Ham Radio vertical antennas

It has been said that a vertical antenna radiates equally poor in all directions. I have found this to be somewhat true, but I have a full size 1/4 wave 40 meter vertical that will work the far East or Pacific if you want to stay up late enough. If you want your vertical to work greater distances you must get the angle of radiation lower to the horizon. To do this you need radials and lots of them. 120 would be perfect but with the price of copper wire I would shoot for 60. You don't see many verticals with 60 radials because the wire is costly and you have to keep them out of the lawn mowers reach. I dug mine in with shovel and ax. It was much work and I don't think I would do it now with my age. A better way is to have it done by a underground dog fence installer. He has a machine that will do the job in no time at all and the rates are very low. An installer that will cover Southeast Indiana is: Invisible Fence with the phone of 812-539-3647

Broadband speed test

Everyone that is on DSL, cable, or satellite are always interested in their download speed. Am I getting what I'm paying the big bucks for is always the question. I have found a site that does a very good job for this information. Unlike most speed test pages there is no restrictions or no questions ask such as your email or sign up. Try it to see if your ISP is delivering what you are paying for. I find that my wireless network to my laptop is 2/3rds slower than my hard wired system. Can you beat my speed ?
http://www.speedtest.net/

How to beat carnival games

When I was very young my Mom took me to the Pumpkin Show as we call it. It is an annual street fair held at Versailles, In. The town square is littered with rides and games. I had a dollar just about to burn a hole in my pocket. I had rode some rides and now before heading home I told my Mother I wanted a teddy bear. I spotted some nice big panda bears in one game booth that I thought I would love to win. My Mother said you would never win one but its your dollar. The barker encouraged me to play and would not hand me the baseball till he gathered a crowd to watch. He handed me the ball, I tossed it and the big cat fell off the stand. I won ! Now he went into the speal that if this little kid could win all of you can to. Well I don't know if he could control the winner or not but I took the teddy bear home with me. I have been fascinated with street fair games ever sense and have tried to understand the art of the scams. By the way I still have a picture of me and the teddybear. If you want some inside information on how to win at these games (may be) look at this page.
http://vt.essortment.com/beatcarnivalga_rayx.htm

Ripley Computer Service

A new page has just been added to my collection. It features all of the companies that I have for sponsors. It has a modern new look about it. I think you will like it. See it at:
http://ripleycounty.net/rcs
There is also a link from:
http://ripleycounty.net

Versailles Legion Memorial Day 2007

I have uploaded a video slide show to YouTube. It features Memorial Day services of 2007 start to finish of the day's events.. Please watch, then rate the video. Broadband works best, but if on dial-up, pause it for a minute or so to buffer the download, then click play.
The YouTube URL is:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PGy64jazWrY
See all my videos at:
http://wb9otx.com/youtube

codecs are not cameras

Streaming video on the web is created in many different formats including DivX, XviD and AC3. In order to view these streams you need special decoders, called codecs.

The best free collection of third party codecs comes from http://xcodecpack.net/downloads.html and not only does it incorporate into Windows Media Player, it includes a copy of Media Player Classic. It will play nearly anything without the overhead of the full-blown WiMP.

From the GuruNews

For Geeks Only

I find that I am very weird and do things that most people don't. Ever so often I do find a person that wants to do as I do but ithis is rare. You see I love 50 & 60's music, this is what I listened to when I was a teenager and younger.
I built many crystal radio sets and one and two tube sets when I was about 12. I collected every broken radio that people put out for trash. Some I fixed most were cut up for parts. The first transistor radio I ever seen was shown to me in about 1954. An engineer for G.E. had a prototype, it was AM only with no speaker, only an earphone. This was before FM became popular so most radios did not have it. Radios then were measured in the number of transistors, 4, 6, or 8. Six was the standard and this was way before they had ICs. Small was what everyone wanted back then, but by the time I was 18 or so bigger was better. Boom Boxes were the thing when I was in the army. I remember this very well as I had a big boom box resting on an open window sill in my army billets, when I returned from the shower It was gone (stolen). I worked for Townsend Tree service one Summer and the spray truck I drove had no radio. I tied a portable radio onto the westcoast mirror for my listing pleaser. The same was done when I worked for UPS, but it had to be hidden, NO Radios Allowed. Now I listen to digital satellite radio. I have it on a special boom box they call a roadie, also I can pipe XM radio into my sound system for home listing. I also have it on my Direc-TV system. This I record eight hours at a time on DVD were it can be played on a computer or DVD set-top player. I also convert the DVD audio to MP3 format so it can be played on a very small digital MP3 player. Sorry I got carried away, now I'm going to tell you what I was thinking about when I started out with this. I use a program called "Total Video Converter" to convert the video file to MP3. Ever so often a sensible priced program comes along that will do exactly what you want it to do. This program will set you back about $40.00 but it is well worth the price. If you are into You Tube or for that matter any type of video this is almost a must have program. You can plug your cam corder into the DVD recorder then change the DVD video into about any format such as AVI for You Tube or DivX to save space on your computer's hard drive. I guess most reading this blog will not need this program, but I find in a year or so you may. I seem to run a little ahead I think. Keep it in mind for the future if not needed now. You can read all about it here:
http://www.effectmatrix.com/total-video-converter/index.htm
This is shareware, so you can try it for free then if you like what it does you can get the credit card out.

See you on the Green Keys

Many years ago in my early Ham Radio days teletype was a very popular mode. We called this mode RTTY or the green keys. I had an ASR-28 machine that weighed more than I did. Very noisy, greasy, and took up a lot of room but that was a part of the hobby that these new no code kids will never experience. Now Hams use computers and sound cards to transmit in many digital modes, but RTTY is still one of them. Enough history, I get carried away sometimes. A big part of RTTY was sending photos made up from keyboard characters such as #@&(. I'm sure some government workers spent countless hours making these images to send to each other. I never had the talent to do this, but I can tell you I loved to have one sent to me. Now you can create one of the same in about a snap of the fingers. Pick out a nice photo stored on your computer then go to:
http://photo2text.com/
The outcome will look just as it did when the fan fold paper rolled out of my ASR-28 machine about 30 years ago.

View from about 5 foot away.

No Longer Staffed By Humans

The customer service industry has really been in a downward spiral for a few years now: when the majority of people complain about the lack of actual support, you know something is wrong. What’s worse is that many times you can’t even get in touch with a real, live operator. Instead, you’re stonewalled by a voice-activated or touch-tone menu system.

Thankfully, GetHuman.com tells you what numbers you can call and what steps you need to take to get in touch with a human being. More important, it actually grades the customer service. Sadly, most customer service scores are no better than a D.

From Lockergnome newsletter

One more slide show

OK, I think that last slide show was to intense for most computers. Here is another one that I think your computer will be happy with. Unlike the last one this one works best with Windows Internet Explorer. It will display in FireFox but not correctly. This one I will keep on the Web and most likely delete the other. Let me know any bugs you find. Send your report to:
jack.demaree@gmail.com.
Here you can find the new slide show:
http://wb9otx.com/slideshow2/

Be My Beta Tester

I worked a couple of hours on this new Web Page and I have it working the way I wanted it to in Fire Fox, but Internet Explorer (IE) is another deal all together with Bill's (Microsoft) ActiveX. I use FireFox and I have preached to you at no end to use it also. So I set the page up for it, but it will work with IE, just not as I would like it. Give it a try and please let me know the bugs you find. It does not have any link to it other than this one. You should have the QuickTime player installed to see the slideshow. If you don't have it (and you should) get it here.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
Uncheck the boxes and don't enter your email, click download then install.
If the music stops & starts try IE - You should have broadband and a fast computer.
Email me with what you find at jack.demaree@gmail.com
Here is the page:
http://ripleycounty.net/slideshow/

Crude (Oil) Video

This may be the most important video you will ever watch. It is about oil from start to finish. Give yourself about 1/2 hour to view the presentation. Have your young children watch it with you as it will concern them more in the future than you. A lot of time and work went into this video and I hope you will absorb a great deal of facts from it. It will open your eyes to the fact that we are on the down hill slope of oil usage. I think you should have broadband (cable or DSL) to view it. The video is on the left of the page. Please watch the video at:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/crude/

Herman W. Jahnigen Tribute on You Tube

Ripley County Indiana's most decorated veteran. He was a member of the 508th Parachute Infantry of the 82nd Airborne Division and participated in the D-Day landing at Normandy. He also participated in the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded on June 9, 1944 in the European Theatre. Mr. Jahnigen's citations included the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Silver Star, European Campaign Medal, Victory Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation, French Fourragere, Netherlands Citation, and the Normandy, Belgium, French, and American Defense Medals. On June 27, 1945 he received a battlefield commission promoting him to Lieutenant.

After two hours of converting video I finally managed to get it right and uploaded to YouTube. Herman was a dear friend of mine and I feel he never received the credit he deserved. Here with the Internet and YouTube all can give him the credit he well deserved for helping make the USA free for you and I. Please forward this link to others you know.
See the Tribute here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=W19piKpcNBU

See all of my videos here:
http://wb9otx.com/youtube/

Another Phish in the Internet sea

I get this one or one like it several times a day. "Don't go for it". You will get more grief than pictures !

Hello! I am bored this evening. I am nice girl that would like to chat with you. Email me at xxx@yyy.zzz only. I will show you some of my private pictures.

Bogus e-greeting cards

Bogus e-greeting cards `phishing' for your data

Next time you find one of those electronic greeting cards in your inbox from Hallmark, examine it carefully. Instead of offering good wishes, it could be a ``phishing'' scam designed to steal your money, credit-card numbers or identity. Customers alerted Hallmark Cards to a bogus e-card notification in circulation that is ``strikingly similar'' to the real thing, said Kristi Ernsting, spokeswoman for the Kansas City, Mo., card company. The phony e-card alert reports to be from Hallmark and instructs the recipient to click a link to view the greeting. Clicking the link to the e-card could trigger installation of a virus or spyware, helping thieves capture private information. With legitimate e-cards, the e-mail notification comes from the actual sender's e-mail address. In addition, the subject line in a legitimate e-card includes the name of the sender. A bogus e-mail says "You've received a Hallmark E-Card" or "You've received an E-Card from a family member". The best idea is to send and receive cards via the Post Office, not from the Internet. I receive hundreds of emails per day, but in the last few weeks I have received about 10 bogus E-cards. Best idea "Don't Click" and make sure you update your virus and spyware programs. A safer email program is Thunderbird. Its free and you can download it from:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
If you do not have a virus program one of the best is AVG, it is also free and you can get it here:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/
Ad Aware is a free program to help you remove spyware and malware from your computer. Get it here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Please do not click the pop-ups that claim you are infected with spyware. These are bogus and only plant trouble to no end on you system.

Old may be the best

My son showed up today with a new notebook computer just out of the box. It was loaded with Vista and I couldn't wait to connect it to my WiFi (wireless) network. I fiddled with this unfamiliar OS for more than 20 minutes trying to log on, finally poof I was on, what I was doing wrong I haven't a clue. The 3D stuff that popped up all over I could do without, also with almost every key punch a balloon appeared telling me "are you sure you want to do that". Sure I wanted to do that or I wouldn't have clicked or pushed enter. There may be a way to shut all of this garbage off but I didn't get that far. We loaded a mapping program and with the loading of the 2nd CD it crashed the system. I guess I'm an old fuddy-duddy but I think the next computer I get will be home made with XP loaded for the OS. I was not impressed with Bill's latest mess.

Smokey The Bear

Great page for young kids, old kids, little kids, and big kids.

http://www.smokeybear.com/

Free - Audio Editor (simple)

In a resent post I told you where you could find some nice sound bites. Other than just listening to them, what do you do with them ? Well here is your answer. Edit them or combine them with others. The software I use sells for hundreds of dollars, but it is very powerful and overkill for the most of you. here is a small (less than a meg) that will do most of the basic tasks. One thing it will do that mine will not is split MP3 files. (nothing is perfect) Below is from their web page. Oh I forgot, its free.

Shuangz Audio Editor is a free audio editor tool. It can accurately split WAV, MP3 and WMA files, and you can also design specially good effects for audio files, such as setting volume, fading in and fading out, etc.
http://www.shuangzsoft.com/Shuangz_Audio_Editor.asp

Please support my sponcers

Give'm a click:
http://skfuneralhome.com/ Stratton - Karsteter Funeral Home
http://filtersfuneralhome.com Filter's Funeral Home
http://frenchsurvey.com/ French & Associates Land Surveying
http://boschlights.com/ Bosch Lights
http://turnoverballhitch.com/ Turnover Ball Hitch
http://betty.wb9otx.com/ The Master's Message
http://ripleycounty.net/cube/3dcube.htm put Your Business online
IX Web Hosting - I host my pages here, you should to

7.7.7

Today is 777 and that won't happen again for a long long time again, Enjoy it.

YouTube - 7.7.7
YouTubers will gather in NYC.
Watch video - 2 min 21 sec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCAeq5kE0Ko

you have ta be in the mood

A longe time ago a fellow told me "you have ta be in the mood to paint" and maybe you have to be in the mood to code web pages. I suppose the sign must have been right today as I changed, added, and deleted a lot of the pages on RipleyCounty Dot Net and WB9OTX Dot Com. These pages have been an ongoing hobby for several years and I enjoy doing them. These pages are for you and you the web surfer must like them as the hit count is at the106,000 mark. Thanks to my sponsors for the help in deferring the cost of domain names and storage. Please support them as without the sponsors there would be no pages from me. Shop local when you can.
http://www.ripleycounty.net
http://www.wb9otx.com

Home security system

Video Home security system.
At 3:30 AM this morning a load buzz from my motion decters sounded. I awoke from a deep sleep and switched on the flood lamps lighting the property up like daylight to find nothing. I have this home security system to detect people that have vandalized my property in the past. It comes at a great cost but with the past things that have went on I feel it well worth the cost. At any rate the next morning I flipped the camera viewer on and looked starting at 3:15 AM. As the clock on the cameras came to 3:30 AM there was the intruder. He was big, had a mask about his eyes, and was running. He cut through my car port and across the front porch. Yep, it was a very large raccoon. I gave out a short chuckle then rewound the DVR back in time to show my wife the masked intruder. All is well but the motion detectors and the cameras did the job. I hope to never need the evidence they will provide, but it will be there if needed in the future.

Flash Earth

I love maps and satellite photos and if you do to here is another cool one for you to play with.

http://www.flashearth.com/

Sound Snaps

Sound Snaps is place to find all of those weird sound bites that you need for making tracks for videos or just listing for fun. I have added many files to my collection from this nicely put together page. If you need them or just for fun get'm here:
http://www.soundsnap.com/
Want to hear a few of my sound bite collection, listen here:
http://ka9rut.tripod.com/

Cleaning your LCD screen

Here are some tips to cleaning your LCD screen - computer or TV:

• Use clean water, such as distilled water. Do not use tap water as it contains a lot of nasty stuff that could harm your display.
• Use a soft fiber cloth, such as micro-fiber cloth hat you use to clean your glasses, or a soft cloth towel.
• Do not use anything abrasive, such as paper towels, napkins, or tissue paper.
• Do not use anything corrosive, such as alcohol or acid.

To began with I try to not clean the screen anymore than I have to. Distilled water and a clean soft cotton towel seems to do the job for me. Never use Windex on anything, it contains amonia . Use glass plus (has no amonia) on your CRT screen.

Versailles Live Web Cam

I have changed my Versailles Web Cam page to display my home security cameras at 640 X 480 pixels. This is double the size from before. You may have to refresh the page to see the new format. I hope to mount a camera at the top of my Ham radio tower soon. This will get one of the views above the trees. Stay tuned for the change.
The Versailles Live Web Cam is here:
http://webcam.wb9otx.com/cam

Car Show and Lions Chicken BBQ - Versailles Squ.

The Versailles Legion Car Show and Lions Chicken BBQ photos have been posted for view at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.demaree/LegionCarShow2007
I have also posted some very nice views of the Versailles town square taken Sunday morning July 1, 2007. I stitched a few together for a panoramic view. See these at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.demaree/VersaillesTownSquare
As always all of my public photos can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.demaree
These photos are "Just for You",
Jack