My Personal Web Page
This page will introduce me, Randy Hammock, to the rest of the world. Besides my normal day-to-day work activities, I'm also involved in a great many other activities. What activities I participate in change over time but below, you will find what I'm currently "having fun" with. Sometimes, I even find time to catch a little shuteye.
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
ARISS was formed in
1996 and eventually replaced the SAREX (Space Amateur Radio EXperiment)
program. ARISS is an Amateur Radio experiment which takes place on the
International Space Station. It is a collaborative effort between the
National Aeronautics & Space Administration
(NASA), Amateur
Radio Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), and the Amateur
Radio Relay League (ARRL). Using the ham radio equipment which
is sometimes carried aboard the Space Shuttle and the ham radio station
located on the International Space Station (ISS), the residents of the
space station can communicate directly with other ham radio operators
on the ground. One of the greatest uses for this system has been to
allow students from around world to talk directly to the Astronauts
in orbit around the Earth.
IRLP and EchoIRLP (EchoLink)
Back
in 1997, Dave Cameron VE7LTD started playing with Voice over IP (VoIP).
The software available then was quite buggy and ran under Windows which
was also quite buggy. Deciding that there had to be a better way, Dave
set out develop a VoIP system that would be more stable and better suited
to ham radio use. IRLP
(Internet Radio Linking Project) is the result of his efforts. It offered
the ability to link radio systems together using the Internet, was controllable
via the radio ports, did not rely on unreliable VOX methods and used
an encrypted handshake between links to guarantee that only authorized
ham radio systems could access the radio ports. The system also relies
on a very strict set of technical standards to ensure smooth operation
of the network. In essence, IRLP provides a link between radios and/or
repeaters that are as close to being a wire as possible. Because of
these strict standards, 40 or more stations find that they can be connected
together through a reflector and the system holds together! This is
because there are NO repeater IDs, courtesy tones,
hang times, tails, etc. coming back into the system from any node, that
could cause the whole thing to degenerate into a mass of repeaters ping-ponging
back and forth.
Another great feature of IRLP is its ability to be expanded by the local node owner. Since IRLP runs on Linux and all operation is controlled by bash shell scripts, it is very easy for a node owner to add functiontionality to his node. I have written scripts that allow ARRL Audio News and Amateur Radio Newsline MP3 files to be played, over the IRLP node, by pressing simple DTMF commands on a radio's keypad. I have also written scripts that query the National Weather Service on an hourly basis, convert the cryptic METAR reports into plain English (and other languages) and make these weather reports available using Text-to-Speach (festival) technology.
The
ability to expand the operation of IRLP has lead to the formation of
a project to marry IRLP and EchoLink, the EchoIRLP project. EchoIRLP
allows IRLP nodes to interconnect with EchoLink nodes and vice versa.
It meets the IRLP requirement of not allowing IRLP and EchoLink to be
cross-connected but each network to be connected to individually with
out having two different computers, one for IRLP and one for EchoLink.
On top of that, only one set of radio hardware is needed for both networks.
Now IRLP node owners can allow members who are on travel to call home
to their local system using their laptop computers when no other links
are possible.
My Boys
 (click for large view) This is Sierra! Sierra was my first horse purchase. He is of unknown breeding, though some think he may be National Show Horse and others that he may be Arab-Foxtrotter mix. All I can say is that he is one heck of a good trail horse. Sierra is very smart and well mannered. He stands 15.2 hands, and and his age is estimated at being 31 years as of Nov 2002. Though his arthritis causes him problems when moving downhill, he still enjoys going out on the trails. When I bought him, he had been abandoned and left to starve and was just a bag of bones. I also wondered if he had been physically abused because of some of the calcified swellings on his front ankles. He looks fine in this picture which was taken in October 1999. We have traveled across the country twice as I moved from one job to another. He loves going to Morro Bay and out into the ocean. On Aug 30, 2007 at 12:54pm, Sierra left this life and went to the Rainbow Bridge. I miss my "Little Buddy" |
 (click for larger view) Meet Yankees Red River Sensation (aka Red). I purchased Red in 1999 while I was on TDY in Houston. Not knowing how many years Sierra has left I started looking for his successor. Since I had lots of free time on weekends, I set a 500 miles radius search limit around Houston and started visiting ranches looking for a Missouri Foxtrotter. The Foxtrotter people were some of the nicest people and offered to help locate a suitable horse, even if I did not buy from them. One weekend, I went to a Foxtrotter show 375 miles from Houston and met Red's owners. They invited me to go camping with them the next weekend and give Red a real tryout. This I did and decided to make the purchase. Buster and Frances kept Red for 3 months until I was ready to take him home. The next year, we took first place high mileage award in the Southwest Chapter of the Missouri Foxtrotting Horse Breed Association.
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Special Award
Links
These are links to the various organizations to which I belong and where I have my fun:
- Horseback Trail Riding (I webmaster these pages.)
-
Equestrian Trails,
Inc (ETI) was established as a nonprofit corporation
in 1944 with the Charter to be "Dedicated to the Acquisition
and Preservation of Trails, Good Horsemanship, and Equine Legislation."
We are a family oriented riding club based in Sylmar, CA. Fighting with its combined membership, ETI has successfully worked to keep open our trails and add more equestrian facilities. The more members we have backing equine legislation and trail preservation, the more likely the State, County and City Officials will be to comply with our needs.
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ETI Corral 20 Shadow Hills Roughriders is a local membership group which is part of Equestrian Trails, Inc. and is based in and around Shadow Hills, CA. The Shadow Hills Roughriders was formed as Corral 20 in 1947. We are an active bunch which enjoys, trail riding, camping and many other equestrian related activities which further the goals of ETI and the surrounding community.
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The Trail Mapping Project is a project that I have started whereby I am attempting to create trail maps for as many trails as I can ride. This project was started out of the necessity to document the equestrian trails everywhere. By documenting the trails, we, the equestrian community, can put up a better fight to keep the trails open and available for future generations to enjoy.
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- Amateur Radio
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JPL
Amateur Radio Club -- I have been a member of the JPL
Amateur Radio Club almost as long as I have had a license. I
served as President of the JPLARC for four of those years and
am currently the trustee for the clubs Los Angeles Basin repeater
systems. -
Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) -- In December 2001 I installed an IRLP node (#3340) on the the JPLARC 224.080 MHz repeater system. IRLP allows our repeater to be linked with other systems worldwide using Voice-over-IP technology. During the next year, I became very involved with the evolution of the system and eventually was asked to help write many of the new scripts which control the basic operation of the system, when it came to upgrade the software to support the growing demand. I continue to develop new functions for the IRLP system.
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Goddard Amateur Radio Club -- For the year and a half I was working at the Goddard Space Flight Center, I was a member of the GSFC Amateur Radio Club and served as Vice President for one year.
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Calnet is a club which operates a linked repeater system that covers virtually the entire state of California. While not one of the radio gurus, I help maintain their IRLP node.
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Past Activities
Seven months after I moved out to California, a group of eight people from the office thought it would be fun to try parachuting. One of the group, Roy Peters, was already a parachutist and got us all fired up. So, on the 22nd of October, 1983, we headed out to Perris to go for it. We took a day long class on procedures and techniques before heading out to make the first BIG step. There were thirty of us in the class, so we pretty much filled the DC 3 that took us up for that first jump. As can be seen in picture above, I did it. About three weeks later I went back out and made my second jump. Since I was at the top of the weight limit for the type of chutes used, I really wrecked my knees on landing and decided to not pursue the activity any further.
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I spent three years working with the Waynesboro First Aid Crew (WFAC). WFAC is an all volunteer organization with about 50 members, providing Emergency Medical Services for the City of Waynesboro, Virginia and the surrounding community. I was trained in American Red Cross Advanced First Aid, American Red Cross CPR, light and medium duty rescue, and held a Commonwealth of Virginia EMT-A certification. I was a NAUI certified scuba diver and trained in underwater search and recovery and was one of the founding members of the WFAC dive team.
I was also on the WFAC Board of Directors and Junior Crew advisory board. I was an American Red Cross certified Advanced First Aid Instructor and CPR Instructor. I was a member of the first aid competition team and ambulance competition team. These teams would participate in competitions at statewide meetings and convention. The WFAC was a very progressive and innovative group. We developed procedures and techniques for rescue that were eventually adopted by the State Office of Emergency Services.
Resume
(click image to view ALL awards)
Throughout my years at JPL, I have received numerous awards. Just click on the certificate above to see all of the awards received as a result of my work duties.
Contact Info
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Click here to see where my truck is currently located via APRS. TinyURL Links: |
