WFD 2022 Wrap

Too cold to camp (21F!), too stubborn to skip, I worked Winter Field Day from home this year.  Made a couple dozen contacts spread across seven band/mode combinations, and ran everything off of a medium-large LiFePO battery.  BTW, it was the battery that really convinced me to stay home this year – those things do not like sub-freezing temperatures.  Sure, I could have managed it, but it just didn't sound like fun.

So... things learned?  The FTdx-1200 averages about 4 amps draw when operating.  The HP/Linux laptop and charger combo takes about 3 AH to top back up.  After months of using a plug-into-wall-socket power supply, it took longer than expected to get all the parts together and get running on the battery.  Patience pays, because in the last hour, repeated PSK-31 calls on 15m yielded two contacts in one four minute period – and then the 15m band promptly shut back down again.

Next up... I need to get to the woods to sort out some novel inverted-V configurations for larger zepp antennas.  That'll make for a nice camping trip in more friendly weather.  I really, really want to get slow-scan TV working on my linux laptop.  Finally, I need to finish the satcoms antenna project.  I mean the UHF antenna has been *that* close for over a year.  That's enough of a list for now.

Anyway, once again and despite being stuck indoors this year, WFD was fun and it helped shake out a few unknowns.

What's on Tap for the Webb Telescope?

Sabine Hossenfelder gives us a 12 minute walk-through.  Enjoy.  You'll probably want to click the embiggen button.

Sharp & Pointy

I was ordering some new chainrings a couple of nights ago, and took a few close-in pics to make sure I didn't miss any key parts numbers.  One or two of the pics actually turned up kind of cool looking.

It's definitely worn out after 11 years of gravel adventures, and you can tell by how pointy some of the teeth have gotten.  In particular, look at those ones on the lower left.  Not good for shifting, not good for contact with skin.

Are we there yet?

As a matter of fact, yes.  The Webb Telescope successfully made its final L2 insertion burn today.  As always, go poke around at NASA's Webb site (*groan*) for details and the latest.

I'm not at all surprised that NASA has pulled this off so smoothly, but I am still amazed.  Probably though, not as amazed as we'll all be when the first clear ultra^3-deep field images start rolling in sometime later this year.

ps, a day later: the senior space editor over at Ars Technica writes To my surprise and elation, the Webb Space Telescope is really going to work.  He puts the delight and, well, relief from a month-long breath-holding session so well.

More on Crystal Radio

Here's a new medium-length article on construction, listening, & contesting over at The SWLing Post blog.  I had no idea that there is currently all of this activity around design and long-distance listening with crystal radios.  Requiring no power beyond what the antenna gathers, they continue to amaze and fascinate.

Interior pic of Marcellus Wallace's briefcase.

Related topics previously covered here at the 'swamp: 100 Years of KDKA (with an amusing story), Crystal Radio Build, and Minimalist Radio.

ps: Some time back a research group used – of course – a genetic algorithm to optimize a basic crystal radio design. Paper from 2008 here.  Very little on the resulting radio, mostly it's about the GA algorithm developed and how it performed.  The circuit just seem to have been a convenient test case.

Movie Review: The Vast of Night

The Vast of Night isn't quite hard sci-fi, but it's pretty close.  Somewhere in small-town New Mexico in the late 50's, a teenage switchboard operator and an early-20's local AM station* DJ investigate... something strange in the sky.  Without throwing out any spoilers, the most that can be said is that: (1) this flick has atmosphere in spades; (2) which is good, because the story is a little thin; and (3) yes, there is a conclusion, a payoff, for the viewer at the end.  Watching it, I kept worrying that the weirdness would all blow over by dawn's early light, but no, there's a there there.  And oh, that atmosphere, it's so thick you could cut it with a ray-gun.  Sometimes it feels more late 40's, sometimes events place it in the late 50's, but the precise year doesn't matter.  Finally, the long camera shots alone are worth the ticket price.

Here, watch the trailer and soak up some of the atmosphere.  That alone will be enough to tell if you'll enjoy the rest:

This one was a lot of edge-of-chair fun.  As I mentioned, the story was somewhat thin, but the look and feel was dialed up to 100%.  3 out of 4 stars.

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*Nerd Note: What is a radio station west of the Mississippi doing with a "W" call sign?  The real WOTW is an FM station in central Florida.  It's little details like this that kept the movie from being *just right* and more like *close*.

Webb Telescope Mirror Segments Deployed

The major mirror "wings" were locked into place a couple of weeks ago, and now the individual mirror segments have been unlatched from their launch positions.  Next up is the final maneuvering into the L2 orbit in a couple of days.  This will be followed by a long tune-up process, but we may have some initial images trickling in by April.  As always, more details are at NASA's Webb Telescope site.

Here's lookin' at you, other side of the universe.

Bwahahahah! Oh brother, my sides hurt...

Clearing out my "links I might want to look at later" today, I ran across this gem, dated September 22 2021:

Models Predict a Steady Decline in COVID Cases Through March at NPR.

Yeah, that might, might be a valid preciction now.  Oh man, am I ever glad to be out of the modeling business, at least for the moment.

x-axis is days from 1 Jan 2020, y-axis is 7-day averaged case count (symbols) & 9-day smoothed average case count.  Data source: https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data

A New & Interesting Barn Find

1965 Shelby 350 in a barn in Georgia.  Details here.

Oh, a little work and it's going to be beautiful.  See, after the last three posts, I haven't totally nerded out.

Of Manual Tuners, Specifically the MFJ-948

A couple of days ago I mentioned an MFJ-948 manual tuner or something comparable as being a nearly essential piece of ham radio gear.  That lead me to some youtube-falling-down-ratholes, and two videos came out on top: 

Hidden Features of the MFJ-948 (24 minutes) 

and

Best Manual ATU Tuning Method (14 minutes)

Even though I've had mine for about seven years now, I still learned a couple of new tricks from the first video.  As for the second video, I've always had a nagging suspicion that there was a better way to adjust things.  In the end however, he comes to much the same method as I've been using.  Here are the steps:

1. Turn off your transceiver's internal tuner.  Set it to the band, frequency, etc. you're targeting.  Then set to a nearby empty frequency so that you can hear the steady background noise.
2. Set the Antenna & Transmitter controls to their midpoints.
3. Crank around on the inductor switch until you hear the loudest signal.  Now leave it alone.  Above all, never change the inductor switch while transmitting.  That can cause arcing inside the tuner.
4. Now dial around with the Antenna & Transmitter controls.  If no differences can be found, leave at midpoint.
5. Turn the transmitter power to minimum, send in a signal (AM or FM carriers, or a digital tone).
6. Iteratively, tune the Antenna & Transmitter controls to minimize SWR.  Tune the Antenna knob first, it's generally more of a coarse control.

The alternate method in the video works too, but it's just too fiddly.  Still, interesting to watch, good to know that the common received wisdom is probably about the best way to go.

For shortwave listening, a tuner can help as well.  Here's a video showing how that works.  It's 17 minutest total, but the real action is packed into 2 minutes starting at the 12 minute mark.  TLDW version: Apply steps 1 thru 4 above, then get on with listening.

Anyway, the MFJ-948 antenna tuner has its charms.  It's far too bulky to take backpacking, and in the field where you want an antenna with known characteristics to just work at the push of a button, automatic units are usually the right way to go.  On the flip side, for at-home use (or maybe when car camping), all of the information from the crossed-needle gauge along with all of the features make the 948 an antenna experimenter's delight.

You can download the manuals from the manufacturer, and even order directly from them.  However, you can usually get a substantially better price from various online retailers or from vendors at hamfests.  This is one case where it pays to shop around a little.

Say hello to my friend, R.F. Burns.  I swear, MFJ is the closest real-life thing to ACME Industries in existence.

Recap: 30 is the new 20.

True in 2018, true now: 30 meters is just more reliable than 20 when the sun's not quite cooperating.

Meh, that's all for the moment.

On the Air Again

After a year of not having a HF antenna at home (and being forced, forced to take all those nice hikes to remote locations just to get on the air), last week I finally strung up the W3EDP-mini antenna above a handy rooftop, dusted off the MFJ-948 tuner,* and got the FTdx-1200 back on the air.  And I will say, it is nice to once again sit, warm and dry, with a cup of coffee and a radio inside when it's sprinkling outside.

The performance from this miniature wonder is mediocre at best, with the chief "wonder" being that it works at all, at only 21' total length.  The 1200's internal tuner can tame it on the 30, 20, 17, & 15 meter bands, and the manual 948 tuner can force it to work – kicking and complaining at times – on 40, 60, & 80 meters.  Weirdly, 12 meters and up won't tune at all, which doesn't really bother me.  It's adequate for shortwave listening as well, and it even does a decent job down on the AM broadcast band.

On the whole, I have no complaints.  No, it's not a giant NVIS wire that can warm the ionosphere on a winter night.  Still it makes contacts, and we can all look forward to the ionosphere improving over the next three years.  With this plus a 2m/440 vertical, it looks like my "antenna garden" (as opposed to the usual term "antenna farm" to describe what's in the back 40) is complete for now.

*Side Note: Every ham should have an MFJ-948 tuner or similar and know how to work it.  Using a basic manual tuner is kind of like driving a stick shift, one of those skills everyone with a license should have.  Beyond that practical aspect though, a versatile tuner with a built-in 4:1 balun invites all kinds of antenna experimentation.  You'll also need a decent ground, or you'll most likely become acquainted with my old friend, R.F. Burns.

Let's Start the Weekend Off Weird

Let's start it off with a story of a 1948 UFO chase at thisdayinaviation.  F-51D's!  A (likely) Project Mogul balloon!  Crashes, tragedies, coverups, conspiracies!  Ain't history great?  This whole incident has that feel of wonder-sliding-into-paranoia as the warm post-war glow faded and the cold war began ramping up.

Here, have some mood music inspired by the incident: Anoxia by MoAM.

I'd file this under 'space' but it doesn't really fit.  It's more of unclassifiable... possibly even unidentifiable.

Link to the Webb Telescope Schedule

 So far, so good, and things are moving along on schedule (as you've probably already heard).  But, in case you missed it, NASA has a pretty good clickable schedule of what's happened and what's next at:

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html

The really risky parts seem done now, but the rest is far from routine.  Anyway, link to the schedule above.  Also, here's where the telescope is at the moment on its journey to L2, along with some interesting temperature and other stats:

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

All for today.

Omnibus Post: New Year, New Events, New Gear

Three days in and I'm finally here to say that this blog continues.  Why?  Because it's here.  What is going on?  A new bike helmet (wore out the pads on the old one, and yes the new one damn near glows),

new coffee maker (cracked the glass on the old one), Winter Field Day is coming up (link), and the patch for Coffeeneuring 2021 arrived today (that was fast!).  After finishing Ted Chiang's latest short story collection, I'm kind of at loose ends on books, though I am making some headway on The Wim Hof Method (insane), Horowitz & Hill's The Art of Electronics (slow), and maybe Baa Baa Black Sheep if I can ever get that rolling.

Beyond that, I swear that I'm going to get that new antenna up this week (not shown actual size).  So, yeah, there's plenty going on here, just not much that's blog-amenable.  But stay tuned, I'm sure something'll turn up, even if it's only X-rays from the latest ER adventure.