A Crummy Commercial

Generally most paddle makers both commercial and homebrew use a big old hunk of steel as a base for their paddle.  It's heavy and cheap.  Hams have also used metal discards like the aluminum base from an iron (still not sure why I cut off the tip off the one I had, maybe it was the steam holes ?).  A straight key can be mounted on most any piece of wood, bakelite or plastic since the up/down motion tends to keep the key in place. A Nye Speed-x key mounted on a scrap of Washington Island red oak   But the side to side motion of a paddle needs something to keep it in place. With the PICPADL this generally meant that I'd hold the candy tin down with the left hand while keying with the right, this also made the capacitive sensing more reliable. screen cap from PK-4 video showing the PICPADL being held down by my left hand But K9MMS told me that Lou, K9LU (now a silent key), had customer complaints with the suction cups on the bottom of Bulldog paddles letting go. ...

 LDO (Low Drop Out) regulation has been covered a little before in previous blog posts on   Power Supplies https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/01/power-supplies.html   and   LED plus LDO regulator > see what happens https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/01/led-plus-ldo-regulator-see-what-happens.html   but I thought I'd mention two of my favorite LDO ICs:  The LM2936z-5 and the S812C50.  These are both TO-92 through-hole ICs with 5 volt outputs.  Their maximum currents are both 50 mA so they are meant for use with low power microcontroller circuits like keyers. The LM2936 is made by TI (originally from National Semi).  The S812C50 is from ABLIC which used to be known as Seiko. As mentioned before the LDO circuit will regulate very close to the input voltage, tenths of a volt while "regular" three terminal regulators like the 78L05 will regulate with input voltages 2 volts higher than the output.  Current use is also much lower than the 78L05....

 I was searching my old emails and found one from Mark Langenfeld in 2015.  Mark had kindly provided a copy of the International Crystal Model 1500 brochure which is reproduced here: Some interesting information in the brochure:  the receiver was similar to the Executive 100a with the addition of circuits (BFO, sidetone) for CW.  Also a Nuvistor grounded grid pre-amp was used at the antenna.  Finally the transmitter is run at low plate voltage of 22 volts.  It looks like quite an over-engineered rig which may be why it was so expensive. Mark also mentioned an article in the December 1961 issue of Popular Electronics magazine: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/60s/61/Pop-1961-12.pdf This was a construction article for a Part 15 project called:  "The Roof Hopper" on page 47.  A 100 mW transistor oscillator using CB crystals remotely operated with a indoor AM modulator.   Part 15 regulations called for a maximum antenna lengt...

 I used to live/work in Illinois.  My last job was in Manteno, a town about 58 highway miles south of Northlake, where I lived in Cook county.  This meant a lot of headlight driving.  I was constantly changing the headlights on the Taurus, the 9004 halogen: Driving in the metro Chicago area there was little use of the hi-beams so when I took the 9004 lamps out I kept them because one of the filaments was usually still fine.   What can be done with old 9004 headlamps ?  One thing is they make a good load for testing power supplies.  As can be seen here in my lab notebook, the 9004 provided a load of 5.2A when testing the rectifier portion of my K2 power supply:   BTW, the ARRL uses lamps as loads, although in this case Bob, WB1GCM, is testing AC genertors with 120V incandescent lamps but it's the same idea: https://youtu.be/rOH7Ze7wreQ?t=214   And here is a screen cap from another ARRL video (of the Ameritron ALS1306 Amplifier ) that shows a b...

 I'm sure everyone has heard of Old Time Radio:  Jack Benny, Fred Allen, The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet.  The internet now provides almost unlimited access to all radio shows from the "golden age" of radio, more than I'd ever have time to listen to.  They can be found on Archive.org, Youtube and dozens of other sites.  My favorite OTR show is called: Vic and Sade: Rush (Bill Idelson), Sade (Bernardine Flynn), Vic (Art Van Harvey) https://archive.org/search.php?query=vic+and+sade&and[]=mediatype%3A%22audio%22 Vic and Sade was a 15 minute show on various radio networks during the 1930s/40s.  It was the story of the Gook family in small town Illinois, father Vic, mother Sade and adopted son Rush.  Written by Paul Rhymer and produced in Chicago, Vic and Sade was sponsored for much of its run by Proctor and Gamble (Crisco was sold for roughly 4 minutes out of the 15).  So Vic and Sade was technically a "soap opera" - a continuing sto...

 I remember my Dad telling me that when they moved from Japan to the US a lot of stuff got sold.  I've heard the opinion that the country that won the Korean War was actually Japan.  Meaning that Japan was still recovering from World War II and that the injection of cash from the US Military (including buying trucks from a struggling Toyota) really made a big difference to the Japanese economy.   Whatever the reason I was stunned when he told me about a couple of items he sold, a Kodak Pony 828 camera and a shortwave receiver (I'm now assuming that it was an S-38C, he didn't say at the time).  He had bought these at the PX when he was in the Army and told me he was able to sell them for about the same price.  Post Korean War Japan was apparently flush with cash whatever the reason ! I got the Hallicrafters ad/price from the Nov. 1952 issue of the US Army Combat Forces Journal.                The Kodak Pony 828  a...

 The MR-1010 was a very cool radio for the AM band as well as LF.  It had some interesting design features with a digital frequency display, a multi-section ceramic filter, MANUAL gain control (sensitivity) with a signal strength meter.  And of course a rotating antenna for direction finding. One neat design feature is the simple/elegant way in which the rotating antenna is mounted.  A 1/4 inch phone plug (actually stereo) is mounted vertically in the plastic antenna assembly.   The corresponding phone jack is mounted on the top of the receiver itself.   The round antenna assembly is then simply plugged into the receiver and it can rotate freely 360 degrees without stops. I don't know who originated this antenna mount but it appears that all manufacturers of radio direction finder receivers used this same idea. There are some parts of the MR-1010 that aren't super great.   The frequency readout uses those high voltage discharge displays, similar t...