What's Up With Surly?

A friend commented on the brand of the gravel bike I ride, in sort of a WTF? way.  So... here ya go:

Hey it's not definitive or anything, they get some minor stuff wrong, but pfft.  Close enough.

Also, the Bike Filth youtube channel is interesting in a sort of maybe grassroots way.  I appreciate the shorter five-minute-ish format, punk rock intro, and all the mud.

Of Moka Pots, Black Coffee, and Inescapable Beats

I was discussing with a nephew last week about espresso and the fearsome moka pot, and afterward I was playing around searching for moka pot articles.  First this one popped up, and it's pretty good and all, but then at the same site there's this article on How to Enjoy Black Coffee.  A 2200 word article on... how to

1. pour coffee into a cup
2. drink it

...?  I guess in some venues writing still pays by the word.  Personally, I'll sweat over a 200 word abstract for a couple of days.  That's the real work, then the rest of the paper more or less writes itself.

Anyway, here's some music for a Monday morning with which to enjoy your black coffee and/or moka:

• Blue Monday (original) – more suitable for black coffee; strong black coffee
• Blue Monday (vintage instrument cover) – definitely from a vintage moka pot with layers of patina

XHDATA D-219 AM/FM/SW – A Decent Radio for $13

The folks over at The SWLing Post blog keep raving about these things, so I had to try one.  At only $13 (for the green one; other colors are $4 more, go figure) it's not much of a risk.  My verdict?  A bargain at twice the price.  So much else has been written in three articles over at The SWLing Post that I'll give a short list of pros & cons, then refer you to the links below for more details.

pros:

• It's built around a Silicon Labs SDR chip, and those always work well.
• And yeah, it works great!  Nighttime WSM 650 AM sounded as clear as on my PL-660 (10x$).  Same for daytime reception of WWL 870.
• Basic shortwave stations came in easily: WWV time signals, WWCR, Radio Havana, etc.
• Broadcast FM reception was fine, but it takes a lot of effort to mess that up.
• Runs on dirt-common AA batteries.
• Cheap enough to hand out after a hurricane, and if it goes missing you're only out $13.

con (just one):

• Tuning on the broadcast AM dial was too fast – downright twitchy – making it difficult to pick out a known station/frequency.  If the tuning dial moved frequencies about a quarter as fast, that would be about right.  Trying to find WSM 650 in a crowded AM spectrum was a trial, despite knowing it was there and spotting it on my PL-660.  Once found and locked on though, all was good.

OK, here are the links to other reviews.  If you want to buy, use the affiliate link at the first one.  That way The SWLing Post gets a little bit:

• Rediscovering Simple Radio Joy with the XHDATA D-219 (buying link towards the bottom)
• The XHDATA D-219 Shirt-Pocket Radio
• XHDATA D-219: A Classic Budget Shortwave Receiver

If you've been thinking "gosh, I'd like a good radio, just to play around with or for hurricane season, but I don't want to spend too much" go ahead and get one of these.  In real world practical use you'll probably get the most out of the AM & FM bands, but it's also a credible shortwave receiver and that's always entertaining.

And Then Life Resumed

Not a lot to discuss or report about today, but at least I'm doing a fair job of digging out of small tasks left over from the past two weeks.  Guess that's something.

Oh, Oyster Cook-Off tomorrow.  Sounds worthwhile, especially since it's just around the block.  Yep, definitely going.  Going to go read some more on Project Hail Mary now though.

Time Off Today

If you know, you know.  All's OK, just...

Shoulda posted this yesterday, because it applied then too.  Back in action tomorrow!

Re-Reading Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary

As before, this sci-fi novel's going quickly.  Note that the movie hits theaters on March 30th.  Go read my 2021 review of the book, then get reading yourself.

A PDF of Allied's Radio-Formula and Data Book (1953)

Dan Romanchik found a physical copy of this slim book at a thrift sale last week, then scan & posted downloadable copies here.  In these days of science & engineering calculators, perhaps the log and trig tables are not needed as often as in the days of slide rules (but they're still good to have!).  Rather, it's the formulae for, say, calculating the characteristic impedance of twin-lead transmission lines, or resistor color codes that are good to have ready at hand.