Those of you who know me, know that I’m not a tree hugger by any stretch of the imagination – I am more for Personal Accountability, in all the forms that it might take. But some things really piss me off – aside from hate mongers and the concept of Self-before-Anything, some social issues rise to the top of the list. I ran across this movie trailer the other day while reading my morning cup of inspiration (daily blogs) and feel compelled to share. Subject: Child Sex Exploitation and Trafficking.

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I hope that it pisses you off as much as it did for me.

The Candy Shop Trailer from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

What a strange storm – Matthew looks like it will meander around the Yucatan Peninsula for a while, but at least two of the forecast models have it coming to Florida. There’s another low pressure system just off Nicaragua that may well pull Matthew back to the east, after which it’s possible that a northward turn may be in the cards.

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Max winds right now are only about 35mph, but the rainfall is reported to be torrential, with the storm moving at about 10-15mph.

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Stay vigilant – this storm could build strength if it comes back over the water and heads toward us – we may not get much advance notice.

Below is the most current forecast track (click to enlarge)

well, actually back to Florida.

We’re on a flight from Manila, to Singapore, to Los Angeles, to Atlanta, then to Daytona Beach – all without a shower or a bed in between. Oh what fun..!!   Who was it that said that international travel was fun..??!! It’s currently Saturday  the 7th of August here in this part of the world, but Florida is 12 hours BEHIND me. Arrive on the 8th, but I won’t say which airport, in case the hit squad is looking for me..  :))

Got all my meetings completed successfully, no major disasters to recover, saw a bunch of old friends, had some great food and made a few D-Star contacts – life is good..!!

See y’all when we get back.

Remember the 21-August meeting – Training and TableTop exercise for the MS-150 event. The actual event is on Oct-203, so it’s less than 8 weeks away. There’s lots to do, so if you’re up for the challenge and fun, contact your EC – Pete, Robbie or Fred in their respective counties.

happy trails.. more tk

Hi all,

I am off to Asia for the next week, but we’ve put a number of articles on the blog for distribution during all of next week (almost every day, as usual). Going to Singapore to do a progress check on a project I have there with the national airline, as well as Manila for the major telephone company in the country. Will be back on Sunday the 8th. If you guys have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Doug or Phil – they should be able to help you with virtually anything that I would have done while here. I will have my DVAP with me, so don’t be surprised to hear me on D-STAR from Singapore or Manila. I’ll also have my computer, so D-STAR registrations will get approved in a timely, albeit slightly delayed manner.

In the meantime, you can expect a number of things to happen in the week that I’m gone:

1. The JAX Beach D-Star system should be operational – frequency will be on 444.975+ and the call sign will be KJ4RYI-B. Those of you who have been using the Daytona Beach UHF D-Star system will recognize that the frequency is the same – and for good reason – there is no other repeater on the air within better than 50 miles with that frequency pair. Steve Finger (KB4DNQ) is the “ring-leader” for the install there – and it is using the Satoshi Hotspot in Full-Duplex Mode, along with an internet connection for connection to other repeaters and reflectors. We’ll probably have this connected to REF034C most of the time, so that JAX folks can have direct conversations via the gateway to St. Johns, Flager and Volusia users. Steve already has the HotSpot and the two radios, and I have tuned-up a UHF repeater duplexer and assembled the interfacing cables so that the installation should be very straightforward. We received the Rack-shelves that we ordered (4 of them) to be able to mount hotspot repeater radios, as well as Gateway computers as necessary.
2. The antenna installation for “Big JAX” should be happening while I’m overseas – this will be a DB-224E antenna that will be positioned at about 500-ft on the 1,000 foot tower. Coordinations are already in place – and this repeater call sign will be KJ4RYG-C. Electronics will not be installed while I’m gone, but we will prep the most difficult parts – the antenna and feed-line. Eddie, Phil and Doug have access to my storage facility where we have the 900+ foot spool of VXL7 Heliax hardline (1-5/8″), as well as the connectors, cable hangers and the antenna, so my attendance at the antenna party is completely un-necessary.
3. Progress on MS-150 planning continues under the expert guidance of folks like Doug (N4FPS), Robbie (KG4HUF), Pete (KC1SS), Frank (KB4T), Rick (KC2HFL) and Phil (K5BBC), with Eddie’s (KJ4LRB) continual support on the admin side of the house. I know that they are planning for the first Group Exercise – scheduled for August-21. Please reserve the date, if you haven’t already. Also reserve September 18th and pencil-in September 11 as a possible table-top exercise.

I was able to attend the last FPCARC meeting (try to attend all, but don’t always have time) and have nothing but GREAT things to report. President John Woika (W8JW) runs a great meeting, business-like when it needs to be, but mostly just FUN – and isn’t that what Ham Radio is supposed to be..??!!

Bob Matson (KA4VIV) gave a great program on Antennas. Although I wasn’t able to stay for the entire program, I saw where Bob was taking the group, with hands-on training in cause-and-effect by rigging an antenna to a network analyzer and allow the class to change antenna lengths and see the results. This is SO BENEFICIAL to a class, since it allows for realtime-feedback across a broad-range of frequencies (the entire band), unlike a typical SWR meter which only tells you information for a specific frequency. Network and some Spectrum Analyzers “sweep” a range of frequencies, so that you can see where all the points of resonance might be with an antenna – a very powerful training aid.

This is perhaps the 4th FPCARC meeting that I’ve attended and I have felt very welcome by that group. If you’re a new Ham, or a ham looking for a “home” group – I’d highly recommend the Flagler Palm Coast Amateur Radio Club. Great guys, great programs, great fun..!! Of course, we also recommend that you join the Flagler ARES group, which focuses on Emergency Services and service to the community. Joining both would be a great combination.

This is the first day of operation for the NE-FL D-Star Blog. Since there are many developments regarding the D-Star project here in NE Florida, we’ve created this blog to enable any of you to keep current on developments within the system.