Ah, nature…

I’m going to complain, briefly.

The past several mornings, I’ve been blessed by wildlife, to wit:

flickr

At 5:45 a.m. <insert Yosemite Sam language here>

Flickers are pretty birds, and if mine would refrain from pecking at my furnace vent (seriously-for a week or so, off and on), I’d appreciate it more.

Ah, well, you can’t always appreciate nature from a distance. And I’ll undoubtedly survive.

Yaesu FT 857D, where art thou?

I’ve decided on a Yaesu FT 857D for my first radio (I’ve previously purchased a Yaesu FT 401, along with its matching speaker, VFO, and microphone, but that’s another story).

Evidently, every ham in the country has as well, because there aren’t any available in the US of A at the moment. I’ve called no less than ten distributors, and the’re ALL out. Between the first full week of April and Wednesday, the remaining stock sold out, everywhere. This is the place I’d like to use bad words, but won’t.

Seems that one of the knobs on the radio is manufactured for Yaesu by another company, and they’ve gone belly up. No knobs, no complete radios.

So I’ve given my name to Main Trading Co. in Paris, TX., and they’ll call me when they’re in.

And when/if I get one, I’ll let you know.

Finally, hit the target

In an earlier post, I whinged that the ARRL had bolliched up my license by giving me credit for a General class license rather than a Technician class license.

Last night, I received an email from the FCC and it’s fixed. I was pleasantly surprised that it so easy (for me, at least).

Next I’ll add to the confusion and request a vanity call sign.

Building a Nation of riflemen

I take this day each year to post about the Appleseed Project. I attended my first weekend event in June 2013, and at the end of day two my score had risen from 174 to 194.

My second event was over Labor Day weekend of the same year. My final score was 209.

Finally, at the June 2014 event, I scored 211. I’m not a cook any more.

Yours Truly

Yes, that’s a sh*t eating grin.

The principles taught at an Appleseed event translate to skills that will make you a better shooter.  Interspersed throughout the class are short intermissions, and the instructors teach about the events of 19 April, 1775, and it’s not the boring history from your seventh grade history class. It’s full of people’s stories, what happened when, how, and why. If you only go for the history, it’s well worth the price.

There almost certainly an Appleseed event within driving distance of your home. I urge you to sign up for an event and take your family.

Okay, one last for the day, and I’ll try to stop posting…

I’ve been continuing to rewire the headlights, and over the past couple days (Monday and Tuesday) I connected the relays to ground and positive, and ran the headlight wiring through the radiator support. I also built another ground wire to connect from the battery to the Blue Sea power post which will be a terminal connection for grounding this project, as well as others in the future.

The next thing to do is to splice the left and right headlight harnesses together and connect them to the relays, and connect the trigger wire (I’m using the original headlight wires for this) to the exciter terminals on the relay, and I’ll be done.

Trouble is that we’re supposed to get some rain turning to snow on Friday, and more snow over the weekend. I’d get a lot more done if the weather would cooperate.

Pictures and possibly a video next time I work on it.

Missed it by THAT much…

As some will know, I took a local college class to study for my ham license, took lots of practice tests online, and passed the test for my technician license on 19 March, 2016.

After waiting the requisite 15 days, then four more, I received an email from the FCC that I had indeed been granted a license. Unfortunately, it was for a general, not a technician, license.

<Insert big, heavy sigh here>.

I called the VE (voluntary examiner) who conducted the class, and he’s going to make some calls in order to get it straightened out.

We’ll see.

Your Grass

For those of you who follow the old adage of “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side”, I present to you some insight for consideration.

Green grass takes tending.  It takes care.  The best yards that you see in your neighborhood are the ones where the people who live there take pride in ensuring the grass which they lay claim to is the most pristine.  You have to take care of your grass.  You have to put in the hard work.  You have to want your grass to be first-rate.

read the rest:

Your Grass

Seriously, go read it. It’s great stuff.

From the Arctic Spectre