Bush asks people to conserve gas (again)

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Biking, News, Politics
Comments: Comments Off on Bush asks people to conserve gas (again)
Published on: September 26, 2005

Bush has asked people to conserve gas again. I have a way people can conserve gas. I have posted about this before. But I will restate it since I think it is a good idea. You can bike to work. The good thing about this, is it just might save you time in your day. Here is how, if you take time out of your day to go to the gym, you can cut that out since you will get your exercise going to work and back home. Also depending on where you live it could be faster on the bike then in a car. Think about how much time you waste in traffic, I know that if I want to go from the Oakland section of Pittsburgh to the Point, I can make it in 20 minutes no mater what time of day it is. I can even make this 20 minutes during rush hour, where it could take over an hour, in a car. And to the question of “well how can you do this if you obey the laws” well here is how, I go down to the jail trail which is a bike trail so I don’t have to worry about being stuck behind cars or having to stop at lights since there are no cars or traffic lights.

The Latest scanner net

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Ham Radio
Comments: Comments Off on The Latest scanner net
Published on: September 25, 2005

The latest scanner net is now up on the podcast site for it at http://scanner.hamradiobb.com

Todays Bike Ride

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Biking, Ham Radio
Comments: 2 Comments
Published on: September 25, 2005

I went on the bike ride I was working on getting together. I had only one person show up. It was still fun even though there were not many that showed up. But it did make it easier to get things together since both of us were hams and we were able to make contact via the radio before we saw each other.

Tomorrow’s bike ride

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Biking, Ham Radio
Comments: 1 Comment
Published on: September 24, 2005

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the bike ride, for any one that wants to go. This is mainly for hams, so meet around the North Shore around 2pm and give a call out to me (KB3HCG) on 147.48.

Good news about Rita

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: News
Comments: Comments Off on Good news about Rita
Published on: September 23, 2005

I just checked the NHC web site and saw that Rita’s wind speed is down to 135MPH, that is still high but only a Cat 3 level. So maybe it might loss some more speed before hitting land, and lets hope and pray that there is no major damage or that there is no loss of life.

RPG’s

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Family, Games
Comments: Comments Off on RPG’s
Published on: September 23, 2005

Last night (Sep 22) I got together with some friends to play some RPG. Well not really play just plan for it. We worked on making our characters for the game. The game is The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying game. We probably will not get to play till sometime in October, we are working on mainly the history of our characters, and from there building in the attributes they might have and might need, to work with what drives them. I have put up a wiki for the group to use. I have made it so only people in the group can make changes. I hope the games turns out as fun as the character building meetings we have been having are.

Trama podcast listed on pghblogger.org

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Blog Stuff
Comments: 1 Comment
Published on: September 22, 2005

The Trama podcast is now listed on the Pittsburgh Bloggers website The web master did have a nice thing to say about ham radio in the Pittsburgh area, “The Ham Radio community is thriving in Pittsburgh!”

UPDATE: some one made a note, it is org not come, I have fixed that type oh.

$5 per gallon gas price?

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Biking, News, Politics
Comments: 1 Comment
Published on: September 22, 2005

CNN is reporting that gas prices after Rita could spike to over $4 maybe $5 I will have to get a picture of it. I have a picture of the $3+ gas price from here in Pittsburgh I don’t drive but I know this will even hurt me, because the companies that deliver the food to the stores from where I buy my food will just pass the cost on to the store, and the store will pass that cost onto the consumers. I am not saying that the companies that pass the cost on are evil, they have to so they can stay in business, and I want them to stay in business because I like to be able to go to the store and get food (even if it is going to cost me 2x as much) But it could be interesting to see gas prices this high. I don’t know if the American population is ready for gas prices this high. One thing is for sure I will be in a much better position then most people since I don’t own a car and don’t have to buy gas. This just might be the breaking point were people will stop driving their cars for frivolous things and start to either walking that 1 mile or taking PT, or do I dare dream it, bike to get from point A to point B. I have seen an upshot in the bikers I see on the road, maybe I will see more people on bikes on the road.

From the NWS

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: News
Comments: Comments Off on From the NWS
Published on: September 21, 2005 

WTNT63 KNHC 212351
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
650 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

...RITA BECOMES THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE ON RECORD...

DROPSONDE DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT RECONNAISSANCE
AIRCRAFT AT 623 PM CDT...2323Z...INDICATED THE CENTRAL PRESSURE HAS
FALLEN TO BELOW 899 MB...OR 26.55 INCHES. THE DROPSONDE INSTRUMENT
MEASURED 32 KT/35 MPH WINDS AT THE SURFACE...WHICH MEANS IT LIKELY
DID NOT RECORD THE LOWEST PRESSURE IN THE EYE OF RITA. THE CENTRAL
PRESSURE IS PROBABLY AT LEAST AS LOW AS 898 MB...AND PERHAPS EVEN
LOWER. FOR OFFICIAL PURPOSES... A PRESSURE OF 898 MB IS ASSUMED...
WHICH NOW MAKES RITA THE THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF
PRESSURE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN. SOME ADDITIONAL DEEPENING AND
INTENSIFICATION IS POSSIBLE FOR THE NEXT 12 HOURS OR SO.

RITA CURRENTLY RANKS BEHIND HURRICANE GILBERT IN 1988 WITH 888 MB
AND THE 1935 LABOR DAY HURRICANE WITH 892 MB.

FORECASTER STEWART


They are also saying wind speeds of up to 175 MPH. Wow this one is looking worse then Katrina lets all hope and pray that it does not turn out to be as bad as Katrina was with damages and loss of life.

It finally came

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Ham Radio
Comments: Comments Off on It finally came
Published on: September 21, 2005

Well after all that work to get my info in the FCC database correct the final version of my License came in the mail. So tomorrow after work (or on my lunch break) I will go out to get the larger version of it framed and the wallet size one laminated for my wallet. I am pleased that I finally have a copy of my license that has my current address and my last name spelled correctly.

The domains are back

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Web Site
Comments: Comments Off on The domains are back
Published on: September 21, 2005

Before I wrote the domains off I emailed my registrar and I just got a message back that they had the problem fixed, so I have those domains for another year. I don’t think I am going to do with them what I was going to do with them before, I will have to think of better things to do with the. The geek for life one I will not be doing the same forum software as before as I was doing before I was getting so many same registrations there. So any one have suggestions for the domains congeek.com and geeksforlife.org?

Dropping some of the domains I have

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Technology, Web Site
Comments: Comments Off on Dropping some of the domains I have
Published on: September 21, 2005

Well today I found out that one of my domains I owned expired a while back, I never got notice of this, I never got a renewal notice for that domain either. Another one I have expires today, I can not for the life of me figure out how to renew domains with my registrar. I looked though their KB but there is no information there, I looked though their online forum on how to do this, again no info, the 3 people that asked were just told to email them about how to do it. Well I will have to say no major major loss. The first geeksforlife.org I was hoping to do something with but I could never get any one there that is the one that I will say was stolen for the most part and write it off as lost. The other one is congeek.com. Again I tried to do something with that but the people that were helping me with that and I never really had the time for it, so I am going to give up and let it get lost, I tried a few things we will see if it stays, if it stays I will have it for another year, but I am thinking I should just write it off now. I figure I will just keep the 2 that seams to be having any thing done with them. This one mikeoconnor.net (it expires in Feb of next year so in Jan I will be emailing my registrar about renewal) and hamradiobb.com that one expires next month so I should start looking into how to renew it. So I am going to go from 4 domains to 2 domains.

On the bike ride home today

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Biking, Hay it is funny, The odd, the funny, the weird
Comments: 1 Comment
Published on: September 21, 2005

I had a funny thing happen to me on the bike ride home today. While I was coming down Bayard St this young girl in a red BMW must not have liked the fact that I was on “her” road. So even though there was plenty of room to pass me while staying in the right lane, she reeves her engine and passes on the left side of the road, and just as she passes she reeves the engine again, and I think she put it in neutral so that the engine would sound very loud. Then she speed off. The funny part is at the next red light I caught up with her, and passed her then stopped in front of her at the light. At that point I look back at her, this is the point where I find out she is a she, I would have thought she would have been a young 16 year old boy by the way she was acting in the car when she passed me. At that point I could not help it I just had to laugh at her for her stupidity, when the light turned green I went straight and she turned right, so it does not seemed to have saved her any time at all acting like that. Just one of those moments where some one tries to show off but just makes a fool out of themselves.

PARC

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Friends, Ham Radio
Comments: Comments Off on PARC
Published on: September 21, 2005

I finally got up to one of the ham clubs that I am a member of. It is the Panther Armature Radio Club or PARC. It was a good meeting we were talking about a camping trip some time in October, so that should be fun, a bunch of hams out in the woods being hams. I got to see some of my old friends, and there a few new faces there. I was worth the trek up there.

Sunday’s Ham radio operator’s Bike ride

by Michael O'Connor
Categories: Biking, Ham Radio
Comments: 3 Comments
Published on: September 21, 2005

I tried to get some people interested in the bike ride tonight after the 88 traffic net tonight. But no one seemed to be interested. I am going to keep trying to get people interested. But here is some information about the ride for the hams that don’t get on the 88 traffic net. I figure meet around the North shore (talk in on 147.48 simplex, so bring your HT) I figure we can meet around 2pm, and hang around for 30 minutes around the North Shore / Point area. Then all pick a place to all get together at and start the ride at around 2:30pm. The North Shore area and the Point state park area are so close and line of sight that evens a few mill watts should be enough to keep all in touch on the simplex frequency. I you are a ham and interested please hope on to 88 after the Pittsburgh area Traffic net on 88 at 8pm every night or leave a message here.

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    Well looking at the new switch 2 that is to come out soon, I originally was excited and was thinking of pre-ordering it. But after the news of both the system, and the games, my doubt started to set in. Then I looked at the launch line up, and found none that I wanted. And[…]

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