The AM Forum

Glad that you are back "on the air" AM Fone!

C

Has anyone figured out what happened...

Hacking from a disgruntled user or ex-user?

Hacking from some slopbucketeer type?

A hardware or software malfunction?

Related to storm damage and flooding?

The Home Page was not working here but it just now came up.

Hi,

Still Having a Few issues not a lot, keep getting a Plain White Page.

73
Jack
KA3ZLR

Some abuse via a weakness in the site infrastructure was detected. This site was shut down until the problem could be fixed. All is well now.

What better way to spend a long weekend than getting reacquainted with our radio gear, by actually using it on the air?

Or as Pete called it on 80m last night, FFPR Weekend. Forum-Free, Play Radio event. Sponsored by AMfone.  ;D

Along with working Pete, I was able to snag Jean F6AQK again and was heard in the Netherlands by Martin, PE1BIW, who emailed me this morning.

The cleaning lady unplugged the server so she could vacuum

Steve,

Many thanks for the time spent in resolving the issue.  I do appreciate the effort of those that make it happen.




Todd, 

That's a good one about getting on the air.  So I wonder, with the site down for a few days, how many of you got on the air and logged more contacts than you would normally log if AMfone was up??

Joe, W3GMS

I was on the air Saturday evening into the early morning hours, all day on Sunday, and Monday evening. Lots of AM and SSB contacts, checked into a few nets which I hadn't participated in awhile, and even chased a bit of DX. The cleaning lady should come more often.

I guess we don't need a twist lock AC connector then ;)

Had fun on 60M on Saturday morning.  A good friend of mine use to host a rag chew net for many years and when he became an SK I picked up the duties.  It started on 40M then moved to 75M and with summer time conditions it now is on 60M.  Then I hosted the AWA net on Sunday on 75.  The QRN was brutal, but we still had a good time.  Then some rag chews with my good friend Bob, W2ICQ on 40M rounded the activities out. 

Then I helped Martha change the real seal on the transfer case on her Jeep. 

Saying all of that, its great to have AMfone back!

Joe, W3GMS 

Kudos to Johnny, W3JN for zeroing in on the source of the problem.

Anybody notice that AMFONE was not available the last 3-4 days???
It is back today 9-6-11

Fred

Solar Flare.

Got hacked.

Cold fusion stopped working.

Gerbils took a nap, got to keep that wheel turning.

Then there's this option -->> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3ZOKDmorj0

Your pick.  ;)

Yea I thought there was an Issue with my Machines here but I'm glad all
is well.. :)

73
Jack
KA3ZLR

Steve forgot to pay the electric bill.

Pleased to see it back.

Didn't you get the notice - It was a "Play Radio Weekend"

Some abuse via a weakness in the site infrastructure was detected. This site was shut down until the problem could be fixed. All is well now.

I'll take the blame. I went in to correct one of my posts. When I attempted to go back in and check it out, that was when things fell apart. In the words of Bugs Bunny, "I'm a baaaaaaad boy!"  ;D

Should have known, you guys from PA cause all the problems!

(http://itthing.com/wp-content/uploads/ghostbusters.png)

All kidding aside, I actually did some editing to a couple posts I made
and was locked out after several minor edits to correct grammar,
spelling or facts...  Strange, it had never happened before...

at least its back.

seee...LOL... u put facts.....LOL.... its always sumpton....LOL

The Disruptor was waiting specifically for that opportunity, Ralph. He has his eye on you.  ;)

Yep, I have so much free time, I constantly monitor the forum to seize opportunities to mess with Ralph.

The board was down??

Man, I spend too much time on the air. I miss all the happenings!!!

Oh well.

Maybe someone ought to connect a 'Wobulator' or SBE to the board. ;)

You too, huh?   ;D


Fear not, Buddly! I'm sure that there will be more opportunities to enjoy another AMfone-sponsored 'Get Reacquainted With your Radio' weekend in the future.

We could make it a monthly event if it really catches on. Just imagine it: discussing radio and other topics on the air using good ol' Amplitude Modulation. What a concept!

It was one of those damn chinese 833's the server uses.

I was getting so desperate, I almost joined QRZed.. :o ::) j/k I don't even think it's possible to get that hard up.

Hey, me too!

You know I joined QRZ years ago, probably before joining here and never made a post other than looking for parts for the big W. I was really surprised how many good responses I received.

Then in 2004 the big W won the QRZ CD cover picture award. N3WWL used to use it for his wall paper. Now all I need to do is get it going again! (The previous was brought to you by the Broken Record Dept.)

If your going to use it for wall paper, view it on the "stretch mode" on your computer.

I had noticed that a month or so before the outage amfone.net started wanting to contact google.com whenever I navigated to it (so I had to allow it in order to get rid of the notification at the top of the browser window).

This has stopped since the return of the forum and it now behaves like it did prior to the month I mention above (it no longer asks me to allow amfone.net to contact google).

Did that aberrant behavior have anything to do with the outage ?

Thanks for all the good work you guys put into Amfone.
Peter

 a few days prior to the crap out I had noticed that the forum was loading sluggishly. It seems response times are back to normal.

I just got high speed cable service, had been on dial-up.  Also now using a deluxe Mac.

I think my high speed connection to amfone has been sucking up all the speed from everyone else using the forum.

The server probably couldn't handle the high speed demand from my new high speed set-up and crashed under the pressure.

I would suggest a liberal application of WD-40 into the server's hardware.  Usually a half can in the morning and the remaining half can in the evening.  This maintenance procedure should speed up the sluggishness and prevent future crashes.

Hope my post is helpful.

Fred

I remember seeing that on there, Terry, and the comments here about it being your Westinghouse. That's one of the greatest vacuum tube shots of all time, in my view. A lot of excellent content beyond the glass envelopes. The two tubes on the far left look like 4B32s.

Thanks for re-posting it here. Got a copy of it saved now.


WD-40 is excellent for protecting your vehicle's plug wires. I've found that the conservative approach works best, though. Liberal applications tend to be very wasteful and leave quite a mess for whoever comes along after to clean up. And they often end up causing more damage than good.

DeOxit is a good example. Along with being expensive, using too much can cause things like phenolic wafers to swell, rendering the associated control useless.

When all else fails, the BFH is the tool of choice.  There's one next to the AMfone server in a big, glass 'break in case of emergency' box, along with a mini fridge full of IPA. ;D

I don't think DeOxit is what it is cracked up to be.  I purcha$ed a $mall tube of it at Dayton one year.  It seems less effective in stopping noisy and flaky contacts than WD-40. The scratchy gain pot in my 75A-4 is still quiet after I sprayed it with WD-40 over ten years ago.  Before that, I had used various contact cleaners, and the scratchiness always returned after a couple of weeks. DeOxit doesn't seem any better than the other contact cleaners I have tried.  Most of the oily film in WD-40 eventually evaporates, leaving behind no gummy residue to accumulate dust or gum up the works, but the creeping ability of the fluid allows it to reach little nooks and crannies that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Damage from WD-40 might result to certain composition materials including lubricants, that are oil-soluble, but I have never had a problem with that. OTOH I have ruined plenty of things by melting away plastic or shellac when using other harsh solvents like automotive parts cleaner, acetone, denatured alcohol, etc.

For small delicate parts, I prefer to dip a piece of wire or toothpick into some WD-40 sprayed into a small bottle cap, rather than spraying it on directly or using the red tube that  comes with the can.  I also keep a few hypodermic needles on hand for applying liquids. 22-gauge veterinary needles and syringes are inexpensive and readily available from farmers supply outlets.

Larger needles/syringes, 16 gauge or  lower, work for applying small amounts of epoxy to hard-to-reach locations, although needless to say, that makes the syringe a one-time use item.

I also use stuff called "2-26",  very good control and contact cleaner.  Hard to find, but HD has small cans of it.  They used to sell larger cans but now only small ones.   But, I think WD-40 does a good job and probably, like Don said, is all you need.

Fred

Fred, what if the "hard disk" is solid state ? what liquid should we pour in it ?

I would still recommend the WD-40 treatment but maybe use a little less.  Maybe a 1/4 can for each treatment,  should work FB.

Fred

Yesterday the site started wanting to contact google.com again...this may be
the precursor to a repeat of the problem that led to the recent outage.

Peter