Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year in 2013!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

This Robot Can Jump!

Check this jumping robot that can go 30 feet high in the air.

 

Wonder how it would work with a long antenna wire attached going over a tree branch?

Roku Review

A few weeks ago I purchased a RoKU on sale at Radio Shack.

For those not familiar with Roku, it is a small box that lets you stream video from the Internet to your TV. It comes with a few basic channels and includes a channel store to add your own. Most of the channels are free and the offering is very large depending on you interests. Hookup takes a few minutes and is very simple.

 

Two are my favorites are Ham Nation and AmateurLogicTV. Watching these on the TV beats the small screen of the computer any day. If your a fan of old B type movies Roku offers a large selection also at no additional cost. Even caught one of The Bowery Boys movies last Sunday, classic TV. Trying out my free Netflix subscription for a month and the family seems to enjoy it.

The only thing it does not include is any live free stream major sports. The various NHL, MLB, NBA, packages are available but your local teams would be blacked out.  It seems like streaming video is the wave of the future. Cable TV and Verizon Fios reports large numbers of customer cutting the cord. In my house the majority of TV viewing is on the major networks, CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, WOR, and WPIX. I am a big Rangers hockey fan but with the strike my sports viewing is very low now. My Fios offers a few 100 channels but if your not watching them its a waste of money.

The Verizon Internet is extremely fast, no complaints with the speed. In the new year I want to pick up a antenna and experiment and see what free TV has to offer in my area. Between free antenna TV, Roku, and Netflix, this will offer more than enough content to watch and hopefully save a few bucks in the long run.

Very Sad.....

 

Say a prayer for the kids.

Key Ideas

In my quest for a super compact field station go bag I am in search of a small straight key. Right now I have a cheap Philmore key and a very sturdy Junker key.

I love the Junker key with the lid but that has a permanent home in the shack. Morse Express offers a line of hand-crafted keys from LTA. I have my eye on the GMP series straight key with an affordable price under $50.00.

http://mtechnologies.com/lta/

The ARRL straight key night is a few weeks away, this key would sure come in handy.

Happy Holidays NOAA Style

We all heard this voice before.

Real Big Brother Stuff

Just read Verizon went in for a patented DVR that can watch and listen to everything in your living room. This sounds like the ultimate spy tool.

http://sourcefednews.com/big-brother-is-coming/

Cameras everywhere now they want to come inside your house.
I am sure there would even be an extra charge for the box.

Time to cut the cable cord one of these days.

Its getting out of hand!

Happy Friday!

This week seemed to fly by considering the two days off last week for the holidays.

On the radio side, tomorrow afternoon will re-string my stealth wire antenna that came down during the nor'easter storm a few weeks ago. The cause was the weight of the snow on the line, not the wind. I am a big fan of magnet wire antennas, mine did stay up and made it through Hurricane Sandy. That is one tough antenna in my book.

Maybe even an hour or so of QRP would be nice this weekend.

Last Friday I picked up a Roku streaming device for my viewing pleasure. A very cool box and a review will follow in the next few days.

T.G.I.F.

This & That

Hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends yesterday or if you were alone you made the day special in your own way.

We spent the day at my brothers house with plenty of food, desserts, and football on the tube in the background. It was a very nice Thanksgiving. Last night was sweatpants and relaxing with a beer or two.

Today is the big shopping day titled Black Friday. With the stores and highways packed it is a good day to stay at home, always some cleaning up to do in my garage and basement. Besides with free shipping online and great prices why fight the crowds.

I have a small fish pond in my yard, so while its still somewhat warm this afternoon, going to pack up the filters and pump and get ready for old man winter. No fun sticking your arm in a freezing cold pond in December.

Did a quick look this morning on Amazon for amateur radio products and this very affordable HT caught my eye.

BaoFeng UV-5R 136-174/400-180 MHz Dual-Band DTMF CTCSS FM HT. Prices start at 36.99 and up with free shipping, can't beat it. This would make for a great back up HT to keep in the car glove compartment or when running around. It feels like I spend hours in my car picking up my kids or waiting for them, most times with a good book. But a cheap HT would help pass the time.

OK time to go read a few blogs and maybe look for a deal or two.

Self-Taught Teen

A very impressive story about a 15 year old homebrewer. It is amazing what he goes through to source and locate his parts and building materials.
 

 

 

Best of luck in the future to this young builder!

 

A Day Late!

On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to leave his place of residence, that request came from his wife!!

A classic show!!!

Nat Geo Preppers Show

Over the weekend I watched a few episodes of Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic channel. An very interesting show which offers the viewer a few solid ideas for surviving a disaster or worse case scenario.

Some of the prepping was over the top but if anything ever does happen on a large scale these people will be in pretty good shape. I witnessed first hand 3-4 females on a gas line wanting to fight each other last week, so things can get out of hand fairly quickly. In this day and age, adult females no less fighting over gasoline, who would have ever thought you would see that. Maybe this show is on the money with being ready.

Besides the usually supplies I was happy to see one guy mentioned ham radio as a useful tool of communication when the lines go down. Guns and bullets were big on the show. One of my work customers mentioned to me he has stocked up on bullets to be used for protection or to trade for food.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/galleries/meet-the-preppers/#megan-hurwitt-the-young-urban-prepper-42386

The new season begins tonight on Nat Geo channel, should be interesting.

Future Emergency Ideas

It has been a few days since the two storms have passed and everyday life is back to normal. The parents beach house in hard hit Ortley Beach is another story and we might not know the overall damage for another week or more.

My home lost 25 shingles from the super high winds and were reattached by my roofer at no cost, he is on the holiday gift list. During the storm we lost power at 10:00PM and did not get it back for ten days. Thanks to my neighbor for lending me a receptacle on his generator. This kept the basics going and the house semi warm with space heaters. We owe them a dinner out over the next week or two. A few items on my to do list for future emergencies include:

Generator
Stock up on water supply
Portable lanterns
Two thick extension cords
Small TV antenna in case my Verizon Fios goes out
Inverter
Batteries

A big help were my sleeping bags which kept my kids warm at night.
This list is sure to grow but its a good start. This is the second year in a row we lost power, 3 and 10 days.

Here's a tree that came down across the street from my house. When it hit the ground my house shook. Just glad it fell in that direction.

Another Successful Jumper

This is just a fun video to watch.

You have to love these YouTube videos!

Power!

Well 10 days later my power just came on at 4:00PM this afternoon.

It has been a long cold week and will be glad to get back into a routine again starting tomorrow. My neighbor was able to keep me going with 1 outlet from his generator which powered the TV, light, and a space heater.

It was a pleasure to heat up the house and tonight will be nice the read the local newspaper.

10 days is a very long time without power.

More tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Boat Ride Anybody?

This goes into the just when you think you have seen it all category.
Check out this nut taking his boat out into the ocean yesterday afternoon.

No one was wearing life jackets on board.

Heard he made it back OK.

So far at my location winds are picking up but suppose to get worse after 1:00 PM eastern time. Storms is 300 miles away from New York City and making the turn now toward Jersey shore. Land fall between Atlantic City and Cape May, NJ.

Hoping to keep power but they are saying the winds will be at the peak between 3PM to 3AM.

Ready Or Not

It always seems like I am missing something or never fully prepared for storms but as they say do the best you can.

The yard is cleaned up and batteries are in charging mode just in case they are needed. The storm still is very strong but might not be a cat 1 when it comes ashore. Either way this is one wicked storm with 50-70 mph winds. With all the tress overhanging power lines in my town I expect power to be lost for 3 days plus, hope I am wrong.

I might even jump on 40 meter CW tonight as long as the stealth antenna stays up. As I cleaned my gutters yesterday it almost came down as I hit it with the ladder.

Here are a few links if you want to follow and see the storms live.

http://www.exit82.com/seacam/
Seaside Heights, NJ

http://friendsofislandbeach.org/ospreycam/
Island Beach State Park, in NJ

http://njbeachcams.com/northern-new-jersey/monmouth-beach-camera-and-surf-report
Monmouth Beach - check out the sand piled up for protection.

http://thesurfersview.com/live-beach-cams/central-new-jersey/ortley-beach
Ortley Beach - this is the beach I go to.

http://thesurfersview.com/live-beach-cams/central-new-jersey/manasquan-inlet
Manasquan Inlet

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/
NY radio stations 1010 Wins and 880 WCBS AM.

Stay safe.

2013 Ramsey Catalog

For all you kit lovers the 2013 Ramsey Electronics catalog is available as a download.

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/site/default.asp?page=catalog

Ramsey has been around for 40 years with a solid reputation for good quality kits and products in general. The instruction manuals are also easy to follow which makes building their kits much more enjoyable and relaxing. We have enough stress these days.

If you decide to tackle a kit or two in the future head over to J-Tron and see what they offer. I hear he is one hell of a nice guy. (very cheap plug)

Have a nice day!

S A N D Y

There is only one thing on every one's mind in NJ and NY since yesterday and that is Hurricane Sandy.

A few names I have heard so far, a super storm, perfect storm, and the odd name of "Frankenstorm". Whatever you want to call it this is one scary storm, due to make landfall along the Jersey shore on Monday. More than a few of these beaches are fragile already with small size beaches and homes close by. The timing of high tide and the full moon will make for some very serious water levels up and down the coast as well as inland with streams and rivers. Rain prediction is 5 - 10 inches. This area is not prepared for a category 1 storm.

Tomorrow will a major day for getting ready and putting all the yard stuff away, cleaning gutters, checking the water and battery supplies, etc, etc, and etc. The one item I do not have is a generator so unless I can borrow some power from my neighbors, I would guess power will be out for days. Might be time to invest in a generator down the road, this weather seems too be getting worse every year. I would have picked one up and as you can imagine they are all sold out. This is where my camping equipment comes in handy, sleeping bags, small stove, lights.

The Weather Channel has been a great source for information. They just said might be weeks without power, yikes. After hearing all this might load up on extra water for the family.
More updates tomorrow.

Stay safe to all my friends along the storms path and get ready.

Antenna Coupler

In my quest for a better signal and overall low SWR I decided to experiment with a simple antenna coupler.

Straight from the web pages of AA5TB's very fine site, the 40M to 17M End Fed Antenna Coupler.

http://www.aa5tb.com/coupler2.html

A very simple to make coupler requiring only a few components. The only items I need is the polyvaricon variable capacitor and a housing case. I spent sometime going to a few garage sales yesterday looking for old transistor radios to steal the capacitor but had no luck. I have to look around my basement for an old radio. As my wife mentioned why bother going to a garage sale, just head down to the basement. I did not find any humor in that comment. Basements in general are meant to house stuff, old and new.

As for the housing I will pick up something this week. it will be interesting to see the effects of this coupler instead of a ground on my end fed.

The sun just came out and temperatures at 64 F might be a good time for a backyard DXpedition.

Follow Me On Twitter!

I decided to open up a Twitter account after finding myself following a few people on the side. My company has one but I try and keep those posts business related only.

Plus Twitter is easy to update on the go.

If your interested follow me with link on right.

New Antenna Plus QRP

On Saturday afternoon I decided to go with a ultra stealth mode antenna which is just a roll of Philmore Mfg 30 AWG magnet wire, part number 12-1230.

Total antenna length about 35 feet, one end attached to a fence on the corner of my property with a small plastic bottle cap as an insulator, other end straight up to the second floor window. With the help of the antenna tuner and a good solid ground, this has the makings of an easy end fed wire antenna.

If anyone is looking for a hidden stealth wire antenna, I would recommend magnet wire all the way, appearance with a cloudy background yesterday and bright blue skies today, the wire is almost invisible unless you focus you eyes and look for it (of course I did not have my glasses on). It looks like part of a long spider web from the ground.

Regarding the strength test, time will tell but later this week the call is for rain in the forecast. It will be interesting if its still airborne. The roll of magnet wire consists of over 1,600 feet, so if it comes down it's no big deal, plenty left over to rewire if I have to and it only takes a few minutes.

EA8UP

I was very happy with the results last night on 20 meters, I put my call out to a CQ from Chano, EA8UP and was answered, 10 watts SSB to the Canary Islands, my signal was a 5-4. I was just excited to make the contact.

That made my Saturday big time!
QRP is fun!!

License Renewed

Just renewed my license and the new expiration date is year 2022. Is it just me but looking at these future dates is just plan scary? Wish I was still in high school!

First day of fall today, going apple picking with the family, a fun day for sure. Might even have to pick up an apple pie but trying not to add the extra pounds. They go on easy but are a killer to get rid of.

Enjoy your weekend!

MAKE Presents: The Transistor

Over the past few days I have been reading up on the transistor and came across this simple video from Make Magazine. It even includes an easy transistor circuit to wire up with a hand full of components.

Make has a series of easy informative online videos describing various electronic components. Might have to put up a new component video once a week as a refresher for myself.

11 Years Ago

We always have to remember what took place on a September day 11 years ago.

Today has the same feel as that day with a clear cool day and blue sky's overhead.

Have a nice day everyone!

Unofficial Summer End

 

Labor day is the unofficial end of summer even if the calendar says we still have a few more weeks left.

School is back in session on Tuesday and Wednesday for both my kids, time flies as your having fun and of course getting older. The family did have a few days at the Jersey shore, ocean temps around 78 deg., nice. I also was able to cast a line into the ocean as my son was the camera man. But the wonderful part was the family time together on the beach and the backyard picnic we had with the parents, brothers, and kids that make it all so very special.

I am looking forward getting outside and play radio before the super cold weather pays us a visit. Plus the bonus is the parks and beaches have less people. My goal this fall is set up and operate a station on the beach, that would be very cool.

First day of fall is September 22, not ready to let summer go yet.

Saturday Evening Post

I have always been a big fan of scanner listening since my first handheld with four plug in crystals back in high school.

This required going to Radio Shack with your list of local frequencies and the counter person would pull them out from behind the counter. Can you image the blank stare you would get now if you asked for a certain crystal? I ended up selling it but now wish I didn't, moved up to a Fox desktop model programmable which was decent but not great. I finally graduated to a Uniden BC 200XLT that I still have, just in need of another battery.

If you want to get into the action and do not have a scanner just click on the following link for online listening across the United States.

http://www.radioreference.com/

This site includes police, fire, airports, repeaters, etc. So far I have been listening to the police in Newark, NJ, Essex County, not a nice area to say this least, just heard a call for gun shots.

A good bet would also be New York City considering the amount of nonsense going on. Yesterday at the Empire State Building was a good example of another person snapping, seems like this is happening more. Maybe you have some favorites you would like to share? Scanner listening is like watching the FOX TV show cops but you hear the action live from the safety of your own home.

On a sad note Neil Armstrong passed away today at 82 years old. The first man on the moon.

A true hero!

Long Wire Antenna

Today was a perfect sunny day with low humidity for a change to enjoy the outdoors with a backyard set up and homebrewed antenna.

I decided to make a quick run to the dollar store for some speaker wire. A 100ft spool of 18AWG costs a few bucks, so much for the dollar store. Hooked up one end to my Mr. Longarm painters pole and about 48 feet of wire attached to a 4-1 LDG balun with another wire attached to my metal 6 foot fence for grounding. My LDG Z11 tuner did the work on 20 and 40 with an swr of 1.5.

The 40 meter band was very quiet on the CW side and had no success with my R40/20 QRP rig. The 20 meter band was better but no takers to my 5W cq call, plus some of those stations were super fast. I needed to make a contact to see if this wire setup would work. Decided to hooked up my FT-857D and jumped on 20 meter SSB and make two contacts with Germany and Spain.

This setup still needs tweaking, maybe putting up the pole support in a corner of yard to get more wire in the air and extending the pole to its max height. The ground is also a very important part so might play around to improve. I always like to try new antennas and setups in general before going to the field.

Still happy with this quick and easy setup.

Passed Right By

We ended up with a thunder storm which was not severe. Some parts of New York received the very high winds. Once the trees come down on the power lines that is when the trouble starts.

I am hoping for a very nice weekend with a Sunday in the yard radio set up.

Happy Friday!

Severe Weather

Severe weather is on its way tonight for the NJ/NY area. Just finished securing all the lawn chairs and anything else that can fly away.

With all the bright red colors on the radar this storm does not look fun.

Hope everyone listens to the warnings and stays inside.

Component Rock

That is one heck of a drum set!

L.E.D. Zeppelin

Vacation Time

Just returned from a very hot week at the Jersey shore with temps in the 90F + range. The refreshing ocean was in the seventies and very nice.

On the radio side I packed the FT-857D and a few ham sticks but with the family activities going on never had a chance to power up. I plan on making up for that this coming weekend.

Sunset over the bay.

I missed one heck of a fast moving storm Saturday that broke the heat wave. Check out the video of a girl jumping from the sky ride at Seaside Heights, NJ when the lighting started flying. I saw an interview with her on TV this morning and she was OK. The jump was 35 feet into the sand helped break the fall.

Surprised the ride operators did not get a storm warning.

The question is would you have jumped?

Ramsey Electronics Giveaway

Hey Kit Fans!

Be sure to enter the Ramsey Summer Nights Giveaway. I sound like the announcer in between innings at the local baseball game.

But these days anything for free is OK in my book, money is not growing on trees.

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/site/default.asp?page=drawing

Lightning Strike

Check out this photo from today's NY Daily news of a lightning strike on the Empire State Building from yesterday's storm.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/york-heat-wave-leaves-1-700-coned-customers-power-article-1.1100626

I bet King Kong even went inside for this one.

LED Throwies

From Make Weekend Projects - Extreme LED Throwies!

Great ideas for LED's with very simple circuits using an LED and coin cell battery. LED Throwies have to be the simplest circuit around.

Today's is going to be another hot one in NJ with temps reaching 97 F.

Stay cool!

June CQ Magazine

The June edition of CQ magazine was delivered this afternoon and it looks like another good read. The QRP edition a few months back was wonderful.

A quick glance at the contents page showed a few QRP and portable articles which are always a favorite of mine. I always get a few great tips and ideas to use when out in the field or better yet these sometimes get me motivated to get up and go.

Between the local paper, hockey playoffs, & Chef Ramsey yelling in my living room tonight I will add in CQ Magazine.

Enjoy your evening.

Ramsey 20 Meter Kit

Started the first outdoor build this afternoon with the Ramsey 20 Meter CW Transmitter kit # QRP20.

This kit includes a crystal for 14.060 MHz and when complete puts out a big 1 watt of RF. Installed a handful of components and will finish up next weekend. The heat outside was steamy so I moved the operation from the picnic table to the garage which was a few degrees cooler.

So far this looks like a simple fun build, can't wait to try it out!

Outdoor Soldering

This afternoon might be prime time to break out the soldering iron and build a kit under the umbrella in the yard.

Weather forecast is a sunny warm day with a high of 93 deg. F. As long as the humidity stays away should be OK. First off is a trip down the street for the towns Memorial Day Parade. It is a small parade but always nice to see and support the town and remember what this day is all about.

More details later if the build starts.

Happy Memorial Day!

Sunspot Sunrise

This is from the pages of spaceweather.com:

"Sunspot AR1476 is so large, people are noticing it without the aide of a solar telescope."

What a great picture!

Mouser Video

Mouser Electronics has one fine tuned operation.

Jerry Mouser started selling parts out of his garage, what a great story.

http://www.mouser.com/mouserhistory/

 I still would like to know the overall cost of mailing out that big catalog.

Chat With The Designers

The New Jersey QRP Club has put together an excellent series of podcasts covering various topics for the amateur radio operator and electronics enthusiast.

So far I have listened to Favorite Parts & Kit Suppliers and Intro To The Digital Modes.

These podcasts go into great detail offering the listener different ideas and approaches as well as a learning aid into the subjects covered. This afternoon I am going to listen to Schematic Capture and PCB Layout.

The podcast broadcasts live every Tuesday at 8:00PM eastern time.
Be sure to check out the growing list of topics.

http://www.njqrp.org/teamspeak/TeamspeakChat.html

Thank you to the NJ QRP Club for taking the time and putting these wonderful podcasts on the web for all of us to enjoy.

Google Drive

The new Google Drive looks promising for storing and sharing photos and information in general. I have a nice assortment of pictures on my hard drive and have been looking for a safe home before this computer goes. 

9 Year Old DIY Cardboard Arcade

Check out this 9 year old's cardboard arcade.

http://vimeo.com/nirvan/cainesarcade

I would invest in the fun pass for 500 plays.
Great job Caine.

A future Entrepreneur in the making!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

This has turned out to be the perfect Sunday, a cloudy cool slight drizzle outside and some good reading, Tick Tock by James Patterson. Exciting detective story in New York City trying to catch a killer. Just finished Sail by the same author, great read all the way!

Over the past few weeks I have been reviewing my code using Just Learn Morse Code, wonderful program. I try and do 20 minutes plus a day, my spring training for future outdoor portable operating.

Yesterday I wired up a QRP circuit on a bread board but smoked the first resistor when power is hooked up. Glad resistors are very cheap, went through a handful so far. It must be the schematic, can't be me. :)

Enjoy what is left of the weekend!

WNEW Channel 5 New York

Memories of WNEW Channel 5 New York!!

Watching this video makes me wonder what happened to the great TV shows we all watched as kids. No comparison to what is on the tube now.

Classic good family shows.

Enjoy!

Intro Loop Video

A very good video on how loop antennas work.

Loops

The magnetic loop antenna has always fascinated me with its small stealth appearance. I have been doing some homework on adding a loop to my assortment of antennas. Plus it would fit in with my small lot in NJ.
The easy way is to purchase one but that comes with a rather large price tag which I would rather not do at this time. The MFJ 1788 Hi Q Loop is $469.00 or the Alex Loop with shipping is $266.00. I have read very good reviews on both.

Which leaves me option B, pick up a capacitor, copper pipe/tubing and make my own. Plenty of information on the web to get me started, if I finish with a working antenna is another story. This will be an interesting warm weather project.

Years ago I picked up a 2M loop for SSB for around $79.00, still have it and works well.

In the meantime here are a few interesting loop links for your reading pleasure.

www.alexloop.com
http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1788
http://www.antennex.com/hws/ws0201/nonmag.htm
http://www.aa5tb.com/loop.html

Resistor Color Code Calculator

Here is another handy (lazy) way to find your resistor values.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/resistcolcalc.html

I used it this week when bread boarding a transmitter circuit and it is useful if your meter is not around.

Now if I can only get that first resistor in my QRP circuit to stop smoking I will be set.

Paper Airplanes

This is one well built paper airplane.
Enjoy your Friday!

Hack a Day

Here's a very cool site for all your hacking fun and ideas.

Hack a Day

http://hackaday.com/

Nice Monday reading material.

State Park Saturday

Had some free time Saturday afternoon to play radio so I grabbed my nap shack, hamstick, and battery and went to Shepherd Lake, which is part of Ringwood State Park in NJ.

After a quick walk by the water and a few photos I set up my car station on 20 meters SSB. Only had two contacts in my hours time before a slight drizzle of rain started.

Nice & quiet

First contact was a special event station in Germany, DM800ANH. It took me about 5 minutes of listening before I got the call correct. (I was not the only one) Next was a group of guys in Wisconsin on the air in a house rotating operators, drinking beer, eating and telling stories. Sounds like they had a great time for all. The call was WB9AZA. They plan on doing this once a year. I can't wait to see that qsl card.

View from the car

The good thing about going to the State Parks this time of year is the cost, free or a low admission to get in off season and less people around in general. I am a member of the parks on the air Yahoo group so my next trip I will work on the 5 plus contacts necessary to activate a park, should be fun.

Bear Country...Yikes!

Indoor Dipole

I was experimenting this afternoon with an indoor dipole made last weekend for 10 meters. This was hung up in the upstairs bedroom of my cape, no attic available but up a decent height on the second story.

So far no contacts for the half hour attempt calling cq with 10 watts SSB. Overall the band seem quite except for 1 or 2 stations. This set up will need some more time before I am satisfied. I also have the option for a indoor Buddi-pole but the reviews are mixed on the Yahoo board, but that will not discourage me from trying it out next weekend.

The outside temps in NJ were at a high of 28 F with a biting wind, so today turned out to be a lazy Sunday.

Anybody have any favorite indoor antennas home brewed they wish to share please let me know. Commercial antennas are an option if the price is right.

Outdoor Pictures



Small Stream

                

My view on the hill

Cold winter Sunday afternoon



A few deer on the way home

Photos from last weeks adventure in New York.

Education Links # 2

IX. Logic, Words, & MemoryX. Languages
XI. Music
XII. History
XIII. Business, Finance, & Investing
XIV. Food, Nutrition, & Cooking
XV. Survival Tips
XVI. Other

IX. LOGIC, WORDS, & MEMORY
Mind Tools - Memory improvement techniques
http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html

The Nizkor Project - List of logical fallacies
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/index.html

Wikipedia's List of Logical Fallacies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Wikipedia's List of Figures of Speech
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech

Tool Kit for Rhetorical Analysis
http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetorictoolkit/Tool_Kit_for_Rhetorical_Analysis.htm

KnoWord - Expand your vocabulary
http://knoword.org/

Vocabulary.com - Learn new words & explore language
http://www.vocabulary.com/

Brain Workshop - A Dual N-Back Game
http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/

Argument Mapping Tutorials
http://austhink.com/reason/tutorials/

Philosophy Bites - Podcasts of top philsophers
http://www.philosophybites.com/

X. LANGUAGESBasic Composition - Reading & Writing
http://www.basiccomposition.com/

BBC Languages - Beginner courses in multiple languages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Foreign Service Institute Language Courses
http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php

Language Guide - Foreign language vocabulary, grammar, & readings
http://www.languageguide.org/

eLanguage School - Free foreign language lessons online
http://www.elanguageschool.net/

Free Online Language Courses via About.com
http://distancelearn.about.com/od/onlinecourses/a/freelanguage.htm

DuoLingo - Learn a language for free & simultaneously translate the web
http://duolingo.com/

Babel Nation - Learning languages online for free
http://www.babelnation.com/

Transparent Language - Language learning software & resources in over 100 languages
http://www.transparent.com/language-resources/languages.html

Survival Phrases - Learn essential travel phrases, tips, and insights
http://survivalphrases.com/

Talk to Me in Korean
http://talktomeinkorean.com/

Chinese Toolbox - Software for learning Chinese through reading
http://www.chinesetoolbox.com/

LiveMocha - World's largest language learning community
http://www.livemocha.com/

American Sign Language (ASL) University
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lesson01.htm

Handspeak - Sign language
http://www.handspeak.com/

Signing Savvy - Your sign language resource
http://www.signingsavvy.com/index.php

XI. MUSICMusic Theory - Lessons, exercises, & tools
http://www.musictheory.net/

Ear Training & Music Theory Software
http://www.trainear.com/

Basic Music Theory
http://www.howmusicworks.org/

About.com Music Education - Music theory
http://musiced.about.com/od/musictheory/u/musiced_musictheory.htm

Teoria - Music Theory Web
http://teoria.com/

Ultimate Guitar - Lessons, techniques, & styles
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/

Justin Guitar - The best guitar instruction on the web
http://www.justinguitar.com/

Chorder - Chord fingering and guitar resources
http://www.chorder.com/guitar-chords/

Funk University - Assembly of Music's Finest
http://www.thefunkuniversity.com/

Play Bass Now - Lessons, licks, and low notes
http://playbassnow.com/

How to Play Piano
http://www.howtoplaypiano.ca/

XII. HISTORYTeacher Resources - Western Civilization (52 half-hour video programs)
http://www.learner.org/resources/series58.html

Metropolitan Museum of Art - Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

XIII. BUSINESS, FINANCE, & INVESTING
Investopedia
http://www.investopedia.com/

Google Advisor
https://www.google.com/advisor/home

Google Finance
http://www.google.com/finance

MarketWatch by WSJ
http://www.marketwatch.com/

Main Street - Business & financial headlines & advice
http://www.mainstreet.com/

XIV. FOOD, NUTRITION, & COOKINGGood Eats Fan Page
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm

Jamie's Home Cooking Skills
http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/

Chef Todd Mohr's Web Cooking Classes (YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/user/ChefToddMohr

Nutrition Data - Self nutrition data; know what you eat
http://www.nutritiondata.com/

Nutrition.gov - Smart nutrition & practical tips
http://www.nutrition.gov/

Choose My Plate via USDA
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

The World's Healthiest Foods
http://whfoods.org/foodstoc.php

Calorie King
http://www.calorieking.com/

Start Making Choices - Simple ideas for living healthier on a budget
http://www.startmakingchoices.com/index.jsp

Eat Right Nutrition Tips
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=206

XV. SURVIVAL TIPSOff Grid Survival - Wilderness and urban survival skills
http://offgridsurvival.com/

Backwoods Magazine - Self reliance and self sufficiency
http://www.backwoodshome.com/index.html

Survival Topics - Your online survival kit
http://www.survivaltopics.com/

Wilderness Survival - Free info covering all aspects of survival
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/

Discovery's Worst-Case Scenario Video Clips
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/worst-case-scenario/

XVI. OTHERAdvanced Yoga Practices - Directory for Main Lessons
http://www.aypsite.com/MainDirectory.html

Creative Live - A live, worldwide creative classroom
http://www.creativelive.com/

NY State Portable

Today was a nice sunny day with the weather man calling for a high temperature of 45 F, I decided to spend the afternoon outside and explore a new place to set up a station. After kicking around a few places I settled on Harriman State Park in New York over the New Jersey border.
I went camping and fishing in the past at Harriman and know of a very nice overlook with a great view of the surroundings. Plus with the cold winter months no bears or snakes to meet up with, just deer and they are always nice to look at.  The equipment was on the heavy side but with the help of my backpack the short hike from the car was no big deal, just had to be careful crossing the small stream, wet feet on a cold day would have me back in the car super fast. The temps ended up at 40 F mark and the lake in the distance had a covering of ice.

Time to unpack

Equipment List:
FT-857D
Buddipole
Weaker battery
MFJ-259B (lowest SWR for the Buddipole)
Water & snacks (muffins)
Pad, pencil, & camera

BuddiPole Antenna

Ft-857D & Accessories

Only two contacts were made, a Northern Ireland station, 2I0BSA came back to my cq call and also WB8QEY from TN, both on the SSB side. My battery was not fully charged when I left so it did not last long. I tried for one more station in England but he said I was coming over at a S1 and very weak on his end. Decided to start packing up after an hour or so when the winds started to pick up.  Only two contacts but was very nice to get outside.

I can't wait to do it again.

Great View!

Education Links #1

Wonderful list of links with something for everyone courtesy of Google Plus.

CONTENTS:

I. Top Picks
II. Universities and Higher Education
III. General Collections
IV. How-to & DIY
V. Studying with Peers
VI. Online Books, eBooks, & Journals
VII. Computers, Software, & Programming
VIII. Science & Math

I. TOP PICKS
Khan Academy
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Academic Earth - Online courses from the world's top scholars
http://academicearth.org/

TED - Technology, Entertainment, & Design
http://www.ted.com/

MIT Open CourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/

Stanford Engineering Everywhere
http://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx

Open Yale Courses
http://oyc.yale.edu/

About U. - Collection of free online courses from About.com
http://u.about.com/

Wikiversity
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page

YouTube EDU
http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400

The Open University - Study at the OU
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/

University of the People
www.uopeople.org

University of Reddit
http://ureddit.com/

Open Culture - The best free cultural & educational media on the web
http://openculture.com/

VideoLectures - Exchange ideas & share knowledge
http://videolectures.net/

CosmoLearning - Free educational website with thousands of courses & documentaries
http://www.cosmolearning.com/

II. UNIVERSITIES & HIGHER EDUCATIONLecture Fox - Free university lectures
http://lecturefox.com/

More Open Courses:
Open Courseware Consortium
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

Harvard Extension School - Computer Science & Technology
http://computerscience1.tv/2010/spring/

Johns Hopkins University
http://ocw.jhsph.edu/

Kaplan University
http://ocw.kaplan.edu/

Notre Dame
http://ocw.nd.edu/

Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study
http://video.ias.edu/all

Tufts
http://ocw.tufts.edu/

Utah State
http://ocw.usu.edu/

Google in Education
http://www.google.com/edu/index.html

ArsDigita University - Computer science and math lectures
http://aduni.org/courses/

UC Berkeley Webcast - Central service for online video & audio for learners around the globe
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

UC Berkeley Video Courses - Free education online
http://education.jimmyr.com/

Capilano University
http://ocw.capilanou.ca/

Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

Delft University of Technology
http://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/

Rice University Connexions - A place to view and share educational modules
http://cnx.org/

Stanford on iTunes U - Stanford-related digital audio content
http://itunes.stanford.edu/content/overview.html

UC Irvine
http://ocw.uci.edu/

UC San Diego Podcasts
http://podcast.ucsd.edu/

University of Chicago's Mind Online - Thought-provoking samples of critical thinking & debate
http://news.uchicago.edu/multimedia

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
http://www.uccs.edu/~math/vidarchive.html

University of Massachusetts
http://ocw.umb.edu/

University of Michigan
http://open.umich.edu/education

University of Southern Queensland
http://ocw.usq.edu.au/

University of Sydney - Podcast episodes
http://sydney.edu.au/podcasts/2011.php

University of Virginia - Podcasts & webcasts
http://www.virginia.edu/uvapodcast/

University of Washington - Computer Science & Engineering
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/course-webs.html

Utah Valley University - Online courses & open educational resources
http://open.uvu.edu/

YouTube Channels:
Stanford
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

UC Berkeley
http://www.youtube.com/user/UCBerkeley

University of New South Wales
http://www.youtube.com/user/UNSWelearning

Yale
http://www.youtube.com/yalecourses

III. GENERAL COLLECTIONSFree Video Lectures - 800+ Online Courses and 19,000+ Videos from Top 30+ Universities on 35+ Categories
http://freevideolectures.com/

100 Intro Open Courses on Everything You've Ever Wanted to Learn
http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2010/05/12/100-intro-open-courses-on-everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-learn/

Annotum (formerly Google's Knol)
http://annotum.org/

IncrediCampus - Lectures and preparation/admission advice for college & graduate schools
http://www.incredicampus.com/

Learners TV - Thousands of downloadable video lectures on liberal arts, science, engineering, and more
http://www.learnerstv.com/

Online Education Database - 200 free online classes to learn anything
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/200-free-online-classes-to-learn-anything

Infoplease - All the knowledge you need
http://www.infoplease.com/

MERLOT - Multimedia educational resource for learning and online teaching
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/

101 Online Self-improvement Resources
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/101-self-improvement-resources/

IV. HOW-TO & DIYWikiHow - The how-to manual that you can edit
http://www.wikihow.com/

How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Wonder How To
http://www.wonderhowto.com/categories/

Instructables
http://www.instructables.com/

Make Magazine
http://www.makezine.com/

How-to Help & Videos for Dummies
http://www.dummies.com/

VideoJug - Get good at life
http://www.videojug.com/

How to Create a Book in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books

Let's Make Robots
http://letsmakerobots.com/

V. STUDYING with PEERS
Open Study - Study together
http://openstudy.com/

P2P University - Learn anything with your peers
http://p2pu.org/en/

Study Blue - Your digital backpack
http://www.studyblue.com/
VI. ONLINE BOOKS, eBOOKS, & JOURNALSGoogle Books
http://books.google.com/

WikiBooks - Open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Planet eBook - Home of free classic literature
http://www.planetebook.com/about.asp

Open Book Project
http://openbookproject.net/

The Free Library
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/

Many Books - Ad-free eBooks
http://www.manybooks.net/

WorldCat - Collections & services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide
http://www.worldcat.org/

iBiblio - The public's library and digital archive
http://www.ibiblio.org/

LibriVox - Free public domain audiobooks
http://librivox.org/

The Assayer - Web's largest catalog of books whose authors have made them available for free
http://theassayer.org/

Amazon.com Free eBook Collection
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_85650291_15?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011

Scribd - Reading and publishing evolved
http://www.scribd.com/

Textbook Revolution - Student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials
http://www.textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Main_Page

Directory of Open Access Journals
http://www.doaj.org/

eReaderIQ - Recent non-public domain freebies & price-drop alerts
http://www.ereaderiq.com/

Longform - New and classic non-fiction articles curated across the web
http://longform.org/

Flatworld Knowledge - The first and largest publisher of free & open textbooks
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/

VII. COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE, & PROGRAMMINGW3Schools - The world's largest web development site
http://www.w3schools.com/

Google Code University
http://code.google.com/edu/

The New Boston - Step-by-step tutorials for multiple coding languages
http://thenewboston.org/

UDacity - CS 101
http://www.udacity.com/

PHP Academy
http://www.youtube.com/user/phpacademy

Better PHP
http://www.youtube.com/betterphp

NetTuts+ - A large collection of coding tutorials
http://nettuts.com/

Tutorial Guide - The site for all your tutorial needs
http://www.tutorialguide.net/

Codecademy - Fun & interactive way to learn how to code
http://www.codecademy.com/

Free Technology Academy - High quality educational material based on free software & open standards
http://ftacademy.org/

Higher Computing for Everyone - Writing basic programs
http://www.highercomputingforeveryone.com/

HTML 5 Please
http://html5please.us/

Rails for Zombies
http://railsforzombies.org/

Ruby Warrior - Open source game to teach Ruby language
http://www.trybloc.com/courses/ruby-warrior/chapters/beginner#/1

Got API - Documentation search engine
http://start.gotapi.com/

Lynda - Online software training videos
http://www.lynda.com/

Intro to Linux
http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/bbnkp/ive_tinkered_in_ubuntu_before_but_its_the_primary/c0lzpwk

Stack Overflow - Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers
http://stackoverflow.com/

DZone - Fresh links for developers
http://www.dzone.com/links/index.html

Photoshop & Graphics:Tutorial Hero - Photoshop & Flash tutorials
http://www.tutorialhero.com/

PSD Tuts+
http://psd.tutsplus.com/

Photoshop Tutorials
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/

Graphic Tutorials
http://www.graphictutorials.net/

Photoshop Pack Graphic Design Resources
http://www.photoshop-pack.com/

PSD FanExtra Tutorials
http://psd.fanextra.com/category/tutorials/

Vandelay Design - Photoshop Tutorial Hall of Fame
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/photoshop-tutorial-tutorials/

Grokking the GIMP
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html

Video CoPilot - Tutorials for VFx & motion graphics
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

VIII. SCIENCE & MATHScirus - The most comprehensive scientific research tool on the web
http://www.scirus.com/

Cite Seer X - Access scientific and scholarly knowledge
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/

getCited - Academic database, directory, & discussion forum
http://www.getcited.org/

National Science Digital Library - Explore, share, create
http://nsdl.org/

Science Magazine Podcasts
http://www.sciencemag.org/multimedia/podcast/

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning - Science, Engineering, & Technology
http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/

KQED's Quest - Explore science, nature, and environment stories from Northern California and beyond
http://science.kqed.org/quest/

Freelance Teacher - Videos on physics, chemistry, math, & biology
http://www.freelance-teacher.com/videos.htm

FHSST - Free high school science texts in physical sciences & math
http://fhsst.org/

cK-12 Flexbooks
http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

Paul's Online Math Notes
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/

Reddit's List of Useful Online Math Resources
http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/bqbex/lets_list_all_the_useful_free_online_math/

Math, Better Explained
http://betterexplained.com/

Astronomy & Outerspace:Space Engine - Free space simulation software
http://en.spaceengine.org/

Google Sky
http://www.google.com/sky/

NASA for Students
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html

Scale of the Universe - Interactive Flash Animation
http://www.scaleoftheuniverse.com/

Statistics:Vassar Stats - Concepts and applications of inferential statistics
http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/webtext.html

StatSoft Electronic Statistics Textbook
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html

Connexions Collaborative Statistics
http://cnx.org/content/col10522/latest/

Handbook of Biological Statistics
http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/statintro.html