Watching a Light Beam at One Trillion Frames per Second

Billy alerted me to this TED Talk presentation on an MIT Media Labs project that used new "femto photography" techniques that allow us to watch -- in VERY slow motion -- a light beam pass through a bottle. Amazing. Makes me think about Einstein's old thought experiment about running alongside a light wave (but of course here they are slowing down time...)

 Here are some details on how they did this:
 http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/trillionfps/ 

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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?

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Get SolderSmoke For Christmas! 30% off (23-27 Nov)!

Use the little mail icon (below) to forward this to those who are buying you things for Christmas!   30% off if you buy 

23-27 November.    Here are books: 

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/soldersmoke

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NA5N, a Solar Flare, and the Very Large Array

I think I said before that Paul, NA5N, has one of those "dream jobs" for a radio amateur.  Confirmation of this came in a message he posted to QRP-L today: 

We're running a special experiment today using the VLA antennas to observe at 74 MHz (a protected radio astronomy band) and at 327 MHz.  We've hung dipoles just below the antenna subreflectors, acting as a virtual ground, and of course the 88ft dia. dishes to illuminate the dipoles.  Picks up a lot more power from the sky than I would have thought (about 30dB gain over the same dipoles in free space). 
Anyway, about 0830 MST, suddenly the system temperature climbed about 200 deg. K.  Our switched power calibration injected into the LNAs showed no shift, meaning the jump in power came from the sky, not from the electronics.  The power plot looked just like a solar flare.  Checked the NOAA site, and sure enough, we had an M4 solar flare from region 1618 ... about smack in the center of the sun.  About 1530UTC=0830MST=1030EST, Wed. Nov. 21. 
NOAA has since measured the shock wave from the CME at 1918 km/sec.  This is a fairly strong shock wave, and coming from the center of the sun means planet earth will be pretty close to the bulls eye. 
The first time in my life I witnessed a major solar flare in real time watching the "sky power" plots.  Pretty neat.  First time the astronomers involved in this experiment have witnessed a solar flare as well real time. 
Region 1618 has produced numerous C- and M-class flares past couple of days with high potentials of future activity.  This will ionize our E/F layer for elevated MUF and weak signal reflection.  Check the bands if you're not at work. 
This 1918 km/sec. shock wave headed for us will almost assuredly trigger a major geomagnetic storm in a couple of days.  If it hits Friday evening, it will trigger likely aurora over northern U.S.  It may hit Saturday.  I'll check the NOAA predictions later today and post as to the expected shock wave arrival. 
72, Paul NA5N
Socorro, NM
Currently inside of VLA antenna #5, west arm.
http://www.vla.nrao.edu/ 

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Another VK3YE DSB Rig

Hi Bill

       A short e-mail from across the pond. Thanks for sharing the VK3YE link, so impressed I was that I have built one. 

It receives great and puts out a nice looking dsb signal, looking forward to some good qso's, ready to improve on it as we speak and looking to make a top band and 18m version also, love the site and keep up the good work...Ian

Ian Miller

G7FFV

UK

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"Road Kill" Batteries for Us?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/11/121116-second-life-for-used-electric-car-batteries/


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Schematic of the VK3YE "DSB-On-The-Beach" Rig

Peter Parker's amazing 8 transistor DSB rig (featured in an equally amazing YouTube video -- see earlier blog post) has sparked a worldwide resurgence of QRP minimalism.  There is now a lot more activity on the "Minimalist QRP Transceivers"  Yahoo group (be there or be square).   Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith WB6TNL is minimalist mentoring to the max -- with his help it looks like more VK3YE transceivers will soon be on the air.  Steve was kind enough to take the info from Peter's video and turn it into a .pdf schematic (see above).  It is in the file section at the Minimalist QRP Transceivers group.  I was, of course, pleased to see the inclusion of a robust 7 element low pass filter.  

Michigan Mighty Mites are also tickling the ether.   I may pull out my single MPF-102 Yingling 80 meter rig.   You can join the Minimalist group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Minimalist_QRP_Transceivers/

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Uncle Sam Wants You! (Well, really your Telescope)

 I don't think they will be that interested in my $50 Tasco 4.5 inch reflector, but I am thinking about sending in a proposal for a 1.2 million dollar series of upgrades for the old 'scope!

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A Promising Start for the SG-6 Solid State Conversion

We have kind of half a holiday today -- I have the day off, but the kids went to school.  I made use of the additional shack time to test the feasibility Farhan-izing my old, not-so-beloved Heathkit SG-6 signal generator.  I did a quick Manhattan build of the oscillator section from Farhan's sig generator (link in yesterday's post).  Using an idea from an old 73 Magazine article on a similar project (thanks Clint!), I smashed the tube (appropriate, don't you think?) and connected (using the glass stump!) Farhan's oscillator directly to the pins that lead to the switchable coils and the variable cap of the SG-6.    I just wanted to see if it would oscillate, and see if there was a big change in SG-6 dial calibration.  

Wow, it worked great!  It oscillates very nicely on all but the upper frequency band setting (20-50 MHz).   I feel confident that I'll get it to oscillate at least up to 30 MHz.   Next I'll build Farhan's buffer and amplifier stages.   The SG-6 had a switchable attenuator -- I want to include that feature in the solid state version.  I'll have to give some thought to the audio modulation feature (nice for aligning AM receivers). 

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Solid State Conversion for a Heath SG-6 Signal Generator?

I've recently become acutely aware of the shortcomings of my signal generator. 
It is a Heathkit SG-6.  It is really old.  It has a selenium rectifier in it. It has one of those old mic connectors on it for the output.  The output is very low.  But I like the cabinet and there is a nice switchable coil/variable capacitor LC circuit in there (see above).  

In 2008 in Hyderabad, India Farhan went to McDonalds with his kids and went home with some straws.  Soon the straws are chopped up and turned into coil forms for a signal source:  http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/siggen.html

So here is my idea:  de-tube the SG-6.  Turn the selenium over to the HAZMAT authorities.  Save the coils and the cap and most of what George Dobbs would call "the socketry."  Use an MPF-102 for the oscillator, then make use of the buffer and feedback amp from Farhan's soda straw circuit. 

What do you guys think? 

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8 Transistors = 40M DSB XCVR (on an Australian Beach)

Another brilliant rig from DSB guru Peter Parker, VK3YE.  I really liked this one.
I loved his drawing of the circuit diagram -- right there on the beach! Lots to be learned from this video.  Thanks Peter!
 
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The Hobbit Hole of QRP

In SolderSmoke 147 I mentioned that I had found some old pictures of AA1TJ's underground hamshack and workshop.  People wrote in asking me to post them.  Here they are.  I still can't find the shot of the door surrounded by snow. 

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Lights and TV during blackouts! My Inverter ($69)

People have been asking about the DC to AC inverter that I have been using during the now frequent power outages (5 in the last two years, two of them since July 2012).  With it I can easily keep the lights on in the house and even run the TV.  Not bad for $69.  Here it is:

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Solder Smoke Podcast #147 -- Hurricane Sandy Edition

Hurricane Sandy backup station at N2CQR

SolderSmoke Podcast 147 is available for downloading: 
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke147.mp3
October 29/30 2012
Hurricane Sandy on the way
Thanks for birthday wishes 
Einstein -- a very nice fellow with a bit of the Knack
Rocket project update
808 key chain cameras (thanks for the Amazon support!) 
Audio output transformer for Barbados Barebones RX
Mighty Midget RX -- breaking it, fixing it (with help from friends)
Freq counter connection to Tek scope  
Halli S-38E -- How to avoid electrocution?
The HQ-100's anti-drift alarm clock 
Book Review:  "Instruments of Amplification" by H.P. Friedrichs (5 Soldering Irons!) 
BANDSWEEP: 20 meter SSB via DC receiver on hurricane day
Report on outcome of the hurricane -- inverter saves the day (really the night)
MAILBAG (a big one).    

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All OK at SolderSmoke HQ

Hurricane Sandy went through here yesterday. We had a lot of water and wind.  Power went out at about 7 pm, giving me the opportunity to display my technological prowess by deploying my 1.1 kilowatt DC/AC inverter.   It worked very well -- we had lights and TV, and were the envy of the neighborhood.  We all went to sleep on the ground floor -- trees are the real hazard here.  We were very pleased to be awakened by the lights coming back on at 1:20 am.  Three cheers for Dominion Power!   I hope listeners in the storm's path had it as easy as we did.    

Podcast #147 will be a special Hurricane Sandy edition.  I should have it out in a day or so. 

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Waiting for Hurricane Sandy

That vortex off North Carolina is Hurricane Sandy, and it is heading right for us.  It should make landfall tomorrow, perhaps in Southern New Jersey, perhaps closer to us (the location of the landfall of the eye doesn't matter much -- the wind field has a radius of 300 miles!)   It could really mess things up  --- lots of water, lots of wind, and it will collide with a cold front moving in from the west.  Yuck.   There is a good chance we will lose power.  I have pulled out my trusty Heathkit HW-8 and my solar-charged gel cell battery, so I am ready to go.  Good luck to all those in the storm's path.   

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Good News From Ireland!

Hi Bill,

I'm not sure what's in your sacrificial solder but it sure is good stuff!!!

I received my results today and I'm very very pleased to say I passed.

Now I can finally set my mind to building a shack...

I'm going to celebrate by ordering one of Tim Walford's excellent looking beginner kits and I've just started building Tony Park's Ensemble RXTX.

I'm not sending in my cert just yet though as I want to pass my morse test first.

Thanks again for the kind support, I'm sure it got me a good few percent on the test!!

Also thanks to Steve Smith WB6TNL and his words...

"Thousand of people have taken this examination and passed. There is no reason why I cannot also pass."

He was right!

Also I hope Dave passed, unfortunately I didn't get to meet him at the exam, hopefully we'll figure out how to contact each other, it'd be good to have a newly passed fellow ham to share ideas with.

Regards, or should that now be 73 :),

Chris

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"Zen and the Art of Radio Telegraphy"

OM Carlo Consoli, IK0YGJ, has produced a nice book on radio telegraphy.  Very much in the spirit of the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards, he has made it available in Italian, English, French and German.  I have started a refresher language course in Italian and intend to use Carlo's book as reading material for the course (my instructor will be sympathetic because her son is a radio amateur).  Who knows, I may be able to improve my Italian and my CW at the same time!    

Check it out:  http://www.qsl.net/ik0ygj/enu/index.html

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The Joy of Tinkering at RIT

Our Dayton corrrespondent Bob Crane, W8SX, sent us this. Thanks Bob!

http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4396825/The-Joys-of-Tinkering?cid=EDNToday

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Something Different: Stop Action Movies

The stop-action film Frankenweenie is hitting the theaters here. Its mad scientist/workshop theme seems to have some Knack relevance. This morning I found this five minute film called "The Maker." I thought you guys would like it. I also liked the video (below) about some of the homebrew gear that they used to make The Maker.

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