Monday, March 16, 2009

Bender's trouble baby

Well as many of you know I had a biopsy on a small mass in my throat back in November. It came back so I've had another biopsy. The last time it tested as moderate dysplasia which is what doc is expecting it will come back as this time. It's worrisome because a non smoker of my age probably shouldn't have cells like this. But it's not advanced to a stage where it's considered cancerous and we can undertake treatment options. So we watch it.

The surgery was as terrible experience as ever for me. The Mercy hospital seems to be top notch I've got no complaints there. My veins don't pop out very much so they always have trouble getting the IV in, that's always terrible. Apparently last time they had trouble with me breathing through the nasal mask while they were incubating me. This is normally done while under general anesthetic. Because of the trouble last time I got to be awake for the incubation tube this time. Being away for having a tube stuck into your lung is not a good feeling.

In other news it's less than a month before baby is born. Nursery is prepped and I've got my stroller ready to truck baby around. Super mega chicco stroller. We went and talked to the bike guy about a burly, think we are probably going to get a mid range one.

I'm finally settling down and getting some of my Ham Radio stuff working. I picked up an FT-767GX cheap with all the modules a while back as well as an Icom IC-28. I'm looking right now to mainly do some digital modes on 10 and 6 meter bands, probably PSK31. Eventually I might upgrade to general so I can do 30 meter digital modes. I've got 10 and 6 meter dipole antennas coming from Universal Radio. I like them because they support cats, not dumbly dogs. Plus they have good service and prices. I would have built an antenna myself but I don't have the time or space to be building antennas with a baby on the way. These will do for now to at least get me on the air for now, cheap.

Additionally I've got a Tigertronics Signalink USB on the way from DX Engineering. This will be connecting to a 1st gen Intel Mac mini I bought a while back for the shack. The Signalink is a bit more than a Rigblaster but it integrates with my software tools better near as I can tell, since it has a built in soundcard rather than pass through. Additionally the integrated soundcard means less cables for me to connect to the FT-767GX. I find myself liking tye 767, and Yaesu radios in general.

Thats all for now, I'll post again when I get my antennas up.

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