"No dairy? But I LOVE dairy! Does that mean I can't be a vegan?"

Freddy the Ferret said that in Barnyard.

Today I'm going in to see the Ogre.

At first, my thought for the title of today's post was going to be something from Alice in Wonderland, referencing to the shrinking potions. (See the next post for my analysis and results of this search.)

Since I don't partake of alcohol, I was going to put something together along the lines

Bottle Label: Drink to shrink
Me: I don't drink.  Does that mean I can't be shrunk?

Of course, being a fan of animated movies, especially Barnyard, naturally I thought about Freddy the Ferret.

It's been really hot for the last week and it looks like it's going to continue, but not as bad as originally forecast.

I don't do well in the heat unless there is a good breeze/wind blowing to keep the sweat from accumulating as pools and swamps in my body's crevices.

Right now, I'm still wondering if I can actually find a towel that can dry my butt crack out enough for it to actually be dry.

Strange enough about that image, is where I live, it's either a nice spring/fall weather, or it's raining/overcast.

You'd think I'd have the same quest all year round, but alas.

When it's damp & cold, I don't sweat much and thus, my nooks and crannies stay dry.

Well, I really need to get shoes, socks, shirt on to go into the shrink's office.

I think he'll be a bit disappointed/pissed that I stopped the Seroquel without telling him.

Let the gifting commence!

In the HAM radio community, we usually help each other out with equipment and parts.

This ranges from teaching someone how to build/do things, where to buy the best equipment/parts, suggestions for equipment and often we trade or give equipment to each other.

A few months ago, I asked around to see if anyone had a SSB (Single Side Band) CB radio I could buy so that I could modify it to work in the 10 Meter band.

Another HAM had two, and gave them to me so that I could work on the conversion.

One of them was a Realistic TR-47, which I found the modification instructions for.

There are just a few problems I ran into trying to complete this modification:

• I needed a microphone for this CB.

• No problem here, Amazon had them for about $10.

• The 7 crystals needed to be replaced. 

• This wasn't so easy.
• Trying to find these crystals turned out to be very difficult as many of the specific frequencies are rare these days, and the pricing for them started getting outrageous.

Well, the other day, after cleaning up my office/shack, I contacted this other HAM and told him that I couldn't get the work done easily and if he wanted the radios back.

He said he'd take them back, but he really didn't want them either.  Then he suggested that I hold onto them and take them to the next club meeting and see if anyone wanted them.

I didn't want them in the house anymore, as I didn't have a lot of space with them sitting there and not working for me.

Well, since I was going to drop them off at his house, he told me he had an HF antenna tuner that wasn't working 100%, and asked if I wanted to have it.

I told him he made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

These tuners are actually pretty simple circuits, as the primary parts of it are a tapped inductor with a switch and a couple of variable capacitors.

What he said wasn't working was the SWR meter and tuning status indicator

While sitting at his place for a bit, he showed me the inside and the board that wasn't working was pretty simple and straight forward.

Today I'm at the corporate office so I printed out the schematic and the manual.

Looking at it, there really isn't much at all to the circuit and I'll have a pretty easy time going through the parts to determine what's working and what's not.

I'll probably desolder the entire board, and test the printed circuit board, and then all the parts.

It's best to do it this way, so that I can accurately test each part with out the possible influence of the other components on the circuit.

The problem I have with testing out this tuner is that I don't have an HF radio with enough power to really test this out correctly.

When I finally get my new QRP, CW radio in, it's 5 watts should be enough for me to test out the tuner.

In the mean time, I'll get it to another HAM and have him play with it to confirm what's not working.

Although, it might just be better to work on it first, then let him test it out if my new radio hasn't arrived by the time I'm done putting it all together.

I don't really think of the exchange and receiving of HAM radio gear as gifts, but it sure as hell is nice to not pay for stuff!

Yes sir, I'll have water, served in a porcelain bowl and I'll top it myself.

Blah!

Blah!

No, I'm not auditioning for Dracula, I'm (or was) puking my guts out.

I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, etc.

It wasn't influenced by those stereotypical items.

I wasn't sick...

My left sinus passage got clogged up really badly and the pressure and amount of post nasal drippage made me really nauseated and I blew some serious chunks.

Today, I still feel a bit queasy, and for the most part it was an OK day.

I called in to work and took the day off.

I felt better after a bit and worked in my office to finish up much of the cleaning and organizing that I needed

While cleaning/organizing, I found the parts I bought for my Morse code practice oscillator to my Baofeng hand held radio interface.

One thing that I found out was the headphone jacks I bought are the really cool ones that are also switches.

Meaning, that like your cell phone, computer speakers, etc. When you plug your headphones in the music stops playing through the speaker and goes to headphones.

This will allow me to use a small speaker as both the speaker for the oscillator and the radio.  Not just that is that when headphones are plugged in the speaker goes dead.

I even worked out the switches and wiring for broadcasting over the air.

Just push and hold a momentary on switch to code, then let go when you're through.

I didn't want a permanent on/off switch. Too easy to get distracted and leave it keyed up.

I'll draw up the diagram and post it when I'm done. 

Or have a friend start up his own blog with that info.

We've been working on this stuff over the internet for a while.

It'll be fun, as there seems to be a pretty good interest in using CW over 2 meter and many of the guys who want to do this have Baofeng HT's or another type of HT that the wiring of this box adapted for.

Well, it's now Tuesday and I had to re-edit this post as I did it from my phone last night, and it needs some formatting changes and a few spelling/grammar corrections.

I slept a bit and now I feel a bit better

I was laying down out here on the swing listening to a radio show.

Eventually I fell asleep.

It looks like I slept about an hour.

I don't feel as bored or lonely anymore.

What I feel like is a drive/road trip.

Some sort of adventure.

Nothing expensive to do, just something to do.

I'm also feeling like I could sit in the office and mess with the ham radios now.

I wonder WTF my new radio is and other stuff I ordered...

I'm so bored I'm lonely

I hate this shit.

I'm not feeling too well.

There's allergy snot dripping down the back of my throat.

It caused me to choke enough to heave in the toilet.

Ellie has decided that rearranging our room wasn't fucking good enough, so she's painting it too.

Right now I don't have any sort of quiet place to be.

Except outside  the fucking garden swing with all the damn pollen in the fucking air.

A little while ago, when everyone was gone, I went and slept in Little Miss's bed.

Long tail cart slept with me.  Rally close to me.  She normally doesn't sleep that close to anyone.

I suppose I do feel a bit depressed, but I don't know what to do about it.

At this time I don't want to do a fucking thing except lay down someplace quiet with clean air.

Fucking paint smells awful and it's screwing with my sinuses.

I want to be away from here.

I think I'm going to try and be at the office tomorrow... I hate working there, but it is kinder on my sinuses.

Well I'm going to just last here and maybe I'll get sick and...

Fuck.

I don't know.