A Crummy Commercial

I got an email from DigiKey today: And here is the fine print: So I checked and found it's been well over a year since I've ordered from them !  I did order a few times with Mouser in 2024 but the last DigiKey order was August 2023. So I will probably take advantage of that offer, basically just free shipping but still a good deal. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was digging around in a junkbox and came upon this fancy Cross sleeved box: Opening it revealed the crystals I used with the HW-16 as a Novice (1972).   I think I got the 7050 kHz at AES, used it on mostly 21,150 kHz.  The aluminum crystal was a color burst from an old TV (I didn't have an 80 meter antenna, just used it for alignment).  The other 4 were my main 40 meter Novice band crystals - JAN didn't mark as well as Crystek so I taped the frequencies on the back: When I got my General I borrowed a Knight VFO from the Nicolet High School radio club, I didn't key the VFO so that was kind of the end of break-in for me as the VFO was LOUD.  Ah, the good old days !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I tried the AAA cell for button cell switch with the thermometer / hygrometer mentioned yesterday:   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/button-cell-replacement-idea-fail.html    another magnet on the back of the holder I forgot that the readout is in degrees C though.  The large number is the humidity, the small number is the temperature. (Taken the next day) added two more hygrometers and the white thermometer: The cell holders were all reused, even if the cells leak they will be a lot easier to replace than cleaning the actual unit.  I don't understand why the button cells were paralleled in the first place, seems an odd way to try to gain longer life.  The measurements do agree fairly well ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I've mentioned alkaline button cells and their leakage problems before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-remaining-unsolved-battery-problem.html I had an idea for at least a partial solution to the button cell leakage problem.  I have some thermometers that use two button cells.  So I thought I'd use a single CR2032 lithium cell to replace those two alkaline cells.  I've got a bunch of single CR2032 holders (with a built in switch) along with some CR2032 cells so I'm all set, right ? Nope, it won't work because I found that the two button cells are connected in PARALLEL not in series.  So the lithium 3V cell would have too high a voltage. It was just an idea :(  I will keep looking but for now will use this approach with an AAA lithium cell: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/12/finally-got-something-off-shame-shelf.html I added a magnet on the back of the battery holder: Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

No, NOT this Toyotathon: This Toyotathon: For some reason I found this picture really amusing. source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/north/2025/01/02/car-falls-into-whitefish-bay-sinkhole-driver-ignored-road-closure/77405334007/ This picture reminded me of one summer day working at the Village of Fox Point, Wisconsin.  I am standing on the back of a stopped garbage truck (AKA: "a packer").  We are on some road east of Lake Drive, in other words, the fancier part of Fox Point.  The driver is a fellow named Bugs, I don't remember the name of the other summer kid on the back of the packer.  We are picking up yard waste by the side of the road.  All of a sudden the back wheels of the packer sink into the road.  We are good and stuck.  The pavement must have been softened by the summer heat and there was a rusted out culvert pipe under the road ? Working along with the packer we had two village crew guys driving Cushman three wheeled scooters w...

I was messing with the PIC code for a discontinued kit, the Morse Watch / Timer: http://wb9kzy.com/morwatch.htm   I got out the test fixture for that kit with a ZIF socket for the PIC.  It also has a latching relay: For some reason which I don't remember I cut off the top of the relay, maybe just to see the inside :)  Here is a short video clip of me starting the sleep timer for 10 minutes and bailing out, done twice: I was thinking of using this basic setup as a thermostat for a foot heater but no progress on that yet. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

About the only thing I remembered about Robert Goddard was that he worked on a liquid fuel rocket and this picture: But thanks to another interesting Young Indy doc I now know more (for example that he was follically challenged like Wilbur Wright): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt2Q--GhyUg Goddard's paper as published by the Smithsonian: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/23596/SMC_71_Goddard_1919_2_1-69.pdf As I've said before I really like these Young Indy documentaries, bite sized bundles of historical knowledge.  I didn't know that Goddard was so secretive and patent crazy.  Also, didn't know that he worked near Roswell, NM, that fabled place. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm