Lesson 8.5, Remote and Automatic Operation

Posted on January 21, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to Lesson 8.5, Remote and Automatic Operation, in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual for the Technician class license.

After finishing, click here to return to the list of lessons. BTW, the backdrop is a picture I took from Brown Mountain looking south toward Red Mountain No. 1.

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Lesson 8.4, Third-Party Communications

Posted on January 21, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to Lesson 8.4 in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual for the Technician class license.

After finishing the video, you can click here to return to the list of videos. BTW, the backdrop is several of the Grand Tetons, in Grand Teton National Park.

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Lesson 8.3, Interference

Posted on January 21, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to Lesson 8.3, Interference, in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual for Technician class license.

After you have finished, you may return to the list of lessons by clicking here. BTW, the backdrop is a picture I took looking at Mt. Moran in Grand Teton National Park.

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Lesson 8.2, Identification

Posted on January 21, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to Lesson 8.2 in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual for the Technician class license.

After watching the video and reading the textbook, you may return to the list of lessons by clicking here. BTW, the background is in the Grand Teton National Park, looking across Jenny Lake.

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Lesson 8.1, Control Operators

Posted on January 21, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to Lesson 8.1 in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual for the Technician class license.

After you have finished the video and studying the textbook, you may return to the list of videos by clicking here. BTW, the backdrop is a scene shot a few miles north of Dubois, WY, taken this past summer.

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Lesson 7.5, Call Signs

Posted on January 21, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to Lesson 7.5, Call Signs, in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual. After watching this video you will be better prepared to understand the material in the book. Don’t forget to check the test questions! There are some corrections to the video below.

  • At time 2:23: No, Dave, you missed one. US amateur radio call signs can begin with A, K, N, or W. You left out K. You should know better, because your own call begins with a K!
  • At time 2:26: Ya got it backwards, Dave. It’s true that the USA doesn’t have all of A, but it does have AA through AL. So, for example, AA1A is a valid USA ham radio callsign, but AK7X is not.
  • At time 3:57: Dave, you should check these things before saying them. Zaire is now known (again) as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • At time 4:02. Aw c’mon! It’s one of your favorite QSL cards! The country code for what was then Zaire is 9Z. See the image below for the QSL card in question.

9Q5PL QSL Card

9Q5PL QSL Card, one of my favorites, dates back to 1989.

After finishing the video, you can return to the list of lessons by clicking here. BTW, the backdrop for this lesson is a picture I took from the “Blowout” looking south and down into the city of Ouray, Colorado. I was helping Chris DePuy, WBØITG, put up antennas to support the Hard Rock 100 race’s communications needs.

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Lesson 7.4, International Rules

Posted on January 20, 2012 by dave

Here’s your video introduction to section 7.4 in the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual for Technician class.

In the video I mention a link to the ARRL site to look at country-specific information regarding US amateur radio operators operating in that country. It varies widely. Know before you go! The ARRL page can be found here. Click here to return to the Training page with the list of videos.

BTW, the photo in the background was taken from Last Dollar Road in San Miguel County. There’s a lonely mountain behind me called “Lone Cone.”

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Kindlegen and the OPF file

Posted on January 19, 2012 by dave

In an earlier post, I talked about Kindlegen and how to make it sing. This post talks about the key to all that singing: the OPF file. The OPF file is essentially a list of things for Kindlegen to do. It consists of three parts: the “manifest.” the “spine,” and the “guide.” You feed the OPF file to Kindlegen rather than the HTML file. Let me demystify the OPF file.

First of all, an OPF file is just a plain old ordinary text file. You DO NOT create it with your word processor. You create it with a text editor. If you are running Windows, you have Notepad (dreadful) and Wordpad (not quite so dreadful) available at your fingertips. I use TextPad. Lots of people use Notepad++.

The OPF file is an XML file, so it has some stuff in the header:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="2.0" unique-identifier="tut">

Notice right off the bat that Continue reading →

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Skybeam still AWOL

Posted on January 19, 2012 by dave

My troubles with Skybeam, my ISP, continue. Some time prior to Dec 8th, my 5 Mbps download speed suddenly became 2 Mbps. That’s too slow for YouTube videos and many other things. I’ve called over a dozen times. I keep getting the same answer: they’re working on it. And working on it. And working on it. Today I was told that their top network engineers were on it. Well, apparently not “top” enough. Still broke! Do they know their own network? I don’t think they do.

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Kindlegen: Making it stand up and sing!

Posted on January 19, 2012 by dave

Amazon’s Kindlegen is for books, right? Those following this blog know that I’m getting close to releasing my new novel, The Unexpected Traveler, on Kindle. So why am I writing here instead of on the Mt. Sneffels Press website? The answer is simple: dealing with Kindlegen is far more a computer thing (covered here) than a writing thing (covered there).

Amazon is now selling more books on Kindle than it does in paperback, and that means lots of books. But selling on Kindle is quite different from selling a tangible book. The potential customer can’t heft it, open it at random, or weigh it against another book. And, the sheer ease (sort of) of putting a book on Kindle means there’s lots of junk up there. So how can I differentiate my book from the other guy’s? A good cover helps—in fact, it’s critical. But another thing that helps is making the actual reading experience more palatable.

In the case of a novel, that means creating a MOBI file for upload to Kindle Direct Publishing (if you have an Amazon account, you have a KDP account!) in the right format to make reading an easy experience. This means you have 1) wonderful cover art, 2) appropriate front matter, 3) a table of contents for easier navigation, and 4) text that allows the Kindle user to make use of all Kindle’s cool features.

The key to this, now that the Kindle Fire is upon us, is a rather grumpy piece of software called Kindlegen. There are many steps between your beautiful prose in your favorite word processor and a completed Kindle book. There’s the easy way and there’s the good way. Continue reading →

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