Molten Networks

Well, I couldn’t stand it. After getting the technician license, I started studying for the general and extra exams. These aren’t too bad, a bit more math, more obscure radio trivia, but nothing insurmountable. Insurmountable enough I took both exams on the same night, passed both. I don’t recall how many I missed on General, but I missed 3 on the Extra test, good enough to become an Amateur Extra and get a new callsign! KE5TZB is now history, and I’m now AE5HJ.

I’ve gotten a Comet M-24s antenna for the Yaesu VX-7R HT. Much improved operation in the car! I also got a handheld speaker/mic for it. I wasn’t sure I would like operating a handheld device like that, but it is really nice in the car. I just wish it had frequency up/down controls.

The Gigaparts guys are great! Shipped my order the same day, no problems at all. If you’re in Huntsville, AL, run by their store.

I’ve been saying I should become a licensed amateur radio operator for longer than I care to admit. Hurricane Katrina reinforced the need, and last week we had an extended power outage thanks to a tornado in the area.

I finally did it. I took and passed the technician exam, and I’m currently reviewing for the general class exam.

You don’t need to be an electrical engineer or rocket scientist to pass these tests, the electrical calculations are not that difficult or plentiful.

Some good manuals can be found at kb6nu.com, good practice tests can be found at qrz.com. Test times and locations can be found on the ARRL website.

The whole point of this stuff is the ability to operate a radio on various 2m and 70cm bands, most areas have emergency nets operating on amateur frequencies. Amateur operators have a long history of providing communication assistance during disasters. Here is one example.

Off to study some more, and shop for an HT. Currently looking at the Yaesu FT-60R

As much as I hate to admit it, I called Nintendo support.

We had downloaded some virtual console games, but the jump button for player two had stopped working. I re-downloaded the game, swapped controllers, nothing worked.

Then I called support. It was a Sunday night, so I didn’t have high hopes. Within three minutes, I was on the phone with a great tech! In another couple of minutes, she had diagnosed the problem and we had it working.

Oh, the problem was I had the GameCube controllers plugged in! Removed those, and all is well.