SolderSmoke Daily News

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Elser-Mathes Cup Opportunity!

I'm sure he'll be on the air. With a homebrew rig.

Stay thirsty my friends!

A Knack Victim's Midlife Crisis

Thanks to Steve WA0PWK for sending us this Jim Williams cartoon.

Been there, done that. It doesn't mean you are a bad person.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

German Mighty Mite works Venice on 40 (video)

In spite of being a bit off frequency, sTef, DL1FDF (aka VY1QRP) has been inducted into the Color Burst Liberation Army. Congratulations sTef! Normally we would requite operation on 3.579 MHz, but sTef has been granted special dispensation because 1) he doesn't have a 3.579 MHz rock, 2) our stock of this crystal has been depleted, and 3) he actually made a contact with this rig, working II3ICZ in Venice. FB sTef. If anyone has a color burst crystal for sTef, please let us know.

sTef writes:

I would like to say „Thanks" to both of you for your ongoing inspirations in soldering and homebrewing. After 15 years out of ham radio it were you two guys who got me back into the world of -> SOLDERSMOKE. Thanks for that.And belive me been away for 15 years and now getting back into it feels a sometimes a little bit too "digital“ …. ARDUINO or NOT TO ARDUINO ? This is the question….

Anyway…

So what could be more sophisticating than having a MMM ready on the work bench and answering a CQ call on 40m with that thing and be heard.

Yes, the first QSO today with my MMM was for you both.

I worked the Italian Radio Station II3ICZ. I was 559 into Venice with 0.5 watts from the MMM into my full-size triple leg for 40m.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Adafruit Profiled in "The New Yorker"

Limor Fried describes the Circuit Playground as “the Happy Meal of electronics—everything you could possibly want and a toy, too.” Her goal was to squeeze all of her company’s most popular pieces of hardware, including L.E.D.s, a range of sensors, and “a really annoying beeper,” onto a single affordable device.

Congratulations to Limor Fried. Her company got a very nice write up in "The New Yorker."

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/limor-frieds-artful-electronics

Sunday, March 6, 2016

"My Favorite Programming Language is Solder" -- Boldport Kits

Look closely at the inscription on that USB stick. Obviously I sympathize. The folks at Boldport have some very interesting ideas and projects. And they operate from a very cool location, just south of the river Thames, not far from my old home in London.

Here is their main site: http://www.boldport.com/blog/2016/2/21/boldport-club-project-1

Here is where you can subscribe to receive a monthly project (with parts!) from them:
https://boldport.cratejoy.com/

As for the solder quote from Bob Pease, this was discussed before on this blog, back in 2011. We were talking about an intereview that had been done with Alan Wolke W2AEW:

I also liked Alan's response to the question about his favorite software tool: "Gee, solder is soft, can we consider that software? I use a lot of that!" This is very reminiscent of a quote from the legendary Bob Pease (colleague of Jim Williams): "My favorite programming language is solder." (That quote was sent to me by Steve WA0PWK. Thanks Steve.)