Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Things I do for fun
Just when I got the urge to start doing some more photography again, I discover that the battery charger for my Rebel XT has disappeared. I’ve been using my little Sony camera in the meantime, but it’s making me miss the flexibility of DSLR.
Phooey.
Now I have to remember where the last place I packed the camera to use was.
I’ve decided to embark on my first circuit design project. Going to try to build myself an intervalometer that I can use with my camera.
My plan is to take what I’ve learned (and will learn) about 555 timers and try to build a circuit that will generate pulses at variable intervals. The pulses will (somehow) short a connection to ground, triggering the camera shutter with each pulse.
Sure, I could do this the easy way and go with one of the many designs posted at places such as Instructables, but coming up with it myself will be much more educational.
Helping out with radio communication support during the Charleston Marathon was a lot of fun yesterday. The weather was on the chilly side with a breeze that didn’t help much. At least it was a sunny day which helped a bit.
I was assigned to the 23 mile mark which, for the marathon course, was also the 17.5ish mark too. It was a while before I saw the first marathon runner come by, about an hour and 40 minutes into the race. There were a few runners trickling by, and then a pretty steady flow of runners over the couple hours going one way, then coming back the other way towards the finish.
The runner in the Superman Underoos outfit gave me a chuckle as he ran by. There was another person wearing a Spiderman shirt, and a woman wearing a 1800s period dress complete with parasol. Probably the most impressive were the two firefighters walking the course dressed in full gear.
Fortunately there were no major incidents (not that I heard over the radio anyway). Had to call for some assistance when a runner broke down at my location but that’s about it. A few other runners broke down at other points in the course but nothing severe.
Just before 2:30PM, the net wrapped up operations and I secured my location. There were only a handful of stragglers walking the rest of the course by that point.
All in all, aside from the temperature, it was a lot of fun. I found out that my HT can reach the repeater on the Yorktown from 8 miles away and that even when broadcasting the time calling signal at max volume pretty much continuously for 4 hours, the battery held out for the entire time. Good things to know.
Lots of things going on the next few weekends to keep me busy.
This Saturday (Jan 18) I’ll be helping out with radio communication support for the Charleston Marathon. If you happen to be near the 23 mile mark, stop by and say hi.
The next CHUUG meeting on Jan 23 is something a little different. Instead of the usual Barcamp style discussion, it’s going to be 5 minute lightning talks on the topic of your choice.
Please create and bring a 5 minute presentation on a technical or geek topic that you are passionate about. If you go after the sacred cows of the geek community, all the better.
Next weekend (Jan 25-26) is the Charleston Kennel Club dog show up at the Exhcange Park fairgrounds. Always a fun to see the variety of dog breeds there. I’ll be there both days in the afternoon with the Charleston Lab Retriever Club (the fun dogs) outside. Stop by if you want to experience what a dog show is like, and then head outside to see the Labs where the fun dogs/people hang out.
The weekend after that (Feb 1) is the Charleston Hamfest and “Computer” Show at the Armory Park Community Center just off East Montague. I’ll be there bright and early helping out in the tailgating area. It’s not a huge hamfest but I should be able to find a few interesting things there. There will be door prizes drawn throughout the day, including three cash prizes (if you’d like to buy a prize ticket, drop me a note). Don’t go if you’re expecting a lot of computer stuff though. It’s just not that kind of show. You’ll find a lot of older “computer junk box” stuff, but if that’s what you’re looking for, by all means stop in. An amateur radio licensing test will be conducted at the hamfest too.
The weekend after that is Orlando Hamcation which was a whole lot of fun last year, but we won’t be going this year. Too many other travel plans coming up to make it practical this year.
There’s also a lot of radio contesting coming up over the next few weekends.
Lately I’ve taken to browsing my local Radio Shack and “rescuing” some of the clearance items I come across.
Today I wandered in looking for some terminal lug strips and came out with 60′ of hookup wire (can never have too much wire around, right?) and a neat little Velleman Decision Maker kit, both of which were on clearance.
About 15 minutes at the bench, and this simple little kit was all assembled. It’s basically a binary magic 8 ball. Press the button and the LEDs flash quickly, eventually slowing down until one of them stays lit.
It’s all through hole components, and is very easy to assemble making it an excellent kit for someone learning how to solder. Perfect for introducing soldering techniques to a kid.
Not bad for $2.