A Crummy Commercial

 Well, an enclosure added for a current kit, the Keyall HV: Please see:  http://wb9kzy.com/keyallhv.htm  sometimes this blog must live up to its name ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

That same joker from the USA has apparently moved to Germany in the 21st century but is still finger writing: source: https://core.ac.uk/reader/237468620 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

The Q and A: Even if it was technically correct this answer doesn't make sense to me.  If it was harder to generate USB signals then why even try ?  Why not just designate all SSB work to default to LSB ? The blame isn't with the AI, it's relying on a website to craft answers.  I guess what they really ought to develop is Artificial Common Sense. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

The Olson family started coming up to Washington Island in the 1960s from the Milwaukee area (Fox Point).  For a few summers we stayed at Hansen's Cottages in Jackson Harbor.  But while Hansen's was great, the folks got the notion to buy some property.  They bought 200 feet of beachfront property in a somewhat swampy area on the east side of Washington Island. Eventually the folks got an A-Frame cottage built.  Here is a picture I took of my Dad standing on the deck:   It wasn't completely finished at this point.  The local builder was good at making schedules but not as good at sticking to them - my Dad and his Cousin Earl (a carpenter) eventually finished the job. I remember that deck - someone had the idea of using tongue and groove flooring for the deck but then the next spring when we came up the deck had swollen up and we couldn't get the door open :) I also remember that the beam in the middle of the floor was held up by a log spacer between the beam...

But then I saw their price: https://www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/98511/CAPTAIN-MIDNIGHTS-AWARD-OF-MERIT-1941-MINT-RARE-BRASS-PILOTS-BADGE-CERTIFICATE-MAILER But it is a nice premium. Here is a beautiful picture of one from Jon Gothold on Faceb: source of pictures: member Jon Gothold on the Radio Premiums group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/907249652996436 the certificate says:  " . . . 24 karat Gold Plated Pilot's Badge shown above designed from the official United States Army pilot's wings . . ." BTW, don't confuse the blog title with a movie of a similar vintage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wanted_Wings Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm             

source: https://youtu.be/ihkRwArnc1k   At about 16 minutes into this video two Japanese semiconductor researchers explain how they solved the problem of maintaining the temperature of Germanium to within 1/10 of a degree C.  Their meter only had graduations of 1 degree C.  So they attached a mirror to the meter needle and used reflected light to increase the resolution of the meter by projecting the reflection on the wall.  This magnified the scale so the temperature could be read precisely.  Ingenious ! the mirror on the meter needle the reflected light on the wall The video as a whole is quite interesting, the grown transistor development at Sony is pretty neat.  Also the video mentioned that the transistors in the Regency TR-1 were grown silicon transistors.  Some web sites dispute this.  I had an early Regency transistor but couldn't fix it and ended up removing all the parts.  I'll have to see if I can find the transistors. Best Regards,...

I was 9 years old in the fall of 1964, a 4th grader when:  The Man From U.N.C.L.E. started on television - I thought it was so cool !  :) And I actually remember this episode:  The Mad Mad Tea Party Affair: source: https://ia903406.us.archive.org/20/items/the-man-from-uncle-s-1/The%20Man%20From%20U.N.C.L.E.%20S01E18%20The%20Mad%2C%20Mad%2C%20Tea%20Party%20Affair.mp4 The reason was this: it's what you call a suicide mission   It was a suicide drone before they called them that.      Here are a few stills from the episode: the entrance to UNCLE HQ . the laser Whoops !  there goes the laser . the note reads: Boom you're dead they didn't skimp on the music Yeah, sure Oh yes, the pen communicator: https://web.archive.org/web/20120308133105/https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/cia-museum/spy-fi-archives/item03.html Somebody needs to finally make one of those pen communicators (just like someone needs to make the Captain Midnight communicator). https://wb9...

One thing I usually check on every Monday morning is the sale flyer from Mann's, the island grocery store: https://www.mannsgrocery.com/Pdf_Ads/Index/ I also usually check the sale flyer from a small group of stores in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Sundays: http://www.larrysfamilyfoods.com/Pdf_Ads/Index/_SS_ Larry's has the same wholesaler as Mann's so it's interesting to see a superset of what Mann's will offer the next day.  But the weird thing before the pandemic was that while Larry's flyer was always up on time, the Mann's flyer might be missing for days.  I might call Mann's and complain but then I started emailing their website provider, Webstop.  Webstop would then forward the email to the consultant for the wholesaler.  The consultant would usually explain that the printer of the Mann's flyer was supposed to get the pdf file to her before Monday but that he had to sneakernet the file on a USB drive !  Yes the 21st century is so advanced...

Another boil, another result. Today I got the most dreaded (by me anyway) result of a maple boil:  the flip off. The still has a bi-metal breaker that trips when the temperature goes above 212F.  When maple syrup is "done" the temperature is roughly 7 degrees higher than the boiling point of water. I like to avoid a breaker trip for a couple of reasons: 1) although I have no data I do remember bi-metal breaker lore: they only have X numbers of trips in them before they become unreliable.  So to prevent a trip I try to stop the boil early, usually when there is just under 8 oz of liquid left inside. 2) maple syrup that has gone above the magic 66% threshold becomes thicker (which is fine) but also tends to crystalize easily and often has more sugar sand residue in suspension.  IOW it doesn't keep as well. The input sap was 3.7% just like yesterday but the flip-off happened about 11 minutes early.  There was about 5 oz of 74.5% syrup (aka maple honey) resulting: I...

Sometimes it happens, just dumb luck, last night I boiled 4 liters of maple sap and this morning I had about 7 oz. of maple syrup ! The 4 liters of sap was 3.7% sugar.  How do I know ?  I used the longer of the two refractomers pictured: It is a 0 to 10% unit so it has better resolution than the 0 to 32% one that I purchased first. The 7 oz. of syrup is 66.5% sugar which is close enough to the goal of 66% to qualify a syrup to me :)  How do I know ?  I used the shorter of the two refractometers to measure the syrup.   The percentages mentioned above are by mass, finished syrup is more like 87% sugar by volume.  So that's why a lot of care is needed when boiling the sap at the end, there isn't that much water left by volume. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Paypal strikes again.  First while signing in I get multiple capcha challenges.  Is Paypal being tripped up by the fact that the browser plugs in the ID and password so quickly ?  Irritation #1. I finally get in after bypassing the "you are already approved for blah-blah-blah" screen - irritation 2: no I don't want it   And then I'm presented with this notice: I'm concerned because I've received no email notifications.  So I click on it and get this: There isn't a dispute, only irritation #3.  Three strikes Paypal, three strikes ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Not plural, not the cartoon show, just Simpson - the meter company - the (at least partially) Wisconsin meter company. I remember buying an HP Model 500b, a tube based frequency meter, at a hamfest in Illinois.  I eventually gutted it and was going to use it as the chassis for a bunch of  QRP accessories.  I never got farther than adding a three terminal regulator for a 12 volt supply using the filament windings of the transformer used in the 500b. This was in the mid to late 1980s and I also remember talking to one of the techs at work (GTE in Northlake, Illinois) who was leaving for a job with a UPS company in Wisconsin.  I happened to mention that Simpson also made meters (or at least had at one time) in Wisconsin.  The next day I brought in this meter to work to show him. The front just looks like a meter, no mention of Simpson: But the back says Simpson, made in USA and also has a couple of Wisconsin map stamps !  :)  That's how I knew: Here's the...

I noticed that JLCPCB: https://jlcpcb.com/ now does 3D printing.  So I decided to try it using the design file provided by Farhan (of Bitx fame) for a PTO coil form.  It cost $2.97 for 2 of the forms plus $4.10 for the cheapest postage.  Note that that $7.07 total includes a 50 cent fee for using Paypal.  It was ordered on March 1 and I received the two forms on March 17, 2023. Then I tried winding a coil for a 7 MHz PTO design by N2CQR: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/03/fixing-tuning-problem-in-high-school.html I got out the LCD LC meter that I had purchased on ebay.  This is a shifted oscillator type of LC meter.  Per Bill's page the coil should have an inductance of about 1.4 uH with 21 turns, so I wound 21 turns of fairly stiff magnet wire (20 gauge ?).  Using the LCD meter I got .58 uH with the brass screw "all out".  With it all the way in I got .47 uH.  So clearly something is weird. I then dug around and found my Morse code bas...

I had mentioned the Cris Shapan Facebook page before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/10/vincent-prices-spooky-speedway.html But today I was listening to Radio Swiss Classic and heard this selection: When I saw the composers name I immediately thought of the Cris Shapan Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cris.shapan Yes, I am still 12 years old inside.  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

. This is a really neat video: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuCdsyCWmt8 We had an electron microscope at GTE but it didn't work and no one could read the manual (it was in Japanese !) :) I do remember the part about coating the target with something conductive which makes sense but I always thought carbon was used, here he uses silver. His other videos are pretty neat as well - some people are just geniuses ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was listening to the Ukraine the latest podcast from The Telegraph in London: https://art19.com/shows/ukraine-the-latest/episodes/354090ba-28bb-458f-82d8-1dc2392942b7 and this BBC report on Bakhmut by Quentin Sommerville was mentioned:   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64955537 When I heard/saw the name: Maxim, I immediately thought of The Old Man, Hiram Percy Maxim. Apparently they are using a Maxim machine gun from either the late 19th or early 20th century, 100 years old ? source:  https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/844D/production/_128996833_f5489081-adb1-4e62-a28d-81e01351ad2e.jpg Here is the part where the Maxim is mentioned: Two nights before, the 28th Brigade was attacked by Russian infantry and tanks. In a timbered gun position below ground, the cold, rain drips through the roof onto the dirt floor, and there, peering out into the bare landscape, is a Maxim belt-fed machine gun with stout iron wheels. "It only works when there is a massive attack goin...

Aaron Rodgers was on the Pat McAfee show today but I completely forgot to watch !   According to reports of the interview, Aaron wants to play for the Jets this season but the holdup seems to be the details of the transaction between the Packers and the Jets. I will have to say that Aaron has done some amazing things like getting his leg broken in Chicago in the first half of a game but then coming back in the second half somehow and getting the victory. source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeTJPojyLN0 On the other hand Aaron has also looked old and cold in recent late season games.   Probably the Packers waited a year too long before trading Aaron but I suspect that Packers weren't fully confident in Jordan Love, QB10, at that time.   That has apparently changed. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Here is a picture of William Gaines, the fellow responsible for Mad: My mother always said that reading Mad magazine would make me stupid.  She was probably correct. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

This picture on Face brought back some memories: The Nicolet High School radio club had a couple of unused Knight VFOs on hand.  After I got my General license I borrowed one to use with the HW-16.  At a certain point crystals get expensive especially after upgrading where I had more frequencies available. After a while I returned the VFO to the club and replaced it with a solid state VFO from MFJ.  I gutted my old Hallicrafters S-120 receiver and used the bandspread capacitor to tune the 7 MHz MFJ VFO.  Also added a flip-flop divider to allow operation on 80 meters. In college I bought a Drake 2A and a Hallicrafters HT-37 from a fellow in the UWM radio club.   But the Knight VFO was a fun addition - I might have bought the Heathkit HG-10 to go with the HW-16 but there was that matter of the ARRL life membership cost of $150 - I think that the life membership was the better deal. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

. When I saw this Sears house ad from 1916, the first thing I thought of was: betrayal.  Mainly from the story that Jean Shepherd told both in Phantom of the Open Hearth (it starts about 13 minutes into the show): source:  https://youtu.be/HVCfWbSs6O0?t=777 and on his other PBS show, Jean Shepherd's America: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn3Rz4UA-VE Apparently he didn't tell the story on the radio (or at least no audio recording has survived). Poor Zudock. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I got a comment about fast mail from a customer in VA.  He had mailed his order form / payment on March 7 and I received it on the 10th. I can remember when I first started selling the kits in the late 1990s I often would mail my part orders to Digi-key (yes, they offer free shipping on mailed in orders) on a Monday afternoon and would routinely receive the order by the next Monday.  I always thought that was pretty fast service. But I don't mail in orders to Digi-Key much any more, what often happens is that the 10% tariff trips me up, the website shows the no-tariff price and then they jack it up in the shopping cart.  Anyway, it does take longer than a week now.  And Mouser has upped their game, they provide as good or better service than Digi-key often at lower prices. I still prefer the USPS.  Mainly because they literally deliver here on the island while the others (UPS, Fedex and so on) don't.  But the USPS was better in the old days of the 20th cent...

I saw these two articles: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/apple-foxconn-convince-indian-state-to-loosen-labor-laws/ https://www.milwaukeemag.com/what-is-the-giant-foxconn-globe-in-mount-pleasant/ All I can say is: watch out India.  Essentially all Wisconsin ever got from Foxconn was a lot of promises, a few jobs for Chinese speaking grad students and a crystal globe.  Of course some Wisconsinites got their houses pushed over to make way for non-existent buildings. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 One thing that I try to include with kit docs is some kind of minimal troublshooting file, for example: http://wb9kzy.com/bugde3di.txt Basically the diagnostic file asks the builder to do three things: 1) measure the power supply current 2) measure the pin voltages of the PIC chip (usually a PIC chip is on board the kit) 3) measure the resistance to ground with the PIC chip removed from the socket and power disconnected I always point builders to this file and also ask for a closeup picture of the top/bottom of the board. But one thing that builders rarely do is to measure the power supply current.  I can understand why, especially if unsoldering is required.  Now if the kit is powered by a 9V battery it's very easy to just connect one snap of the 9V battery and then use a DVM to make the other power connection and read the current. Why measure the power supply current ?  I have mentioned this before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/two-ways-to-make-kit-easier-t...

.   Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I used to live in the Milwaukee area so this prompted me to click: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/human-femur-found-on-bradford-beach-sparking-sheriffs-office-investigation/ar-AA18ibMk Recently was thinking about The Grapes of Wrath so this Bradford beach story made me this of this scene from the movie: The Joad family is crossing the California desert at night.   Winfield tells his sister, Ruthie: "I sure would like to see some of them man bones." (about 58 minutes into the movie). Darryl Hickman is 91 in March 2023, he might still be able to get a peek if he can get to Milwaukee :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm                 

 Maple sap sugar data I thought I'd start using the refractometer to find which maple trees have the sweetest sap.  I'll try to process sap from those trees first. Tree #    % 01          2.2 02          2.3 03          2.6 04          2.2 05          2.3 06          2.6 07          2.8 08          2.8 09          3.2 10          3.5 11          2.2 12         3.2 13          3.1 14          2.9 Here is a not to scale map: So for this first data the western trees have the sweetest sap.  We'll see if that changes.  Since I can only process a...

 I saw this picture on Face: The Curtiss JN-4 airplane from the World War I era and into the 1920s (see The Great Waldo Pepper).  The most distinctive visual feature of the Jenny were those two half-hoops under each wing.  What were they for ?  They must serve a purpose.  Maybe (since this was a trainer) to protect the wing in case a student pilot didn't land with the wings parallel to the ground ? BTW, here is a link to a free ebook which mentions Washington Island AND early aviation: http://wb9kzy.com/boyscout.htm Here is my review:   The Boy Scouts of the Air on the Great Lakes is part of a series of books for boys, published in 1914 and set on Washington Island, WI I first learned of this book from my Dad, William "Bill" Olson. He saw the book mentioned in an article by Charlie Calkins from the October 21, 2005 issue of the Peninsula Pulse newspaper. Dad had a copy of the book ordered by October 24th and thanks to the internet had the book in a week or ...

Here's the result of the first boil, about 8 oz of "pre-syrup": When I get enough to fill a pot it will be time to do a finish boil to get to the magic 66% sugar level. I forgot to mention that the sap at the end of the first day measured 3% sugar.  The sap may have benefited from some freeze concentration as this was from late evening when ice was forming. Today the sap measured 2.8 (maybe 2.6 ?) - it's hard to tell but somewhat lower, the ice had melted. Why would I care ?  It affects the amount of sap versus finished syrup.  I'd often heard a 40 to 1 ratio (something over 2%) but 3% is 29 to 1, that's 11 gallons of sap that doesn't have to be boiled to get the same amount of syrup. I found out that I may not have purchased the correct refractometer.  The one I bought has a scale from 0 to 32 percent.  So the readings for sap are scrunched at the bottom of the scale.  There are 0 to 10 percent versions of this same meter - that's the one I should hav...

It's been a big success so far, out of 14 trees drilled only 1 didn't have a good flow of sap.  Got over 1.5 gallons of sap in the first 3 hours. The new taps seem to work fine, after looking at them I realized that I hadn't gotten what was advertised but maybe these are better ?  They stand proud of the tree about 1/2 inch and have a 90 degree bend. I kinda wish I had started sooner but I couldn't find my 5/16" drill bit that I usually use.  I ended up taking a 5/16" drill bit for a brace and bit and hack-sawing off the weird little knuckle that those brace and bit drills require but a regular drill can't use. Just a little tramping through the snow back and forth to the woods is tiring but hopefully worth it.  I got to see an amazing sunset, too. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

The days are sunny and above freezing.  The nights are cold, well below 32F.  This is the time to start the 2023 maple sap season. Of course I decided to buy some new stuff for the harvest.  First, a refractometer which optically shows the sugar concentration of a fluid. It comes in a nice plastic case: Inside is the instrument, a calibration screwdriver, an eye dropper and (not shown) a wiping cloth.   It's really easy to use, just put 3 drops on the slide, close the translucent lid and then look through the finder to read the percentage of sugar.  I tried it with distilled water and it seems to be in calibration. I also bought some new spiles (taps) with pre-attached hoses.   Some of the old taps I had were clear (yes, they were cheaper) but they break fairly easily.  There is at least one or two clear ones still embedded in maples from last year (the head came off). So now to get out there and start drilling ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9k...

 My Dad was in a literature discussion group and one time they discussed Steinbeck's book:  The Grapes of Wrath.   In the beginning of the movie (I hadn't read the book at that time) Tom Joad tells Casey the preacher:  "Maybe Ma will have pork for supper. I ain't had pork but four times in four years, every Christmas." So I asked my Dad if pork was symbolic of something else ? He told me that sometimes pork is just pork :) The movie version directed by John Ford is excellent but there were a couple of things I didn't like.   For one thing they made Grampa look senile when he was raving about spare ribs.  In the book the Joads had slaughtered a pig before the trip so naturally there would have been an air of pork about the place :)   The second thing concerns Tom's brother Noah.  In the movie they show Noah bathing in the Colorado river with the other Joad men but then poof, he's gone from the movie, no explanation.  When Connie leav...