gerryk.com

Yesterday, 17th March (St. Patrick's Day) was also the date of the first castle activation for CASHOTA-Ireland. We chose this day for a number of reasons... it was likely that there would be many stations eager to talk to an Irish station, and it was the first day I would have available.
The castle to be activated was Oranmore Castle, resident of World War II Submarine Commander and twice circumnavigator of the world, Commander Bill King. This Castle was designated EI/001/C for the CASHOTA Award.

We (the Galway VHF Group) have a good many portable operations coming up this year, so, to supplement our portable HF antenna collection, I thought a 20m Moxon might be a nice project.
The only real expense was the 4 fibreglass fishing poles, but they ended up very cheap, even when you factor in postage from the UK.
The design was going to be based around a spreader made from a rectangle of 12mm ply, with 25mm dowel bolted on at the relevant angles.

Ok, there have been a few additions, changes, retirements and so in in the old shack. The current lineup is...

VHF/UHF - Yaesu FT736R
4m - Philips FM1000 with PA4DEN 3.2 firmware
HF - Icom IC756 PROIII
HF Receiver - Drake 2B

There's a little story behind each of these rigs. The ones that make me most happy these days are the Drake 2B and the PROIII.

Finally, after freezing all Winter, I decided to do something a little more secure and warm about getting my various antenna feedlines into the shack. The previous attempt was so slipshod that I think the less said about it, the better, so we'll leave it there.

This Christmas, my wonderful GF got me something I have wanted since I was a small boy, a telescope. A damn fine one too.
I have always fancied giving astrophotography a shot, so I got the requisite attachment to hook my D80 up to the scope.

Ok, I know the title is probably triggering spam filters all over.
Most people have heard of Project Gutenberg, or, if not, they should have. Now we have the same for tech books.
Pete Millet has devoted some of his spare time to scanning and otherwise digitising technical books on which the copyright has lapsed. Thanks a lot Pete.

Technical Books Online

I recently installed the Acquia version of Drupal. I'd heard Dries Buytaert being interviewed on the Lullabot Podcast, and one of the topics was his new, enterprise level distribution of the Drupal CMS. The main differences are that Views, CCK and a bunch of other modules are included in the basic install. The Mollom spam filter is also included.

My current HF setup is the Yaesu FT897D, MFJ 993B Auto ATU and 135' doublet in 'inverted V' configuration with the feedpoint at about 35' high. A good multiband setup which allows me to work locally on 80m and more DX on 40m and 20m.
The 993 handles antenna matching duty without a complaint, but the actual tuning procedure is a bit long-winded.

I recently finished a site for an author who has a fairly substantial bibliography. She has also been translated into many languages, has multiple publishers and a wide and active community of readers. A complex ask to create a site that manages all of this content in a relatively simple and not-too-techy way? Well, yes and no.
Yes, in that the initial specification was detailed, necessarily, as it was the hook upon which the site would eventually hang.