Tag Archives: HAM Radio

What Are You Up To? Monday Blog Post

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New House Light Decorations by Randy Cockrell

New House Light Decorations by Randy Cockrell

December, month of parties, obligations, gift giving and running myself ragged trying to do it all. Thank goodness for the internet. Gift giving, or should I say gift buying, in a small town can be difficult. The internet makes that less of a hair pulling event. I spent part of the morning in my recliner, buying gifts for hubby and daughter. No crowd, no line, I loved it.

Also as my Christmas prep, filled the cookie tins (only they’re plastic), with the treats I’ve been making for the past week. I made the cookies yesterday and washed all of those plastic “tins” yesterday too. So today the task was to line them with wax paper and fill them with the candy and cookies. I also managed to get them into boxes, addressed and ready to take to the Post Office tomorrow. I feel as though I’m ahead of the curve.

Today was also decorate the yard day. Hubby wanted to change up the look I’d been using for the last four years so last year at clearance he bought a whole new set of lights for the house and front yard. The above is a pic of most of the front yard. There are a couple of things not on timers, we’ll have to buy the equipment to hook it all up to timers. But I’m pleased with the effect.

Monday is a full day. I meet a few local author friends for coffee at eight then at 11:30am, I attend my neighborhood ladies lunch. I promised my brother that I’d do a News Press Release for his ham radio group, Tryon Amateur Radio Club (Fulton County, NY). On Sunday they did a surprise simulated emergency test at a local hospital which also involved the Emergency Operations Centers of both Fulton and Montgomery Counties in New York. In this day and age we think everything is over the internet but in emergency situations, often the internet and cell service are down. HAM radio operators offer a lifeline of communication in chaotic situations. My brother’s group practices regularly to be of service in emergency situations. So I’m happy to be their press secretary and send out releases to local papers and other media outlets. For more information concerning this event or Amateur Radio, please contact Don Gifford – WA2EZ via: TRYON.ARC (@) Live [dot] com

I managed some words on the Zoe Ohale story this week. I’m getting into the last conflict Zoe has in this book. Both Zoe and her friend Sera are confronting demons in their lives. This should prove game changing for both of them.

A reminder. I’m going to be on the January Jones web radio show, Sharing Success Stories, on both December 8th and December 14th. The show on the 8th is me wrapping up 2015. The show on the 14th is a Christmas show. I have links to the show on my Where Will I Be page and the times. I hope you tune-in to listen.

Llama with lights

Llama with lights

On Saturday we went to Payson’s Electric Light parade. I just signed up for Instagram that afternoon so tried to take a picture of a float and post it. Ack! If you go to ConniesRandomThoughts on Instagram you’ll see. The phone camera took too narrow a view and because the float was moving, it’s blurry as well. A definite learning curve for me! But I love the spontaneity of the format. I’ll keep working on my cell phone picture taking skills.

Santa’s Authors Christmas 2015 Giveaway also known as the Winter Wonderland of Books Christmas Giveaway started 1 November. I have a link to the giveaway on my website, https://conniesrandomthoughts.com/giveaways-and-prizes/. There’s also a Youtube video at the bottom of the page to watch. You will love this. Fifty authors have put up all kinds of prizes from books to jewelry to Amazon gift cards. Go ahead and log in. You’ll find links to all of the author’s social media. Click on a link, enter to win. The more links you click, the better your chance of winning. The grand prize is $200 of Paypal cash, good anywhere on the planet. I’ve put up the two books in my Brown Rain series as my main prize. I also put up my Christmas Tales book as a second prize. Good luck! Thanks for participating.

Chatebooks.com is a new reader/author site that allows readers to connect directly to authors. Each book has its own forum space. You can ask questions, leave comments, and tell your fav author how much you liked the book. You can find my books by searching on my name or use this direct link. I’m very excited to be able to provide multiple platforms for readers to find my work. Chatebooks, as the name implies, is only for ebooks. To get a paperback copy of my books, go to Gumroad.com or to Amazon.com. Both of these platforms can sell both ebooks and paperbacks.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I hope you’re having a marvelous December. Do you have Christmas decorating stories? Kitchen disasters to share? I’d love to hear about them. Please share in the comments below.

I published my December newsletter. Did you miss it? Click here to sign up for my newsletter. I make special offers to my newsletter people that I do not make on the website blog posts. If you like the content, please encourage your friends to sign up, the newsletter is sharable, send it to whomever you think will like it. Don’t delay signing up. You’ve already missed out on two great offers. The January newsletter is coming out soon. Sign up now so you don’t miss out.

Mystery at the Fair released July 15th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords , Gumroads  or Chatebooks today! You can also see all of my books on www.ConniesRandomThoughts.com,. If you’ve read any of my books, please drop a review on the site where you bought it or on Goodreads. It’s a big help to me in the book rankings each vendor uses to promote the books on their sites. Thanks in advance.

Flash Fiction Friday Story: Radio Waves

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Amateur Radio, 2011, Field Day, Azgard2274

Amateur Radio 2011 Field Day by Azgard2274 via www.DeviantArt.com

Trapped in the radio. Not the actual device, but the ether, the sound, the waves that carry the message. Lois had been pinging around the world for the last twenty years. She wanted to reform but how?

After she’d been transformed, she tried talking to people. There were more radios then. She could talk to the listeners, overwhelming whatever signal they’d been listening to. All she managed to do was scare the crap out of them. They couldn’t talk back, most radios are receive only.

Ham radio was best. She could hold a conversation with a ham operator but they always thought it was a joke from some buddy. Joke or not, some operators talked with her about how to reform. Waves seemed to be the most likely theory. How to turn her radio wave form into the physical matter wave form? No one had an answer.

“How’d that happen?” was the first question they would ask.

“I was a web radio presenter, working out of my home. My producer worked out of his home four states away. I was in the middle of my show, interviewing an author about her just released book, and, I don’t know. I guess I was really into the conversation. At the end I went to click off but I couldn’t. I wasn’t there any longer.”

“You didn’t notice? You could still see, right?”

“I can still see. I can see you.” That always freaked them out. Every one of them would spin around in their chair and scan the room.

Once they calmed down, brushing the comment off as part of the joke, they’d ask, “Doesn’t your signal die out? Usual radio signals are fairly short range.”

“I guess not. Maybe because I was a human, not an actual radio wave.”

“Have you tried to turn into some other wave, like a microwave or a light wave?”

“I have. Microwave towers are everywhere. I’ve also tried becoming an electron because they are both particle and wave, but I just couldn’t do it.”

Then they go back to my question, “Just exactly did you become a radio wave. Was there a bomb or something?”

“No.” If I had a head I’d shake it. “I suppose I thought myself into this state, I was so involved in the interview.”

This is about the time the majority of operators would get bored with the conversation. They’d get up to go get a beer or go to bed and I would drift away. A rare few would stay and we would talk about how thoughts are things and trying to think myself back to my human form.

I wonder if I talked to a psychologist or physiatrist if they could help me. But in all these years I’ve never been able to reach one to talk to. So, here I drift with less and less human contact because technology and society have changed. There are fewer and fewer receivers or Ham operators. I have found a radio telescope. I’ve been studying its transmissions. It has occurred to me I could hitch a ride out to space. I could be an astronaut, of sorts. I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut.

Today is the day. I’m telling this story and sending out into the ether. Maybe a few Ham operators will hear it. The telescope is powering up, I can feel it hum as I balance myself at the apex of the transmitter.

Goodbye.

 

The End

576 Words

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