Camera Raw - argghhhh

My new camera has a new RAW format... go figure. It looks like I will need to
purchase a Photoshop or Photoshop Elements upgrade before I can use the Canon XSi
with Adobe Camera Raw.




Another forced upgrade to put more money in someone's pocket.

This upsets me enough that I am ready to think about boycotting Adobe products and
going someplace else. Adobe is trying to corner the market on their niche offerings.

I am already planning to leave Microsoft Windows to move to the Mac and
Linux. I need to find a good open source solution to leave Adobe behind as well. --I
sure sounds like an angry person in this post.

DSL in Kingston, MN.... Maybe

What a pain in the rear end.....

• 
  Embarq is the local telco in my area. They have NO plans to deliver DSL to my area
  as we are the extreme northern end of their exchange. So they said get a petition
  going with 40 signatures and they would consider getting DSL here.
  
  


• 
  Meltel is the other telco. I am within range of having them deliver a phone with a
  Kimball prefix + DSL. The area willing to deliver 1.5/512 DSL.
  

So your reading this going what is the problem. Well, I need to keep my two existing
Embarq numbers (home + home/office) and get a third line. The issue is trying to figure
out how to order an Adjacent Exchange connection.  Embarq says
they don't care... call Meltel. The really nice folks at Meltel are telling me to
talk to the Embarq folks.  Arrgghhh.

The folks at Meltel are really friendly so hopefully they can help me figure this
out on Monday.  I would love to be able to order conventional DSL and then get
rid of my Wireless Internet connection.

Canon XSi (Rebel 450D)

After searching around on the Internet for information I realized that all BestBuy
locations have received two Canon XSi kits for each location regardless of what the
BestBuy.com inventory is showing.



I called the BestBuy in St Cloud this morning. Sure enough they had it in stock. They
put it aside for me with my name on it.



My son and I drove up to St Cloud and picked up this morning. The battery is on the
charger right now.

I also purchased two 4gb SDHCx4 memory cards for it. I found some on sale for $27.
I know... I could have gotten larger cards... but then they would not fit on a DVD
when I create the two offline copies as part of my standard work flow. Until BlueRay
DVD writers are a reasonable price I will not use capture media in the field larger
than a standard DVD.



I will need to track down a spare battery online somewhere. I also need to test the
rest of my existing accessories to see if there are any other items that I need that
are not compatible with my existing gear.

I am excited to have the camera upgrade. Spring has arrived. That means springs flowers
and spring storms. Let the lightning begin... I am ready for the new photo season.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag

I am starting to look for Rag
type Photo/Inkjet paper. Here is one that I am
interested in seeing. I might need to place a small order to see how it looks and
run a couple of test prints.

Another
Source

Quality Time - Kids & Cookies

Jacob and I worked on a large batch of Peanut Butter / Chocolate Chip cookies this
afternoon. Time to eat a cookie and watch a Western on AMC.

Spring Chores

Today I put up the three bird houses that Jacob and Ben built at their grandfather's
house over spring break. The birds have been invading our yard as a sure sign that
spring is nearby.

When you look at the snow in yard you might not think that is almost the middle of
April 2008.

Buffalo Hamfest

My son Ben and I went to the MidWinter Madness Hamfest in Buffalo, MN yesterday. We
wondered around looking at the stuff on the tables and bumping into friends.

Ben bought a used Gameboy for $10.

I bought two old books for $5 each and last years ARRL Handbook for $15. I have been
looking at quite a few of the books at the recent hamfests. I would like to start
building a better RF & Electrical reference library here at the new house.

Look at the cover prices:

1948 - $2.00

1971 - $4.50

2007 - $44.00

There is a VERY nonlinear jump in the price of the books.

Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur

Someone browsing the Elecraft reflector saw some of my posts talking about my K2 project.
That person then followed my signature link to my website. In the midst of my K2 posts
he saw a note about my quest to obtain a copy of SSDRA and how nuts the eBay war had
become.

Roger WA7BOC made me an offer that I could not pass up. I appreciate
his help in advancing my reference library. This is a great book for understanding
the building blocks of RF design.



Roger is a great example of what I like about this hobby. Sharing information among
fellow hobbyists. 

 

K2 - Night Eleven

I squeezed in about 70 minutes of build time tonight while the boys played Xbox 360.
Page 50 is now complete. This was mainly a bunch diodes and TO-92 transistors. There
are about 30 pages of component assembly and alignment left. The RF board is about
1/3 to 1/2 populated now.

• 
  The next time at the bench will be spent installing about 75 capacitors.
  
• 
  Then it moves to the crystals.
  
• 
  Then it moves to the toroids. (There are 13 small toroids.)

The K2 project is progressing nicely given that I am also working on the drywall
in the basement and building model rockets with my sons.

Fiberglass Mast ideas & notes

I am thinking about some antenna ideas for Field Day and camping with our trailer. I
am thinking about using a fiberglass push up mast to hold up a vertical wire for an
antenna.

KitesOnline - Anothe recommended source:

http://www.kitesonline.com/flags/tpole.html

Ebay Search for Fiberglass
masts:

Notes on the dk9sq mast:

http://www.io.com/~n5fc/dk9sq.html

dk9sq mast info:

http://www.kangaus.com/pdf%20files/vertical%20antenna.pdf

I am using this blog entry as a place to capture some notes as I search for info.
I am thinking of ordering the 32' HD from KitesOnline. That will get me in the ball
park for 40m and the higher bands. I will need to work out some sort of base fixture
and radial system. N0FP is suggesting an elevated system.



I think that I will need to order some parts and then setup an experiment out in my
driveway to test and tune this idea. I will need to design some sort of
simple feed point balun, step-up transformer, and simple match with a coil (for 40m)
and variable cap.



Additional notes: The dk9sq mast uses carbon fiber which absorbs RF.

PS: Reformatted and reposted on 3/30/2008. The original eBay link was messing
up the formatting of the rest of this page.