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N5VLZ  > ALL      20.08.24 23:00l 293 Lines 9660 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10318_NS2B
Read: GUEST
Subj: PCL NET SCRIBE AUG 19 2024
Path: IW8PGT<HB9CSR<IK6IHL<IZ3LSV<DB0ERF<DK0WUE<DK0WUE<VK5RSV<K1AJD<KA1VSC<
      K7EK<NS2B
Sent: 240820/2116Z 10318@NS2B.#WNY.NY.USA.NOAM BPQ6.0.24

PCL NET SCRIBE AUG 19 2024

N5VLZ, Daryl, Arkansas (Net Control/Scribe)
NS2B, Bob, New York (Sysop)
KX4AC, Carl, Florida
KF5TVG, Bob, Oklahoma
NT5R, Charley, Missouri
K0WAV, Scott, Arkansas

**

N5VLZ:

Our next net holiday is 2 weeks from tonight,
Monday, September 2, for Labor Day...the PCL 
Net will be off that night. I will send out a
message after next week's net as a reminder.
It's hard to believe that autumn will soon be 
here, with college football season...better 
start your Christmas shopping soon (hi hi).

The rest of my comments in future nets will 
be posted in the scribe to save time, and to 
make it easier on the eyes of all on the net;
plus it'll get folks to read the messages 
(hi hi).

**

Speaking of weather, severe thunderstorms
blasted through much of Arkansas from Sunday 
afternoon into the overnight hours, with many
warnings for large hail, damaging winds, and 
flash flooding...at least tornadoes weren't 
expected. Highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s 
are forecast until late in the week, which will 
be a welcome change from the heat advisories 
and excessive heat warnings of late. We're just 
past our hottest part of the year...the cooler 
weather can't get here soon enough for me.

I was discharged from Home Health today...I've
lost 16 pounds since late April, being on a 
bland diet the last 2 months of peanut butter 
and sugar free jelly sandwiches with wheat bread, 
a powdered drink mix, and then an occasional 
microwave buttered popcorn bag as a snack. I 
doubt I'm getting 750 calories a day, but this 
month had over $800 in expenses for the house 
insurance, yard work, the Post Office Box, and 
medical expenses. That doesn't include food, 
utilities, and high speed internet. So I have 
been really gnawing the fence, as it were. I 
need a shave, haircut, and shampoo, badly; as 
I'm starting to look like Santa with my white 
beard and moustache (hi hi). But, it like so 
many other things, has to wait until next month.
I'm glad I'm not in the market for travel, or a
new ham radio rig.

I see the orthopedic doctor Thursday...the left
hip flexor tendonitis inflammation is better,
but when Lyft sends a high ground clearance
pickup truck, trying to get in and out of it
aggravates it all over again. I've got to set
up a new sleep study next month, as I have
severe versions of the 2 kinds of sleep apnea,
but I can't afford transportation to them this
month. One does NOT sleep good at a sleep study.

I'm hoping to get with the woman who took such
good care of my late brother after he suffered 
that freak motorcycle wreck 17 years ago, that
nearly killed him back then...she has taken
over his property and expenses (I got stuck
with paying his property tax the last 2 years).
I don't know if I'll get any money from his
assets, as there was no will...but she paid for
the death certificates, and will pay for the
probate court attorney. At least there are no
other family members or kids to haggle with.
She will take me to the Post Office and the
bank on Wednesday, then we'll get a bite to
eat. Even if I get some money, I'd like for
it to be large...as I likely will not travel, 
but instead have it used here...including my
getting the big tree in the front yard taken
out, and getting a Generac Generator. The
prices they quote don't include installation,
and while I rarely lose power, if I can get a
generator, I won't have to worry about food
going bad. If the internet is out, I can't
do nets or other things, but with having a
generator, I could still do computer work.
However, I learned the hard way to "not
count the chickens before they're hatched".
So, I'm not optimistic on getting any funds.

I've been working on the switching of my BBS
software back to its "roots", with a new
owner for it. I wish I had kept all of the
bulletins, etc., but I had to set everything
up again, and test it. I originally ran it
under dial-up years ago, but it's just telnet
only now. I met my late XYL on a BBS that was 
run by the local college 40 years ago, and we 
were "Married With Modem Sysops". In the many
doorgames, like so many sports fans (and like 
my late father), she was a great winner, but 
she sure was a sore loser (hi hi). I'm in the 
final stages of setup, and will be glad when 
it's running again. However, it's hard to sit
at the computer for very long periods of time 
anymore...for ham radio nets or otherwise.

**

NS2B:

GE All!

The only thing wrong with cut and paste is I 
have to speed read! And my eyes don't work 
that fast sometimes!

An uneventful week - the most excitement I had 
was a trip to the dentist this morning for a 
cleaning.  Sad when that's the highlight of your 
week!

Was rummaging through my antenna "corner", and
realized I had a 40m dipole stashed over there. 
Forgot I had that! That was the "find" of the
week!

Carl, the biggest surprise I had with Amprnet was 
when getting AXIP to work, I had to run all the 
BPQ apps as administrator (I run Windows BPQ) - 
didn't need to do that when I was doing was using 
UDP 10093 - but with straight AXIP, it needed 
access to raw sockets, so needed NS2B root/admin 
access.

**

KX4AC: 

GE All.  

Yes, we had a nice club meeting last week ... 
very interesting.

The first presentation was experiments with 
trying to make an antenna out of a pool noodle 
with wire coiled around it. Mostly the conclusion
was that it did not work very well. Not sure why, 
but the resonance was awful according to the VNA 
plots.  

Next presentation was on making a dummy load without 
a resistor. That one actually works quite well.
Basically, you take a bunch of wire with a very lossy
plastic coating, apparently PVC works well, braid it 
up, and stuff it in a water bottle and fill it with 
water.

The difference in dielectric between the water and PVC 
makes a great dummy load!  Who'd a thunk it?

In the meantime, the weather was nice enough last 
weekend that I got out for my morning walk, and even 
remembered to take my HT.  I definitely hit the 
repeater, but no calls ... I guess I was too early 
on Sunday morning.

I also worked on, and finished up, a retro-computer kit 
build over the weekend. 

Finally, I spent some time working on my amprnet link ... 
got everything working well enough to use it to log into 
the net tonight. I have a VPN link to my packet station,
and am still working out the kinks in the firewalls for 
passing packets through, but that is *almost* working. 
Just a bit more messing around. AXIP is next, but I can 
see that will have a higher learning curve.

Thanks for the advice, Bob, I will keep it in mind. At 
the moment I am not quite sure I really understand what's 
going on under the hood with AXIP, but packet traces are 
helping.

**

KF5TVG:

GE Daryl and all on the net!

Bob(NY) beat met to the punch on speed reading comment 
re Daryl's post!

Not much on the radio front... just started learning 
about mqtt, which is a "publish/consume" protocol that 
can also be used to connect multiple meshtastic networks 
together.

George, on HamRadioWorkBench podcast talked about meshtastic 
recently, and just today, I heard about a new "radio" for 
meshtastic called Heltec T114. It has a low power cpu/radio 
and optional color display, and optional GPS. It's in the 
$40-50 range, with delivery via Amazon in late September.

I'm pretty sure the Joplin hamfest is next weekend. I used 
to go to it when I lived in the Tulsa area, but a bit too 
far now.

Thanks to you and Bob for the weekly net! 

**

NT5R: 

Joplin hamfest Aug 23-24

Carl understand re walking with ht and no one coming back
Often walk/hike with ht and throw out call sign with 
Foot Mobile added. Sometimes get response, fun to try.

Last week, lost connection for a bit, and figured out how 
to play back net scribe. Worked well, and later say Daryl 
had scribe posted.

Scott, OK Bob, maybe see you at Joplin? Will wear pink 
Panama cap, easier to spot me

**

K0WAV: 

Hello all.  Thanks for waiting yeah had a quick little 
issue to solve.

Charley, I plan on being at Joplin on Saturday.  

Queen Wilhemena (Mena Ar) is Sept. 6 and 7.

It has been an interesting week... well month. Lets 
just say if it could break down it has... Have spent 
the last week without A/C while parts to repair the 
stupid "Smart A/C" (yeah irony is rich) lost its mind 
and stopped working.

I will never recommend a "communicating HVAC" system 
to anyone, not even an enemy deserves this kind of 
torment.

**

Replies from N5VLZ:

Bob (NY), going to the dentist or any doctor isn't
fun, but it's part of one's health. FB on finding
the 40m dipole antenna, and on amprnet and AXIP.

Carl, glad the meeting went well. FB on the weather,
the morning walk, and the retro computer.

Bob (OK), I've noted MQTT with the Synchronet BBS
software, but that's all I know about it. If you
decide to go to the Joplin Hamfest, enjoy it. The
Mena Hamfest is Sep. 6-7...but my hamfest days are
over, since Little Rock quit doing one 8 years ago.

Charley, I'm going to delay my comments to the
scribe, so folks don't have to speed read. My
apologies to the net for not thinking of that
sooner...enjoy the Joplin Hamfest this weekend.

Scott, the Mena hamfest is the last big hamfest
in Arkansas until spring...as noted, Little Rock
did their last one 8 years ago. Bummer on the
"smart thermostat" losing its mind. So far, mine
is working just fine, but when I have the wi-fi
off (as I did with storms the other night, I have
to set it manually...but I shut it off during
storms, so power fluctuations won't damage the
compressor.

**


Daryl, N5VLZ, Little Rock, Arkansas
Please see my QRZ bio for more info.


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