Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

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.

I composed the following e-mail to my friends. Kind of a makeshift Christmas card. I got some pretty nice responses already. Definitely a Merry Christmas!! This time of year I usually receive a lot of e-cards from friends, even people I don't know too well maybe from a list or somewhere else where we swapped e-mails. Then today I received a Christmas Card from a friend, actually a fellow license plate collector, from North Carolina but included was a letter outlining how he, his wife and two kids were doing, I enjoyed it better than the card because we never really chat viae-mail or on IM so I enjoy reading it. The letter inspired this e-mail about my family and myself. While I always promise to be short, I always wind up writing more, that's my great Aunt Millie's (grandma's sister) Influence. Anyway the most exciting event was my younger (always have to sneak that in) brother Chris and his wife Natalie welcomed their first son, Zander Bruce Mattes into the world on ...

Well I wanted to write this a few weeks ago but as usual got distracted. As reported here previous I have a new laptop which is now a couple months old. I don't know who is happier,me or dad, since I was using the downstairs computer for a few months. Almost everytrhing was back to normal except for the fact I was still off the air with PSK-31. Isaac my ham buddy who moved back to Germany a year ago promised when he visited we get PSK back. I was thrilled because this meant one step closer to a "more portable" setup. Well Isaac came, with his wife Grit and their new daughter Sarah in tow, and once again worked his magic. I need to tweak some things after the left, but I was back!! It lasted a week and then the USB Port I used suddenlydied so Chris rigged up an extention so I can use the USB port on the other side of the computer. It's been working fine ever since. In this short amount of time I have racked up some interesting contacts.One of the things I'm st...

As you know by now Chris Christie is Governor-Elect of New Jersey. Christie,a Republican and a die-hard Bruce Springsteen fan, invited The Boss to play at his inauguration. Springsteen turned him down because he b"doesn't support candidates";. Oh really then why did he do some fund-raising concerts for Obama? Secondly I don't5 think anyone who knows anything about politics would label Springsteen anything but liberal. Springsteen also LIED when he said he doesn't support candidates. Bruce appeared with Barack Obama and Jon Corzine numerous times and called for the impeachment of George W. Bush on numerous occasions. So Springsteen's statements he isn't political are offensive because they insult his fans' intelligence. Barack Obama's first message as president-elect was one of unity. Now obviously that has been thrown out the window by both parties. However Chris Christie renewed that same optimism by inviting one New Jersey's most recogni...