Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

Moving to Cape May has been quite an adjustment after 38+ years of living in Woodcliff Lake.  Even though I have adjusted well, made new friends, become a "local" I still every now and then think about what's happening up north. Even though getting around on my scooter is considerably easier, I still long for the drives to Fusco's for a root beer and chips or into Park Ridge to Park Pizza for a slice of pizza. Though now it's Westside Market in West Cape May and down to Jojo's or Mario's Pizza to satisfy my  craving. It's time I leave my final permanent connection behind, Bergenscanner.com. I listed on RadioReference that I wanted someone either However before I leave I want to take a trip[ down memory lane Listening to police scanners has given  me many many hours of pleasure. My first police scanner was a 10-channel Bearcat scanner I bought from Service Merchandise and I have been hooked ever since! When I first got the scanner I bought the big B...

My dad loves golf, he plays, watches it, breathes it, and  while I don't share his obsession, I enjoy the game. I know the Masters is played every April, I can name about 20 players on the tour. Last week my niece, nephew, my folks and I played at one of Cape May's finest courses, mini-golf courses. So I was more than in-tuned to Tiger's return  to the game after some physical and personal troubles. He played a remarkable round for what he has been through and is back on track to become one of the greatest golfers. He brought the game to the attention of young people, especially minorities. It's safe to say Tiger has more than made his mark on the game of golf This won' t be a Tiger "lovefest" but I want to show my support of what he did two  Sundays ago At the post-round interview Tiger Woods fielded the usual questions about his game a reporter asked about his feelings toward the Commander-in-Chief. Now Tiger has had dozens of interviews and been ...

It has been a week the annual National Night Out, a community event sponsored by the city. They have games for the kids, even a big slide on the beach. The fire department sets up their trucks with the Coast Guard and even the Cape May County Police brought down their mobile command unit.  Something about getting on the air under less than ideal conditions always makes hams happy!  It's part of our training in emergency communications. Over my eighteen years I have operated from the base of lighthouses, in cars, from different emergency operation centers and last week I decided to try  from a Cape May icon, Convention Hall..  It was a bit trickier than I thought but it was something I wanted and needed to do on my own, ok ALMOST on my ow.  The first obstacle I didn't think about was Convention Hall is made of steel, not exactly great conditions for operating. Add to the fact  it is surrounded by buildings I wasn't happy with the signal.The reports int...

I turned 40 back on March 15 and have been reflecting a lot on my life. One of the treasure I have in life is a wonderful family and great friends. I wrote the piece below as part as the introduction to some writings I did in high school. Stephen Gold and I met in grade school .Even though we were the same age, the school held me back which was really the start of a very bumpy road for me. We separated for awhile and were reunited at Pascack Valley High School Stephen was born with MS. Doctors said he wouldn't see his fifth birthday, he lived triple that amount of time. He was one of the first, if not THE FIRST, children in Bergen County to break the bonds of special education. i don't know the background but even though he lived in River Vale, he went to Dorchester School  in Woodcliff Lake with Darren, another kid with CP, and myself. He graduated Pascack Valley in 1996 and was scheduled to attend Ramapo College that September. Stephen didn't make it, he succumbed  to his...

Like clockwork as soon as the news of the Texas killing happened, folks on both sides of the  gun control debate went to their respective battle stations. Both took their predictable tones and finger pointing while America collectively demanded once again our elected officials "do something". I am in that camp too, but I am not hopeful it will be done because nobody actually wants the cycle to break, that's how they'll get reelected, on both sides. Nobody actually wants to fix the problem properly because neither side wants to feel they are taking rights away, gun rights or privacy rights. The clear backpacks the Parkland students oppose would work better than the strongest gun control laws because it would detect guns. It would also stop knives, bombs which the killer in this incident had and tried to detonate and any other devices or tools that could be used as a weapon. That alone would solve the problem better than any other gun laws on the books, but I don't ...

After year of getting teased about having what was incorrectly always referredto as a "flip-phone", I leaped into the 21st century and got an iPhone 6S. Yes it's a double whammy because I am well-known for my anti-Apple  views on a number of levels. Maybe I'll come around some day. The hardest thing to do was setting up all my account s where I needed to- enter passwords which are a lot easier to enter on a laptop than a cellphone. My neck is still hurting from bending down and typing on the tiny keyboard. Although people remarked that my older phone had a smaller keyboard. Still trying the justify the reasoning behind it. One of the most amusing new habits I have is asking people for their wifi passwords. Although I am not  bashful about [just handing them my phone and asking them to type it in for me People say their phones are their computers, they do everything with them. From e-mail to eBay it seems they/'re not finding use for laptops or tablets, not me...

For those who have read this blog, browsed m y website or have seen my posts on Facebook, it's pretty common knowledge I have Cerebral Palsy. I have had it since birth because a doctor messed up.  I was a breech baby and the doctor  let my mother's labor progress causing a prolapsed umbilical cord, when he should have performed an emergency C-Section. For the sake of time and not getting off topic I won't go into details, however it was a pretty clear cut case of medical malpractice. I found the details of my delivery almost two decades later and filed a lawsuit against the doctor. The lawsuit settled out of court and I thought that would be the end of it....... After a few years after, there was a push t cap on what are called "non-economic" damages, that effect people who don't work, especially children and women. This was really a backdoor to lock people lock myself out of the justice system. Lawsuits like the one I filed against my doctor are extremely r...

I often say my life is full of ironies based on having Cerebral Palsy, for example I love antique cars, I can't get a driver's license. I love to write poetry but my handwriting is awful...... I love to talk but it takes awhile for people to understand my speech. I decided I needed to celebrate my 40th year on Earth with a little writing exercise. I was born on March 15, 1978 so I decided to use my Facebook status updates to promote Cerebral Palsy awareness!! Below are the fifteen status updates Day 1 It's a responsibility of mine to promote  Cerebral Palsy Awareness  during the Month of March. Those who know me know for years I ignored questions about having CP. I still cringe when people come up and say "Oh you have MS" or "Are you ret****" No I have Cerebral Palsy or I prefer "CP". BOTTOM LINE: My brain is going 100 MPH while my body goes about 5MPH. I will] turn 40 on March 15. For the next 14 days, I will post a fact about my life, an...

It seems the more horrible shootings occur in this country the quicker we are to point fingers. Politicians continually promise to come together only to retreat to their own talking points. People keep asking the same questions and we get little answers. When are we going to come back together to solve this problem? Not anytime soon. People say they offer "common sense solutions" to these problems but nobody ever agrees on the definition of common sense so we just keep spinning in circles. My defense of the Second Amendment is based on my true belief that without it, all the others will fall away. I have never did or never will own a gun, but know people whop do. I unfortunately know someone who was murdered by a gun. You would think my views would change, here's why that's not the case.. An "assault rifle" wasn't used, it was a handgun. Secondly I am a firm believer of good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns. It amazes me the people who bemoan p...

My makeshift 2 Meter setup besides my bed The antenna is a simple mag-mount on my bed One of the routines I missed most  when we  moved down to Cape May was talking on 2 meters. My old setup included an outdoor antenna  which did ok getting into the local repeaters and even doing a little simplex work. It worked great especially since my bedroom was on the second fl;oor! Although my signal was spotty at times. I did a lot of simplex work with local hams as well. It was a sad day when the 2 meter antenna came down in Woodcliff Lake. I had been off HF for a year already u p there because of all kinds of complications . Months after we settled in Cape May members from the Cape May County ARC came to try to get me on the air with a whip HF antenna, which annoyed my dad because the wire was hanging out the window and the antenna was hanging of the fence which is belongs to out neighbor. When I ask him ifd it was OK his reply was, "Do you plan to contact Mars?", I ...

Dear Assemblyman Andrzejczak, I just want to e-mail a quick note in support of your bill A-2196 with regards to craft breweries in the State of New Jersey. Requiring craft brewers to provide a tour before serving their product is an unnecessary burden on them. It requires staff to take time out to show people the operation when they could be serving customers. It also requires paperwork that truthfully is rarely reviewed and doesn't provide insight into the brewery's operations. On a personal note, I have met you through Cape May VFW Post#386. I moved down here two years ago and have m et many wonderful people like yourself and Kart and Kurt Hughes, owners of the Bucket Brigade Brewery in Cape May Courthouse. What you may not know is I am very much a fire buff. I grew up in Woodcliff Lake in Bergen County and was involved in emergency management. I also supported the local fire department. Right before I moved down to Cape May the chief, who I ha...

First of all I am sorry citizens of Hawaii had to go through minutes of per hell thinking they were under attack. No matter what they themselves deserve our thoughts and prayers. The realization that this could happen to them should worry us, as citizens of the US, as people of peace and humankind in general. Before I begin a few thoughts on the atmosphere we are now in. I want to say this ISN'T meant to be political in the sense it shouldn't matter the President of the US is a Republican or the Governor of Hawaii is a Democrat. Let's face it the people who want to kill us don't care our political preferences. With all the finger pointing I want to break down a general response, local, state, and federal. It should be noted the entire "incident" (later labelled by state and local officials a "drill) was an hour and twenty minutes give  or take according to Hawaiian officials.  All that being said the error was caused by state and local officials,NOT THE...

Usually when I write about scanner related activity it has to do with a working fire or interesting police activity, but in Cape May the two biggest things are marine and aviation scanning. I'll address the marine scanning in another post maybne during the summer months when there's more activity on those frequencies, but it seems air scanning is always active. The planes are high in the sky so the signal goes a LOT further and Cape MaY has a lot less  RF interference than Bergen County so I can pick up signals way into Central Virginia on VHF air so I have tried programming the frequencies for all the ATCC down into Virginia. I listed the frequencies from north to south and have had a lot of success. I can still get a lot of the New York  ATCC as well! I also  have been doing some scanning via the Internet using the website LiveATC.net  which has almost all the ATCC frequencies across the country. I usually switch between the different centers but seem to listen to ...