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Bill Zimmerly Blog |
With the bad news of high oil prices, mortgage crisis, shrinking stock market, election year blues, etc. there has GOT TO BE some good news "out there". Well, we all have our escape from the bad (at least I hope we ALL do) be it family picnic, a good book, walks in the park, etc. My favorite "escape" from the gloom and doom is found in my hobbies, one of which is Amateur Radio. The last weekend in June every year is the standard yearly exercise known as "Field Day". Ever since I became a "HAM" in 1986, Field Day has always been one of my favorite "holidays". What we do is to set up our radio transceivers, antennas, and portable power supplies in various parks and recreation areas around the country and for 24 hours - from noon Saturday until noon Sunday - we make "contacts". I really don't care so much for the competitive aspects of Field Day, I just enjoy the change of scenery, the fellowship with other HAMS, and the general "fun" that we have in the midst of a very serious exercise in emergency communications that Field Day is. I am a night person, so I will do be doing my "shift" on the radios between the hours of 10:30 PM Saturday night until about 8:00 AM Sunday morning. Good luck to all HAMS during this year's Field Day - may the weather and the band conditions be good wherever you are!
I hope everyone is having a very happy new year. I have a lot of goals for the new year and (Lord willing) I hope to achieve them. All are modest and currently within reach.
These have been the happiest days of my life: November 1st, 1982 - My son, Michael William Zimmerly was born.And just two days ago (12/9) I found out that my daughter was pregnant!!! PTL!
The new computer that I described in the previous note was the OQO Model 2 and over the past several months it has proven to be one of the most useful computers I've ever owned. It reminds me of the old HP-200LX that I purchased about two decades ago, only far more powerful. (I only wish it could "boot up" as quickly.)  There is a great community called OQO Talk that discusses the issues around using the OQO and offers a lot of helpful information for users of this amazing little machine.
I'm writing this blog entry from a complimentary guest PC at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Dayton, Ohio. It's located just across the street from the Dayton Mall. I'm here for the three day adventure known as the Dayton Hamvention, and am enjoying every moment of it. So far, I've purchased everything I came to Dayton for, including a second Icom 706MIIG with antenna tuner. I also found out that my latest computer arrived at home the day after (Friday) I left for Dayton. I very rarely post blog entries, so my blog doesn't make for everyday reading, but I occasionally like to record an event or two and describe the technological toys that I like to use.
My mother and sister moved in on October 7th, my brother, his wife, and daughter moved in on October 14th, and finally, I moved in on October 22nd. Here is my mother standing by the finished home... 
My mother, sister, and I are in the process of having a new home built in Hillsboro. Next door to us will be my brother and his wife and daughter. We're all very excited about this and here is a picture of my mother showing off the lot where our home will be built in the coming weeks... 
I just came back from three days of Geek Heaven, the Dayton Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio, where 25,000+ Amateur Radio Operators from all over the world gather together to socialize, buy, sell, and learn about the latest-and-greatest in our ever-expanding hobby. Ham radio is the best hobby in the world! Where else in the world can you have the opportunity to meet a space shuttle astronaut in one room and then walk into the next room and meet a Nobel prize winning physicist? (Both of whom I actually did meet at the Hamvention -- this is not hyperbole!)  While there, I purchased an Icom 706 MKIIG transceiver (above) along with a Tar-Heel HF Antenna for my van. On my way home to St. Louis, Missouri, the 20 meter band was open and I made several contacts during the commute with Hams in Alabama, New York, Oklahoma City, and Virginia. There's nothing quite like the thrill of talking to someone hundreds or thousands of miles away on HF radio! The radio is also a superb General Coverage Receiver and it's a simple matter to tune in the rest of the world, VOA, BBC, Radio Cuba, etc. and listen or just tune in to your local stations as well. A good radio is quite a treasure!
As I mentioned earlier, I'm a gadget fanatic, and here is another of my favorite gadgets, the Garmin GPS V...  A powerful tool for personal navigation, I can highly recommend this device for anyone who always wants to know where you're at and what's nearby. When you just know an address or street intersection, this amazing device can calculate how to get there and then navigate you there in real time. Just today, for example, I was in my daughter's car and we were trying to make our way to two diverse destinations, one in Jefferson County and another in Valley Park. All I knew for the first one was that it was the "Jefferson County Courthouse" and the second one was the address. In both cases, the Garmin GPS V guided us turn-by-turn to where we needed to be. Amazing, simply amazing! I also used it to write software for the robot that Warren and I entered in the Darpa Grand Challenge. It has a serial port and outputs position via the NMEA standard for interfacing a GPS to a computer.
Many makers of blogging software are attempting to team up on the design of a new set of standards for blogs called Project Atom, among them being the heavy hitter Google, makers of the very popular Blogger software. As a developer interested in furthering the state-of-the-art myself, I have joined this diverse group with hopes of making my ZKB-based systems compatable with the new standard to emerge. This is collaboration on a grand scale and it should be fun to be a part of it. < Previous -- 27 Posted Messages -- Next> |
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