EME "Go Work Yourself"

As you may know or not know I am a Ham Radio Operator. I have did or at least tried about everything that the hobby has to offer. EME (earth moon earth) is the hardest contact to make. I have contacted more than sixty stations throughout the world that encludes stations on all continents (WAC). Here is a video that will describe some of the high points of a EME station....... Jack WB9OTX
See my EME logbook   See my EME antennas

EME "Go Work Yourself"
Pete N8PR dropped by our booth in Orlando to tell us a story, and we roped him into talking about one of this passions - EME (Earth-Moon-Earth). With new software and techniques, you don't need that monster station anymore. But you'll need more than an HT. Somewhere in between....

MOTOROLA SB6121 SURFboard Cable Modem

Comcast Cable a few days ago upgraded their Internet speed, but you have to have a new modem to take advantage of the speed. I ordered the Motorola SB6121 and attempted the install. The easy way did not work so I had to call Comcast. The first call lasted about 35 minutes before I was disconnected. The seconded call lasted about 5 minutes. Comcast was to call me back and keep me in the cue. They did call back but the young lady switched me to someone else. I listened to music and advertisements for 30 minutes. Finally a very nice man came on the line and after 45 minutes I was up and connected to the internet. This long wait is common with Comcast, but what can you do? The speed jumped from 30 to 55 after the install. I am among the few that needs this speed, most would not. But if you want the very fastest and want to spend $77 and go threw the hassle to set it up I can recommend the SB6121 SURFboard.
Get it from New Egg or I'm sure at Best Buy or other local computer dealers.

When / What is Easter?

Easter day is the first Sunday after the 14th day of the lunar month (the nominal full moon) that falls on or after 21 March (nominally the day of the vernal equinox). For determining the feast, Christian churches settled on a method to define a reckoned "ecclesiastical" full moon, rather than observations of the true Moon. Eastern Orthodox Christians calculate the fixed date of 21 March according to the Julian Calendar rather than the modern Gregorian Calendar, and use an ecclesiastical full moon that occurs four to five days later than the western ecclesiastical full moon.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches. Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life in Christ Jesus.



The Easter Bunny is perhaps the biggest commercial symbol of Easter. But how did a rabbit and eggs become associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well there clearly seems to be no correlation between the secular symbols and the Christian holiday. While the first known mentions of the bunny tradition appear in 15th century German literature according to Discovery, the bunny has its roots in pre-13th century pagan traditions.
From Discovery:

Great Weather Page

One of the neatest weather pages I've seen is at:
http://forecast.io/

After you arrive at the page move your courser around to see the features of the page. It may ask to use your location, if so click yes to change the globe's location. It reads your computer's IP to set your location.

The Commodore 64 introduced in 1982

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced in 1982 by Commodore International. Its low retail price and easy availability led to the system becoming the market leader for three years. It remains the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.
Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$ 595.Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM, and had favorable sound and graphical specifications when compared to contemporary systems such as the Apple II, at a price that was well below the circa US$ 1200 demanded by Apple.
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Punxsutawney Phil 'indicted'

Punxsutawney Phil

That's what one of his handlers, John Griffiths, declares in response to an "indictment" that the Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor issued Thursday against Pennsylvania's famous weather-predicting groundhog. Apparently frosted over Ohio's cold start to the spring season, prosecutor Mike Gmoser accuses Phil of "misrepresentation of spring." On Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, Phil did not see his shadow. By legend, that portends an early spring. But in an official-looking document, Gmoser alleges that Phil acted "with prior calculation and design" to cause people to believe that spring would arrive early.
Read the full story

7:02AM EDST March 20 Spring

Spring is one of the four conventional temperate seasons, following winter and preceding summer. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and customs. At the spring equinox, days are close to 12 hours long with day length increasing as the season progresses. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, and regrowth.

The Northward equinox (or March equinox) is the equinox on the earth when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading northward. The Northward equinox is the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.
The equinox can be as early as March 19 or as late as March 21, the precise time being about 5 hours 49 minutes later in a common year, and about 18 hours 11 minutes earlier in a leap year, than in the previous year. It is the balance of common years and leap years that keeps the calendar date of the equinox from drifting more than a day from 20 March each year.
Read more from: wikipedia.org

March 20,1942 – General Douglas MacArthur

General Douglas MacArthur 

After being forced to flee the Philippines,  General Douglas MacArthur announced in Terowie, South Australia,
"I shall return."
MacArthur is one of my heroes....... Jack.
Read more about him

If power goes out, will my phone still work?

It depends on the type of phone you have. "Corded" phones require no electricity and plug into the wall jack. These phones should not be affected by power outages. Most "cordless" phones require a base station plugged into an electrical outlet. The base station transmits telephone signals wirelessly to each hand held phone. If there is no power to the base station, the phone will not receive telephone signals.
Cell phones will work as the tower has back up batteries. If you are one of the 52 % that does not have a cell phone you can plug in a corded phone either a dial phone or a touch tone. These types of phones do not get their power from house current, so they will work fine. You say you don't have a corded phone, well they are very low priced so get one. I have two that I keep in a closet just in case. By the way when the cell phones are overloaded or the batteries run down they don't work either. eBay is a good place to get an old dial phone. Just do a search for "dial phone".

How SETI at home works

"phone home."
The UC Berkeley SETI team has discovered that there are already thousands of computers that might be available for use. Most of these computers sit around most of the time with toasters flying across their screens accomplishing absolutely nothing and wasting electricity to boot. This is where SETI AT home (and you!) come into the picture. The SETI AT home project hopes to convince you to allow us to borrow your computer when you aren't using it and to help us "…search out new life and new civilizations." We'll do this with a screen saver that can go get a chunk of data from us over the internet, analyze that data, and then report the results back to us. When you need your computer back, our screen saver instantly gets out of the way and only continues it's analysis when you are finished with your work.
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And even More
If your ready to help
Download the software

Logitech Harmony 300 remote

When I was a young kid my dad had a remote control for the TV, It was me. He would say see what else is on Jack. But I was lucky, there were only three channels, 5 9 & 12. Today we could have fifty or even a hundred channels on the TV, plus a DVD player, an audio surround sound amp, a Cable box, or a Satellite receiver. My table beside my favorite char hosted six remotes. My wife even bought a very nice holder for them. It was a challenge for anyone but myself to run the system. My wife was always messing it up by pushing the incorrect buttons. It was a nightmare turning everything on or off. Today this all came to an end with one and only one remote. I purchased a Logitech Harmony 300 remote. The 300 is the most simplest and cheapest in their line of remotes. It will control four units of any components you may have. You do this by programming the control with the database Logitech has via the internet. Collect the model numbers then go online, type them into a downloadable program on your computer. The remote is programmed by a USB connection  It worked perfect, even the audio amp. I was never able to find the codes for it but there they were in the database. What a blessing to only have one remote. You ask about the cost ? I found the 300 from $9.00 to $60.00 - Shop around for the best price. eBay has a large selection with all kinds of prices. That's where I purchased mine. Make sure you have the correct USB cable or get one that comes with the remote. Your gonna like it ! ...... Jack

Jeff Gordon takes a Test Drive

Milan, Indiana wins the 1954 State Basket Ball Championship

I was just waiting on lunch to be ready and was flipping channels on the TV. I came across the movie "Hoosiers", I remember posting a video on YouTube a few years ago so I went looking for it. Here are two that I found, the 1st was filmed by unknown, The 2nd was Camera by: Bob Ashcraft Edited by: Charles Ashchraft & Jack Demaree ...... Jack



Milan team returns home -

My mind wonders

I just finished watching a TV show on the science channel. A lot of the things they talked about was very hard for me to understand or for that matter even imagine.  My mind wonders at times about things that I'm sure most never considers. I often think if we are not the only life in the universe and they travel to earth what would it be like for us here. I think of an ant hill located in my lower yard. This ant hill is about 1/2 mile from Versailles. Do you think the ants even know there is a town 1/2 mile away. The distance to them is unthinkable. To the ants I am the alien that walks to the lower yard. I stand at a distance observing them, now I decide I don't think I like a very large ant hill in my yard. First I kick at it and the ants try to repair the damage. Do the ants even know I exist  or cause them a threat? I bet not. A few days later I am mowing the yard and mow past the ant hill. I deside I do not want the ant hill in my yard anymore. I park the running lawn mower over the ant hill for about 15 minutes. When I move the mower the ant hill is leveled and the ants are no where to be seen. Now the ants are gone from my yard, but were they hurting me, no I just decided I don't like this lower class life in my domain. This could happen when the space ship from another universe lands on earth and decides they don't like our human race bothering them as we would be like the ants to us. Another way this could turn out. We all like our pets. They may try to teach us tricks or provide us with a better life just like we do with our cat or dog. As I said my mind wonders, think about it......... Jack

Would you run your business this way ?

As of 2013, it costs more than eleven cents to produce a nickel; the Mint is investigating using less expensive metals.
from: wikipedia.org

Hinckley Ohio Buzzards

Every year on March 15 since 1957, the city of Hinckley Ohio has eagerly awaited the return of the buzzards at "Buzzards' Roost" at the Hinckley Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metroparks.

The buzzard, a common name for the "turkey vulture," is a large graceful bird with a bald head and red beak. No relation to the black, Old World vulture family, which includes the eagle, hawk, and kite, the buzzard is native to the Americans from southern Canada to the tip of Cape Horn.
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This year with the relatively mild winter the buzzards never left. Almost every day you could see them feeding on road kill or circling in the sky. They will be seen for sure on March 21.........Jack

COMPLETE and FINISHED

Some say there is no difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED. Please explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED in a way that is easy to understand.

Here is his astute answer: "When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE. But, when you marry the wrong woman, you are FINISHED. And when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!"
Samsundar Balgobin