Computer Problems ...AAAARRRGH!!!!!

Well, it seems like I've run into a bit of bad luck. My home computer booted up yesterday morning showing the infamous "blue screen." Not good now when I'm trying to get my blog going continuously and my website better with adding more content to it. Hopefully Sunday afternoon I will be able to get the computer going again with a little help from my friend Rob, KD5FJF. He has the necessary software to make things right. Until Sunday at least I can't access anything.

Eventually I will either get the current computer upgraded (necessary) or buy a new computer (possible). What I will likely do is do both. The current computer, once I get everything done to it that it needs, will be the ham computer most likely. The other computer will be my everyday computer for which everything else will go on it. But I haven't ruled out the possibility that I could get special add-ons for the current one by maybe adding an external hard drive (160 GB at least) and an external DVD/CD +/- rewriteable drive. I will also eventually purchase the West Mountain Radio RigBlaster Pro for it and buy some computer stereo speakers for it also. Trust me, on this cabinet I have about 6 or 7 USB ports built in, and I have a total of 7 slots for adding whatever cards I want! So the sky is truly the limit with the original computer, and I really can't fathom getting rid of it for any reason. It needs to have extra memory added and the OS upgraded to Windows XP, which I will do for sure. Between now and December I should know what I will eventually do for sure, and it should be some kind of combination of all I've mentioned in this paragraph.

Meanwhile, I have ordered the DC cord for my Yaesu FT-8800R from AES and am having it shipped by USPS Priority Express. My guess is that it will arrive either Saturday or Monday, and then I get to begin my personal croosband repeater experiments! I'm ready to play, and as I have said before I am ready to experiment and do things that not many other people (if anyone at all) are doing around in my neck of the woods.

I also realize that I haven't been on 2m simplex lately, for I've had a lot to do this week. Starting this evening after work I plan to be back on 146.520 and I will likely keep it there. I have been on the local repeaters only to talk with my best friend Randy, KA5IIA, of Magnolia as he drives back and forth between there and Temple. His area got hit hard by Hurricane Ike, but he's told me that it was miuch worse in the Houston/Galveston area. After seeing a lot of video and a lot of pictures I have to agree with him.

The Texas QSO Party is the weekend of Sept 27-28. I hope to be on the air for that event, if anything to see how my portable setup does. Possible plans for that weekend include throwing a wire antenna out the south window of the apartment and use it as a sloper and see what it does. Anything I can do to add to my score with the limited setup will help. I should be in the category of TX Single Op Phone, but I won't rule out a Mixed entry since I may use some CW also.

Finally, I will be on vacation next week. I have not had any time off for serious R&R in a long time (over a year) and I plan to enjoy myself. Most likely I will be playing with the ham and scanner gear, and maybe a little philately as well. So I may not be on the blog quite as much as I have lately, and that will depend on when I get my immediate computer problems solved. I'll be around on the air however, so you can catch me there on HF or on simplex around here locally in Central Texas.

Stay tuned...

WR1TX

Weak-Signal Work from an Apartment? Maybe...

My computer did the dreaded "blue screen" thing this morning. Now I'm really chapped, and I'm about to start my vacation too! I have to find something else to do besides sleep in and play online a fair amount of the day. With my resources limited at this point I'll have to try to figure something out, i.e. use someone else's computer for a while. I have things to check that I can't check from home or work since a lot of this stuff is blocked at either place...grrrrrrrrrr...

Anyway, here's another part of my ham radio revival that I'm looking at here: weak-signal work from my apartment. Think I'm crazy? I'm not, really. I'm simply looking to see what I can do and what I can't do. With a small Yagi or quad antenna for either 2 meters or 70 cm I might be able to do a little something, but 2m is more likely. I'm looking into it anyway.

In the short-term, I'm about to order my replacement DC power cord for my Yaesu FT-8800R. Once I get that taken care of then I can begin the process of working toward the start of my crossband repeat experiment and have a little bit of fun! It's only the beginning, and I am now looking toward bigger and better things down the line in Amateur Radio...especially after some conversation with a good friend of mine that has yielded some opportunites that I may likely go for! More to come when that is all ready...

Stay tuned...

WR1TX

Crossband Repeater Operation, Anyone?

Well, I am now in the process of planning for a little ham radio activity. A big "to-do" on my list is get a new DC power cord for my Yaesu FT-8800R, and then the fun for me begins. You see, I am and have been a supporter of crossband repeater operation from home or in any portable situation. It has its uses, especially in an emergency situation, and I intend to experiment with this.

The plan is to get the FT-8800R set up to run crossband repeat much of the time, over 50%. For a local repeater or a repeater that covers a wide swath I plan to use lower power, likely in the 5 to 10 watt range. For more distant repeaters I will likely go to higher power. Then, I will move around my neighborhood with my Icom T90A HT and see how far I can move from my apartment without losing the coverage I'm trying to get. I'm sure I'll have dead spots here and there but this is an experiment that I think is worth the effort. 2 meters and 70cm will be the bands of choice obviously, and I plan to utilize both bands often. 70cm will be the input simplex band most of the time but I do intend to use 2 meters in the same capacity on occasion. I may even crossband repeat between 2 simplex frequencies. There are a lot of possibilities here and I intend to explore them.

I have more ideas coming, including weak-signal VHF/UHF (6 meters, 2 meters, and 70cm) work from my apartment. I just need to do the research on this idea. Ham radio is definitely a hobby where you can explore and learn what you can do and what you can't, and now I have a chance to do exactly that!

More to come...

WR1TX