Category: Work

  • Day 055 of 2026

    Day 055 of 2026

    And today was just another work day, while traveling. These days typically follow the same patterns. First, I get up, have a cup of coffee and log into work. I do a quick browse through my email and my tickets/tasks that have already come in, are past due, urgent, or need immediate attention due to the urgency of a file. Then, I take my laptop with me to go have breakfast downstairs.

    Home2 Suites usually has a pretty good breakfast selection so I can usually find something good and something that works within my diet. Today was an everything bagel with fried egg, 1 slice of bacon, and a slice of Swiss cheese. Each sandwich was around 400 calories, and combine that with coffee by breakfast was right at 926 calories. The goal was around 700, but I am still OK.

    After breakfast I went and did my morning inspection at another hotel nearby. It’s one of the chains that I do stay at, but I learned the lesson a long time ago, no matter how much I like the hotel, do not stay there the night before you do an insurance claim. That particular lesson was taught to me when a desk clerk figured out who I was, got the manager, and they put my into a room without any air conditioning in the middle of a Miami, FL Summer day. I think they felt it would help sway my opinion that their maintenance department actually did something. In this case the manager was awesome, probably would not have done that to me, and had a valid loss. Everyone knew they had a valid loss but they were wanting to verify repair vs replace.

    In this case, as toasty as it was, it will probably be a replace.

    Once I got done with the inspection and submitted my findings I realized that I was very close to the Rosen Aquatics Center. This facility used to be part of the YMCA, but during COVID the Y almost abandoned it. During COVID the Y just about lost everything, they really screwed up when they did not allow “traveling” members to travel. So Mr. Rosen purchased the facility to keep it open. I used to swim here about once a week or so when we lived in the area. It was almost a 40 minute drive, but when this pool is setup in Long Course (50 meters) it was well worth it.

    This was the training home of Rowdy Gaines and many other future Olympians and would have been a loss to the community not to have it any longer. Anyways, $10.00 poorer for a day pass, I was able to get my swim workout in. I had to give up at the 2000 meter point because I was starting to worry about how much work was accumulating, and I had taken my one hour lunch break.

    I was happy with it, would have liked to do another 1K to get myself to 3K in one session, but I really had to get back to work.

    Spent the rest of my afternoon working, and then had some dinner, came back and read a little, listened into a net on one of the repeaters locally, bunch of old guys talking, and then uploaded my greyhound-data races for the last two weeks.

    Now just sitting around watching TV, writing this blog post, and trying to plan tomorrow’s travels. At least on this trip I did not have a massive travel change and I am headed home tomorrow.

    I think this is goodnight for the evening. I will see you all tomorrow.

  • Day 050 of 2026

    Day 050 of 2026

    Today was a decent day. After yesterday’s weather delays and other such issues I was lucked out on several fronts today.

    Got up around my normal time of 6:20-6:30am. Did my normal morning routing of starting my coffee, and getting logged into the work system. Went and had breakfast, I always like Holiday Inn Express breakfasts, usually have egg white and veggie omelets, I broke down and had some bacon today as well. That’s probably not good for my diet. At all.

    After my breakfast I sat down and answered a number of processor questions, and talked with a few techs that I have been trying to reach. All good stuff. And then around 10am MT I had to leave for my appointment, it was an interesting two hour drive through the mountains. This is where I say I lucked out. The rental car they gave me does not meet Colorado’s traction law requirements for Winter travel. It was not 4 wheel drive and I did not have chains in the car. I was very fortunate that the mountain pass was clear and not slick. Also, Colorado for some reason does not believe in guardrails along their roads. So, narrow shoulder, 200FT drop. Don’t slip off the road or your car will need wings. I guess it’s the Darwin principle. Survival of the fittest?

    Anyway, I saw some beautiful scenery in both directions. I did not stop too much on the way going, but I made a few stops on the way back. Here is one panoramic view that I wanted to share. I did not bring my drone on this trip, it was just too much to carry, and it may have been a little too windy to use it anyways. Click into the photograph below and look around.

    By the time I was on the way back the sun had been on the road long enough to clear things up. Here are my travel photos for the day.

    By the time I got back to the hotel it was about 4pm. After that I did have about two hours of work left to do, just because I am in the field my office work does not cease to exist. Got that mostly done, the only thing I did not get around to was making a bunch of tech phone calls and doing some follow-up on open support tickets. I try not to call the techs too late in the day, and time-zones are a thing.

    No workout today. I tried to get on the treadmill, but honestly I HATE treadmills, and they never seem to be calibrated properly. The speed is weird, and the belts usually slip. In my mind this is a good way to get hurt. I much prefer to be outside, but darkness and timing didn’t allow it. I am looking forward to spending some time in the pool on Saturday or Sunday.

    On other news, last night I broke down and ordered myself a new hand-held radio. I have decided that most of the high frequency ham radio communication from our property in Aurora is impossible. I have started to explore the world of Satellite communications and it is really starting to intrigue me. My handheld radio will not properly do Sat work as it is only half-duplex, I would need two of them. One to transmit on the up-link and one to receive on the down-link. The experts in this area of amateur radio work told me about the only full-duplex handheld radio on the market today that will work. They are in short demand, but I was able to find one, new (amazing). and it will arrive on Saturday. More as I learn more. This may be a series of pages rather than posts.

    So, I am done for the day, tomorrow I fly home, weather willing, and then I have the weekend at home before I head to my next destination on Monday. Have a good night everyone.

  • Day 049 of 2026

    Day 049 of 2026

    And today is a travel day!

    Got up this morning and had some time with the dogs and the ln caught up on my email and everything else that is part of my morning routine.

    Started getting tech phone calls shortly after I started on my first cup of coffee. The had my “oh shit” moment that I was going to cut it too close for my flight. So I rushed and got it together for Jesse to take me to the airport a bit earlier than planned.

    I really don’t mind wandering around Denver International Airport as there is always some new artwork and sculptures to see. Today was no different.

    Anyways, I wandered around and found a few quiet places to stop and get some work done to keep up with the office work. Got my 10000 steps in as well before leaving Denver.

    Best feeling in the entire world when you get to the gate and your plane is arriving.

    Boarded in time. Backed away form the gate. And Parked for an hour. It appears we were delayed to allow the many private jets heading to the same airport to land on time. There is something WAY wrong with that picture… we are a schedule flight…. private jets not a scheduled flight. I guess they have more money.

    The flight into Montrose, CO was very bumpy, and now that we are on the ground we are waiting for planes to de-ice in front of the two gates available for United at this very small airport.

    And now we have been sitting here for about an hour and a half waiting for a gate. Actually waiting for them to de-ice plane after plane while waiting for a gate. The Captain id getting very upset with the station manager because he hmsays he could get into another gate if they would push the departing planes back a little further when de-icing them. This is the longest wait I have ever had on a taxiiway.

    Still waiting

    Finally, at the gate. And to add insults, this is gate 4.

    And now I wait for baggage at belt 1 of 1. I think they have 1 employee offloading the baggage, loading the next flight, and then bringing the baggage to the baggage claim.

    Finally got my bags and got out of the airport and to the hotel Was able to cheek in with no issues, nice desk clerk. Got a decent room and was able to walk out right behind the hotel and get some food at Safeway right behind me. Dinner was some broccoli and cheese sauce, a turkey pot pie, and then for desert I got my standard batch of blueberries. I also picked up a bag of “Skinny Pop” to munch on during my drive tomorrow.

    I did have to catch up on all of my open work support related tickets, so I set up my office away from home. People laugh at my but I like my 65″ monitor. Makes it real easy to see issues in some of the photographs I need to review.

    Anyways, while today was stressful from a travel perspective I really can’t complain. I think it would have been much worse driving over 7 hours, and it would have been a little more than that because of the Winter weather. I do not have 4 wheel drive and I think it would have been worse.

    Goodnight all and I will talk to you tomorrow. I am hoping I get some decent photographs of my travels, and I will share as I can.

  • Day 043 of 2026

    Day 043 of 2026

    Hello All! This is one of these posts that is going to be ongoing today. Started off the day at my hotel in Grand Junction, CO.

    Looked out the window of the hotel and saw a bunch of new car models with manufacturer plates. All fitted with GPS and all Toyota. I had a chance to talk with one of the drivers and yes, they are testing new models in various conditions across the country. Sort of cool.

    New Toyota Models

    Got breakfast and then spent the next few hours working on desk stuff. That is pricing, processor questions, and tech support.

    While I had the room booked for two nights I decided to check out early as the roads look pretty good through the mountains and I really want to go home today. I had to check out around 10:00am so I went to the park and got in most of my 10,00 steps for the day.

    Total distance: 4 mi
    Max elevation: 4596 ft
    Min elevation: 4566 ft
    Total climbing: 186 ft
    Total descent: -195 ft
    Average speed: 4.01 mi/h
    Average cadence:
    Average heart rate: 96
    Average temperature: 22.2
    Total time: 01:11:52

    I also had some time to find some more of the sculptures and other neat things around the park. This is one of the neat things when I am traveling, I can find some really neat things in all the areas I travel to if I look close enough.

    After that it was time to head over for my appointment and meet up with the adjusters, the engineers, and the property management (HOA) representative. The inspection went about as well as I thought it would, but the view from the roof was awesome. I love the mountains in this part of the state.

    After the inspection was done it was time to head home. Here are some awesome photos that I took along the way.

    I decided that I would do something I have been wanting to do for a while here, I put the drone up to get some good photos of the canyon from above. This is all along the Colorado River. I am going to put those photos up on a page that I will link into this, but just not tonight. That is a tomorrow project. In the meantime below is a 360 Panoramic Image that I leave you with. You will need to click into it then you can move it around with your mouse of phone. Zoom in and out works as well. Enjoy.

    And the rest of the drive home was rainy and dark. I made it home around 8:00pm, had a late dinner and then time for bed.

    Today’s travels took me about 300 miles total.

    Have a great evening. Check back tomorrow for that updated link here with my drone reel from today’s stop.

  • Day 042 of 2026

    Day 042 of 2026

    And how fast plans change during the course of a day! Oh, hello and welcome to my world!

    I was supposed to spend today at home and do a “quick” trip to Grand Junction, CO tomorrow for an inspection. Well, that did not happen as planned. I am sitting in a hotel right now in Grand Junction. Why you ask? Well, there is this small Winter storm that was supposed to hit the mountains overnight and into tomorrow that was going to follow I-70 and it’s mountain passes. I decided that the best idea would be to get out in front of it and get to Grand Junction before they did something stupid like close the road. Would have been no fun tomorrow as there really isn’t another option other than I-70.

    Anyways, made my way slowly out to Grand Junction. I had to stop frequently as I had to check in on some questions from the office and some of our technicians. On long flat land I can sort of take a look at things on my tablet/laptop as long as I don’t have to type, but in the mountains, nope, not happening. Too many curves, and Colorado has something against guardrails. We just don’t use them.

    Some photos from my travels today. The first one is the climb into the Eisenhower Tunnel, the next two are leaving the tunnel. We have no snow on one side and snow on the other.

    I stopped at a rest area along the way a little further West along I-70 and took a these. I love this part of the state, it’s so neat how the mountains, water, and all the cliffs come together.

    Got to my hotel in Grand Junction and checked in. Decided that I wanted to go out and get my steps in. Fortunately there is a really nice local recreation/athletic/trails park nearby. Found a really neat sculpture along the way, it’s called Love Song and it was created by Denny Haskew out of Loveland. I sort of get it and that is something I don’t say about a lot of sculptures.

    The part was really nice as well. It’s called Canyon View Park and it is off the last Grand Junction exit, right as you are headed into town. Lot’s of construction going on in the area, but the park looks like it is most often used for Soccer during the warmer seasons.

    So, I rounded out my outdoor time today with almost a 7.5 mile walk around the park a few times. Wasn’t as fast of a pace as I normally do, but as I am traveling I really do not want to get hurt.

    Total distance: 7.39 mi
    Max elevation: 4592 ft
    Min elevation: 4553 ft
    Total climbing: 262 ft
    Total descent: -264 ft
    Average speed: 3.96 mi/h
    Average cadence:
    Average heart rate: 104
    Average temperature: 20.7
    Total time: 01:53:43

    Finished that, had some dinner at the hotel. I stay at Home2 Suites when I am out here normally, so they usually have some healthy options in the frozen dinner selection. Today was something Mexican. And then I had to catch up on all the open requests from work. Took me about two hours to get that done before I sat down and wrote my blog (this) for the day.

    Today’s travels, about just under 300 miles along I-70.

    And…. I forgot my laptop charger. Though it appears one of my phone charger has the “umpf” to charge my laptop, if it doesn’t overheat and die we may be OK. I am going to sign off for the evening, but before I do…..

    The mheard list from KO4YAW on Net 105, 14.105LSB or 14.1023USB located in Aurora, CO:

    YAWNOD:KO4YAW-7} Heard List for Port 4
    N6CTA-1 Feb 12 01:32:11
    KC2IHX-7 Feb 12 01:30:02
    KB9PVH-5 Feb 12 01:28:48
    N6CTA-7 Feb 12 01:28:16
    N0BN Feb 12 01:27:28 via KB9PVH-7*
    N0BN-1 Feb 12 01:27:03 via KB9PVH-7*
    K7SKI Feb 12 01:19:26
    KB9PVH-7 Feb 12 01:13:26
    W1CDN-1 Feb 12 01:01:31
    KB9PVH-3 Feb 12 00:58:59
    W3TQG Feb 12 00:55:07
    KC2IHX-1 Feb 12 00:42:02
    KB5YZB-1 Feb 12 00:35:43 via KB9PVH*
    AC0ZH-7 Feb 12 00:32:36
    K0LAI-1 Feb 12 00:31:32
    K0LAI-7 Feb 12 00:29:56
    K5DAT-7 Feb 12 00:18:19
    KF7PSM-7 Feb 12 00:16:28
    W1CDN-7 Feb 12 00:01:16
    KN6NW-5 Feb 11 23:05:02
    NS2B-1 Feb 11 23:03:36
    WB7PZZ Feb 11 22:54:32
    N4QMI-7 Feb 11 22:40:04 via KB9PVH*
    KB8UVN-7 Feb 11 22:37:24
    KB9PVH-1 Feb 11 22:20:31
    KA9QJT-1 Feb 11 21:31:36 via KB9PVH*,N0HI-2
    WB5BNV Feb 11 20:57:18
    W9LCF Feb 11 20:57:08
    WW6Q-1 Feb 11 19:46:18
    KB9PVH Feb 11 19:21:58

    Goodnight All!

  • Day 041 of 2026

    No great photos today. It was an “in office” and “at home” sort of day. Had so much to do and such little time to do it. On health news I am on the heart monitor again, it’s not awful, it is just a pain because I can’t get it wet for 24 hours and then I can’t swim with it on. Which means no swimming for 13 more days. And I keep hitting the “record symptoms” button by accident.

    So, I got up and had my coffee, enjoyed some quiet time with the dogs before I logged into work for the day. And then it started…… I was finally able to take a break around 10:30 to go do a long walk, I was not able to jog as I wasn’t supposed to get the glue under this thing sweaty. But, I got a decent walk in, made my 10K steps (what a joke that is).

    Total distance: 5.81 mi
    Max elevation: 5679 ft
    Min elevation: 5516 ft
    Total climbing: 449 ft
    Total descent: -433 ft
    Average speed: 4.22 mi/h
    Average cadence:
    Average heart rate: 118
    Average temperature: 18.8
    Total time: 01:22:58

    Came back and finished out my day with work. I ended up working later than I wanted to and still didn’t get everything done. So, I had about two hours of extra stuff to do this evening. Now I am in a much better place. I really need to spend some time on the phone calling technicians tomorrow or Thursday. I may try to have some conversations while I am driving on Thursday. Oh, yeh…. I have to go out to Western CO Thursday for an appointment.

    Res and Climber got a short walk today, it’s an afternoon weekday walk, these are always short.

    Total distance: 0.58 mi
    Max elevation: 5619 ft
    Min elevation: 5567 ft
    Total climbing: 73 ft
    Total descent: -73 ft
    Average speed: 2.95 mi/h
    Average cadence:
    Average heart rate: 104
    Average temperature: 19.9
    Total time: 00:12:38

    I just imported and ran all of the Greyhound-data race files for Tri-State and Wheeling Downs for last week. Still need to upload the final files to greyhound-data, but at least the hard part is done. The rest is basically point and click.

    I think I am going to call it a night tonight, I am exhausted and have spent way too much time staring at a monitor today. My brain is mush.

    mheard from KO4YAW on 14.1023 USB / 14.105 LSB Net105 Aurora, CO

    YAWNOD:KO4YAW-7} Heard List for Port 4
    N6CTA-7 Feb 11 02:36:27
    KB9PVH-5 Feb 11 02:13:32
    N6CTA-1 Feb 11 02:13:27
    KC2IHX-7 Feb 11 02:06:01
    KB9PVH-3 Feb 11 01:50:27
    K5DAT-7 Feb 11 01:48:19
    KC2IHX-1 Feb 11 01:35:20
    W1CDN-7 Feb 11 01:34:59
    AC0ZH-7 Feb 11 01:32:38
    K0LAI-1 Feb 11 01:30:46
    K0LAI-7 Feb 11 01:29:56
    K7SKI Feb 11 01:19:30
    W6VVN-7 Feb 11 01:14:59
    KB9PVH-7 Feb 11 01:14:13
    W6VVN Feb 11 01:09:55
    KD9WZZ Feb 11 00:55:05
    VE3QBZ-1 Feb 11 00:47:26
    KA9QJT-1 Feb 11 00:31:40 via KB9PVH*,N0HI-2
    KN6NW-1 Feb 11 00:23:05
    KN6NW Feb 11 00:23:03
    N9SEO-3 Feb 11 00:20:09
    VA3PIX-7 Feb 11 00:15:46
    KF7PSM-7 Feb 10 23:46:35
    KB9KC Feb 10 23:34:32
    WB7PZZ Feb 10 23:13:35
    WG0A-1 Feb 10 23:04:05
    WG0A-7 Feb 10 22:51:26
    N4QMI-7 Feb 10 22:31:41 via KB9PVH*
    K7TMG Feb 10 22:15:49
    NS2B-1 Feb 10 22:02:43

  • Day 040 of 2026

    Day 040 of 2026

    Happy Monday!!!

    Started off the day with the alarm not going off. I am so happy (most of the time) that I have an internal alarm clock that won’t let me sleep past 6:30-6:45 before I am awake. Got up, gave the dogs their morning treats, and their outside time. Then I had to log in for work.

    Had a meeting with IT today to go over software used. I am not sure but I always feel IT is there to make life more difficult. I spend more time answering questions and not getting much accomplished. But, we got through the meeting and I am sure I will hear some follow-up in the next day or so. Once I finished with that call, I tried getting caught up on tags (questions), Cause of Loss Determination requests, and Tech Support requests.

    Lunch time today was a swim. I have to start wearing a heart monitor after today for the next 14 days and I wanted to get the Garmin swim challenge for this week done. Unfortunately can’t swim with the heart monitor, so it was important to get in the water today. After the 14 days are up on the 23rd of February I should be able to get back into the water and complete the monthly challenge. I need about another 5K of swimming to get that done. Maybe I will attempt to do that in one session and I can take care of a few Swim.Com challenges as well. I need a 200yard kick also for the USMS challenge. These challenges do keep me motivated so they are important.

    Came back home and finished out the day. I worked a little bit late to get it all done and then I worked a little extra this evening to get some new technicians added to the Alpine Intel University, our online training platform. I suspect that less than 50% of them will actually take the online classes and I will spend some additional time pestering them to do so. Life goes on and it’s job security.

    I just had time for an afternoon walk to get my steps in for the day. I got my 8,000 steps that is my goal, but weight watchers would like to see 10K steps (there’s that magic unscientific number again). I am also participating in a 300 floor step challenge. It is climbing 300 floors worth of steps in the next 30 days. That’s easy because every one of my workouts gives on an average of 20-30 floors. Give me the next 15 days and this will be done as long as the weather holds up. 27 floors today. During the afternoon walk I had to take a couple of tech support calls and of course that is difficult when you are not sitting in front of a computer, but had phone in hand and I was able to provide the support.

    Total distance: 3.65 mi
    Max elevation: 5666 ft
    Min elevation: 5557 ft
    Total climbing: 318 ft
    Total descent: -318 ft
    Average speed: 3.62 mi/h
    Average cadence:
    Average heart rate: 98
    Average temperature: 24.8
    Total time: 01:03:20

    Got back just in time to walk the dogs for their afternoon/evening walks. Then it was dinner time and relax time. I am sort of done for the day, but I do have one more computer related activity I need to do and that is to start the import jobs for last week’s races for greyhound-data.org.

    I have to make a vet appointment for Gizmo. Something is wrong and I am worried about her quality of life. She is 19 years old and I am afraid she is hurting. It could be arthritis, but I guess I am going to have to get her checked out. I just have this gut feeling that this may be a final appointment for her, which is why I have been hesitating. Why am I worried about quality of life?
    1) She does eat, but has graduated to wet food only.
    2) When she moves she “hollers” as she walks.
    3) She has stopped cleaning herself. I am having to deal with matted fur.
    4) She hides under a bed most of the day and rarely comes out. I am not sure this is the life for a pet.
    5) She still does navigate the steps to come to her litter box.
    6) She stopped eating outside of her room. I think it may have been that she can no longer jump up on the table without extreme effort.

    This is just one of these, I am not sure situations.

    Today's mheard from KO4YAW in Aurora, CO for 2/9/2026 on 14.105LSB / 14.1023USB.

    YAWNOD:KO4YAW-7} Heard List for Port 4
    KC2IHX-7 Feb 10 02:42:01
    KC2IHX-1 Feb 10 02:28:39
    K7SKI Feb 10 02:23:33
    AC0ZH-7 Feb 10 02:02:40
    KB9PVH-5 Feb 10 01:51:48
    KB9PVH-3 Feb 10 01:48:55
    KB9PVH-7 Feb 10 01:45:18
    KB5YZB-1 Feb 10 01:32:56 via KB9PVH*
    K0LAI-7 Feb 10 01:20:38
    N9SEO-3 Feb 10 01:20:08
    K5DAT-7 Feb 10 01:18:19
    KB9PVH Feb 10 01:16:49
    NS2B-1 Feb 10 01:02:00
    KB5YZB-7 Feb 10 00:28:30 via KB9PVH*,KB9KC-7
    KC6HBB-1 Feb 09 23:55:38
    KC6HBB Feb 09 23:55:37
    KE8NAD Feb 09 22:36:07
    KB9KC Feb 09 22:28:02
    K7TMG Feb 09 22:23:28
    KA9QJT-1 Feb 09 22:16:41 via KB9PVH*,N0HI-2
    WB7PZZ Feb 09 22:05:50
    N6CTA-7 Feb 09 21:59:08
    N0HI-7 Feb 09 21:58:33 via KB9KC*
    N6CTA-1 Feb 09 21:27:51
    KB9KC-1 Feb 09 18:34:56
    KD3BFP-1 Feb 09 15:26:00
    W9LCF-7 Feb 09 15:21:52
    KB9PVH-1 Feb 09 15:12:42
    WB5BNV Feb 09 15:02:30
    WG0A-1 Feb 09 15:00:36

    I think that is a wrap for this evening. I will see everyone tomorrow.

  • Day 037 of 2026

    Day 037 of 2026

    And a Hello and Good Evening to all of you!

    After clearing out my email and a bunch of pending tasks, I started off the day with taking the dogs out for their morning walks, I don’t normally do the AM walks but Jesse had an early meeting so I did the morning walks. They got a little bit of a longer walk than their normal 3/4 mile walk that we do most weekdays. I am trying to get my steps in and had time. They always like the longer AM walks, of course Res got really confused when I turned before the sidewalk next to the park and walked him back through the park. He is a boy that likes routine and I messed with it. Climber just like to go.

    After I got them home I worked for another hour and then had to leave to go do a solar inspection. The homeowner had a fire and it was near the solar panels and of course they were all on the ground having been taken off the roof. This means testing each panel by itself. I found most of them were out of spec. And, as usual my ladder was not quite long enough to get on the roof totally. I don’t share much from work anymore, but solar testing is sort of interesting, and a lot of fun for me. I like working with the renewable energy stuff, and I like it more when I can help someone with an honest claim.

    Anyways, drove back home while talking with two other technicians, and spent the rest of the day doing office and desk work. I ended up working about an hour extra to catch up on the work that was not done while I was in the field for two hours. Oh, well, I will make up for it next week. After work I was able to go out for a quick walk, did a little over three miles, which got me to my 10,000 steps for the day. I am trying really hard to make my step goals even though I do not believe in that 10K number, I think time an pace is more important, and have been reading some good medical articles on the 10K not being critical.

    After I got back from that we took the dogs for their afternoon walks and then it was feeding and our dinner time. Subs from Subway today, I had my normal Subway Club. In the middle of this time I had to reboot and reconfigure Direwolf for my packet radio station (hey, if you have ham radio give me a packet shout on 14.1023 USB (14.105 LSB) at ko4yaw. I enjoy seeing new visitors. Sometime while I was out of town my station went down during an Xcel power outage. I have no idea why because the whole thing is on a UPS and it just doesn’t make sense. I have to do some more investigation of that over the weekend. Once I got the station up I had to go back through all of my unread packet mail and clean up my old messages a bit. I really have been too busy to deal with the packet stuff, and I also have been a little discouraged because of the really bad reception that is in my area. I have to do something with my antenna and get it back up on the 60ft mast. Not sure how I am going to accomplish this yet, still working on that.

    Anyways, we are done for the evening and it’s time to say goodnight. It was a good day overall.

  • Day 034 of 2026

    Day 034 of 2026

    Welcome to Day 2 of the AHR Expo. I decided that I was going to use Lyft this morning to get to the convention center. I just about killed my back yesterday with my backpack and I am still hurting this evening as I am writing this. I think after I talk with Jesse for our regular evening call I am going to take a Tylenol PM and just zonk myself out for the rest of the night. I am seriously hurting and it is in both shoulders right now, not just my normal right one.

    Today I had a couple decent sessions and one really awful one. I hate to say this but people coming in from other countries to give major presentations to professionals, who are interested in their subjects and products really should be able to speak English somewhat fluently. The only reason I didn’t get up and leave that presentation about 1/2 way through it was that I know it would have been an insult in their culture and the last thing I want to do is insult someone for trying, but it was painful.

    I spent some time on the show floor, walking around and seeing what everyone has to say about their products. In my opinion it comes down to:
    1. You only need so many tools.
    2. There are only so many ways to make an air handler.
    3. There are only so many ways to make a water heater.
    4. Etc……
    Show me something exiting and new.

    Also disappointing is that no one can (or will) give pricing on any product. I really wanted to see pricing on a First Co hydro-air unit, we need to replace the furnace in our house and I am debating going with a heat pump with hydronic backup heat, since our water heater/boiler has the capability to handle that. I want some pricing.

    I did see what Samsung is trying to do with it’s Smarthings hub and that is somewhat exciting and something to watch. They have the potential to compete with some of the higher end products such as Control 4 and others. I have the Smarthings hub at our house. I can do just about everything with it that a $50,000.00 system can do and it cost us less than $400.00.

    My first session of the day was one that really interested me, it was a discussion of how Linux and Building Automation system manufactures are beginning to work together to create an open architecture so that buildings will no longer have 100s of systems that cannot talk with each other.

    The second session that I had was about CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) refrigeration. This one is going to be a really controversial issue in a few years. Imagine being the technician that has to connect gauges and other components to systems that run in excess of 1700 PSI. Our current systems run from 60 to 460 PSI (at a max). The copper will need to be infused with iron, and putting these systems together will take time and expertise. I am not sure our current generation of technicians can handle it.

    The final session that I had planned on attending today was about secured wired communication in building automation systems. I really wanted to hear the reason for the wired communication and how they were getting over cable/line loss. This was my really disappointing presentation. They really should have had one of their English speaking employees give the presentation. I think there was some pride in the decision whom was presenting because it was the CEO. I know he knows his stuff, I’ve read some of his work in some trade journals, but he sure can’t give a presentation to an English speaking audience.

    Anyways, I grabbed the monorail back to the MG grand and then took a Lyft back to the hotel. Turns out that was more expensive than just taking a Lyft all the way from the convention center back to the hotel. Yup, won’t do that again.

    Spent close to 3 hours catching up on work stuff that had piled up. Then spent some time testing a new version of our Diagnostic Application for the Android that is in the release process. Worked pretty well, just some minor things that needed to be fixed.

    Anyways, it’s time to say “Goodnight” and I will see you all tomorrow.

  • Day 033 of 2026

    Day 033 of 2026

    And today is the first day of the AHR 2026 conference. Started off my day with a quick breakfast at the hotel, while on the phone with a technician who had some concerns he wished to share, he was right on a few and I will have to verify a few other things.

    Then took my three mile walk to the Las Vegas Monorail to ride over to the convention center. Of course you almost have to walk through the MGM to get to the Monorail. Everything revolves around gambling here.

    First session was about Duct Leakage and Sealing. It was not of a dry presentation but gave a nice overview of some code changes and updates. Common sense stuff mainly. But good overall.

    They sort of lost me when they got into the engineering math with examples.

    I have this theory that those that mixed letters and numbers together and expect it mean something may have been smoking some good stuff.

    Next session is Minimizing and Troubleshooting Fan System Effect.

    The fan course was really good. Talked about ductwork configurations that support good airflow on commercial fans. Did not cover any residential fans, but the principles are the same just at a smaller scale.

    I took a break and went down to the exhibit hall. What a disaster. You go to one of these and you have been to them all. I tried to meet up with a fre colleagues from work and was never able to find them. Gave up.

    I went over to the main exhibit hall and stopped by the HVAC Excellence booth. Saw a few people I wanted to see and took a look at a new training product they are rolling out. Not sure if we may be able to use it at Alpine Intel, but it does have potential.

    And it was time for my next session on Bacnet.

    The presenter was very good, and unlike some of the others was very comfortable talking to a very large group. Really good presentation.

    Bacnet is a protocol that is used for building control systems, it’s universal and open. That means that it is available for all.

    Finished with that presentation and ducked into another Bacnet related presentation that was a round table discussion of Bacnet working with the Linux Foundation to adopt some open source compatability and standards. I have to dig some more into this when I have time…… if I have time.

    Next up is a session on fan efficiency and building codes. This ended up being another multi-presenter presentation, wasn’t all that great, basically a few people complaining about building codes.

    And, after that disaster I decided to call it a day. Monorail back to the MGM Grand and then walked the 3.6 miles back to the hotel. I think I am going to use Lyft tomorrow, way too much walking and I really do not want to get sick or hurt myself.

    Anyways, I have some computer work still to do, but I think I am going to call it a wrap for today. See ya tomorrow for day 2.