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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Olive Interference

No, not from the digital mode. The interference was from the harvesting of real olives. We were out in the country on Tuesday (Italian holiday) and I was on the air with the HW-8. The backup alarm from the machine pictured above occasionally confused my copying of the CW. But it is a very interesting machine. It grabs the base of the olive trees with that rubber-covered gripping device, then it shakes them violently until all all the ripe olives are let loose. The ground shakes during the process. In spite of the QRM, 20 meters was sounding quite good in the afternoon, with many strong sigs from the USA, and one very stong VK6. Go sunspots!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

SolderSmoke 119

4th grade Morse code lecture. Listening to 40 meter CW in the schoolyard
http://www.soldersmoke.com

December 6, 2009
4th Grade Morse lecture; SPRAT in the Pantheon; Cinghale shot
SSS problem and the gap in my teeth
STAGNOSALD! (Italian Flux)
Movie Reviews
Water on the Moon
QQ: FB!
Tyson the cat crashes both Ubuntu Linux AND WSPR 2.0
Building the Softrock 40: Comments on surface mount
WSPR hits 100k spots per day; my numbers
BIG MAILBAG

Saturday, December 5, 2009

WSPR taking over THE WORLD!

Conspiracy theorists often worry about plots to take over the world. I think they should add WSPR to their list of worrisome schemes. Just look at the above map. That represents just 24 hours of activity on only one band (30 meters).

Joe Taylor, K1JT, reports that on November 21, the WSPR system for the first time recorded over 100,000 reports in a 24 hour period. There are now more than 14 million reports logged in the WSPR system. That's a lot of signal reports!

I decided to check my own numbers: In a 15 hour period on December 3, my 20 mW HB DSB WSPR signal was picked up and reported 416 times. 18 different stations detected my signal and reported on the reception. My best DX was W3HH in Florida -- his rig decoded my sigs 4 times.

I'm making slow but steady progress with my Softrock 40 SDR rig -- I hope someday soon to be submitting reports myself. Right now I'm transmit only.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

SolderSmoke Book: Review, 10% off in December (HUMBUG is the code)

During the month of December, if you enter the promotional code HUMBUG when checking out at the Lulu web site, you will get 10% off.

For shipping from a printer in the U.S. (probably better for N. American buyers) Click here: SolderSmoke USA Version

For shipping from a printer in the UK, Spain, or the USA (probably better for UK and other European buyers)
Click here: SolderSmoke EU Version

Here is a recent review from the Big Apple:

This is a charming little book about ham radio. I know, I know, who uses the word charming and ham radio in the same sentence? Well, I did and I hope I never see the word used in this context again. But, that's the truth of it. Bill Meara is a charming guy and as might be expected, he wrote a charming book.

The book starts out by expressing the way many of us felt in our early years, filled with excitement and anticipation of the new and wondrous world of radio. And then, in the next breath, ponders how we, many of us mere children, ever survived the ordeal. Those were high voltage dangerous days before transistors! My favorite ‘early years’ story is about the power supply and the gift of the lightweight radio.

Many of the stories come from foreign countries where Bill has traveled as an employee of the United States government. These adventures give perspective to another important part of our hobby which is the camaraderie among hams and the things that are unique about us, no matter what part of the planet we come from. The stories from the Dominican Republic stand out in my mind. Particularly the Resistor Store and the Capacitor Store or if you wanted anything that involved winding wire you looked up a guy who hung around on a street corner. I think Bill was really impressed with the hams he met here. He writes with great excitement when describing some of these characters.

Not having an engineering background, Bill expresses, on several occasions, of being mystified by some popular explanations of electronic theory. Here I share common ground. I also had a problem with semiconductor theory and the common explanation of “hole flow”. As the author points out, it sometimes takes a library to understand these theories. Sometimes just one book doesn’t cut it. Bill’s explanation of semiconductor theory is as good as I’ve read anywhere. In fact, a lot of the technical asides were really excellent. I guess I didn’t expect them to be as in depth as they were.

Bill, the “Radio Fiend” also takes on a journey that requires him to get on the air with homebrew gear. The journey starts out with a failed direct conversion receiver and ends up years later with a DSB transceiver. I found this very interesting as well as entertaining.

SolderSmoke: A Global Adventure in Radio Electronics. is about us. I don’t think there is a ham alive that is not going to see himself within the words of this book.

Tom, ak2b

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Mars calling... SO LISTEN UP!

George, K8VU, alerted me to this wonderful blog that presents interesting bits of correspondence: http://www.lettersofnote.com/ This telegram from the Secretary of the Navy caught my eye. There is also a letter from Galileo, complete with diagrams of Jupiter's moons (his diagrams look just the ones I draw today). Also, check out the letter from Oppenheimer recommending Richard Feynman for a job at UCAL Berkeley: Feynman is described as being "a second Dirac, only this time human." (Poor Dirac. He was once having dinner with a close friend. In an effort make conversation, the friend asked, "Have you been to the threater lately?" Long pause, then the response: "Why do you ask?" )

SolomonSea SolderSmoke

As further evidence of the global reach of SolderSmoke, David, M0VTG, recently took the book all the way to Papua New Guinea. The picture above was taken aboard the Barbarian II while in the Solomon Sea. Eppa (on the right) is giving the book a thumbs up (but he doesn't seem quite sure about it). Thanks David! Thanks Eppa!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

New Overhead Photo of Apollo 11 Site

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently took this shot of Tranquillity Base. This was from 30 miles (50 km) up. Very cool.
Designer: Douglas Bowman | Dimodifikasi oleh Abdul Munir Original Posting Rounders 3 Column