Well, Hope everyone had a great Father’s Day. I did. Was with SWMBO, doing chores around the house, and none of my kids called or visited. Pretty normal. Our probably future daughter-in-law did text me and that was nice.

Been kinda sorta working on turning the garage into my new wood shop. Making more of a mess than anything else. Kind of over did it with the $1 plastic bins at The Dollar Store for parts or stuff. Not that they’ll go to waste or not be used; they will, but I kinda did get a lot of them. But, now I get to build more shelves!

Wx has been hot the past couple of days. Mostly been outside rebuilding the (I don’t know what you’d call it) “lattice” (or supports for the chicken wire the peas climb) over the raised garden beds to support my 4 solar panels and get those off the ground. Really looks like the best spot for them with more winter exposure than elsewhere. Unless I want to mount them back by my neighbors and run 500 feet of wire to my shack. Hmmm…

The FCC changed the rules on home antennas and rf exposures. Great. More people sitting in an office thinking they know best for the rest of us. So, if I put out 25 wattts on 144.150 using FM (2-meters) my minimum safe distance (from the antenna) should be 1.699 feet (controlled environment), or 3.800 feet in an uncontrolled environment. (Which the difference/definition of controlled vs uncontrolled is “Admin Speak” and means nothing. ) ie: Controlled vs Uncontrolled: takes into account whether or not individuals are aware of the RF exposure or not. A Controlled Environment is an area where the persons exposed to RF are aware of the exposure and its effects. An Uncontrolled Environment is an area where the persons exposed to RF are unaware of the exposure and its effects.

So, me knowing the effects of rf exposure MY house is a controlled environment but my neighbors can go fuck themselves. Sounds good to me.

Naw, Just Kidding! With the “safe” distance in both environments I don’t think they need worry. And I haven’t had any complaints. Yet. And the numbers get better on HF.

Problem is that if you operate on all available frequencies on all available bands with voice and “digital” then you need to do one of these rf surveys for each of those. That could be thousands for just one day of operation. Well, hundreds. Talking on our repeater: do a eval. Talk on the Shelton repeater: another eval. Voice on 14300: ‘nother eval. PSK on 7.070: again. ad nauseum.

Yet, Amazon can use the 900 and 433 MHg bands for their mesh network. Unrestricted.

Grilled burgers for dinner. Added egg tater salad and baked beans as sides and dinner was pretty good.

So, from the NWS: Showers and thunderstorms likely before 2pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 2pm and 5pm, then a chance of rain and thunderstorms after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. Southwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

To which I reply: Sure.

But I will unplug my radio’s “just in case.” AND have my camera ready. But, right now, the sun is shining and it’s time to take the dog for our morning walk.

On the “Good News” front: Coffee Lovers, Rejoice! Drinking More Coffee Linked With Decreased Heart Failure Risk. In case y’all wanted to know.

On the “Not So Good News” front: New COVID-19 “Mexican Variant” Identified: Increasingly Spreading Across North America. (same site)

But don’t get me started.

Got out and wired my new solar panel to the battery then the controller (like you’re supposed to) to give them a test before needing them on Field Day. Worked a charm. Started kinda sorta half-assed sprinkling after I got everything spread out; of course.

Re-ripping Avengers Infinity War because the one I have has a glitch about half-way through that I don’t like. Audio/Video sync error. Trying different settings in Handbrake trying to get faster (but quality) rips.

Downloading MXLinux to give it a try. Both the Xfce and KDE versions. Want to try TwistedOS on the Pi but need to buy a Pi4. (Twist my arm!)  I have 6 Pi3’s. Darn it.

There was a call on the radio for the Police to go to a guys home cause he was outside with a gun screaming about the Lizard People.

I thought I was the only one who knew about them?!

No thunderstorms. Bummer.

SWMBO took me to the all-you-can-eat Chinese food place in Port Orchard. Panda Inn? I had the “all you can eat” plate with a lot of different types of cooked chicken and fried rice. Was good, but I always pay too much for the amount I eat. Like having the selection though.

Spent too much at Walmart. Again. Also stopped by the Dollar Store and bought 25 stack-able bins for the shelves I’ll be building in the garage this next week. At $1 each they’re pretty good plastic stack-able bins. Bright green or red or blue though.

At least, I think I’ll be building some new shelves. Field Day is in a couple of weeks and I may be busy getting things ready for that. Fun!

Put the flooring in the MILA on Craig’s List for free. Meaning no cost for the flooring not that it was free to list it on Craig’s List. Which it was but not what I meant. Nevermind. ANYWAY, a guy and his son came over and they had it all up within a couple of hours. Flooring padding everything not nailed down. Cool! One less thing I have to do or worry about.

In the planning stages of moving my wood shop into the garage. Already have SWMBO parking outside. Where it’s raining today. Trying not to hurry. Not that I’ll get it “perfect” the first time, but I can minimize the number of “redo’s” later. I hope. Thinking of using some of the cabinets I just took out of the MILA (almost put “for storage” but what else does one use cabinets for?) Need to pick up a couple more sheets of 1/2″ plywood.

I was sprinkling pretty good (really not quite a rain) so I got to burn trash. Then put together a stand/holder/shelf thingie to hold my radio and signalink and battery that I can sit my laptop on top of for field day. And if you followed (and understood) all that then you are a Ham. Get down and take your test.

Oh, my new 100w solar panel got here yesterday. I un-packaged it and turned it to the sun and measured 28.2 volts across the output. Nice! My older solar panels put out 14.8 or so on a good sunny day. This new one was $128 (I thinkin’) so I may get one or two more a month for awhile. Need a better charge controller though. The one I have is a PWM; but I’ll have to double check that. Still, for field day I’m going to take a regular lead-acid battery and this LifePo4 Rechargeable Battery that, even though it measures only 6″x4″x3.75h” it does say 12.8v (just enough to run my 857d) for 16Ah or 204.8Wh. So, enough to experiment with. Eventually I’ll mount a couple of these new solar panels on the roof of the RV.

Maybe, once I get new solar panels up and running, I’ll “donate” my old solar panels to someone to “experiment” with. I’d be “out” only $60 and I’ve had these things 4 years or so. Learned a lot and got my money’s worth out of them.

Anywho, SWMBO will be off to the Genealogy Library tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be raining, so I’ll be working on my new Wood shop in the Old Garage. Because I can.