Integrations & Improvements: Summer Technology Upgrades

If you're a regular reader of The Cubical Ruins, you'll notice a.) that I haven't posted in a while, and b.) that a few new widgets have popped up in the right-hand column of the site. While I haven't posted an article in a while, I have stayed busy.

My last article was on my new ADS-B flight-tracking setup with an antenna, FlightAware dongle, and Raspberry Pi single-board microcomputer. Since then, I've spent the summer working to improve my home office/radio station in other ways as well. I've added a dedicated LCD screen for my Inovato Quadra "HAM Clock," which provides helpful real-time data about when and where each region of the globe is active and able to be contacted from my station. I have updated the flight-tracking widget on CubicalRuins.com. I have set up a weather station outside and configured it to send weather data to my home network; additionally, I've added a widget with live weather data from my newly set-up weather station. And lastly, in what was probably my most challenging endeavor, I catalogued my entire baseball card collection in an SQL database, published the database online, and added a "Player of the Day" widget that features one card on CubicalRuins.com each day.

HAM Clock

HAM Clock on stand alone LCD display

The HAM Clock was probably the easiest project of the summer. I initially bought the Inovato Quadra, which runs HAM Clock, in 2023 when I first got my amateur radio license. I had it plugged into one of the auxiliary HDMI ports on my television so I could watch it on the TV like I would a Blu-ray player or game console. Once I discovered that cheap, bare-bones HD LCD screens exist after buying one for my ADS-B system, I purchased a Hosyond 10.1-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen monitor for my HAM Clock so it could exist as a stand-alone display above my radio rig, where it would be more useful. Plus, now I can watch TV and make use of my data while playing radio.

Flight-Tracking Widget

ADS-B widget

Around July, I noticed that my old "What's Up There?" widget had stopped displaying planes and flight data. This is where I had to put my software development and support hat on for the first time regarding one of my new "vibe coding" inventions. In real-world web development, ongoing maintenance is critical. It's not just about building an app and watching it go; it needs to be constantly monitored for glitches, bugs, and underlying system changes that can disrupt or break the application. For example, with CubicalRuins.com, I have to be on the lookout for news about changes, updates, and reported system issues with Squarespace (my hosting service) and Google, (my web editor and dashboard). If an upcoming change requires me to update a back-end service, security certificate, or API key, I need to make sure I complete those updates on time so my website stays available.

Initially, I used API keys from my FlightRadar24 and FlightAware accounts to provide the aircraft images and data on the widget. But in each case, those services cancelled their free API services, leaving my widget blank. An API key is a passcode that allows you to "fetch" live data from one system or website and publish it in real time on your own. API keys often start out free, especially if companies want to entice new customers to try out their services, but eventually—if the service is popular—they may move to a subscription model.

Using advice from ChatGPT, I set up a new widget with no API key. Instead of using a subscription service, ChatGPT suggested that I use an embedded map from Airplanes.live that requires no API key, so that's what I did. The new widget is not only more stable because it does not require an API key, but it genuinely looks nicer, too.

Here is the HTML code for CubicalRuins.com's new "What's Up There?" widget.

Live Weather Station Data

As you may have guessed, I'm a bit of a nerd for real-time data.
Between my UHF/VHF (regional) and HF (worldwide) radios, my police, fire, and EMS scanner, my ADS-B flight-tracking system, and HAM Clock display, I've got a lot of data and info streaming into my home office/radio station here in Ohio. And now, that includes live weather data.

My weather station

I recently invested in a two-piece weather station from Ambient Weather Network (AWN), which includes a heads-up display for inside, and a rig with temperature, pressure, humidity, wind, and rain sensors for outside. Not only does the station feed data to the heads-up display, but it also records and tracks it on the AWN app, along with data from other users who have AWN stations at home as well. So, you can get extremely accurate and local weather data from anywhere. In fact, the nearest national park, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, has dozens of AWN stations throughout it, so there are a lot of stations around me providing all kinds of weather, geological, and atmospheric data.

Since I now have digital weather data being sent to my AWN application, I knew I could export that data to other venues, such as an LCD screen (like my HAM Clock or flight-tracking systems), or send that information to my website. Since I already had a factory-made heads-up display for the weather in my house, I thought it would be neat to create my own API key to send my live weather station data to my public website. This way, visitors would know if it's raining or snowing on my head, or whether or not I have been sucked into the air by a tornado.

ChatGPT helped me log into the web version of AWN, access my raw weather data, and create an API key to send that data to third-party sites and apps. In this case, an API key made sense because it's not fetching data owned and collected by another company; it's using my own data. So, there would be no risk of the data stream going dark because the data provider cancels the service or raises the cost. As long as my weather station is up and running, the widget will work and be available to you for free!

Here is the HTML code for CubicalRuins.com's new Weather Station widget.

SQL Baseball Card Database

My Cards

This project had an interesting origin. At work, we are increasingly being asked to learn, use, and experiment with AI tools such as Claude by Anthropic. While I've already used Claude to answer technical questions, I never really used it to develop or enhance any software applications. I just didn't have any work-related projects I could think of using Claude for in my line of work. So, I decided to ask Claude to help me build an SQL database for all my baseball cards, many of which I've had since I was a kid in the late 1980s.

Once I built and stylized the main baseball card website, I created a widget for it right here on CubicalRuins.com. Using the same embed strategy I used for my new flight-tracker widget, I added a tile to the right with a random player or card featured from my collection. My baseball card spin-off is now live!

The project was also a refresher in SQL database architecture, as well as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML coding. So, while my baseball card library is just a personal hobby project, it definitely shows that I can utilize Claude for professional projects in the future. However, professional stuff is boring, so we'll continue to focus on sports, cat lasers, sci-fi horror films, video games, and HAM radio contests here on The Cubical Ruins "family" of websites. 

The baseball card database

Here is the GitHub repository for my baseball card database.

ADS-B flight tracking with Raspberry Pi, FlightAware, and ChatGPT

Friends of mine and readers of The Cubical Ruins will know that one of my interests is using software defined radio (SDR) to scan radio frequencies, connect to satellites and track flights. Back in the spring of 2024, I documented my first flight tracking system, which used an RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle to collect Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) data from aircraft overhead. It was a simple set-up that used RTL1090, PlanePlotter and Virtual Radar Server to show flight data, and an air traffic control (ATC) map on whichever laptop I had connected to my SDR dongle and antenna. It was a fun experiment in SDR applications and flight tracking, and I even took my system airborne, tracking flights on my ThinkPad when I traveled to Europe last spring. 

Flight Tracking at Charles de Gaulle Airport

However, that setup left a bit to be desired. For one, I only had one SDR dongle that could receive the radio data from 1090 MHz, so I could only run flight tracking on one device at a time. Additionally, that device only pulled data when powered on and the appropriate applications were running. This made it difficult to use my laptop for other things, since the tracking software always needed to run continuously in the background. Since, I typically power my device down while not in use, this pretty much made it impossible to to be an ADS-B client for FlightAware, FlightRadar24 or any other crowd-sourced flight tracking organizations, as my laptop was only actively tracking whenever I decided to open the laptop and look at it. 

What I needed was a stand-alone computer, SDR dongle and antenna that could be dedicated to flight tracking 24/7. Enter the Raspberry Pi 3B+, a tiny, inexpensive single-board computer that can run a variety Debian-Linux based operating systems on 32 and 64 bit architectures. To go with the Raspberry Pi, I also purchased a FlightAware Pro-Stick Plus, which is similar to the RTL-SDR Blog V4 dongle, except it is specifically designed to collect flight data, instead of all-purpose SDR data. Those two pieces of hardware, along with an antenna, power and USB cables, are really the only pieces of hardware necessary to set-up a stand-alone ADS-B client that works in perpetuity, rather than only when my laptop is in-use. With this setup, I could use any computer on my local network to retrieve the flight data, and view flights on a map by connecting to my Raspberry Pi's IP address. I even went a step further by adding two LCD displays, so I could check out overhead air traffic anytime at my desk or at the kitchen table.  

Raspberry Pi 3B+ running PiAware

In 2024, when I started my flight tracking hobby, I used The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR as well as online tutorials for set-up instructions, and GitHub to download and edit source code for applications like Dump1090 and RTL1090. This time, I would take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create and edit the code for my Raspberry Pi-based flight tracker. 

At first I wasn't sure my AI assistant, ChatGPT, GPT model 5.5, was up to the task. I typed "How do I setup ADS-B flight tracking on my Raspberry Pi 3B+?", and got fairly straight-forward step-by-step instructions for installing and running Dump1090, a popular data translator for ADS-B radio signals. I followed the instructions, but ultimately kept hitting various snags. However, I consistently reported each issue I ran into, and ChatGPT continued to troubleshoot. Our ultimate conclusion was the Raspberry Pi's newest 64 bit "Trixie" operating system was interfering with Dump1090 in some way. ChatGPT determined this by indexing web results and finding that other users had the same problem with Trixie. What ultimately solved the issue was re-flashing the Pi with the older, simpler 32-bit "Bookworm" operating system. This solved the main issue, and Dump1090 began running successfully bringing in raw flight data and displaying it in the SSH (secure shell) terminal.  

Still, each time I ran Dump1090, a new issue surfaced. It was mostly due to driver issues related to using the RTL-SDR Blog V4 as well as missing directory files. Ultimately data stopped coming through Dump 1090 entirely, and I only found out after using an alternate RTL-SDR V3 that my V4 had probably broken at some point during installation and testing. So, I ended up purchasing both a general purpose Nooelec "Nesdr Smart" SDR dongle as well as the FlightAware Pro-Stick Plus. In my experience both the Nooelec and FlightAware sticks worked more easily than the RTL-SDR Blog V4, and I no longer had to worry about updating or installing drivers and directory files to get them to work. Once Dump1090 was installed successfully on the Pi, the Nooelec and FlightAware sticks were plug-and-play! 

SDR sticks I used

The final step was to set-up a flight map to display on my household LCD screens, so I could look at my local overhead flights anytime I wanted. I used one Chinese-made iPistBit 7 inch LCD screen and connected it to my Raspberry Pi board with an HDMI cable. Once the operating system was visible on the LCD screen, I used an iPazzPort Bluetooth Keyboard and Trackpad to navigate to the Chromium browser, and connect to the PiAware URL provided by FlightAware to see my data converted to a map with images of all planes flying overhead in real time. I then cloned the same operating system, applications and settings onto a second Pi and connected it to the other LCD screen so I could have two displays, one for upstairs and downstairs. Additionally, any browser on any device connected to my home Wifi network will be able to pull up my PiAware URL and display the same maps and data. I included more comprehensive step-by-step instructions below, so you can follow my process, If you'd like... 

Building an ADS-B Flight Tracker with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ on Debian Bookworm

I recently built a working ADS-B aircraft tracker using a Raspberry Pi 3B+, a USB RTL-SDR receiver, and FlightAware’s PiAware software. After a few false starts with outdated repository links, I got the setup working on Raspberry Pi OS / Debian Bookworm.

This guide walks through the successful setup.

Hardware Used

For this project I used:

• Raspberry Pi 3B+

• MicroSD card with Raspberry Pi OS / Debian Bookworm

• RTL-SDR USB dongle

• 1090 MHz ADS-B antenna

• Internet connection

• SSH access or a keyboard and monitor connected to the Pi

Step 1: Confirm the OS Version

On the Raspberry Pi, open a terminal and run:

cat /etc/os-release

The successful setup was done on Bookworm. You should see something similar to:

PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"

Step 2: Update the Raspberry Pi

Before installing anything, update the system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

After the reboot, reconnect by SSH or open the terminal again.

Step 3: Install the FlightAware Repository

Download the current FlightAware APT repository package:

wget https://www.flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/files/

packages/pool/piaware/f/flightaware-apt-repository/

flightaware-apt-repository_1.3_all.deb

Install it:

sudo dpkg -i flightaware-apt-repository_1.3_all.deb

Then refresh the package list:

sudo apt update

This step is important. Earlier attempts using older package names failed with 404 errors or “file not found” messages. The key was using the current FlightAware repository package.

Step 4: Install PiAware

Install PiAware:

sudo apt install piaware -y

Then enable automatic and manual updates:

sudo piaware-config allow-auto-updates yes
sudo piaware-config allow-manual-updates yes

Step 5: Install dump1090-fa

PiAware sends data to FlightAware, but dump1090-fa is the software that actually receives and decodes 1090 MHz ADS-B signals from aircraft.

Install it with:

sudo apt install dump1090-fa -y

Then reboot:

sudo reboot

Step 6: Check That the RTL-SDR Dongle Is Detected

After rebooting, plug in the RTL-SDR dongle and run:

lsusb

You should see a device related to RTL-SDR, RTL2832U, Nooelec, or RTLSDR Blog, depending on your dongle.

You can also test with:

rtl_test

If you see a “device busy” error, that may actually mean dump1090-fa is already using the dongle, which is good. Only one program can use the SDR at a time.

Step 7: Check the Services

Run:

sudo systemctl status piaware
sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa

Both should show as active or running.

If needed, restart them:

sudo systemctl restart piaware
sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa

Step 8: Open the Local SkyAware Map

Find your Raspberry Pi’s IP address:

hostname -I

Then open this in a browser on the same network:

http://YOUR-PI-IP/skyaware/

For example:

http://XXX.XXX.X.XXX/skyaware/

If everything is working, the SkyAware map should load. Aircraft will appear when your antenna receives ADS-B messages from nearby planes.

Step 9: Claim the Receiver on FlightAware

After PiAware has been running for a few minutes, go to FlightAware’s ADS-B stats page and claim the receiver while logged into your FlightAware account.

Once claimed, FlightAware will associate your Raspberry Pi receiver with your account and begin showing site statistics.

Troubleshooting Notes

Problem: Old repository package gives a 404 error

If a command tries to download an older package such as:

piaware-repo_10_all.deb
piaware-repository_10_all.deb
piaware-repo_9.0_all.deb

and it fails, use the current flightaware-apt-repository_1.3_all.deb package instead.

Problem: “Unable to locate package piaware”

This usually means the FlightAware repository was not installed correctly, or sudo apt update was not run after installing it.

Fix:

sudo dpkg -i flightaware-apt-repository_1.3_all.deb
sudo apt update
sudo apt install piaware -y

Problem: “Device or resource busy”

This can happen when another service is already using the SDR dongle. Stop competing services if needed:

sudo systemctl stop fr24feed
sudo systemctl stop readsb
sudo systemctl stop piaware
sudo systemctl stop dump1090-fa

Then test the dongle again, or restart the FlightAware services:

sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa
sudo systemctl restart piaware

Problem: Map loads but no aircraft appear

This can happen if:

• No aircraft are nearby

• The antenna is indoors or poorly placed

• The SDR is not connected properly

• The antenna is not tuned for 1090 MHz

• dump1090-fa is not running

Check with:

sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa

Final Result

Once everything was installed correctly, the SkyAware map loaded and aircraft appeared on the local map. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ was successfully receiving ADS-B data through the RTL-SDR dongle and feeding the data to FlightAware through PiAware.

This turned the Raspberry Pi into a small, low-cost aircraft tracking station.

One of the most helpful steps ChatGPT included was the command code lines "sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa", which tested the Dump1090 software to make sure it was running, and "sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa" which would re-start tracking in case the process was stopped. 

Once my system was up and running, and I had my own personal ADS-B flight tracking system. I set-up a FlightAware account and linked my feed. So, now I am officially an ADS-B client for FlightAware, meaning my data is being used to fill in up-to-date flight data for thousands of users who use flight tracking apps worldwide. So, if you're ever tracking a flight over Northeast Ohio, it might be my system that is collecting information from that plane! 

If you're interested in reading more, check out my March 2024 article, "RTL-SDR: Home-Made Air Traffic Control" about my early ADS-B systems, and how I set them up. Additionally, check out The Cubical Ruins' new-and-improved "What's Up There?" flight tracking widget on the right. This will give you a live feed of the airplanes my system tracks daily. Just click any plane for it's callsign, avionics and flight data.   

QRP Antenna Build with Induction Coil

The great thing about being in a HAM radio club is that there is always a variety of new projects and ideas I get to think about each time I attend a club event. It genuinely widens the hobby until you realize the science behind radio waves is so vast that even a PhD in electromagnetic fields wouldn't be enough to cover it all. 

Although I had been spending most of this past winter focusing on work and other hobbies, such as 3D printing and hockey, I did win a set of supplies to build a new HAM radio antenna at one of our club's raffles. The set was simple enough: a compact, retractable HF antenna for the 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands. The antenna was "QRP," meaning it's meant to be used at lower power, prioritizing efficiency, saving battery power, and avoiding interference to other radio operators. 

QRP is also a type of contesting in amateur radio as well; like specializing in a certain event in track and field. QRP operators seek to operate at low powers, maximizing the benefits of antenna design and tuners, to reach longer distances. It's not only a challenge, but it mimics the real-life operating constraints a radio operator may face while working "in the wild" or in an emergency situation, where mobility is necessary, and power is scarce. 

The set I received seemed relatively simple. It consisted of an extendable whip antenna, a narrow PVC pipe, and about 240 feet of 1mm copper coil. The whip was a pretty standard piece -an antenna similar to the ones you'd find on a portable radio or a really old cell phone. The work was in winding the loading coil, which meant wrapping the copper wire around the pipe tightly 90 times, feeding it through the tube, and soldering it to the whip at the top and the "BNC" connector at the bottom. The BNC connector is a type of coaxial port that can connect your feed line to a transceiver. 

The wrapped wire acts as an inductor that creates a magnetic field. The field actually "lengthens" the antenna electronically. It allows the antenna to operate sufficiently at only a few feet, while a conventional full-wave antenna for the 40 meter band would need to be about 144 feet. 

If you compare the two static antennas I currently have for UHF/VHF and HF at my base station which both include more than 30 feet of antenna and feed line, this new QRP design should operate with a whip of only about 10 feet... and, that whip can be collapsed to something that can fit in or on a backpack. 

 

However, while the schematic was simple (like the diagram above), the construction was difficult for a first timer. First off, winding copper coil for an inductor is not easy, and takes a lot of patience. I actually wasted the wiring I got with my set by accidentally tangling it after it bounced off the PVC cylinder like a slinky (remember those!). That was my first lesson, make sure to use a set-up with clips, or even Scotch tape, to secure the coil. Then, carefully unwind the wire so no tangles or kinks get created. Eventually, I was able to use my own spare role of 1 mm copper wiring to create a new conductor on the PVC tube. Still, there were some kinks in my wiring, so I was a bit nervous about the results. 

Once I completed the induction coil, and attached the whip and BNC connector, I was pretty much done. All I did was add heat-shrink wrapping to weather-proof the antenna. 

At the end of the day, my little project was a success with some setbacks. At 40 meters (roughly 7.14 MHz), my NanoVNA network analyzer showed an SWR of less than 1.5 across the band. This was a great result. It showed that the length and dimensions of the induction coil and whip are perfect in this particular frequency range. However, I got inconsistent results for bands 20 meters and below. This could be due to kinks in my wiring, lack of protection from electronic interference in my feed line, or an inaccurate measurement of length and width of the conductor or thickness in the copper wiring. It could even mean a break somewhere in the line. Despite all this, my new antenna should work to contact individuals across the globe on 40 meters, a fairly popular HF band for amateurs. 

To compensate for high SWR on the other bands, I would likely need a tuner. 

While, I have the basic knowledge to build an antenna system for various radio frequencies, there is still a great deal I don't know. But, if you're more interested in the science of this antenna, there is a great Youtube video from The SmokinApe which goes through a similar project, and also provides an extraordinary measuring tool ,which can help wind an induction coil perfect for any wavelength you'd like to operate on.  

For me, This tutorial and measurement tool will be helpful in creating a new-and-improved version of the first design documented here.

The Movie, The Radio & Canada's Doomsday Station

Say you were on a remote science base, being attacked by a blood-thirsty alien, zombie, or alien-zombie. Wouldn't you want to have a realistic working radio to call for backup? Well according to most Hollywood directors, the answer is no...   

The Radio Room in the Diefenbunker, callsign VEC3CWM

As a HAM radio operator and certified movie buff, I'm often annoyed by the inaccuracies I find in films when it comes to radio communication. It's a bit pedantic, I know, but far too often the radio is simply a plot device, rather than a specific technology. Get on the radio, push the talk button, and say "come in x, over!"; take your store-bought walkie talkie, and call someone around the world (riiight). 

Possibly the worst example I saw was in the big budget Netflix thriller "Zero Day", where the bad guys used a "long range AM radio" to broadcast their secret plans. All the good guy needed to do was buy an AM receiver at the radio store, and the terrorists' plans were dashed. With a budget big enough to pay Jesse Plemons, Robert De Nero and Lizzy Caplan, I wish the producers would've spent an hour reading about HF radio, given that it was so integral to the plot (which also left a lot to be desired). But I digress, not every movie can be a Five-Popcorn Bag hit and get the finer technical details correct. 

But, I did find a good, accurate depiction of a radio room in the 2024 sci-fi horror film "Blood and Snow." While the film itself is just a low-budget slasher, very similar to John Carpenter's 1986 cult classic, "The Thing", Blood and Snow featured a remarkably accurate radio room set. In fact, the radio room scenes weren't filmed on a set at all. They were filmed in the actual, operational communications room of the "Diefenbunker," or Canadian Forces Station Carp, the Canadian government's old nuclear doomsday shelter, similar to the United States' Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

Blood and Snow mostly takes place in a remote arctic base in far northern Canada, where a member of the crew is infected by an alien pathogen, and starts killing the rest of the cast. (Just like in The Thing...) However, the radio room caught my attention. The radio looked to be an actual Yaesu HF base station, and shots of the desks show real user manuals for Yaesu radios. Yaesu is one of the most recognizable brands in radio, so seeing an actual HF radio, and not just a prop with random knobs and buttons was refreshing. Additionally, I noticed a Canadian amateur radio callsign in the room, VEC3CWM. 

Blood and Snow Poster

Of course, as a HAM, I immediately had to pause the film and look up the callsign. As it turns out, VEC3CWM is a vanity callsign belonging to Canada's Cold War museum, and former home of the "Diefenbunker", in Carp, Ontario just north of Ottawa. The Diefenbunker was once the emergency headquarters for Canada's government, an underground complex meant to be used in the event of nuclear war. It was dubbed "Diefenbunker" because it was Prime Minister John Diefenbaker who authorized it's construction in 1957. 

The Deifenbunker was operational from 1961 to 1994 when it was decommissioned. During that time it was heavily-guarded and shrouded in secrecy and myth -sort of like the the States' Area 51, or various cold war missile and fallout bases. In 1994, it was opened to the public as a museum. One neat exhibit of The Cold War museum in Carp is the radio room. It's an operational radio room with both modern equipment as well as working antique period-specific radio equipment used throughout Deifenbunker's operational lifespan. The station is designated callsign VEC3CWM, CMW standing for "Cold War Museum." The Diefenbunker Amateur Radio Club (DARC) operates the station, so it's still possible for licensed amateurs to make contact with the Deifenbunker using the HF bands. Like any amateur radio station in someones home or at a club site, it also serves as a possible hub for emergency communication if traditional landline, cellular, or Internet services are compromised due to natural disaster.  Plus, it provides a neat opportunity for guests to see a real HF radio rig in action. 

An underground tunnel in Canada's "Diefenbunker"

Because Canada has so much remote wilderness, amateur radio is not only a popular hobby but a necessary method of communication. Stations like VEC3CWM act as a critical back-up when other communication mediums are unavailable. And, just like in the States', Canada has an Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), a network of amateur volunteer operators who practice regularly, and activate during emergencies to relay communications between citizens and government services. Due to the remoteness of Canada's geography, some of the population still does not have access to high-speed Internet, and while the Government is making a significant investment to providing Internet to everyone, they don't expect 100 percent coverage until at least 2030. So, along with non-traditional communications like satellite Internet, radio remains an important method for keeping rural towns, Indigenous communities, commercial installations, and research stations in Canada connected. 

So, while the characters in Blood and Snow were trying desperately to make an emergency call from their command center (while getting hunted down by a killer alien), the actors were actually just in an educational museum exhibit, and amateur radio club site. They didn't really even make an attempt to spice it up with extra props! They just filmed those scenes at the museum as is, which I thought was funny.  

So, what could've been a forgettable movie, turned out to be memorable for me due to the unique nature of the filming location. 

If I ever visit the Cold War Museum in Carp, or make a QSO with VEC3CWM, I can say it was because I was bored over Winter break and watched Blood and Snow, directed by Jesse Palangio and starring Anne-Carolyne Binette, Michael Swatton and Vernon Wells.  

Pelangio, Jesse. Blood and Snow, Department M Productions, Los, Angeles California. 2024.

The Edmund Fitzgerald: A True Story about Mortality and Mother Nature.

Lake Michigan, on a cold November morning.

I once had a friend from another country who looked upon Lake Michigan, and said "That's not a Lake, it's a Sea!". 

Of course, they were right! People of the Great Lakes region already know that. Everyone from Minnesota to Montreal knows that. 

We love our fresh-water Seas, and most of the time, those Seas love us back. 

From beaches on the metropolitan skylines of Toronto and Chicago, to fishing off of Little Bailey's Harbor on the finger-tip of Wisconsin, the Lakes are a gift from Mother Nature to us. 

From fishing, casual boating, swimming, and importantly transportation, the Lakes bring us not only joy, but wealth. The Midwestern United States, and its neighbors in Canada, would not have been able to build the great industrial society we live in today if it were not for the Lakes. Freighters from all corners of the Midwest, forged by the best ship-builders, and manned by the toughest of men and women, moved taconite (commonly known as iron ore), grains, and other raw materials across the Lakes commercially. And they still do this for us today. Regardless of where you live in the world, it's very possible that you've eaten bread sourced from grain that once traveled on a Great Lakes freighter, or used a tool or item made with steel forged from the taconite that those freighters shipped. 

Taconite documented with other samples of materials shipped on The Great Lakes

Even, all-the-way in Hamburg, Germany, they have an exhibit commemorating the famous ships and crews of the Great Lakes at the International Maritime Museum.  

Models of Great Lakes ships in Hamburg

But, no matter how much ingenuity and technology we humble humans invest into our endeavors, Mother Nature reminds us that it can all be gone in an instant. In Ohio, we have tornadoes that can rip though a small town in seconds. Along the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, rivers can flood and destroy entire communities. In California, an earthquake can hit at any time and create unimaginable terror an chaos.      

And on a windy November evening in 1975, a similar natural disaster struck the SS Edmund Fitzgerald as it was on a routine journey to move taconite from from a supplier in Superior, Wisconsin to Detroit.

In a cold windstorm, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in heavy waves along with all 29 men on her crew. 

The story was big at the time. In 1975, we had modern Radar, and ways to predict weather. Not only that, no one expected for anything terrible to happen to such a big vessel on such a small fresh-water Lake.

Even, the Edmund Fitzgerald itself was a bit of a local celebrity. It was the largest ship on the Great Lakes when it launched, and people would bring their kids to the ports of Duluth and Superior just to see giant ships like her enter and exist. 

The late Captain of the Fitzgerald, Ernest M. McSorley, was known for delighting the small crowds by honking the ship's horn, and waving a friendly "Ahoy!" to everyone who stopped to watch the great ship pull into port. 

There's a famous song about what happened after that Gargantuan, modern, metal-hauling ship set sail for the last time. Many of us remember the lyrics by heart... 

But, Mother Nature and the Great Lakes humbled all of our ingenuity and technology. 

The winds of Lake Superior created waves strong enough to flood and sink that ship. As Gordon Lightfoot sang in his famous song, "The Gales of November Came Early." And the The Edmund Fitzgerald, and her 29-man crew were doomed. 

I was not alive to remember the actual ship's sinking. 

I was born more than a decade later. But, even I knew about that horrible disaster. To this day, it lives on in memory and song. 

To me, the story of the Edmond Fitzgerald is a story about both the labor and the hard-work that workers do, and the risks they take each day when they go to work. 

It is also a story about the fury of Mother Nature. 

The 29 sailors on that ship may not have known it, but they risked life and limb everyday, for nothing but a humble wage... just enough to feed the family, and keep a house over their head. If they were feeling sick or depressed, they didn't call-off work, they boarded the ship just the same. Because, at that time, that was what was expected of them. 

But, no one expected them to drown in the freezing ice-cold seas of Lake Superior. No one expected that Wives, Sons, and Daughters would have to hear from the US Coast Guard that their loved-one is not only, not coming home, but has perished in a terrible storm. 

That portion of the story speaks of not only the sailors, but also the truck drivers, machine workers, warehouse workers and constructions workers, etc. who on every continent, and take risks every day to bring home a tiny, rice-grain, fraction, of what billionaires hoard for themselves every minute. At any point, at anytime, a work accident can happen, and a life could be erased from this earth- at no fault of the worker. 

One day you're here, the next day you're gone.  

The story of Mother Nature is much simpler. AT BEST, we humble humans can prepare for or avoid Mother Nature. But we cannot defeat her. 

When the winds blow, and the rivers rise, it's best to just get out of her way. We have a beautiful planet, with fresh water-lakes, seas trees, and animals... but it's important to realize that a hurricane, tornado, earthquake or cold November storm is always on the horizon. We need educated, trained, professionals to keep us safe. And, to help navigate us safely into port. But even the most experienced navigator knows, Mother Nature can strike at any time.   

Captain Paul Berger and Relief Captain Vince Hagman command a ship similar to the Edmond Fitzgerald (Photo credit to GreatLakesNow.org).

Around this time of year, I listen to Gordon Lightfoot's famous song about the Edmond Fitzgerald. And, it's both beautiful and sad. 

It's sometimes important to reflect on sad things. 

I suppose it's why I hum Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" at this time of year. 

It's not just a tragedy, but a true story about 29 talented, hard-working men, that made an honest day's wage, and also made little kids happy when they sounded their great ship's horn in little Lake towns like Cleveland, Conneaut, and Erie.

There is not one single memorial or fund to honor the SS Endumd Fitzgerald and her crew. But if you're moved enough to look into the story, and learn about the ship and it's crew, visit WashburnHeritage.org.    

A full list of the crew can be found here.               

The Joys of the Library

The idea of a "library" may conjure images of dusty bookshelves, and a mean old lady yelling at you to "Be Quiet" just for opening up a gum wrapper. But I feel like the local library may have gotten a bad-wrap ;), so to speak...

Libraries are excellent places these days!  

I don't think of libraries like that anymore. 

Libraries are fundamentally a place where I get to do work (in my own quiet space), and hook up to the Internet for free! But not only that, Libraries are where you can solve mysteries, explore far-fetched philosophies, and even be a space cadet. Some Libraries even have padded rooms where you can practice a musical instrument, without hurting your neighbors' ears. 

The Joseph Regenstein Library

Let's start with the basics. Libraries are by-and-large designed as a place to solve mysteries. Do you need to write a book report on ancient Egypt? Do you need to learn how "Amyloid plaques" impact elderly people who may be susceptible to Alzheimer's disease? The Library is your place! 

Even the smallest library, in a small town, is probably networked with other libraries nearby. So whatever mystery you're solving, the good librarians at your local locations should be able to order in a book or a document that covers everything you need to you know. 

Some older Libraries are beautifully designed. Even if you don't need to solve a mystery, they are beautiful places to explore, or just eat your lunch in!

On my lunches, at the prestigious University of Chicago, I'd often visit the Regenstein Library just to walk around. And I eventually found the Regenstein Library to be just the place to explore far-fetched philosophies! 

My eccentric girlfriend (at-the-time) recommended Georges Bataille's "The Accursed Share Vol. 1". Well that was a weird and wonderful French Language, philosophy book... But, I wanted the sequel, "Volume 2". But, even on Amazon, Volume 2, was like $50.00... That was a bit too much.

But, The Regenstein Library at the prestigious University of Chicago had it. I even got to find it in the stacks. It was pretty fun, searching that library. I got to search many floors, and many selves, and feel like a real philosopher while I was doing it.  

The Kent Free Library

And lastly, a Library is a place where you can be an honest-to-god Space Cadet! I remember being a kid dressed up in a full-blown Star Trek outfit. I was an Ensign, in the Engineering Division, on a Star Fleet Space Ship! 

I never had more fun in my life! 

We even made protector-boxes, to protect eggs, while we threw them off a ledge...

All of the eggs stayed safe. Because we were doing an experiment, and we were very experienced Star Fleet Space Cadets. We knew how to protect those eggs from a fall.

And that was all thanks to the wonderful people at the Kent Free Library.