A Crummy Commercial

You know how it is, just when you need something urgently:  Stuff Happens In addition to selling the kits I sell books about Washington Island and also do a little printing for one of the local museums.  This museum stays open until Columbus Day.  They are out of two items I print for them.  So I had to buy a new printer cartridge because the last cartridge I bought pooped out after 400 sheets, thanks a lot HP !  This was partially my fault, I had bought the extra life cartidge but had been sent the regular cartridge.   Stuff Happens. The new cartridge arrived (from Ebay) and it was a new, genuine HP.  I tried using it and got this: perfect only for printing horizontal pictures of zebras ? Stuff Happens.     I will try to return the cartridge for a refund and buy a different one.  But this will take a few days and it's already been over a week since the order.  Pretty soon it will be Labor Day and Columbus Day is coming up. BTW, I was tickled to find the origin of the phrase:  Stuf

but not today  I was going to watch the Artemis 1 mission launch this morning (Monday 8-29-2022) but it got scrubbed.   I remember watching the space missions on TV during the 1960s.  Somtimes there were holds during the countdowns and a lot of conversation from the CBS hosts like Walter Cronkite (who always seemed to be talking to former astronaut Wally Schirra) to fill the empty air time. source: https://i2.wp.com/www.anecdotes-spatiales.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Schirra-Cronkite-Apollo-17.png I'm excited about space exploration in the 21st century.  Hopefully it will also interest school kids.  It did when I was a grade school kid in the 1960s and kept a scrapbook on the Gemini and Apollo programs.  I can remember wanting to be an engineer in the 6th grade.  And solving the currently impossible engineering problems that will crop up along the way will be the task of NASA and their contractors.  NASA and the contractors will also need new engineers to find the solutions.  Th

 There is a science/math magazine on the internet called Quanta.  I think I first learned of it from reading a retred of a Quanta article on Arstechnica.com (another science magazine).  Lots of free articles on Quanta which take a deep look into science and math topics. https://www.quantamagazine.org/ But sometimes it's nice to listen to a podcast while playing some game and recently been getting a little tired of Green Bay Packers podcasts so I started listening to some science podcasts like: source: https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2022/03/JoW_Quanta_2560x1440-1-1-1720x968.jpg https://www.quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why The Joy of Why uses a conversation between the host Steven Strogatz and the expert/s on a particular subject.  I haven't listened to all of them yet but the ones on sleep were particularly interesting.  The fact that when fruit flies are prevented from sleeping their lives are shortened dramatically by problems in their gut.  And that the

 https://www.amfm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Nichelle_Nichols_2000_x_1165.jpg Nichelle Nichols died July 30, 2022.  She played Uhura on the original Star Trek TV show.  As often happens with the fifth/sixth/seventh leads in a show, Uhura didn't get a lot to do on Star Trek.  But she did get to say my favorite lines of the whole series: From:  The Man Trap (the first episode shown on NBC, Thursday Sept. 8, 1966, 8:30 to 9:30 pm   Uhura:    (speaking to Spock) Why don't you tell me I'm an attractive young lady.  Or ask me if I've ever been in love.  Tell me how your planet Vulcan looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full. Spock:  Vulcan has no moon Miss Uhura. Uhura:  I'm not surprised Mister Spock. see the scene here:  Unfortunately for Ms. Nichols the straight man in a comedy duo gets more money (per Jerry Seinfeld) :) I don't remember when I first saw this episode (the one where Doctor McCoy's old flame turns out to be a salt craving monste

While looking for some parts I found this note: And the back: I had gotten this note in a parcel with an unbuilt PK-4 keyer kit many years ago.  It had been purchased from a person who used to resell my kits.  There was absolutely no clue as to who sent the kit back.  No return address, no invoice, no email address.  Just the note. First, the nastygrammer was correct, the printed manual returned with the kit didn't have page 10.  The fellow who sold this kit died long ago so can't be asked about it.  I stopped including printed manuals in the 20th century. (see:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/no-printed-documentation-with-kit.html Second, I didn't understand why someone would pay to return an item and then not identify themselves in any way or even ask for a refund.  Just enclosing a nastygram in all caps must have been enough for them to feel better ? Third, the manuals for all the kits are online for downloading/viewing in pdf format.  I guess I assumed that buyers

 Yes, I finished listening to Moby Dick.  see my original post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/07/is-this-ever-going-to-happen-is-it-time.html The unabridged reading by Doug Brown can be found on Archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/moby_dick_doug_brown Doug Brown did an excellent job of reading the book.  Certainly a step up from the Libri-vox type of recording and probably a small step down from a professional audio book. The book is presented in separate chapter length audio files which I liked since there was no need to hunt and find the audio "bookmark" in a large file.  There are no musical cues to let you know that the chapter is over but that's a minor point. BTW, Herman Melville needed an editor in my opinion.  Perhaps I'm just spoiled by more recent fiction and not used to the flowery writing of 170 years ago but I think the Reader's Digest folks would (and maybe have already ?) cut this book down substantially without losing the gist. As &quo

 I was looking at Farhan's post on his Daylight rig: https://www.vu2ese.com/index.php/2022/08/04/daylight-an-all-analog-radio/ Farhan mentions Dan's as a supplier of J310 JFET transistors in the cascode mixer section.  So I thought I'd take a look at Dan's Small Parts website: http://danssmallpartsandkits.net/ and found this notice: BTW the apparent closing of BG Micro in Texas was mentioned previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/another-one-bit-dust-year-ago.html I haven't bought anything from Dan's recently. He sold some hard to find stuff like the tiny iron plated Weller soldering iron tips or 4-40 sized hex nuts used for 1/4 inch switches.  And I have a forever stash of 470 pF polystyrene caps from Dan's :) Dan's will be missed by many. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I was looking at the July 1967 issue of Popular Electronics on the World Radio History web site and saw this ad: Popular Science did a review in April 1968: https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-06/archives-popular-science-tests-microwave-oven/ That $545 price inflates to $4834 in 2022, not a cheap unit.  And I doubt there's a crystal inside :) See the previous blog posts on the Model 1500 CB transceiver: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/02/more-info-on-international-crystal.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/02/international-crystal-model-1500-cb.html In addition to crystals International Crystal made some really interesting products at a premium prices.  They closed shop in 2017: http://www.arrl.org/news/international-crystal-manufacturing-going-out-of-business Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

After World War II Sears started selling a combination wire recorder, record player and AM radio (and a microphone was also included). In the 1947 Sears Christmas Wishbook it was advertised at $184.50 less wire, so really another $4.75 for wire for a total of $189.25.   That inflates  to $2396 in 2022 dollars !  No wonder there were time payments. The machine and a spool of wire inflated The wire cost inflated   No wonder there aren't more old time radio home recordings from that period, even Bing Crosby must have been telling the fellows at Ampex: hurry up and invent magnetic tape, wire is too expensive ! The 7500 feet of stainless wire was good for 1 hour of recording.  Doing a little figuring that's a speed of 25 inches per second !  No wonder it took 12 minutes to rewind. Sears also sold a table top version for less, see it in this video:   price of the tabletop version (from the video) It's interesting to watch the unit play.  The recording/playback head moves up and d

The Keyall HV kit components http://wb9kzy.com/keyallhv.htm Sometimes a kit producer will listen to customers or tries to :)   The Keyall HV kit came about because of a customer complaint about the Keyall kit.  The original Keyall had 500 volt MOSFET transistors and used a International Rectifier PVI (Photo Voltaic Isolator) to drive the transistors.  But a customer in Canada sent me a nastygram about the Keyall.  He had used it with his Heathkit AT-1 transmitter and had blown out one of the transistors. His main complaint:  The name: Keyall  was misleading because it couldn't key his transmitter.   Keyall is NOT going to literally key any transmitter ever made, for example the Alexanderson alternator in Sweden :)  And I'm sure there are many other transmitters that it can't handle. The Heathkit AT-1 is a cathode keyed tube rig from the 1950s, their first transmitter kit.  The AT-1 has an oscillator and a power amplifier tube, both cathode keyed.  The problem is the key-up

Curious Droid (Paul Shiletto) posted an interesting video on Bell Labs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eksTJOmlxbU It's amazing that Bell Labs was the source of so many important inventions and concepts.  We've all heard about the transistor but the LASER, solar cells, MOSFET, Unix operating system, C programming language and on and on. But their Nobel count is apparently stuck at 9.  Probably won't be more stuff emerging from the remnants of Bell Labs. I remember hearing a lecture from the Dean of Engineering at UWM when I was a freshman.  One thing he mentioned was that UWM (in Milwaukee) had sent more graduates that year to work at Bell Labs than UW in Madison (the biggest engineering school in Wisconsin).  I was very impressed at the time.  But when I started working I met a few former Bell Labs employees, they were smart but none of them were inventing the successor to the transistor, they were mostly software guys. I've still got a little retirement money investe

 I mentioned the radio from Gilligan's Island previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/fallout-shelter.html It was almost another character on the show.  And as mentioned, the prop guy put the telescoping antenna and the handle on the radio. Here the Skipper and Gilligan are listening to the radio, the Skipper charging those wacky coconut shell batteries using the DYNAMO - the Professor could do anything :) The Packard Bell insignia has been obscured. The Skipper and Gilligan discuss what they've heard on the radio. Mary-Ann listens to her favorite soap: Old Doctor Young This was from Season 2, episode 18, per the wiki this was broadcast January 20, 1966 so I would have been 10 years old.  Although I knew what a soap opera was (my Mom was crazy about General Hospital) I'd never heard one on the radio. I'm sure that the writers: were of an age (Herbert Finn was 55) that they had heard radio soap operas like Ma Perkins or Mary Noble, Backstage Wife.  But by 1966 th

 I know, male humans still wear hats but really they are usually baseball type caps or knit caps, not real hats.  I was looking on Face (I gotta quit that) and saw this photo from the Milwaukee County Historical Society: Boy Scouts 1930 lined up to get ice cream And I noticed their campaign hats with the flat brim and the 4 indent top.  Those hats would seem to be perfect for Scouts, spending lots of time outside in the sun - they would seem to offer a lot more protection than a cap. Then on the next Face group I saw this Mountie painting: Maintiens Le Droit => Maintain the Law (Right) and of course noticed the campaign hat.  Here is the RCMP logo: hopefully a few bison were also maintained ! So I looked into whether the campaign hat is still available.  The famous Stetson company still sells them: https://stetson.com/collections/hats-outdoor-felt/products/campaign-hat-olive-drab So do the Scouts: https://www.scoutshop.org/campaign-hat-606089.html But yikes, the prices !  $233 and $

It looks like our old airborne friend N119RF https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/08/n119rf-is-back.html is done with the Washington Island area.  A brief scan was made over the Lake and a pass over the Island on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. Then a flight back home to Alabama in the evening. Still gotta wonder how deep that beam can scan into the lake. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I remember watching the show Mission Impossible on TV and seeing a radio that looked like my Hallicrafters S-120 with a meter: Nowadays that red stripe would just be a blur to hide the name ? From the Mission: Impossible 1969-70 season, episode 10: The Double Circle There was a Japanese company that made all these radios for Hallicrafters, Monarch, Lafayette and I'm sure many others. STAR Radio made these in Japan http://3950.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Lafayette-HE-401.jpg This translated page has more info on the Star SR-40: https://www-seidensha--ltd-co-jp.translate.goog/~seiden/sr40.html?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc BTW, watching the first episode of Mission Impossible I thought that this was interesting: Mr. Briggs got his briefing on a self destruct record Of course later they changed to the mini-tape recorder: Also noticed this radio in the first episode: Collins collectors were probably aghast Mr. Briggs must have been

 During the night I'm awakened by a noise.  It's continuous and sounds a little like water glugging out of a bottle - but faster.  I get out the flashlight and look around finally realizing that it's this thing: Better Homes and Gardens Atomic Clock from Wal-mart The hands are quick stepping causing the glug noise.  Was Daylight Savings Time called off and I didn't get the memo ?   All I know is that weird unexpected sounds can wake me up if they are long enough. I also noticed this picture from yesterday: It's a deserted intersection in Sanya, Hainan Province of China.  No people or cars due to a Covid-19 lockdown.  But the crosswalks reminded me of the pads for a Quad Flat Pack IC on an unpopulated circuit board: Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Norman Gilliland, Old Time Radio Drama on Wisconsin Public Radio  I was looking for an old file among various USB drives and came upon these three files: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZoQzYVZiY9JqGURgq8Ik0ovqCqfYB3KkPjy    1st hour: Jack Benny and the Green Hornet https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZxYzYVZkgoLCFsdldSXTEVsR0uF3Qr16rck     2nd hour: CBS Radio Workshop and Dragnet https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZpmzYVZKLFiVEznCPjQirr1jrG5nhSMerIy     3rd hour: New Adventures of Nero Wolfe and X-1 They are from the Saturday, June 21, 2007 Old Time Radio Drama show (now cancelled) on Wisconsin Public Radio: https://www.wpr.org/programs/old-time-radio-drama I think the only changes/additions (maybe another hour) I would have made: add a Fred Allen show and a Vic and Sade show. Although the show was cancelled I don't miss it all that much, there is just so much content out there that it was easy to start listening to WAMU The Big Broadcast or one of the 24 hour

 I saw this story on ArsTechnica: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/backyard-hens-eggs-contain-40-times-more-lead-on-average-than-shop-eggs/ Although this was in Australia I suspect it might be true for urban chickens in the US, too.  And most of the lead comes from the burning of leaded fuel in cars. According to this site, tetra-ethyl-lead combusts in gasoline to form lead oxide: https://www.shell.com/business-customers/aviation/aeroshell/knowledge-centre/technical-talk/techart-18-30071600.html Also, I didn't know that airplanes still use leaded gas. To me this would also beg the question:  what about urban garden produce ?  What are the lead levels there ? Yikes !  Sometimes persistence is NOT a virtue. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 Digi-key used to be my favorite vendor for kit parts.  Mouser was a distant second.  Digi-key offered free shipping on mail orders sent with payment.  I used to be able to mail in my payment and receive my order in a week.  Both the USPS and Digi-key were clicking in the 20th century.  Mouser would always manage to mess something up on an order, Mouser would take care of it eventually but it took time, also no free shipping.  Digi-key would often charge more than Mouser but it was worth it for the superior service. Currently Mouser still doesn't offer free shipping but they do offer reduced rate shipping for items sent via UPS Mail Innovations.  And Mouser doesn't spring the 10% tariff on you at the last second, it's either baked in or ? But today, I don't know - maybe I'm taking things too personally - but I tried to place an order and Digi-key snatched out an item from the cart.  It was a PIC16F676-I/P-ND PIC microcontroller - I'd been waiting for this part f

 Where I used to work see:   https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/automatic-electric-tidbits.html  there were various phone numbers for the 681 exchange.  The 7000 series could call outside the plant, also the 5000 series.  The 2000 series was just inside the plant. But of course nobody trusts anyone so the rotary dial (yes) phones that were accessible to the hourly folks sometimes had dial locks on them so that people wouldn't be calling the real world during their break time. a modern phone with replaceable cord and everything !   Before touch tone calling, a rotary dial operated by sending a stream of short clicks of the hook switch.  So putting a finger in the hole by the 7 and then rotating the dial to the stop and letting go, the dial would return back to the rest position via spring tension at an even pace.  This would put 7 pulses on the phone line.  Then you'd dial the next digit and keep going until the number was complete. One time I was in the shop and needed to mak

 Do you remember good old N119rf ?  Last "seen" around here on July 22, 2022: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/07/those-old-scan-lake-michigan-blues.html Well they were back again today, August 10, 2022, doing more Lake Michigan scanning. scanning parallel to the Door peninsula again flew up from Green Bay then scan, then over to Escanaba for lunch ? Maybe they took at least part of those 2 1/2 weeks off to go to EAA Airventure or maybe to check out Packer training camp ?  Or maybe they just turned off whatever gizmo there is on-board that provides the tracking info to the web. Whatever it was they were back again today.  Flightaware caught their early scanning run but may have missed what they did in the afternoon. picked them up going back to Green Bay in afternoon I still can't get over scanning the Lake like that - it reminds me a little of the "Tholian Web" from the original Star Trek: The Tholians could afford more than one flying machine Best Regards, Chu