This weekend I’ll be taking part in the largest emergency communication exercise in the United States

Posted: June 24, 2021 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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The fourth weekend in June is always Field Day weekend for us Amateur Radio operators.  An estimated 40,000 of us dedicated operators will be gathering in parks. on remote hilltops, and other locations where no facilities exist, to practice emergency communications.  We will bring everything we need to communicate with fellow Amateur Radio operators all across North America, and all across the world, under very adverse conditions. 

We will operate out of temporary shelters, which include camping trailers and tents.  All of our equipment will be powered by portable generators, car batteries, and solar panels.  Our antennas will consist mostly of wires supported by ropes which are held up by trees. All of our radio equipment is portable, consisting mostly of specially designed high frequency transceivers, which have a power output of 100 watts. With that setup the club I belong to will make in the neighborhood of 2000 contacts in a 24 hour period.  The contacts will be spread out all across the world with a majority of them all across North America.

We Amateur Radio operators take Field Day very seriously because emergency commutations is at absolute center of Amateur Radio. Ir is what we do best.  Whenever there is a major disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane, the only communication into and out of the affected area is through Amateur Radio.  That is because of the nature of our equipment, which does not rely on any infrastructure, and our expertise.  Throughout the year Amateur Radio operators practice and hone their emergency communications skills.  Field Day is just the largest of many practice sessions we take part in year round.

To make things more fun Field Day is also a contest.  All contacts are directly between two stations only.   That is the way Amateur Radio is.  We log every contact we make and submit our logs, which are recorded using logging software on laptops.  During each contact there is certain information we must exchange with the other station. This simulates emergency messages we handle during a disaster such as supplies needed.  Field Day contest scores are posted by the organizing organization, the Amateur Radio Relay League, in their magazine called QST and on their website WWW.ARRL.ORG.  There are serious bragging rights at stake.

Field Day is also very much a social event.  Amateur Radio clubs usually organize all of the preparations and activities at each individual  location.  Club members and their families gather to socialize along with all of the radio related activities. The club I belong to, the Eastern Connecticut Amateur Radio Association really out does itself when it comes to the socializing side of Field Day, along with the more serious stuff.   We have a huge potluck supper Saturday evening. There are always people gathered around to talk and enjoy each others company.  I always brew a batch of beer for Field Day and share it with everyone.

Here is a map to all of the Field Day sites all across the US and Canada.  The one I will be at is in Thompson Connecticut, which us at the northeastern corner of the State.  It is listed under the call KZ1M.  ECARA will have six complete stations set up.  If  you are in the neighborhood please stop by.  We are open to the public.

Mazie Hirono, Stupidity, Honesty and a Touch of Irony

Posted: June 24, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Who is stupider? A stupid person or the people who elect a stupid person to high office?

That was my thought when I saw the thread concerning this exchange at Town Hall

However while that phrase came to mind I think this isn’t a case of stupidity, it’s a case of honesty.

Senator Hirono is a Marxist, and as a Marxist she is interested in ends, not means and because this is the case of course she wants every judge, every justice and every officer of the court to interpret any law to achieve her Marxist ends.

The only reason why she objects to Senator Cruz is that she said the quiet part out loud, that may have been careless but not stupid, because she knows that while it might make some complications for her fellow Democrats it won’t hurt her one bit with the voters of her state who elected and re-elected her.

But there is one more bit of irony here. Consider this paragraph:

But the law on the books offered a different model: “To enter a man’s house” without a proper warrant, Lord Chief Justice Pratt proclaimed in 1763, is to attack “the liberty of the subject” and “destroy the liberty of the kingdom.” Huckle v. Money, 2 Wils. K. B. 206, 207, 95 Eng. Rep. 768, 769 (K. B.1763). That was the idea behind the Fourth Amendment.

and a footnote that goes with it:

4 In a 1763 Parliamentary debate, about searches made to enforce a tax, William Pitt the Elder orated as follows: “The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter—all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!” Miller v. United States, 357 U. S. 301, 307, and n. 7 (1958) (citing The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations 379 (2d ed. 1953); 15 T. Hansard, Parliamentary History of England, col. 1307 (1813)).

Those words citing the original intent of the 4th amendment were not written by Ted Cruz or by Kurt Schlichter or even by Justice Clarence Thomas. They were written by Justice Elana Kagan in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lange v. California released yesterday.

Take a note of the dates cited there. 1958,, 1953, 1813, 1763. 1763 a full twelve years before the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord , thirteen years before the Declaration of Independence and over a quarter of a century before the 4th Amendment was ratified nearly a quarter century before the ratification of the US constitution and over a quarter of a century before the 4th Amendment which this what this case is about, was approved.

Imagine that, citing not just the original intent of the 4th amendment but the original ideas behind it! I wonder if Senator Hirano disapproves?

I suspect not. Apparently there is nothing wrong with originalism, even for a liberal justice or a liberal senator, as long as it can be used to support a result they agree with.

Unexpectedly of course.

The Realties of Portland, Sodomy, Media, Lemon and Sen Whitehouse Under the Fedora.

Posted: June 23, 2021 by datechguy in media, News/opinion
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Yesterday I talked about the ads that Ted Wheeler ran in the NYT about coming to Portland and noting that times readers just might be dumb enough to buy what he’s selling.

But the LPGA isn’t:

The LPGA moved the Portland Classic to a suburb for the first time in 50 years due to safety concerns in the city.

The event usually takes place at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Northeast Portland.

Reality doesn’t care what the left’s meme of the day is.

Speaking of reality Joy Behar is apparently in trouble for making a joke about the reality of what being “Gay” is and I don’t see what the problem is myself:

I thought this entire month was supposed to be dedicated to how wonderful Sodomy is and how proud we are supposed to be of those who practice it and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a bigot. Why it’s almost as if reminding people what it actually is and actually entails might actually cause them to have a viscreal reaction that could change their mind about it.

It reminded me of when years ago the left did all they could to keep a broadcast of an abortion off the air because it’s hard to sell the idea that a baby isn’t a baby at 14 weeks when you see it dismembered.

Speaking of reality the left has done all it can to keep the American people in a liberal echo chamber but something jumped out from citizen free press which is a spot I visit daily for news:

The earliest date I could find for Citizen Free Press in the Wayback Machine was June 3rd of 2017 which means in that in four years they have outstripped ABC, NBC & the LA times and is on the verge of passing the Hill in monthly page views to break into the top 10 on this list. That’s without any cross promotion from any major media which does all it can to suppress what they cover.

The echo chamber may resonate but the reality is that millions every month are getting the information they are trying to suppress and the more the MSM remains an echo chamber the more likely alternate sites like Citizen free press will be sought out and grow.

Speaking of reality we keep hearing about how racist America is from places like CNN in general and from people like Don Lemon in particular to wit:

Lemon declared in a recent Washington Post interview that former President Donald Trump was “the necessary wake-up for America to realize just how racist it is.” Lemon, who recently penned a book, “This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism,” fancies himself an authority on the subject. 

It will come as no surprise however that he chooses to live in a town that is 3% black far away from the the various black lives matters protest that he has supported over the last several years and the violence of the communities that he downplays. I suspect that’s because reality doesn’t care about the rhetoric from a millionaire who talks about being oppressed when it comes to black lives mattering he’s referring to his own.

Finally I’m got a message for the American Thinker who used the title Sheldon Whitehouse has a racism problem. He does not. Yeah he’s a racist but it’s not a problem at least not for him. Anyone on the right who thinks that the Sheldon Whitehouse story is going to generate any outrage or traction from the left is fooling themselves.

Think for a second, if they didn’t follow thorough on Ralph “Blackface” Northam if it risked an election in Virginia and had no problem putting congressman Eric Swalwell back on the intelligence committee in the house when he’s banging a Chinese Spy what on earth would make anyone think that the left/media/democrat complex would say boo to Sheldon Whitehouse when he is the 50th vote for them in the Senate

The reality is that Marxists are always about power, ALWAYS.

A good man gone too soon

Posted: June 22, 2021 by chrisharper in media
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper 

I lost a former colleague and good friend last week. 

Jim Sicile worked as a cameraman for many news outlets, particularly ABC, covering many of the most significant national and international events over the past 30 years. See https://www.yahoo.com/gma/abc-news-photographer-jim-sicile-175104719.html 

Jim started in the ABC News mailroom at the age of 18 and worked his way up to become a well-respected cameraman. He covered everything from the World Trade Center attacks and Hurricane Katrina to the Haiti earthquake and the Olympics. He interviewed world leaders and covered every president from Nixon to Biden, which was his final assignment that stopped abruptly because of illness. 

Jim was compassionate. At his funeral, ABC news anchor John Quinones recalled how Jim called one time about an ethical question. Jim had interviewed a man who had lost his job and his home because of the pandemic. Jim took some cash out of his wallet and handed the man the money. 

A bit later, Jim called Quinones to ensure he hadn’t violated some network rule to give the man the cash.  

I worked with Jim for nearly a decade at 20/20. In fact, he was there for my first segment for the broadcast in 1986. The shoot had been complicated, involving a helicopter, a speedboat, and an ill reporter. 

In the end, Jim, a bona fide foodie, remarked on only one facet of the seven-day extravaganza. He loved the huevos rancheros at a nearby San Diego diner! 

His taste buds became renowned. For example, he created a line of hot pepper sauces. Moreover, the prayer card at Jim’s funeral included a background of his famed peppers.

His family organized a bevy of food trucks from jerk barbeque to crepes for a “celebration of his life” after the funeral. A rock ‘n’ roll band played Jim’s favorites from Elton John and Billy Joel.  

But there’s also a maddening part of Jim’s death. During the pandemic, his doctors focused on COVID-19 and misdiagnosed his illness. During several conversations with Jim, an incredibly patient man, he told me about his frustration with his doctors.  

It turned out that Jim, who had never smoked, did not have COVID. Instead, he had lung cancer. It is unclear whether the several months of misdiagnosis would have made any difference, but I bet it would have given Jim some more time.  

Before he died, Jim told his family and friends: “People say I am stronger than the cancer. The cancer didn’t take my sense of humor from me, I am still a good husband and a good father and friend. In those ways, yes, I am stronger. The cancer did not win.”

At 66, a good man was gone much too soon!  

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