My friends and family know that we generally don’t watch TV, so I haven’t been too worried about the digital television conversion issue. Likewise it was no big deal when I heard that the DTV-to-analog rebate program was suspended due to depletion of funds. But now that they’ve got funding again, I figured I might as well take advantage of the $40 rebate.
I tried to apply via the TV converter box coupon program web site, but it kept throwing errors. The over-the-phone application worked fine. Our coupons are supposed to be in the mail on March 27. The recorded information says that mailing can take up to three weeks, but the program web site now claims to be using first class mail so it shouldn’t take that long.
I’m going to try and get an external antenna hooked up this month, so that’ll be ready when it’s time to buy/install the converter box.
I got my amateur radio (”ham”) license last week, but I haven’t posted my callsign very widely because I applied for a vanity callsign as soon as I got my license. (It isn’t possible to apply for a vanity call until one has been granted a license.) It usually takes 18-20 calendar days for a vanity callsign to be granted, so I expect to announce my new call on March 17.
I’m interested in finding other local hams, so I visited QRZ.com and pulled up “my” grid square, CM98ho. The grid doesn’t quite line up with my neighborhood boundaries, so I also needed to look at grid CM98hn for the southern section. The map shows about 20 markers (which may represent more than one person) in Arden Park:
To get to QRZ’s gridmap display, go to QRZ’s search page, enter “grid: CM98ho”, then click on one of the listed callsigns. If that person hasn’t restricted their information, click on the green bar that says “click for more detail”. A map will appear on the right. Click on the “Explore on GridMap” link below the map.
