Transverter Control Boxes

I built a couple of boxes with RJ45 to RCA break-outs. I will use these boxes to extend
the PTT/Keylines for my transverters from my shack where the IF radios are located
to my utility room where the transverters and coax runs to tower are located.

As I finish my basement I am putting a lot of CAT5 in the walls. CAT5 seemed like
a clean way to extend the RCA based PTT/Keylines since it is already in most of the
walls. I figure that each box costs about $5 with the parts that are involved.

Xtratyme Down Again

So tonight I am trying to download a small Debian Boot ISO. My rural wireless ISP
(Xtratyme) disappears in the middle of the download. I am so stuck.... Xtratyme is
the only semi-broad band option out here because Embarq will not deliver the T1's
to our local switch to enable DSL. (The switch does not get any closer to me short
of being in my yard.)

Xtratyme has a bunch of nice people there... but I need a higher level of performance
than they can provide and I expect a higher level of transparent support when the
network is down.

Generally speaking when I find that their network is down and call the support line:

• 
  The recorded message say that there are no outages.
  


• 
  Then no one will return my call


• 
  Then when I call back 30 minutes later the recorded message has been updated with
  a BS message... regardless of the outage being 10 minutes in duration or half a day.


• 
  Then they rarely return my original support call nor acknowledge that there was an
  issue.


• 
  If they do acknowledge your call they make you feel like an idiot for complaining
  that their network is down.

What a crappy deal... no competition between the
vendors... and the level of service and performance shows that lack of competition.

Maybe I am spoiled by working most of my professional career in Fortune 200 firms.
My internal clients expect a lot from us (rightfully so) and I expect a lot from the
people & partners that I work with.

My rural example show a complete & total break
down in the competition that the free market should provide in a de-regulated environment.

FYI... 40 minutes after my initial call to the support they finally call back... and
they are COMPLETELY clueless that they had an outage nor has the support person
even listened to my support voice-mail.  ARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Parts Run

Jacob and I drive into Minneapolis today. I needed some misc RCA, 1/8", and 1/4" parts.
I am in the process of building some PTT/keyline interfaces for the radios and transverters.
I am trying to get the shack setup for the January 2008 VHF contest and I am
quickly running out of time.

While I was at the store (Acme Electronics) I found some surplus pliers, needlenose,
and linesman pliers for $.50 each. The tools might be cheap but there is
always a need around our our house for spare tools. (My wife and kids sometimes
struggle to return my tools back to the proper spot in the Tool boxes or tool bags.)

Sprat Issue 133

The winter 2007/8 edition of Sprat arrived
in the mail earlier this week. I finally got a chance to remove the plastic wrapping
on the overseas mail. Another very fine issue. I love the homebrew tube (valve) on
the front cover.




I wish that there were more gems like this little magazine floating around.

In todays world is just to expensive and time consuming to crank out a newsletter
on paper let alone a magazine. There is something neat about this arriving in the
mail. There is something neat about being able to take it with you when you are out
and about might have a couple of minutes to spare.

As much as I am a e-tech geek I still like getting the paper in the mail!

Sprat is the Journal of the
G-QRP Club

Fedora 8 - Finally

I did finally get Fedora to successfully download last weekend. The second attempt was the charm. It took about 20 hours... but it made it.

Fedora 8 download - failed again

Simply put: This sucks!

Fedora 8 Download Issues

I have been trying to download the Fedora
8 DVD iso image for almost a week. The first couple of times I was downloading
directly from the Fedora
project website. The download would get to 2.4g and then fail. It is supposed
to about 3.18g. I have a moderately slow Internet connection (512/256) so this takes
almost a day every time that it fails.

So then I decided that I was going to try to download it at work across the big pipes.
(Since I am working on a Linux project at work this seemed like an OK use
of company bandwidth.) I am typically only in the office one day a week. I was pretty
busy on Tuesday and forget to start this until about 4pm. The first couple of mirrors that
I tried were only give me +/- 1mb of connectivity so this was still a multi hour event.
I did not have that much time left in my day so I canceled the download.



I am now trying this again from home on my day off. (Burning up PTO time over the
holidays.) I am going to try this via FTP from the U
of MN mirror since it is my closest site.

So in another 16-20 hours from now maybe we will see if the download works.

My intent is to work through the process of creating a scripted/automated install
process for a Red Hat based install
and a Debian based install of Linux.
I have built several of these for Windows Server based platform in the past. We have
a project at work with Linux we are going to explore doing the same thing. I will
not be doing the hands on for this project, but I will still have an engineering/architecture
overview to this.




-Frankly I would like to know the know the nuts & bolts of the scripted process
so I am going to work on this at home.  :-)

Wrestling Practice

Tonight was wrestling practice #2 for Ben. (White & Blue)

Fall House Cleaning

Over the weekend I hauled off four older PCs and three 17" monitors.

I have been reducing the amount of computers in our home. With the newer computers
in the 1.5ghz and faster range it you just don't need too many machines anymore. A
couple of laptops does most of what we need + a file server + a VM host server. The
dual core machines really make an impact.

I suspect that we will getting rid of a couple more machines in the
next six months or so.

Doorknob Capacitors

My first batch of doorknob caps arrived today from the Ukraine.  I will using
them for various antenna tuning projects. This particular batch are 100pF. I have
several more batches coming from the Ukraine and China. I won several eBay auctions. 
By the time that I am done the collection will average about $1-$2 each in values
from ~30pF to 500pF.