Category Archives: Hobbies

Yaesu FT-90R squelch problems

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When I got back into ham radio in 2003, Debra bought me a Yaesu FT-90R dual band mobile radio for the truck. I’ve used it quite a bit over the years and have been really happy with its performance until recently.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the plastic or vinyl covering on the microphone cord is coming apart. It’s falling apart at both ends, revealing the individual wires. I’ve taped it up temporarily, but in the near future I’ll need to replace that cord. That’s disappointing, as the radio is less than 10 years old and it’s not like I’ve been using it excessively. For sure, being in the truck all the time during the hot summers can’t be especially good for the cord, but I’ve seen much older radios handle that for many decades. It looks to me like Yaesu used substandard materials for their microphone cords.

The microphone cable is a relatively minor problem. This past weekend I discovered a much worse problem: the squelch stopped working. If I turn the squelch up so that I don’t have to listen to the background static, I’m unable to hear transmissions from others. Sometimes this manifests as total silence, and other times it’s an intermittent reception. It sounds like somebody is turning the speaker off and back on a few times per second. It makes the signal almost intelligible.

As it so often turns out, I’m not the only one who’s experienced this problem. In fact, it appears to be relatively well known. Evidently the problem only manifests when the frequency step is set to 5 KHz. Or perhaps if it’s set to anything except 10 KHz. It’s interesting that one site says that the problem is more prevalent on UHF (440 MHz), and others say that the problem is primarily on 2 meters.

I’ve experienced trouble on both bands.

Apparently this is a software problem rather than a hardware problem. The only solution I’ve seen is, “don’t use the 5 KHz step.” That’s easy enough to change from the radio’s options menu, but then I won’t be able to access some repeaters. This morning, for example, there was an emergency situation (toxic fuel spill) and hams were called out to help with notifying residents. The coordinating repeater frequency is 441.625. If I forego the 5 KHz step, I would not be able to hear or transmit to that repeater.

The problem appears to be heat related. Some have said that a second cooling fan helps, and still others have recommended removing the radio’s case and cleaning out any accumulated dust. I’ll definitely try cleaning the thing, but I won’t be installing a fan in the truck to blow across the radio or, as somebody suggested, change the air conditioning ducting.

I’m a bit disappointed, because I really like this little radio. It’s small and yet powerful, with a good signal and a good receiver. Some people complain about the fan noise, but I rarely hear it.  But if my only options are to live with no squelch or not use the 5 KHz step, I’ll have to find a new radio for the truck and either sell this one or keep it for an emergency backup.

I wonder what dual band mobile rigs are going for these days . . .

Juggling Thingies

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I’ve been using the same juggling beanbags since 1984. Since I’m getting more interested in the hobby, I figured I’d go crazy and buy myself some new props. These beanbags are hand-made to order by John Nord.  They’re approximately 2-1/4 inches in diameter and weigh about 3.5 ounces. They’re leather, more easily caught than cloth beanbags, and feel great in the hand. If you’re interested, check out his Juggling Thingies.

Juggling

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When I was filling in for the night computer operator at the bank where I worked, I taught myself to juggle.  This would have been the summer of 1984.  Since then, I’ve practiced off and on, and even showed a few friends how, but all I’ve known are the most basic moves.  There’s a lot more to juggling than the basic 3-ball cascade.  I recently became acquainted with the folks at the Texas Juggling Society, who meet down by the University of Texas campus every Thursday for three hours of juggling followed by pizza and beer at a local hangout.  They’re a great group of people, friendly, and willing to share their knowledge.  I’ve gone to the last four meetings, and have picked up a half dozen new patterns and seen plenty of things to keep me busy for a long time.  (I suppose “meeting” is a bit strong.  This isn’t an  organization with membership, dues, officers, agendas, and all that.  All we do is get together, socialize, and juggle.  It’s my kind of club.)

If you want to get started juggling, show up at a local club and somebody will be happy to show you the basics.  If you can’t find a club in your area, find a book called Juggling for the Complete Klutz.  It has everything you need to master the 3-ball cascade, and even comes with a set of beanbags.  Be prepared to spend a little time with it, but don’t get discouraged.  Just about anybody can learn to juggle.  It’s fun, it’s entertaining, and it’s deep and wide enough to keep your interest for years.  As an added benefit, 30 or 45 minutes of juggling even counts as “moderate exercise.”  Especially when you’re first learning and chasing the balls all over the living room.

Computer Games / Railroad Tycoon

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Even though I’ve worked in the computer games industry, I’ve never been a huge fan of games.  When I was in that business, I made it a point to evaluate a lot of different games, but very few really grabbed my interest.  I have several bookshelves full of games now, most of which I’ve only played long enough to see their major features.  A few, though, have retained my interest for years.

The original Colossal Cave Adventure was the first game to keep my interest for any length of time.  I played that for most of my first semester in college before I finally figured out the secret of the last room.  I played Zork for a while, but many of the puzzles were too obscure for my taste.  After that, it wasn’t until 1994 that I found another game to really interest me.  That game, of course, was DOOM, which I played all the way through on my 386 with no sound.  I still play that game from time to time, and am still impressed with it.  Of course, it plays much nicer on my P3 700.  Of the other first person shooter type games, only Descent was as much fun, and that only in multi-player mode. 

The game that’s had my attention for the last couple of years (I don’t get to play much) is Railroad Tycoon II and the The Second Century expansion pack.  The game played reasonably well on my P200, and it’s a real joy on my new system.   I much prefer RRT2 over any of the other real-time strategy games, which all seem to be war based.  RRT2 has much of the same attraction as Civilization II, but with a much more varied experience.  Even so, it could still use a better AI.  It’s not uncommon to have 30 or more trains running at the end of a scenario, and having to micro-manage them all gets tiresome.

Beer bottling / homebrewing

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Today was beer bottling day.  I had to bottle the beer for next week’s party (see Oct 22).  Of course, I took a sample for taste before I began bottling.  It’s a little sweet, but that’s normal.  Otherwise it tastes like flat beer.

Like everything else about homebrewing, the bottling process is very simple.  Again, the primary word is sanitation.  Before you start bottling, you have to clean and sanitize the bottles, siphon the beer from the carboy (glass jug) into a sanitized bucket, and add a little priming sugar (about 3/4 cup of corn sugar or malt extract).  You siphon the beer into the bottling bucket for two reasons:  to help ensure that the priming sugar is evenly distributed in the 5 gallons of beer, and to get the beer away from the dead yeast—you don’t want too much of that in your finished beer.  There’s still some live yeast in the beer, but not too much.  The priming sugar is food for the yeast.  I’ll get to why you need that below.

Once you sanitize everything and transfer to the bottling bucket, it’s a simple matter to siphon the beer into individual bottles.  We have a bottle filler, which is simply a tube with a spring-loaded valve at the end.  You put the tube into the bottle and press the valve against the bottom of the bottle to start the beer flowing.  When the bottle is full, you release the valve to stop the flow.  You can do it without the bottle filler, but it’s a major pain, and very messy.

Everybody asks me how I cap the bottles.  It’s amazingly simple.  You can buy caps by the pound at the local homebrew store or through the mail.  Mine say “Real Beer” on them.  The capper is a simple and inexpensive (less than $10) device that crimps the cap onto the bottle.  Capping is probably the easiest part of the entire process.

Remember I said that the beer was flat?  Nobody I know likes flat beer, so we need a way to carbonate it.  Home brewers who keg their beer use CO2 to force carbonate it.  But the equipment to force carbonate bottled beer is out of reach for most home brewers, so we let the yeast do it for us.

Yeast digest sugar and produce alcohol and CO2 as by-products.  In your primary and secondary fermenters, the CO2 bubbles out through your airlock.  But if you add some sugar to your finished beer and cap the bottles, the remaining yeast will feed on the sugar, and the resulting CO2 will remain in your beer.  Natural carbonation.

The only drawback (to some people) to this process is that the yeast will settle out of the beer and form a small layer on the bottom of the bottle, and then get stirred up when you take a drink.  It’s not harmful (on the contrary, there’s some evidence that these small amounts of yeast are beneficial), but some people find the yeast distasteful.  That’s easy enough to remedy—just carefully pour the beer from the bottle into a mug, and leave the last 1/4 inch or so in the bottle.

After you bottle the beer, just store the bottles in a cool dark place for a week or two.  Then refrigerate (optional), open a bottle, and enjoy.

Getting Started with Homebrew

Although there’s quite a lot of good homebrew information on the web, the best place to start is your local homebrew supply store.  Just go in and tell them that you want to get started, and they’ll hook you up.  You can get a full brewing kit with all the necessary equipment, and ingredients and instructions for your first batch of beer for under $100.  That doesn’t include bottles or bottle caps.  You can buy the bottles at the homebrew store (you’ll need about 50 12-oz bottles for a 5-gallon batch), or save the ones that contain your store-bought beer.  Twist-off bottles don’t work so well.  Some homebrew places have a “bottle swap” where people drop off their bottles.  Remove the labels by soaking them overnight in a bucket of ammonia/water solution (1 cup of ammonia in 5 gallons of water works well).  Remember to rinse the bottles thoroughly after soaking in ammonia.

I recommend Charlie Papazian’s book The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing.  It contains a lot of information about the science of fermentation, a troubleshooting section, and recipes for lots of different beers.  If your homebrew store doesn’t carry it, it’s almost guaranteed that your local chain bookstore will.

Homebrew.com is a good  place to start if you’re looking for information online.  Their resource center has links to articles on how to start brewing, a FAQ, and lots of other information.  The Real Beer Page also has a lot of information, and links to dozens of sites that contain brewing information, recipes, ingredients, and equipment.  My local homebrew store, Austin Homebrew Supply, also has an online ordering system.

More on homebrewing

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I like riding my bike, but not in the rain.  Since it rained all weekend, I decided to catch up on my brewing (see Oct. 21).  I brewed a traditional Mild Ale for a friend’s party in a couple of weeks, and a rye beer for a Thanksgiving party that Debra and I will be attending.

Other than the dishes, brewing beer is the only thing I do well in the kitchen.  If I can do it in the kitchen, it doesn’t require much skill.  The most important part is sanitation.  Anything you put in the cooking pot gets boiled, so general cleanliness is sufficient.  But anything that’s going to touch the beer after it’s cooled (like the bucket or jug that serves as your fermenter) must be as sanitary as possible.  You don’t want to know what wild yeasts or bacteria can do to your favorite beer.  If you make sure to keep everything clean, you almost can’t screw it up.  Perhaps the result won’t be exactly what you expected, but it will most likely be drinkable.  Drain cleaner (stuff that’s unfit for drinking) is almost always the result of bad sanitation.

Oddly enough, what I like the most about brewing beer is that it’s so different from what I normally do.  Writing computer software and technical articles is exacting work.  “Good enough” usually isn’t good enough when it comes to programming, but it’s just fine for beer.  As the author of The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing says, “Relax.  Don’t Worry.  Have a homebrew.”  The other nice thing is that you can’t hurry beer.  Unlike work, where I’m either trying to meet a deadline or trying to optimize the code, the beer is ready in its own time.  “Relax.  Don’t Worry.  Have a homebrew.”

I enjoy drinking the final result, but I think I get more enjoyment out of making it.

On homebrewing beer

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Debra and I started brewing beer about three years ago.  It’s perfectly safe and legal—distilling liquor without a license is illegal and potentially dangerous, but fermenting is legal with some restrictions—and the result can be quite good.  Some of the best, and certainly the most interesting, beers I’ve tasted have been homebrew.

Brewing beer requires patience.  You boil the ingredients, cool the result, add yeast, and wait.  And wait.  And wait some more.  It’ll take anywhere from three to six weeks before you can drink the stuff you brew.  The time required is mostly dependent on how much fermentable sugar is in the mix, and the type of yeast you use.  Generally, more sugars makes for more time (and a beer with a higher alcohol percentage—waiting does have its benefits).

There’s not much you can do to speed the fermentation process.  You can try adding more yeast, but you run the risk of overpitching, resulting in a subtle off-flavor termed yeast bite.  You can also increase the fermentation temperature, but yeasts are a little picky.  If you get outside the yeast strain’s temperature range, you’ll produce chemicals that lead to off flavors.  If you get the temperature too high, you’ll kill the yeast.

Does that sound like a software project to you?  The more complex the project, the longer it’ll take.  You can add programmers to reduce the time required, but at some point adding another programmer actually increases the time and can also lead to lower-quality code.  You can increase the heat—make the programmers work longer hours—but at some point you’ll burn them out and kill the project.

Viewing a software project as a biological process is something I’ll have to ponder.