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I enjoy losing arguments. It proves I have the ability to learn, unlike my opponents.

--Charles Dowdell

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Central Asia

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We are back from our most recent crazy trip. This time it was Central Asia and the "five stans" - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. We made all of our objectives. And we have now been to 104 countries. Angie has 95 and I have 94 countries. Together it is 104. It was a packed trip in 12 days. 7 flights, 2 high speed trains, 1 cable car ride, 1 horse ride, and a lot of hours in car trips. They are all Muslim countries, but they are better characterized as former Soviet countries. Russian langauge is a strong second language in all of these countries. There isn't much English spoken in any of them. Angie being fluent in Russian made all the difference and did intrepreting for me as well as a couple of British backpackers we met in Turkmenistan. Tajikistan is the Country with the distinct langauage being a derivitive of Persian with the others being Turkic. Ethnically, Southern Uzbecs are Tajik. Interesting, the spelling of many words is dis...
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I lived thru a Sunday. I spent a lot of time in the library. We watched the debut of "Emperors of the Ice" last night as part the science lecture. The producers/lecturers gave a talk as well. The documentary will be seen this coming year in the US. It is a National Geographic Special. It is pretty interesting to see a film like this one. It is all staged around McMurdo. To my eyes it isn't that exotic anymore. Don't get me wrong. I find it exciting and all that. However, it is like seeing a documentary about your family Thanksgiving day dinner. It is familiar. I have a very busy day today. I actually got quadruple booked today with work and training. That has to get worked out this morning. Here's me in the ham shack. I have a bit of work to do for the shack but we are going to be using 14.243 MHz USB. I will be using the station callsign KC4USV. Schedules are forthcoming.
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Stone Mountain (Gwinnett County) Hamfest 2024

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I haven't been to a hamfest in probably 10 years. They are still happening. They certainly are not as big as they were back in the 80s and 90s. But they still happen. An ever-reducing fraction of the expereince is still advancing state of the art communications technologies. Otherwise, they are celebrations in the antique, classic and nostalgic. It's fun to have conversations with folks that understand the specifics of eosteric radio and electronics technology. I saw one product that I wrote the manual for many years ago (The MDS new "P" Model). Angie decided to help out. We left the house incredibly early with the truck that was loaded up the night before. How early was it you might ask? Well, we went to Waffle House for Breakfast on the way to set up and the waitress told us to have a nice night when we left. I sold a few items, and I couldn't help but buy a few things. (Military Antenna base for the Humvee, a vintage Marantz receiver and few other odds an...
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Domestic Travel -- Milwaukee

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This past week I was in Milwaukee Wisconsin for a Global meeting. It was my first time spending anytime in the city of Milwaukee. It was good. Lots of bars, coffee houses similar in old factory buildings. We make some large mining equipment in Milwaukee. The size is staggering. The shovel in the pic is NOT the largest rope-shovel we make. I had fun with this pic of Gracie. I doctored it up a bit. I decided pile out my collection of boarding passes from the last 15 years. It is certainly not all of them and there are a few randow receipts besides airlines in there but it is most airline boarding passes. I just noticed today that they dont have the year listed, just Month and Day. I am sure with forenscis we could figure it out, but it was easy to remember what year it was I took the particualr flight. Also, the printing is low quality ment to be no permanet many are fading some are totally blank. The information has totally disappeared. It is the high speed hign reliability thermal ...
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