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Ham Events Brimming Over

There are lots of events coming up for radio enthusiasts.

Mike and Key (3/8)
Mike and Key's famous Ham flea market is on March 8 from 9-3 at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. There will also be exam sessions for anyone who wants to get or upgrade their ticket.

MicroHAMS (3/22)
Microsoft's Ham group will be hosting a digital conference on March 22 at the Redmond campus. On-site registration is $15 and includes lunch, snacks and internet access.

Communications Academy (4/5-6)
This year's event will be held on April 5-6 at South Seattle Community College. Charles Simonyi (KE7KDP / HA5SIK), space tourist, is Saturday's keynote speaker.

Be a 'Global Cooler'

I recently stumbled across the cargo bike community and was amazed at the number of options for folks who want to dump their cars. Clearly, 10-speed commuter bikes have been around for years, but people who want to get groceries or take their kids to daycare have an increasing number of options.

I was really impressed with the cargo carrying capacity of the Xtracycle and Mundo bike, which are extended-length frames with cargo space behind the rider. The efforts of WorldBike to make something like the Big Boda available to entrepreneurs in developing countries are awesome. To take the cake, the Bakfiet is an incredible feat of engineering which can replace the family car.

Interestingly, the German city of Muenster has an extensive system to encourage cycling. Gilbert Hanson visited the city in 2000 and has an impressive array of information on bicycle promotion there.

To sum things up, watch a cool video from 'global cooler' kipchoge.

Ever Thought About Amateur Radio?

Have you ever wondered how you could get involved in ham radio?

It's easy. There is a wealth of information online including study sites, practices tests, and the complete test question pool for each license class. In addition, many local clubs hold classes. In case you haven't already heard, learning Morse code is no longer required.

Study the questions, contact a Volunteer Exam Coordinator, and show up for the test. There is a $14 test fee.

More on cooking systems

Here are a couple new(er) arrivals to accompany my earlier review of portable cooking systems.

First is a how-to for building a soda-can stove. This concept has been around for a while, and it is widely used by travellers and ultra-light hikers. An ingenious concept - MacGuyver to max.

Next, the wood-gas stove is a concept similar to the larger Vesto. This stove will burn almost any solid fuel.

The Kelly Kettle - brilliant for brewing a fine cup of tea

I learned about the Kelly Kettle on Wikipedia, and Outdoor Idiots has an entertaining article about this fascinating device. It appears the Kelly Kettle was invented by Irish fishermen for making tea in remote locations. With only a limited amount of time and fuel, one can have one or two cups of tea.

It is available from the Kelly Kettle Company in County Mayo, Ireland. The Eydon Kettle Company in the U.K. also sells a version called the Storm Kettle.

The New Zealand army used a similar device, called the thermette, during World War II.

No more code

It's official: Effective February 23 the FCC will no longer requires learning morse code (CW) to pass any of the ham license exams. Kinda sad and the end of an era. FWIW, CW still has legit uses, and is the best mode of transmission for long distance and lossy conditions. The first hams on scene after the Indonesian earthquake of 2004 used CW to pass their traffic.

Community Emergency Response

If you are interested in emergency preparedness, you should check out the Citizen Corps. As part of the Citizen Corps, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program offers free online training through FEMA.

The main focus is to help out your community after a disaster, although "disaster" can refer to events all the way from a house fire, to a winter storm, to a major disaster.

I recommend taking the Incident Command System (ICS) courses to get a good understanding of CERT and how it fits into local and state emergency response. Start with the IS-317 (Introduction to Community Emergency Response Teams) and move on to IS-100 (Introduction to Incident Command System) . There are many other courses that might interested you; study materials are available without registration, but you'll have to fork over your SSN if you want to take the test and get the certificate.

How to Find Help After an Emergency

Business Week has a great list of resources for getting assistance after a disaster. It's targeted at Katrina victims but contains great links for anyone needing help.

The Seattle Times also has an excellent article on preparing for a disaster, as well as a printable disaster tip sheet.

One of the latest recommendations coming from unfortunate Katrina victims' experience is this: 72 hours of emergency supplies is not enough. Experts are now recommending a week's worth of supplies, including water. As many Gulf Coast residents also found out, the police and other emergency services aren't prepared to respond even if the phones work, so people should be prepared to protect themselves.

Cooking systems

I was talking with another outdoor enthusiast about cooking systems, specifically outdoor dutch oven cooking using charcoal briquettes. He brought the multi-fuel pyromid cooking system to my attention. It's pretty efficient, and has add-ons for baking. The whole unit folds down into a compact package. The literature proposes it as a possible solution to some of the fuel shortages (read: deforestation) in rural Africa.

A couple days later, I was at the African village display at the local zoo and noticed the design similarites between the Pyromid and the Kenyan Clay Jiko (KCJ), an effort to get folks away from their highly inefficient and unhealthy traditional cooking fires.

Some reading about the KCJ revealed another African design: the Vesto. It's a stove based on a five gallon paint can. It's built in South Africa and costs considerably less than the Pyromid, although it is more bulky. It would certainly be useful for camping and emergency use. I'm still looking for a source in the U.S.

Movie: The Gleaners and I

I just saw The Gleaners and I, directed by Agnès Varda. C'est fantastique!

Agnès exposes what good dumpster divers have known for some time; the amount of waste in Western society is astounding. Her French subjects, ranging from Gypsies to street kids to volunteer teachers to gourmet chefs, realize the untapped bounty in leftover produce, from both the field and the market.

We would all do well to take a lesson from Ms. Varda's subjects. If you're averse to gleaning or dumpstering, you should at least pay attention to efficiently using and re-using what you have.

Communications Academy 2005

I went to the Communications Academy a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is two days of seminars on a variety of radio communications topics. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in emergency communications attend. It's extremely interesting and free! 2005 session is April 2-3 in Shoreline, Washington.

Have a look at past offerings to get an idea of what's in store. (2004, 2003, 2002)

Casting Party

My friend Dan had a casting party last week. You may be thinking "thespians," but no.

This was a molten metal social event. Dan turned his backyard into a foundary workers dream. There were a dozen people there and at least 2 projects going at any one time. Dan was melting aluminum in the foundary while another fellow fired his lost-wax mold for a small totem.

The keystone for the occasion was Mike Porter's backyard furnace. The furnace or forge is made from an old propane tank. Ingenious. These furnaces get hot. As I mentioned, Dan was melting aluminum, and the totem cast was later filled with molten brass. Mike was there, signing copies of his book, "Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces & Kilns," which details the making of both the furnace, and most importantly, the burner, which fires the furnace.

The greatest thing about these furnaces are their versatility. Depending on how you build it, the foundary furnace can be easily flipped on its side and used as a blacksmith's forge. Very cool and very portable.

Chicken Tractors

Check this out: I have been designing a chicken tractor - drawings & descriptions in my notebook - that allows me to move chickens around the yard. It keeps down weeds & bugs & distributes fertilizer while keeping the chickens secure & free-range happy. Imagine my surprise, when visiting the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, in finding a luxury chicken tractor! This coop has everything: a second story with nesting boxes & roosts and a pull-down ladder for the chickens to descend to ground level. This thing is cool. www.backyardfarming.com calls it their Boughton Range.

Living the Good Life

BUILDING

I'm reading a great book about living the good life. It's called... surprise! Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing. There is a whole chapter about building with stone, using forms similar to concrete forms. Now I'm not the most handy man around. My son keeps mentioning how we start a project, then later start another project, and rarely finish one. So, although I may never try these stone building techniques, I do think it's rather intriguing and a very cost effective method of homestead building.

It got me to looking at the different buildings I pass on my walk to work. Many of the buildings are brick, some undergoing renovation after the earthquake of 2001. Even among the brick buildings there are many different ways to build, including vastly different brick sizes. There are also many buildings and other structures (stairs, pedestrian bridges, stadiums) which use a lot of concrete or mixed concrete and brick. All very well engineered and well thought out it seems. There are certainly a wide variety of building styles in downtown Seattle, and I particularly like looking at the older buildings.

Speaking of concrete, Metro Transit is working on a bus shelter near my home. From the pace of it, they are approaching the speed at which my son says I complete projects. They had dug a hole and put in forms to pour a pad. There were minor changes over the course of two weeks to the forms. Next thing I knew, they had expanded the hole and forms to nearly double the size of the pad. I don't firmly understand concrete construction, but the form looked very elaborate for a simple bus shelter pad. At least a week later, we had a pad to stand on. It has now been almost two weeks with a bare pad. I don't see any methods to attach and shelter supports; I suppose they'll just drill right into it. I just hope it's done before the summer is over.

I need a dog

I've been thinking about this for a long time. What is the perfect dog for a homestead? A dog should be a great companion, handle livestock, and defend against interlopers. On the security front, a dog or pair of dogs should be able to handle other dogs & coyotes, four legged garden pests (deer) and unfriendly two-legs who wander by. A good dog should keep the honest neigbor honest & the suspicious-looking visitor fearful. After much thought, my choice is... the Blue Heeler. It has a long history as a livestock dog. Its outback lineage, with Dingo ancestry, make it a tough customer on the security and basic survival fronts.

What to wear?

I was thinking about the perfect garment for kicking around the homestead. I want something simple and comfortable that can be worn in numerous weather conditions. Top picks are:
The great kilt or Caftan with sandals*

*While I love barefooting and letting my feet breathe, I realized on a camping trip a few years ago that shoes are essential for certain environments. (Sorry Barefooters!) While gathering firewood (after dark!), I stepped on a broken branch and put a nasty gash in my foot. Then I proceeded to step on a turd that some moron had neglected to bury in a cat hole. It made me think I was in the Nam... I promptly washed out my wound and recovered without infection, etc, but I had learned my lesson.

Breaking ground

I break ground on the virtual homestead. Plenty of room for camping - no facilities yet. Please pick up after yourself.

Dave