Author: Mark Vogt

1. General HAM license test Sunday Feb 11th.
2. Stepstool
3. Buy air filters 16x25x1
4. Wells Fargo check
5. Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors.
   Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
6. Air in Silver’s tires.
7. Air in van’s tires.
8. Insurance rebate check
9. Travelers March 1st $1800.00
10. Safeco Feb 10th $2200.
11. Solar attic fan box.
12. Termite inspection date.
13. Child Fund letters.
14. Make Dentist Appointment
15. Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th.
    I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
16. Fill batteries in cave.
17. Bags for church.
18. Repair Heat2 ESP8266.
19. remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
20. PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
21. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
22. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
    Get battery packs from storage.
    Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
23. Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software.
    Did get it configured to reach into my LOTW.
24. Recycle Batteries #3
25. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
26. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
27. Get exercise pads from storage.
28. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
29. Fix Jacoby account
30. TurboTax 2024.
    Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
31. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
32. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
    Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
33. Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
34. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
35. Wells Fargo Advisors
36. Good Will
37. Hand truck
38. Fertilize the lawn
39. Buy a water hose
40. Repair radiator on Blue.
41. Repair the eves on our home
42. Replace back door of garage
43. Repair window in garage
44. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for Door seal.
45. Repair the brakes on Blue.
46. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
47. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
    File estate taxes.
48. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
49. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Living room is still storage, it’s about 50/50 groceries and “Stuff”

Monday

Listened in on the “Waterway Net” this morning with my Uncle. We chatted for a while and that took up 2Hrs this morning. I need my General license to transmit on 40M (7MHZ), hopefully I’ll pass the test on Sunday.

2 cups of coffee, 4 Eggs, breakfast sausages and orange juice for breakfast.

Filled one with coffee, it was still 150 degrees 14 hours later.

Dropped off the car at Firestone and we were running out of time to make any kind of dinner. We have a cooked turkey in the refrigerator but there’s no fixings to go with it. So, off to lunch at Longhorn’s with Tiffany and pick up the car from Firestone customer car care after we get back home.

The new microphone stand appeared on our doorstep. It will replace the one I gave away.

Had a can of soup with crackers for dinner

Lots of practice tests today getting ready for Sunday.

We watched Hallmark movie “Timeless Love” for our entertainment tonight, it was cute.

Tuesday

Got up early enough to get onto Waterway Net, I did not hear KK4SAC check into the net today. Reset my radio to WSPR and had a couple muffins for a snack.

Got my first 100% on a practice test this morning. Took a shower and I’m back to taking practice tests.

Went to THD and got a step stool after our nap. Read the news and worked on my radio for a little while. Turns out that I CAN transmit on 40M in the CW portion. I tried to tune the antenna at the bottom of the 40M band and it failed. I moved up to the top of the CQ portion and the radio successfully tuned. It was getting dark, but I thought I could put the extensions on the aerials before it got too dark to mount them. (I was wrong.) By the time I got to the Western Aerial it was really dark. The additional 7″ I added to the aerials was sufficient for the radio to complete a tune cycle at the bottom of the band. It appears that the radio needs the antenna to be LONGER than needed. (Inductive)

Watched a Hallmark movie “Be My Valentine”, it has a limited life though. (Three more days)

Wednesday

Sipp’n on a cup of coffee waiting for the Waterway net to get started at 7:45. Wow good propagation today.

Worked on my antenna this morning, I need to separate the 40M aerials into two lengths. The shorter length that can be tuned to the upper portion of the 40M band and a pair of extensions that can be tuned to the lower part.

Thursday (Cold Again)

Took a shower while the heater was warming the home. (Bathroom gets nice and toasty.) Sipp’n on a cup of coffee while making this post. I need to get some pants on and pull the extensions off the antenna for the morning nets.

Listened to my Uncle check in on the Waterway Net 7.268MHZ, he was 599 today. Listened to SCARS 7.251MHZ for a while before turning down the volume.

Time for another practice exam….

Cleaned up two tubs out of the living room and put the solar panels on the van to charge the battery.

Watched another Hallmark movie for our evening entertainment.

Friday

Up at 06:30, put a VNA on my antenna without the extensions and measured the performance of the antenna. (I want to be ready for Sunday)

07:45 Listened to my uncle check in on the Waterway Net 7.268MHZ, he was 58 today. He did a call out for KQ4GEL letting them know I am taking my test on Sunday.

Took several practice tests and watched the Hallmark movie “Christmas Train” with the wife for our evening entertainment.

Saturday

Slept in until 8, I’ve not been sleeping very well. We went to Longhorn’s for dinner and then to Wally World for groceries. Took a good nap then a couple more practice tests for tomorrow.

Made plans for my test tomorrow and then watched the end of the movie “Christmas Train” with the wife.

Sunday

Helped run the sound board, let my partner take the reins as much as possible.

Headed home about 12:30 to take a shower and a nap. 13:10 got up and got ready to drive to the test site. 13:50 arrived at the test site a little early. 14:15 Passed my HAM General License test and headed over to Longhorn for lunch. 15:15 headed home for a nap.

I tried to get onto WSPR with my new KQ4GEL/AG callsign and the software can’t use the suffix /AG. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how well my TX is reaching other stations. Normally I’d use WSPR, but that isn’t working with /AG. JS8 to the rescue, with its heartbeat networking I got a pretty good idea of my antenna’s efficiency at 40M.

Since everyone seems to be well above -15dB I dropped the power to 10W.

The center between the grey lines is a little bit east from my station.

I assume that I’ll get a message from the FCC within a day or two.

1. Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th.
   I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
2. Travelers March 1st $1800.00
3. Air in Silver’s tires.
4. Repair Heat2 ESP8266.
5. Bags for church.
6. Safeco Feb 10th $2200.
7. Termite inspection date.
8. Call the hotel on Stone Mountain.
9. Child Fund letters.
10. Fill batteries in cave.
11. Cloth measuring tape.
12. PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
13. Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors.
    Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
14. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
15. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
    Get battery packs from storage.
    Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
16. Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software.
    Did get it configured to reach into my LOTW.
17. Recycle Batteries #3
18. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
19. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
20. Get exercise pads from storage.
21. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
22. Fix Jacoby account
23. TurboTax 2024.
    Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
24. Make Dentist Appointment
25. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
26. Buy air filters 16x25x1
27. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
    Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
28. Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
29. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
30. Wells Fargo Advisors
31. Good Will
32. Hand truck
33. Fertilize the lawn
34. Buy a water hose
35. Repair radiator on Blue.
36. Repair the eves on our home
37. Replace back door of garage
38. Repair window in garage
39. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for Door seal.
40. Repair the brakes on Blue.
41. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
42. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
    File estate taxes.
43. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
44. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

EARLY…. Could not get to sleep so I did a couple practice tests for my General HAM license test. Watched a movie “White Out”, it turned out to be pretty good. Lots of wasted time walking outdoors on ropes, but otherwise an ok movie.

Poured a cup of coffee. (A necessity) Had two hard boiled eggs for breakfast. Turned on cell phone ringer and ceiling fans per my daily routine. Checked my phone for messages and responded if needed.

Researched drying out carpet with blackwater in it. It turns out that it’s pretty risky to leave the soaked carpet in the home.

Downloaded my O₂ levels from my finger sensor.

My uncle wants me to get onto 40M when I get my General License. 40M requires a 66′ dipole antenna and the only way that will fit is diagonally across my back yard. (Orange) The 10M antenna is shown in yellow. I can get the wire from the candy store for under $50 to replace the 6M aerials with 30M ones.

Lunch was pork chops, rice and corn.

It’s been two months since I worked on HF. I got back on the air with my HF radio today and made contact with Dominican Republic and Japan.

Took four practice tests today using QRZ practice tests, I did a little worse than I expected. That’s one thing I am learning about the ARRL book, they don’t give you all the questions that might be asked.

Dinner was a can of soup tonight. Dessert was Ruffles potato chips with catsup on them.

The new door arrived today, fit perfectly!

I am NOT a plumber; I went to help someone with a clogged pipe and didn’t find out until much later that Draino was poured into the water. Some of the black water apparently spilled on my clothes and left a red rash on my hand. I am glad that I opted out of helping them today, I could have gotten seriously hurt! One good thing about the Draino, I don’t have to worry about getting sick from E-Coli LOL.

Watched another Hallmark movie “Bottled with Love” tonight.

Tuesday

I didn’t get a lot done yesterday, need to get a plan together for today. I’ve read over my honey-do list, there’s nothing huge for first thing this morning.

It got rather cold outside, it’s still just above freezing even at 8:30.

Had or morning meeting to hash out what’s the plan for today. We’re delaying laundry until it gets warmer outside and eating at Longhorn’s for lunch.

It’s a very pretty day outside today.

I need a score of 74 or higher to pass my General License test.

g2023   2024-01-29 05:24:53  85.71%
g2023   2024-01-29 22:56:50  80.00%
g2023   2024-01-29 23:13:33  85.71%
g2023   2024-01-30 00:13:22  71.43%
g2023   2024-01-30 04:18:14  94.29%
g2023   2024-01-30 23:47:07  85.71%

Wednesday

Not quite as cold, but is a bit chilly at 42 degrees. Checking the Internet for updates… Got a letter from Josephine that I printed for Kathy. Stanley is under fire for using lead as a sealer for their most popular cup last Christmas. The lead is underneath a quarter sized cover on the very bottom of the cup not accessible unless the plastic is damaged.

Unsubscribed from Amigo Foods, they were our Go-To for our coffee.

Started Blue to lubricate the engine. (Not run very long.)

Ordered some cotton bags for Larry, I looked for Drum spurs…. Need to know the MFR of the drum…

Printed our voter registration cards for 2024

Bedroom outlet is failing, the Arc-Fault breaker tripped again. The connection does feel a little loose and it is one of the original outlets in the home. In troubleshooting the breaker broke the ESP-8266 that was controlling the relays on the heaters. The relays in the Dehumidifier will keep the bedroom warm tonight until I can replace the $4 NODEMCU tomorrow. I may replace all six outlets in the next few days, I have new ones in the garage.

Thursday

It got pretty warm today, bright sun too. Worked outside on my HF antenna’s today. I pulled off the 6M aerials and added 40Meter ones so that I am ready if I pass my General Test.

Looks pretty good on the receive side even close in.

7.268 should be Paul tomorrow morning, the 40M aerials seem to be working VERY well. I won’t know how well they transmit for at LEAST 10 days. LOL

Friday

Whew, what a morning and it’s only 10:30! I got up late because I didn’t set an alarm. I heard the very end of Paul’s weather report. Talked to Paul for a good while about Bal-Un and Un-Un transformers. HRO has a 9:1 Un-Un for $30, that’s a lot cheaper than the $120 antenna he wanted me to buy. His configuration doesn’t have any ground on the Unun AND he’s using an Unun RF choke on his very short coax. (There’s nothing for the 200MA of RF to push against.) According to Google Foo there should be 7 ft of coax between the 9:1 and the 1:1 to be a counterpoise.

We also listened to stations to see the difference between our two radios.

Almost forgot to take out the garbage can! But I managed to get some pants on and get it out while he was driving up the road behind us. Yea!

Waiting on Kathy to let me know about the low tire pressure fault. She has a compact spare in the car with her, the full-size spare is here at the house. *Checked all her tires, they all were over 30PSI. Best I can do is take a compressor out there and top them off.

I don’t know the VSWR of the 10M aerials on my back yard antenna yet, but they are receiving really good yesterday. Today they are really struggling, but the morning HF was also having difficulty, so I am not sure it’s just a propagation issue. I did notice that if the dipole was not balanced when I grabbed the coax connectors, I saw the dip change on the antenna analyzer. That’s very beneficial with these 30′ aerials to try and match them to keep the RF off of the coax. In theory the voltage across the coaxial connector is unbalanced by 35V at 100W. That 35V @ 1.4A

My receive looks good for the 40M aerials.

We watched the beginning of Hallmark movie “Wedding Season” tonight before heading to bed.

Saturday

Again, I messed up with the alarm. The alarm in the den is set for PM and again I didn’t catch it. I missed the check-ins but did catch the weather. Geez. I did catch Paul checking into the waterway NET 7.2680 MHZ.

Took a shower and we went to Longhorn’s for lunch. Then to Wally World for groceries. We took a nap after bringing in the groceries.

We put the rest of the groceries away after we got up. NOT

We finished watching Hallmark movie “Wedding Season” tonight before heading to bed.

Sunday

Made a bunch of coffee for church, no one drank any of it.
I need to bring cups next time.

I brought four bags of Dominican Coffee; they were all gone after service ended. I did see someone holding a bag of Dominican coffee like she was holding a baby…

Went to Longhorn’s for lunch. We were both very tired and just didn’t have the strength to make dinner at 1:30PM. Longhorn’s Steak House was not really crowded until after we got there. It was definitely crowded when we left. They make a kick butt chicken salad that’s healthy and filling.

Scores are still a bit low to have confidence in my test on Sunday.

Watched Hallmark movie “All Things Valentine” tonight before heading to bed.

1. Deposit Jackson EMC check.
2. Marriage Retreat registration by Monday.
3. Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors.
   Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
4. Repair/replace bedroom UPS.
   Ran for 2Hrs + as designed.
5. Repair relay module.
   New one seems to be working great.
6. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
7. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
   Get battery packs from storage.
   Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
8. Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software.
   Did get it configured to reach into my LOTW.
9. Recycle Batteries #3
10. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
11. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
12. Get exercise pads from storage.
13. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
14. Fix Jacoby account
15. TurboTax 2024.
    Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
16. Make Dentist Appointment
17. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
18. Buy air filters 16x25x1
19. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
    Sweden has been approved to join NATO.
20. Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
21. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
22. Wells Fargo Advisors
23. Good Will
24. Hand truck
25. Fertilize the lawn
26. Buy a water hose
27. Repair radiator on Blue.
28. Repair the eves on our home
29. Replace back door of garage
30. Repair window in garage
31. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for Door seal.
32. Repair the brakes on Blue.
33. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
34. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
    File estate taxes.
35. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
36. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

01:00 AM Made Coffee and checked on Home Assistant, everything looks good.

08:00, still only 28 degrees outside. Paul is busy making contracts on his HAM radio this morning. We both slept in today and I just finished another cup of coffee.

Refilled humidifier it had gone through a gallon of water. Normally it can maintain almost 50% at night, but we’re using gas heat. (That dries out the air pretty bad.)

Finished up 4 eggs and a bit of ham for breakfast. I forgot to put the juice in the fridge so I had some Classic Coke with breakfast. (Normally I have OJ)

Spent some time looking for a heated coffee Caraeff. There was a cheap 40 Cup coffee maker in storage, but that’s absolutely NOT what I am looking for. What I want is an insulated 20-30 cup dispenser that has an option of being kept piping hot, but not scalding hot like out of the coffee makers.

I am working on improving our heating efficiency during these very cold nights. We let the house fall to 68 at night and then push it to 72 for a couple hours in the morning while we are getting dressed. (It’s inefficient, but 68 is tough to get out of the shower in.) At 8ish I cut the heat back to 69 until about noon while the outside temp warms up. (I have to manually set the heat pump back on during those three hours.) By noon the outside is warm enough for the heat pump to produce the heat needed to warm the home to 74. That heat will be used to carry the building during the night. We take control of the bedroom at 19:30 and use small space heaters to maintain it at 73 degrees.

Lunch was Chili Mac with grated cheese and crackers.

Read chapter 1-3 of my General HAM license book.

Started my taxes, YUK!

Did some research on “Mono” and that it can trigger Alzheimer’s disease later in life. We’re creating a project section in our day timer to document all this data.

Raspi disabled VNC because I randomized the MAC address. I had to change it back to protect the VNC Server service on it.

I moved the solar panels to the Blue Focus, it’s been on the van all last week.

We did a little research on dementia and found out it also can be caused by having Mono as a child.

There was a bit of scrap under one of the keys and I ended up pulling up two keys off the laptop keyboard. Took a break and watched a Hallmark movie “Love in Glacier National” and “Love’s Portrait which was uncommonly good.

21:30 We both did our evening routines, and she went to bed while I tried to repair my laptop keyboard.

The left one was a quick snap to replace the top.

The right one needed some finesse with these two very finicky pieces of plastic.

They have these TINY ears that are actually are remarkably durable.

As it turns out, you HAVE to put the scissor pieces into the keyboard BEFORE you put the cap on. When I removed the cap from the bottom it tore the scissor pieces apart and made such a mess of things. (The key caps need to be pulled from the top to remove them.)

Had a bowl of Chicken Noodle soup and crackers. Nighttime pills and then bedtime about 1AM.

Kathy woke me about 2AM because the alarm went off telling her that her CPAP lost power. The breaker popped for an ARC/Ground fault to the two small space heaters. There’s a UPS on our bedroom CPAPS, but the stupid UPS is programmed to protect the batteries at 2 hours. (I assume that one of the 10A relays powering the personal heaters is getting a little dirty.) I unplugged the heater relay box and reset the breaker, it held until noon when I had time to replace the relays.

Tuesday

Had a hard time sleeping, maybe 3 hours before 5AM. It felt like I had too much caffeine and that kept me waking me up. Woke with severe abdominal pain and gas about 7AM. Gas from all the gummies I ate while working on the laptop? Slept solid until 11AM and the pain had subsided.

11:00 Woke to find Kathy had already gone to the dentist. Grabbed a cup of coffee while I DL my O2 levels from my device. It looks like I slept better in bed than I did in the chair last night. (Too many variables to take a course of action, but sleeping in bed is desirable.)

12:00 Kathy needs some work done and I have to fix the relay module in the bedroom. (Its tripping the arc fault breaker.) Also, the bedroom UPS didn’t hold up her CPAP when the breaker tripped. The alarm I put on the UPS went off warning her that her CPAP has no power. With her nasal mask she will stop breathing until she removes it.

Here’s the control box (Relay) for the bedroom space heaters. It controls two small space heaters and a fan on the floor to circulate the air to the living room if the bedroom air needs circulating.

The box is rather crowded, with the modules above.

About half done moving the wires onto the new relay module. It’s a bit counter intuitive, but the wires go in easier if they are not twisted. LOL

All done and ready for testing.

Took my first UBER ride to pick up my Wife at the dentist. Super easy, and much quicker than I had anticipated. I also went out for a haircut to get my ears lowered.

Lunch was a Burger King Whopper and then leftovers for dinner.

Installed updates to Home Assistant.

Get out your T-Shirts, it is a heat wave! These are times I wish we could limit the amount of heat provided. That way the house can be comfortable when the outside temperatures are also comfortable. Eventually the humidity will be high enough that the de-humidifier will warm the house because the outside is 100% humidity.

Curious point, the two heated throws that are about 13W each (36V/50Ohms = 26W). They drew as much power per day as the portable refrigerator set at 32 degrees!

Added a “Smart Plug” by VeSync to the Cave UPS to measure the power my desk consumes. (They’ve been really reliable.) The Cave desk network draws about 250W, this device will measure and graph the power drawn for me. The UPS will draw an additional 250W when charging the batteries.

Wednesday

Slept in until someone called about a survey they are doing for the veterans. They said it was in brown envelope and that the testing takes about 3 hours at the downtown VA. I am beginning to question the legitimacy of this invitation especially since they offered $250 for my time.

Drinking my cup of coffee while Kathy is showering. Back in my PJ’s having a morning meeting to organize the next few days.

We’re going to have rain this week and it’s going to storm early Thursday.
(I think this system is the one that flooded San Diego on Monday.)

Chili-Mac leftovers for lunch, 3 minutes in the microwave and DONE!

Spent almost an hour reading the news, same noise is still out there…

Church starts at 7:30, but we’ve got to stop by Publix first and get some salad fixens.

Back home, the storm front is just west of Atlanta. (We’re getting prepared for it and bed.)

Joined the “Stanley” club with two large thermoses that will be used to bring coffee to others.

Thursday

RAIN is the issuance of the day to SLEEP IN!

Read chapters 3 and 4 of my General License book. It went pretty fast, I do have a good understanding of electronic components.

4 Eggs and Rye bread for breakfast with Can Grape juice. Did not get much accomplished today. Kathy got a haircut at her favorite salon, and I slept most of the day. We worked on a grocery list today, but tomorrow is pretty full. Kathy goes to the gym in the morning and the day doesn’t open up for me until after Dinner at 2:30. Whether we have the energy to go grocery shopping on Friday after being up for nearly 10 hours I kind of doubt that will happen. My best bet is that we’ll go shopping on Saturday and forgo Landon’s practice.

We had BLT’s for lunch and after we took a nap we went to a nursing home to play a little bingo. We were confronted by the signs that they had two active COVID cases in the facility and that transmission risk was HIGH. Our friends rejected our request to abandon playing bingo with the residents, so we’ll have to wait until next week to see if we’re infected. *They are 20 years younger than we are too.

Friday

I woke up under the 12W throw this morning sweating… I had not anticipated it being so warm outside that the heat (Even such a small amount) would overheat my body. So now I guess there’s a decision before sleeping under them. No heat, 3W (18V), 8W (28V) or 13W (36V). It’s also possible to put an ESP as a control module and set it to a specific temperature under the throw. They make some incredibly small temp sensors. (I wouldn’t need humidity in this purpose.)

Read through Chapter 5 today and for fun I took a practice test.

Not bad for my first try!

I met the garbage truck at the curb and took the can in.

Kathy got her ears lowered so we ended up going to Longhorn for lunch.

When I filled my CPAP tonight, I also changed out the air filter. I found out that I had broken the hinge on the door. (Green arrow) We have a spare CPAP machine that supplied the replacement door for now. I ordered a replacement online, it will be here Monday.

It’s balmy outside, like 70 degrees tomorrow!

Saturday

Kathy needs to get a temporary crown glued back to a tooth this morning. Then it’s grocery shopping at Wally World.

$330 later we were on our way home with three tubs of groceries. We put the refrigerated foods away and headed to Longhorns for lunch.

Back home, NAP time! After my nap I took a shower then cleaned the tub/shower and replaced the shower curtain. (No, I wasn’t that dirty LOL) Kathy whipped up a pot of coffee and I’m writing this entry.

Looks like Taco’s tomorrow. Pork Chops on Monday, Chicken tenders on Tuesday, Salad on Wednesday and Meatloaf on Thursday.

Someone at my HAM club was touting learning CW today, but the reference he provided was to invest at least 1Hr/day to CW. That’s probably a larger commitment than I am willing to make for the time being. With the help of CwGet I can copy about 20% of a slow CW transmission. I can send roughly the same speed and a lot better accuracy using my automatic key. For “On Air” the fading prevents the software from being a reliable means of copying someone. The more interesting investment is JS8CALL which has considerably more reliable means to send/receive messages over HF with no investment in learning CW. For now, though my desire is to get my General License.

Sunday

Made two thermoses of coffee for service today at our friend’s house. We took a nap afterwards and then went to Stone Mountain to help a friend with a blocked drain.

Back home getting organized and eating a bit of dinner.

Took another practice test and got a 91%. Registered for my General License Exam in 11 February.

Cut up several socks for a purpose that the entire sock was not well suited for.

1. Up by 08:00, Nap at 11:00, Lunch at 1:30, Bed at 9:30
2. Clean CPAP hoses.
3. Buy new smoke/fire/CO detectors
4. Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
5. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
6. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
   Get battery packs from storage.
   Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
7. Charge and update tablets x 6
8. Ham Radio Deluxe software.
9. Check on letters and give gifts to CF.
10. Get translation transmitter.
11. Recycle Batteries #3
12. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
13. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
14. Get exercise pads from storage.
15. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
16. Fix Jacoby account
17. TurboTax 2024.
18. Make Dentist Appointment
19. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
20. Buy air filters 16x25x1
21. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
22. Change owner of storage
23. Fill batteries with water
24. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
25. Wells Fargo Advisors
26. Good Will
27. Hand truck
28. Fertilize the lawn
29. Buy a water hose
30. Repair radiator on Blue.
31. Repair the eves on our home
32. Replace back door of garage
33. Repair window in garage
34. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
35. Repair the brakes on Blue.
36. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
37. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
38. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
39. File estate taxes.
40. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

My wife and I are still getting organized to make better use of our time. Writing things down has become a necessity! At present, our 80’s Day Timers are filling the need to document our paths.

Spent a good part of the morning changing passwords. I need to look into password managers for Windows and our Android phones since I have 60 of them that need to be updated.

Added two more batteries to the refrigerator UPS. It now has 3500WH of battery that should be enough to keep it running for 36 hours. There’s a 26AWG jumper wire across the third 35AH battery pair to allow them to equalize before putting the 10A fuses on them. I may also connect the Solar Charge Controller onto the batteries so that they can last as long as possible. (Maybe put a relay between the SCC and the batteries to only connect the SCC when the power is off.) Planning on connecting the SCC to the internal battery connectors to prevent unevenly charging the individual battery pairs.

Served the second meal using the vacuum insulated serving bowl. The vegetables were hot, but we should have put the butter in first. LOL We also need to warm the plates and heavy serving bowls in the warmer drawer while we are cooking.

Filled the pair of new wet cell deep cycle batteries on the house 2.5KW UPS. (The water was down to the plates which is bad.) I used a gallon of distilled water between two new batteries. (I am now just a little concerned about the water levels on the two older batteries.)

I kinda burnt the heel of my hands with battery acid. (They were new sealed batteries; I hadn’t thought of them having acid on them.) Next time I am wearing GLOVES!

Watched the beginning of Hallmark’s Sand Dollar cove for our evening entertainment.

Tuesday “Prepare for COLD”

It was a LONG day preparing for the temperatures in the teens tonight. I’ve been neglecting my deep cycle batteries in the garage, the new pair needed a gallon of water! The old ones didn’t need much water, which seems strange. I got rid of a set of batteries because they needed a lot of water. I am now wondering if those batteries are the ones needing replacing?

Covered our water meter to keep it from freezing, it will be in the teens several times over the next week. I also covered our pressure regulator next to the house.

I plugged the cave vent so preserve the heat for the central part of the house. I’ll set it to gas heat once the temperature drops below 30 degrees. I changed out one of the personal heaters for the bedroom to give it an extra 50 watts.

I also put the heater I removed in the den to keep that small room warm. Although it still got pretty cold by morning.

Watched “The Secret” Dare to Dream again for our evening’s entertainment and went to bed.

Wednesday

We switch to gas overnight when the outside temperature got below freezing. The heat pump will automatically switchover when the compressor can’t keep the house warm. It’s a toss whether the electric bill or gas bill is cheaper at 25 degrees.

We worked on the house for a little while, the house ended up being pretty cool by morning. The house thermostat is set at 68 at night. The bedroom did stay above 70 degrees with the four personal space heaters. The humidifier kept it quite comfy. (Not to mention our two throws over us.)

I spend about an hour a day catching up on the news. I also spent about 30 minutes reading my HAM General License book. Called Uncle Paul and we talked about our radios some. Cousin Patty sent some pictures of Elgin’s snowfall.

We worked on our January bills, PO Box, Vehicle Insurance, Homeowners, Balloon policy and our termite contract all renew at the beginning of the year. (All the insurances are auto pay to our CC.)

We have church services on Wednesday evening. We finished watching Sand Dollar cove for our evening entertainment.

Thursday

Slept in and worked on this blog to get caught up. Enjoyed a cup of Dominican coffee with Baileys Irish Cream every morning.

Helped the wife with organizing her routines book, we typed several pages and trimmed – punched them for the small day timers this morning.

Moved the back yard solar panels to the van to charge its battery. The four 10W panels in parallel produce about an amp of current most of the day. Which works pretty well keeping the car battery charged. (They were on the blue Focus.)

Had a good nap, catching up on the news while I get organized.

Drove to Public Storage to pick up the translation transmitter. There was a bunch of stuff dropped off and filled the storage bin. It took several messages to try and figure out who was there. We’ll bring the amplifier and transmitter to church on Sunday.

It was in the 40’s tonight so I left the heat pump engaged to take care of the heat tonight. It’s going to be bitter cold again tomorrow though.

Watched another hallmark movie last night “As Luck would Have It.”

Friday

Had pancakes for breakfast, hadn’t done that in a while. Put my boots on the boot dryer to air them out while I wear the newer pair.

It’s 41 degrees outside, and that’s as warm as it is going to get today. 18 is predicted for tonight. I set the thermostat at 74 to warm the home.

Our Electric bill was $133 last month, that’s the first bill after dropping the solar cooperative from our account. It’s also the first month that was less than $150 in over a year. The solar cooperative is $23 per 225KW block and we had three blocks. In the 15 months we had it, we made/broke even maybe three times. Most of the time we only made $53 of the $69 per month we paid into it. The price point of $23 per block is just not a fair price, it needs to be more like $18 per 200KW to break even. (Even less to be fair.) According to their website “The program is designed to allow you to support solar through your monthly subscription, and is not intended to result in energy savings.” This economy is not supportive of giving our electric company another $30 a month just to be generous.

Worked on Ham Radio Deluxe software defining what frequencies I can transmit using my Technician License. I had to look up what ITU Region the USA is, #2…

I changed my PW on NORD VPN and then bricked my router troubleshooting the VPN. Ooops! Like DUMB!
Back to square 1, load current firmware…. Geez
2. Change the LAN address…
3. Turn off the Wireless
4. Load VPN credentials
5. Start the VPN client service.
The VPN router is back online. (That’s what supports my radio software/hardware.)

Charged Black and Blue tablets today. Teal and the two small ones were not charged.

Cleaned off the kitchen table, it had gotten to be a pile of half-finished projects.

Recycled some of the Wife’s school books from the 80’s, I got to throw it in! I did put a hard cover book in the recycling and yup I wasn’t supposed to! ARG!

Spent a good part of the evening cleaning CPAP hoses, it was more difficult than normal to get them dry for some reason. We have about 20 hoses and we change them out every week and clean them every two months. We found out tonight they have date codes on one end. We tossed the old ones from 2018-19 for wear and tear. I looked on our contracted supplier’s webpages and there is no cleaning process for the hose. (I assume we’re just supposed to toss them every three months.) There was nothing wrong with the hoses from 2018 that I could tell.

Watched another hallmark movie before bed. It’s going to get down in the teens tonight.

I have blocked off my cave heater vent and we’re under heated throws on the bed tonight. Mom runs hers on low and that’s usually plenty warm.

The two throws in the den run on 36VDC, which puts out about 12W of heat into the 100 Ohms of wire in the blanket. (It’s a 100W blanket.) In the summer 28 Volts is plenty and that’s about 8W of heat. They are perfectly safe to leave powered since they generate so little heat. Even when folded up in a pile they don’t really get hot. We can easily run 12W throws for hours on battery if we have to use them to stay warm.

Saturday

We both need to consume a fair amount of fiber each day or else we get chronic constipation. The solution thus far is to have a bowl of mini wheats within reach and munch on them throughout the day.

When we go grocery shopping we take these insulated bags with us. The biggest bag (Blue) is used for dairy since milk takes up a lot of space. The green bag is for meat and is plastic lined. The two black bags are for frozen vegetables and/or frozen fish.

I’m having trouble sleeping flat because of my Gerd and I’m struggling with my wedge because my head slides down to my chest cutting off my air.
Sleeping in the chair I can keep my head in an appropriate position up against the center console. (The heated throw makes the night very comfy)

Packed the church equipment for tomorrow. It’s going to be bone chilling cold!
The house is configured for the cold weather again tonight.

I still feel like I am walking in deep water where I have no idea of what I am walking into.

Sunday

Drove to the church service location at 7:30 and set out the handicapped cones and signs. There are only two handicapped parking spaces. These cones give them nine more spaces that can also be used for people with temporary walking disabilities since they are not officially marked. The young members who get there early take these parking spaces.)

Setup the stage, nine microphones and a keyboard. Drums and guitars are setup by the players of those instruments.

This is their $6,000.00 Yamaha TF5 board. It digitizes all 32 inputs and them processes them like an analog board would. (Analog fader controls) There’s four 250W amplifiers on the output of the board. We added a UHF wireless microphone shown above and a headphone amplifier just out of frame on the left. https://www.youtube.com/live/YSZywPS7NpQ?

I was exhausted when I got home, we took a short nap and we went to Longhorn’s for dinner. Chicken on top of a strawberry salad with a Crown and coke!

Back home listening to 80’s videos and writing in my blog.

1. Recycle Batteries #3
2. Renew my prescriptions.
3. Get exercise pads from storage.
4. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
5. Fix Jacoby account
6. TurboTax
7. Next Year ACOCG
8. Make Dentist Appointment
9. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
10. Change owner of storage
11. Fill batteries with water
12. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
13. Wells Fargo Advisors
14. Good Will
15. Hand truck
16. Fertilize the lawn
17. Buy a water hose
18. Repair radiator on Blue.
19. Repair the eves on our home
20. Replace back door of garage
21. Repair window in garage
22. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
23. Repair the brakes on Blue.
24. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
25. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
26. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
27. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
28. File estate taxes.
29. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday 8 January

Started downloading the information off these old hard drives laying around.

Sorted through trash box
Dinner was cold, the dishes in the cabinets take the heat out of the food.

Spent a great deal of time organizing our time using our Day Timers. The wife now has three of them. One is a standard Day Timer that’s organized by date. The second is a small #6 one that is to keep track of routine tasks. The third one is to keep track of projects/stories that span large amounts of time but are important enough to organize.

Defrosted a pretty large hen using a Kroger freezer bag.
Ordered a defrosting plate so that we can defrost food in the fridge.

Received sink strainers that are easier to clean than the 1980s sink strainers.

Watched Charlie St. Cloud for our evening entertainment.

Tuesday 9 January

Received a defrosting plate to put meat on in the refrigerator, meat doesn’t tend to thaw very quickly at 36 degrees.

Spent a great deal of time looking for transfers from mom’s accounts.

Looked at heated and insulated bowls to serve our food on these cold days. The problem with the insulated ones is that they cannot be used in the dishwasher.
There are also heated plates that we can put the serving bowls on to keep them warm. The end result of the research is that we heat the heavy serving bowls in the microwave before we put the food in them. We’ve also toyed with the warmer drawer, but for now heating the bowls has worked best.

Watched “Get Santa” for our evening entertainment.

Wednesday 10 January

Ordered some more serving stuff so that we’re not eating cold food.
Heated the serving bowls in the microwave so that they didn’t cool off the contents. Our cabinets are on outside walls, and the serving bowls get pretty cold.

Received two 1/2 sheet cooking sheets with trays.

Put a tray under the thawing plate to increase the airflow around it.

Ordered two Callaway Impressions Correlle Bowls, they are light weight and shouldn’t take the heat out of the food being served. They were a tiny bit expensive, but I guess you have to pay to match the set.

Received a couple of books I ordered for the wife.

Church took up the rest of the evening today.

Thursday 11 January

Spent the entire day visiting with some friends, didn’t get much done other than that.

The turkey breast seems to be still frozen, my son recommended putting it under running water.

Watched “The Holiday” for the evening’s entertainment.

Friday 12 January

Washed my feet and used a fan to dry them before spraying my slippers.

Made an extra pot of coffee since it’s storming today.

My favorite IDC connector for projects!

A long time ago I was looking for a small connector to attach the small wires on almost all “Wall Wart” power supplies to a project. The default connector on these power adapters is a 2.5mm barrel connector.

There’s no convenient way to attach to a barrel connector. (Most come with a very short pigtail.)

I found these IDC (Insulation Displacement Connectors) on Amazan several years ago, they were terribly overpriced. ($0.67 Ea) is an unreasonable price for these tiny connectors.) This year there are a few vendors on Amazon with this connector and I got 60 of them for $0.32 which is far better. I also found them on Ebay for $0.33 which is also competitive price. (Maybe still a bit high) None of these are sold under the manufacturer’s name of “QUTE” which makes them hard to search for. (All of the vendors connectors thus far are manufactured by the same company QUTE.)

These connectors ARE a bit finicky; they have a very narrow range of insulation and wire size that’s compatible. They are also a bit difficult to attach to the wires without damaging them.

The clear plastic cover has to be bent up to provide the clearance to get the wires past the 2nd set of forks.

If the cover is bent even a little too much, it will not grab the catch on the end of the connector to hold it in place. Having used several hundred of them I worked out a process that seems to be consistent enough to be reliable. I clip the underside of the insulation just a little so that it doesn’t grab the 2nd jaw of the connector. I then use a pair of pliers to close the connector slowly until it clicks.

One more difficulty with these connectors is that power supplies don’t uniformly identify the positive lead with the striped marking on the wires. Most power supplies use the striped wire as positive, there are also a number of them that are oppositely marked. (I have to verify them with a DVM every time.) Also it’s quite easy to load the connector in either polarity which can destroy the connected device. Even the vendors on Amazon don’t identify the positive side of the connector the same way!

I chose the left side of the connector to be positive on all my devices. I also identify the device voltage with colored electrical tape.
(White = 5V, Yellow = 12V, Orange = 18V and Red = 24V or higher.)

Watched “The Secret” Dare to Dream for our evening’s entertainment.

Saturday 13 January

Slept in, my O2 monitor stayed connected to my phone until the battery was exhausted. I wish Google would close programs instead of letting them run in the background constantly.

Got a message from MyPay that my tax documents were ready. The medical document and my retirement pay W2 were all that was needed.

Broke out the new “Desk” size Daytimer refill and loaded it into our third desk size book. #1 is our combined Daytimer, #2 is Last Year combined and #3 is just me for this blog.

Checked the weather, it’s not going to be near as cold as predicted. Switched our Heat back to Heat Pump about noon today.

Went to our Grandson’s soccer meet this afternoon, they are amazingly quick at that young age. Family meeting was entertaining with all the snow out west.

Sunday

We treated ourselves to Longhorn after church for dinner then took a good long Nap. We cooked the turkey breast in the Insta Pot pressure cooker and then put it in the fridge for Monday’s meal. Watched “The Secret” Dare to Dream again for our evening’s entertainment and went to bed.

1. Recycle Batteries #3
2. Renew my prescriptions.
3. Get exercise pads from storage.
4. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
5. Fix Jacoby account
6. TurboTax
7. Next Year ACOCG
8. Make Dentist Appointment
9. Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
10. Slippers
11. Change owner of storage
12. Fill batteries with water
13. Recycle Silvertone computers.
    Find key for hard drives
14. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
15. Wells Fargo Advisors
16. Good Will
17. Hand truck
18. Fertilize the lawn
19. Buy a water hose
20. Repair radiator on Blue.
21. Repair the eves on our home
22. Replace back door of garage
23. Repair window in garage
24. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
25. Repair the brakes on Blue.
26. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
27. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
28. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
29. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
30. File estate taxes.
31. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

Worked on repairing our guest bathroom, the toilet tank bolts had rusted all the way thru and they were leaking. I ended up drilling through the head of one bolt because the nut had spun on the threads. The savior was to rotate the bolt so that the drill bit hit the shank of the bolt squarely. The only issue was I didn’t sufficiently tighten the new bolts and the rubber washers were not sealing against the rough tank surface.

Tuesday

Worked on the Home Assistant #2 putting it on the .4 network and building a relay box like the heater one on HA#1. We sent in our XRay requests in so that we can get them done on Wednesday. Installed a TPS sensor on the rim of Silver’s tire that got a nail in the tire last week.

Wednesday

Dr. Visit in the morning for the Wife’s CPAP and then lunch at Longhorn. We then got in line at the imaging center at 14:00 for our 15:00 appointment.

Removed the Pi-Hole DNS resolver from my inside network and placed it on the DMZ to prevent it from accessing my private files. I reconfigured the firewall to issue its network address as the DNS resolver for my network. I pointed the firewall to the Pi-Hole in the DMZ as it’s up channel resolver. I tested IPV6 and it came back 10/10.

Thursday

Dropped off the flat tire that we installed a new TPS sensor on the rim earlier this week at the Firestone shop. It should be ready on Friday. No garbage tomorrow, holiday schedule pushed it to Saturday.

I did some cleaning up DNS settings on the Sophos firewall, it was sending DNS requests to the root servers for a single period? I ended up blocking those requests at the Pi-Hole DNS resolver.

Friday

Sent in the gifts for our Child fund children today, it’s a little late and they may not get them in January. (Arg)

1. Recycle Batteries #3
2. Fix Jacoby account
3. TurboTax
4. Next Year ACOCG
5. Make Dentist Appointment
6. Slippers
7. Change owner of storage
8. Fill batteries with water
9. Recycle Silvertone computers.
   Find key for hard drives
10. Build Attic fan power switchbox.
11. Wells Fargo Advisors
12. Good Will
13. Hand truck
14. Fertilize the lawn
15. Buy a water hose
16. Repair radiator on Blue.
17. Repair the eves on our home
18. Replace back door of garage
19. Repair window in garage
20. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
21. Repair the brakes on Blue.
22. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
23. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
24. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
25. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
26. File estate taxes.
27. Research Lawyer for Arizona

Monday

Worked on Home Assistant2, HA1 is corrupted and I need to keep it running while I rebuild the HA network.

We got a letter from our sponsored child in the Philippines, they are doing well.

News is hard to read, I’ve been telling the webpages to read it to me LOL.

Filled the humidifier with water, it’s going to be terribly cold tonight. Florida will be 40’s tonight, colder tomorrow.

Gathered all the wireless microphones to be put back into storage.

1. Recycle Batteries #3
2. Fix Jacoby account
3. Benifeds Enrollment
4. TurboTax
5. Next Year ACOCG
6. Make Dentist Appointment
7. Pay Apache Taxes
8. Slippers
9. Change owner of storage
10. Fill batteries with water
11. Recycle Silvertone computers.
    Find key for hard drives
12. Build Attic fan power switchbox.
13. Wells Fargo Advisors
14. Good Will
15. Hand truck
16. Fertilize the lawn
17. Buy a water hose
18. Repair radiator on Blue.
19. Repair the eves on our home
20. Replace back door of garage
21. Repair window in garage
22. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
23. Repair the brakes on Blue.
24. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
25. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
26. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
27. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
28. File estate taxes.
29. Research Lawyer for Arizona

1. Recycle Batteries #3
2. Fix Jacoby account
3. Benifeds Enrollment
4. TurboTax
5. Next Year ACOCG
6. Make Dentist Appointment
7. Pay Apache Taxes
8. Slippers
9. Change owner of storage
10. Fill batteries with water
11. Recycle Silvertone computers.
    Find key for hard drives
12. Build Attic fan power switchbox.
13. Wells Fargo Advisors
14. Good Will
15. Hand truck
16. Fertilize the lawn
17. Buy a water hose
18. Repair radiator on Blue.
19. Repair the eves on our home
20. Replace back door of garage
21. Repair window in garage
22. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
23. Repair the brakes on Blue.
24. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
25. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
26. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
27. Check Mom’s accounts
28. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
29. File estate taxes.
30. Research Lawyer for Arizona

1. Recycle Batteries #3
2. Fix Jacoby account
3. Benifeds Enrollment
4. TurboTax
5. Next Year ACOCG
6. Make Dentist Appointment
7. Pay Apache Taxes
8. Slippers
9. Change owner of storage
10. Fill batteries with water
11. Recycle Silvertone computers.
    Find key for hard drives
12. Build Attic fan power switchbox.
13. Wells Fargo Advisors
14. Good Will
15. Hand truck
16. Fertilize the lawn
17. Buy a water hose
18. Repair radiator on Blue.
19. Repair the eves on our home
20. Replace back door of garage
21. Repair window in garage
22. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for seal
23. Repair the brakes on Blue.
24. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
25. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
26. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
27. Check Mom’s accounts
28. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
29. File estate taxes.
30. Research Lawyer for Arizona