Latest Posts

SpaceX Sculpts Future Manned Spaceflight to Mars

March 24, 2016 0 Comments

One of the passions that has been with me since I can remember is rockets and spaceflight.  As a youth, it started with building and launching model rockets.  As I settled down in Ottawa, I got more involved into rocketry culminating into building and launching very large and very high powered rockets.  At that point, it became an obsession as I sunk several thousand dollars and hours into my hobby.  My personal best is building a 8.5′ long 6″ diameter 1/4 scale Black Brant…
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Rocket Science, Science & Tech

What’s connected on Summer Dreams? Part 5

July 3, 2015 0 Comments

If you haven’t read the previous posts in “What’s connected on Summer Dreams?”, here is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.  Continuing from my previous posts, I began to get really into networking the various systems.  The image to the left is an up-to-date picture of my helm’s 12V fuse panel with the Part 4’s image just below it for comparison. The reason why I have the two images is to explain the changes.  In the old, the white Raymarine junction box was…
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Boat Electronics, Boating Life, Electronics

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The Days of June Past

July 1, 2015 0 Comments

Canada Day Well, it’s Canada Day and the last day of my 6 day weekend break.  For everyone reading this, I hope you had a Happy Canada Day.  For myself, I was content in updating my blog as the weather was not conducive to being on the boat this weekend as planned.  As you can see the weather was so-so by 6 pm but raining off and on earlier including Tuesday.   The Start of Summer Of course, being July…
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Boating Life, Family Life

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Beginning of Boating Season 2015

May 17, 2015 0 Comments

  After towing Summer Dreams from its winter storage location on May 8th, here is a picture a week later after waxing the bottom hull.  I’m quite pleased that I’m at Rideau Ferry Harbour as they allow you to work on your boat.  In fact the owner John helped me in parking Summer Dreams, placing her next to a power/water post so that I can wash her and charge up the batteries. Rideau Ferry Harbour is located just outside Smith…
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Boating Life

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What’s connected on Summer Dreams? Part 4

May 3, 2015 0 Comments

If you haven’t read the previous posts in “What’s connected on Summer Dreams?”, here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.  In those posts, I outlined my installation of my radome, satdome, satellite radio, 3G router/wi-fi for Internet and voice line.  Follow on that installation, I installed a cockpit TV and did all the wiring to support the components.  In the case of the satdome, I had to wire the GPS to the ACU unit so that the satellite dish (in…
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Boat Electronics, Boating Life, Electronics

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What’s connected on Summer Dreams? Part 3

April 25, 2015 0 Comments

In the continuing saga of my electronics install, my attention turns to wiring.  If you haven’t read the previous posts in “What’s connected on Summer Dreams?”, here is Part 1 and Part 2.  While I had all the access holes opened up and my main panel disassembled, I began to install all the wiring and other electronics.  The first piece, which was the very first I purchased even before the radar is the Ericsson W35 router with cellular antenna.  Here’s the…
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Boat Electronics, Boating Life, Electronics

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What’s connected on Summer Dreams? Part 2

April 23, 2015 0 Comments

The following is part 2 of my series of posts on “What’s connected on Summer Dreams?”.  You can read part 1 here.  Of course, like part 1 this is a re-post from ClubSeaRay.com with some updates to make it more current and correct. Over the winter 2010, I received all the parts and began assembly. First up was dry fitting all the components, those being the ScanStrut mount, RD218, 33STV, light bar, and Sirius radio antenna. Here’s a picture of everything…
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Boat Electronics, Boating Life, Electronics

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What’s connected on Summer Dreams? Part 1

April 22, 2015 0 Comments

The following post is a re-post from ClubSeaRay.com with some updates to make it more current and correct. Of course, the best place to start is to describe what was the OEM electronics installed on my ’09 270DA.  To give a point of reference, the feature image above shows the stock helm for my boat (with all the options I got).  My 2009 270 Sundancer anniversary edition came with: Sony CDXH905IP Marine AM/FM/CD stereo with digital display remote and iPod connector….
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Boat Electronics, Boating Life, Electronics

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2015 Boating Season Begins; A Marine Radio Course and Commissioning Plans

April 16, 2015 0 Comments

I’ve officially kicked off my 2015 boating season by enrolling into the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron’s Marine Radio Course to obtain my Radio Operators Certificate (ROC-M).  Having your ROC-M was required by law for awhile but it it’s only recently that Industry Canada put more focus on it.  The most recent change is assigning the responsibility of administrating the course and exam to the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons. Getting my ROC-M is just the start of my spring…
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Boating Life

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