Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

Well folks here we are another year down. For those who don't  know, or don't remember last year on Christmas Day I sent on an e-mail out reviewing some of the highlights of 2009. I got such a great response, this year why not do it earlier? I also have been going through some of my old writings and retyping them on the computer, this time backing them on an external hard drive so its making me reflect on a lot. I have also come up with some new material, both on my website ( http://www.justinmattes.com ) and my blog ( http://justinmattes.blogspot.com ) First the family, the biggest thing being the death of  my grandmother,Theresa. Almost all of you  know she had Alzheimer for a very long time and moved in with my Aunt Dee in Park Ridge. Up until a few months ago she was very heath physically, but it was getting harder for her to eat and she  really loss strength quickly. Everyone says it was for the best, but I m...

Sometimes  the best things are left to chance and I couldn't have better proof than the event that happened last evening. My folks went out to dinner with friends and with nothing good on TV I decided to take a trip to the Cornerstone. Usually I go there only on Thursday nights to  hang out with my friends, but the Coronas and shots of Jack Daniels were calling. I got dressed and called up Westwood Taxi, I was sitting at the bar by a little after 9PM. Usually there's a DJ playing dance music  way too loud, however when I entered the bar that evening much to my delight I saw a drum set being setup in one of the side rooms. The owner who just knows me as "J"  caught me sneaking glimpses and said it was something new at the Cornerstone. They would host a band one or two Saturdays each month, the first band  in this "concert series" was The Brian Dougherty Band . I was very impressed that my "local bar" was starting to host  bands!! Th...

After taking September off to collect my thoughts and really focus  on getting my head straight, I figured October should bring some decent writing......I wasn't disappointed. It  started with the trip  out to Hershey, like I have been doing with the Field Dayarticles, I decided to spruce up the journal entry on here and submit it to the Frog Holl Tag Trader edited by Lynda Walker. Hopefully that will appear in their December issue. Secodly, and more of a political tone, just in time for the elections, I was writing in defense of former  Councilwoman Joanne Howely, who in my opinion really got smeared for minor problems.While in the end she wasn't exactly innocent, I felt she needed to know someone out  there supported her. I also found ir was a way to keep my batting average  up! It also proved to add to my popularity in town, in good and bad ways! Third and definitely the most rewarding from a writing standpoint, after a couple years absence I...

I know the title sounds like it should be written in December and not October, but give me achance to explain.  A few years ago I composed the Hershey Review 2005   about going to the worlds largest car show with my folks  and Uncle Chuck. Well I hadn't been there since, admittedlyI have had other destinations that I have written about  previously. The trip was planned by Bill Dickerson, a long time ALPCA friend and mentor.  As with a lot of northeast collectors didn't make it down to the ALPCA Convention down in Arlington, so they opted for the next best thing Hershey. Anyone who has been there knows the show has two parts, the actual car showand a huge flea  market. The last time my folks, Uncle Chuck and I focused our one good weather day (it ALWAYS rains one of  the days in Hershey during the car show) on the car show, this trip was for theflea market because that's primarly where the ALPCA members hang out. Like we did for a license...

The hot topic of the day is the proposed  Mosque at Ground Zero. One the one side you havew people whining about freedom of religion, most of whom want to take the phrase "One nation under God" out of the pledge of allegence.  On the other side you have people claiming building the mosque steps from Ground Zero supporting the religion that the terrorists used to justify  the murder more than 3,000 Americans, some of the Muslim. Truthfully I still believe the ladder,  on the other hand I won't sitting here and claim the people who support  the Mosque are insensitive to the families of the victims. Something has been going through my head something I don't think anybody has brought up. To me the obvious reason not to build a Mosque steps from the most devastating attack on American soil in history is one of vengeance. While Muslims tend to inflate the "hatred"* they get from fellow Americans, I can understand howmost Americans view the religion in a negative ...

Ok I wanted to post something positive after all the troubled writings I have posted and wanted to stay on the travelling theme for summer, so the family week in Delaware seemed like a perfect fit. Also this adds to the mobile posting series that started with Pete's apartment last September and continued evry so often. We're in Delaware with mom and dad, my brother Chris and his wife Natalie, my brother Pete and his girlfriend Sue and our Unclev Chuck. This was part of my mom's 60th and Uncle Chuck birthday celebration which included a joint party a few weeks ago, this trip and a few other surprises. The rentals  down here in Delaware are a bit different, instead of renting from a Saturday to a Saturday or Sunday to Sunday, the renters start and endon a Thrusday but it works out pretty ok. The house is located in a community that's footsteps from the beach One of the  best features about the house we're occupying is not only are we steps from the beach, there is...

I have been collecting license plates for fifteen years and have heard the war stories of  people getting screwed out of plates. Every now and then some piece of trash gives collectors the real run around andit's mostly annoying. However nothing prepared me for what I was getting into when I first starting talking to Juan Esperenza. Like  all new collectors he wanted every plate under the sun and started  "friending" people on Facebook. Of course since I was friends with fellow ALPCA members I accepted, pretty soon the nightmare began. Juan started making bad deals and bidding on plates with no intention of buying them. This obviously ticked a lot ofpeople off, so he was running out of people who would want to deal with him. He then started messaging me on Facebook because I had thrown a few plates, that wer never for for sale Every single plate I  put on my Facebook page he asked if  it was for trade, I said no. Finally after months of harrasment I told him I h...

Below is a post I sent to the PLATES Listserve. I plan to write something on the other activities like I did for the Erie trip last year. Bottom line despite the numerous troubles I ran into,  overall I had a blast. Well I have been reading all the reports and figured it was time I pass one along. The convention honestly ranked one of the worst I've been to and before everyone gets on the defensively accuses me of not appreciating all the hard  work the Board put into this convention let me preface I had a great time at the actual convention but between having my flight diverted, I was traveling alone this year, and the hotel treating me like a second class person that didn't understand what I was talking about. First of yes I know you can't control planes from diverting and the flight crew WAS GREAT, but they overreacted when I started showing signs of nervousness/ My flight was diverted to Austin for two hours because of the storms in Dallas. I  couldn't help but b...

After a year off due to the 2009 ALPCA Convention in Erie, PA  conflicting with Field Day weekend 2009, I entered this Field Day with  my own laptop and a new antenna. As in previous posts I mentioned I now havea Toshiba laptop which I use remotely whenever possible. So this year I can truly call the station my own! Paul,KC2CJW brought the Pompton Lakes OEM vehicle which was  decided to be my home base. It was definitely one of my more interesting setups because I also toured the van to check out there radios and of course what was in them. This year the 10-70 club, callsign N2SE, setup a station at Darlington Park just down the road from our usual location at Campgaw Ski Lodge. It seems the county scheduled their hazardous materials recycling day the same day as Field Day weekend. However it worked out fine because the attendance was down from last year. We were still a lively group I did have some problems with my new Buddystick  antenna.First of all note to ...

I was watching the Senate Hearings on the oil spill in the gulf few weeks ago and as soon as Tony Hayward opened his mouth an environmetal activist interrupted the hearing and had to be escorted out. Now Tony Hayward deserves every single bad thing that has happened to him, but he isn't a demon nor does he deserve to be demonized to the point where he can't control the cleanup.  He didn't personally cause the leak, but needs to  answer some tough questions.  There's a problem with having him be the only bad guy. Why doesn't the government understand they are partly to blame?  The dergulation of the oil companies are partly to blame. Why can't the government work with BP  instead of fighting with them? If people think I am defending BP consider this comparison. For years it has been argued that torturing terror suspects doesn't prevent terrorist attacks. Well let's turn that around a bit. Beating up on BP doesn't solve the problem either. They know t...

It started out when I opened Firefox web browser this morning I heard what sounded like Pacman noises coming from my computer speakers. I skimmed the Yahoo homepage(the startup page on my Firefox) and no Pacman references so I shut Firefox and reopend it. Again the fimilar sounds of the game where now growing from a cute flashback into an annoyance was still there. I shutdown Firefox a second time and reopened it. Problem was still there, I could feel my blood pressure rising and my paitence fell by the second. Once again I closed and reopend Firefox, did a virus check on my computer, everything was Kosher. I again turned the sound on again and bam. So that caused me to throw my mouse and broke it. Thankfully it didn't hit the screen!! I finally figure out that Firefox's browser feature on the address bar constantly pulls feed from the browser's in the drop down menu. So when I deleted the Google section from the website, the mysterious Pacman sounds went away So here...

Students Sent Home Over American Flag Shirts I was doing my usual morning  surfing and came across the above disturbing articel  where students were sent home for wearing American flag shirts yesterday during the Cinco de Mayo celebration. The reason: it might offended  people.  You have go to be kidding me? This is an absolute outrage! I bet if they were wearing Mexican flag shirts they would have been cheered. I also bet if you walked around Mexico City wearing the American flag on the Fourth of July, you'd be called racist. I also wonder if I went down to Mexico and called one of the they companies they'd say You think they were wear swatiskas for God's sake.Another thing where are those bunch of cowards also known as the ACLU?? It's gotten out of hand and needs to be stopped. The founding fathers must be rolling in their graves.  Yesterday was supposed to be a celebration of Mexican heritage which is a wonderful thing. I'm all for it, but I won't sit here ...

Nice move: Phil Mickelson brings his wife's doctor in to caddy If you're not into golf you probablly don't know the backstory of Phil Mickleson and his wife, Amy and his mother Mary, both diagnosed with breast cancer. Dr. Tom Buchholz, a radiation oncologist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, took such good care of the two most important women in his life and to show some appreciation Mickleson offered the one-time caddy the opprtunity of a lifetime. Buchholz does indeed know the game he had c addied and ran a golf proshop in Westchester NY. Some say Mickelson did this for publicity, they don't know what they are talking this was an honor. Which bring me to Tiger Woods, no I won't pile-on him like everyone else, but a word of advice going out to Tiger. Think about what Mickleson did and then take some stock in your own life. I'm not saying you should do exactly the same thing nor do I wish you or your family harm. However the world works in weir...

A few days agoI posted a letter I wrote to the ALPCA Listserve stating my dismay over the current President's actions! It was a continuation of a p=ost I made about a year ago entitled Swing Vote and the ALPCA Election which was my take on the movie Swing Vote which I saw the night before I voted in the ALPCA election. I watched the mo=vie in the context of thinking about the ALPCA Election. Fast forward a year later. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to run. It actually started with a conversation with Tim and just snowballed. At Erie I won an award for my display "Route 66 by Wheelchair" that got my picture in the magazine;. I also co-hosted my second meet in Washington Township with Marco Tramelli. I also plan to go to a few more meets during the year. Director Profile

I apologize for the delay in this e-mail, but as you might not know Northern NJ lostpower Staurday nightanbd had limited access to my e-mail until today. Instead of shutting down the list the Board should,d have warned Whit that even though THEY WERE WRONG, he should, as "member #1000" been able to forgive and forget, unfortunately for the rest of us it didn't turn out that way. I am convince that if Whit had let it slide, the list would still be functional today as it was before this blowup.Some may blame Steve and that is their right, I for one blame the Board members who voted to shut the list down, Steve was just the middleman. As for the comments about Board secrecy, lack of accomplishments, censorship and other criticisms, I feel the Board took those as attacks, and while SOME OF THEM might have been unfair, it should have given the Board pause and do something it rarely seems to do. Look at themselves FIRST before pointing fingers at the membership. The Board ...

I sent this e-mail to a couple of OEM CONTACTS this past Saturday. I want to divide this up into two parts because the police scanning aspect is also very first storm using the Uniden 396T. I am submitting this report via my aunt's house in Park Ridge because Woodcliff Lake is still without power.The power went out sometime between 5:00-8:30 because I was out for dinner, it was my brother's and my birthdays and getting home from Allendale was a challenge. We had many detours and passed huge limbs coming home. We we detoured from Glen Road onto Spring Valley going into Park Ridge. What should have been a 15 minute drive took over an hour. We go home to find out we were without power. We have been boling our water and using the woodburning stove. Damagewise our neighbor up the street had a huge tree li mb come down blocking the upper part of Glen Road and was still blocked as of 4:00 today. I read in the paper we might be without power until Tuesday. I hope that isn't the ...

While 90% of my ham radio experiences have been positive these last ten year there are still times I think maybe I should hang up the mic.Now I have felt most comfortable on PSK, but I started out on 2 meters just like most hams. Now in the beginning the other hams were just as nervous as I was talking over the air. Then I started to become morerelaxed and that made things a bit easir, on both ends of the repeater. I have my good days annd my bad days, but it is very seldom I get heated over ann overincident, tonight during the RACES Net I choked The format of the net recently changed. The old way was the net control went down a list of stations and I usually fo-llowed the same persopn. Recently that changed to what's known as "Net Roster" order, meaning you have to listen to the entire order not to miss your spot. Well I thought the trick was to write down every station. So I started typing every station down and the signed on. The problem was I lost one of the stat...

I just read ALPCA President Jeff Francis's second post to the ALPCA Discussion List. Time and time again he relies on other people to provide4 him information, or should I say misinformation to make his off-the-wall, out of right field comments. Every single time Francis wants to post to the list he sends an e-mail to Steve Benson the list moderator, who does an excellent job, and Steve posts it. To me that means he doesn't really want to know how the membership feel I am posting a response here because I don't want to see it rejected: I read President Francis's post to the list (via Steve Benson) extremely disturbing on numerous levels, mostly because he's cherrypicking a few out-of-line posts and assuming most of the posts are written in that tone. Sure hesays these negative posts are in the minority, but then I ask why hasn't he hasn't posted a positive message, like an update on the archives? In response I ask President Francis to look at the list...

Ok the final sign I am back on the air is my first contest which was the PSKFst 2010, the first major PSK event of the year! I tell you it wasn't a disappointment because I cracked down and really got going. Although admittedly I did take a few breaks. One of the aspects of good contesting is endurance because you see the same callsigns after awhile and it can get frustraing. However I posted decent qso count which was pretty exciting.Truthfully I just don't want to come in dead last in my catergory . Anyway it way a great way to start the new year on the air!!! Links: Logsheet for 2010 PSKFest Contest Results for 2010 PSKFest

I always wanted to write but waited for a time when other writing was at a lull. There are indeed a few thingsI have in the works but one of the things I added quite awhile ago called "Feedjit" whhich tracks the locations of IP addresses, not the actually IPs. It also tracks what websites people come from.I have the link to the blog on a few signature lines for forums I post on. It also trackswho came on here directly by entering the url Here's a sampling of the visitors that came on this site directly within the last week Charlestown, IN Indianapolis,IN Bear, DE Ridgewood,NJ Orlando,FL Columbus,OH Ripley,MS Remington,VA

Well after years of looking at shacks, it was time I built my own, with the help with my mom. Real simple the top shelf is my BC996T. Bottom shelf BC15, a Radio Shack Weather Radio and Yaesu FT-897 which is hooked up to the Toshiba Satallite Laptop on the right.

This appeared in the January 1st edition of The Community Life . It concerns me deeply that a citizen of our town can be as vicious as Mr. O'Brien was when writing about the ethics investigation of Mrs. Howley. He accusing her of downright stealing from the borough which is untrue and un fair because Howley did in fact pay for the items in question, so the borough didn't give her "something for nothing". She did the honorable thing by inquiring on how she could pay the back taxes, which to me seems to amount to pennies on the dollar. Is this what politics in Woodcliff Lake has come to? Howley said she may have saved $5 or $8 over the course of five years by using the Borough's discount card. Let's be clear taxes on these items go to the State of New Jersey , not the Borough of Woodcliff Lake. I don't see the tax collectors knocking on Mrs. Howley's door over something so minor. She openly admitted she used a lack of judgment, something we al...