Have been flicking around on 2 metres (144-146Mhz Amatuer Band) recently because of lift conditions, in particular the GB3DA Danbury repeater nr Chelmsford in Essex has been consistently very strong (4-6bB) and I decided to break in and have a natter, at that point a kid called Rhys who was 11 years old called through and it turns out he has only just passed his foundation exam and earned himself an M3 callsign (ZFM), transmitting from an antenna on a metal tin from his bedroom in Harlow, North London. So I say hi and explain that it isn’t bad chatting to me 90 miles away on the south coast with such a simple set up and only 10 watts and he was seriously chuffed, and I thought how nice it was that a kid had bothered to take the exam and have the confidence to join in a net on a busy repeater, and he was very proficient too, only one operator had a moan about his slightly rookie radio procedure but he soon got fobbed off. Maybe Chain could access this repeater… hmmm.
February 18th, 2008
Right, about time I made an entry… Strange weekend rounded off with the notoriously dull Sunday afternoon, actually sat down and began teaching myself assembly code for the PIC microcontroller, all in all quite simple so soon I will be able to design an intelligent room thermostat for the heating system. Basically it will memorise room temperatures and average times to reach desired comfort levels, so if at any particular turn on time it is colder than usual, the thermostat will be able to judge how sooner it will need to fire the heating to reach the desired temperature at the time set, and if its warmer it will fire later etc… Just something to play around with. Had both the kids for dinner today a rare occasion, Kayleigh my eldest has told me off for not mentioning her often in my blog, so here I am…mentioning her, maybe find some really embarrassing photos of her too. She has her GCSE’s very soon and is looking forward to going to college hopefully to do a media studies course.
February 17th, 2008
Well I was going to write a post but I got distracted…
February 13th, 2008
Having thought about this, I’m actually paid monthly now so I’m more likely to get into a new place…Now I’m happy. Got my new Laptop today and my place on the company server, desk and phone to follow. Seems this job is much more along my street that listening to wimpering housewives complaining of the cold when they have no heating. Have to re-design a PCB tomorrow in Cadstar which I haven’t used before, I’ve only designed using Protel, so should be interesting…
February 7th, 2008
Well I’m a bit fucked off… A week into a 6 month contract with an engineering company and I feel quite depressed. Not because of the work, more the fact I have no place of my own and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage important issues where I am. So I might just shove all my wages into getting a place in the first (or second) month and sod anyone I owe money too, after all, It will put me in a better position to organise everything.
February 2nd, 2008
What is it with employment agencies? I find it hard to understand why they need to know so much information, surely there should be some kind of limit specified by the Data Protections or even the Human Right Acts…
Ok, maybe slightly extreme but I find getting my head round the fact that if you come out of prison after doing a stretch for robbery, drug dealing or even murder it’s easier to get a job than if you just happen to be doing a bit of cash work or maybe claiming benefits for a while.
January 24th, 2008
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