Week of 30th July, 2018

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Monday, 30th July

Ziggy, our tame Polish painter/decorator, is here to paint the remaining exterior woodwork, and a few other things - iffen'n'providen the rain stays away. The heatwave appears to have broken (at least for the moment) but it's cloudy, and clouds mean a threat of rain -  the which is not good for modern paints during application.

18:00 Ziggy has finished for the day. We were lucky, there were no more than a few spots of rain, so he got the conservatory finished. Tomorrow should see the external metal pipework to the side of the house rubbed down and given a coat of exterior gloss - or maybe he'll paint the cement render that the replacement window people left as makegood around their works. That render is weatherproof, but it looks unsightly, so it need to be touched up. Both of which tasks will require a long ladder, which he no longer has, after a saga. But we do, if so be as I can get it out of the garage.

After that, Dariusz, my tame Polish clock repairer brought back the Ansonia clock, which was showing a variable rate, depending on its state of winding. This is characteristic of under-lubricated springs, so he applied more (car gearbox) oil, in hopes of the treatment lasting longer. I'll need to adjust the rate, but it's going well so far.

After getting the Uniden UBC-785XLT scanning receiver back in service, monitoring Heathrow Director, on 120.4MHz, which it does very nicely, thank you, despite the hostile RF environment in the study, it occurred to me that I should try BBC Radio 3 as well, which the UBC-785 is capable of receiving, according to the spec. sheet.

And it does a much better job than the Sony mini Hifi, which basically doesn't receive at all. This bears investigation - evidently the wire (soi-disant) antenna that came with the Sony is worse than useless. I should try other antennas, like the BNC telescopic that the Uniden is using. This will mean fabricating an adaptor - once I put my hand on my soldering iron.

Currently the only job that the Sony does with any degree of competence is playing CDs. Radio reception is useless, and playback from a plugged-in USB stick is user-unfriendly - not surprising with a one-line display. I need to try feeding inspiration2's headphone output into the Sony's aux input.

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Tuesday, 31st July

Ziggy completed the conservatory woodwork treatment yesterday, and very well it looks. Not that I expected anything less. He does very good work, and such people are to be prized above rubies, because you know their work will last. I mind his work on the stairwells here - 10 years or more ago. It's looking a little the worse-for-wear now, but it'll last a whle longer. Next up is painting the cement render patches around the replacement windows. And then the cast iron pipework to the side of the house.

We had some rain overnight, and the water had puddled on the conservatory woodwork, not soaking in. Which is what the jollop is supposed to do.

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Wednesday, 1st August

Yesterday saw the rubbing down and undercoating of the cast iron pipework, and the metal flashings under two of the windows. Gloss paint to be applied.

The cement render was a different case. Matching the new paint to the older wall coating was... problematical. The colour chart said one thing, the actual specially-mixed paint was quite another after application. It's better than the raw cement, but still not close enough. A deeper tint seems to be needed.

And it's still not right, even after adding a little more colour to the original mix. Ziggy has an idea, which hopefully will improve matters.

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Thursday, 2nd August

The idea (not to say brainstorm) of adding some white to the previous attempt seems to have been a success. The match is now almost exact, but it varies depending on where the light is coming from, and which angle you view it. It's not going to get any better than this.

Gloss paint applied to pipework and flashings, so that's all complete.

Ziggy left his ladders and whatnot here, because he had to be elsewhere and there wasn't time to pack up properly. He will return this afternoon to collect all. And after the saga of the loss of his tall ladder, Jane has suggested offering him ours - after all, neither of us do ladders any more, so we have no need of it.

I now need to make a (belated) start on emptying my storage room, or at least partially emptying.

Later: Best laid plans... Comes now a phone call from Martin, G1LIG, wondering whether I've got my DVMEGA DMR hotspot set up yet.

The answer to that is yes... for small values of "set up" The hotspot appears to work, via the BlueStack carrier board, connected via BlueTooth to the N5X on Three. But whether it's actually working fully is obscure. pi-star on a Raspberry Pi (Model 2B or higher) is more easily configurable, and provable. So I resolved to bring up a pi-star node, using one of my RPi 3Bs.

This requires a microSD card, 4GB or bigger. I probably have several going spare, but cannot put my hand on them, so a trip to the shops to get one (or preferably 3) is indicated. But the only vendor who had 8GB cards was a stall in the big shopping mall, and he wanted UKP10 for one, which seems excessive. Everyone else had 16GB or bigger - no 8GB.So I bought one.

Setting up the RPi worked just as usual - download the card image, and write it to the card - using latitude, my preferred machine for this purpose. The pi-star image, at V3.4.15, the one I'm using, is just under 2GB in size, and it's Raspbian Stretch-based. But I still sshed in, and did an apt-get upgrade, discovering that the base image is almost up-to-date.

The DVMEGA board plugs straight on to the RPi GPIO header, occupying pins 1 to 10, and the software, on first boot, offers a pi-star setup SSID. You connect to that, and enter your wifi parameters into the offered form. After a reboot, the pi-star should be visible on your network.

Of course, just to be awkward, I didn't do it that way. I prefer wired ethernet for this, and there's one spare PoE port on the stairwell switch, so that's what I used. Visiting the new machine, via a web browser, gives access to the Dashboard software, where you configure everything.

The configure screen is divided into multiple stanzas, and once you've finished with a stanza, you must "Apply Changes". If you don't, only the last stanza you changed will stick.

Most notably, in UK you must select "Private" for access permissions. This prevents anyone other than the programmed callsign connecting through. Otherwise you are in violation of your licence, although how the Powers-that-Be would know is obscure - the hotspot has a transmit power of 10mW, which will probably reach not farther than the end of my garden.

Down at bottom left of the screen there are a few telltales, to show whether connections to the various digital voice networks are correctly configured, and eventually, after much clicking and cursing, I got green DMR tallies. I'm not going to faff with P25, System Fusion or D-Star for the moment, even though pi-star can respond to all of them, and transcode among them too, if required.

Of course, although getting this far is a Good Thing, I still have to teach the GD-77 DMR radio to talk to my new Digital hotspot, and that's a whole other ball game.

There's one last thing needed before I screw this to the wall and leave it running. The DVMEGA board has an SMA straight PCB-mount antenna connector, and the supplied antenna will stick up too far to put the lid back on the case. I need a right-angle adaptor to get the antenna to stick out of the side (actually the top, when it's mounted on a wall) of the case. Amazon have them, but finding a source that was in UK, and thus willing to deliver in days, rather than weeks, was a saga.

While I was fighting this, I had the GD-77 beside me, tuned to talkgroup 801 on the GB7WL DMR repeater near Amersham, which is effectively a calling channel available on all SE England repeaters. And every so often, someone piped up. So the rig is working, which is good. It's taken me long enough to get a Round Tuit and prove that.

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Friday, 3rd August

So today I made a start on emptying the storage - about 2 sq. ft. (of 100) of it. But it is a start.

In the evening, I discovered that the UK High Altitude Society (they of the amateur-launched weather balloons) are having their 2018 Conference in Cranfield, on the 18th of this month. So of course, I had to book my attendance. UKP30 for the day, including a snack lunch. Past experience suggests this will be interesting. Now I need to book travel - via either Bedford, or Milton Keynes. In either case, onward journey is by bus. Need to be on-site by 10:00.

<pause>

And going via Bedford appears simpler and more convenient. Need to catch a local bus at about 06:30 or so, then via London St Pancras to Bedford. Train fare UKP19.35 with Senior Railcard, bus fare from Bedford unknown, but maybe the Freedom Pass will be useable.

I put in an Amazon order yesterday - most notably for 2no 8GB microSD cards, and a right-angle SMA adaptor (actually 2no) The microSD cards should be here late next week, and the SMA adaptor by Sunday. The order also includes a belt pouch, by OneTigris, in the military MOLLE style. That will be here tomorrow, the Prime gods permitting. I need that pouch because it's too hot to wear the vest-with-pockets, and I need to carry money cards and whatnot - and a trouser pocket is not big enough. I already have one, but it's not easily findable.

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Saturday, 4th August

I've booked part of my travel for the UKHAS conference - the leg to Bedford. And because Senior Railcard and Freedom Pass, the return fare is a mere UKP8.70. Bus fare onwards from Bedford is, as yet, unknown to me, and may even be zero, if the Freedom Pass is valid on services in the area, as it is rumoured to be.

Getting the rail tickets was a bit of a saga, though. I forgot my Senior Railcard the first time, so I had to return home to get it, and make a second excursion. All done, now.

Still waiting on the MOLLE pouch from Amazon. I have e-mail saying it will be delivered today, before 9 p.m. No more exact info, though.

<pause>

The Hertfordshire university bus network website says UKP7.50 for unlimited travel by anyone in any one day, payable on the bus in cash or by contactless card. No mention of Freedom Pass that I can see, although child Oyster cards get child fares on the buses.

<another pause>

The MOLLE pouch was delivered by an Amazon minion at about 19:00, and I've already filled it with the things that will live there until the weather cools off.

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Sunday, 5th August

E-mail from Amazon to say that the SMA adaptors will be delivered today "before 9 p.m." But this package should be letterbox size, so I don't really need to be here.

Sarah wanted to strip some parts off her old, unrepairable (because parts no longer available) bike, which has been sitting in our garage. She particularly wanted the pedals and tyres. But the tyres wouldn't come off the wheels, and the pedals are held on with a weird style of bolt, which may (I say may) be either a Torx head, or an Allen head. I have tools for both - somewhere - but could I put my hand on them?

So the entire bike - in bits - will go to the dump.

She's also preparing for the Guide trip to Switzerland which starts next Friday, the 10th. By coach, yet! So big suitcase and coolbox have been excavated and taken away.

Doing that convinced me that it's cooler in the house, especially with the pedestal fan blowing at me, so I'm not going out.

Given that I don't know where my Allen keys and Torx screwdrivers are, I put in an order to Amazon. Should be here by Thursday. But there's no rush.

16:00 An Amazon minion delivered the SMA adaptors, silently, straight through the letterbox. Merkins note: In UK, Postie, or other delivery minion is expected to excurse across your property to deliver letters and small parcels. So that's well.

Not so well is the fact that there still isn't clearance to fit the lid on pi-star's case. The adaptor is a few mm too long, so the thing stands proud of the case lid. I'm going to have to cut or drill a hole.

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