CQ CQ CQ #HamRadio Saturday – NYC, stuff I don’t understand, and #UnaVoce

I set up on Twitter FrZ_HamRadio so we might more easily make contacts on the fly.  I believe KD8ZFF also set something up.  He can chime in with details.

During my recent too brief trip to New York City I was able to make contacts using Echolink via iPhone while sitting outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while waiting to meet someone (another kind of QSO) and also in Bryant Park.  Next, I used Echolink aboard an airplane and made a contact with someone on a train!

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Thanks to WB0YLE for being so generous.  More on him below.

I went to the only ham radio store in Manhattan, which is a stone’s throw away from Holy Innocents Church.  There isn’t much to report about this place, except that the fellow who runs it is both friendly and chatty… when he is there.  I ran into a closed door the first time I tried to visit.

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But the next day I had more success…

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You should probably call first.

Next, I am getting feedback about the QSL cards I sent.  They are arriving.  I am trying to figure out the best timing for me to get that vanity call.  I suppose I should just pull the trigger.  Or did I just commit a micro-aggression?  Sorry… I intended a hyper-macro aggression.

Meanwhile, also through the kindness of WB0YLE some possibilities are opening up about a Catholic Net.  He sent me a few mails about technical things.  I imagine that this is how some readers might react when I write about Latin.  For example:

building these up; full asterisk and echolink node with a radio adapter on top; have it working with a wouxun in simplex right now.  Raspberry pi computer, etc.  can also hang a wifi dongle on it, and pair to a phone hotspot…to get on the net Just In Case with an RF link.

I believe this has to do with remote operation of a station.

But of my living situation – which is suboptimal at best for good antenna placement and a place to work – I would like to find a way to work a station remotely.  Right now, where I have my antenna is sort of like a Faraday cage.  Not good.  I can still get out, but…

And now a happy conjunction of Traditional Liturgy and Ham Radio….

I received an email from the head of the newly formed Una Voce chapter in La Crosse, WI.  They had their first event recently.    You can see some pictures at their web site, www.unavocelacrosse.org.  They want me to attend an event sometime.  HA! Say I.  Invite me to sing a Mass for you. I generally can’t drive across the state only to sit in choir.

As it turns out, the nice fellow who wrote is a Ham, as are his chilluns’.  He wrote (I’ll for now blank the callsigns unless he wants to make them visible himself):

On an unrelated note, my son ___ (currently a junior in chemical engineering at ___) mentioned to me that you are a ham.

We’re a ham radio family — I’m W9HQ, my son is _____, wife _____ is ____, and eldest daughter is _____.  We’re prodding the younger two girls to start studying for the Technician exam.  I am very active in VHF-UHF weak-signal work and host a modest blog, Standing Waves. It would be great to connect on the air sometime.  We don’t have an Echolink node here in La Crosse, but perhaps when I get my new gain vertical antenna for 2 meters on the roof I’ll be able to hit a repeater in Madison and we coull chat.  Or if you ever get on 160 or 80 meters, all the better.  And having you on 144 MHz single side band would ice the cake.

That would be icing indeed.  Let’s try to make that work.

And, sincerely, I’d like some cooperation of that chapter with my own Tridentine Mass Society of Madison (which accepts tax deductible donations).

Also, check out his cool Ham Radio blog.  HERE  Kudos.

Remember: More than one person can connect via Echolink to WB0YLE-R.  Use it!

Ham Radio and Traditional Latin Mass.  Non plus ultra.

KC9ZJN (for a little while longer)
73

 

Posted in Ham Radio | Tagged , , , , , ,
68 Comments

On friends

On friends

Click

With a tip of the biretta to the Laudator:

And even with the friendships we make later in life, founded not on accidental association, but on a real community of tastes and interests, how seldom they last a lifetime, or anything like a lifetime! Destiny shuffles our partners for us; one friend or the other gets a different job, goes to live somewhere else; it may only mean changing from one suburb to another, but how easily we make an excuse of distance! More and more as we grow older, we find that the people we see most of are recent acquaintances, not (perhaps) very congenial to us, but chance has thrown them in our way. And meanwhile the people we used to know so well, for whom we once entertained such warm feelings, are now remembered by a card at Christmas, if we can succeed in finding the address. How good we are at making friends, when we are young; how bad at keeping them! How eagerly, as we grow older, we treasure up the friendships that are left to us, like beasts that creep together for warmth!

Msgr. Ronald A. Knox (+1957)
Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), p. 328.
UK HERE

Posted in HONORED GUESTS | Tagged , ,
13 Comments

Great analysis of some Synod issues – VIDEO

On EWTN my friend Fr. Gerald Murray is doing analysis of the workings of the Synod.  He made some outstanding observations yesterday.

NB: If you need a recommendation to watch it, Fishwrap‘s MS Winters viewed the program from his Fainting Couch and didn’t much like what he saw.  HERE

May I recommend these moments in the video (below):

Start at 3:45 and get his comment about the danger of sociology replacing theology, about describing how people live and then falling into the trap of conforming the Church to shifting mores.

Start at 8:45 about the reporting about what is going on in the Synod.

Start at 11:15 – Is this Synod rigged? The danger of process overcoming product. (Channeling his inner McLuhan) And get his comments about Card. Kasper’s proposal.

Start at 12:30 for how the Church should talk about homosexuals. Includes a video clip of Fr. Thomas Rosica (so you can get a sample of his style). The “embracing reality as it is” comment is like what Fr. Murray said about sociology replacing theology.  In a way, this is a variation on what Robert Stark wrote about Card. Kasper’s approach: in a nutshell, politics replaces philosophy.  Doctrine shifts according to how people feel, etc.

Start at 17:15 to get how bishops are bringing in issues that have nothing to do with the work of the Synod (like ordination of women… what could be more irrelevant than that?)

Start at 19:45 for how the faithful must raise their voices in defense of Catholic doctrine.

Play video

 

Posted in Synod, The Drill | Tagged , ,
31 Comments

9 Oct – Feast of Bl. J.H. Newman: “To be deep in history” Mug

It’s the feast (in some places and for some groups) of Bl. John Henry Newman.  Who can forget his beatification by Benedict XVI?

Also, Fr. Hunwicke has a note about Bl. John Henry and the Synod.  HERE

Those of you who may be new readers may not know about the mug I made with a phrase of Bl. John Henry Newman: “To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.“

Around this Synod perhaps we could say, “begin to be Catholic”?

Thinking back on the course of my own conversion, the elements which made it easier to take the plunge, and considering the growing projects of the Anglican Ordinariates, and also remembering that Benedict XVI – the Pope of Christian Unity – beatified John Henry Newman…. I put the phrase on a coffee mug.

Fill yours with Mystic Monk Coffee as soon as humanly possible.9 Oct - Feast of Bl. J.H. Newman: "To be deep in history" Mug

Here is a shot of the regular sized coffee mug… I’ll bet you could put your yogurt and granola in it too.

To be deep in history

The Z-Swag Store is HERE.

A shot of the larger coffee mug.. I’ll bet that you could put … hot chocolate in it too!

T

You see that for this mug I really wrapped the design across most of its surface.

Here is the largest mug, the stein.  I suspect that this might be coaxed into holding a beer.

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The image itself (it’s larger on the mugs):

To be deep in history

Here are three shots of the ur-mug, the larger coffee mug.   It is made from the same durable stuff I punished for years in the microwave and dishwasher.  Though I don’t have a dishwasher now… other than my hands.

9 Oct - Feast of Bl. J.H. Newman: "To be deep in history" Mug

9 Oct - Feast of Bl. J.H. Newman: "To be deep in history" Mug

9 Oct - Feast of Bl. J.H. Newman: "To be deep in history" Mug

I also made another version, with the phrase tighter on one side to make it easier to read:

9 Oct - Feast of Bl. J.H. Newman: "To be deep in history" Mug

 

After years of treating these things with great brutality in the nuclear reactor and the bottom rack of the washer near the heat, I succeeded in getting a crack in one of them, cosmetic, but not fatal.

It might start a conversation.   But I suggest that before flashing it about, you might brush up on why being deep in history leads to the Catholic Church.

 

Posted in The Campus Telephone Pole | Tagged , ,
4 Comments

END OF WORLD! #Synod15 or Globe Killing Asteroid?

END OF WORLD! #Synod15 or Globe Killing Asteroid?We don’t know the time or place, but we will on day die and face our Judge.

I saw this at NASA after a priest friend alerted me to it.  He went to confession … I’m just sayin’.

At Express I saw this:

Shock as NASA confirms asteroid TWO MILES wide will pass close to Earth TOMORROW

A HUGE asteroid measuring almost two miles across will skim past Earth tomorrow, Nasa has confirmed.

[What could go wrong?]

It should fly safely past earth, but astronomers are keeping a close eye on 86666 (2000 FL10) which, according to NASA, will be one of the biggest to pass close to our planet in recent times.

The giant lump of rock is currently hurtling through space at 40,000 miles an hour. The asteroid’s exact size is still unclear though it is estimated to be between 0.7miles metres and 1.6 miles wide – more than 15 times bigger than other asteroids currently on Nasa’s radar.

A collision would be nothing short of catastrophic with the rock fragment thought to be around a quarter of the size of Mount Everest.

Nasa has released an animated projection of the asteroid’s path, which you can watch below. 86666 appears from the top left of the screen as it nears Earth’s orbit.

[…]

Everyone… for the love of God…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Synod Fathers… for the love of God…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Play video

Posted in Four Last Things, Global Killer Asteroid Questions, GO TO CONFESSION, Look! Up in the sky! |
16 Comments

9 October: St. Abraham, patriarch

9 October: St. Abraham, patriarchBefore I forget, as I did yesterday, 9 October was the feast of St. Abraham, partriarch of the Old Testment.  Here is the entry in the newest edition of the Martyrologium Romanum with a translation:

3. Commemoratio sancti Abrahae, patriarchae et omnium credentium patris, qui, Domino vocante, ab urbe Ur Chaldaeorum, patria sua, egressus est et per terram erravit eidem et semini eius a Deo promissam.  Item totam fidem suam in Deo manifestavit, cvm, sperans contra spem, unigenitum Isaac ei iam seni a Domino datum ex uxore sterili in sacrificum offerre non renuit.  …

The commemoration of Saint Abraham, patriarch and father of all believers, who, since the Lord was calling him, went froth from the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, his home land, and wandered through the land promised by God to him and to his seed.  He manfiested his complete faith in God when, hoping against hope, he did not refrain from offering in sacrifice his only-begotten son Isaac, given by the Lord to him, an old man, from his sterile wife.

 

Nothing is impossible with God.

For the Fathers, Abraham is a great “type” or foreshadowing figure.  Some, such as St. Ambrose (+397) for example, and St. Jerome (+420) took his journey from Ur to the Promised Land to exemplify the journey of purification necessary for union with God.  For Origen, his obedience in offering up Isaac as faith in the resurrection.   Others see Abraham and Isaac, ascending the hill for the sacrifice, as, together, a foreshadowing of Christ the Priest who is also Victim.

A propos the limbo debate, the “bosom of Abraham” is considered sometimes as an intermediate place between heaven and hell where the just are consoled while awaiting the final resurrection (this is what Tertullian thought) or the refuge of eternal peace (Ambrose, De obitu Valent. 72).

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged
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Questions about how you recite the Holy Rosary. POLLS

OL RosaryI am curious about how you readers recite the Rosary.  There are regional and cultural variations.

Context: I found my old audio files of my recitation of the Rosary in Latin that I used on my old Ustream feed (back when I had one – remember that?).  I am considering working up a new version.

Some people like to add the “Fatima Prayer” after each mystery.

Some people like to a short phrase about each mystery during each “Hail Mary”. Such as

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus… He Who was crowned with thorns for us. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen.

Some people add the Litany of Loreto at the end.

Let’s have some polls.  Please respond in all three, if you can.

When I say the Rosary...

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When I say the Rosary...

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When I say the Rosary...

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Posted in Our Catholic Identity, POLLS | Tagged , ,
68 Comments

Card. Napier corrects part-time papal spokesperson – UPDATE

cardinal-wilfrid-fox-napier

1726 GMT: I just saw Card. Napier live on EWTN who had come directly from the Synod Hall.

He made a bit of a correction to his own correction/addition of Fr Rosica.  Be sure to pay attention to this.

____

ORIGINAL Published on: Oct 9, 2015 @ 09:42

‘Bout time.

This comes from LifeSite.

Wilfrid Card. Napier, Archbishop of Durban in South Africa spoke up in defense of Jesus today.  Rather, he spoke up in the defense of the rest of Jesus’ message of mercy and compassion.  When the Lord encountered sinners, rather, when sinners encountered the Lord during His earthly life, the Lord tried to take them out of their sin and to God through conversion: “Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.”  That last part is necessary.  Leave it out and you distort every other aspect of Christ’s saving mission.

Card. Napier used the tweetosphere to make a point.  My emphases and comments.

Leading African cardinal critiques Vatican spokesman Fr. Rosica

ROME, October 9, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – South African Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, a leading cardinal on the organizing committee for the Synod on the Family, issued a pointed critique on Twitter of a controversial report on the Synod by the Vatican’s English-language spokesman, Fr. Thomas Rosica, in which the priest emphasized that the Church should “embrace reality” in dealing with sinful situations.

Rosica’s summary of Synod fathers’ addresses at Tuesday’s press briefing was widely criticized for its emphasis on liberal proposals and the strong language he used to describe them. [Could it be that he has a personal agenda?]The remarks fueled ongoing concerns from last year’s Synod about the manipulation of the message by the Vatican press office and the Synod’s organizing body. [There must be 50 ways to rig a Synod.  Use of the presser is one of them.]

After the press conference, Salt and Light TV, Rosica’s Toronto-based media organization, tweeted out a link to an article about Rosica’s remarks, saying, “Fr. Rosica Speaks on Synod Delegates, The Need to Embrace People Where They Are.”

In reply, Napier tweeted: “‘Meet people where they are’ sounds nice, but is that what Jesus did? Didn’t he rather call them away from where they were?” [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

15_10_09_Napier_tweet

At Tuesday’s press conference, Rosica had said, “There must be an end to exclusionary language and a strong emphasis on embracing reality as it is. We should not be afraid of new and complex situations. [?] … The language of inclusion must be our language, always considering pastoral and canonical possibilities and solutions.”

Napier has been among the more outspoken tradition-minded Synod fathers. His criticism of last year’s controversial interim report at the Synod, given at a Vatican press conference, made international headlines. “The message has gone out and it’s not a true message,” he said. “Whatever we say hereafter is going to be as if we’re doing some damage control.” [And that has been proven true.]

“The message has gone out that this is what the Synod is saying, this is what the Catholic Church is saying, and it’s not what we are saying at all,” he said. “No matter how we try correcting that … there’s no way of retrieving it.”

Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins spoke on a similar theme as Napier’s tweet during his intervention at the Synod this year, emphasizing the need to promote repentance and conversion while the Church accompanies people. He described his three-minute speech to Catholic News Service on Thursday. [Remember: the rules of the Synod have been rigged in such a way that we have to get what Synod members said through circuitous routes.]

“The truest compassionate mercy is a compassion that challenges,” explained the cardinal. [Right on.] He said meeting people “where they are” comes first, “but that is only the first thing. The second thing is to help them become what God wants them to be.” [And that does not include committing sodomy.  That does not include reception of Communion in the state of sin.]

“Just to have accompaniment as people are moving in the direction away from the Lord is not enough. We need to be with them in order to help people to follow our Lord,” he added.

 

Posted in Fr. Z KUDOS, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Synod | Tagged , , , ,
42 Comments

8 October – Thoughts about the Synod at this point

It seems that His Eminence George Card. Pell made a statement from the floor suggesting that the composition of the group appointed to write the Final Report was not all that it could be.

It seems that, then, the Pope himself shut that down.

A couple things follow.

First, since His Holiness stomped on Card. Erdo the General Relator, for his opening speech and then stomped, or at least kicked a little, Card. Pell for his suggestions about the writing committee, then I suppose that Pope Francis now “owns” this Synod. Whatever the results, they are his.

Second, a question is raised. If the Synod is all about involvement and consultation and participation and sharing, etc. Why was Card. Pell’s suggestion about the Final Report committee not more warmly received? A while back we heard reports that the Final Report was already being written. Could that have anything to do with it?

Moderation queue is on.

MEANWHILE … HERE

Posted in Synod | Tagged ,
85 Comments

My View For Awhile: Domum

Off I go.  I wish I had a few more days in NYC (provided the weather was good).
My View For Awhile: Domum

Skype conversations (at a discreet volume) in the lounge, and now off to the gate.

UPDATE:

My View For Awhile: Domum
Now deploying the Muji Bag.

My View For Awhile: Domum

14 in line for take off.  Ahhh LaGuardia!

My View For Awhile: Domum

My View For Awhile: Domum
My View For Awhile: Domum

My View For Awhile: Domum
In the air…

My View For Awhile: Domum

My View For Awhile: Domum

 

UPDATE

Next leg.

So far not a lot of drama. We were quite late out of LGA but made up some time.  By now I build a little extra time into changes.

Boarding and taxiing will take longer than the fight.

My View For Awhile: Domum
My View For Awhile: Domum
On the last leg I fired up Echolink and made a contact with WB0YLE, who was on a train!  Interesting QSO.

Speaking of contacts… the guy behind me is loudly up-talking to someone named “Lisa” who is, apparently, “da man”.

It’s a strange world.

Also, from the open cockpit I hear a mechanical but nonetheless urgent message repeating: “Windshear ahead! Windshear ahead!” I’m glad we are still parked at the gate.

UPDATE

My fights often have soundtracks.  Sometimes it’s Bach, sometimes Beijing opera.

As I landed today…

Play video

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
4 Comments