A Crummy Commercial

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2c9-LDP0t0 No, not some flounder, Frontier.  This ominous looking piece of mail popped up on Informed Delivery: It's the (hopefully) final insult from Frontier: Apparently for Frontier just refunding the money electronically (the way I was paying) was too easy - same for a physical checkie.  They have to provide a debit card.  I would give it away except that it literally has my name on it :( I finally flipped through enough hoops and was able to request a no-fee check for the balance: In 7 to 10 business days I should have a checkie.  I should have dumped Frontier a decade ago ! Update 7-7-2026: I received and deposited the check. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Usually I get pictures like this from the trail cam: Our old blaze eyed deer friend shows up regularly.  The cam has an audible click which might be the reason for the quizzical looks :) But this was new: That's not my fingers in the first two pictures, in the third picture it appears that there was a crow that landed on the cam briefly.  The cam takes pictures in threes, then it waits for a defined period, 30 seconds, before taking any more pictures. And then a visit from "the Phantom" with a little moon showing through the pine (upper right): Finally I also found out that in addition to a click, the cam IR LEDs glow red (dimly) at night - so that might be something to either fascinate or repel the animals. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/microsoft-adds-another-year-to-windows-10-extended-update-program/ Good news for once ?   Although I actually am typing this on a Windows 11 laptop, I do have a couple of other Windows 10 machines that I still use so this will be nice: Considering the chip shortages resulting from the AI bubble I can see why they might extend support, it's just insanely expensive to buy computer hardware.  SSD drives are twice the price they were recently. One thing: when Windows support does finally end the only nice thing is that a lot of stuff can be turned off which results in a faster bootup time IF you turn off the internet.  I have an old Windows 98 laptop that I use for printing and scanning - it never sees the internet and works just fine. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw these items listed on Ebay from my favorite purveyor of miscellaneous electronic stuff: The assortment was $26.38 with tax/postage - I saw the HD-1410 keyer (don't need another one but why not ? it has the rare AC power cord) - also an Ameco CPO (don't need that either but never had one) - finally the seller mentions that they don't know what the mini blue device (upper right) is:   I KNOW, it's a DSW transceiver from Small Wonder Labs, 1st generation, the $15 on top is not a bad price either.  Depending on which band it is, I may or may not already have one :) BTW this is the same seller I got the AADE LC meter from mentioned previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/just-because-i-could.html I suspect that I'll have to fix the DSW (and probably the keyer and CPO, too) as I did with the AADE LC meter but it'll be something to do ! update 7-7-2026:  I received the box of stuff on Monday (7-6) and will have more blog posts as I work through the stuff....

I found yet another magnifier: It's fairly large and has a second mini magnifier built in but I'm not that crazy about it - it slips.  The magnifier has a cord for around the neck, then you can look down through the magnifier at the work, the feet of the magnifier resting on your chest.  The idea is that your hands are free but really I was always repositioning it. I did also find this site: https://www.magnifier.com/ They seem to have a LOT of choices - maybe too many choices - but it's a confirmation that the need for magnification is real.   I'll keep looking. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I used to live in the Village of Fox Point near Milwaukee: they didn't have these in the 1960s they had these in the 1960s but I didn't live on Lake Drive :) But I don't think I ever actually saw a 4 legged fox in Fox Point.  Here is the story that's been told on the naming: (also, the photo source):  https://www.wuwm.com/2022-08-26/the-story-behind-fox-points-name-and-historical-street-signs Anyway, I set the trail cam out on a tripod in the back yard on Wednesday.  There was a threat of rain so in the afternoon I brought it inside.  This was a picture from around noon: I *think* that's a fox - it's not red, more red tinged ?  This one, when I've been outside and yelled, just stands there and looks at me like: "what is wrong with you?"  Now this customer, about 2 hours later at the same spot: I don't even have to yell, just show myself and any deer will be off in a flash !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

A nice, brief video of the last minute of CHU on 3330 kHz: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXPL1Jqkn4 CHU was coming in quite well for VE2ZAZ (the Canadian ham making the video).  Using the SDR waterfall display is often done for radio related videos, it does provide something in motion to look at :) Here is the wiki for CHU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHU_(radio_station) One thing that I had forgotten: CHU was AM but with the LSB suppressed as can be seen here: The stuff on the right (USB) is the time encoded digitally.  The stuff on the left (LSB) is just fainter versions of the upper side band.   I tried looking up CHU in the ARRL periodical database, only found a couple of articles: I suspect that CHU was intended mostly for eastern Canada (and the US) where the signals from WWV (and WWVB) are weak, but I imagine that inexpensive frequency standards and internet time setting have eased aside radio standards - when will WWV and WWVH join CHU in r...

I've mentioned battery level testing before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/05/low-power-battery-level-circuit.html https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/01/good-old-sears.html On a recent morning the smoke detector in the basement started beeping.  The Nimh battery was down below 7.5 volts - this corresponded to just entering the BAD region of the Sears VOM: just a picture of the VOM, no test being done So I think that's a good sign, two independent tests coming to the same conclusion, the battery is just going bad.  Although maybe it's just coincidence ?  The Craftsman 82411 VOM puts an 18 mA load on the 9V battery or about 500 ohms.  The voltage level at the top of the BAD range was measured at 6.75 volts so the droop down from 7.5 volts is from the load current across the internal resistance of the battery. There is a W1FB article on a homebrew battery tester / VOM in the December 1992 issue of Monitoring Times: for the 9V: 820 ohms versus 500 ohms (11 mA versus 18 ...

not quite Bonestell quality from the US Army I mentioned the 1961 article by Arthur C. Clarke: The Uses Of The Moon  before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/04/bonestell.html Here's the article: https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-magazine_1961-12_223_1339/page/56/mode/2up But not sure if old Art knew about Project Horizon before writing the article.  He did mention that the military uses of the Moon were probably not that worthwhile - the  Project Horizon document seems to lay out winning a competition with the Russians as the main reason: Curious Droid published this video on Project Horizon:    source:  source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4t59a3y-Ww I thought the Curious Droid video was quite interesting, however others HATED the AI usage !  Now that I look at the artwork it kinda looks a little like those Chesley Bonestell paintings from the 1950s !  So I guess I'm kinda ambivalent about the AI usage.  Curious Droid is prob...

Pupin source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUsfIW1aYM     Some internet links on Pupin and the loading coil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loading_coil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihajlo_Pupin   Michael Pupin, from Immigrant to Inventor htm:  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66886/66886-h/66886-h.htm pdf:  https://www.eserbia.org/images/books/Michael-I-Pupin-From-Immigrant-to-Inventor-1924.pdf Note that the video doesn't mention him but apparently this guy: Campbell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ashley_Campbell   had also patented the idea (at AT&T) so AT&T bought Pupin's patent to prevent any legal wrangling ?  We know that these patent and IP tussles (such as Armstrong versus RCA or Edison versus Tesla) are exhausting, expensive and time consuming. But still, I had never heard of Pupin before - and I used to work for a telephone company :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

C'mon AI, you can do better than this: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLD29BMGu48 This is what Mike Kovak would have used, even in the late 1950s early 1960s, a 4 x 5 Speed Graphic (or equivalent), here is Charles Bronson as Mike Kovac holding one: I actually have two Kodak Duaflexes (the camera in the thumbnail) around here somewhere.  One I bought, the other was a gift from a nice lady in Whitefish Bay when I was a kid.  It took decent pictures but no, it wasn't capable of newspaper quality ! Here's a nice page on the Kodak Duaflex, with this photo of Vivian Vance: The Duaflex suits Vivian Vance better than Charles Bronson source:  https://www.jeremymuddphoto.com/blog/2023/8/27/kodak-duaflex-iv The focusing was strictly by guess, the finder was only for framing the shot.  With a camera like a Rollei the photographer would compose and focus the picture using the top lens.  The Duaflex exposure could be varied but only slightly.  It used 620 ...

The black Moscow skies later resulted in oily rain I was watching Ukraine: The Latest on Youtube: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scnurany_C8 I used to listen to this podcast a lot but you know how it is, you get tired of stuff - also the original host of the show, David Knowles, died while on vacation in Gibraltar in 2024, that kinda cast a shadow over the podcast for me. Anyway, the footage of the drone attack was amazing, Little Brother has been busy.  Was this what the V-1 attacks were like on London during World War II ? The trouble with shooting drones down is that the stuff in the air still comes down to earth (the people in Honolulu found this out during the attack on Pearl Harbor): A crane tower functioned as an anti-drone fortification: The lid of this oil tank was blown off: Take that Red Baron ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

Continued from yesterday: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/06/morsemaster-ii-shaped-code.html   I did try the MorseMaster II sidetone on the solderless breadboard.  It actually works pretty well.  Here is an short pulse from the LM380 output with the RC filtering: It seems to me that I tried this circuit before but found it thumpy.  This time the thumping is minimal.  The two high pass RC pairs may account for this - I may have not used the spec'd parts before.  The only problem, noticed with headphones, is backwave.  There is a low level audio signal coming from the 555 chip which is running all the time - think of it as an on frequency QRP audio station which is key down all the time ! The backwave can be reduced by adding a series resistor to the headphones, I tried 180 ohms but more experimentation might help. Update, 2026-6-18:  I tried a 1000 ohm resistor in place of the 180 ohm, really seems to knock down the backwave, of course the  v...