetrated by Muslim extremists -- swept through London this morning. As of 1500 EST, the death toll is at least 30, with hundreds more wounded. The terrorists might want to ponder the following:

It was not part of their blood, It came to them very late
With long arrears to make good, When the English began to hate.

They were not easily moved, They were icy-willing to wait
Till every count should be proved, Ere the English began to hate.

Their voices were even and low, Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show, When the English began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd, It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud, When the English began to hate.

It was not suddenly bred, It will not switftly abate,
Through the chill years ahead, When Time shall count from the date
That the English began to hate.

- Rudyard Kipling, The Beginnings, 1914.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Amanda turns one year old today. Happy birthday little girl!

Busy, busy

I've been otherwise preoccupied and haven't had much time for blogging lately. Let's see, I've been ...

• getting caught up with miscellaneous stuff after being out in L.A. last week
• playing with my kids
• meeting with a few different vendors at work to discuss ongoing projects
• starting new projects at work

Tomorrow I'll be heading up to New York State to help my aunt move some of my grandmother's belongings. Grandma just moved into a new assisted care facility and her stuff needs to be out of her old place. So, blogging will continue to be light.

SCOTUS Justice O'Connor Retiring

Moderate conservative Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring from her post as a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. It'll be interesting to see who Bush appoints to replace her, and if the Republicans will grow a pair and push her replacement's nomination through the Senate against the inevitable Democrat stonewalling.

I nominate Judge Alexander Kozinski of the 9th Circuit to fill O'Connor's seat. I've read selections from a couple of his opinions and they impressed me as very erudite. Hopefully, we won't end up with another David Souter.

It's already started

(Tip of the hat to Mad Ogre.)

FREEPORT - With Thursday's Supreme Court decision, Freeport (TX) officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina.

Linky.

The more I think about the SCOTUS decision in Kelo v. New London, the more steamed I get. By allowing a municipality to condemn unneglected private property so that it can be transferred to another private entity for the benefit of the state, the court has taken a step towards a kind of national socialism. Not Nazism as practiced in German 1933 - 1945, but an alliance of governmental and corporate interests with individual civil rights -- such as they are allowed to exist -- made subservient to the state and its corporate partners.

Unless something is done by the executive or legislative branches of the Fedgov, I see things turning ugly. Very ugly.

Michigan addition to The Shooter's Bar(SM)

I added Jim Simmons of MI to The Shooter's Bar(SM) this morning.

Is it time yet?

SCOTUS has been on a roll, lately. Recently, we had the Raich decision, in which the Court took the line of “reasoning” from the egregious Wickard v. Filburn, and ruled that Congress may regulate the use of home-grown marijuana under the Interstate Commerce Clause. The Interstate Commerce Clause. What. The. Fuck.

Now, the Court has gone and put some more White Out on the Fifth Amendment. In Kelo v. New London, it ruled that a municipality may exercise the power of eminent domain in the event that it decides that, basically, because it can get more tax revenue from a commercial property than a residential property, it wants to take away your house and let a developer turn it into an office complex. Property rights? Hah!

And of course, even before Raich, SCOTUS ruled that the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act is not an unconstitutional infringement upon our free speech rights protected by the First Amendment.

Are they trying to make it Claire Wolfe time?