Shelter-in-Place Journal, Day 176

I’ve been remembering more of my dreams than usual for the past few months. This morning, I awoke to memories of a trip on a cruise ship which included lining up to buy a book – the book was in short supply, but they assured us that if we didn’t get one, they’d give us a copy of “Prior Immaturity” magazine instead. Sounds like my kind of magazine!

My heat sink helped with the RTL-SDR dongle, but it’s far from perfect. I didn’t miss a reading from 12:45am until 11:20am, but then the radio stopped hearing things for nearly three hours. After that, it was OK until dinnertime, when it missed most of two hours, and now it’s working reliably again. Maybe it doesn’t like to work while we’re in the kitchen!

I had to renew my driver’s license this month, and I thought I may as well get a RealID for whenever I can fly again. I used the DMV website to pre-submit copies of my documentation (passport, Social Security card, and two bills); the instruction sheet told me to go to the appointments line, even though the DMV isn’t offering appointments.

This morning, the DMV site said that there was no wait for people with appointments at the Los Gatos office, so I went there. There was a long line outside the building with a DMV employee checking temperatures; I got into the line and when she got to me, she looked at my paperwork and told me to go around to the back of the building for my appointment. I didn’t even know there was an entrance at the back of the building!

As promised, there was no line to be checked in, and I only had to wait about 15 minutes before being called to the counter. I was finished about 45 minutes after driving into the parking lot; now I just have to wait for the actual license to arrive. Thanks, DMV!

Shelter-in-Place Journal, Day 175

It was slightly cooler today – the high temperature was only 109.22°F, compared to yesterday’s 109.94°F.

The cooler weather didn’t help much when we saw our trainer today – because of the holiday, the JCC opened an hour later than usual, and we could feel the difference (and the air wasn’t so great, either). Next week, we’ll be back to our usual schedule.

I decided to see if I could improve the stability of my current SDR.COM dongle by putting a heat sink on it. Many people have done that by opening the case and adding a thermal pad, or even by 3D-printing a cooler block for the unit – I went with a lower-tech solution.

It’s not perfect, but I’ve only missed about 15 readings since I put it on at 11am (I get a reading every minute if all goes well); I was missing about half of the readings overnight, and got no data for the three hours we were out of the house this morning with the A/C turned off. Not too bad for a few cents’ worth of aluminum foil!