I may be calling CQ in an Igloo

For the next couple of weeks I will be preparing for the ARRL January VHF Contest, and getting my rover station ready to participate. Over the last few years I have grown more and more active in the VHF/UHF activities of Amateur Radio…. at least when I’m a good ham and actually get on the air. This will be my first contest with my new call, now a 1×2 instead of my old 2×3 which will be a lot less cumbersome when calling CQ, or when my idiot self attempts to make a CW contact even though I only know a small handful of CW characters. In addition, I have two additional bands that I will be operating on, instead of being a limited rover working only 4 bands, I will now be operating from 6m down to 23cm, with the new addition of FM on 900mhz, and 1.2ghz. It will be interesting, as I will be adding at least one more beam to the mast, and in addition will be attempting to secure a section of mast just above the vehicle’s roof line to prevent having to disassemble between locations. It will be in interesting year… in addition I have never attempted a January Contest either, as June is usually my exclusive contest. A lot of firsts in this one! If anybody has any suggestions as to some mounting practices for radios, antenna masts – currently using a hitch mount to secure about 4 military surplus masts on my Jeep Wrangler, planning on drilling one out to allow it to be fixed while I’m driving. If anybody has any other ideas that they are willing to pitch, I’m all ears!

The Modular Platform: Why?

As I stated in my last post, I am new to the Android Platform as a whole, but that being said, my reason for switching was the poorly liked, but pretty highly reviewed (at least in my case) Moto Z family of phones. With the second generation of said phones coming out now, with the newly announced Moto Z2 Force, it’s time to talk about the viability of the modular cellphone platform. Does it need to exist? Is it still relevant?

Let me preface this by asking… do you remember Google’s Project Ara? I know I’m going back a little bit now, as in 2012, which is Prehistoric in terms of today’s smartphone market, but this was going to be IT! This was finally going to be the true iPhone killer. The Modular Smartphone that let you customize your device to be whatever you wanted it to be with all sorts of different phone blocks, changing the layout, displays, batteries, camera’s, all sorts of stuff… then it was cancelled. Probably for the best as it was ugly as sin, and while not horribly received, could have been better. The idea of modular devices has obviously been around for a while, but is it what we want? Motorola Mobile, or Lenovo rather, thinks that it is. Expanding into the second generation of devices, hinting at Amazon Alexa compatible mods in the near future, they’re going to throw a few more eggs into this basket. They’re not the only ones that have the adaptability of the modular platform though — something that people like me who are striving to play around with new photographic technologies should be excited about the Essential Phone, with it’s adaptable 360 degree camera available at launch… whenever that is (sorry Ron Richards (@ronxo))… it seems like it will truly be an amazing platform in the future, if it ever makes it to the market.

Lets look at this a little differently, however. As much as I don’t mind carrying around a few different attachments to my phone to make it more functional as a couple of different devices, whether it be an extra battery, a more powerful speaker, an enhanced camera, not everyone feels that way. The concept of the smartphone is that we have all of these devices in the palm of our hand, contained in one neatly wrapped shell. Why should we have to carry around another $600 worth of attachments to get additional functionality out of a device? The beauty of the modular device? You don’t have to! Anybody can complain about the platform, but the beauty of it is that you customize it to fit your needs as best as the device can. It’s the same concept as having expandable memory in a phone, you put in it what you think you’ll need. For example, I use my phone a lot for work, and am constantly using it for a camera too, as it has such a nice camera on it. Therefore, with all of my previous phones, I always found that storage, and battery life were my two concerns. With a modular platform, I was able to put on an additional battery mod, as well as having the expandable memory slot, I was able to add in 128 gb of additional storage, leading to my device having a total of 160 gb of total storage!

Sure, the platform isn’t for everybody, but if you look at it from a customization standpoint, it’s a pretty hard concept to argue against. Its relevance can be argued, sure, but I personally hope to see this idea take off, and want to see the Essential Phone go somewhere.

An Apple User and an Android Convert

Let me start off here by saying… I am a member of the Church of Apple… Not quite as loyal as I used to be though. Sure, I still have my Macbook Pro, which being a 2013 model is still running laps around a lot of devices, and I also happen to run a 3rd Generation iPad, which is getting to be on its last leg. In January however, I made a decision — to just give android a chance. Now, the first thought I had when I initially thought about this is, “WHAT ABOUT IMESSAGE!?!?!?” But then, I realized, there are so many other messaging services out there, who needs it?

Well, here we are, 6 months later, and it and airdrop are the only features I miss, and that is simply because about 75% of the people I know use Apple, and cannot simply turn on NFC. Why did I make this change? Well, in the last two generations of iPhone, there hasn’t really been any change,  iOS is just kind of… iOS… And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s a quality operating system, but some of us like change.

After about 6 months of using this Operating System, I’m learning to understand what people are talking about when it comes to Apple just stealing things from Android, and later adopting them, and adding them into their OS. To give the Apple users the benefit of the doubt, Apple takes these features, and simplifies them into something that even the computer illiterate can figure out with just a little bit of reading or help. Driving Detection, NFC (Airdrop), Raise to Wake, Multitasking, all were Android features before they ever were even near integration into iOS… even split screen functionality still doesn’t quite work right on the iPad, and that’s a couple of OS generations old now.

But I didn’t come here to knock either OS, rather draw some comparisons. Sure, the iPhone is a much more refined device, and that’s what users love about it, and why I used one from late 2008 until just this past year making…. well… the better part of a decade. What did that experience, and change teach me? That if you want something with a more open developer platform, something with a more open interface where you can access the fundamental system files of your OS, and play with them to make them do what you want, then Android is your OS, that is your platform. And if you want something with a developer kit to play around with the 16-pin serial interface, the new, well I guess not so new anymore, Motorola Moto Z line is what you should really look in to! *side note* How many of you knew that Motorola Mobile is now owned by Lenovo? I bought this thinking I was at least buying from an American Company still, but no, as soon as I powered mine up saw the giant Lenovo logo come across the screen! *end side note* But all that aside what I will say is that if you want a much more refined OS, with minimal access to the system it self, and just want something that is a complete workhorse, and will get the job done, and perform admirably in all conditions…. except with a few occasional bugs (i.e. a couple of replacements… one for a defective wifi/bluetooth antenna, one for a faulty battery, and, well I guess there were only two, unless you count the fact that when I got another one with an awful battery I just decided it was time to trade in), the iPhone with run circles around just about every phone.

While in the end, the prices aren’t all that much different between the iPhone, and many of the other Android phones on the market now, that definitely removes a factor that made a lot of people initially gravitate towards the iPhone. The Pixel, direct from Google, is $649. The Moto Z, dependent on model, range from $408 to $720, then there are their G and E families of phones as well. The Samsung Galaxy S8 averages $749.99. When the first iPhone came out that was unheard of for anybody to be willing to pay so much for a single device, but now, we use them in every facet of our lives, it’s not just a phone, it’s our portable music player, our camera, how we stay in contact with work, and simply what we use to organize our lives. It has more computing power than the Space Shuttles did, and it fits in our pockets. So while your choice in OS isn’t the end of the world, we can all still send messages back and forth, make phone calls, and do all of our copious amounts of social networking that we should probably scale back on, just remember to pick the device that best suits your needs, wants, and desires.

 

August 21st: Don’t forget the Eclipse!

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and have just kind of been getting back into things, so here we go! I have some new pics, and will be uploading soon — there are no more politics to debate for the time being, so it’s time to get back to some good ole hobby stuff! Mark the date! August 21st in the afternoon, the eclipse that can be viewed nation wide! Check out the link at the bottom for more info!

 

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-who-what-where-when-and-how

Adirondacks Winter Trip, 2015! (My attempt to come back to the blog-o-sphere)

So, It’s officially been a few months now, I am ashamed.. I started this as an attempt to have something to do during my summer job, and take pictures in the beautiful adirondack mountains over the summer, but fell short… disastrously short. Maybe this will be the time though! So, as I mention in the title, the Adirondacks is a great attraction in the winter, given most of the peaks trailhead’s are in the highly tourist-y lake placid region. So, for the 3rd time in a year and a half, a friend and I climbed Algonquin Peak, which is the second highest mountain in the adirondacks, and a very fun climb, especially this year. It was probably the warmest base conditions we’ve had in our few years of adventuring up there in the winter, but at the peak, it was some of the coldest, blowing about -40, the temperature at which Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures are the same. Not only was it cold, and was the wind blowing harshly at the top, but it was virtually all, shear ice at the top. I thought I would share with you some images from the adventure. On a final note, I lost my very valuable ham radio handheld, and I would just like to put a thank you out there to whoever turned it into the Adirondack Mountain Club at the Adirondack Loj. I simply could not afford to get a new one for quite a long while, and you helped me out a lot, as you can see below, it arrived safe and sound, without a scratch on it on Wednesday. Thank You.

Slacker

I started this at the beginning of my summer with the intent of posting weekly, well, then work started, I accidentally broke my iPhone, and just all around haven’t had time to do much of anything. Well… Actually… I have come to think of it, but I’ve just spent hours on Netflix watching reruns of Chuck. So, to sum up the past few weeks of dead nothingness that has been coming from this blog, I’ve been a slacker, and that doesn’t seem to be changing quite yet, however, as my schedule for work is finally settling itself in, and I know when my days off are finally, I will attempt to get more into it.

Land 100 Update

Well, I was really hoping to have taken a few pics with the Land 100 by now, and have some really cool updates using that, but the issue seems to be that it’s been too warm to have the film develop properly. It’s a real shame, because that is the cheapest instant camera to operate that I own. Not to mention that I think it’s the most fun. While driving around however I did have my cell phone on me, and took a quick photo from the middle of the road. It’s not too often you can just go for a drive, go up, and down, and all around, and wind up on dirt roads for a few miles, and then wind up finding a fork in the road, and winding right back on the main route. Now, this photo is raw and unedited, just like the panorama of the lake yesterday. I really just haven’t sat down to do any editing, and a lot of these have turned out okay on their own. The thing is, this one isn’t all that great since it was shot through the windshield, I did, however, want to post something, so here you are. 

LAKES!

The Adirondack Park is the largest state park in the 48 contiguous states, and home to a massive amount of lakes, and mountains, and some of the greatest fishing there is. I am incredibly privileged to be able to work up here this summer, and to get views like this. Given the Polaroid 300’s sensitivity to light, I waited until the sun was behind me, and I had the ability to take a good picture. One of the things that I love about that type of camera is that it does some cool things with the lighting.. I, however, do not have a scanner with me, so these photos as they come are going to be pictures of pictures until I get the chance to scan them, and repost them. I will mention in the title about them being a repost when I get around to it. There is a digital panorama in there though, and that one has had zero editing done to it, it just looked very nice to begin with, or at least I thought it did. It’s the views like these that are going to help make this summer go by quickly!

A 600 Kinda Day

You know, if there’s one thing that I’m learning as I’m getting more and more into this, it’s that lighting conditions are both your best friend, and your mortal enemy. You can have an absolutely great idea, but until your lighting and background are perfect, you are our of luck. I had everything working in my favor today however, yet the light still found a way to screw me over. The thing about instants is that you have a very small window of time to get that picture you just took into a low light environment, and when you’re slinging tht case in a backpack on a 15 mile bike ride, and you’re 1/2 way through, moving all of your stuff around quickly to get that photo in the bag can be a little tricky. This, however was the result. I still enjoy what the lighting, and light damage, has done to the photo, giving it an almost faded sepia look. I plan to try this on the 300, however I head to a different area for work soon, and may be unable to try it for an extended period of time.

The Automatic 100 Land Camera — The Photos

As I said, I am completely new to this camera, and am still learning all of the ins and outs, but what I’m finding is that development time and ambient air temperature are key. The photo on the top was developed about 3 mins at 55 degrees, whereas the one on the bottom was only developed for about 2 to 2 and a half minutes at 55 degrees. The photos here are of the same flowers that I used for the dusk Polaroid 300 shot a couple of days ago. The cameras seem to have the exact opposite issues actually, the 300 can be overly sensitive to light, whereas the Land Camera is not sensitive enough, I guess that’s why they had the flash attachment for it! So, in conclusion, I would say that this is a very fun camera to use, but learning all of the ins and outs of the focusing lens, and the developing process will definitely take some getting used to. As I continue my adventure with this camera, I will continue to post