Talkin' Radio

Well dear readers, I set out to put together my Wildfire Toolbox on Saturday, and despite my best intentions I got sidetracked listening to the radio traffic from the Robbers Fire over the internet. I'd totally forgotten that almost all Public Service radio services are now streamed online somewhere!

So bear with me, I'll get her done before Fire Season ends!

By all early indications, Fire Season 2012 is gonna be a rough one. Two seasons ago I wrote about Wet Winters and Summer Fire Seasons: "Monday Extra: Fire Weather Redux". With last Winter's wimpy water production, we're surely looking at the flip side of the fire season coin.

We certainly seem to be coming into the meat of fire season earlier that usual...though it could be that in the Twitter Age more news reaches us faster depending on our interests and how well tailored one's Twitter "follow list" is. Still there's an awful lot of fires in California and The West right now. I've already heard the "extreme fire behavior" meme from the fires near Reno, NV and from the Waldo Canyon Fire outside of Colorado Springs, CO

So what's the best way to keep abreast of Fire News and information in your area? In a word, Radio. I've been a radio junkie since I can remember. Born in the early 50s, radio was my information superhighway growing up. My love of baseball can be tied directly to radio, because in those days one listened to the game...televised baseball was rare until World Series time.

Growing up a San Francisco Giants fan I was blessed to listen to the best announcing team in the business, Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons. Does "Tell it Bye Bye Baby!" ring a bell? That was Russ Hodges' signature home run call. "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" was Hodges' call too. It's the October 3, 1951 tie-breaker game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. When Giants' outfielder Bobby Thompson hit a three run walk off homer to beat the Dodgers, Hodges screamed "The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant,..."


Broadcast Radio AM/FM: That's radio to most people, or music radio. AM News radio is the easiest place to start your search for meaningful Fire News. Most News/Talk Stations will go wall to wall fire coverage if there's a fire in their service area. Most stations have a website where you can stream their signal. This is really handy if you want to keep tabs on a fire near distant friends and family. An internet search with the Town's name and Radio in the search field will yield results a-plenty. Notice I didn't say "Google It"...Ixquick It, I say!

Ixquick is like Google in that it's a metasearch engine just like Google, but Ixquick doesn't record your IP Address which saves on future popup clutter, and your cookie counts.

Television: I spent more time than I'd like to admit watching the Waldo Canyon Fire online when Colorado Springs was in danger. Same search strategy...Town and TV. Two Colorado Springs TV Stations streamed LIVE around the clock during the worst part of the firestorm. When things calmed down enough for evacuees to begin returning to their homes, the stations continued with the LIVE online streaming after they returned to "regular programing" on the air.

NOAA Weather Radio: The National Weather Service broadcasts 24/7 over VHF radio stations. Forecasts, local observations and warnings are all on the menu. Small inexpensive receivers are available. The 2-way radios in my snowcat has a dedicated channel to listen to NOAA Weather Radio. Each station across the country is linked to the nearest NWS Forecast Office. On My Mountain, the service is priceless during big storm periods.

When there's Fire Weather, the WX Radio will let you know. If there's an active fire in the area, fire info may be broadcast as well. (WX is a radio abbreviation for weather)

There's a whole "Other World" of radio out there. We're talking 2-way radio. Everyone's heard of "Ham Radio" Ham is sorta short for Amateur Radio. Hobbyists around the world play with radios and related technology. In America Ham Radio is making a comeback now that the Morse Code Requirements have been eliminated.

Business Radio: On My Mountain 2-way radio is essential. Each groomer has a multi-channel 2-way radio, all the management carry handi-talkies, ski patrollers all carry 2-ways, and most departments have a base station radio at their HQ. Every ski resort works this way.

Public Safety Radio: Police, Sheriffs, CHP, College Police Depts and Fire Departments all use 2-way radios. CalFire, US Forest Service, Municipal FDs and even Volunteer FDs are all on the air.

Scanner Radios: So how do you listen to the Firefighting Agencies and the Law Enforcement radios?  Get yourself a Police Scanner! These radios scan banks of preset frequencies that you key into the radio's memory. The scanner runs through the freq. list over and over until it finds an active signal and stops to monitor the signal until the traffic ends..then it resumes scanning. If you don't know what freqs to monitor, scanners also have a search scan function to help you find the active freqs in your area.

Scanners are handy in Wintertime when you live in snow country too. I monitor CalTrans snowplows, Truckee Police, Town of Truckee snow removal, CHP, local ski resorts and Search and Rescue during storm periods.

Scanners come in handheld, mobile and base station configurations. I have a handheld, and I bring it along when I go out to the Reno Air Races, or the racetrack to listen to the drivers talk to their crews. A scanner really adds texture to the action, and there are vendors at most big-time motorsports events where you can rent a pre-programed scanner for the day or weekend. Vendors usually offer a print out of all the weekend team/car freqs for free.

There's much more on scanner radios at DXing.com They cost anywhere from $50 to $5000 depending on how many bells and whistles you're willing to pay for. I have an AOR AR-2700 that I bought new in 1996. I'm sure it didn't cost much more than $100. I have a power supply that it mounts on at the DaveCave so it's like a base station. I have a nice discone antenna on a mast that plugs into the scanner when you take the "rubber duckie" antenna off. I monitored the Russian MIR space station on the 2 Meter Ham Band with this setup.

If you're unlucky enough to have a fire chase you from your home, the handheld scanner would be worth it's weight in gold. If you don't want another noisy gadget in the house, you can listen to scanner traffic on the internet.

Internet scanning will kick off the next installment of the CorduroyPlanet Wildfire Toolbox

Blowin' In The Wind

Thank God! Those "triple digit temperatures" from mid-week are just a memory. I'm reminded of them when I walk by a mirror and see my bright redneck! I missed a few spots with the sunscreen spray...fortunately it's only colorful...not painful.

I'm pretty much religious about safety glasses, ear plugs, sunscreen and sports helmets...

I was chatting this morning with a new Facebook friend who lives in the California foothills, the Robbers Fire is burning some seven miles southwest of her place, as the crow flies. I watched some reports on the fire on Friday night's local 11 O'clock News. Evacuations and road closures were in effect, and a few hundred homes are threatened.

This morning, I made a point of watching the Trainwreck News stream for a Robbers Fire Update. There's good news! Though humidity is still very, very low, the temperature trending down for the next several days. Plus the wind direction has turned away from inhabited areas and the smoke is blowing away from the foothill towns now. The CalFire website has the latest details on the firefight...The Devil you say...I hope it's not an omen...the Robbers Fire is Incident #666!

I took a look the the Reno AFD. There's some of the Monsoonal moisture scudding up the eastern side of the Sierras, and afternoon thunderstorms and those troublesome outflow winds are likely south of Interstate 80. Fortunately these aren't widespread enough to meet Red Flag Warning criteria.

It occurs to me that a Wildland Fire Toolbox would come in handy going forward. I'll work on that and post it here so my Foothill and Sierra Nevada friends can keep tabs on wildfires near them or their friends.

When I'm a the DaveCave and there's a wildfire nearby I fire up my Police Scanner. Unless the fire is in my neighborhood, you can't hear the fire crews on the air, but you hear dispatch, the aircraft and their controllers, and the remaining Fire Lookouts. During Fire Season listening to the Forest Service's 8AM Radio Report is very instructional and includes a detailed Fire Weather Forecast for the area.

It still goes without saying, let's be fire safe out there!

This 'n That

The rainy end to June kept me inside for a couple of days. I would have really been cranky, but there was plenty of San Francisco Giants baseball to keep me feelin' good.

The Giants hit the road after taking five in a row from the American League's Twins and Indians, and headed to Chicago's Wrigley Field, one of the last surviving old ballparks. Bought with the chewing gum fortune in 1927, Wrigley Field began life as Weegman Park in 1916, home to the Chicago Whales of the old Federal League.

I love Wrigley's ivy covered brick walls in the outfield, the way the setting sun blazes through the park and across home plate, and especially the outfield grand stands built on top of the buildings across the street.

During Thursday's game I saw a chef in starched whites and a tall toque serving fans on the top floor of one of the "across the way" bleacher buildings...style points for those Cub's Fans! Kudos to the cameraman for the inside glimpse, too.

The Chicago Cub's fans are good, old-timey baseball fans. Wrigley was the last major league park to add lights for night games. I decried the lights at first, but the Cubs held out against Big Sports Television as long as they could.

Add to baseball's Missing In Action List the Double Header. Scheduled Double Headers have gone the way of the passenger pigeon in modern baseball. So it was with extra joy that I watched the Make-Up Double Header Tuesday. The last time the Giants were at Wrigley Field, their game was rained out early hence Tuesday's rare Double Header.

Watching the games from muggy and hot Chitown while the steady rain fell outside here in the Inland Valley was really cozy. That the Giants got a week's worth of hits in the two games was a plus too! Thirty hits...18 in the day game, and 12 in the sunset contest was the tonic I needed to fend off the gray feelings from the gray, wet weather.

'n That
Up the hill, summer seems to be making a quick comeback after the Tuesday/Wednesday Winter Storm blew through. At Sutcliffe, north of Reno, on Pyramid Lake, a brush fire burned a car and a fencepost, and threatened a home before the fire department extinguished it.

The Teams are now set for the Saturday start of Le Tour de France. After dinner I'll pick my Fantasy Team. This years' Tour looks to be Epic! Lots of mountaintop finishes, with L'Alpe d'Huez just two days from the finish in Paris, and the day before the Individual Time Trial in Grenoble!

Le Tour is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Tour first climbing the Alps this year, so the final week will be contested in the Alps. Nearly as good, Stage 2 is a Team Time Trial, easily the most beautiful and intriguing test of the riders and teams.

This
Wednesday night, Blogger was acting up again, even though I stayed up until nearly 3AM, I couldn't save, schedule or publish CorduroyPlanet so I put it in my CorduroyPlanet Tumblr que. I strive to have new content five days a week, posted by 6AM Pacific.

Should you be one of my early-bird readers, and the new CP is  MIA, try the Tumblr Link in the CorduroyPlanet Toolbox, unless it's one of those rare tardy blogs, CP will be there. When Blogger rights itself, I'll get the days' offering up as soon as I can.

Thanks again for reading!

Gagging On Jargon

Every endeavor has it's own lexicon. It seems the more scientific the pursuit, the more jargon it generates. Meteorology is loaded with big words and arcane acronyms. Government bureaucracies seem tireless in their penchant for pumping out reams and reams of jargon. They've raised acronym creation to a Dark Artform that usually makes my head spin when I hear any of it.

AFD, ENSO, PDO, El Niño, La Niña, La La Land...let me up!

I'm an old SnoCat jockey who geeks out on all things weather, and I'm a first class offender, jargon-wise...each of those Government-Speak acronyms come out of my mouth from time to time...(well not La La Land)

Meteorologists and climatologists have all these wonderful new computer models and data sets that all get new names at an ever-increasing rate. I have a good memory that catalogs and stores all kinds of fun facts, so I forget sometimes, that not everyone else in my world is conversant with all the same stuff that fills my days and daydreams.

Therefore, as a Public Service...I will start a Glossary of these densely arcane bits of meteo-jargon. I'll stack it over in the Sidebar with the Toolboxes and Labels.

After my late night of pseudo-toil building the Jargon Glossary, I set the alarm for the last hour of the LIVE Tour de France broadcast, and went off to dreamland.

I woke up a couple of hours before the alarm chimed in, so I watched most of the Tour's Stage 10.

After yesterday's total Grinder, the peloton looked like they were loafing! The contenders and their teams didn't try to reel in the morning's breakaway...I think recovery was Job One today...because it's still very hot in France. Yet another early crash! Two of Team CorduroyPlanet racers hit the deck...road rash...nothing orthopedic reported!

Unfortunately, my Fantasy Teams took the day off too...of the 16 riders I have left on my two teams, exactly one rider scored points today. Team CorduroyPlanet scored 35 big points today. A perfect score is 645 points! You need to score all of the top 9 places in the stage, and have the GC Leader, the Sprint Points Leader, and the King of the Mountains Leader.

Team CorduroyPlanet will bounce back Thursday. The Tour leaves the Alps, and races over fairly flat roads that favor a bunch sprint at the finish line. Four of Team CorduroyPlanet's remaining seven riders are sprinters! I have the Green Jersey (Sprint Points Leader) too (5 of today's 35 points)

I Remember...

I was out on the Ancestral Diggins' Back 40 this evening. Over the past few days, I've cut back that Interloper Privet Tree as much as my puny, hobbyist-grade lopping shears will allow. In a perfect world, I'd just gas up my Stihl chainsaw and be done with it. Alas, my chainsaw languishes up in the garage at the DaveCave.

Because this garden project is time-sensitive, I switched to "Plan B" and grabbed my trusty Milwaukee Sawzall and an extension cord. Opening the metal toolbox, I extracted a brand new blade from it's infernal plastic package and grabbed the Sawzall, which immediately fell into both hands. It felt weird. The grip and boot were sticky and dark with whatever the sticky substance was.

I looked a little closer with my Bifocal Safety Glasses, and I remembered what the sticky stuff was. It was Honey! The last time I fired the old Sawzall up was early last summer over at the SturgeUrge Compound. The data from the photo file says the date was May 29th, 2009.

SturgeUrge had discovered a beehive inside the wall of his house a few weeks earlier, when the weather had warmed and the nectar was flowing enough for the hive to exude it's sweet perfume. One afternoon, Urge's girlfriend smelled that sweet smell when watering the potted landscape on the home's back deck.

SturgeUrge enlisted my help, and I found him a bee keeper who would extract the hive for a donation to his "Save The Bees" non-profit organization (of one) I found "Bee Guy Joshua" on craigslist, and I heard back from him just a few hours after I e-mailed him. Joshua was removing a big hive from the walls of a farmhouse near Davis that was taking longer than he had planned, so he'd be down to the Inland Valley the next day.

The next morning, I loaded some tools and a change of clothes, along with the digital camera into the car and headed over to open the wall where the bees were hiding. I rolled out my tools and extension cords and decided to wait for Bee Guy Joshua to arrive...the bees needed some smoke to calm them down before I could fire up a Skilsaw right on the outside of their happy home!

A couple of hours after the agreed upon time, Joshua called to say he was knee deep in another job that turned out to be much larger than the homeowner had thought. When Joshua finally arrived, he said he salvaged more than 75 pounds of honey from that house, as well as a good bee colony!

Joshua brought a Bee Keeper's Helmet for my use, and all the tools we needed to calm and extract the bees, and we began to cut our way into the back of SturgeUrge's house. The hive was not in the wall. It was instead deep between the floor joists, hiding between the hardwood floors upstairs, and the finished basement downstairs. We hunted, hacked, and hewed for better than two hours before the actual bee extraction began.

Joshua had his own Bee Vacuum! He'd built it from plans he found on the Internet, and it was a small ShopVac with a screened box to collect the vacuumed bees away from the works of the vacuum. Joshua vacuumed up the bees, one honeycomb at a time, removed each honey-laden comb, and vacuumed some more, until a half a dozen combs were removed from SturgeUrge's floor, and the Queen was located and captured. I bagged the honeycombs in Ziplox bags, while Joshua mined the combs from deep in the floor. It was after 9PM when we finally got it all wrapped up!

While Joshua and I were doing Bee Duty, SturgeUrge was whipping up a gourmet spread for dinner. ChefUrge's usual fine fare...green salad, veggies, starch, and something delicious from the grill...served with cocktails and a bottle of wine. I want to say it was grilled chicken with grilled vegetables...it was more than a year ago!

The three of us had a grand old time...two old farts to our new, young friend, who it turns out just started his "Foundation" Bee Guy Joshua was brand-spankin' new to bee keeping. He fell into it totally by accident, or serendipity...you decide. Joshua's real job was "Sponsored Triathlete"! It turns out he's quite the Triathlete, in fact he's been to much of the world to compete in Triathlons.

Joshua told the story of how he got into the Bee Rescue Business. Joshua's Father owns a Trucking Company. He serves the Central Valley Agriculture Market...hauling machinery and produce to and from grower's farms. He needed some more warehouse space for canning tomato hauling season, and rented a suitable warehouse somewhere in the Delta.

The warehouse was full to the rafters with empty beehives! Thousands of Supers, Frames and beekeeping stuff. It just so happened that Joshua was in town between Triathlons, and had just read an article on "Colony Collapse Syndrome" the mysterious disappearing bees malady that's been worrying growers worldwide for the past few years. Putting two and two together, "Save The Bees" was born.

SturgeUrge separated the honey from the combs over the ensuing year...he got a gallon or so for his trouble. It's really nice mellow, medium dark honey. I used some this week to make Rhubarb Braised Pork Chops...Yummy!

This is Fun!

New Snow 12:30 AM Wed
I made a banzai run up the Hill Monday morning. It was glorious in Truckee Monday afternoon, warm and colorful. I made my final "get ready for winter list" short enough so I won't lose any sleep over the remainder.

The Temperature Inversion Regime stayed in place for the last three nights, so there wasn't any Snowmaking. Tonight the snow is falling in the High Sierra, but the tail of the cold front really fell apart coming ashore and crossing the Valley. It should snow for another four or five hours, and a Bluebird Sunrise should be on tap.

There's another one headed our way for Thursday/Friday, that they say could give us a foot or two. The Forecast Discussion leads me to believe that this storm will move quickly through the area, so accumulations will likely be to the lean side of their forecast. The winds associated with the system should forestall formation of the temperature inversions for a couple of days after the front passes.

Maintenance Duty 12:30PM Saturday
I'm havin' too much fun today! Well, it is a Saturday! There's College Football on the TV, with the sound off... I prefer radio, so the little box is tuned to the local talker. I've been working on the CorduroyPlanet Toolbox all afternoon. I wonder how all the resorts decided that this was the week to put their Webcams online? It has to be the latest snowfall...making ski resorts look like...well, Ski Resorts.

I ran this drill two weeks ago. Back then only Alpine Meadows, Boreal, and Sugar Bowl's webcams were live. I see most resorts are touting their planned November 20th opening dates today. That's why Webcams from Mt Rose, Diamond Peak, Ski Tahoe Donner, Kirkwood, Northstar, Sierra at Tahoe, Squaw Valley, Homewood, and Heavenly are online today. My informal survey finds a roughly even split between pretty viewcams and snowmaking cams.

So now I've built a Webcam Toolbox. These webcams are fascinating. Eventually, Resort Marketing Departments will reign in their hyperbole to the RealWorldView because the Webcams can not tell a lie! Truth is always the best policy...it's so Real...

Woolly Worm Report Published 12:30PM Sunday
The San Francisco Chronicle's Outdoor Writer, Tom Steinstra published his annual "Winter Weather Forecast" Sunday. Tom's forecasts have always been peppered with observations of nature (minus woolly worm data this year) but he may have something in with his "Coastal Temperature Interface" theory.

Steinstra writes:
"There's a direct relationship between sea temperatures and air temperatures at coastal towns that affects how storms move onshore. When the sea is cold and land is warm, that temperature gap acts like a wall that forces storms north into the Pacific Northwest. When the temperatures are the same, the storms wheel right in over Northern California. Take the readings when the front moves onshore."

Might Tom's Interface be part of the Local Ridge Forming Mechanism? Could be...I looked back through Tom's Archive, and he's on a roll. Last year Tom cited the Woolley Worms, but got it right. My search didn't find Tom's 2007 Forecast, but he's on form in 2006 as well.

It serves me right for not keeping a Weather Journal. It's going to be a huge project to find an collate all the data going back just a few years. The payoff will be like Christmas Morning I hope!

The Lunar effect is obvious when it comes to the tides, less obvious is the Moon's role in Great Earthquakes. Historically, most of the Great Earthquakes have occured near the Full or New Moon, when the gravitational effect of the Moon is at it's greatest.

The English Language features the word Lunatic, implying a belief that the Moon has influence on Human Behavior. I wouldn't rule out the Moon's influence on storm formation or progress tracks. There's way more to our weather and climate systems than you can keep a casual eye on.

Working With My Tools

The Boss called today. He's all pumped because the weather is cooperating with the Snowmaking Plan. He thinks he can beat the Target Opening Date by a week. It depends on those pesky Computer Models they use at the NWS Office to forecast the weather going forward, and a good measure of help from Mother Nature.

After most of the week having trouble with their models diverging all over the map, all the models aligned overnight and voilà, Snowmaking Temps low enough to hang a dream on! Frigid nights ahead bode well for the plan, and now I know when I'll be heading back up the Hill.

My Family's Thanksgiving is safe. I've ordered the Bird, and I'm testing some new recipes this week.

I've got some carpentry jobs to wrap up, and some wrenching on my Pickup still to do. Deadlines are the Ultimate Motivator.

Here at the Ancestral Digs, my tools and toolboxes fill half of the Two Car Garage. They'll be busy for a couple of days before I pack the Pickup full of toolboxes and toys and roll up to the High Sierra.

When I started writing for CorduroyPlanet, I wrote about the Online Tools I use to keep tabs on the Weather Forecasts, Remote Sensors, and Road Conditions. I promised to list those tools, and today I make good on that promise. Behold the "CorduroyPlanet Toolbox"!

I put The Toolbox atop the Right Column so it's easy to use. I'll add Tools as I find more useful ones.

When Thanksgiving Proper rolls around, I'll be climbing back into my favorite tool, my good ol' Prinoth BR350 Groomer. The Boss said "no expense was spared to get the fleet in top shape, and that we'll have a Graveyard Mechanic full time like always...whew!

I love that BR350, it's been a Groomer that just works. It's got a big heart, and rarely did it let me down. It's never lost it's Hydrostatic Fluid, so it's pumps and motors are good and tight...still, having full mechanic coverage will ease my mind though...my cat does have 5000+ hours on her clock. 09/10 will be her last season on my mountain, she'll be traded in next year for a new one.

I've operated some great cats in my time, my favorite old Bombardier had 12K+ hours on it when I finally got in a new rig. Progress is a wonderful thing. That old Bombardier was State of the Art when she was new, her replacement a few years hence was too. My 350 was a revelation when I got it, and I can only hope that next year's model continues the upward arc I've come to expect from the breed.