STS-127 launched this evening, and for the first time ever I saw the orbiter and tank as they were going overhead, What a fantastic sight! Having seen it on the launchpad recently, I guess it made it a bit more ‘personal’.
Category Archives: General
Twittering using Morse Code.
Yes, you read it right.
A massive project to bounce voices from Earth to the moon and back to another spot on Earth will be launched June 26. Several former astronauts and other famous people have signed on, and so can one lucky Wired Science reader.
We’ve secured a spot for one Tweet to be bounced off the moon, so send your most space-worthy 140 characters to @wiredscience or e-mail betsy_mason@wired.com. The winner can go to a moon bounce station to personally send the message to the moon.
Read the full article here. Thanks Jeff for spotting it. No doubt about it, it is a big (literally) project, and the article does a very good job at explaining it
Classic Rock.
I was in a friends house earlier this afternoon, we were chatting away, then his phone rang so I was listening to the radio he had on in the background thinking “its been years since I heard that tune”. I’ve forgotten what the tune was, but he was tuned to 1584 AM (Stereo).
It turns out the station is Zenith Classic Rock. I’d been told about it before Christmas but forgot to listen out. If classic rock is your thing.. its great listening.
From the top.
Miguel wanted to see a picture from Malin Head. Not the best of views, but an impressive place nonetheless.
Fun with figures.
Have a look at this. Makes you wonder doesn’t it.
Guilt free Radio!
Eamonn seems to be enjoying his holidays. With R$15 all-you-can-eat dinners and R$1 for a beer, I’m not surprised. I, on the other hand have been so busy recently it just was not funny.
AREN has been soaking up my spare (ha!) time, with meetings, documentation, and other stuff that comes with trying to organise volunteers. AREN was also involved in recent exercises with other Voluntary Emergency Services in South Tipp,
and last weekend AREN members aided the Glen of Aherlow Fáilte Society with communications for the Glen of Aherlow Walking Festival, as the weather was forecast to be good, numbers were quite high. Communications from both sides of the mountain were provided and everything seemed to go without a hitch (other than the torrential shower just before walkers got to the buses on Saturday afternoon). Bernard, EI8FDB, has a few pics up on flickr taken during the event. Finally though, things are slowly getting under control (even on the DIY Front!) AND we found that shim6 bug I was talking about, so I can make some headway in work.
Now, as to the title of the post (Thanks Seamus!). I’ve been collecting bits and pieces for a while (2 years or so), batteries, solar panels, charge controllers etc. I finally got the panels installed, (sub optimally unfortunately, but wife friendly) two weeks ago. I let the batteries charge up fully, then I switched off my 13.8Volt PSU, and switched on the (slightly adjusted) 24v-12V DC DC converter. That was the 27th of May. Since then I’ve had my radio gear running from it just the battery bank and the panels (some of it 24×7). At this moment in time (approx 11 days later), the panels have put 204Ah into the battery bank, the DC-DC converter has consumed 350Ah.
Miguel was asking me to work this out during the week, so here goes (its late, and I’m tired so I could easily be way off here)
554 * 24 (volts) = 13.296 (KWh)
13.296.5 /11 * 365 = 441.18kWh for the year.
My last bill says a unit costs 15.02 cent (incl vat), so I should ‘save’ about €66.26 on the ESB Bill over the course of 12 months. Or to put it another way, it will never pay for itself, economically speaking.
I’m still experimenting, and will probably add more panels (and more ‘load), but so far, I’m happy as a pig in the proverbial with it. The problems will arise however as winter descends (and that €66.26 total will be in doubt). In those (in)famous words, A lot done, more to do.
Getting there!
Finally, some fine weather has coincided with me being at home. Its amazing how much (or how little) you can get done when its not raining.
Work in Progress
While JB was reminiscing, I was developing some new skills.
Along with some gentle encouragement from Mr Ronan, (aka my dad). Which often sounded very like “What the fsck are you doing that for”?
To use that old chestnut, a lot done, more to do.
An email from Sven Grahn arrived in my inbox (from a mailing list) over the weekend. Along with other satellite monitors, he is doing some cool stuff. I really need to get my act together and get building some aerials. This may be the encouragement that is needed.
Airline Security.
Here is a very interesting link that I came across while reading Bruce Schneier’s blog. It makes you wonder about the “Security” checks that we get put through leaving this country.
I wonder if the aircraft at the airports in this country are better protected?
More Power
Wow, what a busy few weeks. Somehow I found no time to write anything constructive. So, fridge/freezer, 623 Hours (20.69 days), 30.11 kWh or about 1.5kWh per day or about €90 per year.