More on Merrill Budlong, W1MB

K1KT's recent e-mail alerted me to the interesting life story of Merrill Peckham Budlong, W1MB. Wow! What a guy! Killed a Great White Shark with a spear gun! Homebrewed his own diving gear! Insisted that the hams he was Elmering actually UNDERSTAND the circuitry! And -- most importantly -- he was obviously a very good person.

We don't run many obits here on SolderSmoke, but even though he passed away four years ago, we thought it would be a good idea to reprint W1MB's. His story can be an inspiration for us all.

Bob, W1YRC, wrote this about him: He was responsible for launching a great many Amateur Radio careers in Rhode Island. He was uncompromising in his teaching and demanded that all his students understood why a circuit performed its function or why it was essential to know how to solder correctly. He was respected and loved by hundreds of hams that knew him.

Here is a para from his obituary:
An active, athletic man, as a teenager Mr. Budlong made his own surfboards and sailing kayaks. In high school and college he was on the wrestling teams, played trumpet in dance bands, and was a lifeguard at Bonnet Shores. He graduated from Cranston High School in 1931 and from the University of Rhode Island in 1935 with a bachelor's degree in business. He was a member of Phi Mu Delta fraternity and Phi Kappa Phi honor society. During World War II, he held a second job at Kaiser Shipyard in Providence. As an avid amateur radio operator (call letters W1MB) and proficient Morse Code operator, he enjoyed contacting radio hams throughout the world. He founded the Fidelity Amateur Radio Club, which met for more than thirty years at his home. He was a Major in the R.I. Civil Air Patrol and a director of the New England Wireless and Steam Museum. Mr. Budlong was an alumnus of Fidelity Chapter DeMolay in which he was a Chevalier. He was a member of the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen and, into his 70s, participated in bicycle races and 100-mile rides. He was often seen riding his bicycle around Edgewood and Pawtuxet Village. He was a pioneer skin diving and spear fishing enthusiast. In the 1940s he built much of his own equipment before it was commercially available. In 1964 he speared a ten foot great white shark in Narragansett Bay. He was also a frostbite sailor, member of the Edgewood Yacht Club, and member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Read the comments that people attached to his obituary: http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/providence/guestbook.aspx?n=merrill-budlong&pid=91256424&cid=full

Merrill Budlong's Drake 2-B

Hi -

I just listened to Soldersmoke 134 and was delighted to hear the reading from Peter Doherty, W1UO.

I first met Peter just before his transcendent 2-B experience. He joined the Fidelity Amateur Radio Club, then K1NQG, of Cranston, RI, which was started by Merrill Budlong (SK), then W1QLD, later W1MB, in 1958. Merrill had a 2-B at that time, so I am almost certain Peter was referring to Merrill's receiver.

Peter received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Rhode Island. He was an adventurer. After college, we briefly worked together at Merriam Instruments, which was owned by Robert Merriam,W1NTE. (Bob is the founder and curator of The New England Museum of Wireless and Steam in East Greenwich, RI.) Peter soon got wanderlust. He loaded his backpack and took a 1 year trot around the globe. I was astouded when I got a Nepalese postcard from him! Since then he helped deliver vessels from the east coast to Seattle via the Panama canal, worked at the Voice of America, worked in marine electronics in Port Townsend, Washington, and has worked for at least two communications equipment manufacturers. I'm sure he had many other adventures.

The Fidelity Amateur Radio Club is still alive and doing well. Some of the original members are still active with the club, but most of us are gray/bald, fatter, and move slower, but we still love the hobby and appreciate what Merrill did to get so many of us started in our careers. Since Merrill's passing his callsign was transferred to the club and we used it this past Field Day.

Keep up the good work! We ARE listening!

73,

Ken Tata

K1KT

Beautiful Shot of Three of Saturn's Moons

(Photo from NASA, text from New Scientist)

A study in contrasts, this photo captures three illuminated moons as a darkened Saturn looms in the shadows. Only the planet's rings are visible but its shape can be traced from the way it partially obscures its rings and one of its moons.

The large foreground moon is Rhea at 1528 kilometres across. Nearly a third of Rhea's size, sunny Enceladus is on the right. Dione, at 1123 kilometres wide, rounds out the trio to the left with a night-cloaked Saturn obstructing part of it.

The photo was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in April. Cassini has been exploring Saturn's 62 known moons since it reached the ringed planet in 2004.

Copthorne's Heathkit HW-8

Here's evidence that I am moving ever further along the ham radio hippie trail: This week as I was browsing through the 1970's era columns of Copthorne MacDonald, I came across this gem about our beloved Heathkit HW-8. (The photo is of Cop's rig.)

http://infoark.org/InfoArk/Sustainability/Mother%20Earth%20News/70/MEN_CD/mendemo/dcd/047/047-040-01.htm

Inspired, I connected mine to my salvaged and solar-charged gel-cell battery and made a number of contacts on 40 meters. It was all really groovy.

Peace, Bill

WOW! The Reverse Beacon Network

In the European dispatches of Mike AA1TJ I saw mention of this new thing called the Reverse Beacon Network. Then SPRAT shows up in my mailbox (HOORAY!) and I see mention of the RBN there. So this morning I figured I'd give it a little test: I called CQ on 40 meters using my Heathkit HW-8. WOW -- it didn't take RBN long to get me! See above. That's after only about 3 minutes of CQing.

This is a really amazing and innovative development. The network makes use of "skimmers" that use Software Defined Radios connected to the net to search for CQs. When they hear one, they automatically post the info on the web. It is sort of like WSPR, but it is aimed at ordinary CQ calls. Fantastic. Check it out. You will like it!

Big T-Shirt, Coffee Mug, and Bumper Sticker Sale!

http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke

Copthorne MacDonald and New Directions Radio

I mentioned in SolderSmoke 135 that somehow I feel myself becoming a bit of a hippie. I'm riding a bike to work. I now have a compost pile and a vegetable garden. I'm enthusiastically helping Billy fix his electric guitar... Mike, KC7IT, wrote in to let me know of an important ham-hippie connection that I'd been completely unaware of.

Starting around 1973, a fellow name Copthorne MacDonald (what a great name!) wrote a ham radio column for Mother Earth News. (Further evidence of my drift: I've recently been buying this magazine!) It is an interesting mix of radio technology (much of it homebrew and QRP) and what at the time was called "alternative lifestyles" (communes and all that). Lots of info about sustainable and eco-friendly living, solar power, etc. Here's a good example:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1975-07-01/A-Low-Cost-Start-Ham-Radio.aspx

Copthorne MacDonald is the inventor of Slow Scan Television.

I really like Copthorne's writing and I was really pleased to find out that much of it has survived and is available on the internet. Mike KC7IT points us to more of the articles:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/search.aspx?search=new%20directions%20radio&sorting=oldest

Cop's writing constitutes another treasure trove of ham radio literature for all of us!

I found an archive (infoark) that seems to have his "New Directions Radio" newsletters:
http://infoark.org/InfoArk/Sustainability/Mother%20Earth%20News/70/MEN_CD/mendemo/dcd/027/027-022-01.htm

I was please to find that OM Copthorne is alive and well. He posted this on eham.net back in November:

RE: Copthorne MacDonald, VE1BFL « Reply #9 on: November 09, 2010, 11:01:41 AM »

---

Hello all. This is from Cop Macdonald, now VY2CM, his very self.

Many thanks to Benn Kobb AK4AV for alerting me to this page, and thanks for the supportive comments above from a number of you.

A brief summary. I'm not currently on the air, but as Benn noted I was at the 2009 Dayton Hamvention where I gave the talk he mentioned and received that year's Technical Excellence Award for the SSTV development work I did some 50+ years ago as an engineering student at the University of Kentucky. While doing some Googling for Hamvention info I discovered that in 2007 I had been inducted into CQ Magazine's Ham Radio Hall of Fame. Perhaps CQ, too, had trouble tracking me down, as this was news to me. If anyone is interested in the details of that initial SSTV system, the Kentucky Engineer article on the subject is online at http://www.copmacdonald.com/KYEngineeerSSTVArticle.pdf. The QST articles on that first gear appeared in the August and September 1958 issues, and are available online from the ARRL digital archives.

The Mother Earth News column ended in 1983 when the magazine changed hands for the second time. I continued to do much writing after that. A lot of it dealt with energy conservation and energy alternatives --- some examples at http://www.wisdompage.com/SEUhtmDOCS/conservation.htm. In the late 1980s I developed an interest in wisdom, and have written three books on aspects of that subject. Connected with this, in 1995 I started a website called The Wisdom Page to make wisdom-related resources available to people worldwide. It has become quite popular. Last month the site had 14417 visits by people from 149 countries who viewed or downloaded documents, podcasts, and videos some 36159 times. And if you Google the word wisdom, http://www.wisdompage.com consistently comes up on the first page of the search returns — out of some 75 million+ pages containing the term. Anything else you might want to learn about my doings over the years is probably at http://www.wisdompage.com/aboutcop.html
Best wishes to you all. Cop

Thanks Cop!

Dayton: The Rock Video

Summer Sales

20% off on the Lulu books. Just use the Code SUNSHINE305 at checkout.

Also, be sure to visit out T-shirt, coffee mug, and bumper sticker store. There is a 15% off sale there also: http://shop.cafepress.com/soldersmoke

SolderSmoke Podcast #135 FDIM SPECIAL!

Please click on the little mail symbol down below to forward this blog post to friends who might be interested in the podcast. Thanks!

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke135.mp3
June 26, 2011
Bike riding, composting... what next?
Lightning kills the WSPR rig
New finder for old telescope
------SPECIAL FOUR DAYS IN MAY INTERVIEWS BY BOB CRANE W8SX:FEATURING:
Joe Taylor K1JT (Nobel Prize Winner -- FOR PHYSICS!)! Plumbing Defined Radio! Steve WG0AT: Fly Fishing, Retirement, Goats, YouTube, and Amateur Radio!
George Dobbs, G3RJV! And more! ----- Drake 2-B updates: WARC and 160 Dial Templates,
Drake 2B Serial Number Math Estimate Project (Using German tank method) Michael AA1TJ's Sputnik 1 Project
Putting the Shack back into RadioShack

Aurora in Cuba! The Carrington Event

The strongest geomagnetic storm on record is the Carrington Event of August-September 1859, named after British astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare with his unaided eye while he was projecting an image of the sun on a white screen. Geomagnetic activity triggered by the explosion electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting their telegraph papers on fire; Northern Lights spread as far south as Cuba and Hawaii; auroras over the Rocky Mountains were so bright, the glow woke campers who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. Best estimates rank the Carrington Event as 50% or more stronger than the superstorm of May 1921.

Here's a good story from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/telegraphs-ran-on-electric-air-in-crazy-magnetic-storm-150-years-ago/

I liked the bit about the telegraph operators disconnecting their batteries and continuing to work on "aurora power"!

Solstice Solargraphs

That's a tough one for someone with a sibilant SSSSS problem! But we usually try to run a sssolstice ssstory, and I've been meaning to mention this for some time.

Very cool. You make a pinhole camera out of a beer can (or an Italian Lemonade Can). You strap it to your tower and leave it out there for six months. Then you develop the film and you get... A SOLARGRAPH.

http://inatarius.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/solargraph-building-guide/