Ye Ole Coffee Shoppe XXIII
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No we don,t have the death penalty anymore. It comes up from time to time to have it reintroduced but the government keeps saying no.
Ron
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What really sux is the @$$ O killed himself!I would love to see that guy get put to sleep!(Do they still have the death row where you live?) Shame that had to happen
, Prayers go out to all affected!
No we don,t have the death penalty anymore. It comes up from time to time to have it reintroduced but the government keeps saying no.
Ron
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Guess they don't want to take the chance of one or more of their spoiled brat kids getting stuck with it.
Evening, everyone.
It seems the UK has these mass shootings about once a decade, but the frequency seems to be increasing. This is a real issue for the police, since the vast majority, especially outside major cities, are still unarmed. I don't know if any police were in his path, but there wasn't much they would be able to do about if they were. British citizens are also essentially unarmed and unable to stop a maniac like this. I can assure you that he would have lasted about five minutes in Alabama before the police or an armed citizen woulh have dropped him. I don't know what the answer is in the UK, but it seems like the country has to recognize that we are all living in a more violent (and mentally-ill) world and more restrictive gun laws only hurt law abiding citizens. My condolences to all the families and friends in this tragedy.
Bob, I had a license when I was a teenager, back in the days of 5 WPM code for a novice and practically having to know how to build a nuclear reactor. I let it expire once marriage, kids, and jobs left no time for such foolishness. Now I have time for foolishness again.
I'm glad to see the switch to no-code licenses. I'm sure most folks here could pass the test with a few hours study, since a lot of basic electrical principals apply to radio and model railroads. There were 10 people taking the test, and I'd guess half were under 40. That's quite a turnaround from 10 years ago, when the average ham was over 60 and the hobby was dying a rapid death. I'll be working mostly two meters with some 220 and 440 thrown in on occasion. I've got a Yaesu VX-2R handheld as my starter radio. The main reason I wanted to get licensed is so I could get on the Skywarn net when I'm out storm spotting. My asigned area is a big black hole for any kind of communications, including cell phones, air cards and GPS's. The ham repeater coverage is great though. At least the guys at net control can look at the radar and tell me if I'm about to drive into a rain wrapped tornado. 
Karl, kind of sounds like my basement, except no bar and no wood stove. It's also carpeted and, although I have to more careful not to wreck the carpet too bad when working on the layout, it's a lot easier to find something that you've dropped compared to it taking a slide along a concrete floor. How long until you know if you got it? A bar at one end and a layout at the other should lead to some interesting operating sessions.
Unfortunately, I don't get to pick my callsign - the FCC assigns me one. I can pay extra and get what's called a vanity callsign if it's available. Mine should be W4 followed by three letters. I was thinking W4UPR might be cool.
Barry, I'll bet you have a Hallicrafters Sky Buddy SW receiver. It was the first one I built too. Super regenerative circuit and it was really horrible in terms of overload and intermod, but I thought it was great back then. I think I logged something like 40 countries.
Chris, California has the death penalty. Doesn't mean much if you never execute anyone. Richard Allen Davis, the scumbag who killed Polly Klaas, has been on death row since 1996 and still has the whole federal court system to go through for appeals. Fourteen of the men and women who worked with me on this case have already died, and I'm sure I'll join that list before Davis ever gets his happy shot.
Man, hot and humid down here today. Lots of storms in the area but they all missed us. I hope we pick up a few more inches of rain before this moist flow gets cut off and we head back to drought again.
It seems the UK has these mass shootings about once a decade, but the frequency seems to be increasing. This is a real issue for the police, since the vast majority, especially outside major cities, are still unarmed. I don't know if any police were in his path, but there wasn't much they would be able to do about if they were. British citizens are also essentially unarmed and unable to stop a maniac like this. I can assure you that he would have lasted about five minutes in Alabama before the police or an armed citizen woulh have dropped him. I don't know what the answer is in the UK, but it seems like the country has to recognize that we are all living in a more violent (and mentally-ill) world and more restrictive gun laws only hurt law abiding citizens. My condolences to all the families and friends in this tragedy.
Bob, I had a license when I was a teenager, back in the days of 5 WPM code for a novice and practically having to know how to build a nuclear reactor. I let it expire once marriage, kids, and jobs left no time for such foolishness. Now I have time for foolishness again.
I'm glad to see the switch to no-code licenses. I'm sure most folks here could pass the test with a few hours study, since a lot of basic electrical principals apply to radio and model railroads. There were 10 people taking the test, and I'd guess half were under 40. That's quite a turnaround from 10 years ago, when the average ham was over 60 and the hobby was dying a rapid death. I'll be working mostly two meters with some 220 and 440 thrown in on occasion. I've got a Yaesu VX-2R handheld as my starter radio. The main reason I wanted to get licensed is so I could get on the Skywarn net when I'm out storm spotting. My asigned area is a big black hole for any kind of communications, including cell phones, air cards and GPS's. The ham repeater coverage is great though. At least the guys at net control can look at the radar and tell me if I'm about to drive into a rain wrapped tornado. Karl, kind of sounds like my basement, except no bar and no wood stove. It's also carpeted and, although I have to more careful not to wreck the carpet too bad when working on the layout, it's a lot easier to find something that you've dropped compared to it taking a slide along a concrete floor. How long until you know if you got it? A bar at one end and a layout at the other should lead to some interesting operating sessions.
Unfortunately, I don't get to pick my callsign - the FCC assigns me one. I can pay extra and get what's called a vanity callsign if it's available. Mine should be W4 followed by three letters. I was thinking W4UPR might be cool. Barry, I'll bet you have a Hallicrafters Sky Buddy SW receiver. It was the first one I built too. Super regenerative circuit and it was really horrible in terms of overload and intermod, but I thought it was great back then. I think I logged something like 40 countries.
Chris, California has the death penalty. Doesn't mean much if you never execute anyone. Richard Allen Davis, the scumbag who killed Polly Klaas, has been on death row since 1996 and still has the whole federal court system to go through for appeals. Fourteen of the men and women who worked with me on this case have already died, and I'm sure I'll join that list before Davis ever gets his happy shot.
Man, hot and humid down here today. Lots of storms in the area but they all missed us. I hope we pick up a few more inches of rain before this moist flow gets cut off and we head back to drought again.
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stationmaster
Crusty Old Geezer
Jim, I forgot all about my receivers!!! I have two, one I built, a Heaathkit, the other one a Hallicrafters. That was in the days BEFORE Radio Shack. All you got with the kit was the chassis and directions. You had to buy all of the parts elsewhere. I think the kit cost me somewhere around $12 back in the day. Heathkit offered a couple of levels of craft kits. One had all of the parts, except tubes, the other was an economy model with just the chassis and the instructions.
I read about the looney over in England. Seems he had a gripe with other cabbies that set him off. An armed society is a safe society in my eyes. I have more firepower in my gun safe than the local SWAT team, anyway. Probably enough to start my own mini revolution in Honduras. And I could probably sustain it for a couple of weeks.
I refuse to call any of the guns assault weapons, though. I prefer the the term "performance weapons". People assault, guns perform. Even my Barret is an intimidating piece of armament. Not Class III like some of the others. Still, it can reach out and "touch" at a pretty fair distance. And no need to worry about the "walnut". You should know what that is, Jim. Just blow the target's head plum off.
Back to bed for this fella.
Bob
I read about the looney over in England. Seems he had a gripe with other cabbies that set him off. An armed society is a safe society in my eyes. I have more firepower in my gun safe than the local SWAT team, anyway. Probably enough to start my own mini revolution in Honduras. And I could probably sustain it for a couple of weeks.
I refuse to call any of the guns assault weapons, though. I prefer the the term "performance weapons". People assault, guns perform. Even my Barret is an intimidating piece of armament. Not Class III like some of the others. Still, it can reach out and "touch" at a pretty fair distance. And no need to worry about the "walnut". You should know what that is, Jim. Just blow the target's head plum off.
Back to bed for this fella.
Bob
Jim, once you finish getting your call letters, here's a group you may be interested in:
http://www.hwn.org/
http://www.hwn.org/
blownoutcylinder
Active Member
Jim D'uh--you'd think that I'd check the front plate of that shortwave receiver? Heathkit GR 54 was the dang things name----uh d'uh--
We be getting some more miserable showers and more t'underin'boomlets today, tomorrow Saturday Sunday, Monday---
I get to go to the doctors today and find out what my bloodwork showed up---then I get to go to work with a doctors note explaining I need 2 more weeks of sick leave--then return badly overdue library book then go to home desperate to pick up some more foam panels so's I can enlarge the layout a tad--
We be getting some more miserable showers and more t'underin'boomlets today, tomorrow Saturday Sunday, Monday---
I get to go to the doctors today and find out what my bloodwork showed up---
then I get to go to work with a doctors note explaining I need 2 more weeks of sick leave--then return badly overdue library book then go to home desperate to pick up some more foam panels so's I can enlarge the layout a tad--Afternoon, everyone.
Bob, sounds like you collected radios like you collected guns. My original Halicrafters came as a kit without the four tubes and cost about $14. It was the first time I ever soldered and I've been the king of cold solder joints ever since. My Remington 870 is about as close to a performance weapon as I have and it will do a fine job if the need ever arises.
Terry, I'm familiar with the Hurricane Watch Net and listen to it whenever we have a hurricane in the Gulf. Unfortunately, my license doesn't give me privileges to operate on HF. I've been studying for my General class license, though, which will allow me to operate on shortwave. When there's a Gulf hurricane, the 2 meter repeaters are pretty well linked together, and you can talk from Florida to south Texas using a little handheld radio.
Barry, the Heathkit GR 54 is still a decent shortwave radio as long as the tubes and capacitors are in good shape. It's only single conversion, so you do have problems with some overloading, but the bandspread tuning is fairly accurate, especially compared with my Sky Buddy. I could never know where I was actually tuning with that thing. I hope your blood work turns out to be OK.
Still steamy down here. There are a bunch of little storms forming on leftover outflow boundries to our south but nothing is headed this way yet. The same thing happened yesterday and we got no rain. I'm hoping a few of these storms will make it up our way.
Bob, sounds like you collected radios like you collected guns.
My original Halicrafters came as a kit without the four tubes and cost about $14. It was the first time I ever soldered and I've been the king of cold solder joints ever since. My Remington 870 is about as close to a performance weapon as I have and it will do a fine job if the need ever arises. Terry, I'm familiar with the Hurricane Watch Net and listen to it whenever we have a hurricane in the Gulf. Unfortunately, my license doesn't give me privileges to operate on HF. I've been studying for my General class license, though, which will allow me to operate on shortwave. When there's a Gulf hurricane, the 2 meter repeaters are pretty well linked together, and you can talk from Florida to south Texas using a little handheld radio.
Barry, the Heathkit GR 54 is still a decent shortwave radio as long as the tubes and capacitors are in good shape. It's only single conversion, so you do have problems with some overloading, but the bandspread tuning is fairly accurate, especially compared with my Sky Buddy. I could never know where I was actually tuning with that thing.
I hope your blood work turns out to be OK. Still steamy down here. There are a bunch of little storms forming on leftover outflow boundries to our south but nothing is headed this way yet. The same thing happened yesterday and we got no rain. I'm hoping a few of these storms will make it up our way.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Been working on the van when I can. Got a new fan clutch for it as the old one was worn out and was turning much too freely. Got a couple more parts for it, about $250 in all. The gas tank issue should be sorted out by next Thursday. Now if I can just get the steering column sorted. Found one that fits mechanically but is not a fit electrically as it has a different type warning switch on it. That should be a simple issue to correct by simply rewiring the connector harness.
Steve B
Firefighter
The latest is he had a shotgun and a hunting rifle with a very powerful scope, he either drove up to his victims and shot them with a shotgun at point blank range in the head or he stopped and took careful aim with the hunting rifle again to the head, the victims would not know anything about it at all. Virtually all the survivors have head injuries BTW. The good old government decided to close most of the mental institutions years ago, for what reason,,, care in the community was better they said.
stationmaster
Crusty Old Geezer
Jim, Most of my older radios came from a barn I helped tear down 25 years ago. I found another in a house I bought back in 1972. I just thought "maybe some day, I can put these things to use". I don't use them for the most part, but could should a SERIOUS emergency ever rear it head.
Yep, the guy had a shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle. Sounds like he just went off the deep end. I'd imagine most of the fatalities came from close range contact with the shotgun, as a .22 is not the most lethal round on the market. And since it had a scope, I would also take it the guy fired from a distance away.
Bob
Yep, the guy had a shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle. Sounds like he just went off the deep end. I'd imagine most of the fatalities came from close range contact with the shotgun, as a .22 is not the most lethal round on the market. And since it had a scope, I would also take it the guy fired from a distance away.
Bob
Evening, everyone.
Sure, Jeffrey, an easy job for you. It just took me a half hour to change one headlight bulb in my Suzuki. You have to pull off the air cleaner and then be sideways across the engine, looking into a black hole without your hand blocking the flashlight beam. Fine job of engineering, those headlights.
Steve, we've done that community care thing for the mentally ill also and it doesn't work. I don't know where they got the idea cops would be social workers but that doesn't work either.
Bob, one of the reasons I got back into ham radio was to have an alternate form of communication should things go completely sideways. The ham repeaters down here are in great locations with good emergency backup power. The state radio system, which has cost tens of millions of dollars, regularly fails in any type of disaster. The ham repeaters keep right on working. Makes you wonder, huh?
Anybody else watching the live feeds from the Deepwater Horizons site? I don't think the current top hat idea has a snowball's chance in hell of working, but it's fascinating to watch those submersibles at work. There are 22 of them in the world and 19 are at the site now. There is a greater concentration human knowledge concentrating on trying to fix this problem than since the atom bomb was developed. All this to plug one 17" hole and none of it's working. Sometimes we need to be reminded our reach exceeds our grasp.
Sure, Jeffrey, an easy job for you. It just took me a half hour to change one headlight bulb in my Suzuki. You have to pull off the air cleaner and then be sideways across the engine, looking into a black hole without your hand blocking the flashlight beam. Fine job of engineering, those headlights.
Steve, we've done that community care thing for the mentally ill also and it doesn't work. I don't know where they got the idea cops would be social workers but that doesn't work either.
Bob, one of the reasons I got back into ham radio was to have an alternate form of communication should things go completely sideways. The ham repeaters down here are in great locations with good emergency backup power. The state radio system, which has cost tens of millions of dollars, regularly fails in any type of disaster. The ham repeaters keep right on working. Makes you wonder, huh?
Anybody else watching the live feeds from the Deepwater Horizons site? I don't think the current top hat idea has a snowball's chance in hell of working, but it's fascinating to watch those submersibles at work. There are 22 of them in the world and 19 are at the site now. There is a greater concentration human knowledge concentrating on trying to fix this problem than since the atom bomb was developed. All this to plug one 17" hole and none of it's working. Sometimes we need to be reminded our reach exceeds our grasp.
tompm
Active Member
Good morning folks
It was 74 F as I rolled out of the driveway. High will be 88 F with a slight chance of thunderstorms. We got a little rain from the storms last night but the light shows missed us. Once the sun went down the kids were able to mow the grass.
The last couple of days have been crazy. I spent all of Wednesday at field meetings and did not get on the computer until 10 PM. Yesterday was full of office meetings. I am hoping that today turns into a catch-up day.
Part of the craziness on Wednesday was due to the fact that we held our end of the Scouting Year Cookout. It was a fun night as all of our scouts graduated to the next level. We have a few events planned for the summer.
It is strange right now as Cub Scouts and volleyball are done. Boy Scouts has two more weeks. We actually have no taxing to do. We have a lot of school events coming up. Tonight is my daughter’s 8th grade Dinner Dance. On Sunday she leaves for trip to Williamsburg. They we have honor awards and Engineering Team awards. In amongst this last fury is another Boy Scout camping trip. The summer should be lighter. My daughter will do a week long volleyball camp and my son will do a football camp.
This weekend we are going to try to take my son to Cabela’s so he can get some fishing or camping gear.
I hope everybody has a good day.
It was 74 F as I rolled out of the driveway. High will be 88 F with a slight chance of thunderstorms. We got a little rain from the storms last night but the light shows missed us. Once the sun went down the kids were able to mow the grass.
The last couple of days have been crazy. I spent all of Wednesday at field meetings and did not get on the computer until 10 PM. Yesterday was full of office meetings. I am hoping that today turns into a catch-up day.
Part of the craziness on Wednesday was due to the fact that we held our end of the Scouting Year Cookout. It was a fun night as all of our scouts graduated to the next level. We have a few events planned for the summer.
It is strange right now as Cub Scouts and volleyball are done. Boy Scouts has two more weeks. We actually have no taxing to do. We have a lot of school events coming up. Tonight is my daughter’s 8th grade Dinner Dance. On Sunday she leaves for trip to Williamsburg. They we have honor awards and Engineering Team awards. In amongst this last fury is another Boy Scout camping trip. The summer should be lighter. My daughter will do a week long volleyball camp and my son will do a football camp.
This weekend we are going to try to take my son to Cabela’s so he can get some fishing or camping gear.
I hope everybody has a good day.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
I'm glad mine are very simple to change. Just remove the surround, take out 4 screws that hold the retaining ring and out it drops. The lights on my Century are a little harder to get to though not overly difficult. The low beams are easy but to get to the high beams I have to tilt the radiator back slightly as it blocks easy access to the lights. However the radiator is in a special bracket that allows it to be moved a little.Evening, everyone.
Sure, Jeffrey, an easy job for you. It just took me a half hour to change one headlight bulb in my Suzuki. You have to pull off the air cleaner and then be sideways across the engine, looking into a black hole without your hand blocking the flashlight beam. Fine job of engineering, those headlights.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
We've been having more or less steady rain since before dawn but I finally got a break in the weather and changed out the fan clutch on the van. The longest part of that operation was making sure the centrifugal clutch on it was wound in the right direction. After cleaning the old one up so I could see the spring I was able to determine I had gotten the right one. Having to go back and get one that turned in the opposite direction would have been a drag as it'll probably rain for the rest of the day.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Except on an electric radiator fan where it's left-hand thread, 'lefty tighten'.Jeffery- I don't think you need this piece of sage advice, but there might be others who do!
"Righty = tighty and lefty = loosey"
vato loco
Just a Foolish Saint!
Afternoon, everyone.
Tom, I wish I had some kids that would mow my lawn.
Jeffrey, I'd give anything to have the regular old sealed beam headlights again. My Grand Vitara has those bug eye lens low beams and the bulb has to fit into a tunnel at just the right angle...and then you have to get a little piece of spring steel in the right place to hold it in. On top of that, there's only one headlight adjustment screw that controls both the low and high beams. You can one or the other right, but not both. It has been a good vehicle, but the headlights were designed by some engineer that apparently hated the world. I'm glad you were able to get the right clutch though. You can send some of that rain over here anytime, since we're getting nothing.
Howdy, Mikey. Of course, the "righty tighty" thing doesn't work in plumbing either.
My phone line and my DSL is constantly going up and down so I'd better post now before it goes out again.
Tom, I wish I had some kids that would mow my lawn.
Jeffrey, I'd give anything to have the regular old sealed beam headlights again. My Grand Vitara has those bug eye lens low beams and the bulb has to fit into a tunnel at just the right angle...and then you have to get a little piece of spring steel in the right place to hold it in. On top of that, there's only one headlight adjustment screw that controls both the low and high beams. You can one or the other right, but not both. It has been a good vehicle, but the headlights were designed by some engineer that apparently hated the world.
I'm glad you were able to get the right clutch though. You can send some of that rain over here anytime, since we're getting nothing. Howdy, Mikey. Of course, the "righty tighty" thing doesn't work in plumbing either.
My phone line and my DSL is constantly going up and down so I'd better post now before it goes out again.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Jim: I'm well acquainted with those little springs. My Century has them on the front side marker lights and they're a *itch to get to without a special tool. I use am improvised tool made from a piece of steel wire. It works well enough on taking them out but on putting them back in, well, they could make a minister turn to a life of crime.
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