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More pics of the kids.. You put Trevor in the swing and give him a cookie, and he'll pose in any way you ask:

From 2008

From 2008

The small inflatable pools that some friends brought along camping a couple of weeks back was such a big hit that we had to get some for home. The kids would spend all day sitting in a few inches of water half naked if we'd let them:

From 2008

And the carnival came to town.. We saw a lot of interesting people at the carnival, and I don't think they were from 'round here'.. But we were there for the kids and the kids had a blast. The only thing Trevor could ride was the carosel which was a bummer for him but Tristen rode everything he could and had some of the biggest smiles we've seen from him.

From 2008

From 2008

From 2008

From 2008

(click on any of the pictures to see more in the album)

Tonight we took the kids to the kiddie pool at the Bryan Park pool. They have a great place for kids and they had a blast. I'd really recommend it for any locals with kids. The water features were something I'd expect out of a theme park. I remember the kiddie pool back home, it was a 15 foot square with a foot of water in it, and that's it. Our kids have got it good these days!

We took the boys camping this past weekend.. Spent thursday and friday nights down at Paynetown SRA on the north shore of Lake Monroe. The lake was too flooded for swimming (safety of the unknown ground underfoot and general floodwater bacteria kept us out) though it was hot enough on thursday that a dip would have been nice. A friend had brought along some little pools so the kids were able to cool off nonetheless:

From 2008

We had a great time. I think we spent more time doing nothing than anything else, which is something Nicole and I really enjoyed. We camped right next to the playground so the kids were in heaven. Much of friday was spent ducking away from the rain but we did manage to find one of the many geocaches within hiking distance. The rain didn't stop the kids from playing though:

From 2008

And at the end of the day the kids were both exhausted:

From 2008

(yes, that is my HT with a whip borrowed from Rich.. had to keep an ear toward the skywarn net for the threat of storms)

From 2008

We did end up with a pretty strong storm on Friday night after midnight. Had a lot of close lightning and thunder, and rain so heavy that it was deafening inside of a tent. Surprisingly the kids both slept through it all. If only I could sleep through a storm like that... while sleeping on the ground even...

Saw the zombie meme on Kees' blog.. This is one I'll jump in on.

You are in a mall when zombies attack. You have:
1. One weapon
2. One song blasting on the speakers
3. One famous person to fight along side you.

1. AWP. You can find me camping behind the counter of Auntie Anne's
2. Rob Zombie - Dragula (remixed.. it'll be just like the movies)
3. Dick Chaney, he's got a mean head shot. And even when he misses it will be a sure hit.

I'm trying to avoid blogging about the flooding here in Indiana.. It sends me into an emotional fog after seeing firsthand people's houses, just miles from my house, flooded up to the rooftops. I can tell you that there are a lot of heros in our area. You can be one too by helping out with donations to the Red Cross of Indiana.

Automatic backup power

We lose power quite a bit, and when bad weather comes I need it more than ever for radio gear. I have a 13.8v power supply and a 12v battery for backup power. I wanted a simple circuit that would automatically fail over to the backup power if the primary power supply goes out. So here is what I came up with, a simple OR gate built with a couple of diodes:

From Ham Radio

Here I have 2 40v 35amp schottky diodes mounted on a heat sink. The ground (black) from each power source is tied together with the ground out, and the positive (red) from each power supply goes to one of the two diodes. The output of the diodes is tied together to make the positive on the output line. Currently this does not handle charging, but I can leave a smart charger on the battery as long as the charging voltage does not get near 13.8v (the higher voltage will always be the one to draw from in this circuit). I believe there should be a way to charge the battery from the permanent power supply, I'm thinking a resistor and a reversed diode into the positive side of the battery, but I'm not quite sure if that will work right. For now this fits my needs just fine.

The APRS Portadigi

We use APRS in a lot of events here in the Monroe county area. Given the terrain there are a lot of difficult places to transmit from (most of the trackers being low powered) so this box is put together to temporarily place in a dead spot and act as a fill-in digipeater. The box was already used as such a project before I bought it at Dayton. I've got some more work to do on it, and the antenna in the picture is not one that I plan to use permanently (I'll be using a 2m collinear).

From Ham Radio

This is from the first real field test of the "portadigi" outside of my house. It digipeated my packets from a .5w tracker transmission I had as I mowed the grass (yeah, laugh it up). I don't have a good idea of battery life yet since it performed for 16 hours without failing during the first test (with the radio putting out 50watts). I will be taking it to our local field day operations in a few weeks and we will see if it lasts the entire weekend.

I imagine that this could have been useful in SAR efforts last weekend during the initial flooding. However, there needs to be a lot of education and experience in APRS in this area before it can be feasible. We've passed the point in time where amateur radio is useful in providing voice communications during localized emergencies, now let's move towards providing a "situational awareness" with APRS.

Cheers!

I've long felt that american politics are run by money... Politics are more like auctions, with decisions going to the highest bidder in terms of lobbying and perks.

Same goes for political campaigns and elections. You scratch my back now with money for my campaign to win this election, and I will scratch your back later with favors in my lawmaking. I call it corruption. There should be rules over who candidates can accept money from. (and maybe there are, so tighten them) Better yet, give each candidate a $20 budget, schedule fair and equal debates and town hall events for both of them together across the country, and make it a level playing field. Get the dirty money out of it.

Today we're one step closer to that ideal via a self-imposed restriction against donations from lobbyists and PACs from the DNC. This has been a standing rule for Obama's campaign, and it will continue.

every news site has a spin on the report, here is one from fox.

I'm not a die-hard democrat. I'm open about voting for Bush (in '00 at least..), and just as open with my disgust in his administration of the past 5 years. Things have got to change, and I like that about Obama's campaign.

Severe weather season is upon us. As much as I appreciate Skywarn and love to help out when and where I can, there are just some aspects that really grind my gears. Most of these pet peeves are a result of people getting so excited about the situation that they forget everything they have heard in training (and sometimes what they just heard from Net Control a few seconds prior). We've had some pretty embarrassing Skywarn nets lately so I thought I'd put together a few pointers. For my ham radio readers out there, feel free to add in the comments below.

For my non-ham readers, here is the short version of what I am talking about (and see this wikipedia article on Skywarn): Skywarn is an organization of amateur radio operators who become the eyes of the National Weather Service when severe weather strikes, and by severe weather I'm talking severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. Today's radar technology is good (really good in this last decade) but the guys staring into a radar screen can not see the real damage and effects of the storm they are watching. So, a Skywarn "net" (another term for an organized meeting on the air) goes active and one person acts as net control, his job being to control traffic on the air. Nobody speaks without permission from the net control. In the case of here in Indiana, our net has a liason person with the capabilities to talk to NWS in Indianapolis on a different radio. His job is to keep track of reports and quickly relay them, then quickly relay direct requests from NWS as well.

The following come from my 15 years of participating in Skywarn nets. Use this as a reference before you hit your microphone :P

• Do: report tornadoes, cloud rotation, funnel clouds (different from tornadoes), visible wall clouds, and visible shelf clouds.. Learn the difference between all of those (pdf) ahead of time so you don't have to be instructed over the air in order to make an accurate report
• Do: report hail. Use the NWS guide to hail sizes if you can not measure the hail. Don't use obscure references that might not be so obvious (I've seen big malt balls and small malt balls, malt balls should not be used to describe the size of hail!!).
• Do: report heavy winds 50mph and above. Know techniques for measuring these accurately, and when making the report tell if it was estimated or measured with instrumentation.
• Do: give accurate location reports that can be found on a map near a major crossroad intersection. "half mile southeast of hwy 3 and hwy 10" helps NWS more than "my house on sunset boulevard". Got a GPS? Give coordinates, but do so quickly.
• Do: give an accurate time report. "Real time" versus a given time in the recent past is often used. I like to report with the exact time even if it is right this minute, because unfortunately the net control and liason might not get your report to NWS for 10-20 minutes so "real time" loses its meaning.
• Do: watch radar if you are able to (TV, internet, etc) so you have an idea of what is going on outside without having to interrupt the net to ask someone
• Do: learn how to read those radar images so you don't make yourself sound like a fool by misinterpreting them on the air.
• Don't: tell everyone what your radar image is showing unsolicited. Half of us are watching it too, and if Net Control needs to know what radar is showing he will ask for it. In fact, unless of power or network outages, Net Control should have a radar image to look at himself/herself.
• Don't: tell everyone what your fancy subscription based weather program tells you either. We don't care to hear about 4 lightning strikes a minute outside when we can all see it out the window. Besides, it is not information that NWS doesn't already know.
• Don't: play meteorologist with Net Control unless your opinion is asked for, or unless you are a meteorologist. If it is the latter case, maybe you should be at work?
• Don't: report the position of the TV trucks during an active net. Chances are they are heading to the damage we already know about, and we can all expect to see it on the news without the need for your report.
• Don't: tell us when the wind starts blowing at your house. Its going to blow for everyone, and if the trees aren't falling over yet then your wind is not so exciting. Put the mic down.
• Don't: tell us that it started raining at your house either. If the weather is bad enough to activate a Skywarn net, then it will rain and it should be of no surprise to anyone.
• Don't: tell us the rate of rain. Modern dopplar radar does a good job of showing the rate and quantity of rain falling, and they issue flash flood warnings based on that. Save your rain gauge reports for the morning after.
• Don't: hold another net on the same frequency and during a Skywarn net. It causes people to double up on the repeater and adds traffic that prevents timely reports. Either take your net to another frequency or wait until after, however you do it please yield to the Skywarn net. This includes wetnet reports, just hold on to your report and wait.
• Don't: try to pass non-weather and emergency traffic during a Skywarn net. If you pulled over to help a stranded motorist, help them by taking cover until the storm is over, and then call for the tow truck. If you must do something right that minute, take it to a different frequency.
• Don't: check in when Net Control has requested no more check-ins. This makes you look really stupid, especially when you check in right after he makes such a statement (happened twice last week!). The best Skywarn spotters are the silent ones who know when it is necessary to speak up.
• Do: make significant damage reports. Trees blown over, structural damage, roofs blown off. These are all good. Limbs and twigs in your front yard are nothing special.
• Do: get the diameter measurement of trees blown over, and report whether it was a live or dead tree. NWS can get a good estimate of the wind speed based on this report.
• Don't: tell us when the power went out. Chances are half of the people listening have already lost it to. Hearing that your power went out is really of no use to NWS. There is a reason it is called Skywarn and not Powerwarn.
• Don't: tell us when the rain has reached your house. Everyone is going to get wet anyway.
• Don't: simulcast the Skywarn traffic to a third party outlet (like a radio or TV station). If they want to listen to the traffic on a scanner that is their choice. If you call soliciting that information, you are out of line and become a possible liability. Go re-read part 97, sub e, section 403 but don't stop reading before the end of the sentence saying "when normal communication systems are not available." If you are calling a radio station to have them put you on the air, then communication systems are normal enough for you not to make that call in the first place.
• Do: make your transmissions QUICK and BRIEF. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a station calling in to check in, run outside to look at the clouds, and hold the repeater up for a long time all without making it in to the repeater well enough for us to understand him. Meanwhile, another spotter with something important to say has to wait to break in. "This is KB9JHU, reporting nickel sized hail at 10th street and the bypass" takes less than 10 seconds, yet some people can drag it on to a minute. This includes net control operators. Quick and brief, please.
• Do: yield your position to someone with more experience if you jump in to start a net or Liason.
• Do: report on what the net control asks for. If the net control operator asks for stuff in the "Don'ts" above, then he (or NWS) obviously needs it for a reason.

Here is what happens: You learn how to use a radio, how to talk on it, but few people ever learn how to shut up when it is most important to be quiet. Skywarn is not your chance to become a hero, it is just an organization to help spot severe weather for NWS. If we all follow some simple rules and protocol, maybe that goal can be accomplished.

Other resources:
Wikipedia:Skywarn
Skywarn home page
Online spotter training from Indianapolis NWS
Central Indiana Skywarn
Spotter info page from IND NWS

73 de KB9JHU

I went to the Dayton Hamvention this year, first time in about a decade (I was a regular attendee back in the 90s).

I won't say much here because I've already said a lot in agreement with what K9ZW has said about the sad state of the Hamvention in his blog post, Dayton Hamvention 2008 Follow-Up Report No. 21 - Dayton the Unwashed.

Basically, as grateful as we are to the DARA for organizing the event, its just not as good as it use to be (or could be). Some claim that it parallels the state and future of ham radio itself. But at any rate, read the K9ZW post and the ongoing comment thread, despite what your opinion of the situation is, there are good points made.

Last week I was in Poughkeepsie, New York at a meeting of large-scale IBM cluster customers. I would have posted updates through the week but the internet connection there was horrid.

The meeting was good, I picked up a couple of ideas and methods that other sites use to manage their systems, made some good contacts, and ate some great food at the Culinary Institute of America.

A couple of highlights were getting to tour IBM's 300mm chip fabrication facility (where a lot of next-gen game consoles are getting their processors nowadays). Had to wear a bunny suit since it was a clean room facility. It was a bit disturbing that the bunny suit was more protective than what I had to wear in the surgery room for Nicole's c-sections. One guy offered his iphone to take a pic of the group, and the lady who took the picture must have pushed the button instead of the "take picture" icon on the screen, and so we didn't get a picture in the end. que sera, sera. The facility was amazing, robots moving everywhere and insane automation.

We also visited the data center where they are assembling and testing the new RoadRunner supercomputer cluster before it is sent to Los Alamos National Labs. This cluster will be the first Petaflop computing cluster, comprised of tens of thousands of processors. The size of this cluster was mind-boggling. I did a rough count on their floor plan and there were around 250 racks full of systems. In comparison, the system I work on, BigRed, is 20 racks and clocks in at about 40 teraflops. This makes RoadRunner 25x more powerful and about 12x larger in physical size. I got a headache just trying to comprehend managing this beast.

Back now, swimming through a pile of email from the holiday weekend.

Been a while since I've posted anything about the kids. Well here you go:

This past Monday we roasted marshmallows (we inherited a small fire pit on wheels with this house). It was a new experience for both of the boys. Of course, Trevor was drawn to the fire like a fly that can't resist a light bulb, but after a while he understood that "no" really meant "no".

From 2008

From 2008

Cleaning up the sticky marshmallow probably took longer than the whole event itself.

Along the lines of outdoor activities, we have a little less than an acre of yard to mow.. Well, technically I don't -have- to mow it, but by looking at our neighbors yard it is obvious that we would look like trash if we didn't. And what good is a riding mower if you can't take the kids around for a ride?

From 2008

From 2008

Well, CNN made it official today, gas is peaking over $4 a gallon in parts of california.

Only 8 weeks... 8 weeks after our President was asked about the prospect and his advise to us as Americans. His response is the kind of denial I like to see in a man planning for our economic future.

Hope he enjoys his cut of the profits... (see career)

Meanwhile, I hope that Hybrid Technologies' new LiV Ryder electric motorcycle hits the market on the cheap. Probably not, but hey I can dream right? :)