Amateur Radio Disaster

OK, I don't complain often but today I am going to rant or complain or vent, call it what you want. Hears the deal, I am a ham radio operator and work public safety via Skywarn, a program where when the National Weather service calls for spotter information, I am won of the guys who is on the ground spotting weather. OK so thats all fine and dandy, today we had a huge thunderstorm hear that may have put a half of inch of rain down in its hour time. I call on the ham on several different repeaters and no answer, repeaters connect hams together and takes something won guy says and relays it to the other guy with more power. An example say 3 hams are using radios say at power levels of 1W 3W and 5W, well we all hear the signals at the same power level. Say the repeater is 500W, the 1 and 3 and 5W signals all get to us at a power level of 500W. A net is a group of hams talking to one another. no nets, allstar the number I use is down, it's a system I can call into via the phone and connect to several different ham stations via repeaters. Its down, I get onto a system called Echolink and go to 2 different repeaters, won in Pa and the other specially for Skywarn operatives, not a single avenue was active. Now the concept of ham radio is in my use for public safety, how am I able to do my job when those who run the system are not doing theirs? Folks it's a team thing, if we cant function as a team we cant function on a one on one bases. Why does the military do team operations? Because it works and its small but effective. When several people run several systems and no-one does their job, the little guy like me who depends on those working on the maintenance of the repeaters are not doing theirs, I cant do mine. Its simple, do your jobs and let me do mine and we will get along fine. If it came down to it I could have contacted the National weather service myself without ham radio but thats not the point. What happens if the phones are down and all internet is down, how are we hams going to get anything done if the hams who run the repeaters are on their fat behinds doing nothing to help the situation? We cant stay in contact then can we, nope we cant. In other words, those who depend on communications for food cant get food because we hams cant do our jobs. What happens if it's not a weather emergency but a bomb or something goes off say at the johnstown airport, someone like me who is a ham will be working that seen, how can I do my job protecting my countrymen if others in charge don't do theirs? Guess what, I cant. Why? Because people are not doing theirs. I am not God, I cant just whip out a ham and all is good, folks it's a team work effort. Why post this? Because we need a team when we work. It's a myth that won man can save the world. Unless your Jesus the Christ, you are not that man. We men and women depend on one another. We ham radio operators are to set the trend of the country, if this is how we hams are going, how is the wrest of the world. I hope God comes back soon. Anyway, rant over. KC3CDV clear.

Just another update.

Greetings and salutations to all. I am back with another update and wow, things have happened but I did not think to blog about them for a few days, then I kepped thinking " blog. blog blog blog." So I finally blogged about this. Well, lets see, where to begin, yeah the beginning I reckon. OK. So its Christmas 2015 and I just had received my first CCrane CCSW radio that I had bought for myself. I open it and its buggy as all get out, so I contact the manufacture in CCrane and they ship me a new won back in return for free and all I had to do was ship the defective unit back. Second one comes and it works fine. The folks over at CCrane are amazing. Check them out over at ccrane.com
 Lets also stick with Christmas 2015 for now, We do whats known as gift exchange and I had gotten a bag of hole bean coffee for my sister. She along with a family friend got me a coffee grinder in return, no more pre ground coffee for me, hole bean and wow, what a difference. Hole bean is the way to go folks.  So we then go a little forward and its now 2016 and I was looking at an acoustic bass after seeing my brother's acoustic electric Fender guitar, so I looked around and was always attracted to the Dean EAB Playmate bass, so I pick it up and wow, what a bass this thing is the best bass Ive ever played beside a high grade American made Fender.
 So Ive ben playing bass and enjoying my coffee and radio. All rite guys and girls, I hope you enjoy my little umm, journal? Oh yeah, I almost forgot, my external hard drive died in early 2016 or late 2015 cant remember and I came to the realization that I spend way to much time online and so Ive cut back quite a lot online, ben enjoying outdoors and reading and radio and spending family time.

 Everyone take care and remember, God knows who you are.
 I pray peace and blessings be with you in the name of Jesus. I ask for all you praying folk to pray for me just as we all need to be prayed for. We are told to lift each other up in prayer and I intend to do that. Thank you all and God bless.

Tone.

Hello, I wrote this on another page over at basshive.net I also wanted to publish it hear.
 ok so I am not much of a composer of blogs or music for that matter, I improv everything

 Well, todays improv is tone.

 Is tone the gear? Is tone the fingers? Yes,. And no.

 Most of the tone comes from the fingers? Most of the tone comes from the gear? I feel it's a combination of both. If you play over the pickups it's a darker sound verses if you play rite at the bridge its more of a bright sound.

 Now a good eq pedal helps a lot but if your fingers aren't there then nothing would happen. Another thing, are you using compression, thats a part of the tone to. I love my compressor pedal and DI and distortion box, because with my fingers and bass I make the sound, its all a big ole unit that makes my tone. Not just one thing.

 But weight a moment flip it around. So you have real cruddy pickups and because all you hear is mud along the instrument, an eq pedal will allow you to taylor your sound to what you want. So, I say it's a combination of the to. The musician makes the tone with the gear and body he or she has.

 Thats something elts, I am sick and tired of seeing these female bassists treated like sex toys. their people to, don't go hitting on them just because they play an instrument and look good. They don't do that to us, why should we do it to them.

 Lets respect and love everyone. Lets not judge on color or body type. their people, we are people. Stop being a jerk and hitting on everything with a female part just because you're a male. Even electronics have to be guided buy us humans and know the difference, there never forced into places they don't belong.

 Ok this has just become ramblings. Of a mad creative bassist.

 Hmm. Well peace and love to all.

New gear.

Hey yall, its ben a while sense Ive updated this thing. As of now I am looking at new gear, so your thinking "James more music gear? Do you really need all that gear?" Well of corse the answer is yes music gear is always good to have and I'll buy more at some point but today we are talking about radio gear not music gear. Theres a scanner I am looking into getting called the BCD396XT scanner. It does Truncation and P-25. I won't get into all the technical aspects but I am hoping to have it figured out and in my hands buy the end of this year, it looks really sexy. Can I get away with saying a scanner looks sexy and not mean that to be a dirty word used to describe a woman? I think yes though in today's trends i'll be labeled as a sexist now. hahaha. Whatever, at least I keep my family safe, I may have problems I need to fix, I may have flaws but who don't? Anyway, this scanner looks really nice and if your looking to listen to the cops or military or ham or railroad pick it up. I don't own the radio yet but I will, also on a side note check out vrnradio.listen2myradio.com and one of these days I might be broadcsating when you tune in. Its not a 24-7 station its just something I put together with my own stuff and time. All rite well I think this rapps it up, yall take care and may peace and blessings be yours.

Helen Keller

Greetings yall, its ben a while. Now let me see, just ben keeping on with the ministry and the music. People are rather enjoying my ministry lately, it's amazing what the god of love peace and light can work through me. Yes, I am the one spreading the message and it's the father's message as it was Jesus the Christ's message. Anyway lets get on topic of todays post. Helen Keller I just finished Helen Keller's The Story Of My Life. I found it to be a good book and I would recommend anyone reading it who's interested in the blind of def. Despite what a lot of people think of Helen Keller she did contribute to the blind and def community. I am a blind person and if it were not for Helen Keller's work I doubt we would be where we are today, her teacher sure made her into a great young lady and a great person that any blind of def person could look up to. I would like to say thank you to Helen Keller's memory and for what she did, lets be honest hear folks if it were not for her, people like me who's blind may still be living in dark rooms once our parents died. We owe a lot to her and those who helped her with her goals. My Opinion don't matter hear, what matters are the facts, and the facts are that there was a lot done for the blind and also def and not just buy Helen Keller. Lets admit something though yawl, Helen Keller brought it to the front of the newspapers and all sorts of other printings. I bet theres other def people or even blind def people who speak now all because of the Helen Keller story that every blind person knows. I was acquainted with her story buy my vision teacher I think, all I knew was she was a blind def girl who managed to ascend her dreams and goals. She is like the role model for the blind student and I am sure even the def student and for sure the blind def student. I enjoyed the book and like I said its worth a read. OK yawl take care and if you've got any questions concerning my ministry or my music please contact me using: twitter. twitter.com/KC3CDV facebook.com/jamestheradioguy jamesclarkministry@gmail.com Peace Love and Light be with you all.

Oh boy we had a few problems.

Greetings yawl, its KC3CDV hear, the ministry has ben going good, we have managed to help a few people, thats a good thing. Well, the other day, I went to this page I've gone to before and my computer had ben hit with a virus, now I am on a mac. Well, thankfully we found an app called ClamXav.app. If you tell it to scan, you can have it remove your viruses. Thankfully we are clean of viruses now, it had attacked my emails somehow but we are good. A lot has ben going on as well however besides that, we got ourselves a passive bypass pedal in a Pigtronix compressor box and yet, it compresses great, but it feels better just using my active bypass, nothing against the pedal, its just how it feels. Well I thought I would let you guys know what I was up to, and there you are.<
From KC3CDV James Clark,  73 and 88 to all the girls.

ranting on teaching.

Hello all, I've been hard at work. I am now a minister, I've been recording new music, helping with ham radio activities and all sorts of other things.

 Now I've got to rant a bit about some things thats been on my mind as of late.

 Lets say you're teaching a student music, what would be the first thing you would teach him or her.

 Scales? Terms? Notation? Cords?

 Well, if your me, I would teach you nothing. I would guide you, however.

 You don't start a child out with a bike if he or she cant walk so why teach a student cords or scales or concepts or notation. Thats just stupid in my book.

 i think a student should be allowed to make mistakes, you need to sit there and make music with the student, let them start playing, let them lead you. let them feel like they're helping you or like their in charge. you need to be a friend not just a teacher. that way the student won't feel bashful about asking a question down the road, get them interested in cords buy playing cords wen you play with them. that way they can ask wen their ready, "hey what are you doing"

 Then you can tell them "I am playing something known as cords to ad some melody to our piece of music" that way they won't feel pressured you're playing with them. Don't force your student to learn cords or something, let them experiment. Let them ask questions, they may come up with their own style.

 i had someone who was going to try to teach me. alls they did was showed off. thats the wrong way to do, he needed to include me and show me or let me lead, that way as the student I felt like I was contributing to something. instead I ended up teaching myself because he never showed me anything. this is why i say notes and all this stuff is important but you don't need to know it to make music. i am learning, we all are learning. don't try to teach someone music, let them teach you how to teach them.that way you're a guide and also a pier instead of a teacher. it makes both people feel better.

 I've been on both side of the fence, I know what I am talking about. I've worked with people and they love how I work with them because I include them and don't play over their levels if I did that, they would be discouraged and would not want to play.

 If you're a teacher don't you start tapping while your student is having problems even fingering a fret. Thats rude and it kills their ambition. wen a student makes mistakes, don't shut them down for it, don't try to fix it, let them keep doing it because they will figure out on their own that it does not work, then they can ask you what they're doing wrong. remember your a teacher, you're not an in forcer, in my case i don't teach, i am a guide, i guide them to make the correct choices, wen you start learning theory and things of that nature, go to someone other than me, because I hardly know that stuff. but i do know how to guide and make someone feel welcome and help someone to want to keep playing. thats more important than flash and knowing all sorts of names for things you know how to do. i can show how to do  a cord or how to tap but why is the name value important. it's not to me. you can know all the names in the world of different scales and cords and notes but if you know all that stuff and pick up the instrument, thats not making you a better player. i'll out play you every time. you know why? because I play to play, you people play to be flashy. well flashy is not everything people. playing with heart and emotion will always win out over someones flashiness.

 It shows wen someone knows what they're doing or had gotten it from a book.

 Not saying that stuff won't help you, because I've seen fine players come out of that style of playing, but it's not always the best way and it won't make you a better player putting names to your cords and notes.

 

 

 Lets remember to love and help always.

 Everyone take care.

 Minister James Clark. This is KC3CDV saying 73 to all.