In October 2010, as part of my NERT training, I attended a “HAM Cram” class here in SF and gained my FCC HAM license. I picked up a Yaesu VX-7R radio and then tinkered around a bit, but never really got into HAM too much more than it just being a fun idea. Since then I’ve listened on and off to the weekly Siren Net that happens in SF, but I’ve never actually called in and reported what I was hearing.
Today I had my first check-in (from home), and it was fun. It also felt good to know that I was helping the city keep track an emergency system that might save lives at some point. I checked in via the repeater at 443.100+ tone 114.8 and had a bit of interference, but it was clear enough for the net control to hear/understand me after a clarification. ”KJ6LFV, back to net control” 
Over the Thanksgiving break, some friends and I went camping over on Angel Island, in the San Francisco Bay. It’s quite a unique experience, camping in amongst so much city/so many people, yet being so isolated. We caught a ferry from SF over to Tiburon*, and then another from there to Angel Island. Once on the island we checked in with the ranger, then backpacked (via North Ridge Trail) over to our spot (campsite #3, on the East Bay side of the island).
We were greeted with a pretty amazing view out over the East Bay, which continued all night as it remained clear and cold. The lights were thoroughly impressive and provided enough light for us to night-hike up to the top of Mt. Livermore (once our eyes had adjusted). The view from there was even more impressive, providing complete 360° views of the entire bay area.
Not having a fire there was pretty rough (only charcoal fires and camp stoves are allowed, due to fire hazard), so we had to have a nip of whiskey to keep us warm instead. We also got to see a few pretty big shooting stars while we were sitting out chatting at night.
In the morning we took our time to get up, enjoy some breakfast (more Thanksgiving leftovers!) and then hiked back down to Ayala Cover, where you catch the ferry. 2 ferry rides later and we were back in the city again.
*Note: During summer it would be much easier to just catch a ferry direct to Angel Island, but because it was off-season and the day after Thanksgiving, the ferries were running on holiday schedules, so we had to do it this way.
I’ve been training in Krav Maga for a bit more than a year now and on Saturday, November 15th, I went through the grading to go from Level 3 to Level 4 as a Krav Maga practitioner at the San Francisco Krav Maga Gym. Simply put, it was the most grueling, physically-intensive thing I’ve ever done. I decided to post some details about it here for my own records more than anything else, but you might find it interesting if you’re into martial arts/MMA or that type of thing. For the record, I passed
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So I may not have received an invite to FooCamp, but now that I’m living in San Francisco, I’m able to attend the first ever BarCamp. I’m posting from there right now, and I’m just checking things out and getting a feel for the place. So far it’s pretty cool – lots of interesting people and discussions, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the day.
More to come.
, the fact that I now live in an earthquake-prone area (and knew nothing about earthquakes) and by a personal interest in “
. So what did I learn?
