The Replica Prop Forum

The Replica Prop Forum
Very cool site I am also a member of

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Well I now have a new car

Or rather a new to me old car. A 1965 Ford Galaxie, with a 289 C.I.D V-8 with 302 Heads, and the 3 on the tree shifter has been moved to the floor. No A/C, no Power brakes, no Power Steering, no Power except HORSEPOWER!!!!


I took the first pics up at the family property south of San Antonio Texas the morning after I picked the car up and drove it to the property.



It has a little bit of Rust and a little bit of bondo


And it will need some work, but it will be a very nice car when I'm done.




Here it is when I got it home 150 miles later, runs good, has a few issues but it will run a whoe lot better by summer time.

Now if you are Ever in San Antonio and want to buy an old classic car, or just about anything else, go see Jesse at J&M Auto Sales and Repairs, Inc. The photos below are just one of the cars he has available, it is a repro built in the 80's but for 1,600.00 it's a dang good deal.


















Jesse's phone number is (210) 628-4750

His address is:

J&M Auto Sales and Repairs, Inc.
11408 Hwy 16 South
San Antonio, TX 78224
(210)628-4750


He's a good fella.

Mark

Saturday, January 10, 2009

In an Emergency your CellPhone might not work

From Peter we get this . And remember during 9/11 cell service and most radio communications were disrupted by the fact that the Twin Towers were where the antennas for the cell companies and the public service departments (Fire, Police and other emergency services) were located. Bob Hejl, W2IK whose excellent page on AOL Hometown has been taken down by AOL when they took down their Hometown site, was one of the first HAM Radio ARES Responders to the scene. I'm hoping he can get his page restored, as it was his personal experience of working Ground Zero providing the necessary communications for Emergency Responders as all other forms of communication were disrupted.

In an emergency your Cell phone may not work. If you have FRS or GMRS radios, you are limited to 1-7 miles of range if that, and with everyone else possibly trying to use the same airwaves, you could have problems communicating. Other types of communications you may be able to try, Citizens Band radio's are limited in power and range and once again, the large numbers of other people clogging the bands will make it difficult to communicate.

So what are your options that will allow you to communicate anywhere from 1 miles to over 100 miles and even further?

HAM Radio. For less than 400 dollars you can get 2 mobile radios with power supplies and antennas that will allow you to communicate between your vehicle and your home up to 40-60 miles away without using a repeater, and is not dependant upon the infrastructure such as phone lines. If you lose power at your home a car battery with a small solar charger can keep you communicating. In your car, you already have a battery which can be recharged by your engines alternator. Or you can add a small solar charger to it, to charge the battery without wasting your fuel.

Now waitasec, you say, you need a license to use HAM radio. Yes you do. However the test for a Technician level license costs less that 17 dollars and isn't that hard to obtain. And with that license you are allowed to use 10 meter, 6 meter, 2, meter, 1.25 meter, 70 centimeter and much higher bands of the radio spectrum depending on how much money you wish to spend.

Example from my own personal experience. During the Evacuation for Hurricane Rita, I was sitting in my driveway in my pickup truck talking to another HAM radio operator who was 140 miles away. We were both using the high power setting on our radio's (mine was 45 watts) and we were able to communicate rather well. I found out that the highway was a parking lot with people running out of gas and just abandoning their cars in the middle of the highway and started walking. He also relayed information from another HAM operator who was even further north as to which gas stations had gas, which exits were open and if the feeder roads were blocked or open. I talked to several HAM operators south of me, down by the Rio Grand Valley, and acted as a relay of information for them. Not once did I use a repeater, as the repeaters were being used by the local ARES teams to back up the DPS repeaters.

What magic did I have that allowed me to do this? None really, I had a decent radio (Realistic HTX-212) with a GOOD antenna, (HamStick) The flat ground between all of us helped our signal propagate well and give us the range. The Hams to the north were actually on a higher elevation than I was which gave me the 140 mile range, and the HAMs to the south of me were on the same elevation as I was allowing me to hit between 60-100 miles.

The CB I have in my truck I was lucky if I could even talk 2 miles. The band was filled with people just talking, yelling, cussing and in general getting nothing communicated. Normally on a good day around here I can talk 10-20 miles on it, on a bad day I wonder if I'm even getting to the end of the street.

What are the differences between the 2.

HAM Radio, the one I used was a VHF FM radio putting out 45 watts at high power. This is a line of sight, means of communicating. As long as I have a clear line of sight, no big tall buildings or hills in the way, my signal will travel along the ground a long way.

CB Radio, is limited by law to 4 watts HF AM radio. Which means that even the semi truck next to me on the road can block my signal in that direction. And with only 4 watts of power you aren't pushing your signal very hard to really get heard. Yet there is such a thing as skip which will allow your signal to go further by bouncing on the ionosphere, however with only 4 watts that isn't a whole bunch of power to reach the ionosphere reliably. So you really won't be able to talk very far unless the conditions are very good.

You can see the differences between the 2. Also with HAM radio there are many repeaters which will take my signal and rebroadcast it at a higher power giving me even further range. Many repeaters have battery back up systems backup generators and some have solar back up to charge the batteries for even more redundancy.

So if there was another terrorist attack, or a natural disaster, such as a severe winter storm or an earthquake which knocked out power and communications, how would you let your loved ones know that you are ok? How will you check on them if you are on the road?

Many people take for granted Cell phones, the internet and their home phones. I don't. I have HAM radio's in my house and vehicles and I have back up batteries to run them if necessary.

What do you have?


Mark

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Dog Blogging

Since Rachael will be moving to England with New Hubby Rupert, without Sunny and Maggie, I thought I'd help fill in the gaps with some bloggin of my dogs from time to time.



Here is my oldest daughters dog, Destiny Marie. who just HAD to knock me over and jump all over me on my bed. My dog Daisy who had a litter of 4 pups of which 3 are surviving is a little camera shy, but I'll get a few snaps of the funny look on her face and post them when she doesn't see me with the camera.

Mark

My neighbor John has this unusual little tractor

Here is my neighbor John, on his unusual little tractor made by Pasquali. It is an articulated 22 hp diesel single cylinder air cooled with an unusual hitch on the back for the PTO powered tiller. There is no suspension to speak of so your kidneys take a real pounding, but it does till real well.







The decal for the gear selection i so worn you can hardly read it.



The articulation joint, don't get your leg caught when turning right it hurts. (Ask me how I know)



The Pasquali monikker on the front of the hood



The tiller on the back end. The large pipe is to give it some extra weight to till down deeper in the hard soil down here on the gulf coast.



The hour meter shows 212 hours. And it has for the last 2 years of use :o)

So if you can direct us to any more info about this particular little tractor drop me an e-mail.

Mark

Roadside finds....

During my meandering ways around around my neighborhood. I find many things on the side of the road. Such as the following pics







A old 3 wheel contrivance which new costs several hundred dollars, and something I've been wanting, as my back and other surgeries have taken a toll on my balance meaning I can't ride a regular bike very well.






Then I found an old 3 speed woman's bike, and 2 old precursors to the current mountain bike, an man's and a woman's. Both 12 speed, both missing seats and in need of new tires and tubes, but functionally sound. I also found an engine stand missing one of it's wheels, and an old old old 5 gallon safety gas can and a 20 lb propane cylinder wit the old style POL valve which I can trade in for a newer refilled tank for an extra 10 bucks.



This is my second oldest daughter coming back from picking up the youngest at the bus stop today. She likes it as much as I do but she can steer it better than I can.

Do you have any roadside acquisitions which you have found?

Mark

Tam has coined an new acronym

for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.

Me likey.....


BATFEIEIO



Mark