A Crummy Commercial

 Eric Berger at Ars Technica sat through the press briefing so the rest of us didn't have to :) https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/that-moment-when-you-land-on-the-moon-break-a-leg-and-are-about-to-topple-over/ IM1 was apparently sorta hovering for a while with at least one broken leg till the fuel ran low: Then it gently toppled over: It might wake up in a couple weeks when the Sun rises again, it might not - we will see.  Hopefully the Columbia sticker will be visible, it's all paid for. Update: one last picture of the crescent Earth on the left: source: https://twitter.com/Int_Machines/status/1763336637432385813 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm                

 I came upon these two fun web pages, first with ads: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mytravelphotos/albums/72157602833658035 My favorite: who dislikes a tiger ? and second the magazine covers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mytravelphotos/albums/72157602804386413/ My favorite: That blue eyed devil As I probably mentioned before my Mother thought that reading Mad magazine and watching the Stooges would make me stupid, she was probably correct :)   But Mad magazine is a testament to our country and system:  adult people are able to make a decent living creating silly entertainment for spoiled children, I love it ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 Updates on the JAXA SLIM lander: LRO picture of JAXA SLIM lander https://www.nasa.gov/missions/lro/nasas-lro-spots-japans-moon-lander/ Updates on the IM-1: LRO animation LRO detail . the tragedy:  the Columbia sticker got washed out ! https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/nasa-found-the-private-lander-on-the-moon-but-its-lifetime-is-running-short/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/lro/nasas-lro-images-intuitive-machines-odysseus-lander/ https://www.lroc.asu.edu/posts/1360 Updates on the Ingenuity copter: one blade is missing here is the blade that came off https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/final-images-of-ingenuity-reveal-an-entire-blade-broke-off-the-helicopter/ Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 It was in an article from the second issue of Byte Magazine:  Add a Kluge Harp to your Computer by Carl Helmers, October 1975.  Actually read it in the Creative Computing book: The Best of Byte which I have around here somewhere. The article hooked up a zero to 5 volt square wave to a dynamic speaker (sorta like sidetone with a keyer).  But Carl Helmers (the editor of Byte) defined it:  "a quick and dirty electronic music kluge"    And I assume kluge was pronounced to rhyme with huge, anyway that's the way I pronounce it. Grab the article here from the always wonderful World Radio History site: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Byte/70s/Byte-1975-10.pdf or in the book: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Byte/Best-of-Byte-1977.pdf   Since I do live in northeast Wisconsin (aka Packer Country) there was always this memorable pronunciation: https://y.yarn.co/008d0684-6603-4aa6-8474-8e0874ad10ab.mp4 Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http...

I was looking for some old CQ magazines from the 1990s when I came upon this: . It was from when I built the Accu-keyer.  The keys were probably from Radio Shack, but they don't quite match.  These are the metal ones with the ball-bearing pivots - they are better than the cheaper ones with the black plastic base. Eventually I ditched this paddle for the Brown Brothers CTL-B blogged on before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/11/brown-brothers.html Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

As previously blogged, the 2024 maple syrup season has begun: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/02/start-of-maple-season-2024.html Here is a picture of the maple syrup resulting from boil sessions 2, 3 and 4: The first try (not pictured, already eaten) was under boiled with a sugar concentration below 58 and above 32 (I don't have a measurement tool for the range from 32 to 58).  The ideal maple syrup concentration is 66 percent. The next 3 trials were over boiled with sugar concentrations of 71, 68 and 68.  On the last boil I got the dreaded flip-off of the still breaker.  I worry about the longevity of these bimetallic parts. So I'll keep trying to adjust my boil times to ideally create the 66 reading.  The finished syrup sugar level depends on sap temperature, sap sugar concentration and boil time.  The sap temperature is usually "fridge temp", the concentration varies and the boil time is the main item that can be adjusted. Of course it would be easier to und...

Just a selfie from orbit: the Columbia ad placement is intact People want a picture (or it didn't happen ?): Eric Berger at Ars had an interesting story on a last second workaround to allow a safe landing: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/02/a-little-us-company-makes-history-by-landing-on-the-moon-but-questions-remain/ Blogged on the IM-1 launch here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/02/im-1-lander-on-way-to-moon.html Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

 I was watching this video: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_HFiiKI50w It's almost mesmerizing to watch the CNC machine working.  This fellow is trying to manufacture Nixie tubes so he is machining a mold for the glass base of the Nixie tube. It's a noble effort but wow, that's a lot of work just for the sake of the Nixie style display ! But as a cheapskate engineer/ham I thought of the decimal display from the February 1968 issue of Popular Electronics - I was a subscriber then and remember this cover picture, something about the display bursting through the paper made it memorable. Probably for economy I'd skip incandescents or Neon bulbs and use LEDs for a kit.  This could be used to display lots of stuff like a clock or frequency.  I have an old HP counter around here somewhere that used this concept. I'll have to think about it, it might be fun :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I never knew about this Drake accessory for the 2B receiver:   The 2-LF allows listening to LF and broadcast AM and optionally to 160 meters on the three 10 meter band segments of the 2B. I used to have a Drake 2A but gave it away, a well made radio, not so sure about the design:  triple conversion, tubes including the pentagrid converter from the All American 5 - I always had trouble with the AGC - also had trouble adding other coverage segments (might have been bad crystals). The 2-LF seems to have been for the Drake 2B (similar but better than the 2A), not sure if they changed the calibrator socket between the 2A and 2B. The 2-LF is an interesting design, a simple one section low pass filter (which would be fine considering the up conversion to 10 meters), a diode mixer driven by a single transistor crystal oscillator. Not quite sure of the time frame, the 2-B was 1961 so I picked 1964 (60 years ago, really ?) and got an inflated price of 10x: I'm going to have to try build...

Yesterday it was 14 F at wake up and over 32 F after noon so I decided to start drilling the maple trees.  First had to find the various stuff from last season like the spiles, tubing, jugs, ropes.  Also got out the cordless drill and recharged it and found the bit. Drilled 4 trees on the north-western side of the woods, only got sap from 3 of them.  The drops of sap tasted sweet.  Checked the jugs at 5p and only got 8 oz. of sap from one tree - it may be too early - we'll see.  The sap did measure at 3.4% sugar so that wasn't bad. The weather appears to be heading into a string of sunny days above 32F and cold, clear nights below freezing which should be perfect to get the sap running. I was going to go and buy some of the Mrs. Butterworth's or Log Cabin on sale this week at Mann's but maybe I won't bother.  Hopefully I can get the pancake diet back on track with real maple syrup real soon now ! this ad is actually from the Marquette Group . here is the Ma...

This was from the same time frame as the Lionel Communications Lab mentioned here:     https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/lionel-communications-lab-mark-i.html   I was given one of these Electric Build-it Sets.  I think I still have some of the parts, especially the 4-40 round head screws and hex nuts ! I probably got as  much fun from this set as any toy I was ever given - I can't believe that there is one on Ebay that looks untouched !  As mentioned in this post: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/09/leaving-early.html The little flasher light clipped to the Chevy antenna was from this set - the toy was useful at least once !  :) Here is a nice web page on the set: https://www.samstoybox.com/toys/ElectricBuildIt.html And of course here is the semi-obligatory inflated price: Over $83 seems like a lot to me, my folks were way too generous, I'm afraid the only term that applies: spoiled child  :) Here is the set on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/126...

A really unexpected and informative video by Anton Petrov: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiGEGHDOKOo If this was a serious drama series on TV or OTR I'd term it:  "a funny one", for example: The Trouble With Tribbles on the original Star Trek series. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I was searching for a possible NPN transistor array that could be used in ham radio kits when Bing served up this site: I knew about Octopart and Findchips but had never heard of Partstack before. Not sure that these sites are all that useful, I try to avoid most of the actual distributors and usually go to both Digi-key and Mouser.  Most often I'll order from Mouser but at the very least I'll kerchunk the part into the shopping cart of both sites and leave the ordering for another day. Sometimes I'll buy on ebay but I do try to use Mouser or Digi-key for things like ICs - counterfeits are less likely from "official" authorized distributors. BTW, I'm afraid that the only transistor arrays available from Onsemi are surface mount.  The MMPQ3904 is a 16 pin SO package so not too tiny.  It only has 4 transistors though so might not be useful for SA602 replacement where 6 would be nice.  Having an array presumably results in matched transistors but one other import...

When I was a kid during the 1960s the Fox Point house we lived in had a dining/sun room which had a built-in bookcase.  In that bookcase my Dad had one book from elementary school.  I believe it was a history book but don't remember the title.  I can't find it up here, maybe it was tossed ?  Anyway the thing I remember about the book was that inside the cover someone had written: "In case of famine, eat this book, it's full of baloney!" Kids were just as goofy in the 1940s as they were in the 1960s and as they are now :) Anyway I thought of that schoolbook my Dad (he was 12 in November 1942) had when I saw this picture on Shorpy: source: https://www.shorpy.com/node/27329#comments This interesting photo was taken by Marjory Collins using what appears to be a 4x5 view or press camera on a tripod (see later blowups). If you zoom into the bike seat you can just make out the larger book title: Nations Beyond The Seas I commented on Shorpy that a postwar edition of the ...