Traffic from KD8MQ's Shack

Changes to KD8MQ.info

2011-03-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

I just posted the changes to my Pa QSO Party site. You can check it out at www.kd8mq.info. The data now includes the results from the 2010 contest.

I will be tweaking the pages again over the summer of 2011. The changes I want to make include:

Re-ordering the information, so that the newest data is at the top.
Someone suggested including number of QSOs per county, and breaking them down by mode. I'm still thinking about this idea. It definitely is a good idea; I'm just figuring out how I want to do it.

Perhaps this summer, I may also finish my homepage. It is nowhere near finished, but I've been putting this off for too long.

73,

John, KD8MQ

The June issue of the Zero Beat is ready!

2009-05-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I edit the newsletter for the Alliance(OH) Amateur Radio Club. Our website is at http://www.w8lky.org . I just posted the June issue of the Zero Beat to the website this morning. This issue, however was not without some "challenges". Among them are a couple of human error things which I prefer not go into here.
One challenge I had was figuring out how to overline two characters. This is an easy trick with MS Word, but not a trick that Publisher can do. Maybe someday we'll figure it out.

The other challenge was getting all the hyperlinks to work.
A little background, I edit the newsletter using MS publisher 2007, then print to PDF using a program called Primo-PDF. it's a good program, but seems to have a problem with hyperlinks that extend beyond the end of a line. I solved that problem this time by using www.tinyurl.com to shorten most of the hyperlinks. It works, but that's not the way I want to solve this.

There's no answer yet, but I'm working on it.

Our Monte Carlo issues - part 1

2009-05-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

My wife has an 01 Monte Carlo SS, that she just loves. Well, that isn't 100% true. Lately, it's been sort of a love-hate thing. She never knew when Sassie (That's her name for it) would go temperamental on her, and refuse to start.
Sassie had two failure modes. She would either:
1) refuse to start, and the security light would come on.

or

2) refuse to start, and the security light would not come on.

With the help of the internet (Thank you Al Gore), we diagnosed it as a worn ignition lock cylinder. I started checking around for prices, and found that we'd be out about $200 for the cylinder alone. I'm sure it would be less, if we didn't have to buy the Passlock sensor with it. But GM has to make money too, I suppose.

Then, the cylinder had to be coded to our key. The price for this varies, quite a bit, depending on the dealer. The first one wanted $85.00 to code it. The second dealer quoted me $20.00, then only charged $10.00. Guess who I bought from?

Then, it was time to change the cylinder. I searched & searched on the net for instructions, only to come up empty. I even checked with Alldata-DIY which I subscribe to. It was as if this was some closely guarded secret, known only to a chosen few.

I finally did find some info in my Haynes manual. I haven't been a fan of the Haynes manuals, but on this repair, it really bailed me out. I could have figured the procedure out without it, but the job would have taken longer.

So, I have the manual, I have the part, and I have a free evening. In the next installment, I'll try to describe the procedure to change the switch on this model.

Till then, Take Care

73,

DE KD8MQ

My PA QSO Party site is updated

2009-03-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, when I was looking for a rare location to operate from. Allen, WI8T, and myself were planning to go portable in the PA QSO Party. We're both Amateur Radio operators, and while neither of us get on the air as much as we'd like, we rarely miss a running of the PA QSO Party.

The PA QSO Party is one of the best of the regional Amateur Radio Contests. Over the course of the 2nd weekend of October, contacts are made with other ham operators. Points are awarded for each contact, and multiplied by the number of different counties & sections are contacted. The contest is put on by the folks at the Nittany ARC, in State College, PA.

So, the question was where to operate from. We wanted to set up a portable station from as rare a county as our finances, and the time available would allow. Dave, KC3CL (now K3SK) had a few of the previous years results from the party, and after pooring through them, we decided on Indiana County (INN) for our first portable operation. (Those first years were a story in themselves).

Around that time, I began entering the party results into a database, which showed the total scores per county. That made it easier to predict which counties may be rare in the upcoming party. When I started my first website, the results were posted there for all to share.
The 2008 results have been released, and my PQP pages have been updated. Some of the design has changed this year, but all the information is there. In fact, you can now look at the 15 rarest counties for each year back to 1987. I've added the code for charts, and have plans to add them sometime, however, they are extremely time consuming to produce. So, that feature may not be completed till next year.

I hope you find the pages of use. Let me know if you see anything that needs my attention.

73,

John, KD8MQ

WWW.KD8MQ.INFO/PQP

Hello World!

2009-03-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hi, Welcome to my first blog. I already have a blog of sorts. I'm editor for the Alliance Amateur Radio Club newsletter. Each month, I run a column titled Ramblings by KD8MQ, where I do just what the name implies. I write about whatever crosses my mind.
My interests tend to be many & varied. Today, I may be posting on Radio Direction Finding, and tomorrow, on how to disassemble a dashboard in a 2001 Monte Carlo SS.

So, this will be my "outlet" for whatever I feel like rambling about. Believe me, it will be diverse. :-)

My newsletter, the Zero Beat, can be found Here. If you'd like to read some of the back issues, they can be found here.

So, thanks for reading this first attempt at blogging. Please check back often.

John