PACC 2014: Preparations can not start early enough....

Wise men always say that you should not wait till the last moment to prepare for things....

Unfortunately i never ever prepare until the last moment... and i really mean the last possible moment...

Since yesterday i changed this....

Now what is the most important piece of equipment in your shack???...

your awesome tranciever ? your 2KW PA ???

WRONG !!!

it's your coffee machine !!! you can not make QSO's when you fall asleep!!!

So I bought myself a new espresso machine... to make sure i can keep awake during the upcomming PACC.

It's an Illy X7.....

This preparation is 3 months in advance.... should be ok to have time to learn how to make the best coffee with this machine. At least i'll stay awake during the PACC !

73's

Getting PACC chills allready...

Alex

PA1SBM

Electronics are getting smaller, so is my iron.....

As you might have figured out reading my blog... I am not afraid to open up stuff end put my soldering iron in it.Unfortunately times are changing and its not as easy.

PCB Evoluation....

Conventional PCB

SMD PCB

Now tools need to be adjusted for this evaluation.....
Last week i was at a HAM convention and i bought a small... very small new soldering iron.

No, It's not the yellow JBC (very nice iron as well) but the little black thingie next to it.

I Just hooked it up, and i'll try it sometime soon. The tip is really small... see for yourself....

It really is very small, even with the ruler next to it, you don't really see how small....






Well anyway, back to doing stuff....

73's
Alex
PA1SBM

Last man standing....

Ok , i have gone over this in my head for a long while.......
"Should i write about a TV show......"
And as i am writing this now, you can guess the answer was yes......
So why should i write about a TV show.... nothing HAM about that you might think....
Well you are wrong....

Anyone remember "Tool Time" ? the show Tim Allen made in his show "Home Improvement"?
Well i do , i liked the show a lot and i have probably seen every episode which was made....
And i probably seen them 2 or 3 times due to reruns.....
Was it a good show? well no.... it was not very technical , you did not learn stuff, but it was 30 minutes of easy watching... and you had a laughter or 2......
Well , if you liked this like me , you will like "Last man standing". It's almost the same format as Home Improvement.

So why should i write about this? Well.... not so much in the 1st series, but in series 2, we HAMS get a look in Mike Baxter's shack (played by Tim Allen) Mike has a REAL registered call sign... no shit..
His Call sign is KA0XTT. QRZ.com states that the suffix stands for eX Tim Taylor, which is the name of his character in Home Improvement. This is probably true, as a lot of the cast of Home Improvement has guests appearances on this show....

Now i am not going to spoil a lot , but if you look a bit on youtube... you will find a lot of stuff about the HAM influence in the series.... Sponsors of equipment are: Yeasu, Icom, Ameritron, Heil... an maybe some more i have not spotted yet... you will see several models, HF and VHF/UHF....
I personally have not seen a tv series with more HAM stuff in it... If you have, please let me know, it might be worth watching then :)

Youtube must see about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggKcisR7CU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STdIG4M7QmA

Well... Just check this out... i hope you will enjoy it as much as i do....
And always good to see our hobby being promoted :)

73's
Alex
PA1SBM

HAM Radio !!! A real man's hobby....

Ok, let's not talk about technical stuff for a chance.....

In our hobby i often get the question if there are a lot of women involved in our hobby.....
And usually i answer "no not that much".....
Usually you don't realy think of ham radio being a women's/girl's hobby.....
I went to a technical school..... 500 guys, 3 girl's..... and the girl's were not like girly girl's... if you know what i mean.... Somehow i kinda had the same idea with our hobby.....
Off course i know there are exceptions to this... as in every case...

So this morning i was looking at some youtube movies of the PACC contest.... and i stumbled on a few movies about YL's who do HAM radio.....
And i have to say... i feel kinda proven wrong.... not only did the video's show a long list but the younger ladies did often look like they could be girly girls, but also the women... (and i know i'll get comments for this remark, but please notice that i am not trying to offend anyone, i just try to create an image) they did not look like the type of women you would stereo typically would expect in a lesbian bar.... (again , not trying to offend anyone here ;) )

So again , i feel proven wrong , and i am happy for it!
Which leads me to this question.... Obviously they are a lot of women in the HAM hobby , then why don't they come out more??.....

Here is one of the video's i stumbled upon....
Funny Fact, the girl you see on the youtube picture below is not a HAM but 1 of the cast of Tim Allen's "new" serie "Last man standing" , a serie supported with a lot of equipment by Yeasu, Icom, Heil and Acom.

73's
Alex
PA1SBM