Yes, as of the last report it was snowing. It snowed off and on that whole week and I didn’t report about it. It also got damn cold – down to about 15 degrees with a high of 19 one day… but as it turns out up here that slowly gave way to clearer weather and a warming trend…I was making the regular trip to ? Walmart I think, and captured this Sundog… a sun rainbow through ice crystals..
It took a full week to do that so I stayed inside and worked on some Raspberry pi projects. I have some radio Hotspots and most are based on Raspberry Pi. A very small computer that can do just about anything but I am focused on Ham Radio stuff. So I updated the software and updated the color screen on a couple of mine. Many have no screen or a teeny tiny OLED thing that an old man can’t see from a couple of feet…
The teeny tiny screen but the unit is barely bigger than half a deck of cards…
So I put on an enhanced small screen that would do some more fancy stuff. No I didn’t write the program as such, but I did have to edit it for my particulars…
This unit is a about 3 or 4 times as big, but is way more useful on DMR radio – monitors two time slots. The enhanced screen allows the unit to actually work as a touch screen with a power off and a reboot and some other nice features. It is still a bit small but visible and the color is real nice… Not satisfied I then programmed up a 7 inch screen for touch operations…
Much nicer and you can see the difference of it and the 3.2 inch in the back ground. Now I need to come up with a way to mount or put some of these in a control box that will be a bit more protected. Always something to work on and improve on.
On another note, Last Saturday was a “Tech” day that members of the local ham radio club – W0TLM – put on every year. Generally they try to have presentations about stuff that newly licensed Technicians and or Generals would find interesting. Building antennas, operation on a net, operations of a station, unique opportunities for portable ops, and QRP stuff. I had not made the last ones so I went to this one for half the day and it was interesting and well worth the time to review a lot of things you forget.
This week has been more of the same, tinker with one project then the other. I did get back to cutting and making Angels… but ran out of some critical beads…
I don’t know why but I got into this several years ago… I make these in the fall and usually give them all away and then make Hummingbirds in spring and summer and give them away… When I get real industrious I might build an airplane. All three Grandsons have at least 3 or 4 hanging in their rooms. I have made theirs out of special cans that I carried back from Algeria years ago… It is a nice break from other activities and I can use my hands and clear my mind….
Next up, I had been procrastination on putting up the next shelf on the Ham Radio/Computer desk. finally decided to just hang it on the wall. Easy up/ Easy Down and moveable. The desk I made several months ago out of an old Door and some 1/2 inch plywood. amazing how nice a desk that can make. I put on many coats of finish so if I spill something it wont be critical and it is really pretty solid. I then used an old bi-fold door for the shelves. That door had to be replaced when it fell out during some other re-work and punched the handles through the core. I hid the holes on the bottom back side and you can’t tell and I find they don’t sag as bad as a pieces of 1 inch solid board or plywood with fewer supports.
So now the operations desk is at this point. I can’t say done but likely won’t do much more?
It was nice and warm today and I had intended to get out and put in a few miles but we had to go pick a pumpkin for GS#3…
Great event with the firemen there, had at least 3 big trucks there for the kids to see and check out and …. lots of people there to pick out a pumpkin… Along with the Douglass county human group and they were having an adoption event…
We then went to check if the other farm store still had chickens, not little ones but full size , we were too late they were all gone… but GS#3 had to try on some Cowboy hats… he has been watching old westerns and Gun Smoke… had to have a farm set to play with along with all the cars…
He is posing and peaking in the mirror on that side…
That rounds out the weeks in past. other than we made a trip to Denver so GS3 and GS2 could have a play day… and boy did they… all the pictures I got of that were too dark, oh well. They were happy.
WD0AJG