A lot of our members are concerned about what's going to happen over the next week, so I wanted to put up a quick summary of the intel we have received that we feel is credible.
First, it is unlikely that we will know within the next week who won the US presidential election. That period of uncertainty may last even longer than a week. Especially during the time of uncertainty, people are going to be on-edge.
Second, there is likely to be violence and unrest in a number of major cities starting Wednesday. Phoenix will have some hotspots. Other major cities around the country will have varying levels of violence (Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York, and others). But most of all, Washington DC. There is a lot of evidence of organized, sustained violence being planned for DC. A significant number of agitators are being transported to that city. Do not travel to DC.
Third, there may be some supply-line disruptions for a short period as a result of these problems in other cities. Shipping from online retailers may be delayed during this time. The uncertainty may also lead to a rush for people to bulk-buy from local grocery stores, so we could see some shortages again. But you all have your emergency food supply already, so that's nothing to worry about. Right?
Lastly, we do not have evidence to expect significant violence here in Tucson. For a variety of reasons, we are expecting things to be fairly quiet here. There will likely be 'demonstrations' but those will mostly consist of people holding signs, rather than shields and bats. Still, I am planning to avoid the downtown area for the next week while we get an idea of how things will be going, and I would encourage you all to do the same. Beyond that, stay alert.
Email me any local intel you run across: [email protected]
[I'm reposting this to the top because we have a number of people who still need to get their ham license!]
For anyone near Tucson who hasn't already gotten your Ham license or is interested in upgrading what you already have, here is some info based on my experience of getting my Technician and General licenses recently:
- Free testing is available monthly in Tucson. Next event is March 8th @ 7PM . https://k7rst.org/testing.html
-- There is no preregistering. You just show up, but I highly recommend being there a half hour early to get in line. I was there 15 minutes early and waited a little more than an hour before it was my turn to take the test, and then there's more waiting in between exams if you take more than one.
- There is also an online testing option available now. It generally costs ~$15 and you need fairly decent internet, a computer with a webcam, and a phone with a camera. (Thanks to @freebirdie for sending me the info on this).
-- Look here to find a session that's open: ...
I've been meaning to document this for quite awhile but things kept getting in the way. I've been writing this slowly over the past several weeks now, and am finally ready to post it!
I've created a simple automated planter for low-effort food gardening that seems to work pretty well for a a decent number of different plants. This was originally inspired by Larry Hall's "Rain Gutter Grow System", and then I fused it with the general concept of bottom-watered reservoir planters, which you can find everywhere.
Larry Hall's video should show up at the end of this post:
One implementation of a standard, non-automatic, bottom-watered reservoir planter:
https://www.amazon.com/GroBucket-Watering-sub-irrigated-Container-portable/dp/B079CT29RZ/
My goals were to keep costs relatively low, minimize water usage, and minimize the weekly time I need to put in to maintain the garden. I don't mind spending a bit more time to get something set up if that means I don't have to remember to do another ...
I've recently upgraded my VHF transceiver capability, and it has made a huge difference. We ask everyone to have a radio of some sort, and the cheapest Ham radio that works is the Baofeng UV-5R. I don't want to ask people to spend a ton of money, but from my own experience I do think upgrading is worth the extra expense. The receive electronics on the UV-5R are low-quality so they don't seem to work well with external antennas. A lot (or all) of the advantage you'd get from putting an external antenna up on your roof is lost when you plug it into the UV-5R.
The tranceiver I bought is the Yaesu FT-2980R:
https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015771
Unfortunately they just raised the price by $20, but it's still only $150 (or closer to $170 with shipping and tax). Note that it's a VHF only radio and is very simple compared to the more expensive models, but it is a beast of a machine that can dump 80W of power if needed.
This radio works well with every external antenna I've tried, and it's well suited to ...
