SARA: The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

My recent experience listening to live on-line meteor pings led me to the web site of an organization that I used to belong to: SARA: The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers. Knack to the max in this bunch. These people are going for the REAL DX! Check out their site:
http://www.radio-astronomy.org/

Forrest Mims on amateur science

Here's another dose of inspiration from one of our "Homebrew Heroes." Forrest Mims has been one of my heroes for a long time. A colleague yesterday gave me a copy of a recent article in Make about his ozone measuring device (build at home with Radio Shack parts!). With this device he was able to outshine NASA in the data accuracy department. Check out the article:
http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol24?pg=28#pg28

Here's another interesting article by Forrest on amateurs in science: Forrest Mim's article in Science

Cyber Monday extended through Tuesday!

Cyber Monday Sale for SolderSmoke!

Knock 25% off your Lulu purchases. Tomorrow only.

Don't just buy "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"
but check out these other fine Knack-related publications:

http://stores.lulu.com/6sj7comics ("Lid, Kid, Space Cadet" "Sky Buddies" by Jeff K1NSS

http://stores.lulu.com/ian_g3roo (Ian, G3ROO's amazing antenna book)

http://www.lulu.com/copperwood ("Carl and Jerry" books -- scroll down a bit)

http://stores.lulu.com/soldersmoke (SolderSmoke and Bill's other book)

AJ4VD Solves the Barcode Mystery

The QRSS world was recently mystified by the sudden appearance of this monster on the European grabber screens. People quickly realized that it was a "QR barcode" -- kind of a souped-up version of the standard barcodes, this version holding more information. But what was the message? Scott Harden, AJ4VD, got on the case, and solved the mystery. Read about it here:
http://www.swharden.com/blog/2010-11-11-deciphering-qr-code-from-radio-spectrograph/
Scott is a very interesting fellow, and surely one of the younger "Knights of the QRSS." Check out his bio page: http://www.swharden.com/blog/?page_id=344
Bravo Scott!

More from Kitty Hawk

Kitty Hawk N.C., Thanksgiving 2010. Wright Brother's test site. The big rock marks the take-off point. You can see a reproduction of the monorail they used in lieu of landing gear. the white markers behind me show the distances covered on those first four flights. Off in the distance you can see the final, longest flight of that day: 852 feet. 59 seconds aloft.

Thanksgiving at Kitty Hawk

We spent a very pleasant Thanksgiving day with family out on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, in Kitty Hawk. Of course, we visited the site 0f the Wright Brother's famous first flight. I'll have more about this in the next SolderSmoke podcast. For now, let me share with you this interesting quote about the importance of play and toys (from Wikipedia):

"In 1878 their father, who travelled often as a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, brought home a toy "helicopter" for his two younger sons. The device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud. Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor, it was about a foot long. Wilbur and Orville played with it until it broke, and then built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark of their interest in flying."