Yesterday:
Hauled a 1/4 ton of birdseed home from tractor supply. They had a good sale on so I stocked up for the winter.
Last night:
I have a ham radio buddy who is the scoutmaster for a local troop. This weekend was JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) an annual Boy Scout ham radio jamboree. His troop, and several others, were camping out over the weekend at a local park, so I took my truck over there for the kids to see and use to make radio contacts. When it was time for the campfire down by the lake I suggested to my buddy that, "You know, one of the astronauts on the International Space Station is a ham, and an Eagle scout. He's said he would be on the air for JOTA. Wouldn't it be great if we could get the kids to make a contact with him?"
My buddy thought that would be fantastic, but said it was too bad we didn't have the kind of equipment needed to make such a contact. He was rather shocked, then delighted, when I told him I had everything we'd need right there in the truck, except for my laptop, which was at home. (Needed the laptop to track the ISS orbits and know which way to point the antenna, and when.) I drove home, grabbed the laptop and headed back.
Unfortunately, due to the work schedule of the astronauts, and the orbital path of the station, the only good pass we'd have of the station, when the crew was awake, was at 03:39 this morning. None of the kids were awake for it and we didn't try for the contact.
Still the whole thing impressed the heck out of the other scoutmasters (especially the laptop set up on the hood of the truck showing the exact orbital pass of the ISS around the Earth in real-time) so
next year we'll be checking the schedule and orbits well ahead of time, and working it into the jamboree schedule for the weekend.
Today:
Gave it a day off... so far.
That will clean a little carbon out of her. How many miles do you have on it?
