A Crummy Commercial

I got one of these as a gift when I was a Cub Scout: source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/364602951722 It's tempting but it was a terrible radio, and I can't tell if it has the Galena crystal or not - I will leave it for someone else.   UPDATE:  The crystal set sold for the minimum: Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was looking at some QSL cards and found this: And inside found these: Multiply that $40.02 by over 4 to get the price in 2023 dollars: Bottom line: if you see the CTL-B or similar Brown Brothers items at a hamfest, probably they are a buy :) BTW, here is the CTL-B today:   Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was reading this Quanta article about electricity: https://www.quantamagazine.org/meet-strange-metals-where-electricity-may-flow-without-electrons-20231127/ when I came upon this: Glad that the same thing didn't occur with James Clerk Maxwell ! (although he did run an estate and died relatively young at 48) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

  source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8eUG2WMz84 I remember: Demon With A Glass Hand very vividly from The Outer Limits, starring Robert Culp, written by: Harlan Ellison.  I actually have this on DVD somewhere but that would require me getting out of this chair to find it, no wonder Netflix ditched DVDs ! Robert Culp plays an amnesiac named Trent who has a glass hand (with flashing lights !), finds a cool looking girl friend instantly and also has people in racoon makeup trying to get him (or is it the hand they want?).  Normally I don't like time travel stories but Harlan Ellison had a good touch with them also writing: City on the Edge of Forever, a Star Trek TOS episode (the one with Joan Collins in 1930s USA). Here is the hand in the title, being un-gloved as it was multiple times, those flashing lights must be covered up, even in a city strangely devoid of people.   Talk and listen to the hand: Only one more digit to go: Sorry Trent, she don't go for that ! Also The

Inspired by the So ldersmoke blog: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/11/bill-n2cqr-goes-citizen-band.html I got out a Johnson Messenger 4135 CB I was given in the 20th century.   Looking around on the internet there aren't any ready-made mods to move to 10.  The PLL is a MSC42502P which apparently is a custom made chip for EF Johnson that uses BCD programming: from the 4135 schematic: I can see that the PLL is driven by 5.12 MHz crystal which as we know with the VE3DNL Marker Generator: http://wb9kzy.com/ve3dnl.htm divides down to 5 or 10 kHz with a binary counter.  There are two other crystals on the schematic, a diode switched transmit crystal is 21.275 MHz.  And another diode switched receive crystal is 30.820 MHz.  The difference between these two is 9.545 MHz but that doesn't really sound right.  The schematic shows an IF filter at 455 kHz.  455 + 9545 = 10000 ?  I will have to think about it. I'll have to do some investigating to see if the PLL can be uplifted int

Noticed this article on the Andromeda galaxy: https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/daily-telescope-a-closer-look-at-the-most-distant-object-visible-to-the-naked-eye/ Then found a few more with searches: source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220119.html https://earthsky.org/clusters-nebulae-galaxies/andromeda-galaxy-closest-spiral-to-milky-way/ I never realized that Andromeda was so near Cassiopeia (or as my Grandmother would have said: Cassiopeia's chair :).  For some reason I thought that Andromeda was only visible in the southern hemisphere but this was actually the greater and lesser Magellanic clouds, the small companion galaxies of the Milky Way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds Somewhere I have a right angle eyepiece for Nikon F mount lenses that will convert them into a telescope, unfortunately can't find the silly thing, I removed it from my camera case to make room for a camera and don't remember where I

Why be a fan of the Packers ?  Especially in a rebuild year ?  Because of a game like this one.  They were underdogs, on the road, short week, Thanksgiving at the Lions, a national TV game, playing a team built for the indoors.  This a game you remember. Packers 29, Lions 22 I'm thinking of many memorable road game wins and one home loss: 1) Ty Montgomery rushes for 162 yards at Soldier Field, Packers 30, Bears 27, December 18, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmDlCTLqTE4 2) Aaron Rodgers comes back in 2nd half (with a broken leg) to  throw 3 TDs 2nd half, Sunday night at Soldier Field, Packers 24, Bears 23, September 9, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6OATIupK34 3) Pat McCaffee does color commentary on his one and only NFL TV game, Packers humiliated by the Lions at Lambeau: 31 to 0, December 30, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJZgUlDGrXM Well now add another memorable road win: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJMqeKmIVGM And I think that this play: was very tellin

 I was watching this Packers show live on Youtube (OK, listening rather than watching): source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An livIBtshRYpY  When Corey announces that he has to go and take a picture of Lambeau: Source:  https://twitter.com/coreybehnke/status/1727465132853219389  I gotta admit, it was worth interrupting the live stream, Happy Thanksgiving :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

. source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aclr229Kq5c Nick ("the Vic") mentioned that all the little red SSM2167 modules he has bought have resistors R1 and R2 swapped.  I checked the one I bought in 2019 and can verify Nick is right, R2 is 1K ohm, should be 15K ohms, R1 is 15K ohms, should be 1K ohm.  As Nick did, I'll try removing them and replacing with through hole equivalents. He also mentioned his DVM, a Brymen BM235.  Touted by EEVblog but well over $100 - I think I'll wait until the Metex finally bites the dust :) Good video, I will have to start looking at Nick's older videos as well. BTW, just for the heck of it I tried my unmodified module listening to W1AW code practice on 80 meters with the K2 as the receiver.  The idea is to see how fast the limiting /agc is.  Here are scope pictures of the leading and trailing edges of a code element with the input in yellow on top and the output from the SSM2167 on the bottom in blue: As can be seen that while th

 OK, not a kit but a transmitter with PK-4 keyer chip on-board (see QST, February 2014, A 10 meter beacon transmitter by Lou, W7JI).  This had worked for years as a beacon but recently stopped functioning.  Now although the PK-4 FB would be heard at powerup, it was impossible to enter any of the menus or even play a memory without halting.  I had thought that with the halting memory play that the problem was a bad momentary switch.  The ham with the PK-4 wanted new chips and I told him prior to the order that I didn't think replacement chips would help other than that they would establish that the problem was elsewhere. It turned out that the 5V voltage regulator in the transmitter was bad.  When it was replaced the PK-4 menus and memory play resumed working again. Which brings up my problem with diagnosing problems, I suspected the switch because it was a mechanical device, more likely to fail ?  I didn't even consider the regulator since the FB at powerup was heard.  But what

As blogged on previously:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/04/when-internet-changes-its-usually-for.html I got this screen when logging into Gmail first thing: I like the old Gmail better, it's faster, no ads, why not just leave it alone ? Sorry, that's the internet.  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm   

I have to confess that I completely forgot about the launch but plenty of videos and articles to catch up on: Marcus House did post a nice commented video on the launch today, the day after: source:  https://youtu.be/PmiI_up0G2Y Listening to the actual Spacex commentators on videos of the Spacex live feed it was like: are you guys actually watching this or are you reading from a script ??   Marcus' commentary does a good job explaining what happened. Ars Technica had some really neat pictures: the hot-staging looks like something from a movie . Starship debris trail captured on Caribbean weather radar source: https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/11/spacex-can-celebrate-three-big-wins-after-second-starship-test-flight/ As Marcus House pointed out, the Starship 2nd stage had quite a few heat shield tiles fall off at the start of the launch.  And we know from the Shuttle that those tiles are really important ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I know this video is clickbait but it's short and interesting: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04SmbKYhiks Who knew ?   Sorta appropriate for today as it is the start of gun and slug deer season here, BOOM. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 Interesting photo from Shorpy: source: https://www.shorpy.com/node/27275 The Times seemed to favor the National HRO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_HRO BTW, at the New York Times they don't yell:  "copy boy !"  they yell:  "paper tape boy !"   :) That map on the wall reminds me of this neat page for generating great circle maps for your location: https://ns6t.net/azimuth/azimuth.html Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 Another item from the Asianometry video mentioned yesterday: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxyM2Chu9Vc&t=404s At about 12 minutes he mentions Manhattan masks: Of course I thought of this: source: https://hackaday.com/2011/09/04/a-ham-radio-receiver-manhattan-style/ I believe this is the work of Dave, AA7EE: https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/ I was also listening to this Soldersmoke podcast with Bill and Pete: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2023/11/soldersmoke-podcast-249-travel-petes.html where Pete mentions that a listener has built one of his circuits using a circuit board but Manhattan style - then Bill mentions that he doesn't like through hole circuit boards with the insertion on one side and flipping to solder on the other side.  He finds the Manhattan style of building easier.  Also the hassle of repair and mods with through hole circuit boards is mentioned.   So I'm considering maybe in the future trying a modified type of kit circuit board, instead of throug