Copasetic Flow

Back in January, I started to simplify the free ham radio practice exams so they'd be easier for the gang—two of whom are learning to program—and I to update in the future. It. Was. Hard. I fought and fought and finally located the Google App Engine debug console where I could change a file at a time, (and actually see a listing of files.) That console has since been deprecated and dropped, (unbeknownst to me.) Consequently, when 12 year-old Daize and I tried to add a simple fix to a misformatted question this morning… Nope! Oh well. I went through the 7 stages of grieving, but really fast this time, and then went to look for Google App Engine deployment too for Python . Fortunately, it still exists! Now it’s called the Google Cloud CLI . Installation was actually straightforward, and since I stored the entire applciation in github including the app.yaml file, deployment was pretty easy as well. We're back up and running! Refererces Free ham radio exam practice app

I'm playing with Django, a really snazzy template based, database backed web app engine, again this week. I originally encountered the tool when I started making Google App Engine applications years ago. One of the last extant apps from that era is my ham radio exam practice app. This week, while ramping up another project, I did something new, I connected Django to a PostgreSQL database . I'd always used MySQL in the past. There were  steps. They weren't particularly difficult, but I couldn't find much in the way of documentation, and when I did, following the steps in order didn't work for me. Here's what did: Install psycopg2 . (You may need to install psycopg instead depending on your version of Django. Django does a good job of telling you what it actually needs later in the process. Of course, make sure PostgresSQL is already up and running. You'll need to be able to access the postgres user who's default password is in fact postgres. Setup up th...

Earlier this year, the 10 year old known as Tawnse in these pages, and I went on a camping trip. On our way back, I came across literal found footage of strange lights in the sky that I hadn't realized we recorded. The kid and I figured out what it was, but it took a QRP ham radio to make the call. I wrote up the whole story in an article at DesignNews .

It’s interesting. Once I’ve done a four hour hike to 10,800 feet, tasks like ‘Install Jenkins’ just take the amount of time they take. It’s interesting how much time they take, but the more interesting thing—I think—is that I’m not getting irritated by it. I can just communicate how long all of this takes, make notes—calmly—and move on with my life. The Jenkins install doesn’t need to be the heroic effort in my life. I already did that, and got whatever chemicals (endorphins?) in the process. I kind of wish it didn’t require the levels of activity it does to bring me to a calm spot, but…. Using my job to get there isn’t working anymore, while the physical activity is, and I’ll take it. I’d rather be calm in my job and set expectations based on no more than I should reasonably be doing .

I got to do a quick POTA actviation of Fishlake National Forest last night. Mapping out the calls revealed things about the landscape. Looking at the QSOs map tonight, I immediately saw a limiting case. The QSOs to Oregon and Louisiana make almost a straight line. Zooming in on them shows 'wall' defined by that line.Rotating the heading of the map though, shows the hill right behind the antenna site. The radio waves in that direction went straight into the hill. References: Fishlake National Forest K-4396

 The (newly) three quarter watt Rockmite ham radio reached Hungary from Great Basin National Park a few days ago! Maui relayed the receive side from Hungary. A few days ago, a POTA outing from Great Basin National Park ( K-0032 ) had kind of petered out. I listened for the RockMite on the Maui software defined radio , SDR, because—for whatever reason—I can usually find the 20 meter output of the RockMite there during the day whether I'm operating from San Francisco or Great Basin. Sure enough, there was the station: But, this time, I heard another station as I listened. And! They were calling me! A bit more listening revealed that it was HA9RE . I answered back on the RockMite, where I could not hear HA9RE, and was immediately rewareded with his answer which I could only hear on the Maui SDR. Here a few more vidoes that detail the contact, the first ever software defined radio relayed contact with the Rockmite! From the IRL point of view: From the SDR point of view: ...

 A fairly gentle hike led to a QSO with Japan at 3/4 watts, and a brand new SOTA ham radio activation. Summit:  W7N/WP-147  8340 Getting there Welp, there's no public transit avilaable to this particular summit, so the gang and I drove.  If you're not from the area, and you're able to, plug in the cooridnates of the peak and let Google plot a route for you. You'll also want to download the offline Google maps for the area; there's plenty of phone signal at the summit, but there are places on the drive in where there’s none at all. Google Maps led us through several forks in the gravel/dirt road to a location just to the south of the summit.  If you stop where we did, you may notice a set of tire tracks that lead most of the way up to the mountain’s central ridge. They make for a nice easy start to the hike. When the tire tracks peter out, you can navigate the rest of the way up on a variety of game trails. My path deposited me on a picturesque saddle in the ridg...