MORE TFW PIX

"MEDICAL EMERGENCIES"


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Everyone seems to like doing studies on one thing or the other and I'm no exception. My idea came to me via an EBAY auction. My item was sold, and a day or two later I got the "I can't pay for this item due to a medical emergency..." email. If you've sold anything on EBAY I'm pretty sure that you've had similar situations, and after giving it some thought for awhile I realized that I've had at least four of these "Medical Emergency" emails since the first of the year, and who knows how many over years gone by.

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Having worn my brain out from all that thinking, I figured that some Government agency should spend a ton of money on a study to determine if people who are magnets for medical emergencies are sucked into EBAY for the purpose of screwing up an auction. So if you happen to be a Government agency who is looking for a reason to spend money on a study - this could be it....
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73
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WOODY
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TEXAS FRIGHTMARE WEEKEND

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2010

DEAR YAESU.....

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I'm a member of a lot of Yahoo Radio "Groups", one of the more fervent being the FT-817 group. If you have questions, it's a good place to get answers (search the message base before asking though), especially when it comes to the type of portable antennas that are being used, along with associated tuners and their "Pros & Cons".

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It wasn't long ago that someone started a "WISH" thread - something they'd like to see on the next generation of 817's. There were many additions to the original wish, but I didn't recall seeing something that I'd like to see, and could possibly be done by either Yaesu or a 3rd party manufacturer. My wish: a deluxe external microphone, similar to the MH-29 speaker/mic (which is why I used my picture of the MH-29 to reference what I wanted).

The microphone would have a display on it which would indicate frequency, signal strength, mode, voltage, and whatever internal features were activated (in my example I just have the noise-blanker on-screen). The up/down buttons on top of the mike would change frequency in either direction, and you'd have a double row of buttons below the display, each having their own function with 2 programmable buttons. The "AMP" button would activate or deactivate the microphone amplifier (a circuit similar to the One Big Punch), while the Dx/Bx button would allow the operator to choose between two different internal microphone elements (imagine an HC-5/4 combo). This would let the portable wanderer have his trusty FT-817 slung from a shoulder strap or secured on backpack, and be able to talk and walk without having to actually fumble around with the transceiver. Yeah, I know - it's pipe dream, however, it's MY pipe dream....

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73

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WOODY
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REVIEW: SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD

In this latest installment of George Romero's Zombie series I think Robin and I watched the movie much like it was filmed - half asleep (in some cases, sleep writing, acting, etc.). There's not a lot to get excited about here; Yes, there is actually a character carryover arch that you don't usually find, and yes, there's a zombie who likes to ride horses, but even Mr. Romero himself has said that he didn't plan on doing another zombie film (after "Diary of the Dead") for at least another four or five years until the studio waved a bunch of money at him. I'm not sure if the wait would have helped, and George is such a good Director it's a shame that he doesn't get much chance to do it unless Zombies are involved.

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Imagine a zombie movie on an Island that is populated (present day) by two feuding Irish families that dress and talk like cowboys, located off the US coast, then figure it out yourself. The film is being shown this weekend and perhaps one other before going direct-to-video.

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2 stars out of 5

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Woody

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INTERESTING..

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For a similar interpretation about Radio Shack and the article in WIRED, check out the story on the ARRL website by one of their editors. I guess that article in WIRED was good enough to inspire a couple different memories about Rat Shack, etc. (either that or I better start wearing aluminum foil over my head to keep my thoughts from being read). I think I'll go with the WIRED article being so good.....

RADIO SHACK

ALLIED/RADIO SHACK

1983 Catalog

Unfortunately Radio Shack (which back in the day wasn't even close to LRE) continues down the path towards becoming just another cell phone store. I don't think it's the future they laid out decades ago, but more a matter of self preservation - they want to survive. They are even marketing themselves as "The Shack" in commercials. Lord, the price you pay to be cool. The other stuff we used to depend on them for (resistors, capacitors, bread boards, wire, solder, transistors, etc.) have all but disappeared completely from many Radio Shack stores. I have one close to me and it still has a few things that I can count on, for instance, resistors. I stopped there in search of a resistor to do the fan mod for an FT-100D, and found it. It wasn't easy to find, but it was there. I could have gone to FRY'S, which is only about two miles further, but I thought that if the local RS had it, I'd support them.

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If anyone subscribes to the magazine "WIRED", then check out the May issue. On page 076 they have a pretty good article on Radio Shack which starts off telling the tale of franchise owner Andy Cohen who has his store in California looking more like Lafayette Radio Electronics than Radio Shack. He and his manager stock a bunch of items for do-it-yourself solder heads like myself, and have a loyal customer base of local experimenters. The article is 5 pages, which seems like a lot considering what the "Shack" does now, but it does tell the story of a company trying to stay in business. It also led me to Mike D'Alessio's very cool website! Mike took almost 70 years of catalogs, scanned them, and put them online so with just a mouse-click you can pick one and start flipping pages (a link to the website can be found with my other favorite links on the right).

I've been busy with another project or two, and haven't kept any posts going, but after reading the article and Mikes' website I thought I'd jump over to the blog machine and let ya know about it -

73

Woody
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