Goodbye 2022, Welcome to 2023...

Thinking back on my 22 years of being a Ham, I'm amazed at where this hobby obsession has taken me.

It started with a 2m handheld (IC-T90), a second-hand 100w HF mobile (IC-706MkII), and some wire in a tree. Of course, I still have all of these items and whi...

It took a little work, but I'm now migrated from Joomla to Wordpress.  Here's how I migrated:

• Used Akeeba Backup to get a full backup of my Joomla site and download it locally.
• Created a local linux virtual machine and installed Joomla, then restored the Akeeba backup.
• Created another local...

With all of the issues around web security, there's a pretty easy solution using EFF's certbot and LetsEncrypt.org.  I use an Nginx proxy in front of everything, so all of the encryption terminates there.  So using certbot with webroot was pretty easy and then it was just a matter of adjusting the N...

Wow, how time flies...  Yet again...

It's been about a year since anything worthwhile has been added here.  But a lot has changed.  The 2 SOTA activations happened as part of a trip to TN.  Since that trip, we've moved to the greater Knoxville TN area, sold our house in Summerville SC, bought just...

My wife, Rhonda, has been getting involved with local politics.  Here she is at the end of Mark Sanford's commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHtMayWy0ks

Just got back from Legoland FL.  Left on 12/26 and came home on 12/30.  We had a great time at the park and spent some time at Downtown Disney one day.  Stayed at Cypress Campground which was just up the road from Legoland.

My son is 6 and he loved it.  Especially the Imagination Station (wher...

We did our annual camping trip to James Island County Park last weekend.  I pulled the camper down and setup on Thursday evening to avoid the Friday traffic.  I also took Friday off from work, so the long weekend was nice.

Had a blast riding the train, looking at the lights, and just being lazy...

I spent four days hiking on the [Foothills Trail]() with some frihttp://www.foothillstrail.org/ends.  We started at the southern terminus and headed up to Whitewater Falls.  Overall, the trip was good.  I enjoyed the trail and the time out in the woods.

The bad part...  Total boot failure with a p...

I took a rock (or other flying object) to the center sliding pane of glass on my truck while mowing.  Luckily I was able to find the part at a local Dodge dealer for about $126 plus tax.

The worst part was cleaning up all the little bits of glass from the break.  I can only image that in an accide...

Went camping this weekend at River Bottom Farms near Swansea SC.  It's the only Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Camp Resort in South Carolina.  Very nice, family friendly, campground with plenty of activities for all ages.

We've been doing a lot with trains for a while now.  When at the hobby shop shopping recently, we were invited to an indoor flying session at a local church.  We went and watch, having a lot of fun seeing the trouble everyone kept getting into.  My son did pretty good with one of my older electric b...

Time for a new guitar amp!

My friends at Ye Olde Music in Hanahan came through again with an amazing amp at an even more amazing price.  I'm now the proud owner of a '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue (DRRI).  If you need gear, go talk to Michael Davis at [Ye Olde Music]().http://www.yeoldemusicshop.com

I picked up a couple of things to make guitar practice a little more fun.  All working very well.

A Sonic Research Turbo Tuner and am very pleased with it.  Tuning is soooo much faster now and the display is very easy to read.

An Electro-harmonix Holy Grail Plus to a get some reverb since my c...

I simply have the best wife in the world!!!

This is what she let me bring home for fathers day.  A new Fender American Strat!

I've been (trying) to play guitar a bit.  I played base a bit as a teenager, but haven't touched a stringed instrument in over 20 years.  I found a great deal on a Taylor 314ce in Feb 2010 and have been having fun with it.

Lately, I've been wanting something electric.  Been looking at Strats and L...

Well, it didn't explode...  But...

If you know us, we've been having issues with our freestanding gas range for some time.  We had finally been using an extended warranty on a major appliance, so that's a first for us.  Ultimately, working with Whirlpool directly, we determined that the range coul...

We camped at Givhans Ferry State Park this past weekend.  Stayed in site #15.  It's a great campground and only a couple of miles from our house.  The Park Rangers were really nice, even coming by to collect garbage from everyone.

For a quick weekend get-away, we would definitely go back.

We're back from another fun camping adventure.  This time to Sadlers Creek State Park near Anderson SC.  We were at site 52 in loop #3 along with 5 other families from a local church.  There was biking, hiking, fishing, smores, and camper-treat.  What more could someone want...

Next trip looks t...

We're getting ready for some Fall mountain biking, so I took the opportunity to do some work on our bikes.  In addition to Seth getting his new Specialized Hard Rock 16, I added Avid BB7 Mech Disc Brakes with G2 Clean Sweep rotors to both of our bikes along with new Shimano XT 756 Hub's and Sun rims...

We now have some HO Thomas as well as O gauge.

We stayed in site #20. Very social campground with great amenities.  Since it's 45 minutes from our house, the drive was just right.  All of the spots in this campground are nice, just understand that the family spots (looks like a Y on the map) can be a bit tight if you're not related to your neig...

Great location with easy access to the beach.  Entry into the campground is a little tight through their gate.  I drug the gate arm, saw someone else stop to keep from hitting it, and saw the arm missing one day.  And as luck would have it, we had the only site at the campground that received full s...

Barely a week old, we just got back from taking the new camper to St. Augustine, FL for a week.  We stayed at North Beach Camp Resort.  Review is here.

We had a great time and spent a day at Disney's Blizzard Beach.  Seth is definitely looking forward to several days at Disney!

I've camped for years, mostly in tents. Back when I was a young teenager, I went around with my grandparents a bit. It was always memorable.

We took the plunge and invested in a fifth wheel camper (Outback Sydney Edition 329FBH).  Picked it up from Holman's RV in OH on July 27.  Holman's was gre...

Wow, what can I say.  It's been a while...  I sure don't know where the time has gone.  It seems like yesterday we were taking down the Christmas decorations.  Now it's summer!  Lot's happened, but I won't even try to explain it all.  The biggest thing is a promotion at work which has kept me extrem...

Santa brought some O gauge trains to Seth for Christmas...  We've been busy playing, building, playing, and building some more.  Here are a couple of pictures of the current layout.  It's still a work in progress, but it's starting to take shape.

It's December...  Where did the year go???

As I sit here reflecting on the projects and tasks I have open around the house that will be carried over into the new year, I wonder just how some of them will end up.

I've been waiting to dig and pour the tower base since we've been tossing around the...

Rhonda and I spent a couple of days in West Jefferson NC the week of Thanksgiving.  We stayed in a fantastic rental cabin, A Heavenly View.  It's probably the nicest cabin we've ever rented.

While there we took a day to ride the Virginia Creeper.  We had a great time, despite my bicycle not be...

Just saw the news this morning about the plane 4 people killed in the plane crash near Jedburg, SC.  I knew 3 of the passengers personnaly and am very saddened to hear what happened.

When I moved to the area several years ago, Ed (K3IXD) introduced me around at the Trident Amateur Radio Club and g...

Placed an order for some Gadsden flag stickers today from Gadsden and Culpeper.

Gun Owners of America is awarding Congressman Joe Wilson with an award on November 7, 2009.  There's a dinner/fundraiser.

Rhonda and I went to a Tea Party Patriots gathering.  Lots of folks there talking about a lot of good things, but we were a little disappointed in the overall meeting.  The meeting just kinda drug on without really giving out any good info.

Check their web site for more info.

They are planning...

Yesterday was a fun day at the reloading bench.  It started in the morning with casting several hundred .452 dia round nose with the Lee 6-cavity mold before everyone woke up.  After breakfast they had cooled so they got a light coat of Lee liquid alox.  By lunch they were dry so we did some sizing...

It's 10 years of marriage this week!  Rhonda is still lame from her surgery so we postponed taking a trip until later this year so that she can enjoy it.  So, we had a lovely evening out in Charleston.

Starting with a ride from Charleston Downtown Limo (in a Lincoln Navigator) so we wouldn't have...

I finished getting the Dillon 650XL together and setup last night.  I loaded a couple of rounds and can say nothing other than WOW.  It's such a step up from my old Lee turret press.  I can't believe I waited so long to move on to a true progressive press.

The old Lee still has it's place for rifl...

The PFR-3 and BBW are each about half finished but have somewhat stalled with work and family activities.  But those as slowing down a little so I'll get back to both this week.

This coming week marks our 10 year wedding anniversary.  When most people think about anniversary gifts, they start thin...

With Seth gone to visit in NC for a couple of days.  I went ahead and completed the mountain scene around his room, painted a frace-shot of Thomas the Tank Engine on one wall, and a side view of Harold the Helicopter on another wall.  There's plenty of space left for more of Thomas' friends, which I...

As suspected, the mountain scene with Thomas and Harold was a big hit.  But...  Seth immediatly requeted Bertie, Toby, the Troublesome Trucks, and Cranky.  We picked up the paint for Bertie this evening and I'll try to get him placed somewhere around the mountain behind Seth's bed.