OK, here’s my results from the 2009 ARRL January VHF contest… I ran FM on 2m and 440, with 75w on a JPole for 2 but only 5w on my HT/whip for 440, which was the reason for the low Q# there. For some reason, I’m missing Q number 13, as well. Huh.

I will also, later, have the results from the W2WHS Webster High Schools Amateur Radio Club effort in the contest.

Contacts: 29 (25 2m, 4 440)
Contact-points: 33 (25pts 2m + 8pts 440)
Grids: 4 (FN12, FN13, FN02, FN03)
Total grids: 6 (FN12 2m/440, FN13 2m/440, FN03 2m, FN02 2m)
Final Score: 33 pts x 6 grids = 198 points

Well, I decided, this weekend, to contact K2NNY, a station operated from Northern New York by some members of the Rochester DX Association for the 2008 ARRL Sweepstakes Phone. So, I heard them, and tried to call them, but they weren’t answering, so I decided to make some contacts and try later. Before I knew it, I had 144 contacts, and it was the next day!

So, without further ado, here are my stat’s from this year’s sweepstakes, my first ever:

Contacts Made: 144

Bands Operated: 80, 40, 20

Sections Worked: 45 unique, as follows: 18 VA, 16 MDC, 10 IL, 9 OH, 7 MI, 5 MO, 5 IN, 4 WMA, 4 WI, 4 STX, 4 NC, 3 SD, 3 MR, 3 ME, 3 LA, 3 ENY, 3 EMA, 2 WNY, 2 TN, 2 SNJ, 2 SJV, 2 SF, 2 SCV, 2 RI, 2 NH, 2 MN, 2 GA, 2 CT, 2 CO, 2 AL, and singles from WWA, WVA, WPA, WCF, SDG, NTX, NNY, NNJ, NM, NJ, KY, KS, EPA, EB, and BC.

So, I had quite a bit of fun! They have all been added to the ham radio log page on this website. A full list of the contacts made during the contest follows the break.

Well, my dad decided to wash his cellphone, except I think he really didn’t mean to.. well, the upside is that I got to gut the phone in drying it out, and it’s actually working, somewhat.. there’s some leftover rubbing alcohol in the screen which is drying out (I used alcohol to displace the water) but I think the mic might be busted, kinda killing the whole phone aspect of it

Enjoy the pictures, tho!

I saw this interesting error on Facebook when going to view a video that was commented on by someone in my friends list, resulting in it being bumped to my attention. This message.. I don’t know, sorta makes sense, sorta doesn’t Sure, alpha does, but alpha console? It sounded rather… spaceship-jargon like. Like… here’s an alpha console:

Just a curiosity I thought I would mention

The Who, originally uploaded by maxkelley.

More on this later

KingCorn, originally uploaded by maxkelley.

I just saw this movie, called King Corn, a documentary about two guys from Boston who move to Iowa to grow an acre of corn to discover exactly where it goes. The film is really quite eye-opening in many ways, because the corn they grow actually is barely edible without processing, and will mostly be used as animal feed, or be made into sweetener (corn syrup). Another stunning fact is that cows fed by corn actually are simply waiting for death, as it is not natural for them to be fed corn-based feed, and it just fattens them up. A cut of meat from a corn-fed cow that has 9g of saturated fat will have only 3.5g fat if it were grass-fed, the natural way. (I believe that’s what the statistic was..)

If you have a chance to see this movie, it is truly worth it, and it just shows how much our economy and our nation is changing. It is nearly impossible to survive as a small family farm that is not a subsistence farm, for, in the case of these two, it actually cost them money to produce and sell the corn, and the only profit they received is from the government paying them because they are producing corn. It should be interesting to see where our nation will be going in the coming years.

On another note, look forward to more frequent, normal posts now… perhaps a few projects, even I plan on repurposing a Dish TV satellite dish for long-range Wi-Fi… stick around

Thanks to KingCorn.net for the photo..

Hi all, hope you had a good fourth of July, I know I did…
Unfortunately, because of it, I missed the nets on Sunday, but thanks to Mike Wren, N2QDK, I will have them up within the next few days.. thanks for everyone’s support, and enjoy!

Max