How Many Times Has This Happened To You?

One of the all-time best things I used to do when I was working was to come home and relax in my vibrating recliner and listen to my 1968 Magnavox console stereo softly playing music from my MP3 collection. The warm, rich sound from the old console style stereo just can't be beat for it's ability to lull one gently to sleep. BTW, the one in the video linked to above is not mine, but it is exactly like mine, right down to the model number 1P3712. I believe my cabinet is better condition though.

Then one day I came home, had my dinner and decided it was time for a nice little nap. I had iTunes cranking out music on the computer, which was relayed wirelessly to the Magnavox stereo in the living room via an RCA Lyra wireless audio transmitter/receiver set. I turned on the stereo, but no music came out. I cranked up the volume a bit and the stereo went all dark.

Fast forward 3 years, the Magnavox came with me when I moved from Vevay to Seymour, but of course it didn't work. One day, not too long after I moved, I decided it was time to fix it. Heck, I was an electronics tech back in the day, surely I could handle fixing something simple as this. Wrong! Try as I might, I could not get the unit to power up. In fact I broke the tuner dial cord in the process of removing it from the cabinet. I slid the chassis back into the cabinet and forgot about it.

Then a few days ago, a video was posted by one of the people I subscribe to on YouTube.  He is an electronics tech guy that features various items he comes across and then shows what it takes to fix them. One of the latest was an Astro-Sonic stereo similar to mine. Hearing it in working order got me to thinking pretty hard about mine again.

Armed with a newfound sense of blind ambition, I once again removed the chassis from the cabinet and brought it into my room where I placed it on a cardboard sheet lying on my bed. During my previous attempt to fix it, I had removed a couple of wires in order to check the power transformer. I decided I should first re-solder those wires to their proper location before proceeding.

Then just for shits and giggles, I decided to check the output voltage of the power transformer to see what it was putting out. Making sure the unit was off and the volume was turned all the way down (there were no speakers attached), I plugged it into the power. When I switched it on, I noticed right away that the dial lights came on. This did not happen the last time I messed with it.

Feeling confident that the power transformer was at least putting out enough voltage for the dial lights, I decided to test the actual output of the secondary. To my great surprise, it measured around 50 volts. Feeling brave, I next took a measurement of the B+ voltage and it was -34 volts, just what it was supposed to be!

Okay, now I'm starting to get excited. "It's alive!", I thought to myself. Rather than risk any damage to the audio output transistors, I decided to hook up a set of speakers for further testing. Found a set from another stereo and I was ready for a sound test. Fired it up once more on AM and heard static coming from one of the speakers. Checked the balance control and sure enough it was turned all the way to one side. Set it to the middle and switched the power on once more. Now I had static in both speakers!

Adjusted the tuner and found WLW out of Cincinnati, not bad at all. Most of the band was very noisy, due to the close proximity of the computer. So I decided to try the FM band. Found a dipole FM antenna and hooked that up, FM came in very clear on several local stations! I could not believe it. The stereo had fixed itself, LOL. Check this video out to see how it sounds.

Of course it didn't. My theory is the power cord has a bad spot in it. I suspected this the last time I worked on it, but never actually hooked it up to the stereo, opting instead to use a multimeter to test the continuity of the cord. So at some point, I fear this will happen again, but for now I have ordered a replacement dial cord string and when that arrives I will fix that. A couple of the controls also need to be cleaned, so a can of DeOxit is in order as well.

Once those minor things are addressed I will clean it up real good and put it back into the cabinet. Then I can enjoy the rich, warm sound once again. I've missed nap time in my recliner. Yay!

NFL/October Rant

Hello? NFL? Anyone home? I just want to know who is in charge of dividing the teams up for the AFC. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed this, but how did you guys miss the obvious solution?

Here is the current team division for the AFC:

If we take a look at each division, one by one (starting at the top with the East), we see the New England Patriots. Certainly Foxboro, MA is the most eastern AFC team there is in the U.S. Both of the New York teams, the Jets and the Bills, easily qualify as eastern. But what about Miami? Hmmm, let's hold that one out for now.

Next we look at the AFC North with Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. All of those teams fit in the pattern, but Baltimore seems a bit out of place. Once again, we will hold that one out.

The AFC South, right away we have a problem here. Indianapolis does not fit in a picture of the south, no way, no how! Hold that one out. Tennessee, Houston and Jacksonville certainly fit the bill here.

The AFC West is the only division which is completely in order. Kansas City, Denver, San Diego and Oakland are all west of all of the other teams. Okay, Kansas City and Houston are about equally west, but Houston is way too far south to be lumped in with the other teams in that division. No changes to be made here.

The solution which should be obvious to all of those who have half a brain, move Miami to the South, there is no more southern team in the AFC. Move Baltimore to the AFC East, it is right there is the same area as the other East teams. Finally, move Indianapolis to the AFC North, where it belongs. Problem solved.

The NFC is much easier. Switch Carolina and Dallas and everything lines up. There you go NFL, you are welcome.

Let's see, what else is going on. I have operation clean up my junk and make a little money in full swing. Since I started I have sold 5 items on eBay for a total of $111.87. Right now I have 18 more items listed with a bunch more to go.

I started this project to raise a little money for Buick parts and I have managed to order the window run channel rubber/felt pieces I have been waiting on for so long now. Once these are installed I will be able to roll my front windows up and down and can then drive the car without fear of getting soaked in a rain storm. Yay!

Learned that my son (Chris) and his family will be up from Arkansas hopefully the weekend of the 18th. I really look forward to seeing everyone as I have missed them a lot. I really miss those days gone by when they lived nearby and I used to regularly see them and hang out in the garage while Chris worked on his stuff.

Also got signed up late in September for my social security benefits, which should be starting in January of next year. While it certainly won't make me rich, hopefully it will be enough to pay the bills so that I can continue to live here at my present location as it is pretty much perfect for me. The way I have it figured it will be enough, but my financial advisor (Autumn) is not so sure.

September update

Not a lot been happening here. Went to the doctor, lost 12 pounds, he changed my meds a bit, put me on a water pill that I think is making me dizzy. At least it did yesterday. Hopefully the weight loss will continue, have to go back in 4 months to see how well the new meds are doing.

Worked on the Buick some. Concentrating my efforts to get the front doors finished so I can actually drive the car and have the windows roll up in case of rain. My efforts of late are on the window run channels, which had completely deteriorated to the point where they were mostly gone.

I say mostly b/c the stainless steel channel is there but the rubber/felt part where that the window glides in was gone, making an awful racket when driven with the windows up. So I think I found an excellent replacement for just that part and plan to try it as soon as finances allow.

Speaking of the Buick, I found the perfect example of exactly how my car should look when it's finished. I do random Google searches for 1961 Buick every now and then, and this gem turned up yesterday:

1961 Buick LeSabre for sale

This car is exactly the same body style and exterior and interior color scheme as my car. Hopefully mine will look like this some day.

My grandson (Billy) is firmly ensconced in his new settings at USI. He seems to be adjusting well, if twitter is any indication. He did come home over the Labor day weekend. It was good to see what little I saw of him during his visit.

I made this movie with granddaughter's Lexi and Kylie and posted it on YouTube.

I've been trying to post a lot more videos as it is something I enjoy doing and it keeps me off the streets.

I get to apply for Social Security benefits later this month. If all goes well those will kick in sometime in January. Oh the joys of getting older.

Good times

Spent a few days with family this past week (Monday-Thursday) and had a very good time. Just want to thank Jim and Melody McKinney for their hospitality and kindness in putting up with an old fart like me!

Always a busy schedule there, never a dull moment. Besides the trips to see other members of the family, I went with Jim to take a couple of cars to the scrapyard and also pick up a couple to be scrapped. Jim is a busy man.

Especially enjoyed the trip down to Crab Orchard to see sisters Sharon and Kathy, as well as my brother Rickey. And a bonus as my niece Jamie Ann showed up with her husband (Chuck) and their children. Not to mention a good meal at the Past Time Cafe.

I was unable to stay for the wedding of my niece Amy to husband-to-be Ben, but since the wedding was to take place at 5:30 PM today, they may already be husband and wife by now. So congratulations to Ben and Amy, may your life together be everything you hoped it would be and more.

Got back home Thursday afternoon and took a nice long nap. Went to bed early also as I was very tired from the trip. Didn't do much yesterday either with another midday nap. Ended up going to bed after midnight and didn't get up until 10:30 this morning! I think I was just wore out from all the good food I had to eat down in Kentucky LOL.

At last, today I had a little energy and decided it was time to do a cold start video of my 1961 Buick LeSabre. I had been wanting to do one like this (using 2 cameras) for some time now and finally got the job done. You can see the video on YouTube by clicking the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QqiVYaIYBI

Frustration with the mainstream media

Most people who know me at all know that I don't care for the press at large, but this particular mini-rant has to do with how they refer to people from countries in the far east. The latest example is the tragedy in San Francisco with the crash of Asiana flight 214.

While it is customary for the people who reside in those countries to refer to themselves using the last (or surname) first, when traveling abroad, they usually wish to conform to standards which apply to the rest of the world, which makes perfect sense. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

So what does the media in this country do, you got it, refer to them as if we were living in their country.  I'm not sure if they do this out of respect for their ways or more likely because they wish to sound hip. I think think they just come off sounding elitest.

The modern mainstream media feels it is their job to teach we (the simplistic Americans), the ways of the world, instead of just informing us. I guess we are just too dumb to know that other cultures are different from our own.

To further confuse the issue, it depends on who you are as to what you are called. An example would be Jackie Chan. He was born Chan Kong-sang in Hong Kong but he uses the stage name of Jackie. Would it not be proper for the media to refer to his as Chan Jackie? I suppose in this case, it has something to do with asian actors wishing to fit in with american culture, but the wishes of the common people do not matter I suppose. Double standard much.

Perhaps I have the media all wrong, maybe they just want us to know that the person referred to is of asian descent when they use this naming convention. But isn't this kind of like referring to them as asian? Is that proper?

C'mon mainstream media, refer to people from places all over the world the same. I think we are smart enough to figure out why people traveling from China or Korea are not named Smith or Jones!

You may find this a bit strange...

Some of you may not think this is a good subject for a blog post, but who really is to say what a person might find interesting. The subject is my keyboard, or more importantly, how comfortable I am with it, and how long it has lasted.

As a writer of any kind will tell you, unless you feel comfortable with your writing device, very few words will ever be written. The words need to flow and having the right device can make all the difference in the world!

For those interested, the keyboard I use is a Kensington Ci70. At $50, it was by far the most expensive keyboard I've ever purchased, but I've been using it now for over 4 years and it still performs as well as it did the day I got it. Quite a statement from someone who regularly eats at their desk and rarely remembers to push the keyboard drawer in.

And while others might proclaim a similar ability with their keyboards, few can do it without physically taking the keyboard apart to clean the crumbs out now and then. You can, however, do that with this one. A few sharp taps on it's edge will dislodge most any crumb and have the keyboard working properly again. Very important for people like me who are, shall we say, less than tidy when they eat.

So after 4 years of service, I have yet to dismantle this keyboard for any reason, and in fact would not know how to do it if the need ever did arise. So hats off to you Kensington, for designing a piece of equipment for us slobs. Bravo!

OS X 10.9 Mavericks

Just one of the many announcements made on Monday (June 10th) by Apple at it's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC), if you were an enterprising soul you had no problem locating a copy of the first developers preview (DP1) just shortly after it was announced.

Being one of those people, I quickly had a copy downloaded courtesy of the friendly buccaneers who reside in a bay on the internet. Having a copy is not the same as having it up and running though, as often these early releases require one to jump through several hoops to get them installed on a Hackintosh.

I tried the easy way first, myHack had been updated to a beta version to deal with Mavericks, but that experiment did not turn out well. Then I found this tutorial and followed it. This one proved successful and I got to take a look at the new OS on my GA-P35-DS3L system.

As usual with a prerelease, several things didn't work right. The Mail app for me proved unwilling to accept my main email account so no way to use that. I did however get the internet working and was able to play around with the new version of Safari.

Having working internet also allowed me to preview the new Maps app. While nice, I still prefer Google for this task. They have been doing it a lot longer and theirs is much more complete and accurate.

I also managed to install it on my newest system, the Foxconn G33M. Video was a bit wonky on this system however so I didn't experiment much with it. Tomorrow is another day and I may explore further then.