Close-Up Footage of Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers

To me these pictures speak a ton. I don't need more to understand why deadly force had to be used.






And if more is needed, here is a long video from a non-Israeli source. Just notice the "peace" activists, with clubs, metal pipes, knives, gas masks

The Good Life Central NY Magazine May-June 2010

The Good Life, Central NY Magazine reporter, V. Michelle Bernard wrote a wonderful article about Search and Rescue, my SAR dogs and a bit about myself. The magazine is a very nice local publication but unfortunately has no web presence so I secured permission to publish the article here, on my blog.

The two pictures below will get larger and the text will be readable when you click on them. Use your back button to return to the blog and view the next picture in the same way.

The material below is (c) 2010 The Post Standard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of The Post Standard.

I would like to thank The Good Life, CNY Magazine for having published this article and a special thank you to Michelle Bernard for he excellent work writing this article. Michelle did a lot more than just interviewing me. She researched her facts, talked to others in my circle of SAR related friends and her professionalism showed throughout her work all the way to the finished product.

What QRP can do for you!

I got a brick today, meaning a Mirage BD-35 VHF/UHF amplifier I bid for on eBay. Fist thing, I wanted to see it worked! So I connected my tiny Yaesu VX-2 to my collinear antenna, something I've never done so far and I was really surprised by how well the radio worked with that antenna. All of 1.5 watts and with that antenna, I was reaching quite far, without the amp. So let it be a lesson, it is not the watts you put out it is what you do with those watts in the antenna system! This is something I've learned over time, but never experimented with and now I have a solid proof for it! Makes me happy!

Now with the amp, I could reach even farther repeaters and 1.5 watts was enough to drive the amp on VHF. The 1W I got out on UHF gave me only 10W out of the amp (still 10x improvement), but then I switched radios, put my VX-8 on line and now I got full power out of the brick.


My idea is to save buying another APRS rig for the RV and use my VX-8 with the brick, giving me the same output as any mobile radio and for the price I got the brick on eBay, I could not even come close to another APRS radio! Do I need the power? Well with the through the glass 1/4 wave antenna I have on the RV (I certainly did not want to make it any taller/higher than it is), I can use some help, so where the gain is low, the extra watts will hopefully help.

Good news!

As I logged on to my LoTW account today, I noticed one new DXCC entity, Monserrat, the QSO having been made  in 2009, but then I noticed the asterisk near the Phone and 20m tabs, meaning the award has been issued! Wow, I applied on April  26th, 2010 and we are just May 4th 2010! Now that is fast. I bet that just using LoTW had something to do with it! Now, I'm waiting for the paperwork but that ought not to take too long.