Sunday, September 30, 2007

APRS Balloon - W3EAX-11

I just happened to notice a station I didn't recognize on my APRS display this morning. Upon further investigation, I realized that it was a high altitude balloon that hadn't been launched yet. I took some time to sit down and watch it for a while a few times throughout the morning. I took some screen captures and filtered a log that I sent along to the e-mail address associated with that call. Here are two of the screen captures. The balloon and its track are on the left.

Soon after launch - click to enlarge:



Shortly after it stopped - click to enlarge:

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Corndog!

If only this post had a picture, but we didn't bring the camera to the fair tonight. Of all the things that we did, the best part was Aidan eating his corndog. Just in case there is someone out there who doesn't know what a corndog is, check out Wikipedia's corndog entry. Now imagine a boy that is not quite two years old yet eating one, almost all of it. He may have eaten it all, but when he got down to the stick, I took it from him and ate it so he wouldn't poke is eye out. Oh yeah, Aidan also rode some rides, and so did Zoe, well, at least the carousel chariot. Alex really got my $15 worth out of the all you can ride pass. I think I about broke even. Amy didn't ride any rides tonight, she had Zoe on her back, but she rode many rides on Tuesday.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Fantasy Football - Won Week Two

I managed to win this week. No, I didn't cut Peyton for Eli, but I did play Randy Moss. There are a couple of more weeks, then some of my key players have bye weeks, hopefully Eli will be healty when Peyton is on the bye. I should probably pick up a defense and a kicker to play during their bye weeks too.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

You'll never guess what I worked on tonight!

I pulled out the Elecraft K1 kit and started work on the second component, the Front Panel Board. I was surprised at how fast I progressed on this component. I'm about 1/2 way done in one sitting of about an hour and a half.

Front Panel Board - Top


Front Panel Board - Bottom


The filter board's components were all mounted on one side and soldered on the other, well, except for the multi pin connectors. The Front Panel Board is a little different, it has components mounted on each side, with some solder points ending up below components on the other side, I sure hope I don't have to re solder anything. I hope I can finish this component without letting too much time pass.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Lost my first match

Why did I pick some of these players again? Basically, after the first couple of rounds I started choosing by the overall player ranking, which didn't seem like such a bad idea at the time. The worst part is, why didn't I play them? Eli Manning did much better than Peyton, and Randy Moss had a great game. I was ahead after the Ravens game, but my opponent scored several points with his Cardinals wide receiver. Watching the Ravens game, I say that the offensive pass interference call was BS. If Todd Heap would have been given credit for that touchdown, I would have won. I guess that is just the luck of the draw.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Eli out does Peyton!

Two of the players I had on the bench this week in my Fantasy football team did very well. Too bad they don't help my score if they are on the bench! Although the Giants lost, Eli passed for a ton of yards and touchdowns. The other player was Randy Moss, he was supposed to be injured and not play much if at all, but ended up having a hell of a game, getting 24.3 fantasy points while the guy I put in for him, DJ Hackett scored 0.7 points. I'm loosing my first matchup 57.6 to 63.7. I have Todd Heap TE and Willis McGahee RB in for tonight. I still have some time to swap out Heap for Mark Clayton, but that is a toss up move, you never know which will do better, it depends on the defense.

Nothing better than working from home!

At least when you wife is home too and the babies are sleeping!

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Fantasy Football

I've joined my first fantasy football league with some guys at work. They all say my draft picks were not very good, but how can you go wrong picking Peyton Manning first?

Here is my team
My Fantasy Football Team

QB Peyton Manning (Ind - QB)
WR Muhsin Muhammad (Chi - WR)
WR D.J. Hackett (Sea - WR)
RB Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB)
RB Willis McGahee (Bal - RB)
W/T Todd Heap (Bal - TE)
K Adam Vinatieri (Ind - K)
DEF New England (NE - DEF)
BN Mark Clayton (Bal - WR)
BN Eli Manning (NYG - QB)
BN Brandon Jackson (GB - RB)
BN Alge Crumpler (Atl - TE)
BN Randy Moss (NE - WR)
BN Bernard Berrian (Chi - WR)
(BN = Benched Player)

Manning and Vinatieri did good for me on Thursday night. I'm looking forward to Sunday and Monday, I sure hope I win my first Fantasy game.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Fred Thompson 2008

It is time to get political. In 2000, I voted for John McCain in the primary that George W. Bush ultimately won. McCain was the better of two then, and he is looking pretty good to me this year too. But then there is this Fred Thompson guy. I'm not real sure about his politics yet, he is on the conservative side, which is good, but the guy just seems electable too. A simple quote like this one "Communications being what they are nowadays, if you can't get your message out in a few months, you're probably not ever going to get it out." really makes sense. I'm sure some staff fed him that line just in case he was asked, but the delivery was perfect. There is some grumbling about him being an actor, but that doesn't bother me, our last great president was an actor too! A McCain/Thompson vs Clinton/Obama would be one hell of a race in November!