http://www.n5ebw.com Crazy thoughts, notions, and madness of a sleep deprived man. Enjoy! Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:14:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Just a quick note...my hard drive gave out the other day in my Thinkpad laptop that I use for just about everything.  Heard the platters slamming into the side of the Hard Drive case from across the house.  Oops. I am back online, limping along, using a notebook drive I ripped ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-11/recovering-from-a-dead-hard-drive/ It seems as though I have been reactively fixing a lot of things these days. Last weekend, it was the garbage disposal. This weekend, the problem child was my truck. I was on the way to facilitate communications for a disaster drill sponsored by Rockwall County CERT, and after ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-11/the-cause-of-my-check-engine-light-illuminating/ Tonight, for reasons that were unknown to me at the time, the garbage disposal seized up. The usual method of trying to spin it in the opposite direction failed to free it. Those of you who are familiar with my plumbing exploits know that I hate everything to do with ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-11/a-penny-and-the-garbage-disposal/ Sorry it has been so long dear readers. Currently, I am putting up about 166 feet of cedar fence at my house and time has not been abundant. This week, I went over to my friend Les' (K5RXQ) house to analyze his new antenna. It was a slightly ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-10/making-an-mfj-antenna-analyzer-races-compliant/ Check out my full length article on "Fixing a broken Diamond Antenna (poorly)" here: http://www.n5ebw.com/fixing-a-broken-diamond-antenna-poorly/ http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-09/diamond-antenna-article/ Since Ike has me stuck in the house today, it gives me a chance to get to some badly neglected projects. I ripped these two circuit boards out of a couple of dead UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply) units that my friend Barry gave me to salvage. The batteries ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-09/parts-recovery-and-hippy-disclaimer/ Normally, I don't write content based on things written in other blogs, but today I couldn't help myself. Make Magazine featured a post on their blog about some online electronics tutorials from the University of Wisconsin. This is GREAT for all of the hobbyists out there who need ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-09/electronic-tutorials/ I occasionally get copied on some of the "weather happenings" from the east coast, courtesy of my friend, Steve Crow, KG4PEQ. Today, I was reading through my email and he had copied me on an email he sent out to the SKYWARN spotters who are involved with the Wakefield ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-09/the-skywarn-program-steve-and-you/ This past May I had the fortunate experience of riding with Kent Britain, WA5VJB to the Dayton Hamvention in Ohio (he may tell you otherwise). Among other things, Kent is an exceptional antenna designer, with projects on his resume that include antennas that were conceived to reside in the ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-09/antenna-solutions-on-the-cheap/ Tonight I was watching videos of different lathe operations, thinking of when I would finally get to use my lathe. I happened upon two terms I had not heard in a long time: Curie point [temperature], and Austinizing. Not the usual drivel you find on Youtube, I know, but ... http://www.n5ebw.com/2008-09/the-curie-point-austinizing-and-other-heat-related-things/