I pulled the control cable and soldered the new plugs on each end this afternoon. It appears that about 50 feet of CAT-6 plus the stock cable works just fine. I was a bit concerned about voltage drop with the length of cable.
Next I’ve got to get the RigBlaster connected…
Since I’ve now got a good digital camera I decided that the time has come to pick up a photo printer for it. I’ve been looking around for a while, reading up on the printers out there, and have settled on the Canon PIXMA iP6000D for a number of reasons. First, the on-line reviews have been very favorable. Also, the printer uses separate ink reserviors so that you don’t have to replace fuller inks when one runs out like a lot of the HP printers do. Finally, it’s PictBridge enabled so I don’t even have to hook it up to a computer to print the photos. It should be shipping tomorrow, so I’ll post some more info once I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces.
I just finished patching b2evolution‘s code to support Google‘s approach to blocking comment spam (Google Blog entry). The info was taken from this forum thread.
I went to the municipal annex today and cast my vote for beer and wine sales. The official voting date is February 5, so we won’t know the results for a week or so, but I’m hoping that it passes.
This has been a busy and productive day. After running to Car Toys to get an in-line fuse for my Jeep. I’ve been using a Rig Runner 4005 to provide power for my radios, GPS, APRS, etc. that is fed with 8 ga. cable running straight from the battery. I did something that wasn’t very smart and was extremely dangerous. I didn’t put a fuse on the positive line, close to the battery. If there was a short somewhere in that power cable the Jeep could have burned. There’s now a 50 amp fuse right at the battery.
After I finished that I started in on the hamshack rebuild. I’ve been putting this off for a while and finally quit making excuses and started pulling cable. I’ve now got the IC-706 MkIIg connected into an Ameritron RCS-8V remote switch with 50 feet of LMR-400 low loss coax. Currently I’ve only got the Force 12 Sigma-5 fully connected because I haven’t run the control cable for the AH-4 tuner or the rotor for the M² 6M3 6m beam. But that will get done in short order.
But I made a contact with N3WBS in Maryland on 17m, so I’m pretty happy with what I did get accomplished.
Wow! Alex and I went out to the Tac-Pro range today to shoot his Serbu BFG-50 .50 caliber rifle. What can I say but oh my freaking God! Until today I had never fired at a target more than 100 yards out, but that was to change quickly. After zeroing the scope in at 100 yards we moved to the 300 yard position where I was still grouping well. Then on to the 500 yard position, and finally the 1000 yard position. Shooting at a target that is over a half a mile away is incredibly challenging, but the satisfaction of hearing the target get hit is immense. I passed the range qualification and can now go out there and shoot long distance whenever I want.
Courtesy of Metafilter: Bunny Suicides.
Buy the book, don’t scan and post them without permission.
It’s been a busy week and I just got around to watching the first episode of Iron Chef America. It was fun to finally watch one of these shows and be able to understand what the chefs are saying to each other. The challenge was between Bobby Flay and Rick Bayless. The secret ingredient was buffalo (bison). I’ve got to say that the dishes they plated were more appetizing than the ones the Japanese chefs made in their version of the show. In fact, Chef Bayless’s buffalo stuffed chile rellenos are probably going to be duplicated in my kitchen.
The mailman gave me a present today. About three months ago I signed a petition calling for a vote on beer and wine sales in Lewisville. Right now they’re not allowed, but all of the surrounding towns can sell them, so all that’s happening is Lewisville is losing a bunch of tax revenue. Hopefully this will pass, and I’ll definitely be voting for it.
I just found a pretty cool blog related game called BlogShares. It’s a virtual stockmarket based on blogs. I’m now listed and there are shares of this blog for sale.
One of the interesting blogs that I happened across while there is Farzad’s Blog, so go take a look at it!