KD4IML - I’m Miguel Lombana

So I had a business trip to corporate and I had a feeling that it was just going to be one of “those” trips. Woke up early, got everything done at home, packed, prepped and did as the FAA recommends, got to the airport 2 hours early. The first sign of trouble, I came into the wrong terminal, needed to be in T4 but I showed up in T3, no worries, back on the bus, into the building, total time lost 15 minutes.

I entered the terminal on the West side, the gate that I needed is on the East, so after the 15 minutes of TSA rhetoric I started walking, and walking, and walking and wouldn’t you know it, my gate was at the very end of the concourse so I put in my mile for the day!

I had just over an hour to wait to board so I sat down in what I thought was a full service restaurant, they had a waitress and a menu, the menu consisted of 2 items, both sandwiches, I chose the Turkey and Cheese rather than the Ham and Cheese, add a diet Coke, total before tip 15.36!

Walked over the waiting area and watched the clock tick to the magic 30 minutes before departure and instead of the, Ladies and Gentlemen let’s get ready to rumble it was, due to an air traffic stop in the Chicago area, we’re not going anywhere, sit back, relax and we’ll let you know more once we know what’s going on. So before I cried (Bravo Sierra) on this, I pulled out the laptop and queried the FAA website and sure enough, the message below was on the screen, so atleast they were honest.

Bottom line, I got to Chicago, 4 hours late and still had to drive 30 miles to the part of town I would be meeting in all week, but no sooner than I left the airport I saw my personal MECCA, there on the right was a White Castle, so 4 Cheese sliders, a box of fries and a diet Coke made the next 30 miles just fly by!

BTW, if you ever want to know the latest status for an airport and you’re stuck in a terminal with no information, go here: http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp you’ll get a map and you can click on the field of your choice to see what’s holding you up.

The best 1 second on television, found every Monday night at the end of Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory and unless you have a DVR you’ll never even notice.

About a year ago I caught something at the end of Two and a Half Men that had me running for the pause button on my remote, instead of a studio logo or “Sit Ubu Sit” I saw what read more like a blog or diary that could only be read if you had a DVR. Seems that I stumbled on what I have since found to be a phenomena, the Chuck Lorre Vanity Card. At the time I wasn’t aware these have been a running gag since he was a producer on Dharma & Greg but after some 200+ cards, there are blog sites about these cards and last week a mainstream article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

If you’ve never had the pleasure, the mind of Chuck Lorre is genius, before you hit the remote at the end of one of his shows on Monday nights, wait for the end and get ready to pause, if you don’t have a Tivo or other DVR, you can read all his cards on this web site: Chuck Lorre and Link to WSJ Article

 
9/11 Conspiracy Theories ‘Ridiculous,’ Al Qaeda Says

NASCAR Frequencies used at Phoenix International Raceway April 12th, 2008

Congratulations to “JJ” Jimmy Johnson #48 on another PIR Victory!

Driver Frequencies Follow - Read the rest of this entry »

For the last 2 years, since moving into my home in the west valley of the Phoenix Metro, I have been tormented by a low flying agriculture helo spraying the fields directly across the street from my home. The spraying usually lasts for 2 hours and it usually starts after 10pm, even at 2am!

Today, they sprayed early, before sunset, which has never happened and I was finally able to get a tail number and some pics. I doubt that I can do anything even reporting this to the FAA as a noise complaint but the pics came out really nice so there they are.

The “Helicopter Man” as viewed from my back patio deck. Click any pic for full size image.

Typically since I spend so much time in my car each week, I monitor a lot of radio when not listening to XM. You can usually get a hold of me on one of the following repeaters:

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.

Today almost slipped away without me realizing that it was a special anniversary, 10 years. Thanks for everything mom. You’re missed!

I recently addressed the issue I was having with where to mount 3 Motorola XTL5000 mobiles in my 2007 Ford Explorer, thanks to Jotto Desk I solved the problem. Jotto Desk directed me to a local vendor (Arizona Emergency Products) where I was able to order and have installed a new replacement center console for my mobile radios. I now have my VHF, UHF and 800mhz mobiles all installed in a nice clean center console with easy access to all radios at my fingertips. More pics are available in the My Pics section of this site.

If you’ve ever owned a scanner, then you know how easily the bug can bite you and listening to Fire Dispatch calls passes the time, not to mention it’s nice to know what’s going on when you hear the sirens, that said, Phoenix Fire and surrounding valley Fire Departments are addictive to listen to!

Phoenix Fire is in the process of updating their radios to Motorola XTS portables which affords them additional channels from the old 12 channel Sabers. Below are updated frequencies for Phoenix FD by radio channel assignment.

Well if you’ve heard the rumors they are true, like many other cities around the country, Phoenix now has it’s first P25 Ham Repeater on the air and hopefully it will be the first of many.

This is not a D* system, it’s true Apco P25 courtesy of a Motorola 100 Watt Quantar, on the air in UHF from the East Valley. Thanks to my fellow Mots (you know who you are) for getting this one on the air. If you’re equipped (which we know many are), the freqs are as follows:

Input: 443.725 PL 110.9 Analog / NAC 293 Digital
Output: 448.725 PL 110.9 Analog / NAC 293 Digital

Yes it’s mixed mode and has awesome coverage even in the west valley.

ENJOY and 73’s

Coming soon (Jan 2008) a new P25 UHF Ham Repeater will be on the air in Phoenix! A new Motorola UHF Astro Quantar is currently being setup and will soon be on the air in both Analog and P25 Digital formats, finally anyone with an Astro or P25 capable radio will be able to use it on the Ham frequencies. A VHF pair is in the works as well and both should cover the central and east valley, west valley coming soon!

August 23, 2007 – Sony today announced a new professional HDV camcorder, the HVR-HD1000U. Priced at a mere $1900 MSRP, the camcorder is clearly gunning to undercut Canon’s XL H1, at least on looks. It features a shoulder-mounted design, a single 1/2.9” ClearVID CMOS sensor, 10x optical zoom, and a new EVF/LCD design. The HVR-HD1000U is expected to ship in December.

26I just posted some pics, actually I got the albums working, but also posted the first pics to the album and they are of my camera collection. Featured are my XL2 and my XH-A1, the only one missing is my Sony HC1 but since there was a Canon theme in the album I guess that Sony will get it’s own album at a later date.

Wow I like Wordpress more and more each day, this is the coolest CMS that I’ve used so far and there seems no end as to what I can do with it or add to it. Just take a look at the sidebars on the right and you’ll get an idea of how cool I can make it with some minor integrations.

Welcome to the new KD4IML site, this is being configured from the ground up using WordPress in July 2007, the site should be more robust than in the past and be active and full featured by August 15th, 2007.

To keep you occupied, there is something so hot about this girl!