Siemens Gigaset S675IP, followup

We’ve been using the Gigaset phones for several months now, so i thought I’d post a followup with the longer term impressions.

It’s not all bad news.  Voice quality on intercom, landline and VoIP calls is very good.  The battery life of the handsets is really good; you can leave them out of the charger for days on end and still use them for calls.  Some of the features are pretty cool, like being able to assign custom pictures and ring tones to individual callers.  I’d like a little louder speaker phone, but it’s not too bad.  We have never used the Bluetooth connectivity, so I can’t say how well that works.  Range seems to be pretty good for a cordless; I can wander out and check the mail without losing the signal.  And, it’s really nice to be able to have to people on two different calls at the same time.

Drawbacks — I really still do miss the ability to quickly and easily just join a call in progress, like you would with any other home phone system I have ever seen.  If someone calls and you want two people on the call you have to use the intercom and conference feature.  Apparently the non-VoIP version of the phones (SL785) does this, but the S675IP is inexplicably different.

The answering machine has been a disaster.  For whatever reason it will randomly start refusing to play a message, giving you several minutes of static and noise instead.  You can’t delete the messages without either a complete reset of the base unit, or listening for several minutes until it finally stops.  I finally just stopped using the answering machine and use Asterisk voicemail instead.

There is NO way to back up the settings on the base unit;  if you ever have to reset it, be prepared to completely set everything up from scratch.  This shortcoming is about the most brain-damaged thing I have ever seen in a consumer product.

In general, I would describe this as a system with a lot of potential — ruined by a vendor that just doesn’t care.  The firmware and web interface are a virtual roach motel of bugs, and Siemens appears to have completely abandoned any attempts to fix anything.  As a result, you’ve just got to work around the nastier flaws.  Contacting tech support is largely a waste of time; the droids there have no idea how to do anything other than quote passages from the manual, and apparently their command of the English language is somewhat limited.  They seemed to be unable to comprehend things like the difference between backing up the dialing directory from a specific handset (not too hard) and the configuration of the base unit (simply not possible).

I would honestly not recommend this to anyone.  It looks really nice, and has some pretty nice features, but it’s just not “finished” — and never will be.  I’m tempted to switch over to the more friendly SL785 base unit, and just use Asterisk for all off the more advanced features.  That would though, mean giving up the ability to make multiple simultaneous calls.

Drifting toward an all-VOIP world

I’ve finally moved our old hard line over tot he VOIP server, so all of our calls go through it.  So far, so good.  I also switched from using the Siemens phones’ answering machine to Asterisk voicemail.

On the plus side, features like blacklisting now work as they should.  When a telemarketing call comes in, it takes less than half a minute to add that number to a blacklist so that number will never be able to call again.  Well, they can call, but they just gets a tone indicating that the number is out of service and are immediately disconnected.  We also have voicemail available via email, which is really nice.  On the down side, we lose call screening — the ability to listen to someone leaving a message, and answer the call if we want.  We almost never used tat feature anyway, so it’s not a big loss.

There are still a few tweaks I want to make to the system, but overall it seems to be working well.  We’re enjoying being able to use the cordless phones for simultaneous calls, for one thing — if Lisa’s on a call, I can just pick up a phone and dial.  I can also — finally — pick up calls for the house on my desk/work phone.  No more having to keep two phones on my desk, yay!

At some point I’ll port our phone number over to VOIP, and get rid of the wired line altogether.  Between the usage charges and all, it will end up saving us around $10-20 a month.  I’m occasionally shopping around for a better deal than Flowroute, but as yet I have not found one.  They’re not perfect for local service, because you pay metered rates for all calls whether they’re local or not.  I can get unlimited inbound calls for a pretty cheap rate, but calling locally still costs just under a penny a minute.  Still, you’d have to talk an awful lot to run up the bill to equal what we’re paying Cox.  And that less-than–a-penny per minute rate applies whether we’re calling across the street or anywhere in the country — so it’s still a pretty good deal.  Just not so good that I’m in a big hurry.

 

I’ve been slacking off!

Well, at least with my blog posts.  I never seem to remember to update his thing when I should.  Let’s see…  in the past few months I have not blogged about…

  • Lisa and I took the club 172 up to Norfolk for dinner.  Unfortunately, we ended  up having to call for Pete to come get us due to a minor nose gear malfunction.  A couple of days later that was fixed, and I flew the plane home.
  • We had a very nice vacation out in Breckenridge.  Gil and Nina were nice enough to let us use their condo.  We did some sightseeing, got rained on while riding a ski lift, went to Ikea in Denver, took a nice horseback ride, and generally had a really nice week.  We got to have dinner with various Jaworskis on the way home.  And… the truck averaged over 20 MPG for the entire trip.  Not too shabby!
  • Lisa and I went to the EAA Chapter 80 picnic down in Plattsmouth.  We had a pretty good time; good food, good people.  I got a ride in an RV-7, and I have to admit…  I’m hooked.  What a sweet flying airplane.  Fast, light on the controls, it almost feels like there’s no limit to what you can do.  I think the -9 or -9a would be about perfect for long trips.
  • I managed to get the third garage bay cleared out enough to use part of it for work space.  It’s not done by a long shot, but it’s a start.  I got the workbench moved out from in front of the truck, so I can get to the far side without having to go through the “garage hallway” – meaning the back seat of the truck.  I’m almost done refinishing the old stool Dad made for me back in the mid 1960s when I needed a higher chair to sit at the table.  Holly seemed to like it quite a bit, so I think it’s going over to Andrew’s place when it’s finished.
  • The kit business has been keeping me fairly busy.  I’m trying to kill off one kit and introduce two or three more.  It’s taking a lot of work.

Well, that just about catches it up, I guess.  I’ll try to post more here…  not that I expect anyone actually reads it!

 

EAA chapter 80 has a new member

Well, last night was my first EAA chaptermeeting. Lots of nice guys there, fairly interesting and lively meeting. I’d estimate there were 40-50 people attending.I got to talk to several RV builders and flyers who are flying and/or building a range of planes including a -7, -7a, -8, and I think there was a -9 builder or flyer too.  I lost track.  I’ve got a couple of offers for rides in a -6 and a -7A, which I plan to take them up on.  I’d love to find out if I even fit in the thing, if it’s reasonably comfortable flying, etc.  One guy is offering to take Lisa and me both up (one at a time, of course) when there’s a fly-in at Plattsmouth in a few weeks.

After looking at the pros and cons, I’m thinking the -7 or -7a might be a better way to go than the -9a.  While I don’t plan on any serious aerobatics, it would be nice to have that option available.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of practical differences between the -7 and -9, other than I could hang a 180HP IO-360 on it and cruise at 200 MPH.  Stall speed is a little higher, but not enough to be a real factor.  And, I’ve seen some pretty simple solutions for the baggage space issue — it looks like adding an extended baggage area for storing lightweight but bulky items like pillows and jackets would be quite simple and not cause big balance problems.

Hi, my name is Dale, and… I’m a pilot.

My check ride was scheduled for 0800 this morning.  I was up at 6, ready to go at 7… and saw I had missed a call on my cell from the DPE.  I called him back and he told me we’d have an extra passenger, an FAA guy would be doing his review of the DPE today.  No problem, he says, don’t worry, it won’t make any difference in what we do (yeah, right) but I should plan for an additional 190 pounds in the rear seats.  AWOS said 67 degrees, winds calm, it was absolutely perfect weather for flying.  I knew that would change by the time we flew, and I was right.

Ha.  Not bloody likely.  With Mr. DPE and I and 38 gallons of the finest blue Avgas available, we’re not going to squeeze an FAA guy in the back seat unless everyone can shed about 25 pounds each.  Now, I could stand to lose it all, but given the circumstances I told the DPE that the FAA guy was going to have to find another ride, we couldn’t take him.  No problem.  But why does the FAA seem to have this irresistible attraction to me anyway?  I bloody well got ramp checked a couple of weeks ago!  Pretty soon I’m going to start taking this personally.

The oral exam went pretty well.  Me, DPE and FAA Guy.  Airspace, medicals, currency, electrical systems, fuel, preflight, radios, charts, nav, on and on.  No big problems. I was shaky on spin recovery (having never done one) but muddled through. Eventually everyone was satisfied, so we went out to fly.

I’d done an incredibly detailed flight plan from MLE to ONL — O’Neill, NE, about 138nm away.  We flew to my second visual checkpoint, by which time he said it was quite obvious I knew how to navigate.  He told me I was allowed to use anything in the airplane… I didn’t even bother with the panel mounted Garmin 396 (though I did later on, when we headed home after I got disoriented “in the clouds”).  I’d left my flippin’ foggles in my flight bag, so a sectional chart was my simulated cloud for instrument flight.  Turns, descending turns, etc – no problem, drifting off heading a little more than usual for me but not bad enough to bust the ride.  I recovered quickly from the unusual attitudes.  When we “left the cloud” I did slow flight, finally ending up with a turn into an approach stall.  Then it was a power-on stall… probably my least favorite thing, about neck and neck with a root canal.  But, it worked.  My steep turn was the best I’d ever done — so good, in fact, spot on 45 degrees all the way around, altitude within 25 feet or less, and rolling out dead on heading — he said I didn’t need to bother with the other direction.

Next he wanted to see an emergency descent.  I put the plane in a full slip and a pretty good descent with the throttle at idle.  He showed me a faster way down… 60 degree bank, steep dive, we went down like a safe dropped by Wile E. Coyote.  Neat.  Maybe if there actually WERE an engine fire I’d try that.  That put us at a suitable altitude for ground reference maneuvers.  There wasn’t enough wind to make them a challenge, not that I complained about it.  Then we headed back in; I climbed to 2000 AGL until we were close to the airport, where he wanted to see short and soft field landings and takeoffs.

By now there was significant thermal turbulence and about a 7-8 knot crosswind nearly straight across the runway.  I did the short field first, and it was not pretty by any means.  My first approach was high enough that I did a go-around.  He said, “Oh, just chop the throttle and use full flaps”.  Well, that wasn’t going to be enough for me… I went around.  I wasn’t going to try to salvage an approach that crappy, DPE or no.  On the second pass I was set up a lot better and did a better job accounting for the wind.  The landing was not as smooth as I’d have liked, especially with the crosswind blowing us around, but he commented that on a short field there wasn’t a lot of time and runway for a smooth flare (and did I mention? He said there was a 50′ obstacle at the threshold.)  The touchdown attitude was good, but it was a little firmer touchdown that I had hoped for with a pax.  From there I taxied back and did a soft field takeoff, followed by what astonishingly enough was the prettiest soft field landing I think I’ve ever done.

At that point he told me to taxi back and park it.  I’d passed.  Half an hour of paperwork and logbook and debrief and all that… and I am, finally, officially, a pilot.

Oh, this thing on my face? I think they call it “perma-grin”.

Solo cross country

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted here.  As noted, though, I’ve been pretty busy!

Flight training has been moving along.  I’ve been flying a Cessna 172, mostly solo.  I passed the knowledge test last week, and am looking forward to finishing up and taking the practical test  (the “checkride”) soon.

I did my long solo cross country trip yesterday.  It was a pretty interesting ride.  As a student pilot, I have to have 5 hours of solo cross-country flying.  To be a cross country flight, one leg has to ne at least 50 nautical miles (67.5 statute miles) long.  For the long cross country, you have to land at at least three airports other than your home field.  Yesterday’s flight satisfied all of those requirements, in addition to covering two of the three required takeoffs and landings from airports with operating control towers.

The original flight plan was for KMLE (Millard) to KGRI (Grand Island, NE), a distance of 100 nautical miles (a nautical mile is equal to 1.15 “regular” statute mile) navigating by VOR (directional radio beacon) and pilotage (reading the map and looking out the window).  From there to KFSD (Sioux Falls), 172nm, also by VOR.  From KFSD I planend to go to KAIO – Atlantic, IA, 151nm.  I planned to use the GPS and/or pilotage for that — meaning pilotage, but I might cheat and cross check with the GPS.  From there I’d make the short hop back to KMLE by following the route I’ve driven countless times. It would take me through KOMA’s (Eppley Airfield) airspace, giving me a little more radio work practice.

Weather looked OK for the trip.  There was some rain south of GRI moving west, but it was going to stay south of my path.  There was also rain between GRI and FSD, but it looked like it would be clear of my route by the time I got there.  This was not to be the case.

My arrival and landing ar GRI was less than stellar.  The runway there is twice as wide as I’m used to, and when the grass disappears from your peripheral vision it’s tough to convince yourself you’re still not on the ground. I landed OK, but there was an authoritative thump.  I had planned a stop & go, but had forgotten to tell the tower that… or the fact that I was on my solo X/C.  I taxied over to the FBO and spent a couple of minutes re-hydrating and de-shaking.  It was my first solo landing anywhere other than Millard and I had just dropped in rather unceremoniously, so I was a little keyed up.

All the mistakes I made, I made at KGRI. I didn’t tell them I was a student on a solo X/C.  The landing there was the worst of the day.  I had also told the tower when I contacted them that I was 7 west… no, I was 7 east.  I made the correction, but apparently the controller didn’t hear that!  He was looking for me to the west and didn’t’ see me until I was crossing mid-field.  I told him I’d been mistaken but had corrected, which he may not have heard… he was laughing when he asked if that “W” on the compass had confused me.

Takeoff was fine, but getting to KFSD was interesting.  There was significant precipitation along the path, which I could tell I’d miss most of.  I was a little surprised to see it still west of my path, since I’d thought it would be well past there by now.  Still, none of it looked severe, just light rain.  I did fly through a little rain (another first for me) but I was well below the cloud layer and could see through it.  At one point, though, I watched as my altimeter spun from 5500 to 7000 faster than the airplane could possibly climb.  MN Center asked my altitude.  I asked for a new alitmeter setting, told them I must have crossed a front or something, because I was flying straight & level but my altimeter had just climbed 1500′ rather abruptly.  Nope, they said they showed me at 7100.  I boogied back down to 5500.  Apparently I’d caught a pretty big updraft, but it was very smooth, no turbulence at all.  I landed at KFSD and taxied over to Maverick Air — great service there.  I refueled and checked the weather; it was not pretty at all.  There was a line of storms headed right into my proposed flight path to KAIO, and now a conductive SIGMET to the south of FSD.  A conductive SIGMET means very heavy turbulence — like the “Don’t fly through this” kind of turbulence.

I waited about an hour, checking radar as I did. I checked with my CFI… I was thinking I’d just go back the way I came and pass behind the storms to the west.  He suggested I head to KONL (O’Neil, NE) for my third airport, then head south and turn east when I was clear of the storms.  By now it was getting a little later in the day than we’d have liked.  Getting back home before dark would be “iffy”, and I don’t have a logbook endorsement for solo night landings.  So I guess I’d have to either hurry up, or circle until morning.

Took off from FSD and headed direct to ONL on a VOR radial.  Oddly, there was no information I could find about the runways at ONL.  Nothing on the sectional chart, AND nothing in the airport facilities directory.  Oops.  The automated weather broadcast from O’Neil said that runway 4/22 was now officially open, so I planned to enter a downwind for 4 (winds were from 100 degrees at 5 knots).  As I got the airport in sight, though, I saw that 4/22 was a brand new, shorter crosswind runway.  I overflew and saw that 13/31 was a good choice, so I did a stop & go on 13 and was off to the races.

By now I had a text from my instructor.  Radar showed clear weather for direct to KMLE.  It was clear, but very hazy — I would say visibility was 10 miles at best, maybe less in places.  It had been hazy all day, and wasn’t getting any less so.  I wasted no time getting back home and landed just under the wire for what could be called a daytime landing… although I did turn the lights on.  While not officially night for aviation purposes, it was quite dark.  I was legal with about five minutes to spare.  I got to see a ton of fireworks going off as I got back over the Omaha burbs; it was pretty cool as a “big picture” although the fireworks themselves would be better seen from the ground.  Certainly the cool factor of seeing EVERYONE’s fireworks from the air instead of just what you can see from the ground, makes it worth doing at least once.

 

Busybusybusybusybusy

More stuff going on than I can keep track of.  Prioritizing things becomes a real challenge.

  • Work (my day job)
  • HamGadgets – getting orders processed, assembling keyers, etc.  I try to keep up but sometimes get a few days behind.  I’m trying to get ahead of things, but it’s tough.
  • New product development for Hamgadgets.  I have two new products in the works and need to start two more.
  • Flying.  I joined Skyhawk Flying Club, so I’ve now got access to three new airplanes (one of which is a basic trainer).  I’m also flying with a new instructor, and it’s going really well.
  • Private pilot knowledge test study.  I really do need to take the knowledge test (used to be the “written” test, but now it’s all computerized) ASAP.  I just need another few hours of study.
  • I’m writing a Dummies book (no, nothing that would interest you).
  • Taking care of the yard, the house, etc.
  • Finishing up a couple of projects, including some register covers for Allison & Tom

There are probably things I’m missing…  I just don’t have time to write any more right now.

 

Removing slashes from Word-generated PDF file bookmarks

This has been bugging the hell out of me for a while now.  I write my user manuals in Word 2007, and export them as PDF files for inclusion on the HamGadgets web site as well as on the CD-ROMs I ship with each order.

Once in a while, I get an extraneous slash character in the PDF file bookmarks.  This always happens on a page where I have a diagram or picture embedded.  For example, this time it was the page of the ID-O-Matic manual that has the schematic diagram.  I could play around with moving the picture, etc — sometimes I could make the problem WORSE, but never better.  One time it showed up with a completely new bookmark, just a slash on a line by itself, which took me to the picture — not the page heading.  Eureka.

Turns out — your embedded picture can have text format attributes set, just like text can.  The picture in question got added with a “Heading 3” attribute, which made it show up in the PDF bookmarks.  Since it was a picture with no text, it jsut had a slash for the bookmark.  Depending on exactlyhow things were laid out, it could show up either prepended to the heading (like “/Schematic“) or on a line all by itself.  I imagine it would have probably shown up in the TOC if I’d added one.  I selected the picture, hit the Normal text format button, re-saved as PDF…  end of problem.

Word Help was useless, as usual, and Google searches for this turned up almost nothing.  There was a post to a M$ Office forum from someone in Holland with the exact same problem, posted in 2010 and with no replies posted.  I’m not going to sign up to that forum so I can “necropost” the fix, but maybe this blog entry till get indexed and save someone else some trouble.

 

How many do we have to do??

My life has become a routine…  work, sleep, touch & go.  Yeesh.  Last Friday it was an hour of crosswind T&G practice, with truly disappointing results.  The landings were just horrible.  Tuesday winds were calm and we did an hour of normal T&G, most of which were pretty good or better.  Yesterday (Wed.) it was back to gusting crosswinds, but this time I had a much better handle on it.  We did seven rounds, and most of them were passable if not the smoothest.  I’m at 19 hours now, and I’m finally feeling that I can land without assistance.  The last two we did yesterday ended up high and steep on final.  If I hadn’t had an instructor in the plane, I’d have either gone around or shallowed out the approach and landed farther down the runway for a full stop.  In retrospect, I should have said & done just that.  There is absolutely nothing to be gained by trying to salvage a poor landing to the point where the CFI feels the need to assist.

I’m flying again today at 6.  My goal is to keep his hands and feet completely clear of the controls for the entire flight.