A Crummy Commercial

Brady at Practical Engineering has a new video about antenna towers: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nDdLiXS5wk I wonder what he would think of the Tilton Tower from field day ? https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/go-back-50-years.html   Of course the Tilton tower could be carried to a site almost anywhere using a Vista Cruiser or LTD Country Squire :) The thing is that while I do remember rain sometimes on Field Day or Mockup (we used to go out a week or two before the event to check things out) - but I don't remember any strong winds or storms on Field Day, maybe we were just lucky.  BTW I remember leaving my tool box behind at a Scout camp one year and getting a call to come and fetch it, those camp folks were nice. I also remembered this post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/warped-perception.html No more glass Coke bottles but a champagne bottle or sparkling wine would be a good sub as an antenna base insulator. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy...

https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/embedded/article/55321526/electronic-design-qualcomms-acquires-arduino-arduino-uno-q-runs-ai-llm-code-from-inexperienced-programmer-prompts-performs-signal-processing-and-runs-linux-and-zephyr-os I don't think I ever actually owned a genuine Arduino, the ones I bought were always clones.  But I have at least loaded the IDE and used it for stuff like the SI5351, for example: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/si5351-again.html But now with the tariff tax and the option of using other stuff like the Raspberry PI boards will this ignominious sellout to corporate interests ruin Arduino ?  I don't like it. I suppose it doesn't make much of a difference to Microchip Technology since Arduino has stopped using the Atmel processors for their newer boards. Also saw this: https://www.tentec.com/model-594-phoenix-coming-soon/ Is this what has happened to ham radio equipment makers ?  A subscription based development ?  What's next, ...

Anyone who has enjoyed listening or watching  The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet or The Challenge of the Yukon (Sergeant Preston) will find this book, WYXIE Wonderland interesting.  WXYZ was the originating station and the driving force behind WXYZ was George W. Trendle.  But there were a large number of people who actually did the work of creating, selling, acting and engineering the sounds from WXYZ.  The author, Dick Osgood, was one of these people. I've only read maybe 1/3 of this large book (although there are lots of pictures) - it's very readable, an examination of the personal interplay between the people behing WXYZ (in other words: the gossip ;).  One kinda unusual thing is the 3rd person telling of Dick Osgood's time at the station, it's unusual to read about how his marriage dissolved during that time or the jobs he did.  But I suppose that was the style of a professional author then. One thing I didn't know was that Fran Striker, the author ...

MLB has apparently decided to "pick-up-a-coupla-bucks" in the postseason.  Instead of 2 minutes and 10 seconds between halves of an inning (or whatever it was) the timer I saw at Wrigley on the highlights of the wild card games with the Padres was 2 minutes and 40 seconds.  So that gives TBS (and the local radio stations) another set of 30 second commercials to sell in the postseason.  Or is the additional delay due to national versus local TV ?  Maybe the Brewers just aren't on the networks as much so I didn't notice it before ? But in the NLDS it looks like MLB has added another 30 seconds to 3:10 ? Brewers/Cubs in Milwaukee, Freddie Peralta striding to the dugout But also some of the other breaks might be the same, for example when a new pitcher is brought in ?  In any case I hadn't updated the muter.  I might need to have multiple delays using different buttons than mute.  So I will have to update the muter or live with a 2 and 2 delay: https://wb9...

I rechecked the QRP Popcorn blog and sadly it still is gone, previous mention: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/08/qrp-popcorn-blog-videos-gone.html Here is the previous mention of Bunker of Doom: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/08/bunker-of-doom-doomed.html However today I also rechecked Bunker of Doom, it is back, nice ! is that cat sneering ?  :) https://bunkerofdoom.com/ Oh me of little faith - sometimes there is good news on the internet. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I took another gander at the items I bought yesterday: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/just-because-i-could.html One item caught my eye: a little blurry, will take another picture once it arrives I've mentioned this VFO before in passing: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/09/ltc1799-rc-oscillator-chip.html Here is the drift chart of the LTC1799 left out of the earlier blog post: delta F in Hz on Y axis, time from cold start on X axis, frequency about 6.58 MHz I also did a web search and found this posting from qrp-tech: https://groups.io/g/qrp-tech/topic/ltc1799_oscillator_chip/6472173 Lots of hams have considered this chip and found it wanting but apparently it is used by our fellow travelers, electronic musicians: https://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/tutorials/LTCinstallation1.html https://www.modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4069760 One thing that I hadn't considered originally is that possibly Linear Tech wanted the output to warble ? the reason: it's a technique to...

I bought an assortment of electronic junk on Ebay, AGAIN, here was the first time: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/03/march-madness.html Same seller, this assortment was a little more expensive at $26.38.  But I noticed two things in this photo that might make that extra money worthwhile: The first was the AADE LC Meter II/B.   This is a very well reviewed LC meter from Neil Heckt at Almost All Digital Electronics.  Sadly Neil has passed away so these LC meters aren't available anymore although people do clone them: https://electronicsprojectsandparts.blogspot.com/2013/06/lc-meter.html Neil was a published author and worked at Boeing, I noticed this AGC design from Electronics Designer's Casebook 2 : source:  https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electronics/Electronics-Designer's-Casebook-2.pdf The LC meter first came to my notice in Electronics Now magazine, June 1996: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Electronics/90s/1996/EN-1996-06.pdf The shi...