http://wa3fkg.blogspot.com/2005_05_29_wa3fkg_archive.html#111750280992197927
Not sure what's going on with one of my favorite blog sites. The site has been down since 29 May 2005.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Want to be a Weather Geek?
http://www.sundog.clara.co.uk/atoptics/phenom.htm
Just go right to the Index. Be sure to check out the Kern Arc.
Just go right to the Index. Be sure to check out the Kern Arc.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Monday, May 16, 2005
Photo Galleries
http://www.olympusamerica.com/e1/gal_jisaac.asp
http://35degrees.com/gallery/professional
Large photo gallery of professional "fuji"
http://www.photographymuseum.com/
http://www.aaubreybodine.com/gallery/category.asp
http://www.newseum.org/pulitzer/
http://www.bibleplaces.com/index.htm
http://www.photohome.com/
http://www.commonplacesphoto.com/gallery.html
http://www.greymattermedia.com/PatrickJenningsExhibit.html
http://www.bell.k12.ca.us/BellHS/Fac.Staf/a-e/DooleyJoan/PHOTOGRAPHER/Photographs/247la.html
http://www.anseladams.com/category.aspx?SID=1&Category_ID=123
http://www.benoa.net/italy/
http://www.falveyphotography.com/
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/pdg/Default.htm
http://35degrees.com/gallery/professional
Large photo gallery of professional "fuji"
http://www.photographymuseum.com/
http://www.aaubreybodine.com/gallery/category.asp
http://www.newseum.org/pulitzer/
http://www.bibleplaces.com/index.htm
http://www.photohome.com/
http://www.commonplacesphoto.com/gallery.html
http://www.greymattermedia.com/PatrickJenningsExhibit.html
http://www.bell.k12.ca.us/BellHS/Fac.Staf/a-e/DooleyJoan/PHOTOGRAPHER/Photographs/247la.html
http://www.anseladams.com/category.aspx?SID=1&Category_ID=123
http://www.benoa.net/italy/
http://www.falveyphotography.com/
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/pdg/Default.htm
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Why Did God Make Mothers?
Why did God make Mothers?
Enjoy the answers given by elementary school age children to the following questions:)
Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of them when we were getting born.
What kind of little girl was your Mom?
1. My Mom has always been my Mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.
How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.
What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel-hair and everything nice in the world, and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string. I think.
What did Mom need to know about Dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?
Why did your Mom marry your Dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.
Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because Dad's such a goofball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad.
What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home, and dads just got to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
What does your Mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.
What would it take to make your Mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair.
If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be?
1 She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my Mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
Why did God give you your Mother and not some other Mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.
Enjoy the answers given by elementary school age children to the following questions:)
Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of them when we were getting born.
What kind of little girl was your Mom?
1. My Mom has always been my Mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.
How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.
What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel-hair and everything nice in the world, and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string. I think.
What did Mom need to know about Dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?
Why did your Mom marry your Dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.
Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because Dad's such a goofball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad.
What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home, and dads just got to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.
What does your Mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.
What would it take to make your Mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair.
If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be?
1 She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my Mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.
Why did God give you your Mother and not some other Mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.
Ifn u cn rd ths, u mite b a ham
"Ifn u cn rd ths, u mite b a ham"
By Michelle Thompson W5NYV
Which do you think is faster at transmitting a
message? Morse code? Or text messaging on a cellular
phone? There have been several interesting match races
appearing in the media over the last few weeks, with
CW winning handily over the hip-and-happening text
messaging crowd. A mid-April 2005 battle sponsored by
Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia pitted
93-year-old telegraph operator Gordon Hill won against
13-year-old text messager Brittany Devlin. Gordon Hill
won in all four heats. Furthermore, Gordon sent the
full text of the competition message, while Brittany
was allowed to use abbreviations.
Abbreviations are common in traditional telegraphy and
in amateur radio CW. Most everyone is familiar with
the Q codes (e.g. QST, QRZ, QTH) and some are familiar
with the telegraphy abbreviations (abt=about,
agn=again, ant=antenna) but text messaging compresses
any word that can be compressed. Some of the
abbreviations are reinventions of the telegraphy
shorthand. Other common text messaging abbreviations
seek to eliminate the letters that are on the same
number key, in order to take advantage of the
automatic next-letter jump when going from one key to
another in text mode. Other abbreviations eliminate
unpronounced letters. Some examples of common text
message abbreviations are ur=your, ty=thank you, and
pls=please. See
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp
for an entertaining list of many additional text
messaging abbreviations.
Perhaps the most widely seen contest between text
messaging and Morse code was the recent segment on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno. To see the segment, follow
this link.
http://www.kkn.net/~n6tv/Text_vs_Morse_Leno_2005_05_13.wmv
The show ran on the 13th of May, 2005. The Morse code
team was Chip Margelli, K7JA and Ken Miller, K6CTW,
dressed in traditional telegraphy garb. They sure
looked spiffy in their green shades, white shirts,
black slacks, and old-school armbands. The costumes,
Ken Miller says, were the producer’s idea, but both
Chip and Ken had fun wearing them.
Ben Cook and his friend Jason were the text messaging
team. They were hip and cool in their jeans and
T-Shirts. Ben had established his reputation as
fastest text messager by at some time previous to the
contest by typing 160 characters in 57 seconds. In
English, five characters per word is the standard used
to measure typing speed in words per minute. Using an
average of five characters per word, that’s just about
32 words per minute. Knowing that text messagers might
be able to use abbreviations to lower the letters per
word, that could raise the words per minute rate by
quite a bit. By cutting out only one letter in every
other word in a text message, you can increase your
words-per-minute rate to nearly 37 words per minute.
In other words, the word-per-minute rate might be
expected to be in the ballpark of Morse code. However,
that’s neglecting the time it takes for the text
message to propagate through a cellular phone system.
For the contest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the
sending members of the team sat at one table on the
left-hand side of the stage, and the receivers at
another table on the right-hand side of the stage. Ken
Miller decided that he would be the Morse code
receiver because he was less bothered by the crowd
noise. A card with the message to be sent was placed
face-down on the table. At the word Go, the sender
turned the card over and began transmitting the phrase
on the card to the receiver, each using their
particular technology. You could see the small radio
and key that Chip was using to send as well as the
small radio and speaker that Ken was using to receive.
The Morse code was clearly audible in the studio. Jay
Leno continued talking during the contest, but that
didn’t seem to bother either team, as they were
completely and totally focused on the task at hand.
Ken writes, “The radios were FT-817's provided by
Chip's company Yaesu and HRO. Reason for that choice
was that we needed the most frequency agile radios we
could get. When I talked to the technical folks, they
recommended we START at 2 meters and go up because of
all of the lower frequency noise and RFI from the
other TV equipment. When I got there, we took out a
spectrum analyzer and studied all of the interference
possibilities. I ended up choosing 432.200 MHz
because that guaranteed no RFI from their equipment
and we were high enough not to overload their front
ends either. This was then verified and it was what
we were using at the FT-817's lowest setting.”
Ken continues “Also, since we did not have the time to
set up headphones, I just added some extra volume for
me, had the stage folks cut my mike (to prevent
feedback and overload) and copied off of the speaker.
To re-emphasize the point, I'm just an average CW op
who occasionally operates the CW SS QRP, with my K2 of
course, and really enjoys CW, and traffic handling.”
Therefore, the contest was between someone who
considers themselves an average CW operator against
the fastest text messengers the Tonight Show could
find to fly in for the show.
Ken explained that he was confident that 28-30 wpm
would easily keep us in front of even the current
world record holder of fastest text messager, and also
it is the fastest speed that he could make nice
readable copy on paper with a pencil, which is what he
used to write down the message.
Interestingly, Joe Drago, who is a props manager for
the show, is
KF6OCP. There were three rehearsals for the skit.
Morse code won every time. In the segment that aired,
Ben Cook was getting ready to enter the last two words
when Ken and Chip finished their transmission. The
text was not revealed to either team beforehand and
was different in each rehearsal as well as for the
live event. Ken’s wife Connie was very much
responsible for the producer deciding to go ahead with
the segment, as she talked up the concept on the phone
and sold the idea of the segment working. Ken says
that without her efforts, the segment would never have
happened.
If you enjoyed the segment, PLEASE email, write, etc.
to let "The
Tonight Show" know about it. Exposure for our hobby is
a powerful tool for protecting it, increasing
awareness of it, and attracting new members to it.
Think of the number of people in the studio audience
alone that day that were introduced to Morse code and
ham radio in an entertaining, accessible way. Give the
show some feedback! Send them your QSL card and tell
them thanks for airing this segment. Here is the
address.
Tonight Show with Jay Leno
3000 W. Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA 91523
Very special thanks to Dennis Vernaccia N6KI, Art
Wallace W6KY, and Roger Thompson AD5T for contributing
to this article.
By Michelle Thompson W5NYV
Which do you think is faster at transmitting a
message? Morse code? Or text messaging on a cellular
phone? There have been several interesting match races
appearing in the media over the last few weeks, with
CW winning handily over the hip-and-happening text
messaging crowd. A mid-April 2005 battle sponsored by
Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia pitted
93-year-old telegraph operator Gordon Hill won against
13-year-old text messager Brittany Devlin. Gordon Hill
won in all four heats. Furthermore, Gordon sent the
full text of the competition message, while Brittany
was allowed to use abbreviations.
Abbreviations are common in traditional telegraphy and
in amateur radio CW. Most everyone is familiar with
the Q codes (e.g. QST, QRZ, QTH) and some are familiar
with the telegraphy abbreviations (abt=about,
agn=again, ant=antenna) but text messaging compresses
any word that can be compressed. Some of the
abbreviations are reinventions of the telegraphy
shorthand. Other common text messaging abbreviations
seek to eliminate the letters that are on the same
number key, in order to take advantage of the
automatic next-letter jump when going from one key to
another in text mode. Other abbreviations eliminate
unpronounced letters. Some examples of common text
message abbreviations are ur=your, ty=thank you, and
pls=please. See
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp
for an entertaining list of many additional text
messaging abbreviations.
Perhaps the most widely seen contest between text
messaging and Morse code was the recent segment on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno. To see the segment, follow
this link.
http://www.kkn.net/~n6tv/Text_vs_Morse_Leno_2005_05_13.wmv
The show ran on the 13th of May, 2005. The Morse code
team was Chip Margelli, K7JA and Ken Miller, K6CTW,
dressed in traditional telegraphy garb. They sure
looked spiffy in their green shades, white shirts,
black slacks, and old-school armbands. The costumes,
Ken Miller says, were the producer’s idea, but both
Chip and Ken had fun wearing them.
Ben Cook and his friend Jason were the text messaging
team. They were hip and cool in their jeans and
T-Shirts. Ben had established his reputation as
fastest text messager by at some time previous to the
contest by typing 160 characters in 57 seconds. In
English, five characters per word is the standard used
to measure typing speed in words per minute. Using an
average of five characters per word, that’s just about
32 words per minute. Knowing that text messagers might
be able to use abbreviations to lower the letters per
word, that could raise the words per minute rate by
quite a bit. By cutting out only one letter in every
other word in a text message, you can increase your
words-per-minute rate to nearly 37 words per minute.
In other words, the word-per-minute rate might be
expected to be in the ballpark of Morse code. However,
that’s neglecting the time it takes for the text
message to propagate through a cellular phone system.
For the contest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the
sending members of the team sat at one table on the
left-hand side of the stage, and the receivers at
another table on the right-hand side of the stage. Ken
Miller decided that he would be the Morse code
receiver because he was less bothered by the crowd
noise. A card with the message to be sent was placed
face-down on the table. At the word Go, the sender
turned the card over and began transmitting the phrase
on the card to the receiver, each using their
particular technology. You could see the small radio
and key that Chip was using to send as well as the
small radio and speaker that Ken was using to receive.
The Morse code was clearly audible in the studio. Jay
Leno continued talking during the contest, but that
didn’t seem to bother either team, as they were
completely and totally focused on the task at hand.
Ken writes, “The radios were FT-817's provided by
Chip's company Yaesu and HRO. Reason for that choice
was that we needed the most frequency agile radios we
could get. When I talked to the technical folks, they
recommended we START at 2 meters and go up because of
all of the lower frequency noise and RFI from the
other TV equipment. When I got there, we took out a
spectrum analyzer and studied all of the interference
possibilities. I ended up choosing 432.200 MHz
because that guaranteed no RFI from their equipment
and we were high enough not to overload their front
ends either. This was then verified and it was what
we were using at the FT-817's lowest setting.”
Ken continues “Also, since we did not have the time to
set up headphones, I just added some extra volume for
me, had the stage folks cut my mike (to prevent
feedback and overload) and copied off of the speaker.
To re-emphasize the point, I'm just an average CW op
who occasionally operates the CW SS QRP, with my K2 of
course, and really enjoys CW, and traffic handling.”
Therefore, the contest was between someone who
considers themselves an average CW operator against
the fastest text messengers the Tonight Show could
find to fly in for the show.
Ken explained that he was confident that 28-30 wpm
would easily keep us in front of even the current
world record holder of fastest text messager, and also
it is the fastest speed that he could make nice
readable copy on paper with a pencil, which is what he
used to write down the message.
Interestingly, Joe Drago, who is a props manager for
the show, is
KF6OCP. There were three rehearsals for the skit.
Morse code won every time. In the segment that aired,
Ben Cook was getting ready to enter the last two words
when Ken and Chip finished their transmission. The
text was not revealed to either team beforehand and
was different in each rehearsal as well as for the
live event. Ken’s wife Connie was very much
responsible for the producer deciding to go ahead with
the segment, as she talked up the concept on the phone
and sold the idea of the segment working. Ken says
that without her efforts, the segment would never have
happened.
If you enjoyed the segment, PLEASE email, write, etc.
to let "The
Tonight Show" know about it. Exposure for our hobby is
a powerful tool for protecting it, increasing
awareness of it, and attracting new members to it.
Think of the number of people in the studio audience
alone that day that were introduced to Morse code and
ham radio in an entertaining, accessible way. Give the
show some feedback! Send them your QSL card and tell
them thanks for airing this segment. Here is the
address.
Tonight Show with Jay Leno
3000 W. Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA 91523
Very special thanks to Dennis Vernaccia N6KI, Art
Wallace W6KY, and Roger Thompson AD5T for contributing
to this article.
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