Steampunk Project: Camera Obscura.

Working Olympus Trip 35 with new light seals. Leather aftermarket covers from Aki-Asahi.com. Custom Leather camera strap from Gordy's Leather Straps. Top and bottom plates are originally silver. I scratched the silver paint hoping to expose real brass, but found aluminum underneath instead. Not wanting to go messing up a rare black Trip,which do seem to have brass top and bottom plates, I just used A combination of brass hobby paints to get this color.

Steampunk Project: Blaster

A plastic "Jango Fett" Star Wars toy painted.

Armouring project: Smallsword

Blade, grip, pommel: Zen Warrior Armory/Triplette Competition Arms. 

Knuckle Bow: American Fencer's Supply

The front guard, a brass disk, is a piece off a rapier hilt I had laying around.

The blade is 30 inches long, and the point of balance is about one inch from the front of the guard.

A bit about ham radio.

This is a Yaesu FT-250 FM handheld transceiver. Yaesu is the ham radio division of the Vertex Standard company and makes some of the highest quality radio equipment. The maximum transmitting power of this small device is 5 watts, enough power to cover several miles depending on terrain. This small radio sends and receives on what is known as the 2-meter band, which is between 144 and 148 mhz. I have a slightly larger radio mounted in my car which has 60 watts of power. To transmit on the 144-148 band, one is required to hold an amateur radio (also known as a ham) license, which I have had for about five years.

The radio spectrum is considered to be a  public resource. To prevent on-air chaos, countries establish agencies to govern the spectrum's use. In the United States, this agency is the Federal Communications Commission. Licensees are expected to adhere to both FCC regulations and more informal "rules of the road" to make radio use a pleasant experience for everyone. Amateurs are prohibited from accepting fees for our services, our payment is our enjoyment of the hobby.

Hams are call themselves members of the Amateur Radio Service. During times of disaster or crisis, when commercial telephone and internet services are rendered inoperable  hams jump into action, providing important communications capability, both traditional radio and digital. We assist hospitals, emergency management offices and NGOs such as the Red Cross. Many of my fellow hobbyists provided life saving communications in Louisiana and Mississippi in the days immediately after hurricane Katrina, by setting up radio stations that were the only means to get information in and out of effected areas . Being hams doesn't mean we are expected to do all this, and not all of us do. Those of us who do take part in disaster communication do it simply because we are into this sort of thing.

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I blogged. Between my own problems with Hurricane Sandy, disaster relief work extending from Halloween to Christmas, and on top of that, the usual way the holidays take up one's time, I've been a little busy. I may blog about school shootings and gun control some time after I get my thoughts into writing. I hope the next year will be less eventful. I wish everyone a thousand blessings for 2013.

Hurricane Sandy

Not my photo, of course, but this was the size of the storm that first wrecked the Caribbean, and then bulls eyed New Jersey. The Cat-1 winds may have been unimpressive by hurricane standards, but with an area a thousand miles across, and the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded north of Cape Hatteras, Sandy caused biblical storm surges for hundreds of miles up and down the coast.

Supper at home without power

A draw-bridge in New Jersey bent by storm surge

Nearing end of the operation, worn out Red Cross vehicles awaiting inspection and repair of their communication systems before getting shipped back to their home states.