Oops, Been Away Too Long!!!

Sorry, gang, for being away way too long but when you have limited Internet access, a new job, and a lot of other things going on in life some things get pushed out of the way for a while. Unfortunately it was my blog and my main website. But here I am again, and I'm ready for 2010 to get here. There's a lot going on, so let's dig in...

I finally left Scott and White Hospital in Temple back around the end of September. When you have problems with gigantic egos that permeate your department and those egos are trying to get you into serious trouble for reasons that are not your fault, then you know it's time to go. I left a day before my given departure date because I had had it with the idiots that worked there. But fortunately I already had a job lined up with Convergys in McGregor, which is a customer service company that serves clients worldwide. It's a good job. I work the evening shift except for Sundays which are daytime. That may change in the future but for now I'm good.

Christmas is going to be a happy time around the house, including for me. I can't exactly say what's going to be under the tree but I can tell you that I managed to buy some gear for the hamshack that I had been wanting for some time. One thing is West Mountain Radio's Rigblaster Pro, which will FINALLY allow me to start using the digital modes; I have always wanted to experiment with PSK-31 and -63, RTTY, and more. I may even try a little SSTV but we'll see about that. The Rigblaster will be hooked up to my Yaesu FT-857, which should compliment each other beautifully. I opened up the case of the Rigblaster and saw how clean the circuitry was and how easy the jumper tabs are to get to; the instructions are easy to read as well. I also ordered the complete software package offered by Scott, N3FJP. I have always been a fan of his contest software because it is so very easy to use; now I have the entire compliation along with registration for everything on the way. I can't wait to start using it all, once my new Hewlett-Packard with 4 GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive gets installed!

I also purchased a new Radio Shack Scanner, the PRO-164. (Or is it the -163? Anyway...) I have that scanner set up in the bedroom and my PRO-2051 is now in the car. The new scanner is absolutely awesome in the fact that you can enter more information for a particular frequency. You can even enter PL and DCS tones for that frequency if you choose! More search functions for specific services which opens up more frequencies/channels for storage, and more. At $199 I thought it was a steal.

I had also planned to purchase a new weather station by Davis to install to complete the station and have available for all to see online but I simply ran out of cash to do it with. It looks like income tax time will be the time for that to get done; I should have everything else working before then. How I will do that is purchase the Davis Vantage Pro and set that up so all weather information gathered would be accessible by way of the Internet. I am also looking to try to set the weather station up for access by way of APRS. That will also require a 2-meter APRS radio, but I don't think that will be expensive. But all together this weather station could run me at around $1000 if done RIGHT, just like the rest of the shack. It will all be done right.

I'm also looking forward to my 46th birthday, which will be on January 2. Hard to believe I've made it this far and I haven't run myself into the ground...yet. Life has been challenging lately but all will be OK. It's simply a matter of patience.

So what's been going on with you? Drop me a line and share...

Stay tuned...

WR1TX