A Crummy Commercial

I was re-watching the movie, Good Morning: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MPZL8dGNIw This 1959 classic by director Yasujiro Ozu is probably his most accessible movie - and very funny. But this really made me laugh: Unfortunately all too true in my case.  Watching that silly box made me what I am today.  Now there are days when I don't even turn it on.  The internet is now what is sustaining my idiocy :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was watching this old PBS NOVA program (the lip synch is off) about the Earth's magnetic field. source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJUTUFAWfEY At about 10 minutes into the show there is a brief sequence with Mario Acuna at NASA Goddard mentioning how magnetic fields are measured.  At about 13 minutes he shows what appears to be a fluxgate magnetometer which is a toroid wound with an excitation coil with another sense coil wound over the toroid. Doing a little searching I found this page: https://science.nasa.gov/technology/technology-highlights/rediscovering-the-lost-art-of-fluxgate-magnetometer-cores Also this page: https://gi.copernicus.org/articles/8/227/2019/ It sounds like the quantities in question are so small that no one can justify having the people on hand to keep making these cores.  I wonder how many other projects there are like this ? I wish I knew more about this stuff. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

. Most of the book deals with the Newton-Leibniz feud which I hadn't really known about.  The author  does a pretty good intro to physics and calculus.  And the history of science focusing on Copernicus, Kepler, Brahe, Galileo, Newton and Leibniz among others was interesting.  Also the info on the Royal Society was interesting, especially considering that it still exists - they have many interesting lecture videos on Youtube. One item I almost missed in the book was Newton's invention of the reflecting telescope.  The author just mentions it in passing and that it was smaller than the refractor that Galileo used.  Newton's telescope is still the basis of the latest and greatest telescopes today such as the JWST. But the big takeaway from the book for me was The Royal Society method:   => experiments not lore    => share experimental results freely   Lots of echoes of those sentiments in ham radio. I have to confess that I did nod off a few times while reading it - the

                                                 . source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMvz1lFanwU Let me watch it again :) Continuing the comic theme, this is a fun song: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzLconK4Tw familiar to anyone who has seen their share of Warner Brothers cartoons. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I read on the internet that the Ramsey FM-10 works better if enclosed in a metal box.  So I found a Swiss Colony tin in the junkbox which already had a bunch of holes from previous projects. But the Ramsey board was just a little too long for the square tin.  So I used the old friend, an Adel Nibbler which I got in 2018.  Several nibbling passes later and the Ramsey fit nicely.  The Ramsey board was the older style, single sided composition board so it notched more easily than fiberglass would have. . no no, wrong Nibbler ! I also stuck in an LED pilot light and used a cable tie to hold the 9V battery instead of the included metal clip.  It works pretty well with just a short clip lead as an antenna.  I was able to hear it well over 100 feet away from the house in both the front and back yards.  I still need to complete the setup, add a whip antenna and possibly some other mods but I am very happy with the kit as is. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

New acronym:  Got Off the Shame Shelf Previously blogged on the 8 gb SD card: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/05/boss-again.html But I had some inspiration: instead of trying to use a PC to recognize/format the SD card try using something else like the Sangean DAR-101 audio recorder.  I tried the card in the DAR-101 and it didn't work.  Then tried formatting it with the DAR-101 and it seemed to enter an endless loop.  After 15 minutes or so I shut off the DAR-101 power and too out the SD card.   Back on the Shame Shelf ? No, not yet, next I retried it on the PC and was able to reformat the card.  Sometimes seemingly endless iteration is rewarded :) Luckily I had done a backup of the data on the card so was able to restore everything, nice ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I got an interesting surprise in the mail on Friday, a bubble pack mailer from a friend I went to grade school with.  It was a vintage, unopened Ramsey FM-10a FM transmitter kit.  This is the kit with the Rohm BA1404 stereo IC.  Apparently the kit was pretty popular, lots of search results on it.   The kit must be at least 8 years old since Ramsey stopped selling kits at the start of 2016: http://arrl.org/news/ramsey-kits-calls-it-quits I hate to open it, kind of like defiling King Tut's tomb ! Maybe I'll let it sit for a rainy day ?   We'll see. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm