SolderSmoke Podcast #253 AUDIO VERSION: NYC, SF, DR, PC, DSC, PODCAST IN DANGER, SPRAT, sBITX, CW, IMD, AI, PNP, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke Podcast #253 is available:  

 http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke253.mp3

October 16, 2024

Sponsor!  Parts Candy is back!  Handmade in Chicago!  Standard test leads,  Hook clips, alligator clips in 12" and 32" and multimeter leads

Travelouge/Intro

Bill's trip to NYC -- The Empire State Building

Dean goes to the Bay area. 

Harry Caul,  Marty Klein W3VCG , "The Conversation" and THE KNACK.https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/08/harry-caul-had-knack-movie-review.html

Joe Piscopo in Bell System video! https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/08/soldersmoke-quiz-question-who-is-actor.html

Bill's Bench 

Bill's report from SolderSmoke Shack South: The tropics:  What this means.  Guapo wouldn't  go out when the sun was overhead. 

 Skies not great for astronomy now.  But we see a lot of satellites, and meteors.

Antenna developments:   1/4 vertical on a fishing pole.  

Lightning suppression coming for the building. Lightning suppressors.  Got 2.  Good video from the IMSAI guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EyABPuNDMA Argon gas suppresion tubes.Need to crimp! 

Hurricane prevention. Metal storm curtains. 

Thinking of solar panels. 12 panels, 5 kW system.  Probably without batteries.  What do you think? 

A golf cart. 

New PC.  BeeLink.  Very tiny! (palm of your hand)   24 inch screen. Works well https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVFKN7ZL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

A very satisfying fix on the 15/10 rig -- loose connection to RF amp.  The highly suspect Ramsey Kit Amp was NOT the culprit!  Got to use the new Rigol DS-1102.  A fun fix. Will build a second CCI amp. 

Digital Selective Calling -- listening to ships and shore stations on HF.  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/10/monitoring-maritime-radio-messages-with.html

SHAMELESS COMMERCE:  Our blogs and the podcast are in danger!  Pete is already on a permanent  blog hiatus.  I have seen a big decline in readership.  Frankly, if no one is reading or listening, we just may decide not to do it anymore.  We don't want to do this.  So please, link to the blogs.  Talk up the blog and podcast on your own blogs and social media.  

Parts Candy Test Leads are back as our sponsor.  Pete has them.  Dean has them, I have them in two different countries!     DON'T SCRIMP WITH A CRIMP!  

SPRAT Summer 2O24 Special EXTRA 50th Anniversary issue! https://www.gqrp.com/sales.htm

Dean's Bench

First CW contact:  With KK4DAS on his HB sBITX  and  Alan W2AEW POTA.  TRGHS. 

Dean fixes the sBITX problems. Again.  SUB-THRESHOLD CONDUCTION!    Lots of patience and stick-to-it-ivness. LPF leakage!  https://kk4das.blogspot.com/2024/08/homebrew-sbitx-lpf-leak-stopped.html

IMD IMD IMD and the Tiny SA Ultra https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/09/sherwood-its-time-to-clean-up-our.html

AI  AI   AI -- Experimental AI Podcasts about SolderSmoke (no kidding -- (NOT April 1) Where they came from https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/09/where-ai-podcasts-came-from.html 

AI Podcast #2 https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/09/here-is-another-short-podcast-about.html

AI Podcast #1  https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/09/a-new-experimental-podcast-about.html

Pete's Bench

 An all PNP rig -- A notional look, https://n6qw.blogspot.com/2024/08/august-30-2024-pnp-20m-ssb-transceiver.html 

Videos on old Boatanchors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnboJ75NCmY&t=1s

MAILBAG:  

Lex PH2LB making some new stickers.  Look out San Francisco!  

Rogier PA1ZZ sending lots of good ideas and links. 

Todd K7TFC  great idea on SS readersip decline 

Todd VE7BPO  aka Vasily -- great info on how to stabilize LC oscillators. https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/09/qrp-homebuilder-shows-us-how-to-build.html

Eric 4Z1UG  Welcome words of encouragement on the blog and podcast 

Dave W2DAB says that AI just can't replace the Tappit Brothers of ham radio.  Now the Tappit Triplets. 

Michael AA1TJ  Thoughtfully skeptical about AI. 

Grayson K7JUM on the cleanliness of the 32S-3. Also amazing video on Thermatron MMM. 

Mike WN2A working on DC receivers and hum! 

Floran OE7FTI building Farhan's JBOT amp! 

Mike Murphy WU2D building 1930 replica rigs using a Frank Jones circuit 

Dave K8WPE always great to hear from such a strong SolderSmoke supporter. 

Walter KA4KXX  Great ideas from the Wizard of Orlando. 

Paul G0OER -- Reacting to the 1970s Ham Radio video. Didn't remember being so cool. 

Thomas K4SWL -- Struggling with the hurricane in NC.  Hang in there OM. 

Nick M0NTZ building another Direct Conversion receiver -- with videos about it.

Michael AG5VG building a Mythbustrer-style 20 meter rig.  FT-101 VFO.  FB

Tony G4WIF -- Readership problem advice 

John AB2XT sent us 6000 47 pf NP0 capacitors.  So we are now good for caps!   Thanks John. 

Paul VK3HN Was suitably impresses by the AI podcasts we put on the blog. Thanks Paul. 

SolderSmoke Podcast #253 VIDEO VERSION : NYC, SF, DR, PC, DSC, PODCAST IN DANGER, SPRAT, sBITX, CW, IMD, AI, PNP, MAILBAG

SolderSmoke #253 is available in video form.  See above or: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQBojTLL7VY

The audio version is available in the post immediately above this one, here: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/10/soldersmoke-podcast-253-audio-version.html

What Happened to the SolderSmoke Blog?

 

The conclusions of this article ring true, but I am not certain that changes to the Google algorithm, or the introduction of AI answers to Google queries explain the changes that are reflected in the above chart. 

Here's the article: 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-how-googles-new-algorithm-will-shape-your-internet

Take a look at the traffic going to the SolderSmoke blog over the last year (see chart above). 

Something bad happened to us around April 15.  

What do you guys think?  What happened? 

MIT Looks at the Artificial Intelligence Podcasts of NotebookLM

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/03/1104978/people-are-using-google-study-software-to-make-ai-podcasts-and-theyre-weird-and-amazing/

SolderSmoke Artificial Intelligence -- Where the AI Podcasts Came From

 

The aticle and the podcast (don't worry, it is NOT an AI podcast) explain how we were able to generate the AI podcasts we presented during the last two days. 

https://www.theverge.com/24249388/notebooklm-google-steven-johnson-vergecast

The audio podcast feature was introduced only ONE WEEK AGO!  Rarely have we been so close to the cutting edge!  

The product itself first launched in 2023 as Project Tailwind, and has since been rebranded and expanded in big ways. Just last week, the team launched Audio Overviews, which generates a podcast — with two chatty hosts, plenty of back and forth, and a truly remarkable penchant for the phrases “deep dive” and “buckle up” — based on the information you provide. It’s fascinating, it’s complicated, and it’s getting better really fast.

Thanks to Bob for alerting me to all this! 

AI Podcast #2: Here is Another Short Podcast ABOUT SolderSmoke.

Click here for the second "About SolderSmoke" podcast. 

 http://www.soldersmoke.com/About SolderSmoke 2.mp3

This one looks not at the SolderSmoke Daily News blog, but instead at the SolderSmoke podcast itself.

I was delighted to see the inclusion of Pete, Dean, Farhan and Mike Rainey!   This was really great.  

Look, it is not perfect.  There are errors.  But probably about the same number of errors that you would get from real, human hosts, right?    Voltaire told us not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.  And I find this to be amazingly good. Look, it is so good that it is kind of scary, right?

Before you get too critical realize how this has been done:  I did nothing more than load the SolderSmoke Podcast Archive website into GPT-like model. Then I asked it to produce a deep dive podcast.  That's it.  About 5 clicks.  It developed the podcast in about 3 minutes.  I did the same thing yesterday but with the SolderSmoke blog.  And this is only the beginning.