For those in the Washington D.C. area: Today from 2-4 pm I'll be at "One More Page Books" in Arlington, Virginia at a "meet the author" event. The store will have on sale ten copies of "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics." Please pass the word to local hams who might be interested. Thanks.
One More Page Books
2200 N. Westmoreland Street #101
Arlington, VA 22213
703-300-9746
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Happy 50th Birthday to the Parkes Radio Telescope
http://www.cio.com.au/article/402613/australia_celebrates_50_years_dish_/?fp=16#closeme
This is my favorite antenna. And it is the subject of the BEST movie ever made about an antenna.
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Party Like its 1957! (with the Sputniks on 21.060 MHz)
Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith sent me this very creative reminder that the Sputnik Replica On-The-Air event is scheduled to continue for the same length of time that the original transmitter was on the air. That means we have until October 26 to work or to listen to these magnificent replica rigs. (Hey, maybe I'll get my HW-7 into the action!) See you on 21.060 MHz Comrades! 73 and DSW! Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Friday, October 7, 2011
"Spine Tingling" Sputnik Recordings From 1957
Doug, W8NFT, sent me this booklet and copies of the recordings that came with it. Below you will find links to the booklet itself and the two mp3 files. Note that the signals were captured using an HRO receiver. Side A is a "re-creation" of the launch ("spine tingling in its realism!!!!") Side B is an actual recording of the sat's iconic beeping. http://soldersmoke.com/Sputnik Booklet.PDF
http://soldersmoke.com/Sputnik Side A.mp3
http://soldersmoke.com/Sputnik Side B.mp3
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Thursday, October 6, 2011
ON6WJ's Sputnik Rig
I think Jos's rig is magnificent. He is getting the high voltage for the tubes from a cheap (3 Euros!) 12 Volt to 120 Volt DC/DC inverter that he picked up via e-bay. (I think you can see the inverter board to the left of the headphone jack.) He runs it from a 12 volt gel cell. The little battery is for the filaments. He gets about 700 mw out, and had a very solid 15 minute QSO with Jim, W1PID yesterday. FB Jos!More Sputnik news (with some audio from the original) tomorrow.
DSW to all!
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Listening for Sputniks, Watching a Satellite
I felt like a junior high school kid yesterday, rushing into the shack, firing up the old rigs, anxious to tune in some special stations. It was Sputnik Anniversary Day! 15 meters was still in pretty good shape at 2315 UTC. On the trusty Drake 2-B I could hear W1AW's code practice session a bit above the Sputnik frequency of 21.060 MHz. All of a sudden WA5TCZ was booming in, calling CQ Sputnik! OM Darron later e-mailed and let me know that he wasn't running a replica rig -- like me, he was looking for them.
This morning, inspired by all this space activity, I pulled out my newly cleaned and collimated telescope and took a tour of the skies of Northern Virginia. Jupiter is very bright in the East (I could see the Galilean moons in my finder scope!) Mars is in the West, but is too far away for any detail to be seen in my 'scope -- it is just a little red disk. I had to go out into the street to position the 'scope for the great nebula in Orion. At 1023UTC the International Space Station flew over -- I watched it disappear into the sunrise. A good morning indeed.
I have a suggestion: Can the Sputnik event be extended through the weekend to give more people the chance to tune in these magnificent rigs?
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Sputnik!!! SolderSmoke 138!!!
Today is Sputnik Anniversary Day! Michael, AA1TJ, and his intrepid international band of solder melters will be putting their homebrew Soviet-parts rigs on 15 meters! I will be listening with my HQ-100. This is all discussed on SolderSmoke 138, which I have just uploaded: http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke138.mp3
October 4, 2011
A Meteor and Jupiter: Cosmic Birthday Present!
Sagan's Pale Blue Dot -- Lots of interesting radio info
On the cover of "Hot Iron"!!!!
The HW-7 Philosophy and Way of Life
Sputnik Anniversary
Getting my 2B back on 17
Preparing for a return of sunspots and 17 meters
Raiding Radio Shack (for 2N2222s!)
The Autumn SPRAT
MAILBAG
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20
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