A Crummy Commercial

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...

. This free ebook from the IEEE mentions the recipients of the IEEE medal of honor over more than 100 year history of the medal.  Starting with Edwin Armstrong it also includes the rascal, Lee de Forest.  Many names familiar to hams also appear including: Marconi, Alexanderson (the SAQ alternator guy), Harold Beverage, Pierce, Hartley (but not Colpitts) and Terman. https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-medal-of-honor-ebook book link: https://www.ieee.org/ns/periodicals/IEEEMedalofHonor/eBook/index.html?utm_source=dhtml_text&utm_medium=hp&utm_campaign=medal-of-honor-ebook# Some familiar names aren't present such as Tesla, Steinmetz or Yagi - I guess that everyone can't get a dinner: https://nostalgicitalian.com/2018/02/05/never-got-a-dinner/ Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I remember reading W1FB's review of the Yaesu FT-301d radio in the October 1977 issue of QST.  Particularly this: I also remember Professor Gustav Staats at UWM telling us:  "keep your voltage to frequency ratio constant".  In other words when in Barbados or Japan or other places with 50 Hz AC power you want a nominal 100 volts input to a transformer rather than the 117 or now 120 volts here in the US.  OR if you don't, be prepared for major problems !  Honestly I don't remember the exact reasons why but that phrase has stuck with me over all these years.  But I know that it is related to the observation that the higher the frequency, the less mass is required in a transformer.  Witness the use of 400 Hz to power WWII era surplus aviation radio gear.  Anyway W1FB didn't mention the AC voltage in Barbados but I suspect it was higher than 100 volts. This isn't a problem with switching supplies since step 1 in any switcher is to rectify the AC. ...

I've mentioned Charles Proteus Steinmetz before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/biographies.html and https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/famous-people-meeting-or-not-plus-ultra.html Steinmetz is not as famous as Tesla (BTW there was an electric vehicle company named after him about 100 years ago - it didn't do well) but Steinmetz may have been as important due to his ability to understand, explain and essentially "make things work", most important among those things was AC machinery.  Tesla may have been able to intuitively dream these concepts up but without those like Steinmetz to engineer the AC machines and systems Tesla's ideas would never have become real. Anyway I recently came across this concise article on Steinmetz from the  Nuts and Volts website: https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/steinmetz_father_of_elec_engineering One of the reader comments at the end of that Nuts and Volts article mentions this book: https://archive.org/details/B-001...

 I woke on March 23, 2022 to the sound of my water distiller turning off, about 5:31am (it has a loud fan that takes a while to wind down).  After a second I realized that the power had probably gone out and it had.  It stayed off until about 7:55am.  Since then we've had a couple of blips but otherwise OK. The outages were undoubtedly due to the weather, temp was about 33 but it must have been a little colder as there was ice on the trees and when that happens branches and trees fall messing up the power. The only benefit of our RF noisy power meters noisy power meter in a different season   (see the Youtube videos:  http://wb9kzy.com/power.htm ) is that they "talk" to the co-op and when they stop "talking" the co-op knows that there's trouble and roughly where it is. To the north I could see that the lights were on so the power line fault must have been on the phase that serves this side of the road.  And about 6:47a I heard a few "dings" on the...