GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Back Room => : NMCA_Ron February 26, 2008, 05:11:15 AM
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I am heading to Florida here in a couple of weeks for some drag racing at Bradenton Motorsports Park. I am SO glad to see warmer weather on the horizon. This got me to thinking (yes, I know I shouldn't subject myself to such strain) and I was wondering what other hobbies all you folks have. As for me, I also enjoy playing guitar, fishing and drinking some barley pop when I am not airgunning or drag racing.
Ron
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Well, I'm into airgunning-- wait, did you mean other than airgunning? LOL!
But also I play a little bit of old-time music on guitar, some banjo, a little ukulele (what other kind is there? :~). And in the last 6-8 months, my brother and a buddy of ours have gotten me back interested in motorcycling after 20 years away from it, though it's been mostly too cold to ride this winter for me. And I don't mind a good beer now and again too.
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Boating, fishing, hiking, gardening, bowhunting, bird watching, and of course doing whatever I can to keep my wife happy :)
Jeff
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Motorcycling is probably my favorite hobby...on my second bike, a HD Nightrain. I love brewing beer. I am also a hopeless addict to first person shooter video games.
-Josh
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Airgunning
RC Aircraft
Blacksmithing/metalworking/knifemaking
Woodworking
Small Engine Repair
Radiation Science
Gardening
Home Repair/Handyman
Model Rocketry
And playing Daddy to my 10 month old daughter / husband to my wife!
Those are the bigger ones... Never seem to lack a passtime...
J
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Jason,
Would you be so kind as to enlighten me as to what "radiation science" is? I have not heard that term before.
Ron
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Off-Road Motorcycling MX
PC/Internet and PC Repair
Photography
PC Graphics Editing
Karaoke at Home and Internet ( http://www.esnips.com/web/IRBent-MyKaraokeSongs ) Don't laugh too hard..... I try. :p
Dabble in electronics repair/creation... keyword.. DABBLE
Is going out to eat considered a hobby?
Making Golf Clubs and Playing Golf.
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I like to shoot, read airgun forums, and work on my airguns. Somewhere in there I also spend time with my family and eat a whole lot...generally whatever I can BBQ while I am sitting in the yard shooting airguns is my favorite meal:)
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http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v402/r1derbike/
Charles
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At least I can see your co-rider is in the right frame of mind..... "Roll Tide!" Beats the heck out of go Razorbacks. Let her know I like her shirt shown in your photobucket pics under the motorcycle folder.
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Sidecars...
(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/kliffsbuggy/Gear%20Up/abcc5.jpg) (http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c345/kliffsbuggy/Gear%20Up/?action=view¤t=abcc5.jpg)
http://ironcurtainmc.proboards101.com/index.cgi?
Fabrication, general machining, welding, engine work....
You said, BESIDES, airguns, right? Cause Airguns are right at the top of the list too....
Russian hacks...
Chinese airguns...
German airguns...
American airguns....
I like to spread the love! LOL
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My biggest draw is saltwater fishing and building custom fishing rods. Summer and winter are more reserved for airgunning. This year has been all mixed up it's been 80 here and tomorrow or thursdays low is mid 30's. Makes fishing tough so been shooting more. I think had it not been for this forum I would not be into airgunning as much. I don't have any real friend outside of work so no one to shoot with. I really enjoy the sport just wish I could find more people to with and shot the s**t with. :)
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Hmmmmmm Airgun's, Hunting, Hunting with Airgun's and of course my little camodesign hobby. :) Ed
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Sweet!
Another airplane nerd!!!
I've been an aircraft mechanic for most of my adult life and have always loved aircraft. Good to have another one around:)
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tournament softball, raise fish (aquariums),travel,number one luv is raise & breed akitas(no dog like them),gambling.......luv college football.....
joe cuz(akita breeder)
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I am right there in the boating, fishing thing. I love the saltwater. Tend to spend as much time as possible on it with my boys and wife. She thinks trolling around for salmon is boring. That works out fine for the boys and myself. I own 4 boats 13' whaler, 14' gregor aluminum, 17' whaler, and 24' robalo with a fuel sucking 275 merc o/b. I need to downsize that collection to increase my airgun collection. I used to upland bird hunt a bunch, and golf. When I started having kids I had to pick just one, so my wife could stay home with the boys. This airgun thing can be addicting. :p My fishing rod collection is out of control.
Dan L
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Nuclear radiation, geiger counters, radioactive things (all low level and legal!).
I've been absolutely fastenanted by radioactivity as a result of 2 events in my early youth:
I remember being in the kitchen with my mother, I was 7 or 8. Radio was on, the news. They were discussing talks between Reagan and the soviets, arms reduction talks. I asked mom what it was all about, and she explained that some countries had bombs that could destroy the whole world (her words, clear as day!).
Then, on my 10th birthday, Chernobyl popped.
built a geiger counter in high school electronics class, and bought a CDV-700 (civil defence counter) a year ago. You can learn alot with a few old coleman lantern mantles (radioactive, thorium), and a few old radium dials and americium smoke detectors.
Surprising what can be found out there if you have the equipment to look!
J
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Fascinating!!! I recall Chernobyl, but don't. Despite me being ~10 yrs older than you I've always lived in my "own little world." I've never paid much attention to the goings-on locally let alone afar. But your hobby is interesting. I'd love to know more about what you have learned in your time spent.
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Motorcycling, riding my 2000 Kawasaki ZRX1100. Traveling in the region.
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Yup, it's a strange, but interesting hobby!
First thing just about anyone who has an interest in it does, is take their geiger counter around and try to identify radioactive stuff. There's really not alot of really hot stuff around (good thing), but once you learn to use your instrument, a bunch of warm stuff does present itself.
Coleman lantern mantles, pre about 1995, are a common one. A few in contact with the tube makes the geiger counter sound alot like radio static. Radium dials, of course, are even hotter. Some ceramic glazes, some bricks, etc. are low level emitters. Background radiation is almost double in my basement (uranium or thorium in the concrete, I live in a low radon area).
The dust on your TV screen is radioactive. It's a result of the decay products from radon collecting there (they have a static charge, so they get stuck to the staticy screen). You can swab that dust, and detect it with the counter, about 5x background at the start. Decays away in a few hours, so with some simple software, you can get a good value for the half life, and make some educated guesses about what isotopes are in there.
I could go on for hours, but noone wants to hear it all. There are lots more involved in this stuff than me, I have so many hobbies I only get middling expertise in any one of them.
You could visit the Yahoo groups "CDV-700 Club" or "GeigerCounterEnthusiasts" to see what folks do with this hobby. Some are fine scientists in their own right, some cobblers like myself!
Thanks for your interest!
J
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Just realised, I forgot to include Astronomy!
It's really nice to spend an evening under the stars, observing planets, nebulae, galaxies and star clusters for hours. I have an 8" truss tube dobsonian telescope, built by a friend of mine. A fine and simple instrument! Imagine optics like this in your scope!
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hydroponic gardening, fishing, work, airgunning, wishing I still lived in Hawaii, building bird houses watching red state update on you tube want to take up scuba, john
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Peak, I came thisclose to buying an ZRX1100, in Eddie Lawson colors, of course! I went over to the dark side of hi-perf sport bikes in the early 80s, and my first real widow maker was the original 1984 Kawasaki ZX-900 Ninja. Have ridden since I was 14. 52 now.
I've got to sell my YZF-R1, as my bones can no longer take the punishment. The FJR1300 stays, however!
Charles
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Charles I have been riding since I was 11 years old. First ride was a Honda SL70. I've owned more bikes than I can count. I worked in the motorcycle industry for 10 years, roadraced regionally for 7. I have noticed your avatar on your profile, cool. Seems like there are at least a few other riders around the forum too.
Here's a pic of my scooter:
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I've been riding dirt bikes for more than 25 years now. Back in the mid to late 80's I took up racing MX and Hare Scrambles. I was fast in the woods and deadly on the MX track... deadly only to myself. After breaking too many bones I gave up MX but it was too late. I wake every morning hurting here or there from the biggest mistake of my life. What if????? What if I would have stayed on rather than bailing off over those triples that Wednesday afternoon back in '87. My brother is still racing and has been for the past 25 years or more. He's regarded as one of the best MX bike mechanics around despite he doesn't work for a bike shop. He gathers more work than most bike shops simply by being at the races each weekend. His abilities are spread by word of mouth only which is a good thing as he has a real job as an engineer. Nuff ramblin'.... only if.....
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a few years back, one of your fellow Geiger Counter Enthusiasts built a self fueling reactor on a garden shed from smoke alarms and touch up for mantle clocks etc. etc., started off as a SCOUT PROJECT, dangerous but very impressive, now that boy knew how to do research, pity he was not into air guns
fin
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Ah, the radioactive boyscout....
He never did succeed in creating a reactor, though he did heavily contaminate himself, and his parent's home. His home became an EPA Superfund cleanup site.
He was unable to procure large enough quantities of material to create anything more than a mess, but the things he tried to do (and some with success) were technically fairly impressive!
He was arrested late last year, again, several years after the last incident. Was caught stealing the smoke detectors from his apartment building, each of which contains a small amount of americium 241, a reactor byproduct material. Disassembling a smoke detector to access the radioactive contents is a gross violation of NRC regulations!
We try very hard in our hobby to avoid the sorts of results he achieved. Radiation is misunderstood enough in our society that we don't need to help stoke the irrational fears and misunderstandings.
Knowledge is power. A little knowledge is dangerous!
J
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ahhhhhh, i was just checking the battery, honest :)
fin
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Scuba , Fishing, Photography,airguns I'm a master carpenter and cabinet maker by trade but I also have been in the boat repair industry everything from 8 to 10 stories up a mast to under the boat in scuba, as well as replacing engines in sport fisherman to custom wood work , I started in the home industry and ended in boat work 3rd generation carpenter and cabinet maker.
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Howie,
Do you use a digital camera or do you still use a 35MM?
Ron
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I gone to digital cameras I never thought I would give up 35mm back in the 60's I had a dark room with 2 enlargers as well as a 4x5 graflex and did some weddings as well as part time news photopraphy, lots of fun.howie
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Sounds like you're more into photography than myself. I've shot maybe 3 or 4 weddings and tons of beauty pageants that my lil girl has been in. Which digital camera are you currently using and what would be your choice if you had the money to buy a new one?
I'm currently using a Panasonic FZ50. Not bad a camera, easy to use but ISO above 200 is practically useless. I may go DSLR next time to fix that issue... SAVE UP!!!
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I've had a bunch of cannon elphs I really love the size of them and they take great pictures , I got into the cannons when I bought a elph with a underwater houseing for diving it ended up being better than the Nikon I had and I've had a lot of elphs since ,but right now I have a Panasonic Lumix with a 10x optical zoom and it has a leica lenses , It's a lot smaller tha a cannon rebel which I think would be a better camera but I don't want to carry a big camera around If the cannon elph came in a 10 x optical zoom I would buy it. The pictures I have been putting on china & shop gate were taken with my Lumix I use a resizer prigram to make the res. smaller to be able to put them on the GTA site. I also do some ebay mostly dive gear. ai've got some great picturies from bush gardens of animals some real long distance off their train and came out very good. I did go to school in NYC back in 1960 for photography ,I went nights after work from NJ the school was NYI of photography. acrossed from the empire state building. It never worked out to be my career. I ended up the same as my dad and grandfather as a master carpenter and cabinet maker, not a bad career not great money wise but very rewarding work.
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I'm also into amateur photography. Have several point-n-shoots, a Digital Rebel, Olympus 35mm and other such nonsense.
Just recently won 1st and 2nd place in a "Most Realistic Screenshot" contest sponsored by Knife Edge Software, an Radio Controlled Aircraft Simulator program, that is the nearest thing to being "live" that you can get right now; it is called G4. First two screenshots in link, are mine. The first was extremely hard as low knife edge flight had to be taken with a snapshot button, while all other fingers were doing busy work with the transmitter.
RC aircraft is my second love, been flying those about 20 years...
http://www.knifeedge.com/forums/showthread.php?p=106028#post106028
Charles
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I so wanted to see these shots but apparently you have to be a member of the forum in order to be able to see them.
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Whatchu flying r1derbike?
I've got a kitbashed AAMCO S-ray .25 size 3 channel trainer, an OS 46AX powered Dynaflite P51-D Mustang, a Novell .061 powered Herr Aquastar flying boat and a Byron Originals Pipe Dream gasser with bomb drop.
Started flying RC 3 years ago. What is it with me and addicting hobbies?
J
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Shots 5 and 9 (low-res shots so they would fit on photobucket) won 1st and second.
Look at my RC Aircraft subfolders on the left sidebar, and you'll see most of my smaller electric fleet.
My large scale birds I'll need to stage a shot or so when the wx gets warmer. They are too big to mess with right now...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v402/r1derbike/RC%20Aircraft%20-%20RealFlight%20G4%20Simulator/
Charles
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Not much altitude left on that knife edge! Nice!
Who owns the 2 full scale RC bipes?
Nice collection you got there!
J
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I have turned my backyard into a nature preserve. I have 4 ponds and about 20 turtles which some of them I have hatched and raised myself. I keep and breed Russian and Hermans Tortoises. I also keep and breed box turtles, but the pond turtles are the ones that have the run of my ~8000sqft backyard.
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Jason, the picture of the red and white bipes are Sean Tucker (acting like he is flying Bill Hempel's 1/2 scale *YES! HALF SCALE* RC Pitts Challenger), with Bill Hempel off-camera actually flying the RC Challenger. Sean's full-scale Oracle Challenger is behind him.
The picture of Bill Hempel *acting* like he is flying the red bipe, is actually Sean Tucker flying in his Oracle, making a low pass right by him.
Both these guys are nuts...certifiable.
Charles