John Dinkelman, KC7AW passed away on October 9th. His obit in the Deseret News can be viewed here.
John, or "Dink" as we knew him, was one of the first MARA members and was very active on MARA and other nets. He built many of his own Ham Radio accessories and was unbeatable at tying knots.
He will be missed. You can leave a comment on the obit page in the legacy section. I have placed a comment there in behalf of MARA, but you are welcome to leave your own best wishes and fond memories.
----
There was much discussion on tonight's net about headsets. On eBay, search for the seller named "kawamall". He sells more than anyone else and has throat mikes and other accessories.
---
You can get some other great deals from the eBay seller "W2ENY". I have purchased several items from him and have always been impressed with the quality. One of his cables (with the right software) will allow you to place the audio from your radio on the internet and monitor it at the office or the beach. More details here.
Scroll to the end of the listing to see the info about listening to your rig at home from your office at work.
---
Halloween Info for the Adventuresome.
Those little plastic pumpkin carving tools you see at the grocery store are for little kids. Adults (aka "Real Manly Men")use POWER TOOLS!
A sawzall will take the top (or bottom) off a pumpkin in under 15 seconds. A scroll saw will make short work of cutting out the design. Need to just cut part way through? Grab the Router!
Last year I only did one pumpkin, but it was done in less than 2 minutes. I used a cordless drill fitted with hole saw attachments. Two quick plunges for the eyes, change blades, one quick plunge for the nose, change blades, three overlapping plunges for the mouth. Finished! It took me longer to clean the power tools than it did to "carve" the pumpkin.
You can see some amazing samples and pick up tool tips by Googling "Extreme Pumpkin Carving". There are LOTS of people who do this stuff. It's been shown on television many times and books have been written about it.
One of the best sites for Extreme Pumpkin info is here. There is an entire section on Pumpkin PyroTechnics. Imagine a gruesome pumpkin with 3 foot flames shooting upward from his head. Easy to do and it burns for up to 45 minutes.
After you have been doing this for a few years and get really good at it, you might want to graduate into Psycho Pumpkin Carving. At the Psycho level you are only allowed to use ONE tool to carve the entire pumpkin. The tool? A 22 caliber rifle! Look on the bright side, you will be carving two sides at once! Rifle "carved" pumpkins have the added benefit of being bidirectional which means that when lit they show a face in front and project one in back on the wall of your house!
So, if you have lots of spare time, use the rinky dinky little plastic tools. If you are pressed for time, GRAB THE POWER TOOLS!
---
Happy Halloween from N7OZH.
