A Crummy Commercial

When I see this: The trail cam gets shut off and brought inside, so no trail cam pictures from last night. While listening to the Brewers Mets game the phone woke itself up and had an ominous tornado warning message.  Unfortunately I didn't save a screen shot but it got me all rattled.  Here's the gist of it: Not sure where it was actually, probably over the lake. there's a red box on the southern part of the island, is that where it was ? One thing I did notice again, Starlink is like our old dog, Buddy.  When there was a bad storm Bud would go downstairs and lay in his crate.  When Starlink encounters heavy rain it doesn't work.  I got a red LED on the router (it didn't photograph red for some reason or I'd include a picture). So anyway, I wasn't always online during the storm.  There was a little hail and then heavy rain along with the usual winds.  But I didn't hear "the train" so no tornado around me. Eventually after the Brewer game the p...

The trail cam captured a non-deer picture Friday morning: It's EASY to understand that birds are descended from dinosaurs once you hear a Sandhill crane calling - LOUD ! On the way to the store on Friday I saw one of the new poles, this one at Airport and Jackson Harbor roads: This pole was part of the reason for the 8 hour power outage on Wednesday, mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/05/wiec-strikes.html Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I just had to post this picture of Charles P. Steinmetz in his 1914 Detroit Electric car: Outside the car are Marjorie, William, Joseph Jr. and Joseph Hayden Sr. - they were Steinmetz's adoptive family.  Maybe Mom Hayden took the picture ?  :)  That car had a tiller and could be driven from the back seat.  It didn't go that fast or far but Schenectady wasn't that big a town then. Here are a few articles on the car, Steinmetz and GE: https://spectrum.ieee.org/charles-proteus-steinmetz   The original Steinmetz car was found and restored:  https://www.union.edu/news/stories/201404/Shifting-gears-A-new-home-for-Steinmetz-car A Steinmetz bio:  https://archive.org/details/steinmetzenginee00klin   The General Electric book,  Men and Volts : https://archive.org/details/menvoltsstoryofg0000john Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw this part mentioned on the GQRP email list (I gotta renew my membership one of these days !): Had never heard of it before, apparently it is quiet enough for radio use.  Not super cheap but reasonable: And it should also plug in for a 78L05 (ground in the middle pinout not necessarily space wise) but not sure on how the Recom compares as far as power goes.  While it only has a 500 mA rating the 7805 needs a big heatsink to handle a full 1 A current, over 7 watts.  This might be a candidate for an emergency USB charger from a 12V source: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/05/charge.html The 9 volt version also looks interesting for use with transistor radios during a power outage.  No power event today but the internet was out for almost 1/2 hour - as long as the temperature stays below freezing the power should be relatively secure - it's that ice on the trees plus wind that causes problems.  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I took a few quick snaps before sun down on Wednesday and also this morning.  It had been light snow and cloudy most of the day but then got sun late afternoon.    But I think we had only a micro ice storm so no major power outage (to my knowledge) on the island.  When the sun comes out it can be pretty.  But not really since there was a biting wind - it is still winter here - all that bare brown under the melted snow had me thinking of putting up antennas on Monday but by Wednesday all had changed. I bought a penlight which I keep with me (nothing worse than getting caught in "certain rooms" when the power goes out) and I've got all my various batteries charged but hopefully I won't need them. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I have a Thomas Nelson KJV Bible from the 20th century.  It was furnished through the courtesy of the Not Ashamed Ministries, Lawrenceville GA, director: Lloyd Ferguson.  Incidentally, I happened to hear about the free Bible offer from a SW broadcast of Not Ashamed Ministries, shortwave used to be useful :) As can be seen the words in red are those of Jesus. On a completely different subject: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-strange-case-of-peekaboo-power-bill.html I was thinking about the billing date and finally dug out the latest bill and saw this: This would have been more helpful BEFORE they started ! I'm afraid I usually just ignore the words in red on the power bill.  Maybe my customers do the same with my website and documentation ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

Roughly 9 years ago it was easy to pay the Washington Island Electric Cooperative.  On the 20th of the month: go outside, read the meter and then calculate your bill using the supplied form and then send it in. Then the Co-op installed these plastic power meters: http://wb9kzy.com/power.htm Here is a Youtube video: source:  https://youtu.be/PkVXOwrIVD8 The co-op eventually went to automated billing.  But this month one of the gears in the billing machine must have been broken because here is the first sighting of the bill this morning on USPS Informed Delivery: sent 1-29-2026, it won't arrive until 2-3-2026 at the earliest Yes, they do have a website but nothing updated as of this morning since the bill due on 1/1/2026. Both the USPS and the Co-op had working systems in the olden days.  Now the USPS sends local mail down 180 miles to Milwaukee and back and the Co-op waits until the next month before delivering the bill.  Is this yet another clue to the way thing...

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    

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...

I saw this on the IEEE Spectrum site: https://spectrum.ieee.org/electric-delivery-vehicles-amazon-also Maybe it's just the old guy in me but this sounds like a pretty cool idea.  Nothing is said about consumer sales so to me that means $$$.   One interesting detail is the tires / wheels.  The steel (I assume) wheel has a lot going for it compared to normal spoked bicycle wheels.  The lack of spokes means almost indescructable wheels.  Broke spokes are the bane of my bicycle existance.  A solid wheel would also be more efficient in applying power than stretchy-bendy spokes.   Also those tires look to be automotive, maybe tubeless ?  Automotive tires can last and last compared to ratty old bicycle tires.  The downside of that wheel / tire combo is the weight added.  I imagine that wind loading on that van version would be minimal in an urban setting. It sounds like Amazon isn't counting on drones for all of their future delivery ...

One thing that happened during the recent 2 day power outage: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/03/we-are-back.html was that my portable devices like the tablet and mp3 player (aka cell phone) were getting low on charge.  I have a couple of 12 V lead-acid low self-discharge batteries on hand so I thought: "maybe a simple 5 volt regulator hooked to a USB cable ?"  But all I had on hand was a 1 amp 7805 regulator - with a thirsty USB item like a cell phone or tablet the 7805 regulator will put out 1 amp of charging current which is great but without a good heat sink it will rapidly get screaming hot because it will be dissipating roughly 7.5 watts (12.6 volts - 5 volt regulated output) * 1 amp = 7.6 watts).  In addition, the regulation may not be too good with the high die temperature.  So one way around this would be to add some external series resistance (maybe a car headlamp?) but it wouldn't be efficient. So that's the need: some kind of step down switching regulato...

I rode over to vote this afternoon and then went to Mann's Store - lots of damage evident - didn't take any pictures.  Along the southern part of Airport road the power wires and fiber cables were really close to the ground, power poles had been snapped.  Not sure when the power will be restored fully.  I can hear a generator going in the vicinity so even just across Jackson Harbor road the power seems to still be out.  I suppose it depends on which of the three phases is used at your house. Birches and evergreens seem to have the worst of it.  The ice is kinda pretty in the sun - however these photos are kind of dreary in the overcast: the ice was really thick the 30M inverted vee in the front a little pine bent over in a U to the ground the ice attacks the crowns of the trees a little closer to the pine bent in a U birches don't just bend, they also break ice on the hedge I will restart the maple syrup boils tonight.  Only did a little sap collecting toda...

Power went out again on Washington Island on March 29, 2025 (Saturday) at 5:44p.   Power returned this Monday evening sometime before 8:15p (I was sleeping), March 31, 2025 - it is so nice to be back "in the cultured life" as my Mom used to say. More tomorrow.  Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

It's almost spring. The power went out about 9:55p on Wednesday March 19, 2025.  It stayed off until sometime before 9:10a on Thursday.  There was a storm with heavy wet snow and wind which is never a good combo for trees, especially evergreens. normally the top two wires would be warm enough to shed the snow, the bottom wire is the fiber for internet So the first major outage of 2025, there was another on March 5th but that only lasted a couple of hours. This time other areas of the island weren't affected. Instead of suffering without a hot beverage this morning I remembered that stash of MRE meal warmers.  They can also be used for heating liquids.  They are similar to those hand warmers based on powdered iron and some other chemicals only the MRE heaters have been supercharged ? I dug one out by flashlight and tried it, results were very disappointing.  There are multiple warnings in the directions that the heater becomes very hot but nope - it wouldn't even...

I saw this article on the IEEE site: https://spectrum.ieee.org/space-based-solar-power-2668422542 There are always complaints that when the sea is calm, the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow there is no natural power - that was at least part of the rationale for orbiting satellites that could turn solar energy into microwaves around the clock and beam it to earth.  I remember that Dr. Ishii at Marquette was studying satellite solar power way back in the 20th century.  But the IEEE article points out that Isaac Asimov had incorporated the idea into one of his robot stories from 1941: source:  https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v27n02_1941-04_dtsg0318 Very cool, although satellite solar power is just a background item for this story of a robot prototype gone bad.  And it also reminded me of that magical year of Astounding SF for 1941.  In this issue there were stories from L. Sprague De Camp, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon and A.E. Van Vogt, quite a ...

 On Tuesday the power went out about 5:03 PM.  It went back on briefly at about 5:20 PM.  And then stayed off until Thursday at 5:25 PM.   There was an unusual spring blizzard which must have weighed down tree branches at multiple places and caused the outage. Yikes !  2 days without power !  This is the longest outage I can remember.  I know that last night about 11:30 PM the power came back some places but not here. I usually just take electric power for granted but boy it is so good to have it back on again.  I was wearing my winter coat, hat and mittens inside the house but still my feet were COLD ! A fellow with the Fire Department did a welfare check on me before noon today.  He told me the town had opened up the community center for warming, recharging devices and internet which might have been tempting if this went on !  Even showers were available at the Rec center. I was never a Boy Scout, only a Cub so I guess "Be Prepare...

Not plural, not the cartoon show, just Simpson - the meter company - the (at least partially) Wisconsin meter company. I remember buying an HP Model 500b, a tube based frequency meter, at a hamfest in Illinois.  I eventually gutted it and was going to use it as the chassis for a bunch of  QRP accessories.  I never got farther than adding a three terminal regulator for a 12 volt supply using the filament windings of the transformer used in the 500b. This was in the mid to late 1980s and I also remember talking to one of the techs at work (GTE in Northlake, Illinois) who was leaving for a job with a UPS company in Wisconsin.  I happened to mention that Simpson also made meters (or at least had at one time) in Wisconsin.  The next day I brought in this meter to work to show him. The front just looks like a meter, no mention of Simpson: But the back says Simpson, made in USA and also has a couple of Wisconsin map stamps !  :)  That's how I knew: Here's the...