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Thursday, February 22, 2024
The Mars Helicopter and its CO2 Insulation
Thursday, January 26, 2023
"The Electrical Experimenter" -- A Treasure Trove of Inspiration
Oh this is really phenomenal. Nick "the Vic" M0NTV is on the mend from some routine surgery. While mending he found this 1915 issue of Hugo Gernsback's "The Electrical Experimenter." I just spent a few minutes quickly going through it and I can see that this is a treasure trove that could keep us -- the modern day electrical experimenters -- busy for a long time.
-- We see Signor Marconi in Italian military uniform (I never saw that before).
-- There is mention of successful DX reception of the station in Arlington Va. (just down the road from me).
-- There is a an article about the radio station of T.O.M -- Hiram Percy Maxim.
-- There are detailed maps of Mars, complete with the canals.
And there is a lot more.
Above all, I think what stands out from this magazine is the homebrew spirit, the notion that we can and should build our rigs ourselves, and seek to understand them.
Below is the whole magazine. Please take a look and use the comment section below to point us to passages of interest to the electrical experimenters of today.
Thanks Nick. Your e-mail came during a discouraging period filled with a few "tales of woe." The magazine really lifted my spirits.
Here it is:
Saturday, December 3, 2022
SolderSmoke Podcast #242 Mars, New Hams, Direct Conversion, SDR Console, Proficio, PSSST, 8 meters, A BIG MAILBAG
SolderSmoke Podcast #242 is available
Audio podcast: http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke242.mp3
Video: (362) SolderSmoke Podcast #242 December 3, 2022 - YouTube
Travelogue:
Mars at opposition. Not as good as 2020 (see charts below)
SSSS Prep
Hearing aids and high frequency loss.
AirPods as hearing aids.
Out in the Shenandoah with a Baofeng.
Success among TJ High School students.
Satellite in space?
PARTSCANDY
Bill's Bench:
Direct Conversion Receiver: IT IS ALIVE! EVEN IN LTSPICE
PTO works very well.
Diode ring -- really needs a diplexer, Radio Marti.
AF amplifier simplicity.
But WHY can't you listen to DSB on a DC receiver? Now I know.
How does a diode detector work? Is the envelope real? Is it square law?
The benefits of writing... 1967 and 1966 articles on PTOs and 2Qs.
Shameless Commerce Division:
-- MOSTLY DIY RF! NEWS FROM PORTLAND! Get your free Michigan Mighty Mite.
-- YouTube Goal Reached. Thanks! Keep watching. Subscribe!
-- Keep buying from Bezos using the link on the right-hand column of the blog page.
-- Become a Patreon sponsor! Left hand column of blog page.
-- I have ads on the blog page, but I have configured to avoid troublesome ads -- dating sites, etc.
Pete's Bench
-- Stepper motor, LCD and Arduino for my little DC RX?
-- SDR Console
-- PSSST, BOMS, Schematics and spoon feeding...
-- Proficio SDR by Multus
-- 8 meters?
Mailbag
-- Alan Yates VK2ZAY now also W7ZAY PTOs, trivial motors, a broken ankle...
-- Dhaka Jack AI4SV formerly of Cyprus, Madagascar and Northern Virginia. has moved to France!
-- John WB5OAU/K5MO An old friend. FMLA as "Glowbugs Noir"
-- Dale Parfitt W4OP on the Homebrew 2Q from 1967
-- Nick M0NTV Glue Sticks, PTOs, DC receivers and AM breakthrough testing.
-- Todd K7TFC suggests “cool” names for DC RX PT Cruiser? PT109? PT73?
-- Levi replacing Selenium diodes in a Globe VFO. I am not alone!
-- Juanjo EC5ACA wants to build DC RX . FB.
-- Dave designed a discrete LM386. Picked up by Jenny at HackaDay. Can you build this?
-- George Zaff. HamRadio Workbench Spiritual Brother of SolderSmoke.
-- Alain F4IET -- Still building DC receiver. FB. Sorry I got the call wrong.
-- Drew N7DA Building Pixies with 3D forms.
-- Toni G6XMO in Sheffield getting a 3D printer business going: https://www.whizz3dparts.co.
-- Chuck KE5HPW restoring an old SW-54. Pete is skeptical.
-- Lex and Jesse like Colin's placement of WYKSYCDS sticker on his Homebrew rig.
-- Jim KI4THZ joined the Vienna Wireless Society -- FB on the faculty at GMU
-- Tony G4WIF suggested mechanical counter for DC RX PTO freq readout. I have some in the junk box.
-- Our old friend Jonathan-san in W0XO now a Patreon sponsor. Origato!
-- Thomas K4SWL sent him video of Tiny SA watching Vatican Radio sign off for the day.
-- Farhan and Chuck Penson liked blog post about Heathkit Digital Rig SS-8000 1978!
-- Ed KC8SBV working on DC receivers -- I recently used the Peppermint Bark box he sent.
-- Old friend Bob KD4EBM on the linearization of the R-390s. Hard to homebrew one of those!
-- George from VWS trying to figure out how (if?) Marconi got his coherer to work DX...
-- Steve EI5DD sends Connaught Radio news: https://www.docdroid.net/
Won’t have another Podcast until the new year so Happy Holidays to all! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
SolderSmoke Podcast #85 With Mike Herr WA6ARA June 8, 2008 WIZARD ISLAND!
When I was putting this podcast up on YouTube, I needed a picture of Mike Herr WA6ARA who was my guest on this episode. I found a picture of Mike activating a summit... THE SUMMIT OF WIZARD ISLAND! That is Wizard Island (above). Mike and his wife are shown at the summit (below).
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Sunday, November 7, 2021
JPL, Mars Helicopter, Cube Sats, Ham Radio and more: N5BF talks to Eric Guth 4Z1UG
Here is Eric's page on this interview, with useful show notes:
https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/n5bf
I like to listen to Eric's shows on YouTube -- here is the YouTube recording of the N5BF interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbr4jE11vfg
Here is N5BF's ham radio web site:
http://cbduncan.duncanheights.com/HamRadio/HamRadio.html
Here is the club page of the San Bernardino Microwave Society:
http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/
Thanks to Eric and Courtney!
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Hi Def 360 Degree Panorama from the Mars Perseverance Rover
Friday, June 4, 2021
To Mars in 1964 -- Building the Camera and Radio Systems
Thursday, June 3, 2021
Remastered! The Secret Life of Radio -- With Updated Comments from Tim Hunkin
Saturday, May 15, 2021
SolderSmoke Podcast #230 is available! Apr 1, Mars, Group Build, SDR, SSB, Mich Mighty Mites, Mailbag
SolderSmoke Podcast #230 is available for download
http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke230.mp3
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
A REALLY Cheap Receiving Rig
-- Has anyone actually made a diode out of a light bulb in the way described?
-- The antenna coupler on the table leg is not much different from the tuner that I have attached to the wall of my car port.
-- Note that when our hero finishes the receiver, he is able to pick up signals from Mars! FB OM.
Who will be the first to recreate this 1921 receiver?
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Awesome Video of Perseverance's Landing on Mars
Saturday, February 20, 2021
A Step Closer to the Elser-Mathes Cup? Ham Receives Signals from Mars
Monday, December 21, 2020
Observations from the Mars 2020 Opposition
These are some of the drawings that I made during the Mars 2020 opposition. I would go out to my back porch with my 6 inch Dobsonian Newtonian telescope. I would look closely at Mars, making mental note of what I was seeing. Then I would go to the shack and immediately draw what I'd seen. I would then look for relatively recent images of Mars made by people with more experience and better equipment, and I'd compare my drawings with their images -- this enabled me to understand what I was seeing. Also useful was the Mars Profiler of Sky and Telescope magazine -- you just plug in the date and time and it displays the part of Mars that is facing us.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Mars is BACK! 2020 Opposition! Don't Miss it!
2004 |
It was quite humid in Northern Virginia on the morning of 25 August 2020, but the skies were surprisingly clear. I stepped outside at about 0500 local time, coffee cup in hand. Venus was blazing in the east. Then I saw this big very bright red thing high in the southern sky. It seemed almost too bright and too high in the sky to be Mars. But a quick check with Stellarium showed that it was in fact the Red Planet. I pulled out my six inch Dobsonian reflector telescope and soon had Mars in the eyepiece.
For the first time in many years I could see surface features: It is springtime in the southern hemisphere of Mars, but the Southern Polar Cap (which recedes in the summer) was still very prominent (in my eyepiece it was near the top, as in the GIF above) . I could also see an albedo (dark on light) feature below the icecap.
I went out again on the morning of 26 August 2020. Again the Southern Polar Cap was very visible. Below it, near the center of the disc, I could make out a large albedo feature. I am pretty sure that is Mare Erythraeum.
Above is what Stellarium presented as Mars as viewed from Earth this morning. The Southern Polar Cap is much more prominent in my telescope (you can see it in the upper right in the image above). The large dark thing near the center of the disc is Erythraeum. In the Stellarium image you can see the enormous Vallis Marinaris canyon shooting off to the lower right (sadly I could not see this in my telescope).
The GIF at the top of this post gives a much better view than I get with my little six inch telescope. The GIF gives a good idea of what the albedo features and the ice cap look like.
This was a great time for me to see these things. I'm almost done with the second book in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy -- much of the story takes place in sanctuaries carved under the Southern ice cap, and in Hellas (which Robinson's colonists are filling with water). During the 2018 Earth-Mars opposition a big dust storm made it impossible for me to see anything on Mars; a similar storm takes place during book one of Robinson's Trilogy. And right now the Perseverance rover is on its way to Mars.
This 2020 opposition will be the best one until 2033. So don't miss it.
Here is a good article on observing Mars during the current opposition:
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/how-to-observe-mars/
Here are technical details on the 2020 opposition:
http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2020_MARS.htm
To see what side of Mars is facing us at any time, use Sky and Telescope's Mars Profiler:
https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/interactive-sky-watching-tools/mars-which-side-is-visible/#
Here is a very informative video about the 2020 opposition:
And remember: The Elser-Mathes Cup has still not been won.
Friday, August 7, 2020
Mars: Book Review, Martian Propagation, Martian Moons as VHF Repeater Sites
In SolderSmoke #224 I mentioned the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I found a book review in The New Yorker (see below). In Red Mars they mention that there is no ionospheric propagation on Mars. W1PJE and K1RID point out that this is incorrect -- there is ionospheric propagation on Mars. K1RID provides a link to a really detailed NASA study of this question (it includes discussion of the effect on propagation of Martian dust storms -- good to know!). Finally, 2E0CHK suggests placing VHF repeaters on the two moons of Mars. I found a good article about the overhead passes of these moons. See below for all.
AND REMEMBER: THE ELSER-MATHES CUP REMAINS UNCLAIMED!
Here's a review from The New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/our-greatest-political-novelist
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Newburyport Electronics & Radio Society
www.K1YRD.org
No skip on Mars ?
No ionosphere ?
Every cloud has a silver lining, even if Mars doesn't have any clouds ;)
Mars has two moons.
Could be paradise for Moon Bounce aficionados. No ionosphere or F layer to get in the way. VHF can get around corners after all.
Saturday, August 1, 2020
SolderSmoke Podcast #224: Mars. Spurs. Bikes. SDR. NanoVNA. Antuino. MAILBAG
Sunday, December 9, 2018
First Audio From Mars
How long will it be before NASA starts getting critical comments on the audio quality, along with very confident statements about how to change the audio settings on the menu? Well, at least they have "presence."
The Elser Mathes Cup awaits a winner!