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18 Comments

    1. Yes, Matt Damon is a left-winger. But he gets paid to act out scripts. There isn’t much in the Bourne film series that could be seen as anti-gun. In fact, it consistently shows the importance of being armed. The movies does put CIA wet teams in a bad light, but that is common in almost all Hollywood films that depict the CIA.

  2. Once again you have probably cost me money!
    check out the draws “hat” from NW digital radio…looks like the ticket for rig interface and the raspberry pi…

  3. TR: The Grand Solar Minimum is upon us ,and is already effecting the weather significantly. It is noticeably colder and and wetter here in Montana, and everywhere else. I planted mostly cold weather, short season vegetables this year in anticipation and it proved to be a good decision. Food is going to get even more expensive as the Grand Solar Minimum deepens. This is not apart of some unsubstantiated ‘climate change’ political scare tactic, but a well documented phenomenon. Radio hobbyists are well aware of the 11 year cycle that diminishes RF propagation, yet this cycle event coincides with additional solar cycles reducing the sun’s output further. Yet another reason to build that green house… or to rethink one’s garden to compensate for the reason(s) behind the reported shortages. Perhaps some one decided to stock up?

    Stolen from World Affairs Brief:

    “Due To A Poor Harvest Season, We’re Experiencing Shortages On Many Canned Vegetable Items”

    posted by Andrew Skousen – Wednesday, July 17 2019
    I know that this headline is alarming, but it is actually a direct quote from a notice that was recently posted in a Kroger supermarket. And as you will see below, similar notices are being posted in the canned vegetable sections of Wal-Mart stores nationwide. I would encourage you to examine the evidence in this article very carefully and to come to your own conclusions about what is happening. At this moment, social media is buzzing with reports of shortages of canned vegetables all around the country. But so far, the mainstream media is being eerily quiet about all of this. Is there a reason why they aren’t saying anything? — The Economic Collapse Blog

    1. I saw the same notice at Wal-Marts in 2 towns. But they STILL HAVE cans of corn and green beans- 50 cents a can in my area. I bought 48 cans of corn and will be buying other vegetables next month.

      1. They had other brands of vegetables at higher (their normal) prices. But I wanted to point out that they are not yet out of their 50 cent veggies. Great Value brand, I believe it was. And there were some brands and products that were missing from the shelves. Whatever the store that you shop at, they will have a more inexpensive brand, usually a store brand. In my experience, these are just as good as the more expensive brands. Stock up, whether you prefer a store brand or a name brand. Also, I saw they have #10 size cans of hominy for $3.34 each. I may buy some of that next trip to town.

      2. $0.50 cents is a screaming bargain. I’d go for it! The reason they created Popeye back in the 1930’s was to encourage people to eat green leafy vegetables, because of the dietary deficiencies, and the emergence of Pellagra in young children. IHMO, spinach has the most nutrition in a can. Unfortunately because of modern farming techniques, and over use of soils, they say the mineral content of modern spinach is about 1/6 of that of spinach grown in the 1970’s and earlier. In other words, we must eat 6 cans to equal the nutrition of 1 can. I image this a rough estimate. Popeye would now need a 6-pack to get it done. Because I found it so easy to grow Giant Swiss Chard versus spinach, I’ll plant fast growing spinach early for an early source, but graze on Chard daily later, and well into the summer, long after the spinach bolts…

      3. $0.50 cents is a screaming bargain. I’d go for it! The reason they created Popeye back in the 1930’s was to encourage people to eat green leafy vegetables, because of the dietary deficiencies, and the emergence of Pellagra in young children. IHMO, spinach has the most nutrition in a can. Unfortunately because of modern farming techniques, and over use of soils, they say the mineral content of modern spinach is about 1/6 of that of spinach grown in the 1970’s and earlier. In other words, we must eat 6 cans to equal the nutrition of 1 can. I image this a rough estimate. Popeye would now need a 6-pack to get it done. Because I found it so easy to grow Giant Swiss Chard verses spinach, I’ll plant fast growing spinach early for an early source, but graze on Chard daily later, and well into the summer, long after the spinach bolts…

  4. I have orderd the C4FMHAT option for my Pi 4 set up; this will form the base of my mobile comms unit for digital applications. Since I am using my Elecraft KX3 transciever and can configure the KX3 power use I am going to “dial it down” for the absolute miniimum power up settings (folks we’re talking micro amps of power use here) and conserve the energy use for the Pi 4, the interface use and for QRP (low power) digital operations. My KX3 is capable of multi mod operations such as CW (morse code), SSB (Single Side Band voice) digital modes of almost any variety, has a built in antenna tuner into the KX3 for low power operations as well as the 100 watt RF amp unit with it’s own built in antenna tuner and the whole unit is contained in one miliary back pack for mobile deployment operations.

    To that end I am writing a article for submission using this set up; it may take a few pages to collate all the information and data so hopefully once submitted JWR will allow it to be published. The test area is the remote Alaska arctic region, I won’t have much opportunity to take the gear outside (into CONUS) but limited operations in the post Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico deployment I was successful in establishing CW contacts across the CONUS region as well as Europe using only 15 watts (external battery) and 5 watts QRP (low power less than one watt) ops with internal battery settings. I did not use the 100 watt amp as I had to add the KX3 into my military back pack and was very limited on space and weight. It always amazed me that a C-17 can haul tons of stuff and the crew was seemingly very concerned about the weight of our hand carried gear ….
    As an aside, I now use a PI 3 and 4 at my work to create test programming sequences for our full motion flight simulator I am an electronics engineer on … these little gems are incredible … and cheaper, much cheaper that the stuff the big boy toys in the industry prefers we use.

    1. Re: Radio

      Very much looking forward to your article. Odds are that I will have to contend for third place, with a solar water pump article. Power consumption is a big deal. Unfortunately my old Kenwood TS-830s is in no way comparable your KX3, that I believe sips juice like no other rig. Whatta Cadillac! This is all the more the reason to seek out low draw devices. Other than using a commo window, I will also attempt to use an old Kiato 1102, or the newer 1103 with SSB to monitor. The Kiatos are remarkably efficient, requiring only .075ma, should I recall correctly. It might be worth confirming. It is indeed a low number, regardless.

      Much as been written on using the Rasberry for VHF/UHF. It is on my list! Even netbooks are power hogs in comparison. As battery capacity declines over time, the need to operate directly, and partly on PV panel power may be of concern. During an early experiment, I found that a Baofeng with voltage regulation, can transmit it’s full rated 4 watts, powered directly off a 10 watt panel in full sun. Low tech, or high tech, it is it all good tech, and the more robust the better. Analogue is still king. Old analogue melded with digital brains is better.

      Alaska, or the Redoubt for that matter, may not see, or have much need currently for NVIS, yet should repeaters go down, it is a cheap and easy fix. I’d play with that now if I could find some local friends interested. At least get the idea and information out there… and there are other novel ideas as well.

  7. I have a simple recommendation drawn from my experience with a skin doctor this morning.

    Get yourself a thorough checkup for “precancerous lesions” on your skin. At the very least, they could become a source of pain and at the other end, yeah, kill you.

    The friendly doc zapped several and took a biopsy from another site. I have seen no treatments for skin cancer in my wilderness first aid books. Thus, I am grateful for 21st century technology in this area.

    Carry on

  8. I can second Once a Marine. I went to our University’s Skin Cancer Screening in May. This is a national annual event. It is free. They gave us hats, an exam, info, and lots of types of sun screen.
    I have since had two biopsies and 6 pre cancerous lesions frozen with nitrogen.
    My family practitioner, who is very old school, uses the same method to freeze lesions as do the BIG Medical Center docs.
    This is preventive treatment for future skin cancer spots. In addition, a good doc can catch problems early.
    Those of us who have spent their life outdoors, such and me, despite hats and longs sleeves and sunscreen, should get checked before it becomes more difficult to.
    I am pre Medicare. My health plan covers a lot of this treatment. Medicare covers a lot too.
    What is your excuse for not going? Will you be able to help your loved ones if they have to care for you being ill?

  9. Insure you have ‘accessories” for the spare RasPis in the ammo can. The new ones have USBC, and you still need a monitor and/or keyboard of some sort (I have a compact wireless keyboard – trackpad – there are bluetooth versions, but paring is a pain when you don’t have a keyboard to type into the box
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I5SW8MC
    I also recommend getting a few extra micro SD cards, and Amazon kindle fire tablets (frequent sales and “refreshed”) with microSD (and converting videos, storing them on the microSDs) – and puttig them away too.

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