Admit One / mental gymnasium
(like sit-ups for your brain)

A fascinating video made for a TV commercial. Sit in an armchair
and take a ride up to the edge of space. As the telemetry beacon
dutifully chirps away you ascend to over 98,000 feet (over 17.5
miles high), before the balloon bursts into little pieces. Be sure to
look for the cloud of balloon particles left behind as the chair falls
back to earth just before the chair breaks into pieces. I imagine the
telemetry is being transmitted over an Amateur Radio frequency.
Really a very cool video.

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Well the DinKey has moved again! Can you believe that?

The new url for the new home of the DinKey is:

dinkey817.com

Put it in your favorites and tell all of your friends!

kf6hqc

Now that GeoCities is history, I had to find a new
home for my DinKey sale website and I did just that.
The DinKey’s new home is at t35.com. I am very
happy with them so far and I am grateful that they
offer free website hosting like GeoCities used to. Of
course there will be advertisements like Geocities
had but I don’t think they will be nearly as intrusive.
All in all, I think t35.com is going to work out just
fine for me and you should consider t35.com if you
have a need to put up a personal web presence too.

The DinKey can now be found at:

dinkey817.t35.com

Try the link, let me know if it works.

Try this one…

dinkey817.t35.com

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It is more than likely that not very many people know that
Mt. Whiteny is the tallest mountain peak in the continental United
States. It is also likely that there are less people that know that
there is a three room cabin at the summit of Mt Whitney either.

In 1909 it took four weeks to build a three room cabin or hut on
Mt. Whitney. The cabin was built for astronomers to try and make
observations that might prove the existance of water on Mars. The
insurment they used was a 16 inch reflector. Today the cabin is
available to anyone that can make the 14,000 plus foot climb to
use for an over nighter or just a place to rest before they head back
down the trail.

It is interesting to note that there was no wood used in the cabin’s
construction and the cabin turned 100 years old last August. The
cabin is made out of steel, cement, stones and glass and nothing
more. In 1909, the director of the Lick Observatory told the New
York Times that the hut “should last 500 years.” That was quite a
statement.

I guess none of us will ever know if it survives another 400 years
or not just like no one could have ever guessed that there would
be anyone celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s
demonstration of the telescope last August either.

Dueling anniversaries, pretty remarkable.

via kd6hdx, good luck Dave.

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One week ago today, Rob (KG6DKW), Rob’s cousin Tracy, Dave (KD6HDX),
and yours truly spent a killer evening under the stars at the Riverside
Amateur Astronomers GMARS site in Landers, CA. Yeah it was a bit warm
during the day but it cooled down very nicely and the night sky was perfectly
clear and dark due to the new moon. It was big fun as always. Try looking up
one of these nights, the sky is waiting..

This pic was shot by Dave about 1/2 hour before sunset.

BTW, it was Retro Night at GMARS on Saturday evening. That means no
electronic gear of any kind until midnight. No laptops, no CCD cameras, No
GOTO technology, no red LED flashlights… Just kidding on the red LED’s,
just push/pull to and look technology. It was kind of nice and different.

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Another neat rocket video at Lucerne Valley Dry Lake, this one by Greg Lyzenga.
Greg also recently spoke at a local astronomy club meeting about stars that are
occulted by asteroids. His talk was fascinating although most of you probably
wouldn’t agree. Anyway, watch the video, you’ll like it. These rocket meets are
what my friends and I like to attend every June and November for their big 3 day
events called RocStock. It’s a blast.

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The last full weekend in June is the annual ARRL Field
Day for amateur radio operators across the country.

This year our Field Day efforts were directed to a great
little campground at the top of Mt Pacifico located in
the Angeles National Forest. At just over 7100 feet ASL
with outstanding shots to the north and east, we definetly
had loud signals across the country. We used two dipoles
on the HF bands along with a delta loop hung from two
100 foot trees, a 6 meter ho loop, and a 6 meter vertical.
6 meters was open for several hours on Saturday morning
and evening and Sunday morning. We made some east
coast contacts and a ton of mid west single hop contacts
as well as dozens and dozens to the north and north east
including New York. We had alot fun until BFH dropped
a steaming coiler right next to the fire ring, DAMN! what
was he thinking? I guess when you’re that shit faced there
isn’t a whole hell of a lot going through your neocortex.

Dave and Rob took a lot of pictures and video of our four
day weekend. Hope you enjoy some pictures provided
by them.

facebook.com (set 1)

facebook.com (set 2)

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Heading out for Field Day 2009! Once a year in June
the ARRL sponsers Amateur Radio Field Day. It occurs
on the last full weekend of June each year and is one
of the most fun times for Hams across the country and
around the world. It’s a time for Hams to demonstrate
their ability to set up emergency communication sites
anywhere and everywhere. It’s a time to show to the
public our ability to open lines of communication to
just about anywhere in the world anytime. If you see a
group of hams and their antennas set up in a park or
campground or parking lot somewhere this weekend,
stop by and say hi. You’ll be greeted by friendly hams
from your community who are more than happy to
show you what we do and give you the dime tour. It is
well worth your time. You may even be able to Get OM
The Air if you ask.

Today a group of hams and I are going to set up a radio
site on top of Mount Pacifico in the Angeles National
Forest in preperation for field day this weekend. It’s going
to be awsome. Catch you all next week.

kf6hqc

Very cool weather update designed specifically for
RocStock. Have a watch. Remember RoCStock is
this weekend. Unfortunately, I can’t attend but I
will be there in November with the new FJ.

scwxa.org

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Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from

William Castleman on Vimeo.

Watch the center of the Milky Way rise over the 2009
Texas Star Party. Awsome.

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Looks as though Google has gone morse code on us today.
Kinda cool.

Happy Birthday Samuel F. B. Morse (and the F B stands for Fine Business)

-.- ..-. -.... .... —.- -.-.

Steve Eves built a 1/10 scale Saturn V rocket to launch
with his local rocketry club and today was the day it flew.
It’s just awsome from ignition and burn to chute deploy
and the perfect stuck landing. Have a watch, then think
about joining us in June for RoCStock out in Lucern Valley
to see this stuff in person and camp out on the playa.
We always have a lot of fun.

kf6hqc

We are officially in the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
If you have never seen the stars or the planets through a small
personal telescope, do yourself a favor and find a local astronomy
club in your area. Look at their calander of events and join them on
a moonless evening at a star party. The public is always welcome.
This evening is one of those moonless nights. Do something different
tonight and check it out. Who knows, you might find a new, very
satisfying hobby the whole family can share in.

astronomy2009.org

– - – - – – - – - – – - – - – – - – - – – - – - -

USA local astronomy club search:

go-astronomy.com

Kit telescope for IYA2009:

galileoscope.org

kf6hqc

(LiPo Ching/Mercury News) ( LiPo Ching )

According to the Amateur Radio Relay League, Santa Clara County
officials had declared a local emergency after they said someone
intentionally cut an underground fiber optic cable in south San Jose.
Tha sabotage caused a widespread phone service outage in southern
Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties a week ago yesterday. When
fiber optic trunks get cut, communication stops.

Think about that for a minute because everything is fiber optic these
days. 911 was down, Fire department phone and data was down,
Hospital communications were down, ATM’s were down Cell phones
were down, God forbid! NO TEXTING ! ? ! That’s right kiddies, no texting.
It’s like living in the stone age again, at least thats what it feels like for
the majority of people.

To keep it short, when disasters like this happen the only way to
communicate is over radio (no, Nextel’s push to talk direct connect is
not radio. It’s a cell phone.) Cops and firemen have radios and so do Ham
radio operators and that is who came to the rescue during this little fiasco
last week to aid in EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION.

I read two Silicon Valley’s MercuryNews.com articles about this
curious mystery sabotage and guess what? Not one mention of our
Ham radio heros who step up to the plate every time there is a
communication problem where life, limb or property could be lost.
My question is, why the fuck not? They sure don’t miss the chance
to mention how screwed Domino’s pizza was because no one was
calling in their orders or how Butt Crack Claud might be missing out
on the big $5000.00 plumbing job. It stinks I tell ya, we Hams never
get any respect.

To top it all off, there is a 99% chance that the fiber optic trunks were
cut by a disgruntled AT&T employee because their union contract
hasn’t been setteled yet and there might be a strike. When asked if the
potential sabotage had anything to with the strike-threatened contract
negotiations between AT&T and the Communication Workers of America,
union national spokeswoman Candice Johnson replied: “Absolutely not.
Our members are not involved in this.” Yeah, right…

Johnson said that CWA would cooperate with the investigation. Any
implication that a disgruntled worker cut the wires was false. “That
would be counterproductive, ‘’ Johnson said “We are on the job. So it
doesn’t make any sense. Our goal is to get a quality, fair contract and
that us our focus right now.’’ Did I mention that the Fiber optic trunks
that were cut reside at the bottom of a dark dank manhole with a 900
pound manhole cover? Have you ever tried to lift one of those fucking
things? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it definetly
wasn’t a disgruntled communication worker that cut the light pipes!

AT&T is offering a $250.000.00 reward for information leading to
the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the sabotage.

mercurynews.com

mercurynews.com

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