For those of you who have a Tivo, and also have a Sony AV Receiver model STR-DE597 this is for you. You may have noticed that none of the Tivo provided remote codes are able to control the volume on your Sony STR-DE597. Of course there is a trick. It is possible (and easy!)
On the Sony AVR Receiver model STR-DE597- the command mode must be changed on the receiver to AV1. The receiver and the remote are factory set to AV2. Unfortunately, the Sony remote can not speak AV1. The side effect of this change will make the receiver not listen to the original Sony remote anymore. No big deal, you can always swap this back if you really need some special function on the remote, even temporarily. But the good news is that after you do this, your regular Tivo remote will be able to control the volume & mute on that Sony Audio Video Receiver.
How To Change The Receiver To AV1 And then use a preset code from a universal remote.
1. On the Sony STR-DE597 receiver press I/O to turn the power OFF.
2. Then on the receiver hold down ENTER and press I/O this will switch Receiver to Av1.
That’s the whole trick! You can now use your Tivo remote or universal remote to adjust the receiver’s volume.
If you need/want to change this back, just repeat to toggle between the AV1 and AV2 command sets.
Note: Other Sony AV receivers may have a different but similar trick. On some you substitute the “input Mode” button for the “Enter” button mentioned above. Some other universal remotes may use code 1058 instead of 1059 to control this Sony after switching it to AV1. Or you can use a learning remote instead.
To program the Tivo remote to control your Sony receiver:
1. Press the Tivo button and the mute button at the same time for 5 seconds, until the red light on the remote stays lit.
2. On the Tivo remote, enter the code for your device.
For the Sony STR-DE597 code 1059 worked for me.
Wait a couple of seconds for the remote to stop flashing, then
3. try the volume up/down buttons, and mute. With any luck, you’re in charge!
Did you ever have a problem entering a password, then find your CapsLock key was on?
How about a problem because you accidentally hit ‘caps lock’ instead of ‘a’ or ’shift’ and now you’re accidentally SHOUTING? Do you ever intentionally use the Caps Lock? No? You probably use the ’shift’ key, like most people.
I used to accidentally hit that pesky Caps Lock key frequently… until I disabled it! Here is how you can too.
How To Disable that pesky Caps Lock key in Mac OS X Leopard
(you know you don’t need it!)
Go into System Preferences,
-> Keyboard & Mouse,
-> and push the button for “Modifier Keys…”
Then choose “No Action” for the Caps Lock Key.
And OK.
Ok, all set. Now there is one less problem in your world!
The old factory speakers in my Jeep were sounding terrible. I mean so bad that even audio-books had become no fun to listen to anymore. At first I thought it was just a bad recording and the Jeep is after all, a rather noisy vehicle. But it was getting very difficult to make out the words.
One day I took screwdriver in hand and pulled a speaker out from the dashboard. Ah ha! The foam surround was all torn around the edges. Yup! That really sounds terrible.
After extensive research, reading customer reviews, & shopping around, I decided to buy Polk Audio speakers for front & back of my Jeep. Jeeps are one of the few applications for a 4×6 speaker, but those are available, even if most will need an adapter bracket to fit a Jeep dashboard. The Polk db461p front speakers I chose are “plate” which does not mean there is a thick metal plate backing, but there is a thick plastic plate which is fine. I selected 5 1/4″ polk db521 which fit perfectly in the roll bar.
Crutchfield has a pretty good deal, and also important, they include everything you need to do the install easily. That means special adapter brackets, screws, and wires with the Chrysler factory connectors on one end, and the regular speaker connectors on the other end. As easy as it gets!
But the Polk Audio speakers I selected (suitable for marine use) came to $189 total. After hours of searching, I was able to find them a little cheaper elsewhere, but without all the extras that will make the install go easily & quickly. Given the choice, I’d rather not invent an adapter bracket, nor buy from an unknown online store. As I was going through all the motions of buying these on the Crutchfield website – to see what tax & shipping would be (zero and zero), a box for entering a coupon code appeared. Hmmm! …
After some banging around I discovered that my Discover card has some reward dollars built up, and it’s possible to really leverage that by spending the Discover Card rewards on Crutchfield gift certificates. Actually those gift certs are really just long numbers, but they work and you can spend them immediately. DiscoverCard sells the $50 gift certs for $40 of rewards $ (That’s $10 discount on each), and the $25’s for $20. I bought 3 of the $50 gift certificates and one $25 gift cert at the DiscoverCard website. I used all 4 on a single Crutchfield order ($175 in gift certs) saving $35 off my order in the process. Remember these discount gift certificates were bought with DiscoverRewards, not my cash. I had to add just $15 of “real money” to complete the order. What a win!!
So I got the speakers I wanted, from the store I wanted to buy from, including all the adapter brackets, and easy plug in wire adapters, saved $35, spent $175 of Discover Card rewards that I got for free, and only spent $15 out of pocket! Now that’s smart shopping!!! And I am Happy about it!
Epilogue:
I received the speakers in a few days. The install went really easily. About 10 minutes*. 6 screws for each front speaker, and 4 for each rear speaker. The adapter brackets for the front were essential. The back (roll bar) speakers popped in without any trouble at all. Perfect fit. Crutchfield included the wire adapters so there was no soldering, no twisting & no taping of wires – just plug ‘em in. E.A.S.Y. !
*About the only difficulty I had – and it was no big deal really, was that the adapter brackets came with sheet metal screws which were just a hair too big for the holes drilled in the bracket. It was very hard to screw them in to attach the speaker to the bracket. The really scary part of this is that I was afraid that while I was torquing so hard on the screwdriver, It would slip & ruin my new speaks. augh! So I removed the screws I had already screwed in, took the speakers off the brackets, and marked which bracket holes matched the speaker screw holes. I left the speakers in the house (where they would be safe from slipped screwdrivers) and put the adapter bracket in the shop vise. There it was easy to apply more twisting force to the screws and pre-run them through their holes. No problem. Hooray for tools. Ok, now they fit, and will screw in more easily. No so risky anymore. Whew! Ok, so then I assembled the speakers to the brackets, and then everything dropped into place for that 10 minute installation I told you about.
How do I like these speakers?
Well there is no doubt that they are far superior to the old torn factory speakers they replaced. No doubt at all. They are also far better then the factory speakers were when they were new. I am now enjoying listing to my car stereo again, and I hear a lot more “stuff” in the mix than I used to. Music is fun again, and spoken words are clearly understandable. So it is really worth it. I should have replaced these things a long time ago. These speakers have good sound. Some people will say that no 5″ speaker can produce great bass, so they recommend a sub-woofer. I’m sure that for them, that is true. For me, with old factory speakers as my frame of reference, these new speakers do have bass, and more than I am used to. The highs & mids are clear as well. When I turn up the volume it sounds better if I turn off the “loudness” button, which makes sense. But if you’re expecting a lot of bass, you may want to add a subwoofer. And did I mention that I am happy with them? I did? Oh good.
If you are in the market for car stereo, speakers, home audio gear, GPS, or anything similar, definitely check out the Crutchfield website. They are good and make things as easy as possible. And here is a coupon code for you to save $20 off your Crutchfield order (if over $200). pszad-16hiy-d2suj You’re welcome! Don’t forget to use the discounted gift certificate trick if you can.
If you don’t already have a rewards card such as a DiscoverCard you are missing out on FREE MONEY. (Just make sure to pay it in full monthly, or you’ll lose any advantage).
If you get a lot of “list mail” or “eGroup” mail, and it’s cluttering up your email InBox, you might like to know how to have those group emails sort themselves into a folder so you can look at them when you’re ready, after reading the jokes & virus warnings your friends and family send you. Here’s how for Apple Mail, other email programs are similar.
How to Automatically file your eGroup email messages with Apple Mail
If you are a member of one or more eGroups, or “mailing lists”, you may have wished that your email “InBox” wouldn’t get so clogged up with these group messages. You may wish to not see them right now, or wish to see them all together later. Some people are organized enough that they make a new folder in their email application and drag the group emails into it to keep things organized. That’s a great idea, but it takes time and life would be simpler if this was automatic. Here’s how to do it in Apple Mail for OSX 10.3, but other versions are pretty much the same.
This is what our “InBox” looks like before we get started. Note that the Group messages are mixed in with the other inbox mail.
In Apple Mail, what we are going to do is called making a “Mail Rule“, it may be called something else in other programs. But first, let’s make a folder to store our eGroup mails.
Pull the File menu to “New“, then to “Folder“.
Or press command shift n
Or command click (right click) the mouse in the folders area.
Give the folder a descriptive name. The eGroup name is probably a good choice.
Pull the “Mail” menu to “Preferences, then Click “Rules” in the toolbar, then click “Add Rule”
In the Rules Window, click the button for “Add Rule”.
Give the Rule a good name, and set it for “Any recipient” contains the group email address to perform the Action of “move message” to the mailbox (or folder, actually) that we want to keep the group messages in.
Ok, so if we got everything right, all future eGroup messages with a “To” address that matches our criteria ought to be automatically filed in the right folder.
But what about all the messages that are already cluttering our email InBox? Let’s get those old Group messages into the Group folder right now as well.
Click into the “In Box” and select all messages. You may need to click one message, then choose “Select All” from the Edit menu.
Then, Pull the Message Menu to “Apply Rules“.
Pow! All the Group messages are now in their own folder. From now on, they will jump in there themselves.
Notice that when you have new, unread mail in a folder, the folder is BOLD, so you can easily tell without even having to open it.
I participated in Field Day 2009 at PV High School with the Palos Verdes ham club. K6PV is the club call sign.
PVARC is based in southern Calif, a bit south west of Los Angeles. I’m a first year member and this was my first time participating in Field Day. As I understand Field Day, the basic idea is two things;
1) As an outreach to show the public what ham radio can do, and try to get more people informed & involved.
2) A contest to see who can contact more ham operators on the radio in a 24 hour period. Extra points are awarded for using alternate power, solar, & Morse code, among other things.
And I guess 3) is to have a great excuse to set up a remote radio station away from the comfort of your home “radio shack”. That takes some extra gear & proves that you are ready to deploy. Practice is good.
The Field Day event went from 11am Saturday to 11am Sunday. Radios were running all night.
When I arrived 5pm Saturday the 3 stations were fully set up with portable antenna towers, generators, tables, shade tents, and of course desktop 2 way radios. The radios used are called “HF” radios, meaning High Frequency. Ironically these days HF is the lower frequencies because since radio was invented there have been a lot of new discoveries, including Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF).
It was really interesting seeing Morse code being sent & received. I had never seen that done in person. Dan Colburn W6DC speaks fluent Morse code. He uses 2 paddles to send the code. One paddle makes a short “dit” and the other paddle makes a longer “dah”. I got a chance to do some logging for him while he operated the key. At one point he was tapping out a message, and then he listened & laughed. I heard nothing but beeps, but he heard something funny! I found that amusing. Dan has a real style in the way he sends out those beeps. As he taps the paddles, he throws in a flourish every now & then, sort of like a guitarist does. All part of the language!
The radio I used was a Kenwood TS-440s if I remember correctly. The other popular HF radio used at the other 2 stations at this location is the Yaesu FT-897. The antenna was mounted on a pole on top of the Football stadium press box. So it was probably about 3 stories off the ground. It looked something like a old TV antenna but bigger. That radio puts out 100 watts which (compared to a light bulb) didn’t sound like a lot, until I realized that with a good antenna, 100 watts can easily reach across the whole USA. From southern California, I was talking to guys & gals in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Nevada, Ohio, and even just the next county over. This was on the 20 meter band which is around 14 Mhz. We were using SSB Side Bands and specifically the USB Upper Side Band. Anyway, it was working really well. I was seriously amazed to find hundreds, even thousands of people on the radio that night. I had no idea! Maybe this is because it’s a VBD (Very Big Day) for hams worldwide, or maybe there is always a lot of traffic on HF. By the end of my shift we had contacted something like 370 different stations by voice in the USA and Canada. The CW Morse code guys were doing pretty well too.
My (limited) ham radio experience has been with 2 meter & 440 bands, and they are often empty when I am listening. So this huge crowd came as a big surprise to me.
You don’t have to be a great conversationalist to be a ham radio operator. Keeping in mind that this was basically my first time operating a HF ham station – The rap goes something like this;
me: CQ, CQ Field Day, this is King 6 Papa Victor, CQ Field day.
them: K6PV, this is W2IQ we are 3 Alpha, Eastern Pennsylvania.
me: Thanks W2IQ, this is K6PV, we are 2 Alpha Los Angeles, two Alpha Lima Alpha X-ray.
them: Thank you and enjoy the contest.
me: Thanks and 73s to you. This is K6PV.
What it means is; CQ – sort of like saying “Seek you” as in I’m looking for you, please answer. I think that is an abbreviation from Morse code – those guys are the kings of abbrs. Saying “CQ Field day” is inviting everyone to respond to you on this special event. King 6 Papa Victor is saying words to make it easier to understand the call sign in this case, K6PV made easier to understand over a static-y connection by saying King 6 Papa Victor.
Anyway, hopefully someone answers you, and they say your call sign so you know they are talking to you, their call sign followed by their class & section. Our stations is 2ALAX which translates to we have 2 stations transmitting less than 200 watts of output power, and we are in the LAX section. Most states are 1 section so you just use the state abbr, but Calif is several sections. New York is 3 sections. Pennsylvania is 2 sections.
Anyway, you write down these bits of information on your log, or in a computer logging program. That is how the score is recorded. The logging program can also build a map of all the states (sections) you have contacted during this event. That is fun. I was amazed at how the map fills in!
Things to bring to a Field Day: Flashlight, table lamp, jacket, food, water or drinks, paper pad, Band plan guide so you don’t accidentally tune to a wrong freq. Also some sort of handout for the visitors. Even a business card size would be fine. The handout should contain info about your club including: Website URL, Club meeting schedule, Weekly net schedule & freq, and a mention to contact us or check our website about classes to get your ham license.
I took a few photos. If you took photos too, I’m happy to post them here or link to them elsewhere. Let me know by email or in the comments below. Here is a link to the PVARC club photos.
To see the photos as a slide show, click “View with PicLens” (plugin may be required- it is ok to download this) then just use your down arrow to advance to the next photo. The “X” in the top corner will return you to normal computer operation. Or press the esc key a couple of times. Or just click each photo to see it bigger, then click again to return to this page. This is only the 2nd time I have tried this photo thing in WordPress, so I’m just learning it.
My elbows, knees, wrists, shoulders & back were hurting on a daily basis. Carrying anything was becoming a problem. I didn’t understand why I was feeling so weak, old, and full of pain. No good! The chiropractor explained to me that my body was no longer producing enough cartilage, that natural teflon-like stuff that lubricates joints. So my joints were rough inside & grating together like rough concrete instead of gliding smoothly as they are supposed to. He recommended that I start taking a joint support supplement. I asked a lot of questions, and here’s what I learned.
There are 3 Joint support supplements; Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and MSM. As it turns out most people can digest one or two of these, but not all three. Which ones are digestible is different for different people. The easiest way to make sure you get it right is to take all 3, and one will just pass through harmlessly while the other 2 are digested and made use of.
You may also find that a fourth item can be very helpful too. Hyaluronic acid works by drawing more water into those dried out joints, so you’ll need to drink water to support that.
Hyaluronic Joint Complex, with Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM
The appropriate dose depends on the person. something between 600- 2000 mg of the 3 cartilage-builders per day. I was told to take double whatever the label says for the first month. This helps get started when you are low on these important building materials. If you can, it is best to spread the consumption over the course of the day, so it can be absorbed well. If you are like me, this is difficult to remember so you might want to get the time-release pills so that happens automatically even if you just take them once daily.
You don’t have to suffer, and you don’t have to spend tons of money to feel well. These helpful supplest and more are available to you. A good Extra-Strength supplement is this one.
Extra Strength Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM
If you don’t like taking pills, get the drinkable liquid!
Wellesse Joint Movement Glucosamine with Chondroitin + MSM, Natural Berry Flavor
One of the tastiest ways to drink your way to joint health is these cans of Joint juice. I discovered these when I visited another office and was offered a Joint juice. It was tasty.
March 19th, 2009 Paul & I helped support the Baker to Vegas marathon with radio communications (official race site). We drove 8 hours from LA through Baker, to Las Vegas to arrive at our station 17 by 6pm. Our duty is scheduled for 11pm to 7am. That’s when the runners are expected to pass our station. Paul & I worked the “Early Warning 1 mile out” station. Our job is to give the station advance notice of which runners are approaching so the next runner on that team can be in position, ready to grab the baton & get running down the road. Neither of us had done anything like this before.
We found our Station 17, actually they call it a “stage” but whatever. And set up camp next to the highway.
I had been told that we would need to be right on the edge of the highway so we could see the runners. Our job is to write down the runner’s number on the clipboard with the time they passed by. Then radio that info to the radio operator at the stage, where they announce it over a loudspeaker so the next runner for each team can get ready to grab the baton and go.
At first I was using my handheld ham radio, but due to a slight hill between our One Mile Out stage and the stage, the little radio was not doing as well as you might hope. Sure 5 watts can easily go 1 mile, or even 90 miles, but the earth itself was in the way and the signal was not making it very well. So Paul grabbed his uninstalled mobile radio, a Yaesu 8800r and connected it to power in the TearDrop trailer galley, and to his mobile antenna on the Jeep. It’s funny, Paul & I are both so new at this ham thing, that neither of us have mobile radios actually installed in our vehicles, but we both have gotten as far as mounting an antenna. Anyway, the bigger antenna did the trick, and now we were not in any danger of using up the battery in the little Kenwood TH-F6A.
So eventually 11pm rolled around and so did the runners. There was something like 240 teams of runners with like 20 or more people per team. Plus at least 2 support cars for each. A car will creep along to follow each runner for the entire race. Anyway I was told that this race brings somewhere between 30,000 and 65,000 people to this desert area. That’s including all the support people, runners, ham radio operators, spectators, officials, and all that.
It was easy at first because the early runner were spaced out with 10 or 20 minutes between them. But soon enough the runners were coming in clusters of several and only a minute or 3 between them. That reminds me of the guy who said his new work hours are half as many. Yeah, he gets every other minute off. It was like that! We had to really hustle to log all the runners, and also transmit all the info to the stage operator. Paul stayed right on the edge of the road so he could get a good look at the runner numbers. Due in part to the car headlights, we soon discovered that it is a lot easier to see the number on the back of the runners than their front, and also noticed that each chase car has the number displayed on all 4 sides. Even easier to see.
It did get pretty cold, and we had to stay outdoors to do our jobs. I wore my Mad Bomber hat, which is the warmest hat I have ever owned. Highly recommended! A blanket on the camp chair helped keep it a little bit warmer for those few minutes I got to actually sit down. I taped a battery powered LED gooseneck lamp to a spring clip clipped to my clipboard. That was a good idea & I’d do that again, It is SO much easier when you can see what you are writing!
Some of the chase cars showed a really huge amount of support, with encouraging things being hollered out, and upbeat music blasting. Every runner going by wanted to know how much farther they had to run. All seemed relieved that it was only 1 more mile. We talked to almost every runner & almost every chase car, so figure about 480 quick chats that night!
The Stage 17 ham operator was Frank Shannon KR6AL, who is so professional, pleasant, and good humored that I really enjoyed the assignment.
He was great about gently helping me to be a better radio operator in a super nice way. Like just repeating back to me what I said, but saying it correctly. I got the idea right away. Simple stuff, like using 24 hour time, and saying the other guy’s call sign first, then mine. We worked the radio back and forth every few minutes all night. We had fun with it, I would say I had a little story to tell about runner number 387 who passed by the 1 mile out post at 02:35 am. Anyway, it was more fun than it could have been if we were totally serious.
When we turned in our paperwork to stage 17 HQ a few minutes after 7am, Matthew told me that people were really impressed with the professionalism of our radio communications. At first I thought he was kidding, because I am so new at ham radio, and we were kidding around on the radio a lot. But, no, he was not kidding, it turns out that we were doing such a good job that someone amplified our radio traffic so they could hear it all over stage 17. That was helpful to all involved. And we did get several compliments from people who worked various jobs at the stage. That was great to hear positive feedback about my volunteer work, because otherwise I would not have known. Unfortunately our stage leader was having a tantrum over who knows what, and apparently he did not have anything nice to say to anybody. But I was told by a few people there that I was lucky to be a mile away. Everybody else was very pleasant and nice to work with the entire time.
After our duties were complete about 7:45am, we “camped” at the trail head parking lot across from our post. The lot was empty when we got there, but almost full when we woke up 4 hours later for the long drive home!
Overall working the B2V Baker to Vegas Marathon was fun. Check out the photos.
In Apple Mail, what we are going to do is called making a “Mail Rule“, it may be called something else in other programs. But first, let’s make a folder to store our eGroup mails.
