How low can you go?

Blogger's authoring tools have been running really slow this week. I tried uploading a picture, but that doesn't seem to work right now. I'll try again in a couple of minutes.

Our production department has a twelve-year-old Chevy Astro van, all wheel drive, complete with a special roof rack so that someone can climb up and use the truck as a camera platform. Of course, nobody ever does — the truck moves enough that it isn't terribly stable, and without any provision for a guard rail, it just isn't worth the risk of falling off.

Old-timers still call it the PM Truck, but it isn't and never was; its predecessor was a stretch Ford van with the PM Magazine logo on the side... but we haven't carried PM Magazine in 22 years. Funny how names tend to stick to things long after any logical association is gone: we still call the main news microwave system the ELU — short for Eyewitness Live Unit — and channel 9 canned the "Eyewitness News" identity at about the same time PM Magazine went away.

We bought our first microwave truck — the ELU — back in 1983. It was part of the first wave of investment that Ackerley Communications made in the station, and we were so proud that we produced a special open for the newscasts that began with beating drums, blaring horns, and a big-voice announcer intoning,

"From all over Syracuse and Central New York, this is Nine Eyewitness News with Bud Hedinger, Sheryl Nathans, Doug Logan, and the Nine Eyewitness Live Unit!"

We used to dream of the day when we'd come out of the open and hear "Good evening... Bud, Sheryl and Doug are off tonight... this is the Eyewitness Live Unit. In tonight's top stories..."

Anyway, this ELU receiver is also known as "Remote 2". And no, we have never had a receiver called "Remote 1"... that was designated as a spare switcher input we could use for random purposes. There's no law that says that things need to make sense.

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Construction continues on the Elecraft K2 radio kit. The front panel was finished this weekend, and work has begun on the main RF board.


I'm also studying for the license test... and just now made the discovery that operator privileges for the Technician class license begin above 50 Megahertz. And guess what? This radio tops out at 30. Which means there's absolutely no benefit to my getting a Technician class license. To use this radio I need a General class ticket, which requires studying another element of theory and operating practices, plus learning Morse code.

I guess I won't be ready by the August 3rd testing date, after all.

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I'm definitely losing it. The reason for mentioning the PM Van in the first place is that some time overnight, it converted itself into a low-rider. The front bumper is about three inches off the pavement, and the front wheel wells are resting on the tops of the tires. All it needs is ball fringe and Mariachi music to complete the picture.

Careful investigation has turned up a warm trail around the vehicle, and we definitely suspect the involvement of our resident marauding geese.