A view of the home office. There are a few computers and servers, all
doing their thing. All machines run Kubuntu Linux except for the Macbook I use for
work.
This computer and two others in the house have virtual machines that do protein folding simulations for
Standford University's Folding@Home distributed computing project.
The project studies how proteins misfold and how that leads to diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer.
Besides radio, computers, and electronics, I also study biology, specifically how genetics and epigenetics
are implicated in various forms of cancer. In the US, 1 of every 2 men and 1 of every 3 women will get cancer
at some point in their lives. That alone should encourage us all to live a healthy lifestyle and and get a
checkup annually.
At left is part of my G5RV Jr. antenna which I use on 10 - 40m. Although it's
not very high up, the performance is excellent. I have it hanging
between two trees and used a slingshot and rope to get it up there.
My method was to use a large nut (for a weight) tied to a strong string. Large fishing
weights work just as well. It took a lot of
tries but I finally got it over a branch. I then had to climb up a ladder with my skyrake
to grab the nut hanging out of reach. I tied the string to a strong rope and pulled
it all the way until I could cut off the string and I had a rope hanging over the branch
about 20 feet up. I repeated the process on the other end of the antenna, attached the
wires to the ropes, and started pulling the ropes. Next thing you know, it's up in the clear. I weighted each end down with a gallon of water. This allows for the
rope to have some give and move up or down slightly, say in a storm. That gives it strength and flexibility.
I like to use clothesline rope from Ace Hardware. It's strong, smooth (for going over
branches) and stands up under harsh weather.
There were some times I got a rope stuck in a
tree or needed to grab the weight on the rope with something longer than I can reach so I
duct-taped this rake to the end of a 10' section of conduit. On a ladder, I was able to
clear most snags. When larger branches got in the way, I cut them down with a saw. I call this
contraption the "skyrake" (pictured below with my dog Rocky).
Below is my small antenna farm on the roof. To the left is a dual-band
Comet GP-6 for 2m/70cm. It's 10 ft. long but very lightweight, sitting atop a 10 ft. mast.
It has 6.6 dBi gain on VHF and 9 dBi on UHF. To the far right is a Comet
KP-20 for 33cm, 8 ft. long, a 12-element colinear, 9.2 dBi gain. It sits atop a 20 ft. mast. The j-pole
in the middle is for my APRS gateway that I'm turning into a packet station. Is anyone
still using packet for anything besides APRS? I'm about to find out. There's a MESH
group here so I'm looking at that as my next investment. I can get a tranceiver for only
$100 and cannibalize the satellite dish I don't use for 5 GHz work.
A close-up of the radios. Icom IC-706 MKIIG for HF,
Icom IC-207 for V/UHF, two Mototola XPR 4350s for V/UHF analog
and DMR, and a Motorola XPR 4380 for 33cm.
There are a few 900 MHz repeaters in town but almost no one on them.
I've made it
a personal crusade to get more people on 900. It's a fun band! It's
very much like 70cm in terms of propagation. You won't find ham gear for 900 except for
some old Icoms and Alincos but good luck finding them. Most of us use commercial radios
made by Motorola and Kenwood. Some of them, like the old Spectras, require hardware mods
in addition to software hacking. Thankfully, no hacking is required with the right versions
of the MTX-4350 2m/70cm radios, the Mototrbo CPS is happy to take amateur frequencies. The
900 MHz verion, the XPR 4380, requires in-memory hex-editing (aka "bit-banging") to set
amateur frequencies.
I knew there were some HTs around here somewhere. Two Icom T7H
dual band units (because they're the best and aren't made anymore) and a Motorola MTX 9250
for 900 MHz. These radios are durable, can really take a beating. I miss my Kenwood
D-72A with all its bells and whistles but the case on it breaks too easily so I sold it.
