More or less. I have got a workbench shelf for the test equipment built, and loaded up. Except for my variable power supply, which had a number of, ahhh, ill-advised interconnects in it.
So I'm ramping up. Bent two chassis and whistled up the large parts I don't have, will build two identical separate units. Amping up to both current and voltage regulation, 4 amps continuous, should be able to dial in anything up to 30 volts when done. I have a slew of 2a identical transformers, and so will parallel them through small-value dropping resistors, just like you parallel power transistors. Yeah, identical transformers can be put in parallel without large circulating currents, yeah yeah yo'momma. Who was watching the folks on whatever island was above water 20 years ago when they made the transformers for Radio Shack for QC? So I'm going to do a little protective designing this time.
Biggest issue I had was a common ground between positive and negative supplies, and they went all kiddywompus when I put a load on them. Separate supplies with no case ground on output unless you strap it down ought to take care of that one. Got meters to rescale, and all that stuff, so we're just building two supplies out of the old NatSemi linear databook.
Next, I have some old 78s of family history that I have to push into the shack computer and get on CD before everybody dies out.
Trying to get the place sorted out before it gets too cold. Oh, and there's some rot on the North wall at the bottom outside from yet another build flaw by the previous owner. This I'm going to cut out and Bondo, because there are roof soffits and stuff built over the north/south walls.
No end of projects anywhere, including the Ham Cave.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Hola, amigos. Been a long time since I rapped at ya...
And now that that's over with.
Got the last of the cabinetry done, with the new dovetailed drawers and fronts done in the laundry room. I'm working on cleaning up the ham shack, and the next project is probably going to be stacking the test equipment to see what risers and shelves I need to build to get that hodgepodge of doorstops on the bench, ready to work, and get my transceiver projects off the floor and under way.
Got the antenna mast replaced, the droopy trap dipole is now up to about 41 feet HAAT. Evening action before bedtime at 9:30 to 10:00 is a little weak, I'm going to have to shoot some SWRs or find some benchmark settings for the tuner and see if there's anything other than dimwitted birds to snag with it. At least it's not a worm-warmer any more.
Just so many things to get done around here, and no lottery cash to hire a crew, point, and say "fix all that."
We have a tentative contract at work with CenturyLink, voting in give or take a month. Not a lot of cheers in the union hall last Wednesday, but I don't think I get much of a haircut from it. Folks with families on the health plan, though, are growling like somebody just smoked them out of their dens. That's getting typical in the workplace now. There was some two-tiering, which is just getting the old hands and the new hires to fighting in the parking lot. Ought to be outlawed. Let the rich take off on their yachts and leave the rest of us alone. And that goes double with sprinkles for politics.
But I digress.
No, I don't.
Got the last of the cabinetry done, with the new dovetailed drawers and fronts done in the laundry room. I'm working on cleaning up the ham shack, and the next project is probably going to be stacking the test equipment to see what risers and shelves I need to build to get that hodgepodge of doorstops on the bench, ready to work, and get my transceiver projects off the floor and under way.
Got the antenna mast replaced, the droopy trap dipole is now up to about 41 feet HAAT. Evening action before bedtime at 9:30 to 10:00 is a little weak, I'm going to have to shoot some SWRs or find some benchmark settings for the tuner and see if there's anything other than dimwitted birds to snag with it. At least it's not a worm-warmer any more.
Just so many things to get done around here, and no lottery cash to hire a crew, point, and say "fix all that."
We have a tentative contract at work with CenturyLink, voting in give or take a month. Not a lot of cheers in the union hall last Wednesday, but I don't think I get much of a haircut from it. Folks with families on the health plan, though, are growling like somebody just smoked them out of their dens. That's getting typical in the workplace now. There was some two-tiering, which is just getting the old hands and the new hires to fighting in the parking lot. Ought to be outlawed. Let the rich take off on their yachts and leave the rest of us alone. And that goes double with sprinkles for politics.
But I digress.
No, I don't.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
cars, weather, and The Evil Plots Ruining My Life!!!!!!!!!!!!
and a few extra !!!!!!!!!!!
phew, I feel better now. best not look at the forecast again.
I can't get all the rattling trim in the drivers side door of The Great White Whale glued together. even under load from a bunch of lumber and wedges holding them in. going to have to spend the weekend in Cheryl's car while mine chews on a tube of silicone rubber, I guess.
presuming she doesn't have another issue. brake lines to the back of the car rusted out while she was on the road yesterday. $300 later, the longest one with obvious leakage is replaced. there are others that need work. work best done by guys with hydraulic lifts and Mitchell manuals telling what the flat rate is for their labor.
I have some of that too, but no rust-outs yet.
now, about that weather. I am clamping the NSFW filters to the computer here with 20-ton jacks. rain all week, except when it's snow and sleet.
THAT IS AN EVIL PLOT, AND IT IS RUINING MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and of course, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
grr.
phew, I feel better now. best not look at the forecast again.
I can't get all the rattling trim in the drivers side door of The Great White Whale glued together. even under load from a bunch of lumber and wedges holding them in. going to have to spend the weekend in Cheryl's car while mine chews on a tube of silicone rubber, I guess.
presuming she doesn't have another issue. brake lines to the back of the car rusted out while she was on the road yesterday. $300 later, the longest one with obvious leakage is replaced. there are others that need work. work best done by guys with hydraulic lifts and Mitchell manuals telling what the flat rate is for their labor.
I have some of that too, but no rust-outs yet.
now, about that weather. I am clamping the NSFW filters to the computer here with 20-ton jacks. rain all week, except when it's snow and sleet.
THAT IS AN EVIL PLOT, AND IT IS RUINING MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and of course, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
grr.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
they're breakin' up that old gang of mine
I had tenuous ties to the glory days at WDAY-TV, the 60s and early 70s when I was old enough as a broadcast brat to know something special was happening there, and young enough to learn at the knees of the experts without getting handed any tasks. Warmed my back many an afternoon at the 7-foot racks of tubes in the microwaves, sync generators, and processors in Master Control waiting for Dad to take me home from riding the bus to the library. Read the wire services tick...tick... tick... tick at a time on the 50 characters per minute Teletypes. Jumped to the side when there were footsteps of somebody running down the halls or up the stairs so I didn't get trampled.
The days when a ratings disaster was a 71% share, and national lead in news ratings went as high as 87 and 93 percent. That is almost every damn TV in the viewing area, and at least one screen burning in each of the competitive stations. WDAY was NBC's highest-rated affiliate station in the early 70s year after year, and the gloom in 30 Rock was like they lost their licenses the day WDAY followed KSTP in jumping to ABC because NBC's geniuses thought they'd make more money cutting the affiliate payments for carrying network shows.
But I was there, splicing junk film, staying out of the way, and learning lots about life from the likes of Howard Graber, John Tilton, Al Kobul, Pete Fenney, Bob Aronson, and the gang. Including Marvin Bossart, Boyd Christensen, and Dewey Bergquist. And Dad, of course.
Last I heard, Aronson was retired in Florida. Couple decades ago, he was Rudy Perpich's Press Secretary, and part of the job entailed calling trusted contacts many weekends asking, "Got any idea where Rudy's at? State Patrol can't find him anywhere!" That Governor was pretty much prone to escaping to the back rooms and cabins Up Nort' and chatting with his friends.
The last domino beyond him fell yesterday, as Marv finally succumbed to the effects of Parkinson's disease. He got 42 years out of the place, on par with some of the greyest hairs in the history of the place. And he was a big part of the tradition of professionalism, community concern, and "get it right" that made WDAY not just an institution for having the oldest call letters in the Northwest US, but for being trustworthy. Gentle, fun-loving, a stickler for the right word in the right place with his copy, killed his Royal typewriter four or five times, the type bars flying off the fingers, until Gaffney's ran out of parts. "Cheap" jokes flew like sparrows in the spring, for he spent as much time as he could with his family and at the lake place. Among the last feet of film shot was a prank in which a couple kids were persuaded to do chores wearing T-shirts saying something like "Marv is Cheap," and that blue/green mess from bad film was slid into both the 6 and 10 PM newscasts around Marv's back.
Marv went from black and white TV to live satellite trucks. There were transistors in the chain of geegaws by the time he got to Fargo, breaking up the 1953 walls of tubes, but that's the only earthquake in the technology of the business he missed. And slid through them all on top, because that's just stuff. Reporting, writing, consulting, refining, questioning, and then presenting the news is unchanging.
The last of the lions from my era.
Requisat im Pace.
The days when a ratings disaster was a 71% share, and national lead in news ratings went as high as 87 and 93 percent. That is almost every damn TV in the viewing area, and at least one screen burning in each of the competitive stations. WDAY was NBC's highest-rated affiliate station in the early 70s year after year, and the gloom in 30 Rock was like they lost their licenses the day WDAY followed KSTP in jumping to ABC because NBC's geniuses thought they'd make more money cutting the affiliate payments for carrying network shows.
But I was there, splicing junk film, staying out of the way, and learning lots about life from the likes of Howard Graber, John Tilton, Al Kobul, Pete Fenney, Bob Aronson, and the gang. Including Marvin Bossart, Boyd Christensen, and Dewey Bergquist. And Dad, of course.
Last I heard, Aronson was retired in Florida. Couple decades ago, he was Rudy Perpich's Press Secretary, and part of the job entailed calling trusted contacts many weekends asking, "Got any idea where Rudy's at? State Patrol can't find him anywhere!" That Governor was pretty much prone to escaping to the back rooms and cabins Up Nort' and chatting with his friends.
The last domino beyond him fell yesterday, as Marv finally succumbed to the effects of Parkinson's disease. He got 42 years out of the place, on par with some of the greyest hairs in the history of the place. And he was a big part of the tradition of professionalism, community concern, and "get it right" that made WDAY not just an institution for having the oldest call letters in the Northwest US, but for being trustworthy. Gentle, fun-loving, a stickler for the right word in the right place with his copy, killed his Royal typewriter four or five times, the type bars flying off the fingers, until Gaffney's ran out of parts. "Cheap" jokes flew like sparrows in the spring, for he spent as much time as he could with his family and at the lake place. Among the last feet of film shot was a prank in which a couple kids were persuaded to do chores wearing T-shirts saying something like "Marv is Cheap," and that blue/green mess from bad film was slid into both the 6 and 10 PM newscasts around Marv's back.
Marv went from black and white TV to live satellite trucks. There were transistors in the chain of geegaws by the time he got to Fargo, breaking up the 1953 walls of tubes, but that's the only earthquake in the technology of the business he missed. And slid through them all on top, because that's just stuff. Reporting, writing, consulting, refining, questioning, and then presenting the news is unchanging.
The last of the lions from my era.
Requisat im Pace.
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Winter with Frickin' Lasers on its Head
this sucks. April 22nd. we had a forecast of maybe light rain for a week. Saturday, they changed it to rain/snow mix, up to a half inch Sunday night. Sunday, same. Sunday night at bedtime, they changed it to a Winter Storm Warning for 4-6 inches of snow Monday through Tuesday morning. this morning while I slept, they changed it to a 6-9 frickin' inches of goddam snow.
every time the grass peeks through, we get whaled again.
this is getting way old.
meanwhile, in Fargo, they are sandbagging for yet another record flood and making another half-million sandbags yet, for a total in the 2 million neighborhood. we expect a "light switch" Spring... from 9 inches of snow Monday to 70s on the weekend, and 50s and 60s in the long-range forecast. I think this forecast model is the Burns/Krusty Max Profit Model, where anything goes in Springfield as long as you can shake an extra buck out of somebody's pocket.
every time the grass peeks through, we get whaled again.
this is getting way old.
meanwhile, in Fargo, they are sandbagging for yet another record flood and making another half-million sandbags yet, for a total in the 2 million neighborhood. we expect a "light switch" Spring... from 9 inches of snow Monday to 70s on the weekend, and 50s and 60s in the long-range forecast. I think this forecast model is the Burns/Krusty Max Profit Model, where anything goes in Springfield as long as you can shake an extra buck out of somebody's pocket.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
my "rap name" is N. O. Soul
Hola, amigos, been a while since I rapped at ya, but they stopped paper copies of The Onion in the Twin Cities.
no, seriously, there isn't all that much happening since we basically completed DeBasement. two window blinds to install. and that's it. been downstairs watching TV, and when it's more interesting, watching the Cat Show on the floors, walls, furniture, plants, and other items all around us.
but then, this is The World's Least-Read Blog (tm), so who cares?
too cold and snowy to garden. too snowy and icy to go out to the shed and dig down to find the ham gear. had a week of jury duty blocked out. yawn. Cheryl is spending some weeks on the road doing union organizing, so it's been batch time at the old homestead.
have to prune a tree and blow out the driveway when it warms up tomorrow. when it really springs Spring around us, I have another antenna to sling, and some car repairs, and this and that and the third thing. and I really ought to install a cap on the sump well and plumb in an active radon reduction system.
but for now... our long-awaited time for relaxation is here.
oh, our cats. we had to rename them Bonnie and Clyde for the terrorizing they cause in the household ;) still haven't been able to corral them for the vet trip. Clyde is the cuddle cat in the morning, and Bonnie in the evening. in between, they are pretty much inseparable, like left side and right side.
no, seriously, there isn't all that much happening since we basically completed DeBasement. two window blinds to install. and that's it. been downstairs watching TV, and when it's more interesting, watching the Cat Show on the floors, walls, furniture, plants, and other items all around us.
but then, this is The World's Least-Read Blog (tm), so who cares?
too cold and snowy to garden. too snowy and icy to go out to the shed and dig down to find the ham gear. had a week of jury duty blocked out. yawn. Cheryl is spending some weeks on the road doing union organizing, so it's been batch time at the old homestead.
have to prune a tree and blow out the driveway when it warms up tomorrow. when it really springs Spring around us, I have another antenna to sling, and some car repairs, and this and that and the third thing. and I really ought to install a cap on the sump well and plumb in an active radon reduction system.
but for now... our long-awaited time for relaxation is here.
oh, our cats. we had to rename them Bonnie and Clyde for the terrorizing they cause in the household ;) still haven't been able to corral them for the vet trip. Clyde is the cuddle cat in the morning, and Bonnie in the evening. in between, they are pretty much inseparable, like left side and right side.
Monday, December 31, 2012
slap-happy new year!
Swimmingly fun holiday... we went to the wife's family gathering the weekend before Christmas. you know, the one where everybody falls over sick the day after?
bingo. we are both down with acute bronchitis, and finishing up Z-Paks. there were also flu and colds out of that one, amazingly for everybody being on their own two feet all day and having fun talks and nibbling constantly.
I have gone back to work, for to get your super-fat holiday pay for working holidays, you also have to be in the day before and the day after. it would appear at this point that 4 days doing nothing except sleeping and watching the cats dive into the Christmas tree and pop out like little cartoons, and eating Azithromycin and cough pills, has done wonders.
happy new year, watch out for that fiscal cliff!
bingo. we are both down with acute bronchitis, and finishing up Z-Paks. there were also flu and colds out of that one, amazingly for everybody being on their own two feet all day and having fun talks and nibbling constantly.
I have gone back to work, for to get your super-fat holiday pay for working holidays, you also have to be in the day before and the day after. it would appear at this point that 4 days doing nothing except sleeping and watching the cats dive into the Christmas tree and pop out like little cartoons, and eating Azithromycin and cough pills, has done wonders.
happy new year, watch out for that fiscal cliff!
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