Category: Miscellaneous babble

Random mutterings

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15 years on the job

At some point this month, I made it to 15 years working here at MUSC.

There have been a lot of changes over those 15 years, lots of new equipment, new people and new sites. I can definitely say that working here has never been boring. Routine at times, but never boring.

Now, heading into 15+ years, the boss is retiring at the end of May, and hopefully by the time fall comes around, there will be a new head of the Diagnostic Medical Physics division to work under. That, I’m sure, will involve more changes and adjustments. So far I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have been able to work with and under some very good mentors and colleagues. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next few years bring.

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Random call sign buzzer

It took a while, but the code for making my Netduino generate random call signs is finally working. I kept getting randomly occuring argument out of bounds errors. With a bit of help, I finally realized the cause of my problem was in the 0-based array and me not counting the elements properly. Duh.

The code finally works, and now my Netduino will sit there and buzz out random “call signs” forever.

Now to work out how to implement some kind of mode selection for buzzing out Morse code.

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Morse code ringtones and vibration patterns

Yesterday I discovered that I can make custom vibration notification patterns for people in my Contacts list.

On the Galaxy S2, select a contact, scroll down to Vibration Pattern tap it to bring up a list and hit the Create button. When you tap the center of the circle, a line starts to sweep around the circle and you just tap out the vibration pattern you want to create. I’ve used it to create some Morse code vibration patterns for a few people

While I was doing that, I figured why not do the same for ring tones! Using the text to CW converter at lcwo.net made it super easy. Enter your text, select the speed and tone to play it and it gives you a link where you can download an MP3 file to send to the phone to use as a ring tone.

Play / Pause  

Learn CW Online – LCWO.net – Text to Morse Converter

So now for a few people stored in my phone, I have call sign Morse code ring tones and vibration patterns set up.

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Marathon, dog show, hamfest

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.

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Hello 45

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44 was a pretty good year. Let’s see what 45 has in store. I think it will be another good year.