Musings on Radio, Computers, Technology, and Family
I got an email from Chloe Pederson, an instructor at studymap.org, which is an site that is running a class on amateur radio and broadcasting for 10-14 year olds. They found my site and I’m happy to hear they made use of some of my content in the class. One of their young students, Dylan, Read More …
Inverters are devices that take DC power as provided by the electrical system of a car, truck, RV, or a standalone battery, and produce AC power, capable of running appliances designed to run on household power from a commercial utility. When choosing an inverter, you may have heard of “Modified Sine Wave” or “Pure Sine Read More …
Today I had the good fortune to be invited to attend the United Airlines Family Day event at San Francisco International Airport. They had a number of exhibits, games for kids, food and entertainment. But what was most relevant to my ham radio hobby was a display of the SFO Fire department’s Mobile Command truck. Read More …
The Raspberry Shake has some nice software available with it. One of the nicest things to start out with is an app available for Android phones called “EQInfo“. It provides a list of recent earthquakes, as detected by various monitoring agencies. You can click on a quake, and see a seismometer’s trace of the Read More …
I live in Northern California, about halfway between the San Andreas and Hayward faults, in an earthquake-prone area. I’m also fascinated by science and computers. So when I saw the http://raspberryshake.org site, where you could get your own personal seismometer station and network it together with others to form a net capable of locating and measuring earthquakes, Read More …
My computers now know what time it is, to the millisecond, without using the Internet. I put together a stratum-1 ntp time server, based on a Raspberry Pi 3 model B with an Adafruit Ultimate GPS Hat. I put the whole thing into a C4 Labs Zebra GPS HAT Case, made of layers of shiny acrylic. Read More …
Every radio enthusiast in the Western hemisphere is familiar with radio station WWV, which will have been been steadily broadcasting time signals for 100 years in October of 2019, if it makes it that long. If it makes it that long? Yes, the world’s oldest continuously operated radio station may cease operations, if the proposed Read More …
Before I tell you the story of my heart attack experience, let me say this: I’m a patient, not a doctor. I have had no medical training. If you think there’s a chance you or someone near you is having an heart attack, call 911 right away. And know the symptoms of heart problems, as Read More …
The Astron RS-35A makes a distinctive “Thwap” sound when it is first turned on. This is because there is nothing to limit the inrush of current that initially charge the main capacitor. This inrush can be hard on the power switch. I found this article from the repeater-builder website describing how to install an inrush Read More …
Most ham radio transceivers do not run directly off of mains AC power, but instead operate from about 13.8VDC, using something in the range of ten to thirty amps or so. In home stations, this is usually supplied from the AC mains power via a “power supply”. Keeping the power supply in a separate unit Read More …