Coffeeneuring Stop #6: Waveland's Ladner Pier Pavilions

 With a hurricane on the way (but not here yet), what else to do but take a ride along the beachfront down to the Waveland Pier at lunchtime.  We'll get back to the hurricane part in a minute.  But first...

1. where: Garfield Ladner municipal pier pavilions, Waveland MS

2. date: 10/28/20

3. what: chicory cafe au lait with half&half

4. ride details: CX bike on a blustery pre-storm day

5. distance: 4.6 miles, with another 3.8 miles added on by riding along the beach toward downtown, in sort of a T-shaped route.

What could be more 2020 than sneaking in a coffeneuring trip with a hurricane bearing down on the area?  Well the window boards were all up, the yard objects were all stowed, and the cars were moved away from the trees.  Time to ride off some pre-storm jitters.

So here I sit, typing on my little laptop by the light of a battery lamp, linked to blogger via the phone's wifi hotspot.  Ugh, soooo much cleanup to do.  Second-worst storm I've been through, a distant second to Katrina.  Got to find an electrician tomorrow... and get the chainsaw running... so much stuff to do.  Time to upload pictures and hit the rack.  Main thing: everyone's OK.

Coffee, and listening to storm news...

 

Not too rough, yet.  Water's only up about a foot.  I hear it topped out in the neighborhood of 10 feet.

 

I wonder what Zeta clocked in at when it finally hit the MS Coast?

afternote, 10/29: Gusts to 104 recorded here in town.  I believe it!

Next Monday: 100 Years of KDKA

 KDKA in Pittsburgh has a decent claim to being the first commercial broadcaster, and while these things are always murky, it is absolutely not in doubt that they first began broadcasting on November 2, 1920.  Stumbled across this article about their early studio and transmitter hardware today, and if you want more history here's their Wikipedia page.  Lots of nice grainy old B&W photos of tube amplifiers and wind-up record players – one with what is likely the first electric phono pickup.

It's an odd thing, but when I lived in Pittsburgh I can't recall ever listening in on KDKA.  Lots and lots of WRCT, but no KDKA.  Eh, I was busy with other things.  Way busy.

Side-story:  Some years back I met an old gentleman who had grown up in Pittsburgh, and been in his teens circa 1920.  Being young and technically-minded, he built a crystal radio to tune in the then-new KDKA.  He related that people in the neighborhood were fascinated by his device, but they didn't quite understand what was going on.  Word got around and people who barely knew his family were dropping by, asking to have a listen at this mysterious gizmo.  One old matron tucked the earpiece to her ear, listened, made some strange faces, listened again, slammed the earpiece down on on the desk, shouted "I still don't believe it!" and stomped out.  My, how times have changed.

Anyway, I'll bet that they're planning something interesting and cool next Monday evening.  Don't have a clue as to what, but on their 100th birthday they've got to have something planned.  Will definitely try to tune them in via skywave.  Remember, 1020 AM, a good half-hour after dark.

Coffeeneuring Stop #5: Washington Street Pier

 Yet another coffee shop without walls, today's coffeeneuring ride was to the Washington Street pier & boat launch area.

1. where: Washington Street pier fill, Bay St. Louis MS

2. date: 10/25/20

3. what: cafe au lait, chicory coffee w/ half&half

4. ride details: CX bike on a cool (~70F) morning along the seawall

5. distance: 3.8 miles round-trip

Another beachfront landmark.  Sat on the rip-rap, sipped a couple of cups, and read for a bit.  Then pedaled home and had lunch.

Rip-rap, coffee, bike.

View looking east, toward Henderson Point (see stop #4).  Pilings are from the old Bay ferry, which ran for a couple of years while the new bridge was being constructed in the aftermath of Katrina.  Pelican!

Spooky October Picture

 From today's NASA APOD.  It's a computer simulation of the distribution of dark matter in a large section of the universe.  Not exactly real, but it is carefully constructed to show the result of hypothesized interactions.  If it looks spooky, it's because the universe can be a pretty spooky place – if you look at it the right way.

Coffeeneuring Stop #4: Henderson Point

 Continuing out theme this year of "coffee shops without walls but near water," here's today's lunchtime stop just across the bridge into Harrison County.

1. where: Henderson Point, Pass Christian MS

2: date: 10/23/20

3. what: cafe au lait, chicory coffee & half-and-half

4. ride details: CX bike on a day before a cool front blows in

5. distance: 12.0 miles round-trip

Another favorite turn-around spot, here on the Gulf side of Henderson Point.  It's about the prettiest section of beach on this end of the MS coast.  It's still relatively wild and secluded after being scoured clean by Hurricane Katrina.  There are a few new houses around, but a lot more foundation slabs can be seen, if you know where to look.

Looking west, back toward Bay St. Louis.  You can see town's waterfront over the back wheel and top tube.

Looking southeast toward Cat Island.  Can't really see it from here though, elevation's too low and the island's over the horizon.

A Mixed Bag in Space

 Just finished reading A Hole in Space, a 1974 short story collection by Larry Niven.  Don't know why I'd never read, or even heard of this one before, because back in the '80s I burned through just about everything he'd written up until then.  So, how was it?  Mixed, with everything between C+ to A.  There's a classic Louis Wu story in there (There is a Tide, which I'd read long ago), a very noir-ish story about a criminal gang using flash mobs to pull off their heists (the enabling technology is a little different than cell phones however), some bribery mixed with game theory, an alien contact story where a bartender saves the Earth, why pure theoretical physicists can't be trusted with alien hardware, etc.

It's a good way to spend a couple of evenings.  Really wishing he'd get an English edition of Protector out on Kindle though.  My copy's packed up, and it just feels like time to re-read it.  In the meantime though, it was nice to stumble across a previously unknown collection like A Hole in Space.

The CitiCar: Truly Awful

 Article at Wikipedia and some hilarious video at youtube.  

People look back at the 70s with nostalgia, but it is hard for anybody who was there to get past leisure suits and CitiCars and the like.  OK, there were a few things like punk rock and and the VAX-11/780 that were pretty good, but for the most part the 70s were about shutting down the Apollo program and building junk like the CitiCar.

Coffeeneuring Stop #3: Cowand Point

 At yet another coffee-shop-without-walls, here's a late morning stop along the Bay of St. Louis.  

1. where: Cowand Point, Bay St. Louis MS

2. date: 10/17/20

3. what: black-black coffee, brewed from espresso beans

4. ride details: CX bike on a mid-70s October day

5. distance: 7.4 miles round-trip

One of those perfect mid-October days just after a cool front blows through.  I had another place in mind, but while zipping by on the seawall I spied this one and quickly turned around.  About the time I settled in with my cup, I knew why this place felt so familiar: it's reminiscent of a favorite fishing spot in Florida where the alligators have taken over.  Hm.  The odds of having a reptile encounter were low, being in town and with the cool weather and all, but it was a definite possibility so I finished my cup and didn't stay for a second.  Beautiful spot though.

Satellites Miss Yesterday

 Article at space.com: Phew! 2 big hunks of space junk zoom safely past each other in near miss

Not that I'm disappointed or anything, but a Kessler cascade would have been right at home in 2020.

Dinosaurs & Kids

 And no, this isn't some Jurassic Park tale.  Boy, 12, discovers rare dinosaur skeleton at the BBC.

That is cool.  Imagine his start-of-school-year essay: "What I Did on My Summer Vacation"!

Halloween is On the Way

 ...and here's a good take on Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put a Spell on You.

While we're at it, Halloween is the night for pirate radio.  More here.  How-to primer here.  Be ready.

Coffeeneuring Stop #2: North Beach Boat Launch

 Just another quiet morning in Bay St. Louis, and time to get out and do the seawall ride again.

1. where: Along the bayfront seawall, all the way at the north end by the boat launch.

2. date: 10/12/20

3. what: cafe au lait, made with Cafe du Monde coffee-with-chicory and a dash of half-and-half

4. ride details: CX bike on a warm, even hot, early October day

5. distance: 11.8 miles round-trip

This seawall route has been pretty much my stock lunchtime ride for this middle part of 2020.  The whole coffeeshop without walls concept is working out really well this year.  Here, have a pic of some pelicans perching just offshore in the Bay; as always, click to embiggen.

Then I came home and took the window boards down.  They'd been up since September 14th(!) when two hurricanes that made a run at the area in one week.  The combination of storms, rain, and yet more storms worked together to keep them up until a sunny day had everything dry and conducive to taking them down and putting back in storage.  Hopefully they won't have to go back up this year, but this is 2020 so who knows?

Shortwave Antenna: Vertical or Horizontal?

 This is a question that has circled around on the fringes of my consciousness for years now, but one that I've never quite found time to test.  And it is a simple question: When using a random wire antenna with a portable shortwave receiver, is it better to string the wire vertically or horizontally, or does it even matter? Mostly this is a question when out camping, because arranging a 19' wire vertically is usually a good bit more involved than just stringing it out along some nearby bushes.

Before going any farther, I want to point out that this is an exercise in ordinary backyard shortwave listening with relatively inexpensive equipment.  There are many, many better-engineered and more costly solutions to the technical challenge of shortwave scanning, and this does not address any of those sophisticated approaches.  This is for the person who opens up the box and wonders about the best way to hang the included long-wire auxiliary antenna.

Equipment:  Tecsun PL-660 SW/AM/FM/Air Band receiver, with its included 19' random-wire antenna.  Internal battery power used.

Conditions & Time: Clear local weather.  hamqsl.com's nowcast of band conditions were fair from 3.5-14.35 MHz, and poor for higher frequencies, with SFI = 72, SN = 26, A = 5, K = 1.  Time was 21:00-21:30 UTC, or 4-4:30 pm local CDT.

Sawhorses spaced ~17' apart.
Radio and notepad can be
seen on ground in front of the
near sawhorse.

Procedure:  Out in the backyard (typical residential neighborhood, well-spaced ~150' between houses, above-ground power lines 125' away), suspend random wire from ground to its full length.  This was achieved using a length of paracord over a tree limb, with the tree trunk ~30' from the radio's location.  With the PL-660's antenna gain control set to "Normal" (i.e., the mid-setting of Local-Normal-DX) and the bandwidth set to narrow, use the receiver's automatic scan function to see how many stations were received.  Make notes of the number of transmissions detected, reception characteristics and quality, and any perceived noise levels.  Re-orient the antenna to a low horizontal position, over two sawhorses approximately 3' high (see picture), and repeat.

Results:  For the vertical antenna orientation, 32 stations were detected between 5959 – 15730 kHz.  Nearly all were intelligible, with those at the lower end more steady and those a the higher end much more variable in strength.  For the horizontal antenna orientation, 21 stations were detected between 9265 – 1570 kHz.  Similar overall signal quality was heard for the received stations in either antenna orientation.  More noise was noticeable at the lower frequencies between the stations for the vertical antenna orientation.  However, this was significantly below the received signal levels, and not an issue in the overall listening quality.

Conclusions & Discussion:  Suspending the wire antenna vertically worked better, especially at the lower frequencies.  Getting a wire up 21'+ vertically is usually not as convenient as stringing it horizontally, but it may be worth the extra effort, depending on the location, campsite, nearby trees, etc.  The overall conditions were typical for fall camping weather, with fair-to poor radio propagation conditions, so this result should be broadly applicable for how SW portables are often used.  This result may change with propagation and radio noise conditions, both for atmospheric and local noise sources.  Testing will continue as propagation conditions improve with solar cycle 25 getting underway.

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Addendum, 10/12: While writing this up yesterday evening, it occurred to me that I hadn't tested the PL-660's built-in whip antenna.  This comparison is important, because sometimes the wire antenna is too cumbersome to deploy.  So, how does the whip antenna compare?

Conditions & Time: Overall, very similar to yesterday.  hamqsl.com reports fair conditions from 3.5–14.35 MHz, and poor for higher frequencies.  SFI = 72, SN = 26, A = 3, K = 1.  Same time of day as yesterday's testing.

Procedure: Repeat of yesterday, with the whip antenna added to the test.  The whip was oriented vertically.

Results: For the vertical 19' wire, 31 stations were found by the auto-scan function between 2380 – 15770 kHZ.  Electrical noise was low but audible in the 3 MHz region, fading to none at higher frequencies, and not a significant source of interference with any stations.  For the horizontal wire, 15 stations were found between 9265 – 13630 kHz.  Electrical noise was barely audible.  With the whip in use only 1 station was found.  Switching the antenna gain to its DX (most sensitive) setting, 6 stations were found.

Revised Conclusions:  Adding to yesterday's conclusions, the whip antenna functioned but was vastly inferior to the wire antenna in either configuration, even with the gain set to DX.  Today's results with the wire antenna were, unsurprisingly, very similar to yesterday's, given that the ionospheric and weather conditions were nearly identical.  Noise was not a factor in receiving for any of these antennas or configurations, but did noticeably increase for the vertical wire antenna.

Coffeeneuring Stop #1: South Beach Blvd

 In true 2020 style, started out close to home, just a simple bike ride down to the beach to sit on a walkway bench and enjoy a couple of cups.  With Cruisin' the Coast going on, the mean streets of Bay St. Louis are no place for bikes this weekend.  Well, at least not for any distance, not out of the neighborhood.  On to the particulars:

1. where: Corner of Beach and Ramoneda, Bay St. Louis MS

2. date: 10/11/20

3. what: home-brewed Columbian, served black out of a thermos

4. details: warm, clear day in the wake of a passing near-miss of a hurricane; CX bike

5. 2.2 miles round-trip

Soaked up a few early fall rays while sipping Columbian at a convenient bench on the boardwalk just down from my house.   Finished a Larry Niven sci-fi short story from the early 1970's, The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club, which somewhat accurately predicted flash mobs and a criminal gang making organized use of the chaos.  Very 2020, and even though the enabling tech is different, the human psychology is spot-on.  Didn't quite get a sunburn, but got all the sun I needed – or could stand.  Note to self: bring a hat next time. 

ps: For 2020, my coffeeneuring week will run Saturdays thru Fridays.  Started a day late!

The Berlin Candy Bomber Turns 100

Read up on this fascinating and cheerful bit of U.S.-German history at Wikipedia.

The world needs more Gail Halvorsens.  Happy Birthday, and many happy returns!

The Replacements, Explained (sort of)

 Medium-length article at some music blog.  It's Friday and this hurricane season has been a nail-biter.

Eh, Coffeeneuring '20 starts tomorrow.  That's something to look forward to.

Thought for Today

 "The fundamental principle of science, the definition almost, is this: the sole test of the validity of any idea is experiment." –Richard P. Feynman

 All I got for today.  Maybe more this weekend, but that's all I got for today.

Kind of funny, kind of cute. But mostly disturbing.

Two preschool teachers bring their professional skills to debate moderation, as seen at the BBC.

Beyond saying "funny, yet disturbing," this is presented without further comment.