A Crummy Commercial

I saw these items listed on Ebay from my favorite purveyor of miscellaneous electronic stuff: The assortment was $26.38 with tax/postage - I saw the HD-1410 keyer (don't need another one but why not ? it has the rare AC power cord) - also an Ameco CPO (don't need that either but never had one) - finally the seller mentions that they don't know what the mini blue device (upper right) is:   I KNOW, it's a DSW transceiver from Small Wonder Labs, 1st generation, the $15 on top is not a bad price either.  Depending on which band it is, I may or may not already have one :) BTW this is the same seller I got the AADE LC meter from mentioned previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/just-because-i-could.html I suspect that I'll have to fix the DSW (and probably the keyer and CPO, too) as I did with the AADE LC meter but it'll be something to do ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I found yet another magnifier: It's fairly large and has a second mini magnifier built in but I'm not that crazy about it - it slips.  The magnifier has a cord for around the neck, then you can look down through the magnifier at the work, the feet of the magnifier resting on your chest.  The idea is that your hands are free but really I was always repositioning it. I did also find this site: https://www.magnifier.com/ They seem to have a LOT of choices - maybe too many choices - but it's a confirmation that the need for magnification is real.   I'll keep looking. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I used to live in the Village of Fox Point near Milwaukee: they didn't have these in the 1960s they had these in the 1960s but I didn't live on Lake Drive :) But I don't think I ever actually saw a 4 legged fox in Fox Point.  Here is the story that's been told on the naming: (also, the photo source):  https://www.wuwm.com/2022-08-26/the-story-behind-fox-points-name-and-historical-street-signs Anyway, I set the trail cam out on a tripod in the back yard on Wednesday.  There was a threat of rain so in the afternoon I brought it inside.  This was a picture from around noon: I *think* that's a fox - it's not red, more red tinged ?  This one, when I've been outside and yelled, just stands there and looks at me like: "what is wrong with you?"  Now this customer, about 2 hours later at the same spot: I don't even have to yell, just show myself and any deer will be off in a flash !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

A nice, brief video of the last minute of CHU on 3330 kHz: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXPL1Jqkn4 CHU was coming in quite well for VE2ZAZ (the Canadian ham making the video).  Using the SDR waterfall display is often done for radio related videos, it does provide something in motion to look at :) Here is the wiki for CHU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHU_(radio_station) One thing that I had forgotten: CHU was AM but with the LSB suppressed as can be seen here: The stuff on the right (USB) is the time encoded digitally.  The stuff on the left (LSB) is just fainter versions of the upper side band.   I tried looking up CHU in the ARRL periodical database, only found a couple of articles: I suspect that CHU was intended mostly for eastern Canada (and the US) where the signals from WWV (and WWVB) are weak, but I imagine that inexpensive frequency standards and internet time setting have eased aside radio standards - when will WWV and WWVH join CHU in r...

I've mentioned battery level testing before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/05/low-power-battery-level-circuit.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/good-old-sears.html On a recent morning the smoke detector in the basement started beeping.  The Nimh battery was down below 7.5 volts - this corresponded to just entering the BAD region of the Sears VOM: just a picture of the VOM, no test being done So I think that's a good sign, two independent tests coming to the same conclusion, the battery is just going bad.  Although maybe it's just coincidence ?  The Craftsman 82411 VOM puts an 18 mA load on the 9V battery or about 500 ohms.  The voltage level at the top of the BAD range was measured at 6.75 volts so the droop down from 7.5 volts is from the load current across the internal resistance of the battery. There is a W1FB article on a homebrew battery tester / VOM in the December 1992 issue of Monitoring Times: for the 9V: 820 ohms versus 500 ohms (11 mA versus 18 ...

not quite Bonestell quality from the US Army I mentioned the 1961 article by Arthur C. Clarke: The Uses Of The Moon  before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/04/bonestell.html Here's the article: https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-magazine_1961-12_223_1339/page/56/mode/2up But not sure if old Art knew about Project Horizon before writing the article.  He did mention that the military uses of the Moon were probably not that worthwhile - the  Project Horizon document seems to lay out winning a competition with the Russians as the main reason: Curious Droid published this video on Project Horizon:    source:  source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4t59a3y-Ww I thought the Curious Droid video was quite interesting, however others HATED the AI usage !  Now that I look at the artwork it kinda looks a little like those Chesley Bonestell paintings from the 1950s !  So I guess I'm kinda ambivalent about the AI usage.  Curious Droid is prob...

Pupin source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUsfIW1aYM     Some internet links on Pupin and the loading coil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loading_coil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihajlo_Pupin   Michael Pupin, from Immigrant to Inventor htm:  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66886/66886-h/66886-h.htm pdf:  https://www.eserbia.org/images/books/Michael-I-Pupin-From-Immigrant-to-Inventor-1924.pdf Note that the video doesn't mention him but apparently this guy: Campbell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ashley_Campbell   had also patented the idea (at AT&T) so AT&T bought Pupin's patent to prevent any legal wrangling ?  We know that these patent and IP tussles (such as Armstrong versus RCA or Edison versus Tesla) are exhausting, expensive and time consuming. But still, I had never heard of Pupin before - and I used to work for a telephone company :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm