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Welcome to KI5DR.COM! What is KI5DR? It is my FCC-issued callsign for my Amateur Radio license. I've held this license since 1990, and currently hold the highest honored license - the Extra Class.
Pictures from the Beach.....
June 1st, 2005 Well, it sure has been a while since I've updated the site. As it goes, we've certainly been busy the last several months. After October, the fall soccer season ended, the holidays set in, and next thing you know, it's Spring Soccer season again! Both Michele and I have been heavily involved, and this Spring was no different. Over the winter, Michele, David, and myself all took a class and passed out Soccer Referee Certification. This means we can be referees during the season and earn extra cash on the weekends. David played again on the Eagles, Christopher took the season off from football, Alex played on the Toros and Victoria played on the Raptors. Most of the weekends found us at the field, either as Commissioners, as Referees, or watching the kids' games. Sometimes we were Refereeing the kids' games! Michele is still continuing to be a Commissioner, and I am still acting as a Director for the Soccer Association. Also during this time, David finished up Middle School and is beginning High School at McNeil HS this fall, and Christopher graduation from Elementary school and moves up to Middle school this fall. They have all done excellent in classes. With all our spare time eaten up, there's not been much time leftover for other activities. Today, I'm writing you seaside - we took a week's vacation and rented a beach house down in Surfside Beach, TX. It's been a relaxing week on the beach, surfing the seas of the Texas Gulf coast. We've even got some kite flying in. Christopher has been flying his kite, but he's crashed into David twice. The first time he let go of the string and the kite flew out to sea. The second time resulted in a huge tangle of string and kite spars. We went out the other night to see Star Wars III too. Our plan is to have a quiet summer before the fall begins again. Mostly the kids are playing with friends and enjoying their summer off. Michele is also looking forward to the summer off from work at the school. For me, the work has increased significantly with the upturn in the economy. Companies are finally beginning to spend more in IT, and that means more work for us. My next tasks are to concentrate on getting my MCSE 2003 and MCDBA certifications over the summer. I'll keep you posted. Some sad news - My best friend from High School passed away - John Domschke finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer after 18 months of fighting. John was like the brother I never had. I miss him every day.
October 24, 2004 T&C Eagles take 2nd place in the Capital Classic Tournament!Soccer season is in full swing, and it's also Birthday month! All four kids have survived the year and get to graduate to the next age - David is 14, Christopher is 11, Alex is 9, and Victoria is 6. The boys pooled their birthday celebration and had one big party at "Pump-It-Up" in Pflugerville. Pump it up is basically a huge carpeted warehouse with dozens of inflatable "MoonWalk"-style bouncy toys. You basically rent the whole place for a couple hours, and everyone in the room is with your party. After running around for a while, you move to the party room where they order pizza and we can serve cake, open presents, etc. They all had a blast climbing through the mazes and sliding down the slides. Victoria opted to host her party for her whole class, so Peter Piper Pizza was the song for the day. The sad story was that Peter Piper is closing it's doors at the end of October. Ever since the freeway went through along 183, their business has plummeted. We'll be sorry to see it go. They are moving the remaining equipment down to their South Austin location. In addition to their big party, we also have a little family celebration for each child on their day. Basically, one or two big parties and we're done for the year! On a personal note, I caught whatever Alex and Victoria had a couple weeks ago, and it almost put me in the hospital. Some fast-acting antibiotics from the doctor helped cure my Bronchitis and Pneumonia that put me out of commission for 4 days last week. It's been an exhausting last month or two, and in 3 more weeks the Soccer season will be over. After that, Thanksgiving and Christmas come fast, so the holidays are coming up soon!
September 10, 2004 Well, Soccer season has started! I've got 4 kids playing sports this fall - 3 play soccer and one is playing flag football. Christopher already got his first injury yesterday - it looks like he either Sprained or Fractured his 4th finger when attempting to pull the other guy's Flag. The other three are all playing soccer - 2 of them (older boys) are taking Soccer training classes once per week, and all of the games begin TOMORROW! Life at our place will be busy through November with practices on Tues. / Wed. / Thu. / Fri., Games an Friday Saturday and Sunday, and (so far!!) we have Mondays off! Michele is coaching Christopher's football team and I'm assistant-coaching David's U14 team. This is in addition to Michele being an Age-Group-Commissioner and me being the Director of Rec. Soccer. Whew! School is in full swing, and just getting them to finish homework in time is difficult. If anyone has hints on effective time management, I'm open!
August 23rd 2004 Finally a new update! Sorry for the delay, but I usually maintain this site using my laptop from the office which has IIS and FrontPage, and we've received new laptops, and it's taken me a few weeks to get all of the data transferred over, and a new FrontPage 2003 installed. School has started! David is now in 8th grade (High school next year!!!) and Christopher/Alex/Victoria are all still in Elementary school. Victoria started Kindergarten this fall, and she is loving it! In addition, Soccer season has started. I moved up to Director of Boys' Recreational Soccer, so we've been deeply involved in getting teams formed, schedules done, KSN certification and background checks for all coaches and volunteers, uniforms ordered, Fields taken care of, online registrations, CAYSA rules, and all the little details that occur behind the scenes so the players can have a fun season of soccer playing. For example, I've got soccer meetings every night this week. How fun it is! We were planning a quick trip to Corpus Christi this weekend, but decided instead to have a quiet weekend at home before everything starts. Mon-Wed is Football practice, Tue/Thurs/Fri is soccer practice, Friday night is football games, Saturday and Sunday are soccer games! It will be busy through November. I got the chance to attend my 20th high-school reunion! Can't believe it's been 20 years since I graduated. I saw a lot of friends I had not spoken to since high school, and it was REALLY nice to talk to them all again. The 10-year kinda revolved around everyone showing off to everyone else, but the 20 year was not like that at all. We were all (being the same age) older and wiser, many with kids, some with Teenagers, some without kids, but no bragging (yuk) just everyone really enjoying everyone's company. I really had fun, and I think we're shooting to do it again in 5 years instead of waiting for T+30.
June 16th, 2004 June VHF Competition results posted here - We're getting ready for the trip to Chicago in June. Christopher is going to Colorado with family, and the rest of us are driving up to Chicago to visit relatives, and Michele is scheduled to run in the Race To Taste on Sunday. The rest of the week will be visiting friends and relatives before returning to Texas. I really thought things would be quiet this summer, but since I've taken over as Director of boy's Recreational Soccer, it's been meeting after meeting to get ready for the fall season. Online Registration, Uniforms, trophies, Field schedules, Referee training, Tournament coordination with STYSA, well, it's been busy so far. I finally got the Garage Door opener installed (that I got for Christmas!!) this weekend too. What began as a 3-hour installation took almost 7 hours! When they pre-wired the garage the wiring was never labeled, so I spent a good hour trying to figure out the wiring, then finally chopped it and ran my own wire. Works fine now. I still hate those stupid door-closing infrared sensors. If I could figure a way to disable them, I would!
May 28th, 2004 School's out! Soccer's over! Summer is here! I finally got a chance to finish the Dayton 2004 story here. My U14 team finished 4 and 5, which is pretty good for the Spring season - Congrats guys! Things will be quiet for the summer, and then pick up again in the fall.
May 11, 2004 Pictures from the MS-150 are posted here, and what's amazing is I'm actually in a couple of them this time! Over $8.5 Million dollars was raised for MS research. Almost 12,000 riders and 3,000 volunteers were required to pull it off without major issues. It's now the largest riding event in the nation! I'll be heading out for Dayton, OH tomorrow - it should be a fun trip!
April 26, 2004 Wow, it's been a while since I've updated. We've been super-busy the last few months - - From January 10th to March 14th, I drove 11,000 miles doing Site
installations for a new customer. - Since February Michele and I have been highly active in Soccer. We are both commissioners for Under-9 and Under-10 soccer leagues. In addition, Michele is coaching Victoria's U5 team and I am coaching David's U14 team. Being Commissioner involves taking in the applications and forming the teams of players, notifying parents, getting the games scheduled, and finding coaches for each team. Coaching the teams involves training and practices several nights per week, in addition there are games on Saturdays and Sundays. Alex is also on a U8 team. This last weekend Alex's team won 3-2 and he scored a goal, and David's team won 5-2 with David scoring his first soccer goal ever! It was an exciting day at the fields. - Michele is still working up at the school part time several hours per day. We took some time off for Spring Break and visited Dallas. We stayed in a hotel, swam in the pool and hot tub, went out to eat at Medieval Times, and also spent an afternoon visiting Daley Plaza where John F. Kennedy was shot. It was a really interesting trip. A week ago we participated (again) in the MS-150 bike ride from Houston to Austin. No I did not ride a bike 185 miles, I drove the VAN! Christopher rode with me on Saturday and David/Alex rode with me on Sunday. This was a record year for the MS society, with 13,000 bike riders and 3,000 volunteers. We had 65 vans, 45 medical support vehicles, 10 supply trucks, 8 ambulances, and over 100 Amateur Radio operators to coordinate the event. The goal this year was $10 Million raised for MS research. This was my 15th year driving a van as a volunteer for the MS society. It was also Christopher's 3rd year volunteering, Alex's 1st and David's 4th. David was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society, and will be inducted next week. (It's something I've never done, so he is proud to have done something that Dad couldn't do!) Spring also marks the last round of Dance recitals, Orchestra and piano concerts, and the end of the soccer season (mid-May). I have a trip to Dayton, OH planned again in a few weeks for the Hamvention. Michele is going to Chicago at the same time to attend a friend's wedding. In June we're planning a trip back to Chicago for the "Taste of Chicago", and I'm going back AGAIN in August for my 20th high-school reunion. Michele is planning a week-long trip to Jacksonville, FL with her family in July. I've planned some SLEEP for September or so...Whoops, soccer season starts again in September. Maybe Christmas?
January 4, 2004 Welcome to 2004! 2003 was an amazing year - so much has happened in the last 12 months! As I am sitting here on the last day of my vacation / holiday, I am looking forward to 2004! Some things I am planning for the year -
So, lots of stuff on the slate for 2004. Hope everyone had a great holiday season!
November 30, 2003 Amazingly, December is upon us! We spent Thanksgiving weekend at home (mostly) and did the Turkey on Thursday afternoon. Friday we took the kids out to the Tree Farm and cut down a Christmas tree for the family room. The kids all got to run through the field, we cooked Marshmallows at the Campfire and drank hot chocolate. Saturday morning we took off for Houston to see the Nutcracker in the Wortham Performance Center. Sunday Michele attended the Houston Texans game while the kids and I played outside in the sun. It's been an amazing year, and with some time to reflect back on the last 10-12 months, there are many things to be thankful for. I'm not sure what 2004 will bring, but hopes for a better economy and more jobs in the marketplace probably are the biggest hopes for many. Tonight I am in Corpus Christi, TX, performing a new VOIP site installation. This is the first of 11 new sites that I'll be installing in the coming months. More travel, but it also means business is picking up, and hopefully the economy will follow. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing holidays.
October 30, 2003 This last weekend David played in the Capital Classic (soccer) Tournament. They lost the first two games but won the third game 3-0, and proceeded to the semi-finals on Sunday! They were eliminated in the first round, but just getting to the Semi-Finals is an incredible job! Meanwhile, I was participating in the CQWW DX SSB competition. Here are some photos - http://www.wm5r.org/photos/2003_cqww_k5na/ We may make the top 10 in the US, but will certainly be the first place in Texas!
October 15th, 2003 Birthday parties abound in October! Biggest news is David is turning 13! I sometimes wonder how life will be with a teenager in the house. Chris is 10, Alex is 8, and Tori is now 5. We've been lucky recently since they all like Gattiland or Peter Piper Pizza, as we can chain all the parties together. This will not always be the case as they grow older. Last year, David wanted a LAN party for his birthday. Pretty soon he'll be driving! Yikes! Congratulations to my friend Troy Potter - He's a new Daddy!
October 1st, 2003 Results of the September 25th/26th Texas QSO Party
September 25th, 2003 Soccer season is well underway! Three kids are playing soccer, and Christopher is playing flag football. This means that there is practices 5 days a week, and games on both weekend days through November! OK, so it's a little busy, but they really enjoy it! Here's Alex at his game... Michele is doing well in her new job, and my work is picking up as well. Michele's father Chuck has moved into his new house, and we've been down to Houston several times to help him unpack. The kids sure liked playing with the boxes! Needless to say, we've been so busy I have not had time to mow the yard. The Hybiscus in the front is growing nicely! Not much else has been happening, since almost all of our spare time is related to kids' sports. I am still coaching David's team, as well as acting as commissioner for another age group. This will go on through November, then the Holidays will be upon us. I'm sure by then we will be looking forward to some peace and quiet.
August 6th, 2003 Austin Summerfest party went great! We had a good group from Houston and Austin come by. I cooked about 10 Lbs of Fajitas, plus fixins and Queso, and we all sat around and talked (inside and outside) for the afternoon. The kids are back in Houston this week finishing their last week of swimming lessons. They were originally scheduled for three weeks this summer, but had to postpone due to the impending hurricane Claudette. Victoria is still trying to breathe air when still underwater, and is drinking a lot of swimming pool :-), but hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon. Michele and I have been faced with a dilemna. Our new kitten "Mrs. Norris" has been diagnosed with Feline Leukemia. While this is a deadly disease (90% deathrate) the Vet is encouraging us to keep the kitten. However, we already have one cat, and they also recommend that Leukemia-positive cats must stay in a single-cat household. There is a possibility she can beat the disease, so we will probably wait out the 6 weeks, keeping her confined from the other cat and the children, and have her retested in September. Our fear is also that our other cat "Tigger" has already been exposed, and could also come down with Leukemia. This would be devastating to the kids. I'll keep you posted. Our other project this week with the kids gone is to finish painting the main living room. I've been looking at the cost of a Wagner Power-Painter or something similar, but I also have been looking at the el-cheapo paint-in-the-handle rollers for $19. I think I'll try the cheap one first and see how it does. One more week - Victoria starts Pre-school next week, and the boys begin the week after. Michele is doing full-time work at the school this fall, so better paycheck and benefits from the school district!
Austin Summerfest is coming August 2! Come to my post-Summerfest cookout beginning at 1pm. Welcome to July! Today is our 14th wedding anniversary. July 8th, 1989 Michele and I were married. Wow, how time flies. Summer has been quiet, with Michele taking some time off to visit her relatives in Chicago over the 4th weekend. The kids and I hung out around the house, went to see fireworks in Houston, and have generally been riding bikes, working in the yard, etc.
My minivan has been busy! The beginning of June was a trip to the W5KFT ranch for a visit with John ON4UN from Belgium. After that, we had the June VHF contest, Trip to Dallas Hamcom, and Field Day. We did a lot of Ham activity this month, and I think July will be kinda quiet for me!
June 10th, 2003 Ahhh, Summertime in Texas. Kids are out of school for the summer, and have been playing a lot. Next week, they are going down to Houston for two weeks of swimming lessons compliments of Grandma and Grandpa. For the rest of us, June is relaxation month in preparation for July. Lots of activities planned for July including a trip to Chicago, and our 14th anniversary. In addition, we're trying to close on refinincing the house to take advantage of the lower interest rates. Work has been busy, and July brings a potential new customer and 6-weeks-worth of fast work to get them up and online. I'm planning on a bunch of late nights in July and August... As the end of the school year rolled to a close, we had a flurry of recitals, concerts, awards ceremonys, and end-of-year parties. Christopher had a music recital from his piano class, and David received an award from Junior High for Outstanding Character. Victoria, on the other hand...is just OUT THERE! (Hint...turn the screen sideways)
May 19th, 2003 Well, I have survived the trip to Dayton, OH for the annual Dayton HamVention. This is the largest gathering of Amateur Radio Operators in the world. I took off on Wednesday morning and drove from Austin, then returned on Sunday morning and did the drive back in a single day - approx. 18 hours. I saw a LOT of friends I had not seen in a long time, and it was nice to catch up with them. I also had the opportunity to meet a bunch of folks, some of which I knew of, or had talked to, but never met in person. Someone asked me what my most expensive purchase was this weekend - by far and away the HOTEL ROOM! Seriously, I picked up a new 220Mhz rig for the June VHF contest, and also an HF mobile antenna for TQP. I'll have to get my photos downloaded from the camera and posted here soon. Other than that, Soccer Season is OVER! Whew - that was a wild season. My team finished 1-9, but did SO MUCH improvement over the beginning of the season! We had a weekly training session taught by a certified instructor, and you could not believe the difference and advancement of their skills (as opposed to me :-)) So we are off for the summer, and the fall season will be sneaking up on us soon. Victoria is riding her bike without Training Wheels! We took them off two weeks ago, and after a day of "Practice", she's riding around like an old pro. She also accomplished this a full year before the boys ever did. Sometimes it is nice to have older brothers to help out too.
April 27, 2003 This weekend I took the kids fishing for the first time! We went out to my friend Richard's place and fished out of his pond in back of his property. The pond is regularly stocked with sunfish and Largemouth Bass. My dad came up for the weekend and helped take the kids out. We started Saturday afternoon and hit the Academy sporting goods store, and bought new fishing rods for all of the kids. Believe it or not, they STILL sell the Zebco 202 fishing rod for $13.00!! We also bought some 1oz weights and a couple of cups of worms. Saturday afternoon I put the weights on the rods, and the kids all had a chance to practice casting their lines across the yard, across the street, and sometimes onto a parked car (whoops!) By the end of the afternoon, they all had the casting down pat. Sunday morning we rose early and went off to Richard's and started fishing. After 30 minutes with not much luck, Christopher and Grandpa went down the bank a little and started casting their hook and bobber under the shade of a large tree. Success! After catching three fish within minutes of each other, ALL the kids wanted to fish under the tree! We spent 3-4 hours casting and reeling in, replacing worms, removing fish from hooks, and we got a big bucket to keep the fish in while we fished. We probably caught 20 or so sunfish, and kept 10. The rest we did the Catch-And-Release, telling the kids they were not grown up enough yet, and to let them go back and keep growing, then we could come back later and catch them again. :-)
April 2, 2003 Soccer season has begun. This means we're pretty much spending all weekend out at the Soccer fields, as well as many evenings during the week bringing the kids to different practices around town. Victoria has begun a ballerina class for kids under 6. This last weekend was the CQ WPX SSB contest. We operated from K5NA's station using my callsign. We had a great time, even though I came into the weekend with a little more than 5 hours-sleep since Wednesday, and an emergency trip to Philadelphia. Here's a shot of me working during the contest, and here's a shot of our crew sometime on Sunday morning. Richard K5NA is in the foreground listening for multipliers on 20m, while Phil NA4M operates 10m and that's me sitting at the 15m station. This is also a good photo of our super-high tech band-change tracking system (notice the clothespins on the power cord hanging from the ceiling?) Each time we make a band change, we move a clothespin from bottom to top, and when they have all been used and the top-of-the hour rolls by, we move them all back down again.
March 2003 Trip to Disneyworld! Also, we put forth a valiant effort for the ARRL DX SSB contest (Ham Radio). Plus, Soccer Season begins again! Teams are formed and ready to begin playing on March 22. My team has picked up a bunch of new players, and so we have signed up for team training provided by the Warriors association. February / March will be EXTREMELY busy, so I'll try to keep the months' activities posted here.
February 20th, 2003 After spending an extended weekend volunteering for the Shuttle Columbia search and Recovery Effort in East Texas, I decided to spend some more time outside and we took the family camping last weekend. We were snug and comfy Saturday night in the tent but the weather turned sour after dark, and at 2am the outside temp was 35 degrees, and the windchill was 21! The Weather Service was calling for flurries before dawn. Eeek! But we toughed it out and kept warm by doubling up on sleeping bags, and by morning everyone voted against Dad cooking Breakfast tacos, and we packed up and drove to Denny's instead.
January VHF contest! Jan 18th 19th, 2003
January 2, 2003 Welcome to the new year. We had a pretty quiet New Years around the house - just a few fireworks, etc., and some rest. Yesterday we went over to my friend Bryan's place and spent the evening watching football, grilling burgers, and letting the kids play. I passed my Microsoft Exchange 2000 server exam! I spent the few days after Christmas and studied all day, then went on Saturday and took my exam. After that, I celebrated by building myself a new shelf for my Ham Shack. Actually, most of the equipment is just sitting there unconnected, but I wanted to get it all in the photo..
December 23rd, 2002 Happy Holidays! Well, the van is home. All I can say is - AAMCO rocks! The local Ford dealership was going to charge me close to $2,600 total for the repairs. I told them to Pound Sand, closed out my ticket, and towed it to AAMCO, and it was fixed in 48 hours, for a total of $1,837.00. Not only that, but AAMCO's warranty is better - unlimited mileage. Enough of that - we took the kids out to the country to get our own Christmas tree. We went out to Elgin, TX to a Tree Farm. It was very well organized! We took a Hay ride from the farmhouse out to the country, and started the hunt! There were lots of trees to choose from, but we finally settled on a particular tree, and the cutting began. They provided us with a saw and a pipe so we could measure height. After everyone did some cutting, the tree came down! Christopher said it was a lot of work. After cutting the tree down, we dragged it to the edge and waited for the ride back. The kids just loved to run and run and run. When we got back, we paid for the tree and the kids were treated to a free marshmallow roast. Otherwise, we are getting ready for a nice quiet holiday at home. Some of the family locally is coming over. Nothing like the major production from last year! I'll try to post more pictures here soon.
December 10th, 2002 The Van Is Dead. Long Live the Van. Howdy all, another wild story concerning my tribulations with my 1998 ford Windstar. This last weekend, the transmission started slipping when shifting from 2nd to 3rd. I took it into the dealership, since, even though it has 97,000 miles I have the 100,000 mile extended warranty. Today the dealer called back - the Extended Warranty company - EZCare, will not pay the repair unless I can produce documentation (conveniently sent to their fax number) for every time I've had the transmission serviced in the last 5 years. Now they always tell you that you must get the 30,000 mile service, the 60,000 mile service and the 90,000 mile service. But they also tell you that you don't need a tuneup for the first 100,000 miles! So, each time I've gone to Jiffy lube and their technicians have recommended getting the transmission fluid changed, I've done it. However, I've not saved all those oil change receipts from 97,000 miles of driving. Therefore, it is likely I will be stuck with a $2,500 transmission repair simply for not saving my receipts. Hard lesson learned. Other news - I spent a good week traveling across Texas doing some system installations for the State - one in Sherman and one in El Paso. Very nice town - El Paso - lots of interesting local flavor, and culture and heritage. Soccer season is over! We all survived soccer season, and enjoyed playing, coaching, and watching games this fall. The kids really enjoyed it, and we are looking forward to the Spring Season. This last weekend we took the kids to the country and cut down our own REAL Christmas tree! We just turned them loose on the countryside (at the Xmas tree farm anyway) and let them choose which one they wanted, handed them the saw, and they started cutting away. I'll get some photos posted shortly.
October 9th, 2002 Things have been busy this season with Soccer going full swing. I am coaching David's team, Michele is coaching Christopher's team, and Alex is also playing on a team. I am also acting as a Commissioner for one of the leagues this fall. Needless to say our weekdays are full of practices, and our weekends are full of games at the fields. David is learning how to play the Violin, and has been practicing for a while now. I think his first concert is in December! Work has been busy - with a new customer coming online shortly - and of course, October is birthday month, with all four kids having birthdays in October! This has left little time for other things - hobbies, biking, camping, and Guitar-playing. I am sure looking forward to this fall when it's quiet! I have found some time for doing some reading, and a little investigation work on how to secure a Windows 2000 server from unauthorized break-ins, hackers, etc. I recently picked up a couple of inexpensive PCs on eBay ($15 each) and have been using them as "Test Dummies" :-) This knowledge is helping me get a better understanding with Secure Windows 2000 servers, as well as Linux (I'm running Redhat 7.3 on one of these $15 machines). Slapper has had it's impact this fall (Linux worm). Not many photos to post - just trying to work through our daily process of school, homework, sports, and sometimes a family meal in-between!
August 19th, 2002 Soccer season starts! School starts! Football season starts! Yes, we've survived the summer. With school beginning tomorrow, we're spending lots of time at orientations, dropping off school supplies, and shopping for kids clothes. David begins Middle School this year. I am David's team soccer coach for the fall season. David's schoolmate Quintin is also on the team, and Quintin's dad is my co-Coach. Together I think we can do a good job coaching. Of course, I also signed up to be a commissioner for the soccer league, and am attending meetings and learning what's involved behind the scenes. And lastly, Football! Michele is going to every Houston Texan home game this year with season tickets. She loves football!
July 21st, 2002 Well, what a weekend! With the wife and kids visiting relatives this week, I'm home alone. Friday I went to a friend's place and played guitar for a Margarita Party on his front porch with the neighbors. Saturday morning I went to breakfast with a bunch of hams, then drove up to Liberty Hill to fix a friend's computer. By lunchtime I returned and got set up to operate a Ham Radio contest using RTTY - Radio Teleptype. This contest lasted for 12 hours, and at 1am, I crashed. Sunday morning I got up early to remove the antennas I used the previous day (I'm not allowed to leave them up permanently) then played 18 holes of Golf with my next-door neighbor. After Golf, I stained the wooden playground / swingset in the backyard until dark. I'm so glad the weekend is over - Now I can get some rest! I also went over to the sporting goods store and checked out the soccer section - I've got some preparation to do for being the new Soccer Coach this fall. They also had some neat stuff in the fishing section. Still planning on taking the kids fishing this fall. Otherwise I'll be busy this week working on the garage and my office. At least that's the plan anyway!
July 15th, 2002 Visit the Hamming page to see my comments for the 2002 IARU contest!
June 22nd, 2002
June 19th, 2002
June 9th, 2002
June 2, 2002 Howdy! We spent this weekend taking the family, plus David's classmate Bobby and his two sisters to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The water was much MUCH warmer this time. This marked the first time we've stayed until the Fireworks, and it was a really nice time. Sunday I spent most of the day building an antenna mount for my VHF/UHF antennas for the contest this weekend. After building it and placing it on the roof of the van, THIS is what it looked like. It's the most HIDEOUS thing I've ever seen. Oh well, at least it's only for the weekend.
May 21st, 2002 Saturday was Six Flags Fiesta Texas day! We once again have bought Season Tickets, but this year we got the parking pass to go with it. We plan on going to the waterpark a LOT this summer. However, Saturday the water was COLD. Just a quick note to add a link to the pictures from last weekend's Picnic. Thanks so much to Javier for organinzing the event! We should definitely do it again! The file can be downloaded here. The file is approximately 5 MB. This weekend is Star Wars weekend! We thought we would wait a little to avoid the huge volumes of people going to see Attack of the Clones. Well, we drove by the Tinseltown the other night and it was PACKED! I'm not sure we'll be having the Theatre to ourselves anytime soon.
April 3, 2002 Howdy all, Here's some updated photos of my weekend trip out to Lake Buchanan to operate the W5KFT ham station. In addition, I put in a few hours working on the 2m Sprint Monday night, but there's not a lot of activity in the Central Texas region on 2m, so most of my contacts come from East Texas and beyond. Check out the W5KFT site. This weekend is Nan's wedding, so we're once again making the trek to Chicago for an extended weekend.
This page was last updated on 06/17/05. |
