A Crummy Commercial

It has been raining a lot recently which is good, don't want a repeat of the Peshtigo fire !   source: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F5nfpp7d3u8ha1.jpg&rdt=43562 BTW, I had heard of the Peshtigo fire, every school kid in Wisconsin learns about it, but I didn't realize that a lot of southern Door county also burned. Anyway I was a little worried about voting due to the rain but I waited till noon and the rain stopped (the white areas indicate no precipitation): this is actually from after I got back but you get the idea, no rain on the island I was able to ride the bike to the community center and vote (I was ballot 311) and get my exercise all at once.  I even got a little bit of extra work when my rear tire went flat on the way home. But I was dry :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I've been using Nesco roaster/ovens for a while now.  Both a 6 quart (pot roast sized) and an 18 quart (turkey sized).  They heat up the kitchen less and are presumably a little more efficient than the old Kenmore range (which is also electric).   The small Nesco was bought in the 90s, made solidly in Wisconsin.  The big Nesco is newer by a couple decades and imported, not made as solidly but it has one nice feature: a neon bulb which lights when the heating coils are ON.  This must have been fairly inexpensive, basically just add a neon bulb in parallel with the heating coils - when the thermostat goes on so does the neon. the neon bulb is behind the slot just below 200 But the small Nesco would require the user to stand around and hear the thermostat click off (not sure if it's loud enough to hear).  Otherwise you'd have to just let it preheat the recommended number of minutes and then shove in the food. no neon on the smaller Nesco There must be an easy way to add a heat

For some reason the Doctor QSO cartridge from AEA for the Commodore 64 popped into mind.  So I did a little searching and found this picture: source:  https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83987 It doesn't really matter what the color is - blacktopping is blacktopping - obscuring the chip ID by painting (or in extreme cases by sanding) the top of the chip.  Here is a Motorola MC68HC705J1A microcontroller: I've got a bunch of these if anyone ever needs one :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Per historian Susan Douglas in the Ken Burns documentary: Empire of the Air , Lee de Forest was:     "a churl, a roue, a cad, a thief, a romantic . . ." And de Forest also was for a short time:  a Milwaukeean !   Who knew ?  He worked with the founder of Johnson Controls, Warren Johnson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_S._Johnson De Forest living in Milwaukee is per the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_de_Forest and also per the 1900 census (see line 20):   Personally I was a Nashville-ian for a short time (born there but left when still a baby) - I have no memories of Nashville - I wonder if de Forest had memories of Milwaukee ?  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Here's our old friend, Poppin' Fresh: I use this timer quite a bit for long duration timing, mainly for boiling the maple sap: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/04/2022-maple-syrup-wrap-up.html The timer works pretty well, easy to program it uses a single AAA cell for power - the beep is quite loud - the display is sharp and clear although small. The problem is programming the time duration, for example: 10 hours and 45 minutes, that means that the hour and minute buttons must be pressed 55 times, a dreary situation when the arthritis is acting up.  And if a mistake is made then the display must be cleared and the buttons re-pressed.    I've been considering a dial timer, but a conventional hour/minute timer would require 4 rotary switches, one for each digit of the 10 hour 45 minute delay.  Probably 3 switches would be enough since the hours digit could be set from 0 to 11 with a 12 position switch.  This method would allow timing up to 11 hours and 59 minutes by turning 3

 For Halloween I thought of this picture: I remember the phrase:  "El gato negro"  The black cat  :)    This is one of the FSA pictures from1936 by Walker Evans via Shorpy: https://www.shorpy.com/node/21397 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was watching this video about Aristotle from Lucasfilm: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VKlS-UJXGQ But as the literalist the thing I noted wasn't Aristotle's philosophy or his faults but this: Doesn't it look like a laptop is being used ?  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm