French Knack: F8ATA, F8KE, F8CKH, and K3DY

Hello Bill, It has been a while! I don't know if you remember but I emailed you back in September 2010, introducing myself as a fellow amateur listening to your podcasts. I had just moved from France and received back then my FCC vanity callsign K3DY.

It took me a while to get my ham shack back together but finally I was on the bands again! Recently, I started re reading your book, very inspirational. Since my very first license (as F8CKH) at 16, my interests have always been into the design / homebrew as well as QRP & CW. Why on earth would a teenager do that? I think I have the knack. My motto is: "Don't turn it on, take it apart!!!".

Anyway, it has been a lot of fun to work on some various projects (the one in progress now is a LC meter using a LCD display and a PIC 16F627). It took longer than expected to get to that point as I had to work on a PIC programmer interface as well as refresh my C language programming skills! I recently discovered that mouser is offering some nice project enclosures. In the past, my finished products were kind of "ugly" (to the average Joe not us of course!) so I am trying to work on that.

Oh also, last time I emailed you, I talked about my grand father EF8ETA, F8ATA then F8KE in the late 20s and how seeing his electronic lab and radios when I was 7 or 8 inevitably changed my life! After all this, I - had - to get my license and get involved! My father, also a ham, emailed me a picture of F8KE's shack in 1929/1930. My grand father was at the time 19 years old. Also attached to the email are two scans of his QSL cards dated as well 1929 or so. He was using a classic design for the era, based on a Hartley Oscillator. I am trying to imagine how it was to get the knowledge back then on how to build a station (TX, RX, antenna) but also how to get the parts! When people now complain that they can't finish up a homebrew project because they can't find a FT50-3 core, well they should think of how it must have been almost 100 years ago.

Have a great weekend! 73, K3DY Antoine

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 99

SolderSmoke99.mp3

January 18, 2009
Epiphany in Rome -- La Befana brings two Gerbils (Dot and Dash)
Ice skating near (but not on!)the Tiber
QRSS: Eldon's beacon spotted. 723 miles with 15 millwatts
QRSS Calibration Problem: My proposed solution
A Tale of Two BENELUX Grabbers: ON5EX and PA1SDB
Watching VK2ZAY cross Tasman Sea. Watching G6AVK reach VK6DI
Inspiration from old SPRATs: From PA3BHK and W7ZOI
Book Review: "Empire of the Air" (Good bios, but author Knack-less)
AA1TJ's CFL revolution reaches Cuba. Now a CFL receiver.
AA1TJ's "Reggie" converts all sigs to QRP!
Several new videos on the Blog (from WA7MLH, N0TU, KD1JV)
MAILBAG: Ragav VU3VWR has Knack since 9th grade. Wants to QRSS in VU
Nick M0NJP likes show, getting used to the voice, Amazon UK instructions
Bryan VK3HXR has eeePC running Ubuntu
Paolo IK1ZYW has external keypad chips for FT-817 (available at cost)
Jim AL7RV's wife thought SolderSmoke gave him a fit. Agrees on 1)design 2)build
Wes W7ZOI on feedback circuits
Joe Rocci has an LtSpice model for the NE602
Gerri EI8DRB asks if he should buy a Drake 2-B (Uh... YES!)
Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith : SMT paste lacks bouquet of 60/40 multi-core
Chris KC2LFI prescribes 3500 Hz notch for sibilant SS problem (advice followed)

KNACK IN THE SHACK: N5ITU

Jeff, N5ITU, clearly has The Knack.

The mug and the bumper sticker are available at the SolderSmoke Cafe Press store: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/SolderSmoke

Jeff is in Texas. We had a feeling that this particular bumper sticker would appeal to those the Lone Star State.

Building a Wright Model D

There is a lot of Knack-like activity in this project. I think you guys will like this show. I'm not sure the Hulu link will work outside the U.S.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/23333/nova-wright-brothers%E2%80%99-flying-machine

There is also a lot of good background info here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wright/

And as long as we're talking about Knack-related aviation, here's a great article about an avionics engineer who has made a big difference in the world:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017426408_bateman05.html

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

Clocks, CRTs, HV supplies: Eric has The Knack!

Nice interview by Jeri Ellsworth.  This fellow definitely seems to have the Knack.  At the end of the video he shows a high voltage supply that he is WEARING AROUND HIS NECK! 

Here's Eric's site: http://tubetime.us/


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

NUKE KNACK!

Sure, some of your guys have solar panels and wind-powered generators, but how many of you have NUCLEAR FUSION goin' on in the shack? These guys do. They DEFINITELY have The Knack. Be sure to watch the video in which the guy admits that he has an agreement with his wife to replace the house if he actually blows it up!

Check it out: Wall Street Journal Fusion Article

This all reminds me of a wonderful book I got as a kid: "The Amateur Scientist" by C.L. Strong. "Build a Homemade Atom Smasher" was one of the projects. Homebrew X-Rays were also in there.

XQ6FOD -- A GREAT Knack Story from Chile

Greg VK1VXG sent me this link.  I had a blog entry on this a few years ago, but I didn't do it justice.  This is a truly amazing and inspirational knack story, the story of Manfred, XQ6FOD. So many lines from this page resonated with me.  For example:

I always regretted having disassembled this radio. It was so nice, so compact... Everything was hand made, there was not a single right angle in it... I felt like a murderer after destroying it. But, I needed the parts...

I designed this thing during a family summer trip into Chile's beautiful deep south. The VFO part was designed on Chiloe Island, the IF and receiver circuit took shape at Futaleufu, Rio Cisnes, Puerto Aysen and Coyhaique, while the difficult RF power amplifier work was done on the return trip via Bariloche in Argentina. So this is an international design!  Once back at home, for the first time in my life I did a thorough computer simulation of the whole thing. I hacked around the program for two weeks, and then my poor Atari had to spend another two weeks crunching numbers. It found some potential problems. I improved gain distribution, corrected mistakes, and then went straight to designing the printed circuit board, without doing any real-world test.

Check it out:

http://ludens.cl/Radiacti/Radiacti.html

Dear Santa: I want a Knack Watch. The one with real tubes...

This is what all the cool homebrewers will be wearing next year.   Just be careful at airport security -- they might not understand! 

Check it out:  http://www.johngineer.com/blog/?p=1595

We received some comments from some noted Thermatron authorities: 

Hi Guys,

This will cause all of the bells, whistles and sirens to go off all it once.

Now all that is needed is a logo on the watch that says

EBOLA ( Electronic Bi-state Operational Long Arithmetic) and this will cause you to go to jail without passing Go or collecting $200.

Pete

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

Wow, I love this thing!…even though it uses little black plastic things to work.  Have no idea what they are. (johngineer has knack squared)

Reminds me of a project I am trying with fellow ham.  We picked up an old HP nixie tube freq counter at junk yard.  We were going to strip out the nixie tubes to make a clock, but decided we could make it as clock as is.  Want to program an Arduino thing into generating a frequency that is the time and feeding it into the counter.

For example 3:45:25 would be 34,525 Hz.  

But my Italian is terrible so haven’t been able to get the Arduino to work.  Just learning it.  Project a bit over my head. picked up one of those online language courses on Italian. Hard, but not as hard as Turkish!

Grayson

TA2ZGE - Ankara, Turkey

KJ7UM

Follow the Hollow-State Design Blog

hollowstatedesign.tumblr.com

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

 I'm wondering if I  could do it Manhattan style, with discrete components... 

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 Sale on Thai Beaches!

An interesting e-mail from Thailand arrived this week. Excerpts:

Hi Bill Now for the full story

Life was so uncomplicated and peaceful before soldersmoke!

Last October I was lying on the beach in Pattaya City Thailand. I was just lying there enjoying a cold rice beer watching the various peddlers trudging along the sand. I wasn't bothering anyone and thought I was enjoying my retired life style. (Little did I know what was about to happen). Casually the wife reminded me there was a Ham club meeting in about three hours, I should hold off on another beer. Ok, I'll manage till later.

Pattaya Thailand has a great little Ham Radio club with locals from all parts of the world enjoying the one universal hobby without boundaries.

We showed up at the meeting on time and found a nice corner table. ( now the plug for the club - the meetings are the Friday after the first Sunday of every month and are held at Jimbos Bar). After about an half a beer a friend from England wandered over and sat next to me. He produced a CD from his pocket and said is was SolderSmoke, would I like to buy a copy for 100Baht. (approx. 3.00US) . As with most normal people, my first question was, what is soldersmoke? This was my first big mistake. I should have said not interested and looked for other friends that were arriving. But, no, I had to ask what was SolderSmoke.

My friend tried to explain, but feel short of being able to fully relay the meaning of the word SolderSmoke. If I remember correctly there were episodes 1 thru 80 something. I took the CD back to my house. and the next day spent over 5 hours glued to the CD player. My world was beginning to crumble.

I listened to more episodes. and started to think in terms of QRSS, QRPp, long wires etc. This new terminology was fascinating. I grew up in Idaho and was first licensed in 1963. I still have my first rigs that consisted of a Hammarlund HQ-100 and a Knight Kit T-60. I apparently had the knack at age 13 or so, but didn't know what it was called then. hi hi

In a couple of SolderSmoke episodes there was mention of a Drake 2B, a great receiver in all respects. I found myself wanting one (I sure didn't need one), and looking every where. I bought one in great condition with the original for sale tag still on it. It even had the crystal calibrator installed.

Now my vocabulary has expanded to whisperers, grabbers, mickums, reggies, knights of the realm and other terms before unknown to my vocabulary. Fessenden was a terrific individual although I'd never heard the name before episode 90 something. I started to build a QRSS beacon. I am in constant contact with Michael Rainey , AA1TJ. He is a great guy and has helped with a lot of questions.

For the first time in several years I am involved with something I enjoy. This is really fun I said to myself after fabricating a one transistor transmitter patterned after the discontinued ONER. 0-Yes let's not forget Mr. Doug Demaw, I bought the QRP notebook and Solid State Design (I didn't tell the XYL how much this book cost).

I've always been taught that addictions are bad things. I am in serious trouble now. I am thoroughly and completely addicted to SolderSmoke. I get impatient and unpredictable when the podcasts are a little late being posted on the internet. It's just like getting your fix for the week. Yes, fix for the week because it doesn't last the full two weeks. hi hi

I guess this is a non e-cursing thank you kind of Email. SolderSmoke has ruined my life, but my new life is much better with it.

Hope this epistle hasn't bored you to much. Your providing a great focal point for fellow knack victims.

Only thing left to say Bill, is KEEP ON SMOKIN!


Thanks for SolderSmoke

73 de
Stephen (Himself) (seems like everyone has a nickname)
HS0ZHB / NM7J

SolderSmoke #91 STEREO SPECIAL

Be sure to listen to episode 91 of the SolderSmoke podcast:

http://www.soldersmoke.com

September 14, 2008

TOPICS:

Sardinia!
ON5EX's QRSS MEPT leads us back to bike riding
Watching Jupiter, listening for Jupiter
KF6KYI's I-tunes QRSS
Stan, 9H1LO's new grabber
Laptop motion detectors as earthquake detectors
Nuclear fusion in the shack
Philo T. Farnsworth
Building a QRSS freq standard
SPRAT CD
Forget about stocks: SSDRA now selling at $399.89
SolderJokes
QST articles on-line! FB!
Jim Williams and the joy of fixing things
STEREO SPECIAL: Roger Hayward's new binaural DSB project
Antenna woes
MAILBAG:
G0WAT on HOGCON 2008 (21 Sept in Herts.)
AJ8T on Russian rovers with laser reflectors
KA9OOI on language and low pass audio filtering
WB6TNL says NO to rat neurons in QRP gear
KB6QR "beknacked" vice "knackered" ?????
NR5A has a Drake 2A
7J1AWL on the air from Vietnam
KC0PET goes solar
OZ1CJX Bad case of Knack, may need professional help
K8WPR says Knack keeping him away from wild women, bars
AJ8T on CK722 museum
AG5RS works Texas balloon from Dubai (via net)
KI4SGU POW radio parts
N8WQ on schematic drawing program
KF4LMZ has QRSS-itis, finds 10.140 rock in CB rig

Have An Oz Knack Christmas with VK2ZAY!

This is not the most flattering picture of our friend Alan, VK2ZAY, but I find myself forced to use it (again!) because of the Christmas light head-gear. Sorry OM.

I was thinking about Alan just the other day as I contemplated my broken Lafayette power supply (scroll down to the test gear article). You see, the meter in that little supply was destroyed by a trivial electric motor that Billy and I built a long time ago after a visit to Alan's amazing site. Don't worry Alan -- the broken meter is not your fault.

Once again proving that he is a true Knack victim and a certified member of the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards, Alan is doing an "Advent Calendar" of YouTube tech videos -- one short video each day during the Christmas season. I looked at a couple of them this morning. You guys will love them. Alan obviously has a deep understanding of the circuitry and a great talent for explaining how his creations work.
Thanks a lot Alan! Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/vk2zay

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, defined

Of course, our British cousins will have some problems with this. (We already have some lexicon problems there -- I can sense many of them wincing every time I say "SodderSmoke"!) But I'm sure they will be understanding here. And indeed, the Knack can sometimes leave you Knackered! (BTW: I currently have an annoying little soldering iron burn on the tip of my right finger.)

Hi Bill,

Maybe I'm not the first to think of these two words, but here goes:

Knacking v/n. as a noun, the act of artfully and cleverly designing, building from scratch, or repairing devices using, usually electronic in nature, specifically amateur radio related...not related to hacking As in: "My knacking was a success and I finally got my Drake 2B working on 30 meters" Somewhat redundant, since knacking IMPLIES extreme cleverness, knacking ALWAYS has a successful result, by definition!

as a verb (as in "Googling") to artfully and cleverly design, build, or repair a device, normally electronic in nature as in "I was knacking my JBOT amp yesterday and successfully added a new low pass filter" Implies high level of cleverness and determination and a modicum of luck


knacker n. one who artfully and cleverly designs, builds or repairs electronics, especially amateur radio related, implies high level of accomplishment and can be used by knackers to describe themselves without embarrassment or outright bragging. Knackers do not need formal training in electronics to fully qualify. Knackers always know who they are and can be identified by burn scars on their fingers from soldering accidents.

Keep your great blog and podcasts going.

73

Steve Silverman
KB3SII

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 Hacker-Knacker-Maker Revolution gathers steam...

I got a bit of mail from Great Britain about the use of the word "knackers" in yesterday's post. I vaguely remembered that this word has anatomical connotations in the UK. But it just worked so well. I needed something that would rhyme with Marx's "Workers." And "Knackers" is kind of close to "Hackers." And we all have "The Knack." So, I made use of some artistic license. Apologies to our British cousins. I'm already on linguistic thin ice with them because of my use of the American pronunciation of solder. (The Brits pronounce the L -- to their ears, the American pronunciation conjures up an activity far removed from soldering.)

Anyway, the Hack-Knack-Make revolution continues. This morning I learned that the New York and Philadelphia Hacker-spaces will be featured on NPR's Weekend Edition this Sunday. (I'm jealous -- I want SolderSmoke to somehow get onto NPR. One listener suggested a letter-writing campaign...)

The poster shown above is for a documentary that is being done on all of this. Check it out: http://www.electromagnate.com/

Alan Wolke W2AEW Interviewed on QSO Today! And it is GREAT!

A very cool interview indeed.  But how could it be otherwise?  With Eric on one end of the Skype connection and Alan on the other, coolness was inevitable.

In this interview we are reminded of the FACT that Alan has a major case of THE KNACK.  Proof is found in the way he obtained the wire for his first SW antenna:  he unwound the magnet wire in the yoke transformer of a discarded TV set.  THAT, my friends,  is the stuff that KNACK is made of!  

Check it out:

http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/w2aew

I share Alan's affection for the TEC 465 'scope, but I twitched a bit when he said it is "easy to work on."  It scared the hell out of me!  It features both plug-in transistors and lethally high voltage -- so high that Alan had to lend me a special high voltage probe just to do the measurements.   

Alan's mention of Project Diana and the history of moonbounce reminded me of Ross Bateman, W4AO, the wizard who, in 1952 bounced the first amateur radio signals off the moon.  He did it from the town I live in now, Falls Church, Virginia. Alan provided me with the address from which the signals were launched. 

Thanks Alan! Thanks Eric!  

Reggae Knack?

Could it be that Bob Marley's son Ky-Mani has The Knack? Probably not (no mention of it in Wikipedia) but he certainly has some nice old receivers on his 2007 album cover.

SolderSmoke Podcast #139

December 3, 2011

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke139.mp3

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Billy's Birthday (on the range!)

Astro-Knack: CCD camera in the telescope. Solar astronomy.

Winter approaches: Shack heating by Heath, Halli, Hammarlund and Drake.

2B troubles on 17 meters.

Rig Re-Cycling: Rebuilding 17 meter rigs from the last solar cycle.

Azores DSB re-build: Oscillator troubles then adding a JBOT.

Manhattan style construction and the need for urban renewal.

Book Review: Steve Jobs. (Woz has the Knack!)

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

QRSs QRPp

I blame Hans Summers for this. His articles in SPRAT on very slow speed, very low power CW on 30 meters have caused me to develop a new set of Knack symptoms. I now listen intently to CW that is so slow that by the time I get to the end of a letter, I've forgotten if it started with a dit or a dah. I've become intimately familiar with the refresh rates of strange web sites known as "Grabbers" (I'd never heard of them before. See above for a sample.) And for the first time in my life as a radio amateur, using crystal control is no guarantee that I'm "in the band."

My 30 meter QRSs 200 mw "MEPT" beacon is on the air, but no one has heard me yet. This is almost certainly due to the fact that I'm probably outside the QRSs "band." This band is only 100 HERTZ wide! I'm using a 10.140 Mhz crystal, but the circuit values of my oscillator could easily put me out of that band. And Murphy struck: Just days before I started all this, my frequency counter died. My trusty Drake 2B is of little help in measuring frequency to this accuracy: The dial increments are 10 KILOhertz! And the 2B suffers from a problem totally unfamiliar to those who have grown up with glowing numerals: DIAL PARALAX! (It sounds like Knack-related disease, doesn't it? "I'm sorry m'am, your son Dilbert also has a bad case of DIAL PARALAX!!!")

Wish me luck. Don't blame me if you succumb to QRSs madness. Remember: it is all Hans Summers' fault.

Back to the 1970's! Homebrew Keyboards! Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter

Even though it is outside my normal analog comfort zone, I really liked this video.  Farhan sent it to me, along with this note: 

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

As a kid, do you remember Don Lancaster's books? I learnt most of my digital electronics from him. I still have the 7 dollar video generator book on my shelf. He predates the Homebrew Computer Club. In fact, he is probably the reason for the HCC, because he put in the pieces that were used by others like the two Steves to build their own computers.

His most brilliant hack was to build a "TV typewriter" out of standard TTL parts that were just coming out in the surplus market. For $120, you could, if you build etched your own PCBs and managed to pry parts of fellow builder's dead fingers, build a circuit that, if you typed your name, it showed up on the TV screen! Never mind that dad wanted to get back to watching football or mom wanted the kitchen counter to be cleared out. Those days, parents had no appreciation for their kids being on TV, I guess.

In an earlier hack, he encouraged people through his articles in Radio Electronics to build their own Qwerty keyboard. With this in hand, you could, um .. um... well type something and sit back. There was nothing to connect it to. The fun thing was, there were no key switches available. You had to build those as well. Wind your own springs, make your own keytops, Once it was built, you could use a VOM to check that the ASCII bits corresponding to the key you held down would correctly show up on the 7 data lines. I guess the girls were surely impressed. You just needed to carry the power supply with +5, -5v, +12v, the keyboard itself, an ASCII chart and a VOM to school to show off.

Jokes apart, he kept building things and builds them to this day. His TTL cookbook and CMOS cookbooks were the goto books for almost all digital elecctronics hackers. It is a pity that no one acknowledges his knack. He has scanned in a few of his books on his 1990s www.tinaja.com.  Check  https://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/cmoscb.pdf

Why does it concern us? He is K3BYG, that's why.

Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-bFV8fHekk

- f

-----------

 So many things from the video resonated with me: 

-- The importance of building and testing, stage by stage.  The narrator admits "I might have screwed that up."

-- Homebrew keyboards!  Make your own keyboard springs you pathetic appliance operators! 

-- Wood box. 

-- Origins of ASCI

-- The scary 1970s.  Indeed.   I started High School in 1972. 

-- Schematic errors!   Oh the humanity!  Erratas. 

-- Appeals to the Digital Gods. (Not as powerful as The Radio Gods.)

-- A Gimmick Twin Lead. 

-- "So many different disciplines went into building this thing..." 

-- A taste of the home computing revolution of the 1970s. 

-- Farhan is right -- he was K3BYG.  But that call now seems to belong to someone else. 

Don Lancaster's unofficial autobiography: 

https://www.tinaja.com/glib/waywere.pdf

Clearly, Don Lancaster has The Knack! 

Mr. Carlson's ART-13 Transmitter (with Dynamotor)

Here we have a really cool video from Mr. Carlson.  In it he reveals (admits!) to what we already know:  HE IS A HAM RADIO OPERATOR.  FB Mr. C!

You can see that he is a true ham, with a true case of THE KNACK, when you see his reaction to the inside view of the ART-13.  He seems to gasp as he notes that there is a lot of "RF goodness" in that box.   There is a vacuum relay, a bread-slicer capacitor, there is even a variometer. And lots of good, big THERMATRONS.  Only a true ham, a true Knack victim can recognize this RF goodness. 

The Dynamotor that goes with this transmitter is really interesting to me.  I have been hearing these things whining in the background (audible noise, not a signal defect) on many early morning (Saturday 3885 kHz) of the Old Military Radio Net.  I can often hear the dynamotor of Buzz W3EMD as he transmits from Rhinebeck, New York.   It was great to see the inside of this device.  

Back in 2017, Hack-A-Day took a look at Dynamotors: 

https://hackaday.com/2017/07/04/retrotechtacular-dc-to-dc-conversion-rotary-style/

There are several good ART-13/BC-348 pictures on W3EMD's QRZ page:

 https://www.qrz.com/db/W3EMD   

I was especially taken by the handwritten frequency chart on the front panel of the ART-13.  This reminded me a lot of the handwritten readout that I have been using on various rigs, including (most recently) the 15-10 SSB transceiver. I hope Paul focuses on this paper-and-pencil frequency chart;  it is nice to step away a bit from the glowing numerals of San Jian. 

Mr. C points out that the ART-13 was the transmitter that was paired up with the BC-348 receiver.  He will be working on both in the weeks ahead. 

Thanks Mr. Carlson. 73 OM. 

Hacker with The Knack Does Well, Working for JPL

Wow.  This guy has a really inspirational Knack story.  He welded (with coat hangers!) a sidecar onto his bike when he was a kid.  He majored in Physics and Theater.  He did all kinds of hardware and software hacks. He plays a Theravin in a band.   He now flies spacecraft for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

And Congratulations to Peter Parker, VK3YE, for having one of his ingenious hacks picked up by Hackaday:
http://hackaday.com/2014/10/06/dusty-junk-bin-downconverter-receives-fm-on-an-am-radio/

Thanks Hackaday! And Happy Tenth Birthday to You!  

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