WWL Turns 100 Today

WWL 870  – the 50,000 watt New Orleans AM station – turns 100 today.  Worth noting, and worth listening in because they're doing some additional programming to commemorate the event.

Here's their main web site, and their Wikipedia page.  It's an interesting station with an interesting history.  A lot of these old-line AM behemoths are turning 100 about now: KDKA (Pittsburgh) a year and a half ago, WSB (Atlanta) a couple of weeks ago, and WSM (Nashville) in a couple of years, just to name a few.  I expect they'll be around at least as long into the future.  It turns out that – despite dire predictions a few decades back – AM on the medium wave band is just too handy to go away.

Biking in Tate's Hell Again

Not much to add, just a fun time biking on a Sunday morning/afternoon.  Here's a view of the dirt road entrance to the forest, looking south toward Apalachicola Bay and St. George Island.  So why yes, this is the view from the inside of the gates of Tate's Hell, looking out.

That's not heat haze on the sides.  It's just lens glare because I didn't bother taking the pic from a shady spot.

Winter Field Day 2022 Results Up

Link here.  Despite wimping out and working the event as a home station, I still learned a lot and had a good time.  Maybe in a tent next year, if it's not pouring rain or 20F outside.

Happy Spring Equinox

From over at today's NASA APOD:

Also, yesterday's pic from the Webb IR Telescope was a big chunk of good news:

Click through for the full, big images and for more information in the captions.

All I got for today.  Off to work on a balky toilet.

All About the PDP-11

Article over at Are Technica.  Great, if outdated, machines.  Did some of my very best work on a pair of uPDP-11/73s.  Used all kinds of stupid memory tricks to bust out of the 64k jail and get to the real storage.  Clean and tight code was mandatory, because bloatware just wasn't an option.

Anyway, go read up on The Machine That Changed Everything.

Tech Observations from the Santos Fat Tire Fest

Last week I mentioned attending the Santos Fat Tire Festival, but it was only a mention and a trailhead picture.  This week, no pics, but plenty of observations about the directions in which mountain biking and the associated technology are going.  Here are the main highlights.

• Mountain bike suspension all now looks pretty much the same: an articulated rear triangle, with linkage to an air shock tucked into the front triangle somewhere near where the junction of the seat and top tubes.  There's a little variation in the details, but the good old weird days of the 90's unified rear triangles, crazy beam top tubes, slingshot bikes, even the simple 1.5" travel softtails – all gone. Good?  Bad?  I'm the guy with the Epic.
• Speaking of the Epic, I thought my rear suspension was having trouble, so I took it into a shop near the park.  "Nope, we don't work on those, but let me take a look at it..."  Long story short, my shock's pump was no longer putting out the high air pressure it was supposed to!  $35 for a new pump and things were back in business.
• 1x12 drivetrains seem to be the way things are going.  It's good to get rid of the front derailleur, just simpler.  OTOH, grabbing that quick downshift with a 2x system in steep, choppy terrain has its value too.  We'll see how this one shakes out in coming years.
• Pedal-assist ebikes are here to stay.  The battery tech and mechanicals have gotten so good that they're now practical, and no longer the freaks of nature they used to be.
• Light technology is now crazy-good.  Between lithium batteries, LED 'bulbs,' USB charge ports, and easy rubber-band-it-on mounts, the world has turned since the last time I seriously looked at lights.  Picked up a 1,000 lumen Blackburn.  Five (5!) hours of rideable light for not much more than taco night out.  Maybe the best part is that lithium batts don't have all the weird recharge memory issues.
• Which leads to how some kind of campsite power bank is a good thing to have.
• Gravel bikes are here to stay too.  Lots of those around, most of them $$$ works of art.  Not something I care to really use abuse out in Tate's Hell.
• Full-face helmets for cross-country riding seems to be catching on now.  With some of the limestone rock climbs and descents (and falls!) out on the Greenway, I can see why.
• For standard cross-country mountain bikes, 29" wheels seem to be the norm now.   Didn't see any new 27.5" (or *gasp* 26") wheeled bikes around, except maybe for a few specialty jumping bikes.  Not quite sure where this is going either, but I'll have time to sort it out before my next MTB purchase.
• Silca – the bike pump company – is doing remarkable things with 3D printed titanium, including drop-outs with all kinds of internal stiffening structure and ultralight tools.  Picked up an 11 gram (!) beer opener, as seen here.
• After the third night of music at the festival, I get it: dad-rock is some people's comfort music.  Doesn't mean that I really like listening to it, but it's at least more understandable and tolerable now.
• The band the first two nights (subset of Macey Mac & Henry the first night the full band Slickwood on the second) was way better.
• BBQ brisket served hot with cold iced tea at the trailhead is good.

OK, all I got for now.  On to the new day's adventures.

Why They Don't Let Me Cook Anymore

From today's xkcd:

Be sure to click through to the original and mouse-over for an additional punchline.  If further reading is needed, here's Wikipeda's explanation.

I swear, I'm still getting around to a follow-up post of the new bike tech seen at the Santos Fat Tire Fest.  Stay tuned.

Campsite Solar Options

At last weekend's Santos Fat Tire Festival (blogged about on Sunday), one of the guys brought along a Jackery 300 power bank.  Pretty neat stuff.  It can put out up to 300 watts of AC power, has a couple of USB outlets, and a cigar-lighter plug in for 10 amp 12v DC.  Full bank of easy-to-read meters, including (tah-dah!) a % charge remaining "gas gauge."  The battery is a 20 amp-hour (at 12v) lithium wonder.  This is plenty, almost overkill, for a handful of people to recharge their phones, bike lights, laptops, etc. over a long weekend.  It also has an internal charge controller, which can take output from a solar panel.

So, naturally, knowing that I've dabbled in solar on numerous occasions, questions arose.  Being me, I had to dig into this once back home at this computer, and here are the results.  It all came down to three good  options, two of them pre-packaged and one more hands-on DIY.  They're all about the same size and scale as the above-mentioned Jackerey 300, but there are many other sizes and options at the linked sites.  Here we go.

Option #1: Jackery 300 + their 100 watt panel, about $600.

Pro: Plug-and-play.  All the outputs most people need.  The engineering is done for you, go enjoy.

Con: $300 for a 100 watt panel?!?  That's 3x the usual price.  Can't get more than 10 amps 12v DC.

Comments: Yeah, but it's a really nice 100w panel.  It folds, it's tough-skinned, it's plug-and play.  The 10 amp DC limit is a bummer, that's not enough to run a 100w ham radio.  With that massive battery, there really should be a higher DC amperage output option.

Option #2: Goal Zero Yeti 200X + Nomad 50 solar panel, about $600.

All of the Jackery unit's pros & cons apply here, except that for the same money you get half the panel wattage and 60% the battery capacity.  Um... maybe it's a nicer unit?  I doubt it.  But go look around at Goal Zero's site anyway, you may find something more to your liking and needs.

Option #3: DIY with a Bioenno battery, solar controller, and 100 watt panel, $363 + accessories.

Pro: ~20% lower total cost.  Fully customizable.  20 amps continuous / 30 amps burst of clean 12v DC for full-power ham radio fun.  Modular.  The joy of DIY.

Con: Not plug-and-play, nor weather-resistant.  The joy of DIY.

Comments: The components listed above are (respectively) $193 + $70 + ~$100 = $363.  Then you've got to add in the costs of an AC inverter, USB ports, and any other options you might want.   Then you've got the cost of wiring and connectors (MC4 & PowerPole recommended), which is not trivial.  On top of that, you may end up shelling out for $40 connector crimp tools, etc.  This is not for the faint of heart.  OTOH, you get to build exactly what you want.  Trust me, what you end up with will work damn well, but it will also be a science fair project.  Examples of my "small" system: here and here show how this can get out of hand.

To summarize, look at the available options at all three sites.  20 A-H is a damned big battery just for charging phones over a weekend (way too big for backpacking), and something smaller may do you fine.  Overall, the Jackery seems to have the best bang-for-buck, even with the pricey panel.  If you need more than 10 amps DC (it's a ham thing) and have the skills and crimp tools, maybe go for the Bioenno-based system.

Too damn many options in the marketplace, which is great to a point, but then analysis paralysis takes over.  Hope this post helps you whittle down things to where you're not overwhelmed and can make some decisions.

Soon(-ish): More on the Santos Fat Tire Festival.  I've got taxes to do.

This Just In...

The Santos Fat Tire Festival was a blast.  Three solid days of riding, camping, and checking out bike-related stuff.  Oh, and eating and music too.  I managed to complete most of the 50 mile epic ride, but in the end the rocky climbs and descents were promising more of an ER visit than I cared to contemplate.  One pic is all you get; beyond that it can't be described.

Much better use of the place than some damned old barge canal.  What were those people thinking?