A Crummy Commercial

Continuing to think on that NOVA program: Superfloods mentioned yesterday: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/superfloods-video.html I took a look at Midland's weather radio offerings (because there are 9 zillion weather radios out there and Midland is a brand I remember).  The ER10 was the cheapest at $25: https://midlandusa.com/collections/on-the-go-emergency-preparedness/products/er10vp-eready-compact-emergency-alert-am-fm-weather-radio It has a digital display, AM/FM bands, a flashlight as well as the weather radio itself with the alert feature.  It would be hard to beat at this price.  I may get one on Ebay or possibly they have them on the island. I also looked at used radios, the Radio Shack weather cube is in abundance on Ebay.  It's more what I was thinking for a kit as far as a circuitry, using the now defunct MC3357 FM chip, varactor tuning and LM386 audio. The semi-obligatory inflated price (from the 1973 Radio Shack catalog): Yikes !  Certainly t...

NOVA had an interesting show on Wednesday night, it's on Youtube here: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHvkp_Quaiw The weirdest part was seeing a building swept along on the current and get cut in two by a power pole, amazing: Going ! . Going ! . GONE ! At the end they mentioned that cell phone warnings weren't always working so another method is to use the NOAA weather radio alerts.  They didn't mention regular broadcast radio. I have heard the local NOAA station in Sturgeon Bay but don't have a weatherradio as such.  I have a GE scanner which could hear weather radio (and a few Chicago area repeaters, too): https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/general_el_searcher_7_2995a.html A unique design, it didn't use crystals or a synth, it had a VCO controlled by multi-turn pots, the meter functioned as a tuning dial. But I was thinking: maybe a home built weather radio might make a good project ?  Or possibly a modified FM radio (which the GE Searcher kinda was) ?  ...

Since Halloween is approaching I dug out another one of the items from the 2nd Ebay junk purchase: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/just-because-i-could.html It is the aptly named Spooky 2 signal generator.  I had my suspicions as soon as I saw the words, Colloidal Silver: This brings back thoughts of weird stuff like 73 Magazine & W2NSD, people with gray skin, Art Bell - you get the idea.  This was reinforced by looking at the manual: https://www.spooky2.com/resources/Spooky2_Users_Guide_20250124.pdf Also there is this accessory: There is a strong disc magnet under that soft black plastic, magnets + colloidal silver + signal generator = high weirdness !  :) The Spooky 2 itself is nicely made with a clear sharp display and an extruded aluminum case.  It uses roughly 400 mA at 5 volts so not a micropower unit.   I did try it out, the TTL output seemed OK: Also output 2 seemed OK: But output 1 was a flat line: I took off the case but didn't see anything obv...

I've mentioned the LTC1799 before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/09/ltc1799-rc-oscillator-chip.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/looking-at-pictures-of-new-junk.html Note that the LTC1799 is used by our fellow travelers, the electronic musicians: https://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/tutorials/LTCinstallation1.html I got out the DATAK kit from the second purchase of junk on Ebay, it seems complete and unbuilt (although the SMT chips are already soldered): board top board bottom with installed ICs But no instructions were included.  I searched on the web but found nothing.  Finally I emailed DATAK and got this quick response: Interesting but no help.  I'll just put it back in the junk box for now. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I love this picture: Oceanside CA really is by the ocean ! Here is a Korean page with that same Swan picture: https://m.cafe.daum.net/7038oldtimers/YIWL/301 Here is the Google Translate version https://m-cafe-daum-net.translate.goog/7038oldtimers/YIWL/301?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp I had heard of Herb Johnson but never knew he was from Sweden or that Swan is the Americanized version of Sven, his father's hometown in Sweden.  However wasn't able to confirm this on Google Maps. This page says something slightly different (Herb's Dad was named Sven): https://www.qsl.net/on6ab/History.html Noticing the 600 series receiver/transmitter pair, this must be from an ad in the early 1970s (600R introduced about 1971). BTW, while looking for Swan ads in QST (I didn't find one with this picture) I stumbled on this on WorldRadioHistory: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-DX/QST/60s/   The link says 60s but also includes many issues from...

June Lockhart at 22 in 1947 I saw that June Lockhart has died - 100 is quite an age to attain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Lockhart Of course I did watch Lost in Space - for some reason I don't remember watching Star Trek until reruns, WTMJ, the NBC station in Milwaukee would often replace network shows with their own local offerings (for example The Monkees were pre-empted).  Anyway, what I also remembered about June Lockhart was that she was on  Lassie . One episode in particular was titled: Visiting Colt - here is a somewhat mangled version without the ending: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu5AA_9XTtw I remembered the episode as one where Timmy's Dad boards an expensive horse but then the silly thing breaks a leg.  Instead of shooting the horse he rigs up a sling to try and let the leg heal - he's worried about the money and what the owner will say / do more than about the horse itself.  In other words Timmy's Dad was sorta the bad guy. But I ...

More and more there seems to be VPN hate on the internet.  For example from Microsoft Rewards: . that last bullet: in other words, a VPN, right ? And from Major League Baseball: I also started getting this message when trying to access the Internet Archive wayback: I tried a different computer using a different VPN server, same thing.  Then I disconnected the VPN and was able to get into the wayback.  So Internet Archive joins all those other sites in discriminating against VPNs ? The weird thing is that Archive.org comes up just fine with the same VPN: Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I restarted with Bing again after they stopped time limiting searches, see: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/bing-abides.html It's an up and down thing.  But today they had a task (for points, always for points) to use their AI image creator:  https://www.bing.com/images/create     It was supposed to be a Halloween themed picture but I changed it - here is my prompt and result: and those QSL cards !  what a hoot ! This is a tough kid, he solders with TWO irons at a time !  And that radio, not sure if that is a meter on the front or a tuning dial or possibly a combo of both ? I imagine that more time invested in crafting a prompt would result in a better image, probably the same is true of computer code or whatever. And it will never beat the illustrations in the Alfred P. Morgan books like The Boys' First Book of Radio and Electronics : Walt Reed may have worked from photographs ? I believe those were Morgan's sons pictured (there are photos in some of t...

I asked Bing and Google: in the nfl is it possible to  kick a field goal on the kickoff ? Google said: Bing replied (a little more emphatically): So basically asking AI is like flipping a coin or asking a friend ?  Would you trust AI to generate code for something important ?  Would you invest driving control or weapon control to AI ? I wouldn't, not yet anyway. BTW, intuitively the answer is no because otherwise with kickers today the whole game could be (especially with indoor or sunbelt stadiums) just a series of field goals - no one is excited to see that alone without the rest of the game. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

At first I saw this circuit from a Youtube video: and thought: "that's interesting, I should try it" source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw6L5w4TDxw But then after doing a blog search (which is handy) I found this: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/07/led-flasher-circuit-from-sprat-199.html BLINKIN' ECK (from SPRAT 199 & 201) is basically the same circuit except the 330 ohm resistor has been "Muntzed"  see:  https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/boards/article/21771148/whats-all-this-muntzing-stuff-anyhow I also saw a different LED flasher circuit using a MOSFET and two LEDs with one resistor: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc6aLoFsQkg but really it's kind of a cheat because one of the LEDs is a blinking LED by itself, so if the idea is to blink an LED just go with the blinking LED and a resistor, why add another LED and a transistor ? So I didn't bother to build either of the Youtube circuits, better to stick with SPRAT :) ...

More data on a Sony IR remote control, this one is RM-SGP5 for the EP313 stereo: The codes are similar to the previous Sony remote measured: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/sony-tv-remote-codes.html except that in addition to 12 bits, some of the buttons use 15 bit while others are 20 bits: Power button, 12 bits Treble + button  15 bits repeat  button 20 bits   Also noticed that if the remote is positioned too close to the IR decoder the first long sync pulse will be shortened.  I don't plan to try to decode this remote rather the idea will be to create a duplicate remote but only with a few buttons used the most like: power, volume up and down, tuner select and CD or Tape.  And of course it would have some kind of timed mute. Here are the codes: button        binary                    hex ------        ------                ...