W1GQL, Cyrillic Morse, and HEX Beams

 

I've been hearing a lot about hex beams,  and I think I'd like to build one.  Maybe for 17 and 20 meters.  
W1GQL has a lot of good info on these antennas on his site.  I also found his discussion of Russian CW to be very interesting: 
 What I really like to do with my CW, however is to operate CW in the Russian language. Years ago I taught myself the cyrillic morse code and can use it. Not as fast as the International Morse code but at a usable speed of maybe 15-20 wpm. I have had many contacts with Russian stations and really surprised them coming back to them in fluent Russian. It turns out that Russian hams nowadays don't use the cyrillic morse code often and are no longer even required to learn it to get their licenses. Newer Russian hams don't even understand their own language well in CW. But if you can hitch up with an older ham that does, it is great. I had a QSO a few years ago with a ham licensed right after WW2. He told me that our QSO in Russian was the very first one he had ever had with someone outside Russian using cyrillic morse code. That gives you and idea of how unusual it is. Russian hams use the International morse code when communicating with each other even.

     Switching from International CW to cyrillic CW can blow your mind. To send a Russian V you use our W. If you send a V it is actually their letter with the sound "zh". A C becomes their letter for the "TS" sound. Their letter for the "SH" sound is four dashes. Their letter for the "CH" sound is three dashes and a dot. Send our H and you get a Russian X. Send an X and you get a Russian softsign and so on. Gets confusing until you have done it for a while. I have a lot of fun with it. I wish the propagation were better now. I don't get as many solid Russian QSOs as I did when the sunspot numbers were higher.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Curiosity Puts Morse Code in the Martian Dust

Jim, K1KJW, and others alerted me to this very cool move by the inventive minds at JPL.  They put a Morse Code pattern in the tire treads of the Curiosity rover.   So now as it drives around, it spells out JPL in the Martian regolith.  
 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/news/msl20120829f.html

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Singapore Knack

Bunnie Huang has The Knack.  This was confirmed when, with obvious delight, he said that he'd found in China a book of schematic diagrams of a wide variety of laptops.  He then studied said schematics and endeavored to understand the role played by one transistor in the LED display of one of the computers.  KNACK CONFIRMED!  Somebody get Bunnie a ham license!  Cool video.  

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Give the Moon a Wink for Neil Armstrong

As I'm sure is the case with many of you, Neil Armstrong was one of my childhood heroes.   Neil passed away yesterday.   His family made a very nice request for those wishing to do something on the occasion of his passing:

"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

SolderSmoke on Tinkernation

SolderSmoke is on the Tinkernation web site: 
http://www.tinkernation.com/your-story/bill-meara-homemade-radios-and-magic-carpets/#more-698
(Note that SPRAT is in both pictures.)

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Curiosity's Descent to Mars

Maybe it's because I've done some parachuting myself... I was really blown away by this picture.  Taken by the Mars Orbiter as Curiosity descended.

And here is the initial low-res video from the rover itself.  Very cool.


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Completely Homebrew Cuban Ham Station

Wow, OM Orlando even homebrewed the rotor controller... AND THE ROTOR!  FB!  Thanks to Ernie, AJ4BP, for alerting us to this.  For more info and photos, go to CM6OMA's QRZ.com page. 

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20