N1EY: I am N1EY. This is the webpage about the adventures through time and space of Bill O’Hara, N1EY. My email is n1ey@n1ey.com

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Sun
28
Jun '09

Thompson Speedway

Part of webmaster's adventure in Cycling

Steve convinced me to try the Twilight Criterium at the Thompson Speedway.  The race has been organized by the Minuteman Road Club from Massachusetts.  Everyone drove down to Thompson, CT to ride their bicycles.  I know that it seems silly.  It is a nice area full of rolling countryside.  Some of the roads and the adjacent state park are tranquil.  It looks like you could get some nice riding in this area.  The big thrill was to ride on a NASCAR speedway, which I never had completed previously.  The race was only 15 miles and I warmed up for 5 miles for a total of 20 miles on the track.  I saw some of the fast juniors from the South Shore area lining up for the junior race.  My race was tough.  This was the first race of the year for me.

I almost lost the pack.  Some racers were lapped.  I finished 12 seconds from the winner for 11th place.  The judge must had fun keeping track of whom had been lapped.  Some of them were riding besides me.  They did not pull many people off the track, if those people could keep moving.  I had almost regained the field on two occassions.  However, I could not make it.  I lost my pace when I rotated to the front of the pack prior to a preen.  When the attack charged for the preen, then I fell to the back and off the pack. I took a picture of the CAT 4 race, which featured a strong team from Vermont.

Oh, there was some Field Day thing going occurring at the same time.  I must try to attend some time.  I was talking to everyone on the PAXTON and the SCITUATE, RI repeaters.  I could hear the the Quincy 146.67 machine near the border of CT and Massachusetts as I approached Webster, MA.  I gave W1ZZA a quick call on 67.  He was surprised to hear me on the Quincy machine.  The PAXTON repeater worked almost 95% of the way door to door.  The Scituate repeater was 100% door to door.  I told a few that I was heading down to the Thompson speedway to race my bike, but only KA1ANW knew immediately that my bike was under pedal-power.

I saw one of my competitors from the Thompson race at the Norwell Circuit Race subsequent to this outing.  People really travel all around the New England area in order to participate in a race.
N1EY

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Mon
22
Jun '09

Other scenes from Toronto

Part of webmaster's adventure in Railroading

My friend, Paul, had happened to accompany me on my 2006 trip to Canada.  You might recognize him from articles such as the recent one about the Illinois Central in the The Railroad Press magazine.  He is also the editor of the Illinois Central Railroad Heritage Association’s magazine.  I always wanted to refer to the magazine as the Panama Papers, but my sense of humor did not catch.  This is a photograph taken with my dSLR.  Paul still shoots slide film.  I do not know where he has it processed.  I think that he has to complete it by hand in his cellar.  We had to see MacMillian yard, which is the destination for a few trains which run on the Illinois Central.  This was one of the pivotal points of the entire trip.  This had been a focal point.  We had not been concerned with Canadian Pacific as much as we had been concerned with the railroad BORG called Canadian National Railways.  It had been something similar to my expectations.  This was a relatively new yard in the scheme of things.
I also had taken a few pictures of other items.  I think that GMC actually stood for General Motors Canada.  Did you know that they had continued to manufacture this bus into the 1980’s.  GM production in the United States had stopped in the early ’70s.  I took this photograph on the north side of Toronto on the way to see the railroad yards.  My friend, Tadd, had taken a few photographs of such buses in operation in Ottawa.  These are from the New Look model line.  They have been infamously referred as Fishbowls.  I also had taken photographs of some newer buses.  The system had a lot of newer equipment and older equipment in operational service.  In one moment you could see a relatively new set of commuter rail stock pass some very old commuter rail stock and a shiny new bus roll up to the train station.
Of course, I had stopped to take some pictures of commuter rail action within the City and the environs.  This is towards the southern city of the city.  There is a lot of physical plan in this location.  An interesting fact is that the GO Transit service has been operated by uniformed CN employees.  You shall travel far and wide to find other railroaders still in uniform.  I had been looking for a golden pocketwatch or too, but those must await retirement.  Weekend service had been somewhat sporadic.  Some of these GO lines did not have much weekend operation.  The MBTA lines in general have quite a bit more of frequency.
N1EY

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'

Toronto Traction

Part of webmaster's adventure in Railroading

My friend, KB1PBT, has a thing for traction.  Even WA1NYC likes traction.  I always like to look at people conveyance.  This is something that actually effects the people.  During my trip to Canada I took time to ride the subway in Toronto and review the expansion plans.  I also took photos of the trolleys.  I spent some time also taking photographs of bicyclists in action.  It was pretty good.  You must remember these are some of the more environmental friendly vehicles.  They can safely transport you from location to another using less energy than most other systems.  Plus, the power generation is completed at a fixed location with lower emissions than messy mobile power plants as installed in things such as automobiles.
The picture of a car on the 509 Exhibition Line.  This runs very close to the waterfront.  These cars are slated for replacement and the Premier of Ontario is seeking a purchase order of cars from Bombardier.  This shot had been taken when the CN Tower was still the tallest building in the world during the year of 2006.  The line had some reconstruction during the preceding years.  However, it should be noted that service frequency is much greater than other places such as Boston in some respects.  The reservation has very little problems with egress by adjacent traffic.  This route is one the longest routes for the TTC.  It traverses much of downtown Toronto and is a lynchpin for the system.  The ALRV in the photograph is probably twenty years old at the time of this photograph.  I have several more pictures available at http://n1ey.netfirms.com/Railroad/nfpicturepro/thumbnails.php?album=43
N1EY

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Fri
19
Jun '09

Toronto Bicycling

Part of webmaster's adventure in Cycling

Toronto had been a fun city when I visited it during 2006.  I had visited the city previously on a family vacation.  We had driven up to see Quebec and Ontario.  This time we had bypassed Quebec city.  I would also make some additional stops in Ontario.  This last time I had visited the area in order to see things such as MacMillian yard.  I was after all of the trains and the trolleys.  The Toronto layout had been slowly changing.  Condominums had been constructed closer to the waterfront.  The fleeing remants of mainline freight railroading near the water had all but disappeared.  It was changing quite a bit from the duration of the end of major downtown freight railroading to present day.  A brewery had been to the right.  This would receive a good amount of freight traffic.  Further down the Queen’s Highway I ran across some automobile plants which had produced a lot of freight traffic.  I saw less and less bicycles in other venues such as Brampton, but I such more more freight action.  The CN tower is in the first picture.  When I had taken the picture the tower had still retained its title to being the tallest structure within the World.  It had relinquished its title to a tower in one of the Dubai kingdoms.  There are plenty of bicyclists in this foto and they continously pedal down the bike lane.  I suppose it would be fun to ride to work during the summer, but I suspect that the cold winters would be tough.  The lack of sun during the morning and evening commutes in the middle of winter must be extremely difficult.

The bicycling in Toronto seemed to be active during the summer of 2006.  I had made a visit to review the railroading within the Dominion. I saw people riding on the outskits for group rides.  I saw lots of people using pedal power to commute or head to the park while downtown.  Most of the people downtown had commuter or city bikes.  A few had mountainbikes.  The bar-ends had seemed very popular on the mountain bikes.  They were still in fashion up there.  I think it is easier to carry a bag with a bar end.

I had just thought of Toronto after reading a nice murder mystery set in Toronto.  I found these photos in my archives along with pictures of trolleys and trains.

N1EY

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Tips for repeater usage

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News

I have noticed some quirks about repeaters that newer users do not know.  There are two important things to consider such as mutual intelligibility and reciprocity.  The normal thoughts about these do not necessarily apply to repeater usage.  Just because you can not hear me on the repeater, does not mean that I can not hear the repeater.
An important thing to remember that the coverage of a typical repeater is very varied throughout its’ general vicinity.  In the shadow of a hill coverage could be very poor.  A repeater user could be immediately discombulgated during one transmission and sound good during the next transmission.
You should also consider that the systems are not perfect.  The receive antenna at the repeater might be separate from the transmit antenna.  Some repeaters are considered alligators, because everyone can hear them, but you can not get into the repeater; this is the opposite.
If a user can not hear the repeater, then do not raise your power.  If you are intelligible on the repeater output, then there is no need to increase your power.  The other users might not hear the repeater.  Also bear in mind that you might copy another user on the direct frequency better than listening on the repeater frequency at times.
N1EY

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