CERT Team Looking For Radio Equipment

The CERT I am part of is looking for some new or gently used amateur radio equipment. If you have any of these items to donate, please contact me

kb5nju hotmail com:

• 2m Mobile Radio, 20w transmitter power or higher
• Power Supply capable of powering a mobile radio of at least 20w
• Discone Antenna, capable of transmitting on 2m. One that comes with a portable pole mounting system would be great.
• 50 feet of RG-58 coax cable

Almost 50% of our CERT consist of licensed amateur radio operators with others who are interested in getting their licenses. Our goal is to set up a base station during events where a net control operator can facilitate communication with the hams as they go about their tasks.

The Temple (Texas) CERT is affiliated with the City of Temple Fire and Rescue and a 501(c)3 organization.

Thanks and 73.

It's A Matter of Size

I hate shopping for clothes, shoes included. So when my black shoes fell apart (literally) it took a lot of effort to buckle down and get a new pair. Thankfully, us guys really only need a few pairs of shoes, so I don't have to go through this too often.

I have some very high-quality shoes. When I know I'm going to be on my feet for a while and I can't wear Crocs, I wear one of those pairs of shoes. When I'm going to be at work all day sitting on my butt, I don't usually wear one of those high-quality pairs. Pretty much anything will do.

Since the shoes I needed to replace were primarily for work, I didn't mind getting a pair at Walmart while we were shopping there anyway. I thought to myself it would be an easy thing. Alas, I was wrong.

I went to the shoe aisle at our local Walmart and grabbed a pair of nine-and-a-halfs to try on. I couldn't even squeeze my feet into them. I thought that strange, but I've run into times where sizes were a little off - no doubt to the metric to English conversion. So I grabbed a pair of tens. I got my feet into them, but they were way too tight. So, I tried a pair of ten-and-a-halfs next. They fit in perfectly in width, but they were about two inches too long.

I grabbed another pair of another style and brand. I was thinking, perhaps, if the one factory didn't do their metric to English conversion very well, perhaps another factory did. Well, this style fit just like the others I had just tried on: nine-and-a-half was too small, ten was too small, and the ten-and-a-half fit perfectly in width but was about two inches too long. I figured they were made in the same factory as the other ones.

I gave up at that point. I hate shopping for shoes in the first place, but now I was upset because someone didn't do their math correctly. I commented to my wife: "Can't we send our overseas manufacturers a ruler with inches so they can check their sizes before they ship stuff out? It seems we're not doing them or ourselves any favors by keeping the actual length of an inch secret."

In my town there is a shopping center with a Shoe Carnival with a Ross next store. Whenever I'm there for any reason, I always stop at Ross before going to Shoe Carnival because there's always a chance a nice pair of shoes will be for sale there for cents on the dollar.

In Ross, I found a great pair of leather shoes, just right for wearing to work. I grabbed a pair of nine-and-a-half and proceeded to walk around a bit. I practically walked out of them. Disgusted, I grabbed a pair of nines, thinking I might have to go down to eight-and-a-half on this brand. Thankfully, the nines fit perfectly and I left the store getting a great pair of shoes for the same price I would have gotten the Walmart cheapies for.

Am I the only one who has trouble buying clothes and shoes which fit? Aren't sizes supposed to be based on actual inches (or at least their metric equivalents)? Shouldn't one size nine shoe be same as another size nine? If I get a pair of pants with a 34-inch inseam, shouldn't the next pair of pants with a 34-inch inseam be the same length? Am I just being too picky?

Congress Versus AIG

Is there anyone else who thinks that members of congress are a bit hypocritical when making such a fuss over the AIG bonus payments?

Here are a bunch of folks who waste more of our money than any other group and vote themselves pay raises every year (again, out of our money). Yet they have the gall to call down "power from on high" to take money away from AIG for paying bonuses? Money which they freely gave away with no strings attached?

If congress really wants to "play fair" with the taxpayers' money, let them pass a law tying their annual pay raise to inflation.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

How Did They Get Away With Not Paying Their Fair Share?

This past November I described in this space my experience with the IRS. You can read of the whole affair here. The funniest part is, I think they still owe me $2.00.

So, the IRS came after me for just over $1000. It was an honest mistake on my part. But, it was no big deal and I paid it willingly.

So this brings to mind the question: How did 4 people appointed by President Obama to head some government department or another get away with not paying tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes? How is it that they all-of-the-sudden remembered they forgot to pay all this money to the IRS? How is it that the IRS was able to find the one thousand I owed them, but they couldn't find the tens of thousands these other people owed? They came after me for two dollars. Why didn't they go after these other folks for tens of thousands of dollars?

This all smacks of hypocrisy and favoritism to me. I wonder how many "regular folks" like me have been harassed by the IRS. I also wonder how many "politicos" have had their tax irregularities ignored.

If we want to talk about folks paying their fair share - lets start right now with elected and appointed government officials. Or is it that some are "more equal than others."

My Daylight Savings Time Story

I hate changing the clocks twice a year. It makes no sense to me at all. I can't see where it will save energy, boost industrial productivity, make the streets safer or provide any other benefit. Perhaps when ours was a more agrarian society it made sense, but now it does not.

Today I woke up at 7:45 am, which yesterday would have been 6:45 am. I forgot to change my alarm clock yesterday, so I was an hour behind. When I checked my phone for messages, it displayed a message which read that it had been updated for Daylight Savings Time. Funny thing was, it was still showing the time as one hour earlier than it really was.

I went downstairs and sat in front of the computer to check email. It showed the correct time, but no message that it had updated automatically. So, in my pre-caffeinated stupor I set the time back and hour to match the incorrect time on my phone.

I thought I had PLENTY of time to get ready. I leisurely checked my email, caught up on Twitter, ate my cereal and drank my coffee, took a shower; all the time thinking I was way ahead of schedule.

It wasn't until my friend, Jim, called asking me if I was going to show up for band practice. "Yes," I replied, thinking he was rather anxious. "We're leaving in a few minutes. Why, what's up?"

"Dude, it's 9:20. Did you forget to change your clocks?" Yes, I had. I didn't want to admit it, but I had. This is the first time in many years I missed a time change.

Things worked out OK even though I was very late and we had a couple good laughs at my expense.

I wonder how many other thousands had the same problem this morning? One day I might move to Arizona to get away from this time-changing mess.