A Crummy Commercial

Oh No !  What's this on the right ?: Two empty holes have appeared since yesterday: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/hp-fanciness-aka-hp-16058a.html Decided to liberate two of the pin jacks from the HP 16058a.  Here they are: And in action: Later I put some heat shrink over the positive terminal to prevent accidental contact.   BTW, I did price pin jacks (which I may still buy in the future)  they are over $1 each so my purchase of the HP 16058a in 1991 has been more than justified ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

It was a nice day today so I took a trip over to my old house to check on things, also took some junk and picked up some junk.  One thing I brought back was this test fixture: It is one of the items I purchased from GTE: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-haul.html It cost $1, I have liberated some stuff, the narrow test socket and Microswitches from inside that were used as an interlock.   Why does it have a hinged lid ?  I'll have to consult the manual: https://pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/15_Mfrs_Publications/20_HP_Agilent/HP_4145A-B_Semi_Analyzer/HP_16058A_Op-Serv.pdf (the manual doesn't say, it also doesn't say why the lid is covered inside with a soft foam) The two little jumpers are "the cutest" things probably ever sold by HP.  They have little 2 mm banana plugs on one side and pins on the other side, gold plated (of course). I wish I had more of these   A really beautiful item, I doubt it was ever used.  Not sure what I'll do with it, I hat...

I saw this project on the IEEE Spectrum site: a printer, 6 chips AND an Arduino source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/diy-one-time-pad-machine Seems like a LOT of work to generate one time pads just for fun but I like to look at projects not necessarily for only what they are but what could be taken from them to springboard into a different project.  I haven't used randomness in kits except for the code practice in the MegaPK-II and MegaPK-game keyers.  http://wb9kzy.com/mpk2.htm http://wb9kzy.com/mpk2game.htm  But those were pseudo random generators - the only virtue of them is that something like code can be re-sent at a lower speed for checking purposes.  Otherwise it can seem a little weird at times. This one time pad generator uses a diode based noise generator as a true hardware based random number generator.  As shown in the Make article, it can get to be kind of a complicated (more than one IC ;) design: https://makezine.com/projects/really-really-random-n...

Walked out to the woods today, the widow maker is still hanging there: I've mentioned it last year: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-walk-in-woods.html Even after all kinds of crazy wind those little spindly trees and branches hold it up there ! I was attracted to the woods by this to the west of my property, aka the stump dump: It sounds like a locomotive going full blast or maybe a whirlybird but nope, it's a chipper / grinder kind of a deal.  Why didn't I get closer for a better view ?  There's just enough snow on the ground so that I was a little afraid of falling or having a hard time climbing back up to my property. At least they aren't burning this year, YET !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Obviously Sears had some problems or they would still be selling stuff.  But things Sears did well included: catalogs, parts AND documentation.  I was thinking of repurposing an old meter as a battery tester to join the Sears VOM I already have.  I tried a search:  sears vom manual   and found this: https://www.manualslib.com/download/1674923/Sears-5205.html It has some interesting info including measuring inductance and capacitance that I'd not considered before.  In addition it also had the schematic which is what I wanted: AND the manual also tells what the test conditions are, nice !: After looking at the schematic the battery test setup is a load resistor in parallel with a voltmeter (voltmeter is a current meter with a calibrated direct reading scale in series with a resistor).  So it's just a matter of getting a switch/s, load resistors and calibrating the bad / good readings. Why not look at the manual for the Sears VOM you already have ?...

After thinking about this: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/nimh-battery-tester.html I had some ideas, first, why not used the Sears VOM I already have ?  One way to do that is to changed to an 8 cell AA Nimh pack (or even AAA) rather than the normal 10 cells.  The sidetone won't be as loud but I already have the tester - a tradeoff. Second, make it easier to use that Sears VOM by mounting the battery externally, example here with a 9V Nimh battery: the battery is mounted with a cable tie, this is done with some of the kit enclosures, too This could probably be done with an AA or AAA pack as well although there maybe I'd use a magnet for mounting ? I did look for the Battery Saver kit prototype but can't find it, it will join a long list of things I'm on the lookout for ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I got this today: I'll probably renew but it is tempting to just walk away :) I used to hear: "cut the guy wires and run" after every Field Day - but it was never done. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was having trouble with a timer I use while exercising, it worked but because of the noise from the Nordic Track I wasn't hearing it.  I finally realized that the battery was low.  It is powered (for no good reason other than voltage) by 10 Nimh AA cells in series.  Open circuit when just charged these will be at 14.26 volts.  This gives decent volume to the piezo sounder - even while exercising I hear the clicks.    Taking the battery holder out I noticed voltage was down below 5 volts !   But because the timer uses very little current I don't routinely check the battery - so I'm thinking I should add some kind of battery test circuit to the timer.  I could probably do this with the timer PIC itself but I've already used all the pins. I do have the DC Beeper kit: http://www.wb9kzy.com/dcbeeper.htm so I could use that although it doesn't load the battery.  Also I can't find the prototype !  I'd hate to build a kit from stock ! I d...

This video popped up on my Youtube feed: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5PnA8AsVTM I have been to American Science and Surplus' far western suburbs of Chicago store.  For some reason I remember the name Jerryco.  I bought a bag of resistors there: this stuff is so old the rubber bands have dried out and gotten stuck, yuck I went with Mike, KB9SXW, who lived out west of the Fox river - unfortunately he is now a silent key. But it is cool that they have a store in the Milwaukee area - if I ever get back that way I will try to check them out.  Probably buy another batch of stuff that will sit mostly unused for decades :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I remember the Sears specialty catalogs, the farm and ranch one had bees for sale: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/02/receiving-parcels-by-mail.html But I was unaware that Sears had a radio catalog aimed at hams: https://archive.org/details/sears-roebuck-1940-radio-amateur-test-equipment-sound-systems-catalog There is only this single catalog on Archive so don't know if it continued after the war.  I do remember that Sears sold Yaesu receivers with the Sears name (much like Heathkit sold Yaesu rigs with the Heath name) but a whole catalog of ham stuff is amazing.  The wooden tower and wooden beam on the cover are just so cool - I've got plenty of wood on the property, it could happen here !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I tried building the oscillator from this previously mentioned W6IOJ article in QEX: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/low-if.html One idea that occurred to me was to add the stabilization diodes that I've seen in other Wien Bridge oscillators.   This seems to help keep the output stable as far as staying a sine wave versus becoming a clipped sine wave.   no diodes can result in clipping after a while adding the diodes results in a cleaner waveform although smaller Of course this does cut the amplitude down somewhat but perhaps more circuit tweaking is required.  I didn't have any LF353 dual op amps so used a low power TL062 dual op amp instead.  Possibly other op amps like the NE5532 might be better.  I did use the plus and minus 5 volt supplies which minimizes the need for coupling caps. Now on to the other parts of the circuit. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Looking at an old catalog I found some speakers that I bought in the 1973 time frame.  They were from Burstein-Applebee, a mail order electronics store in Kansas City.  Here is the catalog blurb from the 1973 BA catalog (thanks to Worldradiohistory.com yet again): Here is a link to the catalog (see page 265) : https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/Consumer/Burstein-Applebee-1973.pdf Here are the speakers today: I noticed that the left tweeter has a rip / dent on the cone, rats - probably not going to be able to find a replacement :) Here is the semi-obligatory inflated price: Yikes !  Considering that I bought two that inflates to over $110 today !  I only made $1.65 an hour that summer.  That inflates to: So roughly 10 hours of work just to buy them - I musta been crazy to spend that much !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was looking for the title of a book I remember (still haven't found it) when I came across this page: https://www.fadedpage.com/ Another page of books that are in the public domain in Canada.  I had known about: http://gutenberg.ca/index.html but this was new to me.  For example they had a separate page for Jim Kjelgaard: Jim Kjelgaard https://www.fadedpage.com/sc/kjelgaard.php Kjelgaard was one of my favorite authors while attending Maple Dale school in the 1960s. I'll keep looking for that book (actually there are two, one I read during grade school and another from more recently).  But faded page was a pleasant diversion for a Sunday afternoon. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I've mentioned the Pitch Shifter design by PA0RDT before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/02/single-pot-wien-bridge-audio-oscillator.html https://www.qsl.net/ko6bb/files/pitchshifter.pdf Then I noticed the neat single pot Wien Bridge audio oscillator.  But I ran across this article again tonight and realized that the pitch changer concept is very similar to the Low IF mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/low-if.html Why not use (as PA0RDT did in the Pitch Shifter) an active mixer to work as our low IF mixer ?   just replace the buffer and passive low pass filter with the active filter from the W6IOJ PSK circuit   This would eliminate those two wacky audio transformers as well as the loss through the diode mixer (40 dB ?). I just happen to have a bunch of SA602 chips (equivalent to the SA612, NE612 and NE602) - this may make it even easier to try the low IF idea. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw this Youtube thumbnail and was "forced" to click because I had to know what the target was in Northeast Wisconsin / Upper Michigan: the orange blast above the E in NUKE and the T in TARGET was the one So I sat through 18+ minutes of somewhat lame content and of course it was never revealed what that orange fireball was targeting. I am such an idiot - of course they don't know how to pronounce: Minot - AI don't care, folks, can't get AI to care :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm