A Crummy Commercial

The first thing I thought of when I saw this page in an Army VOM manual: please don't mention that last line to an AI source:  https://archive.org/details/multimeter-ts-297-u-manual-and-supplement/page/n5/mode/2up was this phrase from Lost in Space: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyGxJLCG6qw Yes, I am from the 1960s - and I still want to know: is it better to be good or to be remembered ?  Also, how much benefit would the enemy be getting from a 1000 ohms per volt VOM ?  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Above is a picture of "the Mangler" along with two other needle nose pliers I found in the house.  Last mentioned "the Mangler" here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/02/enough-is-enough.html The two "new" ones have springs but not sure that will prevent mangling.  But the jaws on both blue handled pliers are serated so that may improve the grip over "the Mangler".  I'll put "the Mangler" away and start using the new pliers - if they aren't any better I'll have to go completely nuts and buy decent ones :) I also found this in the pantry: It is the last jar of maple syrup from 2025.  So I will crack it open and start using it before the 2026 vintage. Finally the VFW now sends four nickels in their solicitations - I'm not quite sure why they do that - certainly doesn't inspire confidence that any contributions will be spent wisely.  I guess that's the treadmill all advertisers are on, once they start displaying the...

I am getting OLD !  When I saw this video I was intrigued: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_g5w2a40aw A Mamachari bike has fenders which are always nice to have in wet conditions.  It also has a kickstand which appears to work well enough that it will safely support a fairly heavy load like a small kid.  The "girls bike" frame makes it easy to get on the bike (it's hard to kick your leg over a big basket on the back rack of a bike, I know).  And of course there are electric versions.  The only style a Mamachari bike has is the practicality. However when I was a kid the Schwinn Varsity was THE bicycle: That $66.95 price (slighter higher in south and west :)  inflates to: But that fairly high price for a kid's bike helped keep the Captain and Mr. Green Jeans on the air: BTW, I don't think I ever saw Mr. Green Jeans in color - it was just a name when I was a kid :) source:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/759765166/captain-kangaroo-mr-green-je...

I was reading a book of short stories which became part of the public domain on 2026-01-01: Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse.  Earlier in the day the internet was "out" for over 3 hours so it was a chance to avoid the infinite scroll and read: source:  https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77923 But although Very Good, Jeeves was written in English, this work was published in 1930 and Wodehouse was an Englishman - result was that there were references that I didn't understand.  For example:  Costermongers:  sellers of food, often from a cart, the cart being located in England Whelk-stall owners:  a whelk is a saltwater snail eaten by English folk The Sands of Dee:  tidal mudflats and salt marshes of the River Dee estuary between the Wirral Peninsula and North Wales (England adjacent - be careful when walking there !) Patience on a Monument:  sitting perfectly still, composed, and unmoving while enduring deep, silent sorrow or waiting, often smilin...

On The Beach by Nevil Shute is yet another atomic war, doomsday book / movie from the late 50s early 60s.   I recently did a Costanza, watched the movie instead of reading the book: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQY-4upNr7Q So I don't know how well it stuck to the book.  It was a Stanley Kramer production, usually his movies dealt with serious, important subjects although there was It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World :)   In On The Beach Ava Gardner was still a beauty and Gregory Peck was still handsome - certainly a watchable movie although a little long.  And there was a plot point related to radio and Morse code which I won't spoil.  Hearing  Waltzing Matilda  over and over becomes a little tiring after a while though. I did like the use of black and white film, somehow On The Beach,  Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe hit a little harder than they would have in color. https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/05/book-report-red-al...

I haven't gotten any sap for the last week, it had turned cold - really need that pothole weather where there's a freeze at night but then a sunny thaw during the day for any sap to flow. Finally got the thaw today courtesy of the sunshine and a strong wind out of the south.  So I drilled the last three trees in the morning and got some sap in the afternoon - only a little over 1/2 gallon but certainly better than nothing.  I will check the sap again about sundown. But the Green Bay weather people say it's only a single day thaw.   March will be coming in like a stick-to-your-tongue popsicle.  No sap for you, Chuck ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

The Jaycar Short Circuits transmitter was blogged on here previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/12/jaycar-am-morse-code-transmitter.html I mentioned the damped sine wave output and after a little looking I finally figured out why the circuit acted that way.  The ferrite rod used was from an AM/FM tuner by Oak, bought at Olson Electronics last century.  The connections I made to the smaller winding (L2) were intermittent and were apparently shorted in the circuit  So I tried replacing the ferrite rod with the coil from an old GE radio.  There is no secondary winding (in effect L2 is replaced by a short) so there is no feedback to sustain oscillation, the output waveforms: the flip flop output is in yellow When the flip flop connection to the base of Q3 goes low, the coil energy is dissipated in the tank circuit resulting in the damped sine wave. the signal (blue trace) is a damped sine wave with a frequency of about 1.3 MHz  And I purposely excluded t...