Radio Free St. Vincent

Well no, not exactly a major radio station, more of an event.  The folks at the Panama City Amateur Radio Club boated across Indian Pass this morning to set up and make contacts from the western tip of St. Vincent Island as part of the US Islands and the Parks on the Air programs.  And I would never have known, except that they were coordinating among themselves using the Port St. Joe 2 meter repeater, there happened to be a tropo-duct along the northern Gulf, and I happened to be scanning around from my shack here in MS.  That was all pure luck.

Anyway, within a couple of minutes of hearing about the event I'd bagged a good clear contact on 40 meters using my backyard NVIS antenna.  It was nice to finally talk to somebody in my neck of the woods on HF, and to do it so easily.  This stuff really works!

Funny thing, the picture on my QSL card was taken only about a mile from where they were operating.  Small world.

In the event you're reading this in the distant future, here's a permalink to the St. Vincent activation post.

Future to the Back

Why does "some indefinite time in the future":

Look awfully like 1993?

Shoulda been flying these things as a Shuttle replacement a decade ago.  Anyway, here's the article:
Lockheed Martin Unveils Sleek, Reusable  Lander for Crewed Mars Missions
Meh, better late than never I suppose.

Upcoming Movie: Annihilation

Read the book a couple of years ago, reviewed it here.  Anyway, it's going to be released in February and the teaser trailer it out.  Watch it here.

Frankly, it looks better than the book, but that's only a medium-high bar to begin with.  But we shall see.

More Mustang Madness (not me this time)

A '65 Mustang, 1400 HP twin-turbo engine, Pike's Peak, and one smoking set of tires: video here.

Now There's a Ringing Endorsement

Bill Gates switches to Android phone  Story over at the BBC.

Learning By Doing

Went camping with the ham club at the Big Biloxi campground in the Desoto National Forest this weekend.  While fun and entertaining, it was also a learning experience:

Learning by Success
The Jurassic Duck Mk II VHF backpack whip antenna was a rousing success, reaching the W5SGL repeater 20 miles away in Biloxi with a useable signal.  With the Tuxachanie and Bethel Bicycle trails much closer to the repeater, this antenna should reliably give full coverage while hiking or camping at either.  Trail biking... probably not.
Other successes include the 21' mini W3EDP vertical antenna on 40m and up, and the linux laptop for PSK31.

Learning by Failure
We all know that no part of a tent's groundsheet should extend beyond the tent's actual footprint, right?  Of course, because if it does, water will run right off the tent, onto a plastic sheet, and then back up under the tent, soaking through the cloth floor.  But... how about extending the groundsheet into the vestibule?  Gives a little floor there, it's out of the weather, keeps dirt out of the main part of the tent, keeps gear off the damp ground, right?  Wrong.  A driving rain can get water onto the groundsheet, and from there you can surmise the rest.  Didn't have much water to mop up, but still, any water in the tent on a damp night is too much.
Another failure: why did my 42' W3EDP Jr. not tune up?  Could've been wet coax connectors, or bad coax, or who knows what.  Will have to experiment in the near future.  Damn, I was hoping to work some 60m & 80m last night too.

Learning by Close Call
The screen tent gives good protection from bugs, sunlight, and the occasional sprinkle of rain, but not much else.  To keep off dew or a real rain, I've been covering the gear on the table with a tarp.  And it works, but... it's only one layer of plastic between water and expensive radio gear.  That's just not good enough.  Before the next trip, I've got to pick up another small tarp to specifically double-protect the electronics.  What's more, I think I'll add a ziplock freezer bag to slip over each major item.  Belt, suspenders, and overalls.

Learning by Sweat
It's still a little early to go tent camping in coastal MS.  While the 68 degree night was perfectly fine, the 85 degree days were a little much with the shack tent catching the afternoon sun.  Maybe with better placement in the trees it'd be bearable, but that's about it.  Unfortunately all of the well-placed campsites were taken.

OK, I'll go back to shuffling around all of the drying nylon tent-like objects draped around my house now.  But first, a picture:

What's Mel Brooks been up to lately?

Mostly staying busy making live musicals of his earlier movies.  Article over a the BBC.

They probably call it "R'lyeh" in their language.

Underwater 'city' built by octopuses discovered! (with exclamation point!)

*sigh* First they're stealing crabs out of restaurant tanks, and the next thing they're taking definite steps toward civilization.  What will 2018 bring?  Maybe lobster-drawn chariots.

Local Honey

Picked up a quart of local honey at the farmers' market today:

Straight out of the lower Pearl River swamps, it has a spicy, cranky, irascible tast, reminiscent of a full-throated rye whisky.  As you might imagine, it's the kind of thing I go for.  A tablespoon over a handful of almonds, oh man.

ps: As you might expect, Carey Hudson has a song by the same name.  But I think it's about something else.

The Awkward, In-Between Season

It's warm enough that the bugs are having a field day, cool enough that it doesn't drive them underground, and wet... oh man, this has been a wet summer.  Bumper crop of flies.  It makes for unpleasant mountain biking at the Bethel Road trails.  So many crab spiders out that after a mile's ride I had accumulated enough webs to be mistaken for a Halloween decoration.  Packed it in only half-way through the usual ride.  When I'd left the trailhead at 9, there were about a half-dozen cars; by the time I packed at 10:30, mine was the only one left.  Seems I wasn't the only one who'd had enough of the fun.

Crab spider is disappointed the ride ended so soon.

Bleh.  October can't get here soon enough.

'Tis the Season

... of hurricanes and hurricane lilies. 

I am so ready for October.

Irma's Negative Surge

From over at The Times, 'Weird' waters: Irma drains bays 

Looks about three feet below a normal low tide, but this was roughly at high tide!

And now, a cave full of dangling snakes.

Continuing with our theme of animals in improbable places, here's this jewel from over at Atlas Obscura: Cave of the Hanging Snakes.  They're just harmless rat snakes, hanging out and snagging a bat-snack whenever one happens to pass by.  But still... it's like something out of one of those 80's ascii dungeon games.

That +2 +1 mace isn't going to do you much good now.  Better have a bag of +1 rocks.

Wasn't Me

Coyote travels 35km 'embedded' in car grill, over at the BBC.

Meanwhile, down at the ACME test track...

According to the story, the coyote was treated for minor injuries and released.  Roadrunner could not be reached for comment.

Gearing Up for Backpacking, Part 9: References

Here's a quick run-down of four books I've found useful.  Amazon links are provided, but if you have a friendly neighborhood bookstore, give them a shot at your business first.

Backpacking 101  This is a good, new (mid-2017!), and thorough introduction to the subject.  I can't say that the author's writing style exactly inspired me, but it's all there and not horribly out of date.

The Backpacker's Handbook, 4th Edition  A few years old (2011), and with way too much gear-specific advice.  A TON of detail in some places, and the author just glosses over some other important topics (like water treatment...).  It's a slog, but I did learn a lot about boot construction and some of the topic's mysterious terminology.  ("Shank"?  What the hell's a shank?  Only thing I knew the word to mean was a filed-down cafeteria spoon.  But I went to a rough college, lived in a rough dorm.)

Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backpackin' Book  Pretty much my favorite here, though having been published in 2001 it's now getting a little outdated on some of the gear.  Mike Clelland!'s (yes, he adds the "!" consistently) illustrations make it a lot of fun to read.

Ultralight Backpackin' Tips  Also by the same Mike Clelland!, it's an extended list of things you can do to shave weight.  You owe it to yourself to thumb through this one, if only to see what is possible.  Also, the author's illustrations are again a hoot.  I'm not going ultralight – got to have a full-wrap mosquito netting equipped tent and a filter around here.  What's more, some of the tips cross the line from "ultralight" more into something akin to "how to be mistaken for homeless."  Still, it helped me keep the gear weight in check and at least qualify as "lightweight."  All about just being aware of the possibilities, and imagining your way from there.

Bonus link: the post about water filtration with the CDC links from a couple of weeks ago.  Honestly, none of the above books had anything close to this amount of information.  You might take a chance on sipping from a mountain stream in the Rockies, but faced with a green pond in south Mississippi you don't cut corners.

OK, that's all about getting ready to go backpacking for a while now.  I've researched and over-thought this stuff into the ground, but then it's not like there's a backpacking club around here to show the ropes.  Just have to wait for a weekend with decent weather and hit it.  Give it a couple of weeks, October is right around the corner.  Yeah, I'm excited.

Gearing Up for Backpacking, Part 8: Lightweight Tent

Popped for a Eureka Spitfire 1 (manufacturer link; street price is about $20 lower), and it's pretty nice for a dinky little one man hiking tent.  The Apex 2XT I've had since 2001 is nice... but it weighs in at 6.44 pounds.  The Spitfire as it came weighed in at 3.30 pounds, but replacing the heavy stainless steel stakes with MSR Mini-Groundhog aluminum stakes dropped it down to an even 3.00 pounds.  That's a 3.44 pound net drop!

First a few pictures:

The inner tent, no fly.  Lotsa nice mesh.

With fly buttoned up, snug and weather-tight.

Side door, with fly door opened up.

Small vestibule, but it'll hold a pair of shoes or boots just fine.  Size 10 shown for reference.

And the vestibule on the non-door side will just hold a pack.  Might get a little damp from brushing the fly, so put a rain cover over it.  Still... pretty good!

The rain fly can easily be put on backward, so the nylon attachment straps are color-coded to help keep things straight – gold on one end, black on the other.  Nice touch!

On the whole this tent is a major win, but there are a couple of dings worth mentioning.  First off, the fly takes some adjusting to get it tight and smooth.  You can see in the third picture, the fly's kind of floppy over the flat ridge of the tent.  Will have to watch for pooling, dripping, etc. on that.  The other problem was the small zipper that allows the roof vent to be opened from inside, its teeth had jumped track when I first unboxed things.  A quick zip back and forth and it sealed back up fine, but I think I'll skip using it if I can.  Just open up the vent flap when setting up and leave it there.

The main thing to emphasize with this tent is how good it is for how little it costs.  While prices will vary, the bottom line is that it comes in between one half and one fifth(!) the cost of comparable backpacking tents.  I'm sure it's not the same quality as a Big Agnes... but if it holds up as well as my two other Eureka tents have, I can expect to get decades of good service out of it.

Back to last week's initial weigh-in that showed a 22.2 pound base weight, ditching the bear keg in favor of a hang bag and a length of 50 pound test spider wire, then swapping out the tent gets the base weight down to 16.4 pounds.  While not quite the "ultralight" ideal of sub-10 pounds, this is comfortably within the bounds of "lightweight."  Call it a success, and call it a day.

Still have to get a clear day to set up and apply seam sealer, and still have to cut out a polypro footprint.  Those can wait for a nice Saturday morning.

ps, Saturday 9/16: Set up tent to apply seam sealer and cut footprint.  The fly comes already nicely tape-sealed!  No further work needed on it, so that was easy.  I did seal the two pointy guy-out ends because they're not completely covered by the fly, but the rest was ready to go.  If I had it to do over, I wouldn't bother.  Trimmed out the "Do Not Use Fire In This Tent" warning tags and cut the polypro footprint to the exact shape needed.  Now just let it dry and it's ready.

Strong Passwords

This article over at Ladders popped up this morning: Scrap Everything You Know About Creating Strong Passwords and Do This Instead

Yep.  This occasion requires the obligatory xkcd comic, which was referenced in the article:

Beneath the Mountains of Madness

Scientists are closing in on warm caves under Antartica which could support secret life

What could possibly go wrong?  I mean, apart from the occasional shoggoth or giant penguin.

... and now, Jerry Pournelle, RIP

Another influential thinker checks out.  Article over at The Verge.  While primarily a science fiction writer, he was also known as an early blogger, the first person to write an entire novel on a computer, and a sharp commentator on social and economic trends (see: Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy).

Don Williams Checks Out

Even if you're scratching your head and asking "Don who?" right now, when you hear one of his songs you'll likely nod "oh yeah, he was good, gonna miss him."  Not much to add beyond the write-ups at Fox and the BBC.

He played in Biloxi about three years ago, and now I'm really regretting not making that show.

Ensemble Modeling Explained

We're seeing a lot of this sort of thing lately:

uh-oh

I'd explain, but Randall Munroe has already done the job graphically with style and a side-order of humor:

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There.  All clear now?  OK then, I'll go back to staring at the various hurricane prediction sites and chewing my fingernails now.

How to Spot a Flood Salvage Car

Not that I'm in the market, but you never know:
Avoid a Harvey Hooptie over at Eric Peters Autos site.
The article give some quick checks anybody looking around on a used car lot can do on the spot, even before taking it to an independent mechanic for the obligatory pre-buy checkout.

Makes me sad.

Voyager

This picture and what it's about (explanation over at NASA's Astronomy Picture Of the Day site) ought to float your boat.  You can get a high-res pdf of it from there too.

Gearing Up for Backpacking, Part 7: Initial Weigh-In

Shoved it all together last night.  Initial base weight: 22.2 pounds.  Throw in the FT-817nd with its accouterments and this balloons to 29.3 pounds.  Remember, that's base weight, and it's unacceptably high.  Will have to mull this one over.  Applying Amdahl's Law to the problem, clearly the tent and the bear keg are the first two items to consider.

Hmm.  Something to ponder.

Shamelessly stol.. borrowed from

http://www.cleverhiker.com/blog/top-12-beginner-backpacking-blunders

Extended Forecast

After a long, damp summer it looks like we might be about to turn the corner:

Lows in the mid-60's?  I'll take it!  Of course, a big "we shall see, we shall see" applies to all of this.