New Music: JJ Cale - Stay Around

Six years after his death, in 2019 Cale's crew has put together an album of out-takes and other bits you ought to hear.  It's very good, and while it does not have a cohesive concept album level of integration, Cale's albums never really had that anyway.  Nothing experimental here, just straight-forward JJ songs.  If you like his other stuff, this is a must-have.

It's a funny thing, but Cale was always a techno-wizard in the studio and in hacking his instruments, especially his guitar.  You'd never guess it at first listen though, it just flows so easily.  To paraphrase Dolly Parton, "it takes a lot of tech to sound this laid-back."

Here's a link to the official video of the title track.  See what I mean?  Comfortable as that favorite old pair of blue jeans.  I hope there's an album or two more of outtakes still out there, waiting for release over the next few years.

Finally, one comment about the cover design.  Who'd ever have thought that a dot-matrix font would look all retro-minimalist?  But there we are.

Yaesu FT-70DR Quick Start Programming

Riffing on an earlier post Yaesu FTM-7250 Quick Start Programming, here is the same for the FT-70DR handheld.  Also, full credit for this goes to KE0MJE for his youtube video on how to do all this.  This post is really nothing more than a cleaned-up version of the notes that I took while watching.  If you want to watch the video before you dive into the checklists below, go have a look.  It might help, and you can always come back to the detailed checklists below.  Finally, there's the Radio Programming Roundup page, that has a bunch of links to programming some other radios and details on using CHIRP.

Remember, "press" means "press momentarily," while "press and hold" means for about 1 second.

For Repeater Operations

1. Turn radio ON.
2. Press [V/M] key to go to VFO mode.
3. Enter receive frequency on keypad.
4. Press [Mode] key to toggle to your preferred mode: FM or Digital. (DN?  why DN for digital?)
5. Press [F] then [5 / Sq Typ] to get to squelch type selection.  
6. Rotate dial to pick the right squelch type.  OFF / TONE / TSQL are all useful possibilities on standard repeaters.
7. Press [F] to leave tone/squelch type set.
8. Press [F] then [6 / Code] to get to the tone frequency selection.
9. Rotate dial to the repeater's tone frequency.
10. Press [F] to leave tone frequency set.
11. To save all this into a memory slot, press and hold [V/M].  "F" will flash on the screen, along with the memory slot number it's going to use.
12. Dial to a memory slot you want to write this information into.  If the memory slot number is flashing it's empty; if it's not flashing, it's in use, but can be over-written.
13. Press [V/M] to save to that memory slot.  An alphanumeric tag entry is automatically started.  If radio asks, confirm with another press of [V/M].
14. Rotate knob to scroll to letters; press [Band] to save each letter and move to the next letter slot.  If you need to back up, use the [Mode] key.  When you're done entering the alphanumeric tag...
15. Press and hold [V/M] to save.
16. Press [V/M] to get to memory mode.  You should see the new alphanumeric tag and be all set.

Painless... especially when you have the Auto Repeater Shift and Automatic Mode Select set.  (they're the as-shipped defaults)

Simplex channel programming is even easier.  With no CTCSS tones to bother with, it's a snap.  In fact, before programming simplex channels it's best to turn tones off.  See steps 5 & 6 above.  But if you don't, or forget, or... it really won't matter.

For Simplex Channel Operations

1. Turn radio ON.
2. Press [V/M] key to go to VFO mode.
3. Enter receive frequency on keypad.
4. Press [Mode] key to toggle to your preferred mode: FM or Digital. (DN?  why DN for digital?)

6. To save all this into am memory slot, press and hold [V/M].  "F" will flash on the screen, along with the memory slot number it's going to use.  If you just want the frequency to show, skip to step 10.
7. Dial to a memory slot you want to write this information into.  If the memory slot number is flashing it's empty; if it's not flashing, it's in use, but can be over-written.
8. Press [V/M] to save to that memory slot.  An alphanumeric tag entry is automatically started.  If radio asks, confirm with another press of [V/M].
9. Rotate knob to scroll to letters; press [Band] to save each letter and move to the next letter slot.  If you need to back up, use the [Mode] key.  When you're done entering the alphanumeric tag...
10.  Press and hold [V/M] to save.

Not as bad as it looks.  If you have a list of repeaters and simplex frequencies ready to go, once you get rolling it doesn't take long at all.  Many of the settings will just repeat, and you can skip over some of the option changes when that happens.

Edit 7/1: Took out the "FM" on repeater operations because these instructions aren't limited to FM anymore.  Also note, even if your (say) simplex channel is programmed in to default to FM (or digital), a press of the [Mode] key will flip it to the other mode.

CHIRP allegedly works with this radio, but damned if I could get it to go on either my Mac or Linux systems.  It involves the most harebrained pop-the-battery-out-now-in sequence I've ever seen.  Probably not worth the bother.   Added 7/21/23: How to program FT-70 with Chirp.  Yeah it works, but it is ugly.  If you have fewer than a dozen or so memories to program, it's probably easier to just do it from the keypad.

Anyway, I picked up one of these little jewels this week from Main Trading Company Radio (you should do business there, they're good folks).  The FT-70 stacks up well in comparison to its predecessor FT-60.  It may not be quite as rugged, but it is well built and seems tough enough to be of real use in the field.  The dials have been reduced to one, with some trivial combos of [F], [Moni], [Vol], and a dial twist go get you where you want.  Beyond that, the significant upgrades are Fusion digital mode, and a lithium ion battery pack.  Fusion is amazing, giving clear communications over longer ranges than FM; you can read about that elsewhere.  The lithium battery shouldn't have the memory issues of the older NiMH pack on the FT-60.  There's been some justifiable grumbling about battery draw when the FT-70 is turned off.  Meh, just pop the battery pack if you're going to let it sit for more than a couple of days.  It's not great, but there are bigger issues in life to worry about.

In short, it's an updated FT-60.  Could it have been better?  Sure.  Is it a good radio for the price?  Definitely.

Bad News at Charlie's

Article at the Times Picayune:
Matthew Dwyer, bartender who revived beloved New Orleans restaurant Charlie's, dies at 49

Oh, that is some bad news.  I hope his heirs can get things sorted out quickly and keep place running.  That would be a fitting legacy.

How the NYT Ruins Everything

As seen over at the Slate Star Codex blog:
NYT Is Threatening My Safety By Revealing My Real Name, So I am Deleting The Blog

I only found this blog a little over a month ago, via his sci-fi short story "Sort by Controversial" posted there.  If there's a concept of which everyone needs to be aware in this period of turmoil, it's the idea of "Shiri's Scissor" or "scissor statements" from that story.  (link to my all-too-brief discussion of this here)  Now it's gone.  Oh, I'm sure it's in some archive, somewhere.  (later: link to the short story at the Wayback Machine)  However the main written source of the idea is gone, and moreover its author is silenced.

The author has good and justifiable reasons for wanting to retain some small degree of anonymity.  For starters, he's a psychiatrist; other reasons are given in his farewell post, linked above.  A responsible news organization ought to understand such things and make allowances for them.  Evidently the NYT is no longer a responsible news organization.

I will have a polite message to the editor off later today (relevant contact information at the Slate Star Codex link above), and I hope that you can and will too.

BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antartica

Mostly as a reminder to self, this happens today at 3:30 pm CDT.  Details at The SWLing Post.

The time given is somewhat up in the air.  At the associated BBC page, the listed time is 21:30 BST, which is of course 3:30 CDT.  However, this is very much at odds with shortwave broadcast listings which always give times in zulu, which would slide things to 4:30 CDT.

Solution: try at 3:30 CDT, and if nothing heard try again at 4:30.  Per usual, persistence pays.

After Report: Broadcast was at 21:30 Z not BST after all.  Could barely hear signal at 9580 KHz, nothing at all heard at the other two frequencies.   Could just distinguish male from female voices.  Better luck next year!

Pumping Tires the Right Way

You know, you'd think this stuff was obvious, but obviously not.  Looking back over the years, thinking of the people I've seen struggling with this... guess this tutorial is needed.  Anyway, watch and learn.

One more bonus of having the stem at 12 o'clock is that if the chuck is a little loose, you can grab around the tire and the chuck with one hand while you pump with the other.

BTW, I have to say it again, even though they don't pay me: Silca pumps, because anything else is wrong.

Speaking of biking, off to ride in a few minutes.  After the coffee kicks in a little more.

DeFord Bailey

Classic chuggin-down-th-line harmonica music, all solos, no vocals; not much else to say.  You ought to have at least a smattering of this in your collection.  Kind of hard to find, but the usual suspect has it for a fair enough price.

The recording itself is pretty rough-and-ready, but that's OK.  It's old material, passed through who knows how many copies.  It'd probably sound better over AM skywave anyway.

CD arrived yesterday, already listened to it twice.  It's that kind of music.

Happy Solstice

The exact time is 4:44 CDT today.  Be sure to get outside and enhance your vitamin D levels.

It's a Deadly Puzzle

As noted at Slate, COVID Cases Are Rising, COVID Deaths Are Declining, Why?

I'd been wondering about this.  Increased testing, a drastic lower shift in the median affected age, improving treatments; any and all of these could be behind this phenomenon.  I was guessing that it was increased testing driving this, but that was only a guess.

Digging around on the web however found that the number of tests administered per day in the U.S. is down by about 25% since the start of June. [edit 6/20: chart has changed, tests are UP about 20% since the start of June.  OK, things now make a lot more sense.] Not at all what one would expect, but there it is.  And this is right on top of when the number of confirmed cases began to rise.  Doubly perplexing.

So now for hypothetical causes, we have increased testing, lower median age, improving treatments, and the possibly that this troublesome yet fragile little 30k of RNA is starting to fray with repeated replication errors.  That last one would be really, really good news, but there's no hard data showing that this is happening.  The other three causes, yes, there's hard data there.  In what proportions?  Not enough information surrounding the data to tell.

Maybe we'll bumble into herd immunity sooner than we thought, and with somewhat less pain than we'd feared.  In the meantime, there's a world of people out there saying "hold my beer, watch this" and rushing out to do something stupid.  Don't be stupid.

Can't say it was fun at the time...

... but oh brother, did I ever appreciate her teaching a couple of years later when I was staring differential equations 201 in the teeth.  May my high school math teacher, Myra Ponder, rest in peace.

Up until her classes, everything had been easy.  Then all of a sudden, it wasn't, and I had to learn to study.  Just what high school should be all about.  What a great teacher.

Thank you, Mrs. Ponder.

Sometimes...

... you've just got to laugh in the face of catastrophe.  The latest from OCMS:

Do you see it too?

I was out mowing the lawn last Saturday, looked up, and saw this:

Like something out of Annihilation was all I could think.  At least it wasn't moving and there weren't any unearthly sounds coming from it.  Just a branch that broke off in last week's storm.

Still, pretty freaky looking.  Nice greenery though.

+134.0 dB rel 1 inch

In case you're wondering, that's approximately the distance to Jupiter.

What the way you write large numbers says about you, at xkcd.

See?  Includes dimensions and everything in this representation.  Easy.  You should try it sometime.

ps: It's also 22.3 S-units.  Very convenient units for balancing a checkbook.

Musical Interlude: JJ Cale

Beyond mowing the grass, not a lot got done today.  Some weekends are like that.  Nice weather though.  Anyway, one of my favorites from back in the early 80s: JJ Cale's Cloudy Day.

Who doesn't love a bluesy number like that?  Beautiful day here though, not a cloud in the sky.

Busy.

Been busy.  More, and more interesting stuff soon.  hint

How to Pitch a Tent on a Deck

Neat-o aluminum anchors:


Sure, there are many ways to improvise something similar – a stick and some line, for example – that would serve just fine in a pinch too, but this is so much easier.  Price is pretty reasonable too.  Article at Section Hiker.

When Seasons Collide

The last scrap of the C-storm crashed with what's almost certainly the last cool front of spring over my town this morning.  House-shaking, power flickers, thunder-booming, the whole nine yards.  Definitely worse than last weekend's TS-C.  No damage, so on the whole I'm not complaining.  But it was a sharp battle between spring and summer.

Tonight though.. 65F forecast.  Probably the last of that until October, and I'll gladly take it.

C-Storm Already

And it's only the first week in June.  *sigh*  Gonna be a long, hot summer.

No real trouble from this one though, beyond being stuck inside all day.  Wind gusts to maybe 30 mph.  Got some chores done, so there's the silver lining.  But still... C-storm already and it's only June 7th?  Wonder if we'll get into the Greek letters again this year.

Onward.  Onward and upward.

Still Lost in Math

No, not me.  Well, yeah, me, I'm always lost in math.  Or maybe at a loss with math.  But that's not the point of this post.

Sabine Hossenfelder has more to say, following up on her two year old book Lost in Math.  Video here.   (my 2018 book comments here)

And yeah, the book's now out in paperback.  You should read it, especially if you already have a copy.  In fact, it's high time I re-read my copy.

New from Buffett: Life on the Flipside

Just in time for summer there's a new Jimmy Buffett album.  So how is it?

Good, very good, with not a clunker on the disc.  The overall sound is best described as big, lush, and very Caribbean.  This is a long way from Buffett's early albums, where it's him and a guitar and a handful of session musicians.  This baby has the full entourage treatment.  Whether you think that's a good or bad thing is up to you, but there it is.  Personally, I like it.  Maybe not for every album, but hey, this one's a little different and there's plenty of his acoustic stuff out there already (which I also greatly enjoy).  Go with it, and have a good summer.  I'm glad he insisted on getting this album out to the listening public on time, especially with the delayed summer tour.

Two more things to mention:

1. The packaging is great.  It looks like a double-disc set in a single sleeve, but it's one disc plus an ample booklet of lyrics and notes.  There's a mention and picture of Dick Dale in there, and some heavy-string worked into a song or two.  Which reminds me, I really need to start looking into a new longboard for next year.  Yeah, after forty-plus years West Beach beckons.
2. As previously posted, here's the release notes page at Buffett's site.  Commentary, things to notice, and a few music video links.  Worth your time.

Book Mention: The History of Middle-Earth

– The Unofficial Guide to the Languages, People, and Books of Middle-Earth

Clocking in at a slim 70 pages, this is a mile-high overview of Tolkien's universe.  It covers the basics of the lingering mistrust among the races of Middle-Earth, enough of the history of men to see how things went badly wrong, a little bit on the various branches of hobbit-dom, why there are two major branches of the elves, those sorts of background.  This will emphatically not satisfy the hard-core scholar, but for the person who has watched Peter Jackson's film trilogy and wants to dig in a little deeper, it is just about right.  Even if you are well-steeped in the subject matter, it is still nice to see the grand sweep in course of an easy afternoon's read.

A word of warning however, this thing is completely spoiler-riffic.  If you haven't at least watched the movie (recommended) or read the books (recommended!), hold off on this one.  But yeah, for less than the price of a decent beer for the kindle version, you'll more than get your money's worth.