Here is a nice
map that shows the Skywarn repeater frequencies for central Minnesota. I
have often wondered what the other frequencies are for Skywarn when I am outside of
the metro area. Thanks to Lee,
WB0TRA for this link.
More Info:
Wright County Skywarn is conducted on the 147.000 Maple Plain machine, with 146.400
simplex as a backup.
This is the second time in less than 24 hours that I have gotten stuck in an airport.
I am trying to leave Atlanta and head back home to Minneapolis. It appears that I
will be delayed at least an hour... maybe more.
I am surprised that the Atlanta airport does not offer Wifi service. I stumbled across
a weak signal and as it turns out it is an open access point. The signal is weak...
but enough that I can catch up on email and update my blog while I wait.
I also was lucky enough to find a seat next to a power outlet so that I can charge
my laptop.
Since I am stuck at the airport waiting to leave Mpls for Atlanta I am taking the
opportunity to get caught up reading my RSS feeds. I am only 2856 behind.
Three times this week I have been able to catch Gmail when it is down. So far I have
gotten three different kinds of error messages back from Gmail.
I realize that they still label it as a BETA. But it seems like they have an awful
large amount of people in GMAIL to really be having "BETA type issues."
The worst part about this is that issues have been during daytime or early evening
hours vs. some sort of "maintenance window" in the middle of the night.
So far my Gmail experiment has been interesting. The Gmail spam filter is pretty decent
but not great. I think that Spambully was slightly more effective in handling spam.
The one thing that I do like about Gmail is that I have been more consistent
about reading, replying, and deleting my email on a regular basis. I typically get
about 100 or so emails a day at work + about 250 or so emails at home
if you include my spam at home.
So far so good I am going to let the experiment run a while longer. My pain has been
minimal and my email is actually current which is better than it was 10 days ago.
:-)
I am using this as an opportunity to un-subscribe from a LOT of listserv emails that
I really have no interest in reading anymore. (This is something that I should done
a long time ago!)
I have not been blogging much lately.
I am incredibly busy at work which is cutting into my family time and recreational
time. My little of time is spent playing with my kids, working on getting our house
ready to sell, and looking at new homes out in the country.
I have not spent more than 10 minutes reading other people's blogs in the last
30 days. My intentions are good...but my time is limited!
I finally got around to getting my Gmail account
setup. (Thanks to Kim B at work.)
It is not a nice as using Outlook and Spambully for
my email but it does allow easy access to my email when I am away from my home PC.
I like the big mailbox (1GB) and the built in Spam Filters. I am still getting used
to the thread based format of the tool.
I decided to give it the real test and commit to using it entirely for a couple of
weeks. I updated my mail profile on my mail server so that all of my mail is getting
forwarded to my Gmail account. I want to see how effective the Spam filters are. I
am also using the Gmail
Notifier which gives you a pop-up notification when new mail arrives.
I have been using my old
email address for a long time now so the spam is pretty brutal. Hopefully using
my Gmail account for a while
will help eliminate Spam on my old account.
Stay tuned!
We decided to get out of town and celebrate our wedding anniversary a month early.
(I got a corporate employee discount at one of the hotels in Duluth.) On our way to
Duluth I asked my wife if she would like to stop to see the Blacklock
Gallery in Moose
Lake.
I have been a fan of the Blacklock family of photographers for quite a long time.
Over the years I have stopped in Craig's gallery a couple of times. As a photographer
living in Minnesota it is fun to see the work of other local artists like Craig
Blacklock and Jim Brandenburg. (We visited Jim's gallery in Ely, MN a couple
of months ago.)
My short list (not in any particular order) of favorite photographers are:
As it turns out it was a great time for us to stop into the Gallery. Craig was there
and spent some time to talk with us about his current projects. It was a lot of fun
to "talk shop" with someone that I have looked up to for a number of years. (I have
a couple of his books and calendars.)
I am not going to share the details of the conversation other than to say it that
has gotten me motived. It is fun to be able to share your hobby (or profession)
with someone that you can related to you. I often wish that I had more friends
that I could share my interest in photography with.... so this made for a pleasant
afternoon.
Good luck to Craig and his family with their various projects and endeavors in 2005.
90 minutes
Saturday evening
90
minutes Sunday morning
I
got on for a little while Saturday evening and Sunday morning. I think that I will
probably start playing with RTTY a bit more as I had a lot of fun in this contest
once I got up and running. This was my first attempt at SO2R which I really enjoyed.
It was fun to be able to S&P on two radios. (I did not feel loud enough to run
so I stuck to S&P.) At 100w on both rigs with a low/small tribander and
wire verticals for 15/40 & 80 it took a little patience to work people. I look
forward to working this contest from the next QTH with a good antenna and maybe a
bit more power.
Highlights:
Working Antarctica on 20m after sunset @ 100w & then working
Sunday morning on 15m with a wire vertical @ 100w. (
is a new one for me.)
QSO:
14109 RY 2005-01-08 2333 NG0R
599 MN EM1HO
599 027
QSO:
21080 RY 2005-01-09 1533 NG0R
599 MN F2JD
599 216
I spent
the rest of the weekend working on getting the house ready for the sale this spring,
grocery shopping with the family, and watching the Vikes
actually win a BIG game!!!!!
Score courtesy of http://www.superbowl.com
