Hiker rescued by using Ham Radio and Morse Code

Elecraft KX-1This story is about a guy who fell while hiking and broke his leg. He was alone. But he was prepared and did not panic. He took steps to stabilize his condition then used Amateur Radio to request help. Because he had proper equipment and didn’t panic, he was then able to both guide the rescue to his location and wait it out until they could arrive.

I really haven’t blogged much about Ham Radio in a long time, then I get two great items that might be interesting to even non-Hams in a week.

The Everett WA Herald wrote a story about it, but a much better account is at the ARRL web site. Continue Reading…

Hand-made vacuum tubes


Fabrication d’une lampe triode
Uploaded by F2FO

I was sent a link to this really cool video of someone in France making their own vacuum tubes. Not a project for the average basement shop, yet amazing that it was done on such a small scale. Continue Reading…

Bush says…

George Bush went on TV tonight to tell us that the US Economy is in trouble.

George, did you just wake up and find that out? You mean YOUR economy is in trouble; mine has been hurting for a long time. And it’s you and your cronies that have been gaming the system and reaping huge profits at our expense that’s caused it.

Then, John McCain announced that he is putting his campaign for President on hold and postponing his debate with Barack Obama. Gee, why not just postpone the election? Keeping Bush in office, or electing McCain would be just about the same thing. Anything to avoid going head-to-head with Obama.

Then the announcement that made it all better: Niagara County is now Number 1 in the entire country!

In what?

Property taxes, of course. The Washington DC based Tax Foundation issued a report that had Niagara County at the top in terms of taxes as a percentage of home value. The combination of high taxes and low real-estate values is a double-whammy for us.

But once again, we knew that all along.

I’m a PC, no wait, I’m a Mac, um, wait…

As the inscrutable Microsoft ads go on, the latest ones the “I’m a PC and I’m not alone” also known as Life Without Walls seem to have struck a chord with the Mac fanboys.

Continue Reading…

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