Now THIS is a porcupine

Every now and then when I go to a hamfest I'll see a plethora of vehicles in the parking lot that look straight out of science fiction, what with antennae all over the trunk, the hood, the top, or somewhere in between. They are affectionately called "porcupines" in many circles.

Then there's this guy...

Sometimes I'll catch a porcupine on a web site or two, here's one from People of Walmart:

Even the ARRL has a few porcupines every now and again:

A Google search yielded this beauty:

How do you even SEE out the window?

I think the most antennae anyone I personally knew had on their vehicle was 5. I myself had 2 at the most. Actually, 3. My old pickup truck had a 10m stick on the back bumper, a mag-mount 2m on the top, and a dual-band thru-the-glass mount for 2m/440 (which never tuned correctly).

My philosophy is that if you need to have an antenna on your car, have a radio to go with it. If you have so many radios that people can't get in the car, then you might have therapy in your future...

But seriously, some do go overboard with their passions in life, but as long as it's safe and responsible, then by all means have at it. 

Nothing much going on

Just wanted to drop a quick post to keep things busy around here.

Not much happening on the amateur radio front these days. There was the Tennessee QSO Party last weekend but I didn't participate, which sucks because I like that event. It used to be the weekend of my wedding anniversary, but a certain someone wasn't enthused about me participating on that particular weekend. Now that it's earlier in the month I can enjoy it. I sent an email to some friends asking if they wanted to get something together (last second deal) and never even got a reply from any of them...I'll take that as a "no"......

The next big event (for me at least) will be SKYWARN Recognition Day in December.

Even SKYWARN has been rather lackluster. I called a net SKYWARN training net on a Sunday in July and after 5 minutes of talking and going through the preamble and announcements, not a single check-in came back. Since check-ins were getting thin the last few weeks, we ditched the training net.

On another note, yesterday I took the family up to the mountains for a picnic and on our way up I saw a car with the ham tag "VE6EV". I recognized it as a Canadian callsign. It said it was a ham tag (Tennessee's have "EMERGENCY" on them) but when I looked at his call on QRZ he's listed with a Canadian address. I dunno, maybe he has a winter home here in the US. I'll look for him on the local repeaters.

Troubleshooting WiFi can be tricky...

Don't you hate it when your interwebs goes down? It's been happening to me a lot lately where I would lose all connectivity, yet my cable modem and router both say everything's fine, and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out the source of the problem.

Like many, my first reaction was to call tech support. When I called, I asked if there was an outage in the area, since it seemed as though I was connected to my router but not pulling any web sites, I assumed it was an outage. Having worked tech support for a living, I'm sure my ISP's support was going to love my call.

When I called about a week ago, the tech said he saw a "lot of packet loss" on my cable modem, and there wasn't an outage, so I had the option of having a tech come out or visiting the office and having my modem replaced. My wife was on the cordless phone so I couldn't ask her what time she'd be home to send a tech out, so I chose the latter. 

But after I hung up, I got to thinking more about what might be the lowest common denominator to the problem, and it did occur to me that it was raining when these outages occurred, so I went outside to where the box was connected from the main line to the house and noticed a lot of growth from an untrimmed forsythia bush around the box (along with a spider or three), so, at 10PM at night, after a monsoon, I grab the trimmers and decide to prune the forsythia away from the outside box. My wife had hung up the phone and came out holding the flashlight wondering what the hell I was doing...

Once I completed the pruning, my internet connectivity was back. So I was happy that I might have fixed the problem. But I noticed the issue return last weekend. It had rained briefly but not a lot to make me think there was the same problem as last time.

One of my kids was on the phone and asked if we were having internet problems because her friend was having the same issues. So, I chalked it up to an actual outage and tried again an hour later, and it was fine.

So earlier tonight, it happens yet again. No internet. I was at my ropes end this time. I called tech support on my cell phone (I couldn't use the home phone because my wife was talking to a friend about a rash on Lauren's head) and had to wait 5 minutes for a tech. I ran outside to check the box (it hasn't rained since last Friday) and all was fine. I went downstairs and rebooted the modem and my WiFi router twice. Then, as my wife hung up the phone and asked me what was going on, the tech came on the line and miraculously my internet came back up.

We spent a few minutes with tech support discussing my options, and once again I decide I probably need to swap out the cable modem, so I get off the phone with tech support, then it hits me...the home phone!!!

Now I start to replay all the outages and sure enough, the HOME PHONE was in use every single time. I have bundling through my cable provider for TV, internet, and phone service. My initial instinct was that one service was screwing up another.

I hop back on the phone with tech support and tell them about my discovery. But the tech support guy had one up on me that I hadn't considered, yet should have thought about first. He simply asked "do you have a CORDLESS phone?"...

And that's when it struck me, my 2.4GHz cordless phone was interfering with the 2.4GHz WiFi router I just acquired 3 weeks ago.

It appears that they're on the same channel and when I get a phone call, the cordless phone is transmitting a more powerful signal between the base and handset and simply kills my WiFi.

So I was foiled by my own cordless phone. And I'm left with a decision. Get a different phone, set my WiFi router to a specific channel that may not be covered by the cordless phone, or perhaps ditch the home phone entirely, which we've thought about doing anyway.

But I'm still trying to figure out the "packet loss" from the first call. Lazy tech near the end of his shift perhaps? Or was there was some legitimate issues with the outside box and the forsythias?

To be continued?

EDIT: Changing the wireless channel on the WiFi seems to have done the trick.

Curiosity "UFO" ID'ed?

The very first picture from Curiosity on the Martian surface turned the internet upside-down because of an object that looked like an odd formation of some sort. However, the image was just a thumbnail, or a smaller sized image of the original to give viewers a glimpse of the original image, and the resolution was not very good due to the thumbnail's small size. 

Because time was critical due to the pass of Mars Odyssey overhead relaying the telemetry and data before it went out of range of the rover, the smaller thumbnails were programmed to be relayed back to Earth, and only 2 thumbnail-sized images were transmitted before Mars Odyssey went beyond Curiosity's new Martian horizon.

Kaboom!

However, later in the day when more images were sent from the rover's Hazcam, the formation disappeared. Almost instantly the internet was abuzz with hypothetical ideas as to what the phenomenon was, from dust cover debris to UFO's.

The leading theory, however, may be even cooler than E.T.

It is suspected that the object was a dust cloud caused by the crash-landing of the rover's "sky-crane" stage moments after dropping Curiosity onto the ground, and intentionally flying away to prevent it from colliding with the rover. It is believed that, as Curiosity was getting used to its new home and was snapping pictures through its Hazcams, it caught the sky crane slamming into the ground some 2000 feet away!

Once the higher-resolution image was downloaded to Earth, the image resembled more of a mushroom cloud and the direction of the camera coincided with where the sky-crane crashed according to images sent back from the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Now the big question is, will Curiosity take a detour to the site to see what the dust cloud might have uncovered?

Incredible videos from Curiosity's descent

NASA

All eyes are on Mars this week as Curiosity made it's landing in one of the most complex maneuvers ever attempted on the red planet.

As curiosity descended it took video of its landing via the Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI. The video is grainy as the rover is currently sending thumbnail images (the high-res images will come in eventually, albeit slowly since they are so large and so many) to give a sample of what happened on it's way to the surface.

The concave black strips around the border are the result of the fish-eye lens that the camera was using to record the video. Fish-eye lenses allow a much larger field of view to be recorded. The view was inverted to flatten the background and present the video in a format more recognizable to viewers.

Along with the "good bye to the heat shield" video, MARDI also captured the landing. It's abbreviated, but NASA assures us a better video is on its way from the rover as soon as it can be sent.

Now that the high-gain antenna has been aligned with earth, we should be getting a lot more amazing pictures and videos in the upcoming days. I can't wait!

NASA gets interactive for Curiosity mission

The Mars Science Laboratory, AKA "Curiosity" is slated to land on Mars August 5. In preparation for the landing, NASA's come up with a slick interactive game for the Xbox 360 game console. 

Using the Kinect controller, you guide the Curiosity thru EDL (Entry, Descent, and Landing) as the rover makes its way to the Red Planet. I downloaded it tonight and ot to play a few rounds. The more accurate you are at each stage, the more points you are awarded. 

You first guide the vehicle through entry into the Martian atmosphere, and, using your body to keep the vehicle in the "center corridor". You'll go through pockets of turbulence and have to move the vehicle back to keep down the center line.

Next, you enter the descent phase, where you must time your movements to the pyrotechnics that deploy the parachute, eject the heat shield and finally remove the backshell, exposing the rover and leading to the final stage, landing.

In the landing stage you'll use your hands to guide the rover down to the target landing area. Accuracy and ease of landing (with the limited supply of fuel) will count as you put Curiosity down following its "7 minutes of terror".

The game also includes a video and some info on the overall mission. The opening screen contains a countdown timer to the actual landing of Curiosity on August 5th.

The game and video are narrated by Al Chen, who is the Flight Dynamics and Operations Lead for Curiosity. 

It's FREE to download (an Xbox Live membership is required, but you do not need to pay for use of the Live account) and available on the Xbox Live site.

And if you have a Twitter account, you can follow them @MarsCuriosity.

Flat TV antenna steals the show

Via Boston.com:

FlatWave digital flat TV antenna by Winegard Co.

$39.90 at flatwave.tv 

Cable television costs a small fortune these days. No wonder more and more Americans are sticking with free over-the-air TV broadcasts. All you need is a TV and a good antenna, like this one. 

Forget the old-school rabbit ears. The FlatWave is made of translucent plastic about a quarter-inch thick. You can tape it to a wall or window, or lay it flat on a table. Just find the spot in your room that delivers the best reception.

More of this article at the link.

 

The monster continues her reign of terror

Here's Amber making a contact with W1BIM during Field Day last month. She had so much fun at the Titanic event in April that Field Day was a natural progression.

If I can tear her away from Karate lessons and cartoons, I might have her licensed before her 11th birthday!

San Jacinto QRMer arrested again

via KABC Los Angeles

She's at it again!

Irene Levy, KJ6CEY, of San Jacinto, CA was arrested by authorities after shining a laser pointer at the driver of a fire truck en route to a call and on the return trip.

She gained notoriety in 2010 when she used a ham radio to illegally transmit across the fire and police frequencies, including making bomb threats and other erroneous transmissions.

2010 arrest photo

She was on probation at the time of her arrest and is being held on $25,000 bond.

She was licensed in 2009 and as of now her ham radio license has not been revoked by the FCC.

More info on her arrest is available via ABC 7 Los Angeles.

California pirate pays extra for not answering door

Sometimes it's best to just fess up to the crime and take your medicine, otherwise it'll be a lot worse later.

Once California ham radio operator who was illegally broadcasting a pirate radio station on the Broadcast FM band tacked an additional $7k to his FCC fine because he didn't answer the door when inspectors came to check his equipment.

An amateur radio licensee who should have known better was nailed for running an unauthorized FM station northwest of San Francisco-Oakland. The buccaneer only made things worse by failing to let agents inspect the station.

Brian R. Ragan was operating on 104.9 MHz without a license in Suisun City CA. And since he is the licensee of Amateur Radio Station KF6EGI, the FCC said he should have been aware of the requirement to make his equipment available for FCC inspection on request.

That’s why the FCC came down a little extra hard on Ragan. On 2/25/12, they traced the 104.9 broadcast to his garage and heard the station operating there. But nobody answered.

They left a notice of unlicensed operation.

Ragan contacted the office a couple of days later, and admitted he didn’t answer the door because he was afraid to confront the agents.

More on this story here.

How to blow $6 billion on a tech project

Military Intelligence...an oxymoron if ever there was one...

Via Ars Technica:

In 1997, the Defense Department began its quest for the perfect family of radios: software-defined radios that, like computers, could be reprogrammed for different missions and could communicate with everything the US military used. Digital signal processing could adaptively use available radio spectrum based on the needs of the moment, turning soldiers, tanks, planes, and ships into nodes of a broadband radio-based network.

The goal was to solve radio problems like this one in Afghanistan, detailed by the Center for Public Integrity in January 2012. Soldiers who watched an ambush forming on a ridge nearby found themselves limited by the hugely variable needs of their many radio systems:

They had short-range models for talking with the reconstruction team; longer-range versions for reaching headquarters 25 miles away; and a backup satellite radio in case the mountains blocked the transmission. An Air Force controller carried his own radio for talking to jet fighters overhead and a separate radio for downloading streaming video from the aircraft. Some of these radios worked only while the troopers were stationary; others were simply too cumbersome to operate on the move.

But the program meant to fix the mess, called the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), instead became a massive 15-year software and hardware development mess of its own, involving five sub-programs and multiple multi-billion dollar contracts. It has been a financial disaster for the DOD. Billions were thrown away on technology that will never see the light of day, despite multiple heroic efforts to pull the project back from the brink of disaster.

Read the full article a the above link.