Fluke Multimeter From Space!

Well, almost.  They flew one on a balloon to 105,000 feet, parachuted it back, then tested it.  Results?  Good as new.  Video here.  Also worth reading from previous posts:

• In praise of Fluke's 101 and 107 meters.  (But if you do anything electrical for a living, go with the 117 or one of their task-specific models.)
• Care and feeding – no high-zoot alkaline batteries!  (and no capes!)

Sure, that was just a marketing video, but you have to admit that it was a cool marketing video.  Seriously, just save yourself the trouble and expense.  Get a Fluke.  Buy once, cry once, yeah; but they're really not that expensive.

New Video by The Chats

May be, may not be your taste.  The car is pretty cool.  <link>

Carrabelle Repeater is Back Up

Antenna replacement day was Saturday, and blogging has been light because of that and other goings-on.  Anyway, here are the unchanged frequencies:

Frequency: 145.23 MHz

Offset: -600 kHz (standard, probably the default on your radio)

PL Tone: 123 Hz

and here is a coverage map of this and other nearby repeaters:

Actual coverage will depend upon your station.  This is fairly representative for a vehicle with a decent antenna.

That is all for today.  I have bikes to work on.

I Was Planning on Fat Biking Yesterday Morning...

After watching that SpaceX launch.  But instead there was an unexpected opening at the dentist's office I'd been trying to get into, so no fat bike for the moment.  That's OK, because here are two looks at the Surly Moonlander.  Admittedly my ICT is a model-step down from this particular beast, but it's got a lot of the same welded-in fun-factor.

• In Which Berm Peak Tests It (28 minutes).  Two quotes: "You get up some speed on this thing and you start to see your life flash before your eyes." and "The bike doesn't need to make sense to make fun."
• In Which Surly Asks Berm Peak To Send The Bike Back After He's Kept It A Year (17 minutes).  Instead, he called them back and said he'd really like to keep it and how much money y'all want? and he bought it.  Once you try fat tires, it's unimaginable to live without.

Well, I feel like somebody's punched me in the right jaw after the dentist visit, and in a week or so I go back to get punched on the left side.  Eh, probably worth it in the long run.  Though I wish the pain was from falling off a bike, not something so mundane as a dental deep cleaning.

ps: 

• In which Berm Peak goes rock crawling (10 minutes).  Possibly the weirdest gearing ever seen on a functioning mountain bike.

And Today Brought Quite a Lot

Best pic of the bunch, from the Avenue E wharf:

Gratuitous Pelican has other things on his mind.

ps: Those are pilings to keep boats off the dock on a high tide.  Though they do sort of look like off-kilter obelisks.  

The SpaceX Bandwagon-5 launch went off right on time at 7:04 EDT this morning.  From this far north the launch initially looked like a red dot climbing up from the horizon, then quickly transitioned into a recognizable exhaust plume within seconds, and finally into the "space jellyfish" dispersed plume you see here.

This was maybe 30 seconds before the other picture.

Definitely worth getting up a tad early.

And It's a Scrub

SpaceX Bandwagon-5 launch delayed due to poor weather conditions at the booster recovery site.  Launch re-scheduled for at soonest tomorrow.

Pack it up, see what tomorrow brings.

On The Beach #2

Again, from an isolated, undisclosed location.  Today with full load-out.  Tried for a redfish, no luck.  I was a little late on the tide.  Anyway, it was a great bike ride.

Fear the fat.  It'll roll right over you.  Your back gonna look like a waffle.

Took one route out, one route back: first on a patchy washed-out road down the center of the island, then returned via beach.  The beach way is slightly easier but a boring ride, while the center road is extremely varied: gravel, sandy double-track, wet sandy double-track, soft sand drifts over whatever was still there, wash-out!, more gravel, then damp bayfront hardpack.  Way more fun.

Interestingly enough, another rider was right at the trailhead and on a vintage Surly Cross-Check no less.  This is the direct ancestor of my Straggler, though his was set up as a flat-bar singlespeed.  He made a good effort of it, making it maybe 3/4 of the way there before the sand drifts got the better of him.  It's good to know that I could probably pull this ride off on the Straggler – however the ICT is far better suited for the job.  The 4.8" tires handled the fluffy stuff without drama, though I'm sure that something down to 3.8" would work nearly as well.

Finally, here's a profile shot of a blue heron keeping watch on me.  You know, just in case.