Author: bhayes952

May 2, 2024 – What Is the Source Of My Recent Unholy Radio Obsession

May 2, 2024 / / 0 Comments

In 2015, I got voluntold that I would be on a walking relay called Portland to Coast. The idea was that twelve of us would walk continuously from Portland to Seaside on the beach (128 miles). I was already training for the half marathon anyway so I did it. It was actually pretty fun.

Each leg was about 3-5 miles and there would be an exchange point. There would be bathrooms and refreshment at a minimum. Some of the major exchange points would also have food, showers a place to sleep and a radio operator. When you get into the mountains here there is no such thing as cellular service.

I thought that it was pretty cool that people would do all the work of setting up antennas and things and volunteer their time for something like this. What I didn’t really understand was that this was their time to compete as well. They were policing the course for the lost, stragglers and medical emergencies. The only way to get effective, real time communication was radio. I have now observed that many races have radio operators.

Going back a further, to about 2006 my current neighbors moved in. He is a former sheriff’s deputy and runs a police scanner. Since I live on Main St., I can hear all of the sirens when the when the vehicles turn west leaving the station (the siren sound is directional). Some times when there are a lot of vehicles I will go over and ask what is going on.

Next, came my techno-junk pursuit. I talk frequently about it, so I won’t go deeply into it. But, I was trying to figure out how to buy/build antennas for AM reception. I ran across an antenna advertised for short-wave usage. It was at that time that I realized that short-wave frequencies also included AM radio. So, I started to research this further.

I was actually reading the comments and reviews for the antenna that I purchased. One of the comments said something to the effect of ‘watch where you put that thing or you will end up with an Rocket Propelled Grenade in your window’. It was at that moment that I realized radio is a weapon. It is not the kind of weapon that hurts people, but it is communication that prevents friendly fire, a weapon of information.

Radio is a force multiplier, not a missile. Think of it like a shotgun choke. While one pellet might be effective, more would be better. So if the shot is concentrated on the target the more likely it will be lethal. On the other hand, sometimes having a more open choke is better, you have a better chance of hitting with a wider pattern. Radio frequencies are the same way. They have their advantages and disadvantages but make no mistake firing without a choke causes the shot to spray everywhere quickly.

Aside from being regulated by the FCC, no other outside infrastructure is necessary. Strictly speaking, it can be used without licensing either. In times of natural disaster, radio will be there regardless of internet, phone lines or cellular service. My wife even mentioned that we should get our own scanner. This is what spurned me to try out Software Defined Radio (SDR). As you know, I am still working on that but I can tune in a channel on the SDR and hear when I talk on GMRS channels. So, I am close, I just need to get the right configuration setup to listen to emergency broadcasts.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t know if I will ever be a guy that sits in front of a radio talking to strangers at night. One video I watched recently said that developing scanning channels requires time. That is one thing that I feel like I have little of. But, radio does appeal to my technical, scientific and preparedness side. I definitely want to work on going a little deeper just for the ability to say that I know how to do it and can do it competently.

May 1, 2024 – Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

May 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman is the Left Coast Culinary Book Club selection for May. How about that, it is the first of the month and I am already done? Well, you can guess that I have had a lot of reading time lately. It is waiting in the waiting room for doctor’s appointments or sitting by while my wife watches TV or is sleeping. Consequently I finished this month’s book and I am way ahead on Dante’s Divine Comedy.

I didn’t know it at the time, but growing up I was spoiled. My Grandmother was the best pie maker that I knew. The truth is, everybody on that side of my family made good pies. It was only when I got exposed to store made pies that I realized not all pies were equal.

One day I asked my Grandmother what the secret was and she said that my Great Grandmother was a pie maker for a diner and she said that the ratio of the crust was not only easy but also the secret. It was 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup shorting and 1/4 cup water. That turns out to be 4:2;1 in terms of ratios.

Not long after that, I assumed the role of process chemist. I spent a lot of my time scaling batches between the lab, the pilot reactor and full scale batches. I soon learned that it wasn’t the units of things that made a difference but the ratios of ingredients. Once I had the ratios figured out, I could convert to the exact units of measure to my hearts content.

I was excited to read this book. I intuitively knew that ratios were the secret but I had never given much thought to it other than the pie crust. After reading it, I have more mixed feelings about it. Here are some of my thoughts.

First, I would say that probably half of the book was about baking. While I don’t want to split hairs, typically baking and cooking are different disciplines. Certainly at home, it is often the cook is also baking but it set some different expectations from the title and the content. To cement matters, I am not much of a baker nor do I have a ton of interest in it. That is not to say I don’t enjoy a good desert, but I just don’t crave them much along with the clean-up that goes with it.

Of some of the items in the cooking one example was stock making. I find it a stretch that there is a proper proportion of bones to water. This is especially true when Ruhlman agrees with Samin Nosrat that if you cannot use homemade stock, you are better off using water than store purchased stock. I use what I have on hand and that is just fine with me.

Many of the final items were pretty highbrow. There were more French dishes in this book than I have ever read. Many of them I had never heard of either. The final chapter was about custards and he goes on to describe a smoked salmon custard with shrimp halves. Additionally, he talks about making crème brulee. I am not saying home cooks shouldn’t attempt this but it after you make your shrimp custard to top steak, who is making crème brulee?

Finally, I disagreed with some of the ratios. I tend to think that ratios are a starting point in cooking. If you don’t have 2:1:1 ratio of onion, carrots and celery, is it still mirepoix? I think so. Sometimes I use the half of onion that is already cut rather than a whole one. Sometimes I want to finish off the old bag of carrots or celery that is long in the tooth.

Lest you think that I am totally down on this book, I would suggest that for people that are clueless in the kitchen this is a good resource. He does freely state that ratios can be modified in most cases. But, if people do not know how to start, this is a gateway to the science of cooking. There is freedom in not being a slave to a recipe. You can’t get the freedom until you understand each ingredient’s place in the dish.

End Your Programming Routine: As a former chemist doing chemical engineering work, I see ratios in recipes. I find myself scaling for the ingredients on hand or eaters. So, maybe this book isn’t for me necessarily but it might be for you. Especially if you are struggling in the baking department or fine French food. It may change your perspective from a mystery to an art.

April 30, 2024 – My Life As a Country Song

April 30, 2024 / / 0 Comments

No, my wife didn’t run off and my dog didn’t die. But, last week was a different kind of tough. The week before, I was dealing with the side effects of chemo and being a full time caretaker. But, we were mostly at home and sheltering in place. Last week as there was more getting out and about, it seemed like everything was going wrong.

My wife likes to say that I am ‘a glass half empty’ person. I don’t really think so. I like to think of myself as analytical and balanced. I like to see the full spectrum both good and bad. I suppose that to people who don’t like to see both sides, that is construed as negative. I fail to see how always being positive even when the odds seem low is a better trait that viewing the whole picture optimistically.

I say that because I am not complaining. I am going to get to a point by the end today. I think helpful advice is that we cannot change or dwell in the facts. My wife has cancer and we are doing what we can to combat it. All the ‘why me?’ in the world isn’t going to change a thing. It does however make life much more complicated.

This process is moving at an extremely disjointed manner. One day chemo is scheduled every other Thursday, then it is every other Friday. Take this medication before chemo, no don’t take it at all. Come in for this reason, no see this specialist. They are still doing diagnostic testing for goodness sake to determine if they are proceeding in the correct direction. Every conversation is musical chairs in who is running this process and is this information actually correct. This is the background for what I am dealing with.

Then, my son calls and says ‘my car has a problem’. He is about 45 minutes away. So, I have to drop what I am doing to go get him at 10pm. Due to a large coolant leak, I decide the best coarse of action is to have it towed home rather than risk a warped cylinder head. Imagine that I am trying to get my wife ready for an all day procedure that she is extremely nervous about while dealing with the tow truck driver at the same time because the car is locked and twenty minutes from the hospital.

The next day, my SSL certificate updates for altf4.co. Every 60 days this happens. But, it also follows with calamity. It seems like every time I go in there the user interface changes and I struggle with this process. I have come to anticipate the suck, but it does make it frustrating. This time I could not get the DNS provider to recognize my security documents. I tried and tried until I finally broke down and reached out to support. The problem was technical, I am not sure that there was anything I could do.

I was trying to setup my walkie talkies so that I could give one to my wife and I could hold onto one. This would give me some freedom to be out and about the house but still be in communication. This was the whole reason why I went through the licensing requirements that I talked about last week. One of them I couldn’t get to work. I bought new battery packs, I swapped batteries, no go. Finally, I took it apart to find some of the internal components fried.

No problem, I will break out my second set. They are not doing any good squirreled away in my emergency box for years anyway. One battery was dying, so I ordered new battery packs. Low and behold, there are a lot of aftermarket batteries that are similar but not the same on Amazon (even with the same battery model number). So, now I have two new batteries that don’t charge in my radios since I already opened them and threw away the packaging.

Last week it felt like everything was an obstacle. Everything I did had unintended consequences and nothing worked as planned. But, I want to go back to the beginning here. First, I don’t know what God has planned. I also know that I am handed scenarios that I can handle and learn from. As I am writing, things are getting better. My website is running, the batteries are cleared up, the problem is diagnosed with my son’s car and I think we have all the testing done and the path is clear on chemo.

More so than that, when things are not working right we just have to compartmentalize and be objective. Most of these things were not life altering problems. Take the problems and triage, then prioritize the work to solutions. The list might get longer before it gets shorter but we have to focus on the important things first.

End Your Programming Routine: To be truthful, I wasn’t exactly happy while all of these things were going on at the same time. But, being able to step back, it wasn’t huge problems. I suppose it is fortunate that more bad things didn’t keep happening at the same time. Mostly, step back and analyze the problems to the best of your ability. I am no electronics expert but I can see and understand burnt capacitors, Time to cut your losses and move on.

April 29, 2024 – It’s Not Where You Go…

April 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Graduation is just around the corner. It certainly is in this household and I am separating the future reality from the bull. It is unfortunate that our kids spend at least 12 years in the school system just to get programmed with false information. In fact, the people that don’t take the straight path are sometimes the smartest.

April 26, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Canto XVII – XIX

April 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I failed to realize it last week but we are a little over halfway through the book in terms of Cantos and pages now. It is hard to break things up correctly without reading and knowing the story. Canto XIX in my book says both the fourth cornice and the ascension to the fifth. In hindsight, Canto XIX probably belongs more to the fifth than the fourth. Oh well, I am not going to talk about it much anyway.

This cornice is about a misunderstood sin, the sloth. When I was reading about this in hell, I dismissed the sloth as lazy. When we use the word today we often mean slow, lazy and often dirty or unkempt. That is probably not actually fair to the animal, it is probably more appropriate to say deliberate. But, this is not actually what Dante meant by the term.

Believe it or not, the sloth really means to see an opportunity to do good but not to act on it. So, the modern day equivalent makes me think of the John Quinones show What Would You Do? I know that this is a bit of a tough area for me. I very much tend toward the live and let live philosophy. Aside from that, I am not sure I know enough details to get involved without a direct ask. It turns out that this is defined as a sin.

Very little is actually described about cornice four. There are really no meaningful interactions. The souls here are constantly running. That is running toward those that need help. Not only are they anti-sloth by running but also atoning for their sin.

Much of the the first two Cantos discuss love, free will and sin between Dante and Virgil. This follows exactly the structure and grouping of hell. Just as a recap of what was said. Here is the following types of love. First there is natural and un-natural love. Natural is what you would think. Unnatural love has three categories within it. There is love of an object, then there is loving too little or loving too much.

The first three levels pride, envy and anger represent the first three levels as well as unnatural love of objects. Loving to little is the sloth (level 4). Loving too much is defined as greed, gluttony and lust. And there we have the definition of the layers of hell. and purgatory. Although they don’t seem to be in the same order between the two. Maybe that will reveal itself in the future.

End Your Programming Routine: Very educational. I have been ignorant to the sin of the sloth every since high school when I first read the Inferno. I am curious to how it is exactly judged because it leaves me wondering if there are some kind of test just like What Would You Do?. But then again, one of Jesus’s main messages was charity. Failing to do so might land you on Cornice four.

April 25, 2024 – Familiar is Comfort and Comfort is Best

April 25, 2024 / / 0 Comments

For some reason, my son thinks I need more knives. He made me a cleaver for my birthday and he recently bought me an assisted opening knife while on a trip. I have never had one of those before. It is kind of a fun novelty to continuously click it open while I am sitting and staring into space.

I live in the knife capitol of the world. Gerber, Leatherman, Benchmade, Kershaw and CRKT are all headquartered here. As a result, I have some unique opportunities like the annual seconds sale at Kershaw. There are fifty dollar knives that sell for $5. Some of them are defected while others are models that just didn’t sell. It has been a number of years since I went to the sale. The truth is I can only use so many knives. I love the idea of buying a deal and getting something cool but why…? Besides that, a lot of the knives I have have been given to me. Like the two below in the picture.

These are my two newest folding knives. Both of them were given to me. The gray one is the one I was saying that my son gave to me. The old fashioned one I was awarded by the local state representative that I was helping with his trap fundraiser. When I got it, I thought, what am I going to do with this? I keep it in my office to open boxes and packaging. The truth is, it is not a locking blade and so I am leery of putting it to real, hard work.

I have often thought that I want to buy a real barbeque show piece. I can afford it and I should have a heavy-duty tactical knife for the zombie apocalypse. But then I think about how torn I am to surrender the $15 Leatherman at TSA and I think not a chance I would carry around a $400 knife to possibly lose it.

The knife that I carry 99% of the time is the same knife I bought in middle school. I like it, it is comfortable. (read more about it october-22-2020-tacticool-thursday) It is not the best steel, it is scraped to heck back on my first amateur attempts to sharpen and it doesn’t even have a pocket clip. Those were just being invented at that time in the 1980s. My brother bought one about a year later that did have a clip. But, it does lock.

I think one of the things that I do like is that it doesn’t have a clip. That makes it slim to fit in my pocket and doesn’t catch on other things when I pull it out. I would be very, very sad if I lost it (wouldn’t be the first time). This always gets me thinking about buying a replacement Everyday Carry knife. Each time I do, I find myself going back to what is familiar and comfortable.

The only knives I have lost since becoming an adult have been because they were taken from me at the airport. However, as a kid I lost track of the number of knives that I have lost. I think two Swiss Army knives, a Boy Scouts branded folder and an Opinel given to my from our French exchange student we hosted are amongst the list. Part of the reason this is true is that it is carried every day so I always know where it is.

One time I bought a very nice looking, titanium clad knife and I carried it a while. It turns out that I hated using it because the pocket clip bit into my hand while using it. Another time I bought an expensive (for the time) knife off of e-bay. When it showed up, I was in shock. It was tiny. It is also uncomfortable to use. This was about the time I was learning that I needed to see things before buying them because the dimensions provided did not translate well in my head.

End Your Programming Routine: I probably will switch over to this new knife for a while. I don’t have the same emotional attachment to it so I am less worried about whether I will lose it or ding it up doing things it wasn’t designed to do. I doubt too that this will be the last one either. But, don’t be surprised if I go back to my old faithful either.

April 24, 2023 – Getting Your GRMS License From the FCC

April 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday I talked about the fact that I put myself on the radar by applying for the GMRS radio license from the FCC. Today I am going to show you how to do that. This is going to be a screenshot heavy post today because the pictures pretty much tell the story. Also note, you will have to provide your social security number and being a convicted felon will exclude you.

This is a multiple step process. You will have to login multiple times with two factor authentication in some cases. Using this link, you will need to create a new account with email and password. Use the Register segment.

Assuming that this is all new to you, then fill out the required information. It is really only an email, password, name and phone number.

Once you have completed the initial account creation, you will be kicked out and you will have to login with your username and password. There will be a two factor code sent to your e-mail that you will have to enter to proceed. Logging in with an account takes you to a different screen. You will want to ‘Register New FRN’ (Federal Registration Number). This number will be needed in the actual registration for a license.

Answer the questions as applicable.

And now you will get your FRN. It will be displayed on the screen. Save it in a safe place because you will need it for future login and management. You will now need to login using this link and using your FRN + password. After login, in the upper left corner you will want to ‘Apply for a license’. Fill out the forms.

You will get on-screen confirmation that everything is complete.

After you complete the form, you will need to go back to the second link provided and pay for the license.

Once you pay, there is nothing to do but wait. The FCC will email you with a link to a .pdf file that is your actual license. In my case, it was about a day and a half.

End Your Programming Routine: I followed some online instructions and while I got it done, I was a little confused during the process. 1) Create an Account 2) Apply for an FRN 3) Register for a license 4) Pay for the registration. Those are the base steps. Technology and steps may change, but I spent most of my time trying to navigate the process, not completing the steps. Good luck.

April 23, 2024 – On the Radar…

April 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Last fall, I talked about the fact that I was planning on investigating the GMRS licensing process. I did it a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow, I am going to give a step by step on how to do it so I will save that information and opinions about that part of the process until then.

It is no secret that cell phones have largely surpassed amateur radio with ubiquity and variability. With Bluetooth pairing and voice, text and internet everybody can communicate with everybody caravanning or in loose group settings. Where radios really shine are when the pavement ends. They are also cheap, don’t need a service plan or service infrastructure.

The tin-foil hatters would say, it is nearly unenforceable and an unnecessary government intrusion to get a license. Once you do, you are on a list forever. And to them I would say that I agree. In fact, to be in radio is to be known. I actually went looking to see why I would want to bother getting a GMRS radio license. Here were some of my reasons.

  1. Don’t go looking for trouble. I would say that nearly all people into radio are law and order oriented people. The cost of $35 for ten years and covers your entire family is a pretty low bar in the first place.
  2. I very well might want to go deeper into radio. I don’t want to become an outlaw in the community that I am seeking more information about joining. See item 1.
  3. Even my self-imposed stay in the FRS band leads me to not use the radios very much. Having gear without experience is like having food and not knowing how to cook. I am looking to remove barriers for me to using them more and getting valuable experience.

Interestingly enough, the blister pack FRS/GMRS radios that can be purchased for less than $50 and box stores have some channels that are recognized in both radio spectrums. Apparently, the reason that you don’t need a license to operate those radios is the power output is tuned down. Like many paradoxes in law and government, it is required to have a license use the GMRS frequencies but the equipment is limited to the point that it falls into an exemption that no license is required.

All of this time, I have been under the assumption that I needed a license to operate in the GMRS frequencies with the handheld walkie-talkies not realizing that the equipment itself was exempt. What else I took out of this was that you probably still shouldn’t use them because people with more powerful radios in that spectrum are expecting legal radio decorum. For example, there is a duty to announce your radio call sign when speaking.

This actually got me wondering what the point was in the first place. It turns out that the full power radios can also be purchased just as cheaply and these are the radios where you should have a license. These radios can take advantage repeaters, they have way more range and they have the capability to swap antennas as a few examples. The more powerful radios can also talk to the cheaper FRS/GMRS as well, albeit you will be limited to the capability of the less powerful radio.

I am definitely thinking about buying an upgrade because they are so cheap and now I am legal and so is anybody I hand a radio to for the situation. That being said, I think that if you are going to stay on the fringe of amateur radio, you should probably stick to the blister pack radios. You don’t want to have to use your call sign to radio out to the yard or the shop as an example. But if you are getting more interested in the subject, this is a very easy entry point.

End Your Programming Routine: I was going to wait on this until after I got my Software Defined Radio setup to do this. But given my life’s current circumstances, I can’t really afford to spend hours squirreled away on a hobby. It is the same reason I haven’t been out in the shop for months or am doing much gardening this year. Not only that, getting my radio’s working helps in those areas I am not able to be active in this year because I can use that as a tool to take a couple steps away.

April 22, 2024 – It Is Different This Time

April 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Today is a darker than normal. I talk about the items that are different with my wife’s cancer battle. I cannot necessarily dwell on the wrong side of fate however for those that will go through it I think it is a unique perspective. It is a bit of a melancholic time. Hopefully that is understood and appreciated.

April 19, 2024 – The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, Canto XVI

April 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This week we are at Cornice three, the wrathful. On one hand, only having one Canto to read is nice and easy. On the other hand, it is difficult because there is not that much to talk about. That is definitely the case here. There is a little description of the environment and one interaction with a basically unknown character so that is it.

Cornice three is filled with smoke. Apparently, the symbolism relates to wrath in that when a person is in rage, their judgement is clouded with the true ability to see the situation clearly. I wonder if this is the level that Dante is headed for. Clearly, he is impacted by the fear of being there or falling off of the edge.

That is is about all I have to say about it. I was looking up the definition of wrath to see if I could infer more this week than is really written. Wrathful is literally defined as full of wrath. And wrath is defined as vengeful anger or rage. Then I stumbled across something a little more interesting.

Wrath is defined as one of the seven deadly sins. Let us see if you recognize these? The remaining six are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, and slothfulness. These were first defined by Pope Gregory I in the 6th century. This seems a lot like the circles of hell and purgatory. But what is even more interesting is that they were picked up again by St. Thomas Aquinas in the mid 13th century.

While not likely a contemporary of Dante’s (late 1200s) surely being Italian and Dante being exposed to priesthood, he was surely influenced by this work. Reading the Encyclopedia Britannica article, it mentions that the seven deadly sins are not specifically named in the bible, which I would agree. Despite not being codified, it is also true that many situations are specifically mentioned in the bible.

Pope Gregory I is credited with organizing the church into it’s medieval form. He consolidated both secular and religious power into one institution. I think that he left an indelible mark on Dante given that he will have more roles and interactions in the future. Not only has Dante bought the concept, but he also thinks pretty highly of him as well.

The same also goes with St. Thomas. Again looking around, there are books comparing and crediting the two. The one remarkable argument in this chapter is the case for free will. Without it, why would there be any need for purgatory. And if we are all predestined to our position and results in life, what would be the point of the afterworld in general?

I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. I do believe that God has a hand in our fate, but I also believe that our free will influences that. So for instance, take a fatal illness. I am not convinced that this is punishment, but I do believe that there is something to be learned or taught from it. It is the actions that people take during that time that helps push God’s will. It is up to the individual to do with that what they can. Salvation is always an waiting regardless of fate.

End Your Programming Routine: While one chapter is a quick read, it wasn’t insignificant. I stumbled upon the origin story of the structure of the Divine Comedy. If I wouldn’t have been looking for more about wrath, I don’t know if I ever would have made the connection to the church history largely because I am not Catholic. Next week it is Cantos XVII – XIX if you are following along.