A Crummy Commercial

Yes, I do still sell the AT-121 piezo sounder on the switch and parts page (this blog is called: A Crummy Commercial for a reason :) http://wb9kzy.com/switch.htm The AT-121 is 35 cents but they do look a little grungy and have short leads - I also still sell the larger CPE-6080 piezo at $2.50 each. However one thing the AT-121 has that the CPE-6080 doesn't have is a third, blue wire - this is a feedback area of the piezo.  It's used with this type of simple circuit shown on the datasheet: I realized that I never tried this circuit - when I've used the AT-121 in my own projects I always drove it via the red and black wires by a square wave from a PIC.  The blue wire was just clipped off.  But what are the advantages of the datasheet circuit ?  The main one that comes to mind is that it is simple but also since it operates at resonance, loud.  That volume is bordering on obnoxious at 9 volts but must be ear splitting at 28 volts. So anyway I did try the circuit on...

My only experience in a canoe was paddling down some stream not too far from Pewaukee, WI where Mr. Dobbratz lived (I've mentioned him before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/08/i-found-out-that-one-of-my-elmers-died.html Mr. D had an aluminum canoe, my Dad and I went along - the only thing I remember was falling in, of course I was the only one :(  Anyway, for some reason I was thinking of canoes today and found these items: Earl's Canoe (intro only): source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEVEXC5xQAA I saw the whole video on Wisconsin Public TV and probably have it on tape - somewhere ! Birchbark Canoe : source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFSjKRnUzVo This one is a little chatty, probably the better video if someone actually wanted to make their own canoe. Cesar's Bark Canoe : source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fWd2koev0M The NFB of Canada films used to show up on public TV a lot but I don't remember ever seeing this one before.  It's interesti...

Judging by a small sample (my Mom), Japanese people are crazy for convenience foods ! (just search for konbini sometime).  I watched this interesting video showing the canning process for a chicken and rice dish, biryani: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgZer35ZcmU They use a metal detector AND X-rays to prevent non-food stuff inside the can ! Loading two cans with sensors into the pressure cooker along with the batch: Their web site: https://kuroshiocan.co.jp In our house when something new was presented the inevitable question was: Ikura desuka ? - in other words, how much ? At the end of the video they show the price as 980 yen which equates to: That's for a 183 gram can which equates to: In other words, it's not cheap.  But they do use actual chicken and it's made by actual people (although they're all suited up for an operating room).  The facts from their web site: Biryani is an Indian dish, I'm thinking curry but not so saucy ?  I dunno, never ha...

Mentioned finding property boundaries recently: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/06/land-navigation-okay-surveying.html I did try Google Earth and another phone app but I ended up deleting them both.  Not especially accurate or easy to use.  There is another app called Landglide but it doesn't seem to be free and also appeared intrusive - I didn't even try it. Then I was looking up property stuff on the Door County gov site and voila, it has something that is probably as close as the apps, for example: This shows the border of my property near the tree line, the pictures are fairly recent because you can see the piles of birch limbs in the field from the big ice storm from spring 2025, the pictures must be from fall/winter 2025 (no leaves on trees) ?  I suppose a MacGuyver would be able to tell the date from the tree shadows or ?  :)  Mentioned the storm here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-few-pictures-of-ice-storm-aftermath.html Here's a slight crop of ...

I've mentioned the Canadian Football League before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/10/2024-canadian-football.html While the NFL fiddles around with mini-camps and easing into practicing for the 2026 season, Youtube served up this week 1 of the 2026 game: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zdoYNILYd4 Former Packer, Kabion Ento (48), recovers a fumble in OT for the Montreal Alouettes, 1st CFL game 2026.  This helped the Alouettes beat the Hamilton Tiger Cats, 30-27. First Packers pre-season game is August 13 - first 2026 regular season game is September 13  :(  The last game is in January 2027 !  The Super Bowl: February 14, 2027 - Happy Birthday to Jack Benny ! The last Montreal Alouettes game is October 23, 2026 - the CFL Grey Cup (equivalent to the Super Bowl) is November 15.  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I finally got a single picture of bats by the front door: Blurry, off kilter and the camera is still not aimed high enough.  AND it is so blurry that those might even be birds instead of bats ?  Are these considered UFA (Unidentified Flying Animals) ?  The more I think about it, these are probably birds, a bat would have a larger wingspan, right ? Here is a cropped version: ?? But the camera does sorta seem to function as a scare-bat - maybe I will try setting up an aluminum ladder I have in the same area as the camera tripod to see if it also works as a scare-bat.  So I am not bats, there are bats (maybe), this picture is the receipt (kinda like all the lame UFO pictures :). Finally, renaming UFO as UAP is as dumb as changing Twitter to X !  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw a couple of items concerning navigation recently.  One was this Veritasium video on GPS jamming in Europe: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA Those wacky Russians !  The one thing they didn't mention was who tipped off the GPS researcher to the jamming in the first place.  Probably the same one who provided the raw GPS data ? The other was this IEEE Spectrum article on using magnetometers for navigation: https://spectrum.ieee.org/magnetometers-hidonix-astranav-gps-alternative Both are interesting - one thing that I've been interested in as a property owner is just where are property lines that aren't line of sight from the corner stakes that the surveyors drive in.  At one time I looked at DGPS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_GPS But apparently DGPS is gone in the US.  But you might be able to do a local DGPS, say put a DGPS broadcast station at a known point (USGS benchmark or the corner stake of a property)  then...