On the Election

This time around, in an effort to keep this blog focused on radio and electronics, I have decided to move my election recommendations to my other blog site.  So check it out there: 

https://tahplu.blogspot.com/2024/11/election-2024-vote-against-trump.html

SolderSmoke Podcast #227: Solar System, SDR, Simple SSB, HA-600A, BITX17, Nesting Moxons? Mailbag

SolderSmoke Podcast #227 is available: 

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke227.mp3

Travelogue

Mars is moving away.  Jupiter and Saturn close in the sky.  And the Sun is back in action – Cycle 25 is underway.  Also, the earliest sunset is behind us.  Brighter days are ahead.

Book Review:  “Conquering the Electron”   With a quote from Nikola Tesla. 

No real travel for us:   Hunkered down.  Lots of COVID cases around us.  Friends, relatives, neighbors.  Be careful.  You don’t want to be make it through 10 months of pandemic only to get sick at the very end.  SITS: Stay In The Shack. 

Pete's Bench and Tech Adventures:  

 Backpack SDR  keithsdr@groups.io

 Hermes Lite 2

 Coaching SSB builders

 G-QRP talk  

 A new source for 9 MHz crystal filters

 Bill's Bench: 

Fixing the HA-600A Product Detector.  Sherwood article advice. Diode Ring wins the day.  Fixing a scratchy variable capacitor.  Studying simple two diode singly balanced detectors.  Polyakov.  Getting San Jian frequency counter for it.

 

Fixing up the 17 meter BITX.  Expanding the VXO coverage.  Using it with NA5B's KiwiSDR. 

Resurrecting the 17 meter Moxon.  But WHY can't I nest the 17 meter Moxon inside a 20 meter Moxon?  They do it with Hex beams.  Why so hard with Moxons? DK7ZB has a design, but I've often heard that this combo is problematic.  Any thoughts?   I could just buy a 20/17 Hex-beam but this seems kind of heretical for a HB station.

Suddenly getting RFI on 40 meters.  Every 50-60 Hz. Please tell me what you think this is (I played a recording).  

MAILBAG:  

Dean KK4DAS’s Furlough 40/20

Adam N0ZIB HB DC TCVR

Tony G4WIF  G-QRP Vids.  Video of George Dobbs. 

Grayson KJ7UM Collecting Radioactive OA2s. Why?

Pete found W6BLZ Articles

Rogier KJ6ETL PA1ZZ lost his dog.  And we lost ours. 

Steve Silverman KB3SII -- a nice old variable capacitor from Chelsea Radio Company. 

Dave K8WPE thinks we already have a cult following.

Dan W4ERF paralleling amps to improve SNR. 

Jim W8NSA -- An old friend. 

Pete Eaton   WB9FLW    The Arecibo collapse 

John WB4GTW old friend... friend of: 

Taylor N4TD HB2HB  

And finally, we got lots of mail about our editorial.   No surprise: Half supportive, half opposed.  Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion.  And we are free to express ours.  It’s a free country, and we want it to stay that way. That is why we spoke out.

Yesterday the Electoral College voted, finalizing the results.  All Americans should be proud that the U.S. was able to carry out a free and fair national election with record turn out under difficult circumstances. And all loyal Americans should accept the results. That’s just the way it works in a democracy.

We are glad we said what we said. It would have been easier and more pleasant to just bury our heads in the sand and say nothing.  But this was a critically important election and we felt obligated as Americans to speak out.  We'd do it again. And in fact we reserve the right to speak out again if a similarly important issue arises.  

Our Editorial on the U.S. Election

In our last podcast we took a few minutes to share with our listeners our views on the U.S. election and who we think they should vote for.  Here is the text of what we said.   We stand by every word.

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Just days before a very important U.S. election we feel obligated to express our opinion and to let our listeners in the U.S. know who we think they should support.

Some of you will think this is inappropriate -- we disagree.  Several of the long-running and more recent themes of SolderSmoke are wrapped up in this election:

SolderSmoke is all about global community, the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards.  Trump just rejects the idea of global community. He is all about building walls, imposing travel bans, rejecting refugees, circling the wagons, and blaming our problems on foreigners.  This is one of the reasons we oppose him.

SolderSmoke is all about Science and Technology. Trump is anti-science.  He is a climate change denier. That's another reason we oppose him.

Speaking of science, since the onset of the pandemic we have been urging SolderSmoke listeners to protect themselves, their families, and their communities by following the advice of doctors and scientists.  We urge them to socially distance, and to wear masks. We even invented an acronym in support of this -- SITS – “Stay In The Shack.”  Incredibly, Trump has been pushing in the opposite direction:  He ridicules the use of masks.  He calls our leading doctors "idiots."  He stages super-spreader events at his rallies and at the White House. Look, more than 200,000 Americans have been killed by this thing.  I know five people who have buried close relatives.  Yet Trump STILL treats this virus as some sort of political hoax.  This is one of the many reasons we oppose him.

We are both military veterans.  We have both been offended by the way Trump -- who is a draft dodger himself -- has disparaged those who have gone into harm's way for the United States.  We remember what he said about John McCain.  His scorn for veterans and service members is another reason we oppose him. 

There are many other reasons to oppose Trump, but those are the ones we feel are most relevant to SolderSmoke. 

Election day is Tuesday.  PLEASE, for the good of the country and the world, get out there and vote against Trump. Wear your mask and stay safe as you do so, but get out and vote.  Especially if you are living in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Texas, or Omaha, Nebraska, please help vote Trump out of office and please urge your friends and relatives to do the same.