Sunspot Cycle: More of the Same

Short abstract here at NOAA, and longer press release here at NWS.  Bottom line is that (a) the current solar activity minimum is expected to bottom out somewhere between July 2019 (better hurry up, today's all that's left) and September 2020, and (b) the next eleven years of activity are largely expected to be a replay of what we've just seen.  Read the links, but here's the big picture:



Couldn't they rescale the y-axis a little?  Axis looks half-empty.  Or half-full.  Or at least, twice as big as it needs to be.

Caffeine for Asthma?

Ran across this paper on the effects of caffeine on asthma recently: Caffeine for asthma (review)

TLDR version: Caffeine can give relief for asthma, boosting peak flow rate by somewhere between 5 and 18 percent, depending on the study.  Significant and noticeable but not generally useful medically.  However, taking it prior to any lung function tests can muck up the results.

OK, enjoy.  Might want to first brew a fresh pot before diving in to read.

Bonus/PS: Theophylline (an asthma drug) and caffeine.  Spot the difference.

          

      

The TdF Explained

The Tour de France is a Beautiful Mess and Maybe that's How it Should Be

It's an interesting retrospective, complete with jaw-dropping vintage pictures.

She Must Be a Mountain Biker

From over at The Argyle Sweater:



Me, no, really, I'm fine.  No crashes.  Lately.  Stay tuned though.

Podcast Recommendations

Over at The SWLing Post blog, they're running an earbud review & giveaway, the giveaway based on a randomly selected comment regarding "what podcasts do you recommend?"  Get yourself over there and read the review, enter if you wish, but most especially look over the list of podcasts mentioned.

Here're the links: to the comments (scroll up for earbud review)  | to the SWLing Post blog

Interesting stuff.  Guess I'll have to tag it under 'radio' – SWLing and all that – but it's really about podcasting.

The Week That Was

That was quite a week.  Looks black-and-white, until you notice the LEM on the left.

Here's the week, over at NASA APOD: Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat.  There will probably be more, up through next week, but using APOD is up to you now.

Today's The Day

50 years ago, I was enjoying the summer between first and second grade when this happened.

Got Nothin'

Nothing to blog because it was Just A Rainy Weekend.  Goodbye Hurricane Barry.  It may take a few days to re-prime the blogging pipeline.  In the meantime, go over to Dan's blog and read Rethinking Amateur Radio Clubs, and be sure to click through to the article linked from there.  The ideas knocked around there apply to pretty much any kind of local clubs, and why they're having trouble keeping interest up.

Wow.  That almost turned into a blog post.  OK, one last look at Barry:

More later in the week.

For Now, Stick With the NATO Alphabet

Article at Atlas Obscura: It Might Be Time to Update the Old "Alfa-Bravo-Charlie" Spelling Alphabet

As the article also points out, increasingly this is not just a radio thing.  As microphone size and voice bandwidth on cell phones are increasingly squeezed, being able to use a phonetic alphabet to spell things out is increasingly important.  The author highlights this with stories of difficulties with his own unusual last name.

Strangely, the conclusion of the article comes back around to "perhaps not; in testing, the NATO alphabet works perfectly well."  From the article:

Turns out there was effectively no difference between the new, improved spelling alphabet and the old standard.  If certain letters were in certain places in the nonsense combination, the new version might be more effective; in other places the old version was.  No difference!  After all that!

At some point, good enough is good enough and further refinement is not worth the small theoretical gains.  For examples, note the enduring QWERTY keyboard and the ongoing mediocrity-yet-useability of mp3 audio.

So what to do?  When in doubt, just use the NATO standard (wikipedia link).  It's the most common variant out there today, the most likely to be recognized, and the overall the most effective.  Also, you won't sound like a goofball as you search to come up with newer clever phonetics on the fly.

Of Voodoo, Podcasts, and Rising Water

While we wait to see how New Orleans fares when wedged between draining the Midwest and dealing with a Georgia hurricane hooking in out of the Gulf, now might be a good time to catch up the Times-Picayune's podcast series Voodoo City.  In half-hour episodes, two reporters – one local, the other transplanted from New Jersey – dig into some local lore.  I've listened to maybe a half-dozen so far, and they've all been very good.  Hat tip to The Darling Daughter for recommending.

Here's the link to the series' page at the iTunes Store.  How to get them onto your device is left as an exercise for the student.  Yeesh, I wish they'd get with the 21st Century and include a direct mp3 link.  But for free-as-in-beer, drinkers listeners can't be choosers.

On to the "rising water" part of tonight's feature blog post, here's a link to the NOAA page for river & tide gauges in the general area, and here's a link to the New Orleans Mississippi River gauge.

Bonus Link: Yes, the world really does end in New Orleans.  You can even find the location on Google Maps.  Fortunately, this has little to do with the current weather conditions.

Comparing Europe and the U.S.

People are forever comparing U.S. ways to those of Europe, usually over some highly divisive issues of the moment, or maybe in the course of griping about the relative lack of train service here.  "Why can't we do ______ the way they do it in Europe?"  Before making any such social, political, or infrastructure comparisons, it is useful to first consider this one geographic comparison:

I'm not pointing at any one issue here, mind you.  I'm just pointing out a geographic fact.

More at the "Florida Hikes!" Site

Following up on yesterday's dwarf cypress forest post, here are two more from the Florida Hikes! site:
Aucilla Sinks section of the Florida Trail
Oh man, I want to get over there in the semi-near future.
Backpacker Tips for Hurricane Prep
Especially timely with this upcoming weekend.  But really, if you backpack or even car camp, you're 95% of the way there.  At least, camping gear has pulled me through some bad hurricanes with relatively little trouble so far.

Anyway, the Florida Hikes! site has a lot of good stuff.  Worth a dig around when you get a few minutes.  Interesting travel without the need for passports and jets.

Dwarf Cypress Forest in Tate's Hell

Here's all about a short adventure from last week: the dwarf cypress forest in Tate's Hell State Forest  I'd explain about it, but the description, pictures, and video at the link are more in-depth that I'm going into at the moment.  One thing to note however is that all of the visuals at that link were evidently done in winter, when the cypress trees are bare.  Here's a much nicer pic showing their summertime verdant colors:

Yeah, how about that?  The trees themselves seemed to all top out at around 15 feet, where they twist over and bush out any extra growth.  Go figure.

Getting there was easy in the current dry weather.  The Mustang had no trouble negotiating the gravel roads once we left S.R. 65.  Not sure how it would fare after a heavy rain however.  Just use good sense.  Not too sure about cell phone connectivity there either, it seems to be more of a CB area.  Again, exercise good sense.

BTW, Florida Hikes is a pretty nice site that shows about all the hiking in the Apalachicola area, among all the other good wild places in Florida.  In particular, the High Bluff Coastal Trail looks interesting.  All in good time – and in much cooler weather.  In the meantime, dig around there for things suitable for adventures next fall.

One more thing to mention, those backroads through Tate's Hell look primo for gravel biking.  With the closest real mountain bike trails nearly two hours' drive away, this is something to keep in mind.

What the...?

This is a weird hurricane season already.  As of Sunday evening:

Tropical systems don't generally originate up in the lower Appalachians and head into the Gulf.  This makes no sense!  But then, neither did Hurricane Michael.  Interesting week already.

Just Shut Up and Take My Money Already

Well, not quite yet.  I want to see some reviews first on this new radio, but just look at the thing:

I'd posted something on this last month, but there were few details out then.  Here's the manufacturer's web site, with a lot more details.  Also, a lot of misspellings, and a lot of incompleteness.  For example, there's only this one product listed, and zero "about Lab 599" information – you know, the stuff reputable companies generally are proud to post.

So what do we know that stands out on the product description?  It's a software defined radio.  It has a really cool form factor in a (probably) rugged aluminum body.  No signs of snap-on or slide-in protective covers, but that could be a last minute detail, or even a fun DIY project.  At 20 oz, the weight is outstanding.  Rated at 10 watts, SSB presumably; digital is usually in the half-to-quarter of that figure.  That's plenty of power for trail use.  The mic is reminiscent of some poor quality Chinese radios.  That part is worrisome, but it may only be a passing resemblance that I'm reading too much into.  How to get a computer to talk through this thing's data port is anybody's guess at this time, but it probably won't be too hard to sort out once these things are released into the wild.  You can read up on the rest of the details at the web site.  In short though, it seems to have most everything people want and there are no obvious red flags.

Here's the thing though: at twice the power and half the weight and size of the Yaesu 817/817 line – which is the classic trail radio if there ever was one – if the innards live up to the promise and the price is right, this thing could set a whole new standard.  IF.

So... "Available in Autumn 2019."  Just time to be patient and see what the early reviews say.