LITTLE PEOPLE LOG

THE LITTLE PEOPLE LOG

Where life is beautiful all the time.

Since 6/20/06

For those of you who want to read my commentary on, well, just about anything, click here: Little People Blog

Thank you Paul W7MAG and Art W6OBB, and all you mahvalous Hamcams hams, for getting so many people to come into the tent.

KN6Z would like to welcome Little People Network announcer, Art Bell.

Click here for Art Bell’s Little People Network promo: Promo

All the different Little People Network stations that checked in on 3765 kHz the week of 12/09 – 12/15, our RECORD for one week.:

KN6Z, KD7BCW, NZ7J, N7EN, W5HO, KE3KR, NR7Q, AG7G, K6MJD, W6FE, KB5B, W7LW, K6HTM, AF7J, W7LNG, KI6U, AE6FG, WQ6I, AD5SU, KT0DD, N6NP, K6AII, KE7BBX, WJ6Q, K7PSK, VA7MJS, KG6TT, AD9DX, AA8KB, AD7HP, KF7J, KC7ZNA, WA7PZR, K6LDO, VE5ANB, K6ZSR, N7TH, W7RU, K6FEJ, WB7EUH, AF6D, KG6TT, K7PRS, WG6K, WB6GGY, KO6QK, WY8I, W7KOL, K6PIC, KF6VOM, XE1HDD/W6, AD7HP, KF7J, KB1UM, WY8I, WA7CO, KE7GET, NO5I, KC0HLX, W1VO, VE7AYQ, AF6D, WC1E, WA6DAC, W7ZCX, K6USY, KD8CFU, N7FDI (Echolink/Cross band). Sixty-three different stations, not counting the blues or non-extras, smashing the old record of forty-four.

Barney Hall of Fame: Ben KD7BCW, Eric W7ZCX, John W6FE, Cary KD7KAU, Mike VA7MJS, Mike KB1UM, Duane AG7G, Joe KO6M, Bruce W6RAT, Terry KB5B, Chuck KE3KR, Moody WQ6I, Bob AF6D, Mike AA8KB, Conrad N7EN, Randy KC7ZNA, Gary ZL3SV, Mark K6FEJ, Mark K6MJD, Larry W5HO, John K7PRS, Gregg AE6FN, RoboLon KE7BBX, Dave WA6DAC, Bruce N6THN, Gary W6FH, Kevin K7TST, Art W6OBB, Kevin AD8Q, Iain K6IAM, Bob K6MIT, Tom W7PD, Keith KD7KZV, Stan WG6K, Mike AD5SU, Phil WB6GGY, Bob K6AII, Adam AF6ME, Greg W6EZV, Buddy W7JPL.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 11/15/09	Mon 11/16/09	Tue 11/17/09	Wed 11/18/09	Thur 11/19/09	Fri 11/20/09	Sat 11/21/09
“Is my hair alright?” KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego	S8 noise	S9 noise	S9 noise		+10 noise	S9 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. Commander, Northern Alliance		B	+20	B	+20	No ego report
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	+20	A	+30	A		+20
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson		R		R	+20
N6DQ Ryk “Yoda”		N	+15	N	+20
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.		E	No ego report	E	+30	+20
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	+40	Y		Y		+30
W6FH Gary Nevada City
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville	+10	F	+10	F	+10	S9
WB6GGY Phil “Mr. Clean” Twainhart	+30	R	+35	R	+25	+20
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico	+20	E	+20	E	+20	+5
W7HW Duane “Hot Water” Silverton, Or.		E		E	+10
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	+50	B	+40	B	+45	+50
W7 JPL Buddy “Spaceman” Pearblossom, Ca.		I	+20	I		+20
WG6K Stan “The Elitist Neanderthal” Aptos a.k.a. “Moldy”	+25	E	+20	E	+20	+10
KD7KZV Keith “Psycho” Payson, Utah					+20
N6LN Jack “I Ball” Palos Verdes	+50				+30
VA7MJS Mike “Canadian Bacon” Lund, B.C.
AD5SU Mike “Bike Mike” Williams, Az.
N6THN Bruce Vacaville					+25	+20
KB1UM Mike “Music Mike” Seattle	S8		+10			S8
W7ZCX Eric Portland	S9		S9		S9

Barneys in purple. Miss a week and I kick your ass off. To get back to Heaven you will have to do four weeks in Purgatory.

On-Again-Off-Again Tier

(If you don’t like it down here, then make yourself less work for the Grid Meister.)

WJ6Q	+40
KE7FAE
N6NWX
W7YU		+15	+10
AC7ZQ
VE7ANB		S8

Four weeks in a row on the lower tier gets you promoted to the upper tier. Your appearance/position in the LPL reflects your participation on 3688, not necessarily your motivation, and it certainly does not necessarily reflect the Grid Meister’s opinion of your value as a human being.

The Little People Top Thirty, geographically. Thanks Duane AG7G and Bob AF6D.

Amp Repair Story

Bike Story

Friday night KN6Z checked in about 12:10 after a long, hard field trip to the mountains. I dragged my big scope up there to show my students the glory of the heavens. We had a great turnout, but it was c-c-c-cold. I froze my ass off. Didn’t dress warmly enough. I was too pooped tonight to take notes on the QSO, but it is worth mentioning that Jackalope Dave NZ7J has changed his call to W7YU. Gosh, that’s going to be hard to get used to. I just hate change. Here’s a montage of stills from the great old sixties shows that many of us used to watch, set to “Macarthur Park:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BYpcOy67R0. As the music swells near the end of Macarthur Park, the final three photos are shown. One is of Kirk and Spock. One is of the Brady Bunch arrayed along their long staircase. And one I won’t tell you about. Which one is the mystery photo? Which one is the final, climactic photo? Fourteen dog night.

Thursday night KN6Z checked in at 12:05. RC planes was the hot topic when I checked in, and it went on and on for quite a while. Duane AG7G talked about some of the DX he worked last night on 40m, in my absence. He worked Guam, the Caribbean, and Jakarta, and then just got too depressed to go on and shut off the radio. We then went on to discuss a story about a cop who tased a ten year-old girl who was just too damn tough for the cop to subdue. She’s a cute little blond girl. We also talked about being too boring to risk embarrassing ourselves in the general band, and Duane’s flat ass-pects. Fifteen dog night.

Wednesday KN6Z simply had work to do. All work and no play makes KN6Z…tired. So I finished the work and went to bed.

Tuesday night KN6Z dragged his tired ass in about 12:05. Phil WB6GGY announced that he’s going to Worshington for a while. We will keep his grid slot warm and moist. I axed Moody WQ6I to retell the tale of the great, mobile shoot out he had with Art Bell W6OBB, at WARFA some years ago. Art won the 75 m, and Moody hammered Art on 40. Moody’s wife Norma fell on her face and broke it today. Part of the damage was to the orbits. We The Little People and BZ send Norma our best wishes for a speedy recovery. Bob K6AII axed me if I was going to watch for the SST during the day. I didn’t even know it could be seen during the day. Now I know. Maybe I’ll try to see it. All that led to a discussion of the future of the Space Shuttle and NASA. Stan WG6K thinks that NASA will be fazed out and the European Space Agency will take over. And some of the guys were talking about one of the Mars Rovers being stuck in the sand. I checked out early, in the middle of a compare-and-contrast of various automobile engines, including hybrids and diesels. Fifteen dog night.

Monday night KN6Z had to get some damn sleep. That’s how it is.

Sunday night KN6Z checked in at 12:05. We kicked things off talking about the frozen potato skins that I was heating up in the oven, and the cut on top of the bump on my head, that I got today when I cracked my scull on a shelf as I was cleaning out the li’l ol’ shed that used to house my ham station. And then we moved on to ATV. Jack N6LN might be interested in getting into that, and he had some questions for the resident, Little People ATV authority, Moody WQ6I. Moody gave Jack some helpful info. Jack recently had the opportunity to watch a little ATV. His description wasn’t very flattering. He said he watched two old guys on ATV. One guy was in his underwear, and the other guy was wearing a ten-gallon hat that looked home-made. Jack said they looked like homeless people, and that they talked about nothin.’ He said they looked like they were waiting for the nurse to bring in their breakfast. Well, I am just sooooo glad that those two Jack described are not even remotely representative of the ham radio community. Stan WG6K remarked that engineering students who can’t hack the math, become doctors. Well, doctors have to take plenty of math to pass their physics courses, and Jack filled us in on just what his training was. We finished off talking about football, UCLA coaches, and the Space Shuttle launch tomorrow morning. Twelve dog night.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 11/8/09	Mon 11/9/09	Tue 11/10/09	Wed 11/11/09	Thur 11/12/09	Fri 11/13/09	Sat 11/14/09
“Is my hair alright?” KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego	S8 noise	S8 noise		S9 noise	S8 noise	S9 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. Commander, Northern Alliance		+10		+10	+20	+20
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga			B	+10		+25	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson			A				A
N6DQ Ryk “Yoda”		+25	R	+20		+30	R
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.			N	No ego report	+20		N
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	+30		E				E
W6FH Gary Nevada City			Y			+20	Y
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville	+10	+10		+15	+20	+15
WB6GGY Phil “Mr. Clean” Twainhart	+30	+20	F	+35	+20	+35	F
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico			R		+15	+20	R
W7HW Duane “Hot Water” Silverton, Or.			E			+20	E
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	+50		E	+50	+40	+40	E
W7 JPL Buddy “Spaceman” Pearblossom, Ca.	+20		B			+25	B
WG6K Stan “The Elitist Neanderthal” Aptos a.k.a. “Moldy”	+20	+20	I	+20	+25	+20	I
KD7KZV Keith “Psycho” Payson, Utah	+10		E	+10	+10		E
N6LN Jack “I Ball” Palos Verdes	+40			+25		+30
VA7MJS Mike “Canadian Bacon” Lund, B.C.
AD5SU Mike “Bike Mike” Williams, Az.
N6THN Bruce Vacaville	+20
KB1UM Mike “Music Mike” Seattle					+5
W7ZCX Eric Portland				Via BCW	S9	+5

Barneys in purple. Miss a week and I kick your ass off. To get back to Heaven you will have to do four weeks in Purgatory.

On-Again-Off-Again Tier

(If you don’t like it down here, then make yourself less work for the Grid Meister.)

WJ6Y
KE7FAE		+10		+25
N6NWX	+5
K6ERQ
NZ7J		+10
AC7ZQ			S8

Saturday night BZ and I were in Pasadena. We were supposed to be going to Griffith Park Observatory. BZ hasn’t seen it since it was refurbished a few years ago. Anyway, we stopped in Pasadena so BZ could get a “salad burger” from a vegetarian drive-thru that we discovered on the U2 Rose Bowl adventure. There was a Roscoe’s chicken and waffles joint across the street, and Moody WQ6I has tipped me off that Roscoe’s is good, so I backed out on the vegetarian burger, ordering only one for my ho, and, after taking some shit about that from my ho, got my ass across the street to Roscoe’s. Well, Roscoe’s was packed and had no drive-thru, so I defaulted to the salad burger. The name is awful, but that salad burger is the best vegetarian burger I’ve ever had. We screwed around too much on the way up there and ultimately decided, after finishing the salad burgers and baked fries, that it was getting too late to go to Griffith Park. So we blew it off and made a quick stop at The Mouse’s on the way home. A lot of driving and the mission was not accomplished, and no Roscoe’s chicken and waffles, either. When I got home I microwaved a frozen pizza, the antidote to the salad burger. I turned on the radio about 1:00 a.m. and heard Moody and some others signing off. The humidity is plummeting down here, and so it feels much colder even though the temps are not dropping.

Friday night KN6Z checked in at 12:00. A few of the Northern Alliance invited me to a donut party tomorrow morning, but short of chartering a plane in the middle of the night, I don’t see how I can get up there in time. We started off talking about the world’s biggest cruise ship that just arrived in Florida. It accommodates some 9000 passengers and crew. We were wondering if there were enough lifeboats for everybody. NASA announced that the LCROSS mission has confirmed the presence of water at the Moon’s south pole. I was excited about that, but my excitement wasn’t contagious, apparently. Ryk N6DQ and I discussed once again who won our bet over whether or not there would be a detectable plume after the LCROSS impacts. Moody WQ6I did his regular “Boring News” feature tonight. He told us about a wing-suit skydiver who jumped out of a plane, but hit the tail and died. We talked quite a bit about that, and that subject led to more talk of the female crotch…well, no, not this time, actually. But we did talk about the downward ejection seat that an old type of fighter plane used to employ, at least until someone ejected himself into the ground as he sat on the runway. Moody’s outrage was apparent during his next report, about a California milk commercial filmed in…New Zealand! WTF? And he was similarly outraged at a 76 year-old man who was arrested for “tagging.” Vandalizing. Defacing property. It has come to light that some Little People have not been able to find us since we moved to 3680. Look around Little People, or check the Little People Log for announcements. Ryk had his transplanted heart looked into today. It all looks good inside, and he is relieved to have it over with for another year. Somehow the gang got to talking about prisoners sending code on pipes. How you can actually do it. Stan WG6K says you scratch the pipe for a dash. And we finished off the night talking about the new pirate radio movie entitled, curiously enough, Pirate Radio. Here’s a review by Roger Ebert: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091111/REVIEWS/911119998. Fifteen dog night.

Thursday night KN6Z checked in really ass-kicked at about 12:00. We talked a long time about, uh, well, not vaginas, but kids shooting parents. Some really young kids have offed their parents. Duane AG7G and Stan WG6K were interested tonight in hearing about my physics and astronomy lab projects, and want me to make a youtube of the “current balance” lab I have prepared for Monday. Duane and Stan then wanted to talk astrophysics and keep me up even longer, but I finally had to leave them spacing out unsupervised. Duane has just taken delivery on his high-end absinthe fountain, so I guess we’ll have to have a Green Fairy night again so he can try it out. Twelve dog night.

Wednesday night KN6Z checked in at 12:00, still not very well-rested. The big topic tonight was the fake hymen, called the Gigimo, that China is producing, and that Egyptian clerics are outraged about. It is a device that a woman can insert into herself to fool her husband into thinking that she is a virgin. It ruptures and releases fake blood. Egypt might ban it. Tonight BZ and I saw a free concert at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, a very swank place. BZ got us tix from radio station KPRI. Serena Ryder, an up-and-coming Canadian singer, was performing. I told Adrian VE6ANB about her. He mentioned that Canadian singer Taylor Mitchell had recently been killed by coyotes. Returning to the female crotch, always fertile ground, we wallowed for a long time in Disneyfied vaginas – vaginas that have been prettied up by cosmetic surgery. Women whose vaginas hang like sleeve of wizard want to be nipped and tucked down there, and be proud to be naked again. And we talked about the twelve year-old girl who sneezes 12,000 times a day. I shit you not. 12,000. And finally we discussed the 23-foot asteroid that recently passed within 8700 miles of Earth. Twelve dog night.

Tuesday night KN6Z slept. But I dreamt about you, my darlings.

Monday night KN6Z checked in at 12:00. Man, was it ever dead tonight. Very slowly we accumulated a handful of people on freq. For a long time we talked about monopole motors, and watched youtubes of them. Duane AG7G wanted to talk some more about my Jim Dandy chicken adventure, so we did. We discussed the Drudge story about Morrissey getting hit in the head with a bottle, while performing in Liverpool. He said goodnight, and walked off stage. Ryk N6DQ is going to be in a play over the holidays, called “A Christmas Mouse.” He did his mouse voice for us. The gang discussed for quite a while the cutting down of trees, especially old growth, and clear cutting. Surprisingly, the Little People are generally in favor of trees, but not everybody. Eight dog night.

Sunday night KN6Z checked in at 12:05. Duane AG7G was very interested in my report on the Jim Dandy’s fried chicken odyssey. So I gave him the low down. Phil WB6GGY told us that his grandmother was a passenger on board the very last stage coach ever to be robbed in the U.S., at the time it was robbed. That was in 1908. Stan WG6K gave a dissertation on mold making. Stan is making a freakin’ 22 pound bronze pumpkin. Eleven dog night.

As Sabbath sun westered low,

Me and my ho went up the ghet-to,

To find the best of fried poy-yo.

And find it we did. That was Saturday. Jim Dandy’s fried chicken was everything Duane AG7G said it would be. We made a restroom stop for BZ in Watts, then took a long tour through The Hood before finally arriving at Jim Dandy’s. It was getting dark by the time we got there. BZ was in dress code violation, at least with respect to parading around after dark in The Hood, so she stayed in the car and I went in for the chicken. I got two breasts, two corn fritters (that’s hush puppies to you, Moody), a coleslaw, a large coke, and an order of shrimp for BZ. There was bullet-proof glass between the service people and the customers. Food and money pass through an inner/outer door system, in which it is impossible for both doors to be open at the same time. That way there is never a clear shot from the customer side to the service side. As we ate we listened to some conversation outside the car. They talk a lot about hose up there in The Hood. Garden hose, nylon hose, whatever; I don’t know for sure. For example, a guy was telling his friend how he was never going back east because it is too cold: “I don’t care who you is, you gotta have some heat. You know how cold hose always is?, well they be double cold!” Here’s the youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QmZA9IFNAg.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 11/1/09	Mon 11/2/09	Tue 11/3/09	Wed 11/4/09	Thur 11/5/09	Fri 11/6/09	Sat 11/7/09
“Is my hair alright?” KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego		S8 noise	S9 noise	S9 noise	S9 noise	S9 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. Commander, Northern Alliance		+15	+15	+20	+15	+20
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	B	+25		+20	+20	+25	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson	A		+15	+20			A
N6DQ Ryk “Yoda”	R	+25	+20	S9	+25		R
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.	N	+30					N
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	E	+40				+30	E
W6FH Gary Nevada City	Y	+20					Y
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville		+5	+5		+15	+15
WB6GGY Phil “Mr. Clean” Twainhart	F	+30		+20	+20	+25	F
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico	R	+20	+20	+20	+20	+S9	R
W7HW Duane “Hot Water” Silverton, Or.	E	+20					E
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	E	+50	+40	+40	+40	+40	E
W7 JPL Buddy “Spaceman” Pearblossom, Ca.	B		+15			+20	B
WG6K Stan “The Elitist Neanderthal” Aptos a.k.a. “Moldy”	I	+30		+25	+20	+20	I
KD7KZV Keith “Psycho” Payson, Utah	E	+5	+5			+15	E
N6LN Jack “I Ball” Palos Verdes		+20	+25			+20
VA7MJS Mike “Canadian Bacon” Lund, B.C.		+10
W6OEZ Doyle Madera County
AD5SU Mike “Bike Mike” Williams, Az.
N6THN Bruce Vacaville			+20		+20
KB1UM Mike “Music Mike” Seattle		S8		S9	S9
W7ZCX Eric Portland		S8	S9		Via BCW	Via BCW

Barneys in purple. Miss a week and I kick your ass off. To get back to Heaven you will have to do four weeks in Purgatory.

On-Again-Off-Again Tier

(If you don’t like it down here, then make yourself less work for the Grid Meister.)

AD7VH
WJ6Y				+40
WA4DNS
KD7SLY
VE6RBP
NK7Z
KE7FAE	+20		+20
VE7ANB/7
K7BNY
N6NWX		S9
K6ERQ		S9
NZ7J		+20	+15

Four weeks in a row on the lower tier gets you promoted to the upper tier. Your appearance/position in the LPL reflects your participation on 3680, not necessarily your motivation, and it certainly does not necessarily reflect the Grid Meister’s opinion of your value as a human being.

The Little People Top Thirty, geographically. Thanks Duane AG7G and Bob AF6D.

Amp Repair Story Latest installment 10/25/09.

Bike Story The same story posted previously in the body of the nightly remarks.

Friday night KN6Z checked in about 12:15. We talked about Jim Dandy fried chicken, again. They have clams and shrimp, too. Woo-hoo. Nothing memorable was discussed tonight. Fourteen dog night.

Thursday night KN6Z checked in at 12:05. I opened with Jim Dandy chicken tonight. BZ and I are going to make the scene at the Jim Dandy in the hood. I think I’ll bring the scull splitter with me that I bought at the Vista Highland Games this year. We talked about jamming, and around jamming, for a while tonight. Nobody panicked, and the storm just blew itself out, as it often does. I need a big, honking inductor for my L/R time constant physics lab. The RC time constant lab was a big success, so now I want to do the same thing with an inductor. I got advice from The Little People. We discussed the shooting at Fort Hood, on and off all evening. Stan WG6K read us the names of some big political contributors listed at campaignmoney.com. That led to some interesting tangential topics. We discussed the problem of talking politics with friends and family who don’t agree with you, and get pissed off at your bullshit opinions. So stick with like minded people, and people who can cope with an opposing opinion. Fourteen dog night.

Wednesday night KN6Z checked in at 12:00. Took a while for things to get rolling. I went up to 3688 and dug up Stan WG6K, and led him down to the new freq. It stayed kinda slow, tonight. I wonder if some of the gang could not find us. We had a lot of laughs over a story I read about a guy who has been arrested for raping a 21 year-old horse, and it wasn’t his first time. He has a history of sneaking into some woman’s stable and doing her horse. He’s finally gotten some jail time. He never tried to rape the woman, just the horse (your joke here). Anyway, obvious jokes were had by all. In another story a guy who ripped his Blockbuster uniform pants in a skateboarding accident, and who was afraid of getting “written up” at work, decided to stab himself in the leg and tell his employer that he had been mugged by some Hispanics, as an excuse to miss work. Trouble was, the cops saw some outdoor Target-store video that showed no mugging. He also scratched up his face with a knife. Stan attended his mold-making class tonight, and reported to us on the zany goings on. We spent some more time on the Swine Flu tonight, and a story on Spaceweather.com about a meteor that exploded in Earth’s atmosphere today. And a happy Guy Fawkes Day to everyone. Thirteen dog night.

Tuesday night KN6Z checked in at 12:00. We spent much of the evening changing frequency. It was fun for a while, but then it stopped being fun, so we stopped changing frequency. The new (for now) Little People freq is 3680. It’s better for the Pahrump receiver, the best God damned online receiver in the world. I was busy on the side tonight trying to straighten out an online banking problem, so I wasn’t paying much attention and consequently don’t have much to report. The Little People, however, were paying close attention to me and whether I was still on freq. If I turn off the radio, they all just disappear. And I don’t mean they turn off their radios, I mean they freakin’ cease to exist. NASCAR and racing was the topic du jour, at least while I was paying attention. We wrapped up the evening teaching Moody WQ6I about good fried chicken. Thirteen dog night.

Monday night KN6Z checked in at 12:00. Thanks to all who gave me good tips on capacitors and my RC time constant lab, including Orv K6UEY, Mike KB1UM, and SWL Mike. I want to compile a top-ten list: Top Ten Reasons to Love Orv K6UEY. I’m taking submissions, of which I’ll probably get hundreds, but I’ll have to winnow them down to ten. First submission: Orv knows Art Bell. There was some jamming going on up the band, which was mentioned tonight in passing, and that somehow morphed into talk of 75 m history and mythic figures such as Orv. Duane AG7G did some of his usual whining about why Orv won’t get on the air with us, and then went on to tell us about his (Duane’s) ten mile drive with his kids to get nasal pig-flu vaccinations. Normally the nasal ones are for kids and sick people only, but Duane scored one cuz he’s a health care worker. Jack N6LN told us some interesting stories and history of mirror making. So then a shit load, if not a fuck ton, of glass and mirror talk broke out. All the mirror talk is a reflection of who the Little People are. Speaking of reflecting, Ryk N6DQ is back from Arecibo, where he saw the 1000 foot radio dish. He also did some para-kiting (my term), where a boat drags you up as you hang from a parasail. We talked about some Japanese girls who managed to fall out of, or escape from, their parasail harness and fell to their deaths. Parasailing naturally leads to talk of hearts and heart transplants. Ryk N6DQ told us a lot about his heart transplant and his experience as the new user. Jack applied his medical expertise to fill in technical holes in the story. And welcome back to Conrad N7EN, who’s been in Paris. I’m sure all those arrogant Parisians love us now because they’ve met Conrad – Mr. Normal, Mr. Nice American – and think he’s representative of the rest of us. We finished off the evening talking about what everybody did for Halloween this year, how many trick-or-treaters there were, etc. Eighteen dog night.

Sunday night we got home in time for radio, but I just had too much to do to prepare for Monday. I got some big, honking 10000 micro farad caps for the RC time constant experiment I want to do in my physics lab tomorrow. With a 10K load resistor, the amp or volt meter changes slowly enough for the students to read and record data. They will fit an exponential equation to the graph of current vs. time and extract the time constant, to be compared with the theoretical value. Here at the ham table I got 125 s experimental, compared with the theoretical value of 100 s. Best I could do.

Saturday night KN6Z checked in about 12:30. No check-ins were taken. I left the freq for a while to get some work done, but when I came back it was all music.

The EGO Grid

You-Can-Count-On-Me Tier

3688 KHz	Sun 10/25/09	Mon 10/26/09	Tue 10/27/09	Wed 10/28/09	Thur 10/29/09	Fri 10/30/09	Sat 10/31/09
“Is my hair alright?” KN6Z Glenn “Messianic Cult Leader” San Diego		S8 noise	S9 noise		S9 noise	S8 noise
KD7BCW Ben “The Horizontal Ham” Salem, OR. Commander, Northern Alliance					No ego report
K6AII Bob “Ready to Rumble” Rancho Cucamonga	B		+20	B	+20	+5	B
KB5B Terry “Hillbilly” Tucson	A	+20	+20	A			A
N6DQ Ryk “Yoda”	R			R			R
N7EN Conrad “Mr. Normal” Gilbert, AZ.	N			N			N
W6EZV Greg “The Entity” Burbank	E		+40	E	+40		E
W6FH Gary Nevada City	Y			Y			Y
AG7G Duane “Mr. Sunshine” Yuppyville		S9	+10
WB6GGY Phil “Mr. Clean” Twainhart	F	+25	+30	F	+20		F
W5HO Larry “HO” New Mexico	R		+15	R	+20		R
W7HW Duane “Hot Water” Silverton, Or.	E	+15		E	+20		E
WQ6I Moody “Moody” Claremont	E	+30	+50	E	+40	+20	E
W7 JPL Buddy “Spaceman” Pearblossom, Ca.	B