I knew it was just a matter of time before the world of spammers discovered tcfmc.org, and now it's happened. This morning, a jerk sprayed us with about 100 comments, all spam to push their link count up. I'm switching to approved-accounts only, meaning new users who wish to have an account here need to be personally approved by me.

The storm tracking and charity event volunteering seasons are almost upon us, and nothing makes situational awareness easier than having a GPS unit and a radio - except having APRS, to tie the two together! For those who are not familiar, APRS is short for Automated Position Reporting System, and consists of three components: A GPS receiver to obtain position information, a 2-meter radio tuned to 144.390 (the national APRS frequency) and a tracker or TNC to glue the radio and GPS together.

I'm organizing a group purchase of OpenTracker APRS kits.

Last year, I volunteered for communications/safety team duties at two bicycle events, the Ironman and the MS 150. Both were lots of fun (thanks Rusty, KC0VCU, for joining me!).

After the MS 150, I was asked to help build a new website to track volunteers for the MS SCRAM - the folks who provide safety and communications for the Multiple Sclerosis Society's bike events.

If you think you'd enjoy volunteering for this year's MS Society events or just want to learn more, please sign up here.

Thanks and 73,
KC0TFB

I spent most of my day at the Lonsdale American Legion - the site of the Lonsdale rest stop as well as the convergence of the 100-mile and 62-mile routes of the event. From the rest stop I worked, they met for the final leg, departing to the south, then crossing over I-35 and heading back north to the Lakeville High School where the event began.

I wrapped up the rest stop at about 4:30, carried someone's backpack back to the high school. Dropping it off, I noted a couple of bikers who were at a red nissan pickup with its hood up. I checked with them and helped them track down a damp distributor cap. We opened it up, dried it off and presto - their pickup started just fine (I also connected jumper cables from my truck, but I don't think that made a real difference).

Do you have TCFMC-related photos? Login and add them to our galleries today!

This site was down for approximately 2 hours last night due to a utility power failure. All systems shut down safely under UPS power and returned to normal functionality when utility power was restored.

Thanks,
- Peter

It certainly looks like it. I've heard a number of folks who can't get in. I tried from home with even 10 watts (my 1w HT is normally sufficient) and got no joy.

Does anyone know the real story?

I just did a motherboard swap on this webserver. It's now configured thusly:

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3000
Memory: 1GB of DDR400
System & application disks: 2x 40Gb in a Raid 1 array.
Data disks: 3x 120Gb in a Raid 5 array.

I had planned to build this server with this configuration originally, but I had ordered some of the parts by mail and they didn't arrive until today.

Page loads should be noticably faster, as with anything database related. Enjoy.

On a suggestion, I changed the site's default page (only for users who haven't logged in) to explain that creating an account and logging in are not needed to use most of the site's features. On the other hand, I'm trying to use this site to cultivate a sense of community, even off the air. Allowing people to communicate through forums, online chat, and posting pictures, blogs, audio and video is a way to foster that sense of community.