I was wondering how hot out it was before I ventured out at lunch, so I checked the Weather Office’s website. Apparently, it’s so hot that the weatherman has gone home:

I’ve been a fan of The B-52s for a long time. The first concert of theirs I went to was in San Diego on December 31st, 1989. I was visiting a penpal and she had tickets for the show. The show opened and I was hooked. (Thanks, Kara!) One of the things that stands out in my mind was Love Shack, which they played over midnight. It ran for 10 or 15 minutes and set the house on fire.  You can read an article about the show from Spin Magazine online.

The next time I saw them was later on the same tour when they played Massey Hall in Toronto. I was in the balcony looking down at the show and had a great time. The show almost ground to a halt, however, when some pinhead grabbed a stuffed lobster that was tied to one of the microphone stands. Fortunately, they retrieved the lobster, but before they basically singled out the offender and told him what he’d done was “not cool”.

I’ve also seen them in Ottawa once or twice – one time at the Ex.

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I took a few photos (ok, 292’ish… whatever) at the B-52s concert at the Ottawa Bluesfest. I’ve dropped some of them into a gallery, which you can view here.

Commentary sometime Friday. 🙂

Just a quick photo of the B-52s on stage at Bluesfest during Private Idaho.

More pictures to follow…

The 2010 edition of Blog Out Loud (Ottawa) is taking place this evening at Irene’s Pub on Bank Street from 7pm to 10pm. I’m not reading, but it should still be a good time. 😉

Although I’ve been licensed since the early 1990s, I don’t get on HF very often. This isn’t due to a lack of interest in working HF, but rather because it’s impractical for me to operate HF where I live. (I live in an apartment building, so I can’t really set up an antenna without violating some condo rule and I’d also be concerned about interfering with the fire alarm.) So, when I do get on HF, chances are it’s either Field Day or I’m at the cottage.

There are a lot of tall pine trees at the cottage, so I have installed some slings with caribiners from a few of the branches and strung ropes through them. This allows me to quickly set up a G5RV Jr. wire antenna when I want to operate. It works fairly well, but I can only work 10m through 40m. I’d need a full G5RV antenna to be able to work 80m, but there just isn’t quite enough room for it.

The orientation of the antenna is such that I can work down into the US, central America Cuba, and sometimes South America. Chunks of Europe are occasionally accessible and I’ve even worked Australia and New Zealand (I worked ZL3TE on 20m PSK last night). But try as I might, I can’t work people in Ottawa, especially if they’re using a vertical antenna because they’re looking at the end of the wire where almost no RF comes out.

I’m thinking of reconfiguring the G5RV Jr. into a sloped-V that’s aimed towards Ottawa. That should open up eastern Canada and the more northern countries in Europe.

I meant to post something about this last week, but what with the earthquake and all I didn’t get around to it.

You may recall I posted something a couple of weeks ago talking about Algonquin College considering cutting their horticulture technician program. Well, I heard from my friend last week that the college has decided not to cut their program after all. According to a story in the Ottawa Citizen, there was enough protest from industry and other sources that the program has been saved. Instead they’re going to re-vamp it, and other programs that had been identified to be cut, and take advantage of opportunities to partner with companies in the field.

I’m glad to hear this, not only because my friend isn’t going to be out of a job, but also because they’ve remembered that sometimes reducing the bottom line isn’t the ultimate goal.