A Crummy Commercial

The current maple sap boiling was mentioned here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/03/maple-syrup-update.html I still would like to improve the process if possible at reasonable expense.   The internet (and the real world, too) is an easier place when you get to know the specialized vocabulary of an area of interest.  In the case of measuring the mass of distilled water the term I needed is: check weigher.  A check weigher is a scale with a light or alarm when the item being weighed (massed) is either too heavy, too light or just right. This is what I need for monitoring the distilled water output of the still while boiling the maple sap down to maple syrup.  Here are some examples from McMaster-Carr and Ebay: love the stop light type design $847.06 (plus shipping and tax):  https://www.mcmaster.com/products/check-weighers/go-no-go-digital-display-bench-top-scales~~/ $188.85 (but Fedex):  https://www.ebay.com/itm/305239215849 $153.78 (USPS):  http...

I wasn't aware that Robert Preston had a role in a movie called: The Last Starfighter (1984) - I will have to watch that one of these days.  Anyway, I looked up Preston's wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Preston_(actor) and came across this: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iz7W2m6e78 And of course the song has a wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Fat_(song) I don't remember ever hearing this song at Maple Dale school.  The only time they played records in Phy Ed was for square dancing. BTW, is there also a Yiddish version called Schmaltz ? Preston died of lung cancer at 68 !  Maybe he just sang the song - should have ditched the cigarettes and done the exercise, too ?  My Dad quit smoking cigarettes around 1962 - he continued with a pipe for a while but quit that, too, eventually. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I got a couple of goodies in the mail on Saturday, first another breadboard (they are always handy but I probably overpaid at $7.37 delivered with tax): It wasn't new though, one of the rubber feet is missing: I will add a ground plane like I did here with the new one I bought from the same Ebay seller: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-quick-project-for-cleared-bench.html That seller also had this: An actual new-in-box Oak Hills Research wattmeter meter (only) - not bad for $7.37 delivered with tax.  I didn't ask where it came from but the docs for the wattmeter are on the internet so it shouldn't be too hard to brew up a home made copy.  The enclosure will be a little more challenging though. Finally, I saw this when I went out for the mail (and got the above Ebay items) on Saturday: Saturday wasn't that great  a day The snow recedes and reveals the secrets of what perished during the hard winter !  At least it was only a road sign, not my mailbox :) Best Regar...

This video popped up on my feed: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n4pkaxKNLc Luc Lagace, the "lab guy" at Centre ACER, doesn't say how they can tell it's 50% cane sugar but I suspect it is done by using the quantity of carbon 13 in the syrup. A longer form video from Radio Canada is here (unless you can "parlez-vous" turn on the closed captions and autotranslate to English): source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9BzYm4yzg8 C3 versus C4 photosynthesis was mentioned previously but for fake honey: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/07/this-isnt-honey.html   I'm not able to taste a difference between cane sugar versus maple sugar but I suspect, as with the honey, that the adulterated syrup is cheaper.  The bulging can shown is probably just fermentation, old Steve was a little careless with cleanliness or temperature ?  That's why I pressure can my maple syrup - it shouldn't ferment although I do get cloudiness (which settles out) and...

I saw this in the daily ad from Electronic Goldmine: $20 for a Germanium diode is a little high but the name Hoffman reminded me of this ad: Here is a Hoffman Solar radio KP706 for $289 on Ebay (and the solar cells don't work !) source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/177777411535 The inflated price of the KP706: More info on the KP706 here: https://solarmuseum.org/cells/hoffman-rp-706-solar-radio/ Here is a picture of Les Hoffman of Hoffman Radio: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/306751529317 Basically everything associated with Hoffman is high in price :) Here is the wiki for Les Hoffman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Hoffman And what could be done with that $20 diode in a $289 radio ?  Maybe as a detector replacement ?  Here is the Beitman 1960 schematic: It's a nice radio but of a pretty standard design, I'll keep both my $20 and $289 in my pocket :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

In the midst of an ice storm on the island so here is the Friday April 3rd blog post a day early before the power and internet go dead. I was thinking about this post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/03/crystal-radio-is-still-relevant-in-21st.html I remembered that I had an unused roll of sticky backed copper foil: I got out a somewhat overly patriotic greeting card: Using a three chip card stack I cut it to shape: . Then a quick and dirty hack job applying the tape to the inside of the card stock: that tape has been sitting around for years, glad it still sticks And voila: Is it ready to protect against scanners and scammers ?  I don't really know - I don't have RFID / NFC capability to test it.  But per the Veritasium video, it could help just having the cards stacked on top of each other. The only bad thing is that it's too thick for the little credit card pockets in my wallet so I stashed it with the folding money. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm ...

My aversion to these Collins radio machines was mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/09/collins-s-line.html Saw these photos on the K9YA Face page: source:  https://www.facebook.com/k9ya.telegraph See those RCA jacks (3) and plugs (2), especially in the middle picture ?  All a bad actor has to do is lift the hinged lid and then unplug or swap the RCA plugs around and voila, radio not working.   That was a "welcome to the real world" moment :( Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm