A Cry for Help -- SolderSmoke Responds

Here at SolderSmoke, we often get letters from the relatives of Knack victims. This week we received a particularly impassioned plea for help. I thought readers would be interested in this case, and in the advice we gave:
----------------
Bill,
I usually don't listen to Soldersmoke, but my husband is a ham, so I overhear it from the other room on a fairly regular basis. OK, he listens to each show over and over at least 4 times. I hear him in there laughing--in his workbench area. I think the show's a good thing for the most part, and seems to keep him occupied when I don't need him to lift something heavy.
But today I am writing to you about a matter that has grown serious. A matter that can be overlooked no longer. So many of these radio hams seem to look up to you, Bill--so I am going directly to the ringleader to see if anything can be done. I have changed some names to protect the hapless victims.
I am referring to the blight called Shack Creep. It comes on quietly, but Shack Creep can be upon you before you have a chance to escape.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
In our home, it all started about 5 years ago. Charlie, my husband, had been tinkering with an old radio he found at a garage sale and he'd set aside a corner of the dining room for his small toolbox, soldering equipment, and a small box of things with wires sticking out. I noticed a piece of string or wire or something clotheslined across the room, attached to my macrame plant hanger. ''That's just temporary. I need to see if this thing works.'' Within a few weeks, though, I started to notice the card table expanding into a full-fledged workbench. The single wire that had dangled from the plant hanger had become a bundle of fat cords and wires going out the window and under the edge of the carpet to places unknown. From nowhere sprouted bins and boxes marked, 'Tubes-might work,' 'PCB scraps-keep,' 'Misc-to be sorted' and even more boxes haphazardly stacked with wires and braided cables jutting out every which way.
My dismay was only assuaged by the joyous but manic gleam in his eye as he uttered cryptic phrases like, "that's nearly four thousand miles a watt!," and "a ceramic resonator should never behave this way!"
I started finding oddly-shaped electronic parts in his pants pockets, on top of the dresser, and Arnie, our Irish Setter was recently caught with a doorknob capacitor in his slobbery jaws, headed out to play.
Bill, I love my Charlie, and I know this radio thing makes him happy, but you just have to say something to stop this tsunami of tangled wires and electronic bric-a-brac that threatens to unravel our happy home! For crabgrass we have pesticides. For roaches we have the roach motel--but nothing seems to be able to stem the tide of Shack Creep. Help!
Yours truly,
Anonymous

----------------------------------------

Dear Mrs. Charles:

Thank you for your e-mail. We here at SolderSmoke receive many messages like yours. I am happy to try to help you with your problem, but it is very important that you approach this problem with an open mind, and that you fully accept all of the advice that I am about to offer.

First, you must understand your husband's condition. What you refer to as "Shack Creep" is almost certainly the medical/psychological condition called "The Knack," also known as "Dilbert's Disease." This condition has plagued radio amateurs for many decades, but was first scientifically identified by Dr. Scott Adams during the late 1990s.

Dr. Adams wrote that The Knack is "a rare condition characterized by an extreme intuition about all things mechanical and electrical... and other social ineptitudes."

There is no cure for The Knack, but there are things that you can do to help your husband deal with the symptoms. Here is a list of steps that Dr. Adams and our team of researchers recommend:

-- Accept your husband's condition. Don't try to get him to change his ways, or get him interested in other things. Don't suggest that he switch to stamp collecting or gardening. He can't. He is a victim. He has a disease. Learn to live with it.

-- Victims of this disease usually exhibit a form of nesting behavior. In or near their homes they set up something that they call "the shack." Then they fill this "shack" with bits of wire, electronic items, tools and ham radio magazines. Often -- as in your husband's case -- the shack begins to fill to the rafters, and may actually overflow into other parts of the house.

-- Your reaction to this nesting behavior is very important. First, realize that your husband NEEDS to have a shack. Never suggest that his area be converted into a sewing room, or a TV room, or anything else. Knack victims are extremely territorial regarding their shacks, and will find these kinds of suggestions very upsetting.

-- Realize too that your husband NEEDS to spend a lot of time in his shack. And we mean a LOT of time. Shack therapy is an important part of our program for dealing with this condition. When your husband is in his shack, he should not be interrupted with requests to walk the dog, or take out the garbage or mow the lawn, etc. Our research has found that "honey-dos" significantly reduce the beneficial effects of shack therapy.

-- Knack victims need to consume beverages while in their shacks. Coffee -- lots of coffee -- is what they need.

--Social contact with other Knack victims is also very important, so you should NEVER object to his participation in hamfests or radio club meetings. Think of these events as group therapy sessions.

-- As a Knack victim, your husband NEEDS to work on electronic equipment. This equipment is often big, ugly, and expensive. Most health insurance plans will not cover the purchase of this equipment, but nevertheless, you should see it for what it is: a medically necessary part of your husband's treatment program. This is very important: You should never complain about the amount of money being spent on radio equipment.

-- Shack victims need encouragement from their loved ones. When your husband is struggling with an electronic project, it is best for you to avoid phrases like "Haven't you got that crazy thing working yet?" or "When will that stupid gizmo of yours be finished?" Instead, offer positive feedback: When he shows you something that he has been working on, use phrases like: "Excellent soldering!" or "Great circuit board layout!" Every once in a while, you should declare your husband to be "A true electronics genius," or "A wizard." Knack victims like to hear that.

-- Realize that there is no cure for The Knack. There are only therapies that help victims deal with the symptoms.

I want to also take this opportunity to let you know that we are also thinking of initiatives that we could propose to the new administration on behalf of Knack victims. For example we are considering a push for designated "Knack Victim" parking spots near RadioShack stores, and perhaps airfare subsidies for annual trips to Dayton, Ohio.

I hope you find this information useful and that you will take our suggestions to heart.

Sincerely,

Bill

Yi Yao has The Knack!

Hi Bill,

I discovered SolderSmoke a few years ago by listening to another pod
cast. Ever since, I have been hooked on this podcast and listen to it
whenever I have time. I have finally caught up and finished episode
142 today. I love the enthusiasm and spirit of discovery and creation
that goes into the stories in SS.

The first time I heard about amateur radio was in high school. It
seemed to be a overly nerdy thing at the time and I wasn't sure what
it was. However, after I started listening to SS, I discovered that
this is something that I wanted to do. So, on New Years Eve with the
kind help of a local examiner (Ori, VA3XW), I wrote my basic and
advanced exam and passed with honours. In Canada, we only have 3
categories: basic, advanced and morse code. I am very excited about
this and I am glad that SS made me make the jump.

You know, every time the word knack comes up, it is portrayed in a
negative way. Someone is "afflicted" with the knack or shows knackish
"symptoms" as if it was a horrible disease. I would like to change
this perspective.

I hereby declare myself blessed with the knack. Ever since I was a kid,
I disassembled various electronics around the house (to the dismay of
my parents). I knew when I was doing something right when I could put
something back together and it worked, or later, it worked better than
before. Despite my parents' persuasion to pursue other branches of
non-technical studies, I made up my mind to study electrical
engineering (must have been a teenage rebellion thing). Nonetheless
I finished school and found a job doing electronics design which I
love. Some of the people that you meet in this field are just
phenomenal. It has been a good career decision and I think it is truly
amazing. Thus, I see the knack as being a gift which I was fortunate
enough to hold.

I think one of the most important aspect of the knack is the desire to
understand and have self reliance on what we use on a daily basis. I
repair my own bikes and I've never bought a ready made computer.
Having a home machine shop greatly helps in this regard too. My first
oscilloscope I designed and built myself:
http://yyao.ca/projects/oscilloscope/
I have also resolved to build my first rig instead of buying one.
However, work is really busy these days, and it doesn't look like I
will be able to do this soon. One of these days, I will construct my
own rig and wiggle the ether.

I am currently visiting Silicon Valley here in California. There is
much to visit and do here. For example, the De Anza Flea Market
happens every 2nd Saturday (which is my first introduction to a swap
meet):
http://www.electronicsfleamarket.com/

The Computer History Museum is amazing:
http://www.computerhistory.org/

For a limited time, you can see Jim William's work bench at the
museum. If you thought your workbench was messy, you haven't seen
anything:
http://www.eetimes.com/ContentEETimes/Images/EELife/williams%20desk.jpg

Now, imagine having the world's most smartest electronics engineers
having dinner together. That's what the Analog Aficionados Party is about:
http://www.edn.com/blog/Anablog/41523-Analog_Aficionados_party_Feb_18_2012.php

On top of that, there are a lot of trade shows which you can go to
check out the latest and greatest of test equipment. They don't have
the same feel as some of my analog oscilloscopes, but they are shiny.
As you can see, this is a paradise for anyone blessed with the knack.

Anyhow, this email is long enough and I hope your eyes haven't glazed
over yet. My best regards to you, Billy, Maria and your wife.

73,
Yi Yao
VA3YAO
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

"The Knack" on a Mysterious Island

Paul, W2IOG, sent a nice e-mail about a very early use of the term "The Knack": 1874 by Jules Verne. (What word did he use in French?). I took a look at the Wikipedia page and discovered that there was indeed quite a bit of "The Knack" on Lincoln Island:

"With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer Smith, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island, producing fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerin, iron, a simple electric telegraph, a home on a stony cliffside called "Granite House", and even a seaworthy ship. They also manage to figure out their geographical location."

Hello Bill,

I have been a listener to your Soldersmoke pod-casts for a couple of years now. I am also a regular reader of the blog as well as a long time victim of "The Knack". I was browsing an old book store the other day when I came across a beautifully illustrated copy of Jules Verne's book "The Mysterious Island" copyright 1920. I couldn't resist, and when I reached chapter nine of part one of the book I was really glad I had made the purchase. In the story, which takes place in 1853, castaways on an apparently uninhabited island are trying to make fire for the first time. After trying and failing to make sparks by striking stones together, two of the castaways try the following:

"Pencroft, although he had no confidence in the proceeding, then tried rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, as [primitive people] do. Certainly, the movements which he and Neb gave themselves, if they had been transformed into heat, according to the new theory, would have been enough to heat the boiler of a steamer! It came to nothing. The bits of wood became hot, to be sure, but much less so than the operators themselves.

After working an hour, Pencroft, who was in a complete state of perspiration, threw down the pieces of wood in disgust. 'I can never be made to believe that [primitive people] light their fires in this way, let them say what they will,' he exclaimed. 'I could sooner light my arms by rubbing them against each other!'

The sailor was wrong to despise the proceeding. [Primitive people] often kindle wood by means of rapid rubbing. But every sort of wood does not answer for the purpose, and besides, there is 'the knack,' following the usual expression, and it is probable that Pencroft had not 'the knack.' "

Congratulations on getting that 17 meter rig back on the air!

Paul W2IOG


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

Tom Swift had The Knack

Thanks to Richard for alerting us this important piece of Knack history.  Not bad for 1910.  You can see Tom's shack and antenna in the cover image (above).  I don't think he was going for a fan dipole.  He built the kind of multi-wire antenna that was in fashion in the early days of radio. 

The full text of the book is avaialble free on-line.  The radio fun begins in  Chapter 20: 

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_and_His_Wireless_Message

Bless my door knob, this was a lot of fun! 

Bill, 

I am certain I missed the origin of “the knack” as used on your blog. I, wonder, however, if in your youth you read Tom Swift novels? Although now they seem somewhat politically incorrect, I feel that the word may have, for our purposes, evolved there.

In the first novel, “Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle” (sic) Tom repairs a butter churn’s “system of  cogs and handles.” When praised for his abilities he declares, “It’s just a knack.” Stick with me.

In a later novel, written around 1910, “Tom Swift and His Wireless Message” Tom is shipwrecked on an ebbing volcanic island. He saves the day by constructing a transmitter and receiver from the wreckage of his plane,  even though he “did not have the magnets, carbons, coherers and needles” needed. He strings “ wires from the top of the dead treed, to a smaller one, some distance away, using five wires, set parallel, and attached to a wooden spreader, or stay. (Fan dipole?) The wires were then run to the dynamo, and the receiving coil, and the necessary ground wires were installed.” Then,”once the impulses, or electric currents, are sent out into space, all that is necessary to do is to break, or interrupt them at certain intervals to make dots, dated and spaces.” He sent “C.Q.D. (come quick—danger) even though a “new code has been instituted for them, but I am going to rely on the old one, as, in this part of the world, the new one may not be so well understood.” Needless to say, a ship hears, responds and rescues the crew.

That”s “the knack", alright!

Never give up, and 73.

Richard, KD0NPM

Ponderosa Knack! Bonanza Astronomy!

I loved this episode, and I think most of you guys will too. I was alerted to it by an article by famed comet hunter David Levy. Wow! I never would have thought that in a 1962 episode of the cowboy show Bonanza, we would find amateur astronomy and experiments to determine the speed of sound and the speed of light. Amazing. There is no radio in this so it is not really The Knack, but young Mr. Michelson (yes, the Nobel Prize winner) does set up a shack-like workshop and he is trying to measure c. So this is all very Knack-like. There is also a very nice moral to this story, a moral that is related to our notion of an International Brotherhood of Electrical Wizards.
Three cheers for Ben Cartwright!

You can find the episode here. It runs for 48 minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzPRGV0HbMk

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

Knack Story: Ryan's Rig

Bill,
      
... [I know] a young ham locally who suffers terribly from the
affliction of the "knack". Ryan, KJ6HBY, is 17, and an Extra class,
who earned his DXCC in a year. He is a great builder, starting out
building his first antenna a couple years ago by breaking apart an old
washing machine motor and unwinding it for the wire. Along the way he
has restored various rigs, i.e. HR10, S-38, IC707, etc and built a
BTX17 (17 meter version of the BTX20). Enclosed is a couple photos of
his latest creations. First, he hand carved a wood morse code key. It
actually feels and works well. Now he has build a single tube xmtr,
and after fussing with it, is pumping out 4 watts. Both of the kid's
folks are hams as well as his sister. I had an opportunity to visit
his shack the other day. It's a teenage ham's dream and a mother's
nightmare. Racks floor to ceiling with radios! If anybody has the
knack, Ryan does. Makes me think there is a future, we can sleep well
tonight.
73
Mike Herr
WA6ARA
DM-15dp
Home of The QRP Ranch

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

Micro Men on the BBC: Sinclairs, Acorns, and the Knack

Now these guys look like some proper British boffins!
Tony Fishpool, G4WIF, sent me this link to a wonderful new BBC program about the early days of home computing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/oct/08/armstrong-freeman-micro-men-bbc

Tony also sent me his own story of computer derring-do in the early days. Here Tony once again marks himself as a true Knack victim, and a true wizard. Commenting on the BBC show, Tony wrote:

...I enjoyed a huge dose of nostalgia. I owned both Sinclair and Acorn computers back then and I suppose they launched me on a geek career that's put food on the table ever since.

One of the first Christmas's of my early married life tested my new bride's
patience with a knack victim for a husband.

A long awaited Acorn Atom kit computer finally arrived on Christmas Eve. All during Christmas day I was hunched over a steaming soldering iron installing every capacitor, resistor and semiconductor in the computer's printed circuit board.

That evening after the last component was installed I applied power and
there was a beep and the TV (which should have been showing Christmas
movies) displayed :-

Acorn Computers

Ready>

Wow!

How I managed to get that computer working first time still amazes me to
this day. How I am still married amazes me even more - but I was "in the
zone" and that computer just had to be built.

The TV show is called "Micro Men" so look out for it.

Kind regards
Tony G4WIF

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

Romanian Mighty Mite and Ciprian's Knack Story

Another wonderful video from Ciprian in Romania. 

Any suggestions on his Mighty Mite power output problem? 

Here is Ciprian's YouTube channel. His intro video presents his Knack Story.  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgaWKPt1P-4D6YI-Opd15_Q

I really hope Ciprian can get a license very soon.  His homebrew projects alone should qualify him. Ciprian has The Knack. It would be great if the IBEW (especially the European branch) could help Ciprian get some more parts and test gear. 

SOLDERSMOKE 86

June 22, 2008

http://www.soldersmoke.com

Maritime Mobile on Lake Bracciano.
Jean Shepherd loses girlfriend due to THE KNACK.
30 Meter transmitter self-constructs (almost).
QRSS Woes.
Do CW signals have sidebands?
Freq Counter down for the count.
Dial Parallax: Drake 2B jumps 3 kc from eyeball to eyeball.
Radio Shack: Count your blessings!
Nice wire from old computers.
Good luck on Field Day.
MAILBAG: VU3RDD NEW HARMONIC!
Frank on analog scopes,
PE1OIT on si570 chips,
KG4ENB on 179 kc LOWFERS,
M0NJP on how XYL's can deal with THE KNACK,
K7JM on SolderSnow,
W8OAJ SolderSmoke as Knack Therapy,
Jonathan 7J1AWL "from commuter train in Tokyo"

F8CKH: The Knack, 747s, and Homebrew QRP

Here is some further evidence that The Knack is a global phenomenon. I'm sure our readers will find Antoine's story quite familiar. Looking at his QSL (below) we can see that he has a special reason to be interested in QRP: After a full workday of operating a very high-powered rig (!), a simple little QRP rig must represent an appealing contrast. And even if that 747 is very QRO, I think we will all agree that Antoine has the kind of job that most knack victims dreamed about when they were kids.

Hi Bill,

I have been listening to your podcasts for a while now after I heard about them in one of the Amateur Logic TV shows. I picked up one podcast randomly and I got to say that I really enjoyed the tone and content of your talks. Very informative and interesting. I like also the fact that your amateur radio experience is based on homebrewing and experimenting. Back in 1997, I earned my French amateur radio license at the age of 16 (extra and big CW lover). I have been always amazed by what we could do with very little and go very far. My family is Hamradio friendly: my grandfather was F8KE back in 1930s and he has been around the hobby for most of his life. At 7 or 8 I remember times where we were at his place and I would ask for permission to leave the table early to go upstairs and visit my grandfathers shack. Everything there was homebrew and I was really pleased to see that the magic of Radio was achievable with only few components, homebrew antennas and a bit of luck. He encouraged me to learn the Code and at 12 I was already up to 20 wpm! My dad used to be 6W8FC while he was in the service and he gave me the passion for weak signal and DXing. Technically speaking, I HAD to become a Ham Radio operator.

I am really fascinated by your level of dedication to homebrewing and also that you share that we us, fellow operators addicted to -soldersmoke-. Just like you, I have been all over the place since I am an Airline Pilot qualified on the Airbus and Boeings... UK, New Zealand, US, I got a chance to operate from couple of places and something got the pleasure to be behind the scene and become the reason of a pile up. Operating from down under from Kiwi lands was a wild and exciting experience, indeed!

Finally I am about to move permanently to the US, in Pennsylvania. I applied for a Vanity Callsign (NY3G) and hopefully I will hear from the FCC soon.

I wanted to mention also that I got rid of almost all my regular Yaesu, Kenwood rigs to start from scratch. My project? To design, build, operate an HF station from scratch. No more commercial rigs for me! Well I will try! I am really happy to finally make use of a workbench that I just cleaned at home. I will set up a blogspot account to illustrate my projects... I think that would be great to make QSO with you Bill, sometime!

Thanks again for bringing some much enthusiasm into this fascinating side of Ham Radio, Homebrewing.

Best Regards,

73

Antoine Pierre GAMET F8CKH

SolderSmoke #90

http://www.soldersmoke.com

August 17, 2008

August in Rome, Italian beaches, Circeo
Hardrock Cafe, My Sharona, The Knack
The Planet Mechanics
VK6DI on QRSS
Listen to me talking to Jean Shepherd (1976)
SolderSmoke (sort of) in Australia in 1944
Herman Munster is not an appliance op...
Book Review: "The Science of Radio"
August QST: KD1JV's rig, pneumatic switching, QRP WAS
Conrad's Garage, KDKA, K4HU (SK)
Kits and Parts by W8DIZ
Working on 80 meter DSB rig
Computer fixed, counter still dead
MAILBAG:
7J1AWL in Vietnam
Jerry, NR5A, gets a Drake 2A
KB1DRK recommends Spitfish
SM5QU on Apollo Backpack Radios (AM!)
AC7ZN reports WB8LZG has aerielitis
W8NF on Dorkbot (Knack?  or no Knack?)
G0FUW to speak at Basingstoke 1 September
M0JRQ on the meanings of "knackered"

A Nice Hallicrafters S38-E Knack Story

Bill - 

It was Christmas of 1958 (5th Grade)that my parents bought me the Hallicrafters S38-E that I still have.  I was recovering from multiple surgeries the previous summer to correct for the effects of Polio when I was 3.  I came down with Polio in the last year before the vaccine was released to the public.  

A bit of bio - because of my physical limitations as a child, I spent a lot of time indoors reading and listening to the radio.  Broadcast AM here at that time was still playing dramas like "The Lone Ranger" and "Big John and Little Sparky".  I really enjoyed them.  Then, on that fateful day I asked my mother why, since our radio plugged into the wall electric outlet and we could hear people talking, weren't other people able to hear us talking on their radio if we spoke into the loudspeaker.  She said, 'I don't know, but the library ( 2 blocks away) will have books about radio that you can read."  The Knack bit early and it bit hard.  

By the time I was in 5th grade I had discovered short wave radio.  I dearly wanted a short wave radio and I wanted a Hallicrafters.  Somewhere I had found a catalog and wow! nothing else would do.  What I didn't realize until I was in my teens was just how hard times were for my folks.  Most families then did not have medical and hospitalization insurance.  My dad was paying off the hospital and the doctors every month almost until I graduated from high school.

But, anyway, I did get the S38-E for Christmas.  At $69.95, it was the least expensive Hallicrafters available.  In reality, it is just an All-American - 5 with extended tuning range.  Tuning was as broad as a barn door, and above 15 MHz it is as deaf as a post.  But it was mine and I loved it.  The short wave bands were still hot in those days as we were just peaking through one of the most celebrated Solar Maxima of the last century.  Many the hours I listened to HCJB - Quito, and Radio Moscow, and Voice of America....   I also found people talking to each other - Wow!  Ham Radio.  And just look at me now.... And those strange beeping sounds - that was actually people talking? And what was that strange Donald-Duck sounding talk all about?

Yes - I still have that same S38-E.  It went to college with me, and has been with me for over half a Century, now.  Yes, it still works. (Needs a replacement IF transformer),  Yes, it will shock the bejeebers out of you if you plug it in wrong.   {I use two filament transformers back-to-back to prevent that.)  Yes, the Knack still has me, but that's another chapter.

72's 
Bruce  KK0S

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

The Woz's Early Exposure to Electronics

Here is what I was trying to --- hic-- say about Steve Wozniak --hic-- in Podcast #139:

From "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson:

"One of Steve Wozniak's first memories was going to his father's workplace on a weekend and being shown electronic parts, with his dad "putting them on a table with me so that I could play with them." He watched with fascination as his father tried to get a waveform line on a video screen to stay flat so that so that he could show that one of his circuit designs was working properly. "I could see that whatever my dad was doing, it was important and good." Woz, as he was known even then, would ask about the resistors and transistors lying around the house, and his father would pull out a blackboard to explain what they did. "He would explain what a resistor was doing all the way back to atoms and electrons. He explained how resistors worked when I was in the second grade, not by equations, but by having me picture it."

This is clearly the approach to electronics that we see in the book "From Atoms to Amperes" by F.A. Wilson.

Mike, KC7IT, gave Woz a new title "the uber-knack-master of all time":

Woz is the uber-knack-master of all time, and always has been in my book. His Apple II design is a work of genius in getting ten pounds of function out of five pounds of parts.

One of many examples: Apple II was the first personal computer to use DRAM memory chips, which were brand new then and kinda scary even for us pros. DRAMs store data as charges on tiny leaky capacitors. Every 20 milliseconds or so they have to be refreshed.

Everyone else had counters and logic just for refresh. Woz arranged the Apple II's display memory, so reading out the pixels to the TV screen 60 times per second did the refresh too, at no cost in circuits or performance. The elegant design of a pure knack genius.

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

Psst... I know a guy with some caps.... Variable caps... Real beauties.... But only for Mighty Mites.

Feast your eyes my friends.   That is 400 micro-microfarads of variable capacitance.  (400 picofarads for you sophisticated young folks.)   A benefactor interested in expanding the ranks of the Color-Burst Liberation Army has stepped forward to make us an offer that is hard to resist:  He will send ELIGIBLE recipients one each of these fine electronic components for the cost of postage (approximately 6 bucks in the USA). 

He has specified that ELIGIBILITY is limited to those who need this part to build or complete a Michigan Mighty Mite.   And I have been appointed "Grand Poobah and Chief Arbiter of Capacitor Eligibility." 

So here is the deal:  Send me an e-mail telling me about your planned or stalled Michigan Mighty Mite project.  Include some information about your personal "Knack Story"  -- tell us why you share in this strange compulsion to build a largely useless 250 mW 3.579 MHz oscillator.   If I find your plans believable and your Knack Story compelling,  I will recommend you for a capacitor.  Purely aspirational MMM projects and obviously fabricated Knack Stories will not make the cut.

Supplies are limited, so act now! 

Quiz Question for Knack Victims

Hey Bill,

I know you have the knack . . . so I'm coming to you.
I've got 31 years of ham radio experience, on top of 16 years experience in the Wireless Telecom industry, that said I have a tech question that has really got me stumped. Maybe the answer is just too obvious.

Here it is: About 2 years ago an electrical engineer/ham radio operator/nuclear engineer threw the following question by me (I've yet to get back to him with my answer). Maybe you, or some of your listeners know the answer.

Knack Question: For yagi antennas only one (yes, sometimes two) element is electrically driven/xmit. Instead, why aren't all of the elements (simultaneously) electrically driven/xmit (vs parasitically driven)? Now the stumper - according to the engineer supposedly the answer excludes the following as the answer(s):

• Impact to antenna gain,
• The need to have any type of phasing harness
• Impact to transmit horizontal beam width (directivity).

Any idea what the answer might be? What am I missing?

ANOTHER Nobel Prize Winner with THE KNACK

When I heard that the guys who ran the LIGO gravitation wave experiment won this year's Nobel Prize for physics, something told me that at least one of those involved in this historic detection of weak distant signals would have THE KNACK.  It did not take me long to confirm this.  Rainer Weiss (above) definitely has had the THE KNACK all his life. And what an interesting life it is.  Check it out:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/meet-college-dropout-who-invented-gravitational-wave-detector

Knackish excerpts: 

The family soon had to flee again, when U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed an accord ceding parts of Czechoslovakia to Germany. They heard the news on the night of 30 September 1938, while on vacation in the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. As Chamberlain’s address blared from the hotel’s massive radio, 6-year-old Rainer stared in fascination at the glowing array of vacuum tubes inside the cabinet. The hotel emptied overnight as people fled to Prague.

As a teenager, Weiss developed two passions: classical music and electronics. Snapping up army surplus parts, he repaired radios out of his bedroom. He even made a deal with the local toughs: If they left him alone as he lugged radios to and from the subway, he’d fix theirs for free. “They would steal things and I would have to fix them,” he says. “It wasn’t a good deal.”

Weiss was drawn to tinkering partly as a reaction to his family’s cerebral atmosphere. “This is a German-refugee kid with very self-consciously cultured parents, and he’s rebelling against them by doing things with his hands,” Benjamin says. “But he’s surely not rejecting doing things with his head.”

He applied to MIT to study electrical engineering so that he could solve a problem in hi-fi—how to suppress the hiss made by the shellac records of the day. But electrical engineering courses disappointed him, as they focused more on power plants than on hi-fi. So Weiss switched to physics—the major that had, he says, the fewest requirements.

Ontario Knack Story

Bill:

I think I’ve finally earned the right to contact you.  I have a really severe case of the knack.  I did not realize it until I discovered amateur radio.  My thinking is that there is no hope for those afflicted with the knack.  I believe that amateur radio helps those afflicted to deal with the condition.  It alleviates the symptoms.   

For years I wandered through the technical wilderness dabbling in physics (I have a M.Sc. in Nuclear Physics), aircraft (I was a tow pilot at a gliding club for several years), high power rockets (www.napas.net), electronics and amateur radio.  The most enjoyable part of radio is not the QSOs it’s the building and the satisfaction of a working device. 

I am relatively new to amateur radio but I’ve always had a passion for all things electronic (and technical).  I am a self-taught electronics geek and have been playing around with digital electronics (PIC microcontroller) for some time know. I starting building altimeters for high power rockets that has the capability of setting off onboard charges  to separate the rocket.  When your rocket reaches 10,000 feet, you cannot open a chute at apogee because it’s going to drift too far and you need to open the rocket at apogee (no chute) and then open the main chute at about 1000 feet to minimize drift. I routinely travel to the US to attend LDRS (large dangerous rocket ships). 

Anyway I had to get my amateur ticket for onboard video camera and trackers (beacons).  Once I got my license and got into radio, it was like a drug!! 

I am now  home brewing everything in my shack.   

When I came across Soldersmoke that was like a super drug.  I downloaded and listened to EVERY episode (seriously!).  I followed you and Mike’s journey and I learned soooo much.  I was devastated when I found out about Mike.   

You inspired me to build my own transmitter.  Earlier this year I built a 20m CW transmitter for my rocket that will eventually send telemetry (in CW from a PIC microcontroller) completely from scratch – no kits – no one’s design. Your early episodes also pushed me to learn LTSpice which I used extensively to model transmitter design of others as well as my own. I’m thinking of calling the transmitter “kaputnik”. 

My design is based on a Chinese AD9850 DDS module which generates a square wave followed by a class E amp (with a tuned circuit).  Puts out 1 watt of power with harmonics down by about 40db.  The reason I used this module with that I can easily change frequency (with mod to tuned circuit)  – after all the DDS module is programmable.  All I need to do now is clean up key clicks because the carrier is turning on too fast.  I playing around with slowly increasing the bias on the mosfet to allow the power output to increase slowly.  Any advice/tips/tricks would be appreciated. 

Next project is a remote antenna switch.   However, you have me close to tackling a SSB transceiver.

Anyway, keep up the great work and I’m looking forward to listening to another 150 episodes!! 

Take care and “stay thirsty” my friend. 

73
Dave Rajnauth, VE3OOI

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

Knack Story: Rupert Goodwins -- SolderSmoke in the Old Smoke (London)

Rupert with some sort of SDR rig

 

In addition to having a very cool name, Rupert Goodwins, G6HVY,  is a for-real tech guru:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Goodwins

I was delighted when Rupert posted some sage advice about how to deal with my recalcitrant amplifier.   He managed to include a reference to Mr. Spock in his message, helpfully noting that some of these amp problems would challenge the Vulcan's logical powers.  That made me feel better.  I sent a few words of thanks to Rupert and got back this really great "Knack Story":  

Hi Bill,

 

Well, all I have on HF amp instability is anecdote and half-remembered theory. But I do like the sort of challenges that building RF on the bench brings up - a problem worthy of one's attention proves its worth by fighting back! 

I've enjoyed Soldersmoke (or should I say Soddersmoke) for years now, and even if I haven't bought the T-shirt, have bought your book. I first inhaled the demon fumes when I was barely into double digits, and the addiction kicked in hard - I fixed my first radio, a valve (tube!) FM 1950s broadcast receiver using a soldering iron that was actually one of my father's wooden-handled screwdrivers heated on the gas ring of the cooker in the kitchen. My parents were mystified but supportive...

London is indeed a hard place to play radio. But that makes it doubly pleasurable when it works: it rather feels like you're operating under cover, a special forces op sneaking the signal out under the noses of the regime. I once had a birthday picnic on Hampstead Heath where I brought my SOTA beam and fishing-pole mast: the local constabulary turned up and were also mystified but not quite so supportive... "What if everyone did it?" they asked. "Oh, if only..." I thought but did not say. 

 

I do hope you can pacify your errant amp. Sometimes these things can be fixed by brainpower, sometimes by just mucking around until they get bored before you do. But normally I find that I've learned a lot when the problem's solved. RF isn't black magic, it's a gateway into another world that's marvellous and enthralling, but ours to know. I read a really good paper by Freeman Dyson, where he said that Maxwell invented modern physics, because his equations were the first to show that the real world of how things work is both beyond our natural experience, but accessible through thought and logic. The real entrancing thing about radio is that it proves this - we can talk across the world by translating our knowledge into a tiny handful of otherwise inert bits and pieces that tap into something utterly beyond our senses. And it's open to anyone who cares enough to try. 

 

How cool is that? (I had to go and find that Dyson paper again - here it is, if you're interested:  http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/em/dyson.pdf )

 

(I also have an unshakeable and unhelpful addiction for obscure but interesting radios, as my QRZ page confesses. And things I helped design and build when I was an engineer are now in the NSA and Bletchley Park cryptologic museum collections. That, as they say, is quite another story...)

 

Anyway, thanks again for emailing - I'm thrilled to hear from you, and perhaps, who knows, one day we may make contact the way God and Maxwell intended - via QRP on a lively band while dodging the noise and bouncing our photons off the Heaviside Layers. 

Best 73s,

Rupert, G6HVY

------------------------

Rupert's QRZ.com page contains additional evidence of his Knack affliction and International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards membership:

 

Other equipment here includes a Wireless Sets No 19 Mk III, an R1155, a Barlow Wadley XCR-30, an ICR-73, some PMR stuff on 4 metres, some old CB kit (shhhh!) and other obscurities. I like kit that has something different about it the 19 set, for example, is of course famous for its wartime role, but it was also the very first transceiver. The XCR-30 is really interesting, not only for being a high tech product of 60s apartheid South Africa (so a morally complex thing to own), but for having a very esoteric design that provides 0-31MHz coverage without bandswitching, very high stability and accuracy (you can generally pre-tune an AM broadcast station anywhere on the bands from the dial and be within 1KHz on switch-on, and all from a handful of transistors. There are stories to tell about all of my radios. 

Started in radio when I was too young to get my ticket, so was forced - forced, I tell you - onto CB radio, in the days when it was very popular and very illegal. Had a couple of crystal-TX, super-regen RX walkie-talkies (QRPp and RX so wide I could pick up Radio South Africa on the BC 11m band) to start with, thence bought a 'for conversion to 10m' populated CB PCB from a batch at Plymouth ARC Rally and just bunged a set of toggle switches on the PLL-02 divider inputs. This was the mid-late70s, when skip was high... Did the RAE ASAP after my 16th birthday, first legal amateur rig (I may have built things with 6V6s that may have made odd noises on the local Top Band AM Sunday morning net) was an Icom IC-2E. My richer friend, who was a G6E, had an FT-290R, which was obv. nicer but obv. deafer. "FT-290. IC-2E. I can hear him. He can't hear me." Used 19 sets at school, so have that addiction too. Since then, the hobby has been in and out of my life (like QTHs, wives, jobs and money), but the love of radio never has. 

---------------------------

I also understand that he once worked at a dodgy TV repair shop in the back streets of Plymouth and can still swap out a gassy PL509 with the best of 'em.

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

Knack Pronunciation Guide: Kludge (as in Fudge)

A SolderSmoke listener (who will remain unnamed) recently corrected me on my pronunciation of an important Knack-related word:  Kludge.   I kludge as in fudge or judge.  He said it should be Kluge as in stooge.  I think we need a ruling her from our etymologist Steve Silverman.   Steve? 

I grew up listening to the 75 meter AM Northeast USA gang.  They said Kludge as in stooge, so I hope we stick with that.  

Wiki has an intereting (and seemingly endless) discussion on this topic: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kludge

Excerpts:


 'An ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole' 

"There is a certain, indefinable, masochistic finesse that must go into true Kludge building. The professional can spot it instantly. The amateur may readily presume that "that's the way computers are." 

"The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers pronounce the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its meaning and pronunciation, as 'kludge'. … British hackers mostly learned /kluhj/ orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are at least consistent. European hackers have mostly learned the word from written American sources and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but use the wider American meaning! Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's meaning."

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