The 2009 CQ WW VHF Contest this weekend.

FYI

The 2009 CQ WW VHF Contest is this weekend. Contest starts 1800 UTC Saturday, July 18th. Ends 2100 UTC Sunday, July 19th. Full details/rules can be found here:

http://www.cqww-vhf.com

This has always been one of my favorite contests. Chances for 6m openings are high and tropo/inversions can make 2m interesting. Since it’s a 6m/2m only contest, it somewhat levels the playing field for the ’small gun’ stations compared to the bigger contests.

I should be on the air from EM78pp for portions of it.

While it’s still too early to predict, the Hepburn Tropo forecast looks hopeful, but it might stay to our south:

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

Looks like the Cincinnati area weather will be very nice too! That’s if the forecast holds, grin. Good contest for operating portable or roving!

While VHF/UHF weak signal activity has been moderate this year, June and thus far July has been full of very nice openings on 6m and even a little 2m eskip for some! Many double hop openings to the west coast and Europe. Some just to the north (EM89) have worked JA’s (Japan) on multi-multi-hop eskip (sure ‘taint F2 skip!).

While looking over the various June logs I can see the QSO counts haven’t been as high as usual, but there’s a lot of interesting contacts and some pretty nice DX in there. So I guess you could say that it’s been quality over quantity this year. Definitely been a good year for 6m operating if you had the patience for it! I know I’ve had a blast with what little and sporadic operating time I’ve had thus far.

TAPR annouces availability of Trimble Thunderbolt GPSDO kits.

TAPR is announcing the availability of Trimble Thunderbolt GPS Disciplined Oscillator (GPSDO ) kits for $130 here. It looks like they are working with the leapsecond.com folks on this deal.

So with a little effort you can have yourself a super accurate 10 MHz  and 1 PPS reference source. The product data sheet (PDF) here will give you a peak into the capabilities of these neat units.

I have one and it’s a jewel of a device and a very handy addition to your test bench. I didn’t get mine through TAPR and had to come up with my own power connector f or it…so the TAPR kits will save you some time.

Note:  You’ll need a +12 VDC, -12 VDC, and +5 VDC power supply for these units. A small PC power supply is probably the easiest approach. You will also need an appropriate GPS antenna.

Ernie Zingleman, KS4Q SK July 9, 2009

Ernie Zingleman, KS4Q passed away on Thursday July 9, 2009 after a year long battle with a brain tumor.

From Ernie’s brother, KJ4FOE’s posting here.

“KS4Q, Ernest J Zingleman passed away Thursday July 9. He had been involved in amateur radio since he was 13 years old. He lost his battle against brain tumors after defeating it once before. Ernie was 45 years old and leaves his wife and three children.

He loved CQ and all things radio and he had many friends around the world.

I knew him for all of his 45 years as he was my only brother.

The funeral will be 10:30 Monday at ST Benedict Church in Johns Creek Georgia

KJ4FOE

Bill Zingleman”

What’s coming in FreeBSD version 8

An interesting summary of what’s coming in the FreeBSD v8.0 release can be found in this blog posting by Ivan Voras titled “What’s cooking for FreeBSD 8?“

Things that caught my eye:

1. A non-GPL3 compiler.

2. Better handling of mounted device removals.

3.  Jails v2

4.  Experimental Xen dom-U support

5.  Updated USB stack.

6.  ULE v3.0

7.  Superpages

8.  DTrace (ongoing)

9.  ProPolice SSP

10.  gvinum v2

Not bad, not bad at all.

NOTE:  FreeBSD v8.0 Beta 1 is available for testing. The announcement can be found here.

Deployment orders revoked for soldier questioning Obama’s citizenship

This story on World Net Daily titled “Bombshell:  Orders revoked for soldier challenging prez” is interesting at best, otherwise disturbing. Read over the whole story linked above, it just gets more interesting as you read along.

Could this be nothing? Or is it that they knew if it actually makes it to trial the discovery process could become a huge problem for Obama?

Why not just produce the long form birth certificate and end all this once and for all?

Personally I hope Obama is a citizen. If he can’t serve as U.S. President due to a citizenship issue, OMG!  First, it would be very damaging to the American psyche. Second, in the minds of many it would destroy any credibility in the election process. Third, riots and so on. Forth, we would get the almost weekly foot in mouth, gaffe machine Biden for President. And we were worried about Palin as VP…yeah right!

While I’m not crazy about members of the military finding reasons to dispute deployments, this whole thing is just weird and suspicious since it’s so easily resolved.

As you read over the whole story it just gets more interesting as you read along. Something here or not? Easy to solve, produce the documents and let’s move on. I think it’s an issue that will have to be dealt with sooner or later, the longer it drags on the worse it will be if the President is found to be  ineligible.

AP News – “Budget deficit tops 1 trillion for the first time”

AP News headline, that should give us all pause, titled “Budget deficit tops 1 trillion for the first time.“

Do I really need to comment much on this one?

It’s called taking a serious recession and turning it into a economic disaster that is quickly heading for an economic catastrophe. Fixing problems caused by excessive spending by spending even more money, just defies all logic. But it’s not about fixing it (yet), it’s about power grabs and political paybacks.

Few key parts:

“WASHINGTON – The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly $2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar.”

and…

“The soaring deficit is making Chinese and other foreign buyers of U.S. debt nervous, which could make them reluctant lenders down the road. It could also force the Treasury Department to pay higher interest rates to make U.S. debt attractive longer-term.

“These are mind-boggling numbers,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Smith School of Business at California State University. “Our foreign investors from China and elsewhere are starting to have concerns about not only the value of the dollar but how safe their investments will be in the long run.”"

and…

“The deficit of $1.09 trillion so far this year compares to an imbalance of $285.85 billion through the same period a year ago. The deficit for the 2008 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, was $454.8 billion, the current record in dollar terms.

Revenues so far this year total $1.59 trillion, down 17.9 percent from a year ago, reflecting higher unemployment, which cuts into payroll taxes and corporate tax receipts.

Under the administration’s budget estimates, the $1.84 trillion deficit for this year will be followed by a $1.26 trillion deficit in 2010, and will never dip below $500 billion over the next decade. The administration estimates the deficits will total $7.1 trillion from 2010 to 2019.”

Zuckerman “The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think”

Mortimer Zuckerman has an interesting Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece titled “The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think.“

It speaks for itself.

Keith Hennessey “Responding to the President’s Op-Ed”

Keith Hennessey has  taken President Obama’s recent Washington Post Op-Ed apart piece by piece in his posting titled “Responding to the President’s Op-Ed.”

Keith does a good job of exposing the heavy political spin and numerous false statements President Obama made in his Op-Ed.

Sarah Palin OpEd “The ‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End”

Sarah Palin has an OpEd titled “The ‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End” over on the Washington Post site.

While of course it’ll drive the Palin haters and attack crew nuts, it is an interesting perspective. Even more interesting when it’s from a governor of a state (Alaska) that knows just a wee bit about energy and environmental issues. I can’t quite make up my mind on her, but I like what I read in her OpEd.

Some of the better parts:

“Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be”

and…

“Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.”

and…

“Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, “poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity.”

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.”

and…

“Of course, Alaska is not the sole source of American energy. Many states have abundant coal, whose technology is continuously making it into a cleaner energy source. Westerners literally sit on mountains of oil and gas, and every state can consider the possibility of nuclear energy.

We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama’s plan will result in the latter.

For so many reasons, we can’t afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.”

Well said and that will resonate with many American’s like myself. I simply find it insane that we can’t have an energy policy that pursues cleaner and more renewable energy sources without causing existing energy sources to be falsely scarce and/or more expensive. If our economy is to fully recover and thrive we MUST have cheap and plentiful energy.

Sarah Palin’s PAC raises nearly 3/4 million in 6 months.

John Bresnahan has an interesting post on the Politico.com site titled “SarahPAC rakes in 733K in 6 months.“

Not too shabby, especially when most SarahPAC donations came from sub $200 donations and very little ‘marketing’ efforts so far. This is also going on while she’s taking donations for her legal defense fund called “The Alaska Fund Trust” which is a separate entity.

Of course this will drive many in the far left insane. Hey, love her or hate her, it’s fun to watch the far left react to her.

Key portions of the story:

“The majority of the money raised by SarahPAC so far has come in the form of “unitemized contributions,” meaning donations of less than $200 each. PACs are not required to name those small donors in their filings with the FEC. The remaining money came through more than 700 different $200-plus contributions made by donors from all around the United States. “

and…

“Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for Palin’s PAC, said, “It was a great first half. Just to put it in perspective, we did it with one event and one e-mail from the governor back in February.”"