“Pepe” The Rescue Chihuahua.

~ Ron Walker ~ 8 Comments
Pepe

“Pepe”, is our new rescue. A long haired Chihuahua breed that may be as old as 16. Michelle received a call from someone in the trailer park where we lived about Pepe and his pending doom.

It seems Pepe belongs to the elderly lady that everyone calls Granny. After suffering a stroke recently, her daughter has offered to let her live with them. Pepe however, could not go with Granny. Granny has been the owner of Pepe for about seven years. It was not known how old he may have been when she acquired him, but they say he was quite old.

Sad that no one wants an older dog. Sad that an elderly person has to let go of a companion she’s had for seven years. If a home was not found for Pepe soon, the daughter was going to surrender Pepe to the pound, where he would most likely be put to sleep due to his age. We knew Pepe from hearing him out in his yard. Pepe has a screeching cry when he wants to come back in. My first impression when we moved there, was someone was torturing a dog.

Granny was about to cry when we picked up Pepe from her. She sent his small round bed and some food, and a sign that a granddaughter had made for Pepe. Of course, the cutest part was the misspelling of his name by a child. I’m afraid I was about to have tears appear myself while the exchange was taking place. We promised to let her come see him anytime since we are going to allow him to become a permanent part of our pet family. We grew attached to him just seeing him on walks when he would run to the fence to greet us.

So we packed his bed, and Tupperware container of food she wanted to send with him, and the sign.

Pepe is fitting right in with everyone else in the household. He doesn’t seem upset, but that is the way dogs are. I’m sure he is sad and confused not seeing Granny. He curls up on Annabelle’s bed if he gets there first. Something about seeing a small fluffy dog in her Great Dane bed, doesn’t impress her.

It’s great he is fitting in, no snapping or food aggression. He does however have the habit of giving out his howl around three am each night. That will sure wake you from a good slumber. He just wants to get in bed with you. I can forgive him that, after what he is going through. Granny had mentioned the three am habit, but I took the remark as some levity to avoid crying. She was correct, he has an internal clock for three am.

Comments, always welcome.

The Digital Death of Amateur Radio.

~ Ron Walker ~ 14 Comments

This is just my opinion. I’m an older Ham Radio operator (N4WTU). I joined the hobby in 1983. Back then to become a “novice” licensed operator you had to pass the technical part of the test and pass a five-word a minute Morse code. You could then use morse code to communicate all over the world. Later, you could take another technical test, and become a “Technician” class. That is when you got to use voice communications on local 2meter (think walkie-talkie) and a little on the worldwide High-Frequency radio, which were larger, desktop types. I fondly remember practicing for the Morse code part of the test by walking around the job site late at night and spelling out the signs and other items in Morse. Later, I would take another harder test, pass a 10 word per minute code test, and get my “General Class License”. It was an accomplishment, something to feel proud of.

Bedroom0001
Verticle0005
Me-Radio0002
beam0019
Beam3ele0006
Livingroom0003
antennas0004
antennas0003
Hamshacknew0002

[Show as slideshow]

Changes can be good, or bad.

Then, there was the talk of the hobby fading. So a push was mounted to bring in new members. The code portion was dropped, and you had a slightly simpler test to pass. You could get CDs and other materials to help you memorize the answers to the questions. Never mind you didn’t really understand what you were answering, as long as you got the answers right. There was a lot of grumbling from amateurs that had to learn code and know more about how radios worked, but at least this phase wasn’t a total disaster. It brought new blood into a fun hobby. The truckers never really got into it, so it didn’t turn into a CB land fiasco.

The Digital Death

Maybe I’m being dramatic. Or maybe I see the end of the true meaning of Amateur Radio as it was meant to be. We were the hobby that could provide communications during disasters, when the infrastructure was broken. No cell phones, no phones, and no regular broadcast radio. We were independent, mobile and could make an antenna out of an umbrella, or a piece of wire. Then came Digital..

In the late 70s there was experimentation in digital. This experimentation would ultimately lead to development of cell phones. Yes, we Amateur Radio operators could make phone calls over our radios wirelessly connecting to a “phone patch”. Packet radio was fun. Packet Radio was sort of a type of relay using digital. Your typed words were compressed into a packet and sent to another station that would relay it further down the line to another station. This was good for getting more information in disaster areas when infrastructure had been destroyed. It was also independent and portable.

Then the Digital Age happened.

Computers are all the rage, the old timers are dying off. The new blood is all about computers and digital communication. 2 meter radio is like a super CB for those not familiar with the Amateur Radio concept. Only 2 meter was Amateur, and therefore strictly controlled and had etiquette and rules you followed. These radios had a range depending on the terrain, or five or six miles, or 50-100 miles, depending on how you had used that knowledge you learned (antenna theory etc) “Repeaters” were also used (the precursor of cell towers). A person would provide a repeater at their expense, and allow other amateurs to use it. It would broadcast your voice communications much further, doubling or tripling your distance.

By the late 2010 era with computers and the Internet upon us, the experimenters searched for the “easy” way to do things. Forgetting the basic function of Amateur Radio, reliability. Digital modes such as simple, reliable packet radio gave way to many digital modes, that are dependent on the Internet.

Digital is the next frontier in ham radio. The spread of digital technologies has increased the options available for ham radio operators. Modes of digital transmission include multiple frequency shift keying (MFSK), wireless local area networks (WLAN), D-STAR, Codec2, and Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS).

Radio for Dummies

After about a year now, I dusted off my 2-meter radio that has been sitting in its new box and set it up. It is a mobile, that I run off of my solar battery setup. True Amateur fashion. I was dismayed to tune in and hear operators chatting about nothing but digital modes, I wouldn’t have even heard them, had they not be having a problem with the “digital” connections through the Internet. I couldn’t respond to them, because apparently in the last year, they have moved most of the “repeaters” to other locations and repurposed them to digital modes. Where I used to be able to connect to 5 local repeaters for regular conversations, these have been moved. I can reach one that is about 25 miles away but is not a real clear connection. The other four, are no longer in my range.

Digital may be the new direction of Amateur Radio, but it will never be as reliable as when the hobby based itself on redundancy, and mobility in crisis. It saddens me, but I am from the old days. I could join the Internet Radio revolution, but it’s just not the same as enjoying, building an antenna, setting up your equipment etc. I once talked to the UK, using a patio table umbrella as an antenna on the back porch of our home. Now THAT is what it was all about. I talked to Australia using a long piece of copper wire as an antenna. These skills will soon be forgotten in the bits and bytes of the digital world.

I listened for three hours last night, three hours so far this morning, Other than the short chatter last night, I’ve heard one normal conversation between two gentlemen on a repeater that I can’t reach. It’s sort of saddening.

N4WTU
General Class

Livestreaming for fun.

~ Ron Walker ~ 18 Comments

I have always wanted to set up a camera, just to watch different birds up close. Now, I can share the birds with those that enjoy just watching them. Of course, a recording of the live stream will be on YouTube as well, for those that enjoy watching small birds work on their nest. I set the camera up this morning, Starting when she left the nest, it took about 15 minutes to install the webcam. As soon as I was through and back in the office, she reappeared working steadily.

This little bird (I think a sparrow?) has been working all morning. The previous owners said they removed the nest several times during the year, but they keep rebuilding it each time. There is another nest built in the opposite corner of the porch roof about 8 feet away. It is about three inches taller. When we moved here it had five eggs in it. Apparently unfertilized and left by the previous occupant that season.

It’s a Monday morning, sunny and a pleasant 57F. I think I am going to enjoy watching this little family grow. As I said, bird identifications is not my forte, so if anyone knows what type this is, please let me know. I’m guessing a sparrow. I may add a small paper or plastic ruler to the wall above the nest to give some sense of size.

The view will cycle from time to time, but always have a small view of the birds, until something interesting occurs. Most of the time, it will be the little bird.

For fun, suggest a name for the nest, and bird if you’d like. Subscribe, if you’d like to know when the feed goes live each time.

Comments, always welcomed.

Not Gun Control, try people control.

~ Ron Walker ~ 19 Comments


The politicians won’t tell you, or support, the simplest remedy to gun violence.

A separate very harsh  punishment, for anyone committing a crime, or murder while armed with an assault style or automatic weapon. 

This would negate the need to take everyone’s right to bear arms away, and still reduce the amount of murders by firearms. But locking up evil people, doesn’t generate votes, like the hatred for an inanimate object. 

Which leads us to the mental health, or behavioral aspect. Many states have laws, automatic harsh sentencing for the commission of  a crime while using a firearm. However, the same parts of our society that want to do away with an inanimate object, feel sorry for the offenders. They claim the  sentencing is too harsh. Apparently they care more about someone’s discomfort and feelings, than the lives that were lost.

Ever wonder why There are knives and machete attacks in China? Because they took away firearms. Didn’t solve a lot. 

Nine students were killed at a middle school in Shaanxi province in April 2018 by a 28-year-old man who was later sentenced to death. June 2020, 37 students injured in a knife attack at an elementary school, in China.

Read this article by CNN one of the biggest anti-firearm proponents (if you dare). We need actual sentencing for crimes, not more control of inanimate objects.

But only if.. They enforce it.

Once again, for all our supposedly educated politicians. “It’s not the object, but the person wielding it.” At the rate we are going, in the unending pursuit of votes, we will all need to learn to knife fight, or take up baseball, or wielding a hammer to defend ourselves, from those that would do us harm.

What will be next, “Sharp object, blunt instrument free zones?”
Comments always welcome.