A good week……………………….

As always, first the chronology:

1/23/22 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up, gathered tools and up to Mike and Julie’s.  I helped Chloe re-arrange her room and fixed a drawer in her dresser.  Then helped Carter hang a couple things then to Shelby’s room.  Had lunch while there.  Finished up around 1PM and headed home.  Put things away and did the blog.  Then out with Kathy to Harbor Freight then Lowes.  Stopped at Burger King but couldn’t get inside.  So up to Cattleman’s Steakhouse for dinner.  Home and put things away.  To my room and usual evening routine.

1/24/22 – Monday – Spent the day in the shack working on the Arduino code for Gary’s project.  After 6 hours I finally got it right.  Spent the rest of the day playing radio.  Usual evening routine.

1/25/22 – Tuesday – Spent the day in the shack again.  Did some more testing of the NinoTNCs.  Very disappointed in their performance.  Started setting up a second TARPN node so I can play them against each other and learn how they should be configured.  Kathy was out this morning to take Carter to an appointment, then to the hair salon.  Didn’t get back till mid-afternoon.  Took her for dinner at the Mexican restaurant.  Usual evening routine.

1/26/22 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Spend the day in the shack again.  Spent the morning trying to understand the relationship between deviation and bandwidth.  After 4 hours of experimentation I still had no idea but I got things to work correctly.  Then this afternoon I loaded up another TARPN node on a Raspberry Pi so I could hook them back to back and learn how to configure them.  Meantime, Kathy made stuff peppers for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

1/27/22 – Thursday – Up at the usual time.  Got cleaned up and my friend Mike Craycroft came over after having his car serviced.  We talked about packet and I helped him with the setup of his Kamtronics.  Kathy went to exercise.  I did some cleaning up in the shack till Kathy got home.  Lunch, then spent the afternoon making raisin filled cookies.  Did a little over 11 dozen.  Then out to Hometown Pizza for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

1/28/22 – Friday – Up a little late this morning.  Didn’t sleep well.  Dinner didn’t agree with me.  Did some cleaning up in the shack and returned some emails.  Lunch then down to remove the bad transistors from the boards I built.  The correct ones should be her Monday.  Took a short nap.  Then a great dinner and usual evening routine.

1/29/22 – Saturday – Up a little early.  Temperature was around 0.  Got the truck and out to pick up Gary to go for our hair cuts.  Home and chores then lunch.  Some things in the shack then a nap.  Up and out to the Chinese buffet for dinner with Mike, Julie, the kids and our mutual friends Bill, Angela and their kids.  Stopped at Walmart for shopping on the way home.  Home, put the truck away and the things we got at Walmart.  Otherwise usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

I don’t think it’s been long enough since someone in the family has tested positive for COVID so we decided not to do church again this week. So I loaded up tools and went up to Mike and Julie’s house to do chores while Mike is at work. First I helped Chloe re-arrange her room. Had to take a mirror off the wall and patch holes then put the mirror up on another wall. In the mean time I noticed a dresser drawer was not working correctly. Took a look at that and went to Lowes for a new slide for it. Brought that back and put it on. Dresser works great now. Then to Carter and Shelby’s rooms for various things that needed done. Had great day being around the grand kids.

Monday I spent a lot of time working on the coding for the Arduino for Gary. He wanted to be able to reboot his computer out in the barn from inside the house. So I put together an Arduino with a LAN shield that will allow him to bring up a web page and click on a button. That will cause the Arduino to push and hold the power button on the computer till it turns off, then wait a couple seconds and push it again to turn it back on. Now I just have to get it packaged and deliver it to Gary. Another monkey off my back.

With the lousy weather it’s the perfect time to play with things inside. So I built another TARPN node and put it back to back with the one I already have. Learned a lot about the configuration. Ultimately after I get the new transistors in the NinoTNCs I want to put two commercial radios back to back and prove that I can pass 9600 baud over them. That is the ultimate goal. The transistors won’t be here till Monday next week so I’m at a standstill on this one.

I spend some time with my HAM friend Mike. He was having problems with a Kamtronics device and I showed him what configuration he should change. It worked so he’s happy about that.

Let’s see. The last exciting thing this week was spending the afternoon with the wife in the kitchen making raisin filled cookies. Over 11 dozen. A lot of work. But they are so good. Unfortunately Kathy likes to share so she is sending some to her brother and two sisters. I’m sure Julie will get some as well.

That’s about it this week. Looking forward to Tuesday this coming week. Temperature is suppose to get up close to 60 so I think I’ll go for a motorcycle ride.

As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you next week.