A Crummy Commercial

I was fiddling with an old prototype project which used the Morse Watch/Timer PIC chip. photo from discontinued kit: http://wb9kzy.com/morwatch.htm But it didn't work, I was trying to do a sleep timer which wouldn't turn off as it should after 10 minutes. I finally realized that I was being misled by the dual clock oscillators in the PIC chip.  The internal 4 MHz RC oscillator worked fine with menus and selecting/starting the timer delay.  But the 32,768 Hz crystal oscillator wasn't running which was needed for the actual timing. Oh no, a bad 32,768 Hz crystal ?  I tried grounding the crystal case, no help.  Then I tried probing the crystal oscillator pins and voila, it started to work.   The magic of scope probe capacitance had saved the day.  When the probe was attached the additional capacitance added to the 10 pF to ground cap started the oscillator.  So I snipped out the 10 pF cap and soldered in a 22 pF cap. It seems to work.  In the actual ...

Per Churchy: No, no: Friday the 13th is on Sat-a-day this month ! source: https://archive.org/details/WaltKellyComicsCustomCollection BTW, I like this motto: Albert and our star, Pogo Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I was looking at a review of the National NC-98 general coverage receiver by W1DX in the August 1954 QST.  One thing that caught my eye was that W1DX mentions that the BFO of the NC-98 is tuned with a variable resistor rather than a variable cap.  That spurred a memory of a W1FB VFO circuit in January 1988 QST.  W1FB first tried a 500 ohm pot to vary the VFO frequency which worked but wasn't perfect.  He then tried using a JFET biased by a pot as a variable resistor.  In this way he was able to use a 10 turn pot for bandspread.  Presumably a 10 turn pot couldn't be used directly due to the inductance of the wirewound construction. Neither article fully explains how this technique works but it does sound interesting.  It is a way to get around the "unobtainium" factor of air variable (or even varactors) in the 21st century. I always meant to try the W1FB VFO and even got as far as buying some coil forms from Amidon but never got it done.  Possibly ...

Chester Gould: inventor of plot devices source: https://www.dicktracymuseum.com/new-page  2-way wrist radio Remco: seller of toys (plural because only one wouldn't be fun). .   source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/404132683961   I wonder how well it worked - and how long did the fun last ?   Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I did a quick search on Youtube for Asimov for audiobooks and found these: Part 1 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a24Clx_Q5LI Part 2 of 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm6ATTQwC38 I remembered a book (which I have around here somewhere) called: Asimov's Mysteries .  These were science fiction mystery stories.  But this one:   The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov isn't a collection of science fiction stories.  Instead it contains stories from two different series of stories that Asimov wrote.  The last stories are from the Union Club series and deal with spy and counterspy stuff.     The first stories are from the Black Widowers Club series and were my favorites.  The waiter at the club meetings is Henry who is kind of like Jeeves in the Wodehouse stories. a self-effacing genius who usually has the answer to the mystery.  Each story is prefaced with a note from Asimov which is interesting.  Also, although there is the skull o...

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/ulas-vulcan-rocket-shot-for-the-moon-on-debut-launch-and-hit-a-bullseye/ As mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/08/nichelle-nichols.html some of Nichelle Nichols remains are now in orbit around the Sun, free of Earth's influence.  But as mentioned it took more than a year for it to finally happen. Apparently everything went well, the DoD is looking for an alternate (to Spacex) US based source of flights into space.  There will be another flight of Vulcan carrying the Sierra Space space plane to the ISS sometime later this year as a qualifying mission for the DoD.  Then hopefully many more Vulcan launches for DoD and Amazon. The next number will be the attempted landing on the Moon by the Astrobiotic Peregrine lander.  More Star Trek people remains on that lander. Space exploration is getting both more routine and a little creepy with all this mini-dead people cargo :) Late breaking news:   https://arstechnica....

 Packers finish the season 9-8 by beating the Bears at Lambeau 17-9.  Good game which of course I couldn't see because the silly WJMN station in the U.P. ditched CBS and now just shows rerun dreck and local news with lousy audio. I think the Pack will have a harder time next week in Dallas.  They won't be able to give away the ball like this: I almost feel sorry for the Bears and their fans, 10 losses to the Pack in a row has got to be disheartening.  I suspect the Bears will dump Justin Fields and draft a new QB and restart the cycle of ruining a quarterback.  They do the same thing over and over and expect better results.  It was the same QB dithering when I lived in the Chicago area 40 years ago ! Certainly the Packers have a system, draft the next QB, have him sit and develop behind the current QB until he is ready - this season Jordan Love proved he is ready.  Who needs Aaron Rodgers' zillion dollar contract when he only can function for four play...