I'm Back!

    I have decided to restart my blog! I started to think about restarting my blog one night a week ago after a college friend was getting advice about starting his own. I had not posted in so long I actually had to reactivate the account! I didn't realize that I had a draft in progress back then, so here it is, albeit hobbies and interests have changed in the last few years. 

    I hope to take the blog in a somewhat different direction since I have not participated in some hobbies such as beekeeping (due to developing allergies) for quite a while, and some I will never take up again. One of the areas that I want to explore is answering some theology questions I am asked a lot because of my faith and being in college. Questions such as the world view of a Christian and interpreting worldview from a non-Christian standpoint are what I hope to write about in the next few months. I will try to stay out of politics as much as possible and will still be posting about my hobbies. 

   A hobbies have come and gone since my last postings. Hobbies such as beekeeping,  and raising broilers (chickens for meat) have been discontinued for probably forever because of allergies to bee stings, grass, and pollen. I was not successful in raising tilapia, and put certain aspects of ham radio on hold for the meantime while I go through college. In the way of new time sinks, err I mean "hobbies," I have gotten my motorcycle license and have been riding around for about 3 years now. Along with riding, I also buy, fix, and flip motorcycles for profit, and have successfully flipped 3 bikes so far. 

Here are is a picture of my current bike I am repairing and getting ready to flip in a month or so. 

Here is the draft post from back in the day, English major's beware!

      Last year I started trying out the digital modes of amateur radio, such as: PSK-31,-63,-125, RTTY, MFSK, MT16, and that's just to name a few. The above picture is of my waterfall display with my IC-7000 tuned to 14.070 MHz. The picture looks funny because of the two monitors not working with the two monitors. When I started in the digital modes I was using a Dell Dimension 4600 at 3.0 GHz  running HRD software, also known as Ham Radio Deluxe. The only problem with the setup was the lag from pressing a button and having the radio respond via the computer. In fact, there was so much lag that the radio would kick in on the next transmission of the station that I was trying to contact! So after looking for a suitable replacement, I came across a Dell Optiplex 745 3.4 GHz Pentium D (dual core) desktop. After upgrading the RAM to half of the computer's capacity, (which is 8 Gigs) My sisters bought me Windows 8 for my birthday so I was also able to upgraded the operating system from XP Pro to Windows 8 Pro x64 as well. The OS is the biggest change of them all. The simple XP OS cannot even begin to compare to the full and competent Windows 8 Pro. HRD would use at least 13%  CPU running on the 4600 and froze all the time. The Optiplex 745, which is already running W8, runs HRD smoothly and at only 8% CPU. I have also discovered the SuperSweeper in DM (Digital Master), which is one of the best parts of the software package.
     

     I have also upgraded to two monitors, which has been a great help in running multiple applications. The only problem with the mid sized tower is that they only come with one video port. Fortunately video cards are cheap, and also takes the graphics load off the CPU. With an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro and a DMS-59 to twin VGAs adapter, I was able to use two monitors and lower the graphics load on the CPU. this has made a huge difference in performance, and has not made the CPU work any harder with the graphics card. The pictures were taken while the CPU was idling at 3%, as seen from after the arrow in the higher picture.