Author Archives: Dan

December 24, 2011
04:26
by: Dan

A five-point SOTA day…the hard way

Today was the last day of the first phase of my Christmas vacation. It differs from next week in that I was alone during the weekdays. I figured I should take the opportunity to snag a few more “easy” summits … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio Tagged

November 28, 2011
19:58
by: Dan

SOTA Roundup

Wow, no updates here since July! The all-consuming activity that has kept me from doing so is the topic of this hiatus-breaking post. Since about mid-August, I have been playing a game called SOTA, which stands for Summits On The Air. … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio Tagged

July 19, 2011
14:08
by: Dan

Jolly Jeepers Rally 2011

This past weekend, Taylor and I participated in our third “Back to Basics” rally with the Jolly Jeepers club. Unfortunately, Oregon didn’t seem to get the memo about it being the middle of July, because it rained on us the entire time. This made … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous Tagged

June 27, 2011
15:33
by: Dan

Field Day 2011

This past weekend was the annual ARRL Field Day event. It’s a contest of sorts where US hams attempt to contact as many other stations as possible in a 24 hour window. It encourages people to get out of their … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio

April 14, 2011
00:11
by: Dan

A super key for people with real keyboards

How exactly did Microsoft get their logo on a key anyway? In the Windows world, this is known as the “windows key” or the “win key”.  In Linux, it’s often mapped as the super key.  The new Unity environment (which … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux

March 20, 2011
20:14
by: Dan

A custom APRS tracker with a real screen

For those that don’t know, amateur radio operators have had something called the Automatic Packet Reporting System for quite a while now.  Most associate it with vehicular tracking, but it does a lot of other neat stuff like weather, telemetry, … Continue reading →

Posted in Radio Tagged

December 2, 2010
16:54
by: Dan

ACPI Events on a Toughbook CF-29

I have a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 that I use for situations where I don’t want to take my regular office-ish notebook.  I am planning to take and use it at the 2011 Eagle Cap Extreme event for digital communications.  I … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux Tagged

November 10, 2010
00:05
by: Dan

A better way to process binary data in Python

One of my side-projects is CHIRP, which is an application for programming the memory contents of various radios.  Like other projects I’ve done where I want to cater to (or at least, not exclude) people running Windows, it’s written in … Continue reading →

Posted in Codemonkeying Tagged ,

November 2, 2010
23:15
by: Dan

Q89 Compressor Modification

One of the first things you need when you start into off-roading is a good compressor.  This is because you air down your tires each time before you go, and have to air them back up before you drive home.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware

September 1, 2010
14:06
by: Dan

A DNSBL and Greylisting Hybrid Approach

I have long been a critic of greylisting as a method of reducing spam.  I recently broke down and implemented it on my servers after a couple of back-to-back blacklisting issues.  The problem with DNSBL blacklists is that even the … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous Tagged , ,