I haven’t been writing yet because I’ve been busy working and going to school. I snuck out early one morning and took some pictures at Old Newgate Prison!

I’ve been playing with cameras and lenses, and have had some fun results. I recently obtained a Canon 35-350 L lens, and have been putting it to use!

I photographed the Super Moon in April 2020, it came out great for the equipment involved, a Canon SL2 and the above mentioned L lens!

Last week mom went into the hospital. She had lost the ability to walk a few weeks ago, and then lost the ability to sit up. After a few days in St. Francis, she was transferred to a rehab facility. The entire week was filled with tough decisions. To make things worse, this week I NEED to travel to Philadelphia for work, and it’s also mom’s 93rd birthday. I’m sure that mom will be in good hands while I’m gone, but still stressed about it.

I will try to blog more often, I know I need to be on top of this!

I’ve had my ham radio license…..a LONG time. I’m old enough for that to be the case. That said, there were periods of many many years where I didn’t do anything with it, I just kept it up. In the mid 2000s a friend found out I had my license, and said “Hey, we need hams at the races I’m in!”. With that, my friend Bruce brought me into the world of rally!

I’d had an introduction to rally before, my friends Bob and Mark rally and hill climb (sort of related). I’d watched them both race up Mt. Washington in their Audi rally cars. I cobbled together equipment for the rallies Bruce got me involved in, and found out I enjoy it quite a lot! Part of the reason I bought my pickup, and equipped it with a camper was to be better equipped to volunteer at rallies!

Both my 2014 Toyota RAV4 and my 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins are equipped with the Kenwood TM-D710GA. It’s a dual band, 2 meter/70 centimeter mobile radio. It does a lot of nerdy things I like very well, but also does plain old voice like a rally needs perfectly adequately. I recommend it!

I have plans to add another radio to the Dodge, but that’s down the road.

I was going to work the New England Forest Rally this year, in Maine, but my plans fell through due to work and family reasons. I was annoyed, but timing just didn’t work out. I’m hoping to work the Empire State Performance Rally next, it may be my only other rally this year. I worked it last year, my first rally on the East coast, and found everyone to be welcoming and fun!

Anyone who has the slightest interest in rally, even as a spectator, should volunteer. You get the best seats in the house, and sometimes a free tee shirt!

For the past 20 or so years I’ve worked in or around the Cable TV industry. Right now I work for a company that makes equipment cable companies use. I enjoy it, mostly because I’m social, and my job is *typically* 100% travel, and meeting new people. That said, right now it’s 100% work from home, which is OK too. The project I’m working on now is causing me to learn new skills, which is great. I always enjoy that, or nearly always, like many people, I can get stuck in my ways for too long.

I get to play in Linux a lot, which is fun, I think because I’m old. I remember when green screens were the ONLY solution!!! I work a lot with embedded solutions that run Linux, it’s inspiring to see where the O/S has ended up.

I’m lucky, I’ve stumbled through great job after great job. I don’t quite know how, but I have. I dropped out of actuarial school, and took a job fixing PCs, which led to a job at a DARPA Artificial Intelligence shop as a sysadmin/networking person in the mid 1980s. That led to corporate networking gigs in the late 80s and through the 1990s, and on from there through Sun Microsystems, the cable world, Microsoft, carriers, etc.

I decided I would document some of what I’ve been working on with the camper. The camper came to me from my friend Joe. Joe had the camper on his truck when a driver not paying attention rear-ended him. The damage was primarily to the right rear of the camper. Joe got a new camper, and I’m repairing the old one to use.

Looking at the passenger side corner picture, where I’ve cut away most of the outside of the camper, it looks pretty severe. I think the replacement will be simpler than what was there. I *hope* I can do that? A simpler wooden frame with a plywood skin. The current setup is more compartmentalized than I need I think, as it planned for an internal generator I don’t plan on having. I might be able to place some plastic storage permanently in there though, heavy duty locking bins, which would help hold shape also

I’ve used quite a few tools to disassemble the side of the camper, I’ve got a few of the Milwaukee M18 and M12 Fuel system. The Multitool, which is just a fairly simple oscillating tool, has been incredibly useful. My nails are O-P-I Vampsterdam Gel if anyone cares!

My primary goals in this blog are to talk about my life and projects:

My 1995 Lance Camper

Various ham radio things

Probably some solar and battery things too!

The Lance Camper:

This is my favorite picture of my 1995 Lance Squire 4000 on my 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Turbo Diesel Quad Cab Long Bed. They were called “Quad Cab” then, even though they were the suicide doors, not full doors. The camper BARELY fits on the Dodge, but to me it’s perfect! I’m fixing up the camper, I got it from my friend Joe after his insurance company totaled it for relatively minor damage to the right rear. I should have it fixed shortly.

I volunteer at rallies (the kind where people race cars in the woods!!!!!!). Because the rallies require a lot of miles of closed off/dirt/gravel roads, they need to be remote. For this and other reasons, they need ham radio operators like myself to do communications. When I bought the truck, one of the reasons I bought it was to use it on the rallies. I have a 2014 RAV4 that works fine for rallies, BUT, the stages are sometimes PRETTY torn up. The RAV4 isn’t as tolerant of ruts.

I encourage everyone who can to volunteer at rallies, it’s a lot of fun and you get the best view, BUT, rally hotels are no frills. Once, at a fairly remote rally, we drove to the hotel, my ex looked at me and said “You’re punking me, right? There’s another hotel we’re REALLY going to drive to?????”. Note: There wasn’t. Volunteering also can cost a little bit of money, as you generally have to pay for the hotels if you don’t camp somewhere. The camper will allow me to drop it at the rally HQ, and use the Dodge to work the rally for the weekend!

The camper is a PERFECT fit for me. It’s pretty small inside, but has ample room for me to be in. The bed slept me and the Dodge’s rather large tailgate crossing the country with no problem. It has a gas stove and oven. The fridge needs a touch up, it stopped working on gas, but I’ll figure that out soon. The shower works great and gives plenty of hot water! This solution not only saves me money but also keeps me close to the rally!