• Category Archives Life in the USA

  • SatNOGS

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    I have picked up a side hobby of tracking small cube satellites and decoding their data.
    Sounds tricky, but honestly, its all been made super simple by the SatNOGS guys…. Satellite Network of Ground Stations….. Just load their Raspberry Pi image, hook up an antenna and receiver and you are up and running.
    They do all the hard work of tracking the sats, triggering your station and handling the decoding.
    (Its not that easy, but you get the idea).
    I started with a home made antenna, but got hooked on the concept so put my money where my time was and bought two antennas from a company in Florida. (Antennas.us)

    Main reason I went with these is because they look like pipes. I am still mindful of being in a pretty strict HOA and did not want to draw any more attention that necessary.
    I have two, a VHF and a UHF. Both then run into amplifiers and then to my Raspberry Pis. So yeah, I run two stations. 702 and 908. Why two? One for VHF and one for UHF.
    Where all this becomes really fun is that you have to manually (at the moment – the guys are working on some machine learning stuff) ‘vet’ your signals that your station picks up. So every few days I check in with my stations and look at the data they have received and vet it as good, bad or failed.


    Here is a short video of one of my decodes. It gives you an idea of the signal, the graphics and the audio from the satellite in orbit.
    Its really quite addictive (for a geek).
    The plan is, after 10,000 vets of signals on my UHF station, to continue with the upgrades of both the amplifier and the receiver. The better you can make your station, the less vetting you need to do and the more data you kick back to the community.

    As for coverage, for the longest time Victoria was not on the map… I was almost at the point of sending you guys something to get us up and running!
    But thankfully VK3XN has stepped up and is running a station out Ringwood East way…. Anyway, the more global coverage, the better.

    So yeah, its been soaking up my hobby time in the most delightful way.


    Life in the USA 📎and tagged

  • Home Solar – Take 5

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Well, for the 5th time we had a guy come into our house and run the numbers for a solar system.
    Bleh.
    Long story short, we use enough power to require a 8kw system, which fills most of the roof (honestly, its so scattered all over the roof that even I said it was an eye sore).
    The big issue with such a big system is the cost.
    40k.
    We are looking at a 25 year loan to cover it. So I would be paying it off till I am 78 years old. Yikes.
    If we chose to sell the house in the mean time, we have to find someone that is willing to take on the payments. Some $150 bucks a month.
    On top of all that, if we run our AC, we will still get a power bill.
    The panels that we were quoted on were pretty much bottom of the tier made in China stuff. (And we all know what my experience with them has been like!)

    So, after all that, it should come as zero surprise that we decided, once again, to not go with the system.

    We have looked at leasing, owning, financing and tax credit and one other option I cant remember.
    I badly want solar, but just cant afford 40 grand.
    The difference in cost of systems here in the States vs in Australia is just astonishing.


    Life in the USA 📎and tagged

  • Different side fence blew down.

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    California has been having some crazy winds and fire season of late.
    Even Temecula got the winds. Normally being in the valley we are protected from that sort of thing, but not this time.
    So yeah, this time the front part of the side fence blew down…. The good part is that the bit we fixed last time survived (as I would expect).
    So we have torn the whole thing down, jacked out the rotted posts, re cemented them and are starting to put it all back together.
    Bleh.

    The oceanographic aircraft tracking will be down while we do this as the big dish was nestled up against the fence. It is now currently sitting under our patio cover.


    Life in the USA

  • Empty Nest

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Been a busy few weeks helping Terry and Krysta move into their new rental house.
    They are only about 20 minutes away in Murrieta, so its not like they are in Idaho or anything, we can still drive around and see them.
    It sure is a lot quieter at home with just the two of us.
    We have turned Terry’s room into a home gym. Amy’s room is still the guest room with the bed, so we are still set for visitors etc.
    The workshop and garage are still a bit of a mess, but Freddy has cleaned up the rest of the place pretty good.
    Turns out we have used our little truck a ton. So much for my plan to sell it since we ‘never use it’. Hah! Fat chance of that.
    Freddy is on the look out for a washer/dryer for them and any book shelfs, I’m sure the truck has more work to do yet.


    Family Life in the USA

  • Built a gate

    Posted on by beno 4 Comments

    The old one was about had it. I guess it was not too bad for 20ish years old…. it sagged and was a pain to open since it was dragging on the ground so much.
    Not only, but also, it opened into the yard. This made it hard to get the rubbish (trash) bins (cans) in and out since it opened into them.

    As you can see, even with the braces someone had put on there, it was not enough to pull the gate off the ground.
    Also whats with the non-level top? Who thought that was a good idea?

    This is what the three of us built in a few hours.
    Freddy has painted the other side so it keeps the HOA “happy” (You can never keep them happy, so we just do our best and hope).
    Anyway, swung it on the house side so it folds back on the house, giving much more room to get the wheely bins in and out.
    Leveled the top for no reason other than it looks oh so much better.
    Notice the top rail. The HOA demands that all fences and gates have a top rail. Why? Because HOA.


    Life in the USA