A Crummy Commercial

 Two items: The Battery Saver kit has been discontinued: FYI purple soldermask indicates a Made-in-USA board http://wb9kzy.com/batsave.htm Reason: not that much interest. Second item: Postage/handling increased to $6 flat rate per order. Bummer that the only recent kit news is bad :( Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

During the power outage yesterday I got out the Baofeng UV-5RE and noticed that I hadn't charged it probably since the last power outage :(  I got the two nearby National Weather Service stations: 162.425 in Sister Bay WI: https://www.weather.gov/nwr/sites?site=WXN69 and 162.5 in Escanaba MI:  https://www.weather.gov/nwr/sites?site=KZZ35 I had Escanaba on the lower VFO (down arrow).  Then I tried pressing the orange call button for FM broadcast but no dice.  Not a huge problem since I do have a number of FM radios but it's handy to be able to check the radio in hand at the time.   But later after consulting the internet search (including reddit in a search still seems to help) it just says press the orange button and you get FM.  I also did a reset which changes the voice prompts to Chinese AND resets the bottom VFO to UHF. powerup after reset with lower VFO set to UHF but upper VFO selected (up arrow)   I finally figured out that the bottom VFO H...

The power went off sometime during the night - there was a lot of rain on Sunday followed by snow.  Luckily no ice storm this time, just a blizzard. The power came back on about 12:05p on Monday, right after I said out loud: "come on you guys" - a phrase Dad Olson used to employ :) I thought I'd do a quick blog in case the power goes out again.  I should also work on some list of storm prep stuff like recharging batteries, buying batteries, Sterno (or equivalent) and so on.  And it's time to get outside and start clearing snow, still windy here but the temps are supposed to plummet   It's just so nice to have toasty feet again !   Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm    

Mentioned a work related story about Summertime in the blog yesterday.     This one ?:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onTWpZalc7c No, no, not Summerland (although that's a wonderful composition and rendition), I want SUMMERTIME ! How about this ?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK_z73tVbgU NO, That's Summertime, Summertime https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BE55yOQ_2to Yeah, that's the one ! The way Dizzy is looking at Ella is amazing - a decisive moment kind of like the pictures Cartier-Bresson or Gary Winogrand took - this picture was by William Gottlieb  https://www.newsweek.com/30-stunning-photos-golden-age-jazz-1582109 I *think* it was the first holiday season I worked at GTE (1977).  I went to the lunchroom as usual but in addition to the usual fare we were all treated to a mini-concert.  GTE in Northlake IL had clubs, all kinds of them - even photography and ham radio as I recall.  But they also had a music club of some kind because...

Man, those things are called coffin nails for a reason ! One other thing missing from the last coupla blogs was this online archive of Willis Conover tapes: https://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/MLCC/browse/?fq=dc_type%3Asound A search on "VOA" didn't yield much though.  Needed to search on " Music USA " (the formal name of the VOA show) to find quite a few hours that were on the VOA.  For example several songs and a brief interview with "the divine one", Sarah Vaughan: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc770492/m1/#track/10 I've never heard Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald perform selections from Porgy and Bess , amazing !: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc800482/m1/#track/4 (BTW someday I'll have to post my story about listening to the song: Summertime  at GTE) Conover also wrote and acted in an Old Time Radio show: Hazel and Harold .  There are six episodes from 1946 here: https://digital.library...

One thing missing from the blog post yesterday was the radio price.  This was the latest Allied ad I saw for the S-120, on sale March 31, 1966: Inflated:    I can't really remember when I got that radio, certainly had it in 8th grade (1968-69) but did I have it in 1966 ?  I don't think so.  So possibly it was an advertised special from the local Allied store after that ?  The S-120 doesn't show in the 1967 or later Allied main catalogs.  I believe I may have QSL cards that might indicate when I started listening. One other radio in that same 1966 Allied sale catalog was the Knight-kit Star Roamer: That might have been a less expensive alternative.  5 bands versus 4 on the S-120, a signal meter - no BFO but I have read elsewhere that it could pick up Morse code and SSB.  A couple more advantages are that a safer transformer power supply is used (rather than the transformerless "hot" chassis of the S-120) with an actual fuse (rather than a ther...

I thought of this record recently: Here is the album on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nHqkXrnPs7k_Vd2dNwa78EZ3KE02orHpQ I never owned a copy but I did know about it.  (I do have a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band greatest hits CD somewhere though).  I became aware of this particular album and remember it because of this: the S-120 had really nice audio in my opinion (we won't talk about selectivity or sensitivity or dial calibration or precision though) Yes, I have a Hallicrafters S-120 and in addition to trying to listen to hams, I also used it to listen to AM broadcast radio AND especially to shortwave radio.  I listened to Radio Havana, Radio RSA (South Africa), the BBC, Radio Austalia and also to the Voice of America.  All of those stations share one characteristic, a good loud signal to the middle west of the USA at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s.  With an S-120 a good strong signal was needed due to the inadequacies of the radio, it w...

There are batteries and pumped hydro for storing excess green energy - even that wacky idea of raising and lowering weights (gravity battery): But this is a really interesting idea: Sardinia - doesn't seem real https://spectrum.ieee.org/co2-battery-energy-storage They use a big bubble to store carbon dioxide gas.  When the sun is out or the wind is blowing they pump the gas out, compress it to a liquid and store it in tanks.  Then at night or during calm periods they release the compressed CO2 through a turbine to generate electricity, the uncompressed CO2 from the turbine output is stored in the bubble.   This seems like a much easier concept (and more scalable) than gravity batteries: https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/how-these-24-ton-bricks-could-fix-a-huge-renewable-energy-problem/ All that concrete and steel and mechanical pulleys/motors and generators make the gravity battery really complicated (something like 625 cement blocks - what does it sound...

Johnnie, Kitty Wells and Jack, source: By WSM/Grand Ole Opry - eBay itemcoverpage 1page 2page 3page 4page 5page 6, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22346502 I don't know how I found this song, Lonely Island Pearl .  Maybe I was searching on something island related ?  But whenever I play it the refrain just keeps running through my brain ! source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOqT0d74QTU Mel Tillis was the songwriter of Lonely Island Pearl (his manager is also credited?).  Per the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_%26_Jack Jack died in 1963 in a car accident.  There is a good synopsis of the Johnnie and Jack act here: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnnie-jack-mn0000235537#biography If you've ever seen the Kubrick movie: Full Metal Jacket you've heard Johnnie Wright with his wife, Kitty Wells: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNHOFyIaGD8 I'm not really much for Country and Western music (I've got the ...

This discrete transistor audio amp is from the 2nd volume of Short Circuits , project 9, page 64:   The Short Circuits books were mentioned before:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/12/short-circuits.html Volume 2 pdf:  https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7eae2e8ef79b5522/bltd61d4842c9bc12a7/BJ8504-ShortCircuits-2-310316.pdf?branch=prod This project caught my eye as a potential LM386 killer:   It's shown operating from a 9V battery the board is nice but not not required    Presumably this means that the standby current is low although it's not mentioned - the LM386 is spec'd at 8 mA @ 6 volt supply, 4 mA typical.  The builder just adjusts a bias pot by ear to reduce distortion.  The voltage gain is quoted as 32 which is a little higher than an unboosted LM386 (gain of 20) which with the feedback bypass can deliver a gain of 200. more complicated than an LM386 circuit but not that bad A heatsink is recommended for running at 12 volts, it a...

I saw a picture of a 1950s station on Faze that had a Hammarlund receiver similar to this: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/136778372006 and a Johnson Viking transmitter similar to this: 11 meters ? source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/297845200608 And I thought of this: Jack Sprat could eat no fat,  his wife could eat no lean;  and so between the two of them,  they licked the platter clean Isn't it strange that some of the radio companies were kinda like that?  Hammarlund made receivers almost exclusively.  EF Johnson made transmitters almost exclusively.  Certainly Collins, Hallicrafters and the rest felt free to sell both receivers and transmitters. I wonder why at least those two decided to "Jack Sprat" it ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

With the second game today (Saturday December 20, 2025) I just had to feature this: https://twitter.com/glennfischbach/status/2001109901649584352 In case the tune isn't familiar there are lyrics: https://genius.com/Happy-schnapps-combo-the-bears-still-suck-lyrics Many vocal versions can be found on Youtube and other sites.  And there is apparel which voices the sentiment: source:  https://cheesehead-tv-shop.fourthwall.com/collections/all/1 Not a classy tune even when given the classical treatment but polkas are always fun ! And I didn't know this term before so following the Packers IS educational: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuse-bouche Also there is this somewhat more sedate song: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1g_b-5RWA This lecture by Mike Leckrone, the former leader of the UW Madison marching band, had a Packers-Bears story in it at about 14:25 .source:  https://youtu.be/ai_iKr9RMO8?t=863    Donna Shalala wiki (the Bears aren't mentioned...

I remembered that my 8th grade English teacher, Miss McGrath, would read aloud to us from the book: H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N .  So I did a little searching and found out that Leo Rosten (pen name: Leonard Q. Ross) started publishing the Kaplan stories in the New Yorker Magazine. I fired up my copy of The Complete New Yorker and quickly found the Rosten stories:    In a way they are perfect as separate short stories since the 1930s were a different time with plenty of unfortunate stereotypes and language usage.  So a little taste goes a long way. But I also saw this ad (the New Yorker used to be able to sell a LOT more ads than they do today): Interesting in that this was a compact set made to run from 6 volts and probably included either an RF stage or an extra IF amp to boost the gain.  Plugging the price into the inflation calculator: Wow, that is a LOT of money today and considering that the Depression was still an ongoing thing, yikes, I wonder how it sold ?...

This seems interesting: source:  https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-salt-spoon-and-cup But the price: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/306611168384 The only electric spoon I own: slide the black switch and press the red button and a red LED would light up the clear spoon has lost the ability to light up :(  It was a Kellogg's premium.  I never figured out how to get at the battery. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Saw this: Immediately wondered about the semi-obligatory inflated price: And because it is almost 2026, I am thinking of raising my postage charge on kit orders to $6 per order from the present $5, as someone would have said in the 1960s: "rats" Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm