WOW! The Reverse Beacon Network

In the European dispatches of Mike AA1TJ I saw mention of this new thing called the Reverse Beacon Network. Then SPRAT shows up in my mailbox (HOORAY!) and I see mention of the RBN there. So this morning I figured I'd give it a little test: I called CQ on 40 meters using my Heathkit HW-8. WOW -- it didn't take RBN long to get me! See above. That's after only about 3 minutes of CQing.

This is a really amazing and innovative development. The network makes use of "skimmers" that use Software Defined Radios connected to the net to search for CQs. When they hear one, they automatically post the info on the web. It is sort of like WSPR, but it is aimed at ordinary CQ calls. Fantastic. Check it out. You will like it!

Big T-Shirt, Coffee Mug, and Bumper Sticker Sale!

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Copthorne MacDonald and New Directions Radio

I mentioned in SolderSmoke 135 that somehow I feel myself becoming a bit of a hippie. I'm riding a bike to work. I now have a compost pile and a vegetable garden. I'm enthusiastically helping Billy fix his electric guitar... Mike, KC7IT, wrote in to let me know of an important ham-hippie connection that I'd been completely unaware of.

Starting around 1973, a fellow name Copthorne MacDonald (what a great name!) wrote a ham radio column for Mother Earth News. (Further evidence of my drift: I've recently been buying this magazine!) It is an interesting mix of radio technology (much of it homebrew and QRP) and what at the time was called "alternative lifestyles" (communes and all that). Lots of info about sustainable and eco-friendly living, solar power, etc. Here's a good example:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/1975-07-01/A-Low-Cost-Start-Ham-Radio.aspx

Copthorne MacDonald is the inventor of Slow Scan Television.

I really like Copthorne's writing and I was really pleased to find out that much of it has survived and is available on the internet. Mike KC7IT points us to more of the articles:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/search.aspx?search=new%20directions%20radio&sorting=oldest

Cop's writing constitutes another treasure trove of ham radio literature for all of us!

I found an archive (infoark) that seems to have his "New Directions Radio" newsletters:
http://infoark.org/InfoArk/Sustainability/Mother%20Earth%20News/70/MEN_CD/mendemo/dcd/027/027-022-01.htm

I was please to find that OM Copthorne is alive and well. He posted this on eham.net back in November:

RE: Copthorne MacDonald, VE1BFL « Reply #9 on: November 09, 2010, 11:01:41 AM »

---

Hello all. This is from Cop Macdonald, now VY2CM, his very self.

Many thanks to Benn Kobb AK4AV for alerting me to this page, and thanks for the supportive comments above from a number of you.

A brief summary. I'm not currently on the air, but as Benn noted I was at the 2009 Dayton Hamvention where I gave the talk he mentioned and received that year's Technical Excellence Award for the SSTV development work I did some 50+ years ago as an engineering student at the University of Kentucky. While doing some Googling for Hamvention info I discovered that in 2007 I had been inducted into CQ Magazine's Ham Radio Hall of Fame. Perhaps CQ, too, had trouble tracking me down, as this was news to me. If anyone is interested in the details of that initial SSTV system, the Kentucky Engineer article on the subject is online at http://www.copmacdonald.com/KYEngineeerSSTVArticle.pdf. The QST articles on that first gear appeared in the August and September 1958 issues, and are available online from the ARRL digital archives.

The Mother Earth News column ended in 1983 when the magazine changed hands for the second time. I continued to do much writing after that. A lot of it dealt with energy conservation and energy alternatives --- some examples at http://www.wisdompage.com/SEUhtmDOCS/conservation.htm. In the late 1980s I developed an interest in wisdom, and have written three books on aspects of that subject. Connected with this, in 1995 I started a website called The Wisdom Page to make wisdom-related resources available to people worldwide. It has become quite popular. Last month the site had 14417 visits by people from 149 countries who viewed or downloaded documents, podcasts, and videos some 36159 times. And if you Google the word wisdom, http://www.wisdompage.com consistently comes up on the first page of the search returns — out of some 75 million+ pages containing the term. Anything else you might want to learn about my doings over the years is probably at http://www.wisdompage.com/aboutcop.html
Best wishes to you all. Cop

Thanks Cop!

Dayton: The Rock Video

Summer Sales

20% off on the Lulu books. Just use the Code SUNSHINE305 at checkout.

Also, be sure to visit out T-shirt, coffee mug, and bumper sticker store. There is a 15% off sale there also: http://shop.cafepress.com/soldersmoke

SolderSmoke Podcast #135 FDIM SPECIAL!

Please click on the little mail symbol down below to forward this blog post to friends who might be interested in the podcast. Thanks!

http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke135.mp3
June 26, 2011
Bike riding, composting... what next?
Lightning kills the WSPR rig
New finder for old telescope
------SPECIAL FOUR DAYS IN MAY INTERVIEWS BY BOB CRANE W8SX:FEATURING:
Joe Taylor K1JT (Nobel Prize Winner -- FOR PHYSICS!)! Plumbing Defined Radio! Steve WG0AT: Fly Fishing, Retirement, Goats, YouTube, and Amateur Radio!
George Dobbs, G3RJV! And more! ----- Drake 2-B updates: WARC and 160 Dial Templates,
Drake 2B Serial Number Math Estimate Project (Using German tank method) Michael AA1TJ's Sputnik 1 Project
Putting the Shack back into RadioShack

Aurora in Cuba! The Carrington Event

The strongest geomagnetic storm on record is the Carrington Event of August-September 1859, named after British astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare with his unaided eye while he was projecting an image of the sun on a white screen. Geomagnetic activity triggered by the explosion electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting their telegraph papers on fire; Northern Lights spread as far south as Cuba and Hawaii; auroras over the Rocky Mountains were so bright, the glow woke campers who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning. Best estimates rank the Carrington Event as 50% or more stronger than the superstorm of May 1921.

Here's a good story from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/telegraphs-ran-on-electric-air-in-crazy-magnetic-storm-150-years-ago/

I liked the bit about the telegraph operators disconnecting their batteries and continuing to work on "aurora power"!