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Garmin outage / When all else fails
by Levi C. Maaia - K6LCM 26 Jul '20

26 Jul '20

After the General Club Meeting this month, I decided to reevaluate my emergency plans, particularly in preparation for an earthquake. The pandemic and related shortages early on also pointed out some weaknesses in my preparations and now seemed like a good time to addresses all of this. Garmin makes a fairly inexpensive satellite communication device called the InReach Mini that uses the Iridium constellation to connect users to text messaging around the world. This seemed like a good way to augment amateur radio, particularly for establishing reliable communications with non-hams outside of a disaster area. I purchased the device early last week and it arrived on Friday. However, I have been unable to activate it because Garmin was hit with a Ransomware attack last week. Hackers have encrypted nearly all of the GPS giant's computer systems and are demanding payment for the keys. Garmin's entire ecosystem (aviation, marine and arguably the largest and most consumer-facing smart watch system) has been affected since July 23! As a result, satellite communications in ma y sectors have been crippled. Pilots have been unable to file flight plans or update navigation databases, mariners have lost access to chart updates, and runners are losing their minds in online forums as they are not able to track their daily workouts through their smart watches. Again, new technologies may offer easy, pushbutton solutions but no communication system is more reliable and more resilient than amateur radio. Truly, ham radio works when all else fails 😉. LCM

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Fwd: LAST PUSH: Appointments still Available for Vintage Radio/HAM Radio Equipment (Sample pictures included)
by Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM 03 Jul '20

03 Jul '20

From: Teressa Johnes <trjtwo(a)gmail.com> Reply: Teressa Johnes <trjtwo(a)gmail.com> Date: July 3, 2020 at 09:48:40 To: Teressa Johnes <trjtwo(a)gmail.com> Subject: LAST PUSH: Appointments still Available for Vintage Radio/HAM Radio Equipment (Sample pictures included) Good morning, Final push, for the HAM radio Sale, that will start next Friday July 10, 2020. We still have appointments available Saturday July 11, 2020 through Thursday July 16, 2020. I have attached a flyer and some sample pictures of some of the equipment available. If you have a confirmed appointment, I will be in contact with you the day prior to your appointment to confirm and send location. Asking kindly to share with your networks. ALL EQUIPMENT MUST GO! If you are interested in coming to the sale, send me the following information: Name: Date you want to attend: 7/11, 7/12, 7/13,7/14, 7/15 or 7/16 Time you want to attend: 10:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m. or we can make special arrangements for after 3:30 if needed. Email: For each person attending Cell phone number: Include area code for each person attending. NO HOLDS OR DELIVERY, CASH PREFERRED FOR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OUR FAMILY AND ATTENDEES WE ASK YOU AND EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY WEAR A FACE MASK. Questions, contact: Teressa/Chuck Johnes W6GNR 805-87-1691

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The 1925 Santa Barbara Earthquake: Day 1, Part 1 | Edhat
by Levi C. Maaia - K6LCM 29 Jun '20

29 Jun '20

Early ham radio activities described in this look-back. https://www.edhat.com/news/the-1925-santa-barbara-earthquake-day-1-part-1 LCM

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Ham Radio Estate Sale - Lompoc
by Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

See attached flyer regarding radio gear from an estate sale in North County. Please contact Teresa and Chuck with any questions or for more details at: trjtwo(a)gmail.com 805-878-1691

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Re: [Sbarc-list] WeatherFlow Tempest no moving parts home weather station
by Jay Hennigan 22 Jun '20

22 Jun '20

On 6/18/20 11:40, Ken Alker wrote: >> I have a >> Peet Brothers weather station and it connects to a Raspberry Pi running >> Weewx. This allows me to view it locally as well as upload to Weather >> Underground (No, not THAT Weather Underground). > > You must clarify the parenthetical... I'm missing something (likely "Jay > humor" which is often above my brain power). The Weather Underground was a well-known (at the time) radical Vietnam War protest group in the late 1960s and early 1970s responsible for several bombings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground >> Their website is kind of limited in technical details, but at first >> glance it looks like the data you get from it is via some cloud based >> service and an app. This wouldn't work for me but if the data can be >> pulled locally without "phoning home" to some service over the web and >> imported to Weewx via some form of API it would be sweet. > > I opened a ticket last week to find out how to pull data locally and > they came back with multiple ways: > > "There are many ways to collect the raw weather data from your Tempest > system. One of the easiest is via the IFTTT applet that automatically > posts your station data to a Google spreadsheet. See more on using IFTTT > with WeatherFlow devices here: https://ifttt.com/weatherflow. You can > also leverage our API services to pull raw data from your > station: https://weatherflow.github.io/SmartWeather/api/. Another way > to download your data is to use our UDP Broadcast service which does not > require an internet > connection: https://weatherflow.github.io/SmartWeather/api/udp.html." It sounds like the UDP broadcast or API could be used to talk to Weewx. For remote applications this could be useful, for example Santa Cruz Island. Is the 120V indoor device powered directly from the line or with a wall-wart? If a wall-wart, what's its output? Unfortunately there are a lot of personal weather stations around that aren't particularly weatherproof. Anemometers fall apart, electronic packages fill up with water, etc. The commercial stuff is like an order of magnitude more expensive. It will be interesting to see how this unit holds up in a few years. I think SBARC has gone through several and wound up spending big bucks on the commercial stuff. From what I've read on their website it gets rather confused by snow. Its acoustic sensor doesn't detect snow well if at all and the snow builds up on top of the device rendering the rain sensor useless until it melts. What would be cool would be for them to incorporate a weight sensor for snow. -- Jay Hennigan - jay(a)west.net Network Engineering - CCIE #7880 503 897-8550 - WB6RDV

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Stratocat tracking
by Bill Talanian 22 Jun '20

22 Jun '20

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Stratocat btracking
by Bill Talanian 22 Jun '20

22 Jun '20

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Balloon Launch
by Bill Talanian 21 Jun '20

21 Jun '20

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Re: [Sbarc-list] WeatherFlow Tempest no moving parts home weather station
by Ken Alker 18 Jun '20

18 Jun '20

--On Wednesday, June 17, 2020 12:48 PM -0700 Jay Hennigan via SBARC-list <sbarc-list(a)lists.netlojix.com> wrote: > On 6/17/20 10:56, Ken Alker via SBARC-list wrote: >> Since hams seem to be intrigued by weather (or, at least they seem to >> talk about it a lot on the radio - perhaps due to nothing else to say, >> or to kick start a conversation), I thought people might enjoy hearing >> about this new device (UUQ especially maybe for Santa Cruz Island). >> There are no moving parts. This station measures rainfall using the >> sound of droplets hitting the top of the device (no tipping bucket). >> This also measures wind direction and wind speed via sonar (no spinning >> cups). It does mathematical compensation to arrive at the proper >> temperature despite being in direct sunlight. It was purchased for me >> as a gift via a KickStarter program. I think it was $280, or so. >> >> Here is a link: <https://weatherflow.com/tempest-weather-system/> > > Ken, at first glance it's cool. What's on the receiving end? I run an application on my iPhone that shows me the data. There is a 120V device that sits in the house the grabs data from the station wirelessly (not sure of the protocol) and then pushes it either to their server or to my iPhone (not sure exactly how it works; likely to THEIR server as I believe I can get results via my iPhone application when remote, but haven't tried this yet). > I have a > Peet Brothers weather station and it connects to a Raspberry Pi running > Weewx. This allows me to view it locally as well as upload to Weather > Underground (No, not THAT Weather Underground). You must clarify the parenthetical... I'm missing something (likely "Jay humor" which is often above my brain power). > I also have Open Sprinkler that monitors rainfall, humidity, and > temperature. This controls garden irrigation and adjusts water time based > on recent and predicted weather. > > Their website is kind of limited in technical details, but at first > glance it looks like the data you get from it is via some cloud based > service and an app. This wouldn't work for me but if the data can be > pulled locally without "phoning home" to some service over the web and > imported to Weewx via some form of API it would be sweet. I opened a ticket last week to find out how to pull data locally and they came back with multiple ways: "There are many ways to collect the raw weather data from your Tempest system. One of the easiest is via the IFTTT applet that automatically posts your station data to a Google spreadsheet. See more on using IFTTT with WeatherFlow devices here: https://ifttt.com/weatherflow. You can also leverage our API services to pull raw data from your station: https://weatherflow.github.io/SmartWeather/api/. Another way to download your data is to use our UDP Broadcast service which does not require an internet connection: https://weatherflow.github.io/SmartWeather/api/udp.html." > Links: > > Weewx - http://www.weewx.com/ > Open Sprinkler - https://opensprinkler.com/ > Weather at my house - https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KORGATES8 How about: https://www.peetbros.com/ > Jay Hennigan - jay(a)west.net > Network Engineering - CCIE #7880 > 503 897-8550 - WB6RDV > _______________________________________________ > SBARC-list mailing list > SBARC-list(a)lists.netlojix.com > http://lists.netlojix.com/mailman/listinfo/sbarc-list Ken Alker Electrical and Computer Engineer - KBACE #1 KA6KEN

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Re: [Sbarc-list] WeatherFlow Tempest no moving parts home weather station
by Ken Alker 18 Jun '20

18 Jun '20

Here is a link I should have sent in my original post which shows the output of my station: <https://tempestwx.com/station/20766/> Click on the tempest ICON at the top right for a different view (I like it better).

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