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

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!

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.

No Smoke, but stars, an HW-8, and one (dead) Cinghiale!

No podcast today -- we were out in the country. As you can see from the picture above, the question of just how big the Sabina wild boars really are has been answered. The one pictured above was shot today very close to our country place (neither Billy nor Maria did the shooting!) The hunters tell us that this one was considered a big one. As you can see, it is about the size of Billy.

I had the telescope out this weekend -- we were looking at the moon, Jupiter, Mars, and the Orion nebula. Also watched a satellite going over shortly before dawn. And one meteor.

I was on the air a bit, on the CQ WW DX contest. Worked about six stations. Was on 40, 20, and 15 with the HW-8.

I will try to get SS 119 out as soon as I can. I hope all you turkey eaters had a good holiday.

Electronics Animations

Oh man, this the kind of thing that makes my hand-drawn diagrams seem even more inadequate. If this is the new standard, I'm in trouble! Jim, K9JM, sent this to us. Thanks Jim.

50 stations receive my 20 mW DSB Ubuntu WSPR signals

In less than a week of intermittent WSPR operations with the new Ubuntu WSPR 2.0, 50 stations have received my awesome 20 mW Double Sideband HB WSPR signal. (Am I still the only station in the world running WSPR DSB?) 49 of the stations have been in Europe. The only across-the-pond report comes from W1XP. Only once was my signal above the noise level -- that was with a neighbor, Andrea, IW0HK. Above you can see the screenshot of his reception of my signal.

You Linux-masters out there might be able to help me with a couple of things: WSPR 2.0 seems to stop running if I leave it alone for a few hours (maybe it opposes un-attended beacon operations!) And I also have what I think is an un-related problem: The computer (a Tecra 8100) goes into some sort of deep sleep mode (a coma really) if I leave it alone for a few more hours. I've tried playing with all the Ubuntu power managment and screen-save settings. And I've gone back into the bios and the set-up section on the computer to change the sleep modes, etc. No luck.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers! We will be having turkey with all the fixings here in Rome today.

Harry Gets His Own Domain

You know a guy has made a real impact when all you need is his first name. Harry, SM0VPO aka G4VVJ is in that category. His web site has been a source of circuits, ideas, and inspiration for many years now. For his 2009 birthday, he got his own domain. Visit the site: http://www.sm0vpo.com

On Top Band at Age 12 and 1/4!

Gil sent me a link to the wonderful site of W8JI. The OM got his start by removing plates from the tuning cap of an All-American 5 broadcast receiver. Heart warming stuff for knack victims. Be sure to visit his Boatanchor page -- check out his DX-60. Doesn't that rig look a little bit TOO good? Are those regulation knobs? Or have they been juiced up a bit? (Mine don't sparkle quite so much.)
http://www.w8ji.com/160_history.htm

"Industrial Revolution 2" Tinkering Gets Respectable

Bruce, KK0S, alerted me to this wonderful article in the Wall Street Journal. I liked the line about the "hackerspaces" being "like gyms, but with people milling iron, not pumping it."

Check it out:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125798004542744219.html

WSPRing with Ubuntu

Wow, the radio gods are are really helping me lately! Soon after receiving my new Ubuntu laptop, Joe Taylor, K1JT, released the first Linux version of his amazing WSPR program. And he wrote it for the version of Linux that I am using: Ubuntu!
Not only that, the new version includes a feature that I was most in need of: the capability of handling compound call signs. No longer am I signing on from Rome as N2CQR -- now the all-important I0/ is also displayed (see the above map). I had very little trouble getting Ubuntu WSPR running on my machine (and as you all know, I am a real Linux klutz). The new program also allows for periodic CW identification. Very cool. Here something I noticed: WSPR requires the computer clock to be accurately calibrated. With my old Windows machine I had to periodically tweak the clock using an on-line GMT clock. But when I went to check the accuracy of the clock in the Ubuntu machine, it was EXACTLY right. To the second. I wonder if Ubuntu Linux has a feature that automatically synchs the computer clock with GMT.
Here is what Joe says about the new software:
-----------------------------

WSPR 2.0 is now available for download from the WSJT Home Page, http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/
Click on WSPR in the left margin, then on the appropriate WSPR 2.0 link for your operating system. Installable binary packages are provided for Windows and for recent Debian-based 32-bit Linux systems. A recommended Linux distribution is Ubuntu 9.04.

Version 2.0 of WSPR introduces a number of new program features, including the following:

- User-friendly setup screen with drop-down selection of audio devices and CAT parameters
- Support for compound callsigns
- Fine adjustment of fractional time for transmitting
- Optional CW identification
- Tools for frequency calibration and automated frequency corrections for your radio
- A Tune button
- Direct on-line access to the WSPR 2.0 User's guide, WSPRnet, and the WSJT Home Page

Full details are presented in the all-new User's Guide, which is a "must read" if you want to use the new features. The manual includes a Troubleshooting guide. Click http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPR_2.0_User.pdf to read the manual.

Three cheers for Joe Taylor!

Radio, Douglas MacArthur, and staying young at heart

Art, KG6ZWD, sent this along. General MacArthur kept this poem displayed above his desk in Manila, and frequently quoted from it during his time in Tokyo. The radio part comes near the end.

Youth

By Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.