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Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

Friday, May 24, 2019

Nigerian Knack: Hope Emmanuel Frank



I hope this kid has a lot of success.  He definitely has The Knack. 

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Rocket Knack in the Congo


Ground control for Mr. Keka’s space program is a shed with a tin roof. Inside are old computers and televisions.

This guy clearly has a rocketry version of The Knack.  Busted by the police for a match-stick rocket at age 17,  Jean Patrice stuck with his dreams of a Congolese space program.  Years later, when the rat flying in one of his rockets crashed and burned, he declared that the varmint had "died for science."  Indeed he did.  That is what I said about the lizards and mice killed in the payload chamber of my Astron X-Ray Estes rocket during the late 1960's.  A moment of silence please...

Imagine how difficult it would be to make any progress on something like this in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Godspeed Jean-Patrice! 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/one-africans-personal-space-race-turns-vermin-into-astronauts-1446239060

Saturday, February 14, 2015

This Kid has THE KNACK TO THE MAX! And is in the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards! (VIDEO)



Oh man, we've all been there in one form or another.  The struggle, the frustration, then, THE TRIUMPH!  I love when his mother drops the plate.  
Thanks to John KC0BMF

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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Gravity Light -- A Potential Power Source for QRP Ops in the Field


Nice idea.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Thursday, November 22, 2012

African Knack


Thanks to Allan, WA9IRS, for sending us this inspiring video. Just the right touch for Thanksgiving. This kid is definitely one of us. Let's try to think of ways to help him. Parts box? Radio books?

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Hallicrafters' Radio-Erotica


Wow, back in the day the marketing suits from Hallicrafters apparently really knew how to attract the attention of 15 year-old guys interested in short-wave listening.  Could that ad have ever possibly run in stuffy old QST?  It certainly would have attracted my attention.  I suspect many a young amateur would have been looking to sign up for a DX-pedition. Thanks to Bob, KD4EBM, for alerting us to this unusual bit of 1950s radio-erotica.    

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Success! Uganda WSPR Station On The Air!

Isn't it beautiful? Like an RF palm tree rising out of Uganda. That's a map display of the stations that have received the WSPR signals of 5X7JD in the last 24 hours. Not bad considering that Jack's rig is running one watt and that we are in the midst of a pretty massive geomagnetic storm.
This is a beautiful story for several reasons: Technically, the rig is very elegant. But even more appealing is the human aspect of this operation: This is a real "International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards" story. First, Jack Dunigan goes to Kampala to help kids who are struggling with AIDS. Then Gernot, OE1FM, jumps in and designs and builds an ingenious rig that will allow Jack to run a WSPR beacon from Uganda. For more details, check out Jack's web site: http://hamradiosafari.com/ I got a kick out of his mention of a certain station in Rome that is running a 200 mW WSPR beacon. (And I'm looking forward to Jack's article on Kampala's "Radio Row" -- I suspect it will be a lot like Santo Domingo's.) Three cheers for Jack! Three cheers for Gernot! Three cheers for Joe Taylor! Three cheers for the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

African WSPRs -- Homebrew, QRP, and International Brotherhood

Jeff, K07M, and others have noticed that the WSPR system's maps show very few stations in Africa. Gernot, OE1IFM, has launched a fascinating project to help fill this WSPR-gap. He has designed and built a stand-alone WSPR transmitter. No computer is required. It is all in two little boxes. It pumps out 1 watt of WSPR signal. And -- get this -- it jumps around from band to band, transmitting a sequence of WSPR signals on all of the HF ham bands. WSPR requires good synchronization. How, you might ask, does Gernot keep these rigs in synch without a computer and without the internet? No problem: He uses time signals from GPS satellites! Bravo Gernot! One of these rigs is currently on the air from Namibia (V53ARC). You can see it in the screen shot above (taken this morning).
Here is Gernot's creation. Isn't that beautiful? Note the "Homebrewed by OE1IFM" markings on the boards. Truly inspiring stuff!
But there's more: A while back we had a blog entry on Jack Dunigan, 5X7JD. Jack is in Uganda, helping kids who are living with AIDS. Today, one of Gernot's WSPR rigs is scheduled to be delivered to Jack. So soon we should be seeing WSPRs out of Uganda.

You guys should check out Gernot's web pages on this project:
http://www.oe1ifm.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=53
His site is filled with really interesting technincal info on this amazing rig.

I found this endeavor to be inspiring at many levels: There is obviously a lot of Knack here, and this is a very good example of what the "International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards" can do.

Friday, January 15, 2010

5X7JD: Tuna-Tin To... Uganda

SolderSmoke listeners might recall that Jack Dunigan e-mailed me prior to his move to Uganda. Jack had been listening to our stories about QRSS and WSPR and was thinking about setting up an East African beacon. Jack in now in Uganda and on the air as 5X7JD. He has a beautiful and very interesting blog. Check it out:

http://hamradiosafari.com/

(Jack: Maybe run WSPR using your computer and the Icom at low power, and then use the Tuna-Tin-Two for a separate QRSS beacon. You need an SSB rig for WSPR, but a simple K1EL keyer hooked up to the Tuna-Tin is all you would need for visual QRSS. The TT may need some modification to put it on 30 meters. Let us know if you need help, parts, crystals, etc. It would be a real hoot to have a Tuna Tin beacon from Uganda!)

Jack's blog is filled not only with tales of ham radio in Africa and Jack's personal radio roots (in his Dad's TV repair shop), but there is also information about the work that took Jack and his wife to Africa. Here is his description of it:

Aidchild, the organization for whom I work here in Uganda, cares for orphans living with Aids. There are two homes filled with kids for whom we care completely. This means we provide complete care because they are in every respect our own children. We also provide clinical and laboratory services for about 3000 more children. All of this costs money, lots of it. You can check us out at www.aidchild.org

We raise money through donations, but we also have started businesses here in Uganda to provide funds. We have an art gallery and shop at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, a gallery and cafe on the Equator, and a restaurant here in Masaka called Ten Tables (any guess as to how many tables there are?). But caring for Aids children is not inexpensive. So we can always use more funds.

From Jack's postings you also get a sense of the personal sacrifices and hardships that come with his kind of work: scroll down to his posting about malaria and you will see what I mean. As we all watch the suffering in Haiti, it is a good time to think about the many good people like Jack and his wife who are working hard to help our fellow human beings in difficult third-world areas.

Speaking of Haiti, of course the situation is unspeakably bad. We feel real connections to it: My wife is from the same island (from the Dominican Republic). When I was stationed in Santo Domingo, I traveled to Port-au-Prince, and went to many of the places that you now see (crumbled) on TV. Here in Rome, the principal at our kids' school is Haitian. And I have friends in our embassy there. As a kid, one of my first DX contacts was with HH2JT -- Jules Tomar (I still remember getting his QSL). I see that the good fellows at G-QRP have made a contribution to the relief efforts. We should all follow their lead. Graham, G3MFJ, reports that the club made their donation to :
http://www.dec.org.uk/donate_now/

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A Report from South Africa

Hi Bill

Africa "field QRP station"
Thanks for another great episode of your experiences - I'm tuning in from Africa while on my vacation Each December I make the trek from San Diego to Cape Town.
Then, my Dad (zs1xd) and I take the family out to a remote
location - and setup a field station. Around the camp-fire, under the Milky Way and no rf-pollution is a great way to hunt some dx and spend vacation time. This year
we selected a cabin located in a beautiful mountainous region about 100 miles north of Cape Town. 2 wheel vehicle will get you there and "just in case" , we
also took a capable 4x4 with.
I posted some pics and QRP HF operating notes here: http://k6wh.blogspot.com/

"SMT"
I'm following your Softrock SMT construction comments with keen interest and am glad you're finding the challenge - well - "not so much of a challenge"
I think it's so great that you're encouraging hams to jump into SMT.
I chuckled at your comment about "desoldering smt's" - Try de-soldering the Si570 SMT chip. I had the good fortune of measuring messing up the
"measure 10 x then cut once" when soldering this IC on the rxtx kit. Well - we know a mistake will happen, and when it happens, murphy's law will ensure
that it involves the most sensitive and tricky smt component on the board - hi.

It's a real trick, due to the contacts being under the chip (no pins like the other smts)
Well - try de-soldering that piece. And of course one realizes the mistake, only once the last solder joint has dried. Determined to correct the mistake there and then,
at 9pm while busy with the kit, I rushed off to the nearest radio shack to get some de-solder wick. Took me about 1 hr of patience, and careful "wicking" to suck
up all the solder underneath the chip - one contact at a time, (each desolder attempt, hoping the chip pops loose) - no easy task. I don't know of another easy way
than lots of patience, and a good magnifying glass.

I agree there is no greater reward than "homebrew" and with the advances in SDR tech, we're surely living in a wonderful age.

Once you get the SDR on-air, I'm sure you'll be blown away by the reception quality - sensitivity and especially the almost non-existent noise-floor.
(I'm not sure which model you're building, but I think all of Tony's designs are utilize the same Tayloe detector design which is very quiet)

I still can't believe the performance I get with the Softrock's kit - It's now become an antenna measuring instrument - While having fun with PSK QSO's and WSPR.
Of course, with the SDR one can adjust the output (via soundcard drive) to basically uW levels.

As we know, at these levels, each little bit of antenna optimization helps, and SDR+WSPR/PSK has become my "far field antenna measurement tool" of choice.

WSPR from Africa
Not too many stations active on WSPR on the African continent - Now that I've setup my Dad on DSL, I assisted him in activating his WSPR station in
Cape Town (ZS1XD). His antenna is a 20m homebrew 2 el yagi. I'm pointing it north during the evenings to see if n2cqr pops up in the log. Nothing yet, but I'm sure
one of these days, you may just be surprised. Keep watching for the Africa report :)

thank you again for such a great entertaining and educational program ...
73 - best wishes to you and the family from the tip of Africa.
de deon (k6wh)/zs

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Kid in Malawi Builds Homebrew Wind Power System

This is a very nice story. Inspirational stuff. Young William Kamkwamba wanted to bring electricity to his family. So he went to a library, got some plans for a windmill, then gathered the parts and built one.
http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Homebrew Hero: Sir Douglas Hall


Sir Douglas Hall is one of my homebrew heroes. When he passed away in 2004, a picture similar to the one above appeared next to his obit in several of the UK newspapers. I clipped that picture and taped it into my log book.

Here's a great web site with Sir Douglas's articles:

http://www.spontaflex.free-online.co.uk/

The intro from an old article by Sir Douglas in the in the UK magazine "The Radio Constructor":
The writer lives in Northern Rhodesia and his nearest neighbors are 25 miles away. The nearest town, cinema, doctor and electric light mains are 77 miles away by a road that is not always passable. Wireless is therefore supremely important but there are several problems in the design of a receiver suitable for these conditions. It must be very sensitive to provide reliable reception from Daventry (a transmitter site in the UK) under all conditions. And it must be very economical owing to the high cost of batteries in these parts. ------------------------------------------------------------
From "The Telegraph" (UK)

Sir Douglas Hall, 14th Bt, who has died aged 95, ended a full career in the Colonial Service as the last Governor of the Somaliland Protectorate; previously, he had for almost 30 years served in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

Hall's governorship of Somaliland was short. He was appointed with effect from July 11 1959; less than a year later, he and his wife flew out of the territory a few hours prior to the ceremony, on June 26 1960, that concluded the transfer of power to the new self-governing authority.

The time-scale had been set by the approaching end, after a 10-year period, of the Italian stewardship of the UN Trusteeship of Somalia to the south. If the Somalis of the Protectorate were to unite with their neighbours at the time of the independence of Somalia on July 1, the June 26 date had to be met.

Yet there was nothing over-hasty about Hall's management of the transition. Iain Macleod, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, wrote to him afterwards praising his "speedy command of the confidence of the people enabling the final transfer of power to take place so smoothly and yet so rapidly".

It was not only a grateful Colonial Secretary who voiced his appreciation. Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, the new country's first prime minister, wrote to Hall more than 30 years later recalling "the quiet, always helpful counsel you gave me at that momentous turning point in Somaliland's destiny".

Douglas Basil Hall was born on February 1 1909 (his eldest brother's 11th birthday), the third son of Captain Lionel Hall, an officer in the 4th South Staffordshire Regiment. The baronetcy, of Nova Scotia, was created for John Hall, of Dunglass, in 1687.

From Radley, Douglas Hall went up to Keble College, Oxford, and then in 1930 joined the Colonial Administrative Service. He soon found himself one of 12 cadets - "all bursting with energy," he remembered - bound for Northern Rhodesia, which until 1924 had been administered by the British South Africa Company. The group of cadets - including "three Varsity Blues, two oarsmen, one amateur pilot, one hunter, and a wireless enthusiast [Hall] who later developed into an expert in that field" - made the long sea voyage to Cape Town, and then the rail journey up to Livingstone on the Zambezi.

In those days, there were still people living in the territory who had actually known David Livingstone. In other ways, too, it was a world away from today: one of Hall's colleagues, for instance, had a private income sufficiently large for him never to bother about cashing his pay cheques.

Hall became a District Officer in 1932, and for the next 18 years worked sure-footedly within that colonial administrative culture that sought to balance a maximum of respect for local custom and practice - and, indeed, structures of power - with British notions of justice and development.

He proved as adept in remote bush stations as in such urban postings as Kitwe, where the development of the copper mines was bringing with it new forms of labour relations and new challenges in maintaining the trust of the local people. Here Hall won an early reputation for skilful diplomacy.

It was, though, life in the bush that he enjoyed the most, in particular going on tour. A District Officer was expected to maintain personal contact with the peoples of his district and this meant getting out, often on foot and for long periods of time, to tour the villages and settlements. Whenever possible, Hall was accompanied by his wife Rachel, who joined him in Africa in 1933, and by their young children. From time to time, the family also stayed with the Gore Brownes, whose house, Shiwa Ngandu, has since been immortalised in Christina Lamb's book Africa House.

Colleagues viewed Hall as a commanding figure, fair, respected and likeable. In his book African Sunset, Robin Short wrote that Hall "was the ideal to all of us of what a District Officer should be. In appearance distinguished, his manner was exactly the same to junior clerks as to senior officers, always equable and courteous. Always he seemed in complete control of every aspect of the work, of every corner of the Province."

Hall was promoted Senior District Officer in 1950, and in 1952 became the first Officer-in-Charge of the North-Western Province, which had been created in consequence of a report that Hall himself had produced. He was promoted Provincial Commissioner in 1953 and Administrative Secretary in 1954.

He was then Secretary for Native Affairs to the Government of Northern Rhodesia from 1956 to 1959 (Acting Secretary, 1958), working in the central administration in Lusaka. He proved an able speaker in the Legislative Council and later an important contributor within the Executive Council.

Although only 50, Hall was on the point of retirement when he was invited to go to Somaliland. He accepted - having (with some pride) wrung an exceptional agreement from the Colonial Office that he could draw his pension while earning his governor's salary, provided he did not build up a second pension.

Professing neither modernism nor tradition, Hall always did what he believed appropriate for the time, the place and the people. When it became difficult for the Somaliland Scouts to provide him with an ADC for all occasions, he appointed his personal assistant, now Betty Thom, to the role. A woman ADC without military rank was a rarity in those days, though as far as Hall was concerned he was simply making sensible use of a capable person.

On leaving Somaliland, Hall was still only 51. But he and his wife decided to settle at Ringmore, in Devon. He became a magistrate and then chairman of the Kingsbridge bench, and was a member of the Devon and Cornwall Police Authority from 1971 to 1979. He also took the opportunity to spend much more time on an interest that had begun when he was a schoolboy of 15: the design and making of wirelesses.

The design principle of these was of great interest to other enthusiasts. More than 100 articles, with circuit diagrams, construction advice and commentary on the electronic design principle, were published in the magazines Radio Constructor and Radio Bygones between 1964 and 1999. There is now a website called "The Ingenious Circuits of Sir Douglas Hall".

He could as easily have occupied himself re-designing cars, for which his enthusiasm was almost as great. He was life president of the Trojan Club, and for years a familiar figure driving around Devon in his open-top 1937 Bentley.

He was appointed CMG in 1958, and KCMG in 1959. He succeeded his brother in the baronetcy in 1978.

He married, in 1933, Rachel Marion Gartside-Tippinge, who died in 1990. Latterly, Hall, who died on April 8, moved to live near a daughter in Derbyshire. He is survived by a son - John Hall, who was born in 1945 and succeeds in the baronetcy - and two daughters; another son died in infancy.

Designer: Douglas Bowman | Dimodifikasi oleh Abdul Munir Original Posting Rounders 3 Column