I’m starting to get there with the site layout. Adjusted some things, I think I broke some things too, but it doesn’t look half bad. Except the black text in the top bar, I don’t think I like that. Maybe I’ll play with other themes and see if I find one I like soon. Meanwhile, back to the topic of “why are you reviving this”, some information on ideas I’ve got and whatnot. Strap in kids, it’s gonna get bumpy.
“I’ve got a lot of ideas, and you people are gonna hear about them!” is a phrase that keeps coming to mind. Based on the idea of the “airing of grievances” from the Seinfeld story of Festivus, it’s probably just because I like Jerry Stiller. So what kind of ideas do I have? I’m working on a few at the moment (note that if you don’t get some of these, I’ll probably explain them in the post that covers the topic later, so don’t worry about it):
- I picked up a new LiFePo4 battery for battery backup of my ham shack, as well as portable operations, and I plan to make a “go kit” box for it that contains some nice connectors and 3M Dual-Lock strips (you know, those ones they give you with EZ-Pass transponders that hold like a dream?) for mounting various components
- Along with the go-kit idea, I want to set up a computer for portable operations. Probably based on a Raspberry Pi, one reason would be to talk to the battery charger to know what and how well it’s doing, and another possibility would be a portable APRS digipeater. The ability to operate modes like FT8 would be good too, as well as other modes supported by fldigi, and it might be nice to have some way to do logging as well even though my primary log will still be RUMlogNG on the desktop at home.
- I also want to design and write a program, probably in Python, to read the data from the battery charger and output it to the APRS system for sending telemetry and notifying me if the power goes out.
- Then there’s the story of the diagnosis of, and hopefully repair of, the problems I have had with my antenna tuner. There’s a lot of information there based on what I did to test things and the eventual outcome (which is still being played out, so perhaps that needs to wait until much later – or be followed up with another post when it’s done).
- I wrote an article already about the microphone switcher that I built, including photos and everything. It’s in a Google document, and I published it as a PDF as well, but I could probably import it into the website (and host the PDF here too). That would make a nice post I’m sure.
- There’s another article I wrote but didn’t publish yet on using Yaesu System Fusion repeaters and the Group Monitor function. I intended to share it with my radio club – the audience I wrote it for, actually – but haven’t sent it on to Anthony for inclusion on the website or publications yet. Maybe it would make more sense to post it here and then have them link back to it.
- I could even go into a story or two about the setup of everything radio-related at the new house. Oh yeah, did I mention there’s a new house? Maybe that belongs somewhere too. I do have a “flashback” category I used to use when I posted a catch-up story after a long time…
So, as you can see, I’ve got plenty of content I can put up. It’s going to be a matter of doing it. I’m thinking (nee hoping) that the act of writing stuff like this fills that need in me to talk about geeky stuff, and I’ll feel like it’s being heard – even if I don’t see a lot of traffic to the site, I’ll know it’s out there, and maybe that’ll scratch that particular itch. Right now, I think I’m itching to finish the book I’ve been reading and I should head up to bed. Hey, that’s another topic, the books I’ve read.. or maybe linking to my Goodreads profile is the way to solve that one.