Can’t really wrap my head around the fact that she’s gone . . .
Star of the silver screen AND reality . . .
And if you just have to have your “Final Countdown” fix . . .
(you’re welcome!)
And the now USS Nimitz is steering for that “second star to the right”. . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Pretty decent documentary – bottom line? Maintenance costs was the deciding factor more than anything else – incredible piece of machinery . . .
And now the Nimitz is gone also . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
I really don’t have anything to add except play it loud and proud and ENJOY!
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Ended up at $200 out the door . . .
When the lid came off – $50 came off the price . . .
Not sure if the former owner had a clue there is such a thing as canned air . . .
Checked it at the pawn shop and it ran good!
Took it all apart and attacked it – used not quite a full can of air – had the sneezing watery eye thing going for about 2 days. Hardest part? Pulled the power supply out and apart – getting the tiny fiddly cover screws for the power supply back in place really sucked.
As I said in the last post – bought this for one purpose – to run SDR-Console and it does VERY well. I stumbled across the software about 3 years ago and kept trying to run it on various computers with no joy. The software actually has DirectX diagnostic tools built in so it can look at your graphics card and let you know how it’s performing. Pretty cool stuff!
This first clip is WSM 650 am Nashville – dark thirty Sunday morning . . .
(I’m running an SDRPlay RSPdx or an Airspy HF Discovery on this piece of software and running the DX Engineering RF-PRO-1B® Active Magnetic Loop Antennas DXE-RF-PRO-1B — love this loop!)
(this clip is with the air spy)
And some 40 meter net stuff – this bunch be shit talking from about 5:30am to 6:30am central every morning – what is fun is listening to the far east HAM stations operating on 40 meters and at the same time listening to far east broadcast stations on another sdr . . .
(the next 2 clips are with the RSPdx)
This is my typical morning from about 3:30am until 6:00am – I listen to stuff from ALL over the world!
Set this up behind me running an Airspy HF+ Discovery on a pi4 – and yes it does get a wee bit jumbled hearing everything at times
The nice part about the sdr-console software is switching between radios – hit stop / pick the radio / hit play – makes apple to apple comparisons between radios easy – all the settings are the same – the speakers are the same – the computer is the same – – kinda helps you do a true side by side comparison.
Of course stuff is never “that” simple – got ready to post this and my laptop shit the bed – LOL – either the battery or the power supply (or both) – so I ordered a new power supply and spent about 45 minutes setting everything back up with the pi4 and pi5. Tried to use just the pi4 – it just didn’t like the load running sdr connect and a web browser at the same time – so the pi4 is being used for sdr connect and the pi5 is doing the rest of the stuff. And I just don’t think there is any chance of porting the nRSP-ST to this sdr-console software – which would see the actual “radio” in it perform straight up vs other radios – but you never know . . .
So for a few days its 5 keyboards / 5 mice / 5 sets of speakers – we’re having fun now – right?
Not being a “gamer” never really wanting something that fell into the performance level of such a thing. Then ran across sdr-console about 3 years ago and figured out I really didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a gaming computer – than ran across this . . .
And it runs it very well – i5 cpu @ 2.9 GHz – 8 meg DDR ram – 256 ssd drive – and the key to it all playing well together – the NVIDIA graphics card . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
We went and looked . . . and we brought this little guy home –
President Theodore Roosevelt JR – An absolute live wire – Curtis and Oliver are adjusting – the first week was a little tough on everybody – Now? Their best buds.
Curtis was really uncertain at first about Theo . . . All he would do is back away from the mouthful of piranha teeth – I had forgotten just how sharp puppy teeth were – LOL!
Didn’t slow Theo down in the least . . .
The “boys” are getting along a lot better now . . .
And then there is this thing . . .
More on this and its use in another post – (bought it to run sdr – console software and it does a real good job of that).
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Dark Fucking Road we are going down at breakneck speed . . .
YOU do realize that this is just the start, don’t you?
Look around the house -most of your “smart” stuff has an OS on board – not even just talking about your phone – your “Roomba” – your car has become a mobile computing platform – my SDRplay nRSPnt IS a pi4 with an OS and sdr paired together – my watch is a computer with an OS onboard – my refrigerator has an OS that phones home on a regular basis (wonder what would happen if I blocked its access on my router?) – when will the government require real time information of the shortwave frequencies YOU are listening to on YOUR sdr? Certainly don’t want any wrong think creeping into YOUR biological onboard OS!! Amateur radio transceivers are computers with the ability to communicate globally – we’re having fun now!
So, I guess one work around as far as websites (and even software) is concerned would be to copyright everything that can be and make it a copyright violation or infringement to use – view – or otherwise utilize the services or goods in Commiefornia. If that is legally feasible. Or geo blocking is another alternative – can only be used in America – not communist enclaves like Washington or Colorado or . . .
I will have to research/think through this thought train – shit gonna get real strange!
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Time just keeps on slipping . . .
So all we have to do is move through some kind of storm and we’re all much smarter than Einstein . . .
What kind of storm was that, Commander?
I highly recommend tracking down a copy of the book by Martin Caidin – read it – then go back and watch the movie again . . .
The book continues after Mr. Lasky is picked up by Mr. Tideman (Commander Owens) and Laurel after the Nimitz returns to Pearl Harbor. They have quite an interesting conversation – which of course sets the whole thing up for a second movie – which unfortunately never happens.
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
This song works for so many people at so many different levels and times – I know at least one of you folks need this – the rest of you can enjoy it as well . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Great video from Fred in the Shed about the outside vs inside antenna thing. Think about it – you live in a box that dampens the signals coming in and tends to trap all the noise your “stuff” is making inside – outside is better – but – it does take some effort to set up antennas outside – as well as some skill sets to do it right. The two biggest issues for most folks are room and the dreaded HOA. In my particular case I’m fortunate in the fact that the only two things that are really stressed here are keep the grass mowed and don’t let stuff pile up. Antennas? Fifth antenna going up today, a dedicated noise antenna going up and a ground loop going in (literally in a shallow cut in the lawn – about a 1/2 inch deep) both as soon as the weather permits. It’s very difficult to skin out a shallow trench in frozen ground and then sprinkle grass seed and expect it to grow.
The antenna going up today is a Starlink antenna so I can separate my internet “stuff” totally from my Blushing Bride’s work stuff. The reason being I will need to do some port forwarding stuff so the SDRplay nRSP-NT can be accessed from the web and her IT people are not very keen on me changing anything – they are happy with the setup as it is – so fine – it shall remain as it is.
A lot of changes coming so keep checking back. Sticking a second website together focused on SWL – from which you will be able to sample the SDRplay nRSP-NT and get an idea of what you can do with an SDR and a decent antenna.
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!
Can’t explain it – but I knew YOU needed this!
Sporadic posting is an understatement – go ahead and retire Bruce – relax, enjoy the free time – Baby Jesus! Trying to set this up –
First one was D.O.A. – that’s like the second time in my life I have bought a discounted open box/return product that puked on me – and to their credit Ham Radio Outlet said just send it back – zero restock fee – pay the the difference and we will ship a new one. I’m like works for me. Almost felt like I was at The Bunny Ranch, where the customer always comes first!
Got it up and running on my LAN – YAY!
Listening to a little music on Radio Havana . . .
And then –
Then the bias tee for my super high tech jet fighter DXE-RF-PRO 1B shit the bed – damn . . . And much to their credit the folks at DX ENGINEERING sent me a new one as I had replaced the original one last July – the plug from the power supply never fit quite right – this one has a little different plug on it and fits very securely – and I’m not taking chances with ANY movement – LOL!
Did some major changes with cable ( antenna/speaker/power ) routing and added a 4X8 sheet of plywood to the floor – office chairs truly suck on carpet!
Meanwhile back at the ranch – had a truly scary health issue from about 25 years ago that I thought came back out of remission – but – THAT wasn’t the issue – basically it’s old age creeping up on me – LOL!
And then another time suck occurred – tried to open a port on my router so I could give people access to my SDRplay (nRSP-ST) device. After multiple conversations my internet provider really did not want to help other than to provide me with a listing of ports that cannot be opened due to their security issues. I then started to research the whole open port issue thing and security concerns – that whole thing will drive you half way if not completely nuts. So basically it’s back to SDR Play and find out from them (SDR Play) if I can I plug the thing in to a totally separate internet service and maybe even bypass a router that has nothing to do with my any network and is the server that is built into it robust enough to keep from getting screwed up – or basically if I don’t provide you with a user name and password it can’t be hacked into and chopped into little pieces.
I have a feeling it is heading towards Starlink – and at that point – if needed – a linux box for a firewall – there is some VERY robust firewall stuff (enterprise level) available at little or no cost for linux – I could then set up some file storage options so YOU can set freq and record times and go back and listen when you have available time.
To my friends and acquaintances out there – never fear I’m still alive and kicking – – and to my many enemies out there – fuck you, not dead yet bitches . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Guns, Fun, Food and More