A Lost Vault in New Orleans is Found

Scroll down to the third item at this link, labeled "Sealed away in an attic, a New Orleans safety deposit vault from the 1880s is being emptied."

It'll be interesting to see what turns up in all this.  Will keep an eye out for updates.

Ham Camp #N > 10

The MCARA held yet another ham camp this weekend (I forget the count now, it's something around 15 since the first one in 2014), and a good time was had by all.  Learned a lot about operating a new-ish small solar power system and managing its trickle of power to keep a 100 watt radio on the air.  Here are some pics, I'll interleave a few nerd notes to self along the way.

The new-ish 27 watt panel, along with connectors to get things conducted back to where I want to be, 50' away under a shady tree.  Solar panels don't get berated by the dermatologist the way I do.  Of its nominal 27 watts, in the real world it delivers just under 21 watts – slightly above par.

The business end of things.  That wiring setup is akin to a science fair project, and will receive considerable re-engineering between now an the resumption of camping season next fall.  It did all work though, so as a thrown-together prototype that allowed the rest of the system to be stress-tested, it was a complete success.

Of course, this solar power system can run a coffee grinder.  We may have been roughing it, sleeping on the ground and using non-resonant antennas, but we are not savages.  Standards must be maintained.  Pre-ground coffee will not do.

And finally, speaking of standards, this morning's breakfast featured the traditional fare of the MCARA ham campouts:

Back to the small solar power system, the bottom line on the weekend's power budget is: went to the woods with 12 AH in the battery, the panel supplied another 15 AH, and the radio, computer, and (of course) coffee grinder used 23.4 AH.  This left about 3.6 AH brought home in the LiFePO battery – ample margin.  Remember, the objective is to go operate on minimal gear and have just enough power to do so, not to return home with a topped-off battery.  This system is enough for a fun weekend of casual operating on full-house 100 watts.  It'll also keep a QRP radio in business indefinitely.  At less than 10 pounds, it's a joy to load up for car camping.

As far as contacts went, there were a handful to the Florida QSO party, a short one to Costa Rica on 17m (the band opened just before dark on Saturday), fooled with a bunch of digital modes with a friend 20 miles away in Diamondhead on 80m (I suspect that was via groundwave propagation), and had a nice chat on PSK-31 with a guy out in Texas.  Not many in total, but the ionosphere isn't in the best shape lately either.  It was all fun.

One more gear note worth mentioning, the 1/4-size W3EDP antenna tuned just fine down to 80m.  It probably wasn't very efficient there, but like the dog that mows the lawn it doesn't have to do it well, it's amazing that it does it at all.  This may have had something to do with the antenna extending all the way to the ground, rather than being suspended well above, as I usually hang this thing.  Will have to experiment with this in the backyard in the near future.

Back to unpacking and cleaning gear.

Zoom Lens Down a Well

An infinitely deep well, in fact.  The increasing levels of magnification give some perspective on what the EHT group has achieved.  Remember, the first two levels of zoom required a space telescope.  Improving upon that is astounding.

Pic from NASA's APOD page.  link

Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test on Saturday May 11

Blurb here, list of frequencies & times here.

What this is and how it works:  On Saturday May 11th, a number of DoD stations transmit to hams (and anyone else who cares to listen) on military frequencies just outside of ham bands, calling for check-ins.  The DoD stations give some minor information and a call-back frequency on the adjacent ham bands.  (This is generically called "working split," where stations transmit on one frequency and listen on another.)  Finally, there'll be a web form to fill out (link not yet up) to document your contact, and then a few weeks later a "thank you" QSL postcard shows up in your mail.

Side note: There doesn't seem to be a "listen-only and reply via web form" option, but perhaps when the web form is up that may be there.  But from the wording in the announcement, it seems they're looking for a radio reply.

It's an interesting event.  I haven't participated in a couple of years due to high local noise levels but now that that problem seems to have resolved itself, barring life getting in the way, I'll be in this year. It'll be a good opportunity to really learn how to work split on the FTdx-1200.  Two weeks to dig into that manual ought to be enough.

Another Contact with Content

Last Sunday while idly dialing around on the 40m PSK sub-band, I had a brief contact with a guy up in north Alabama.  Band conditions were lousy, so we traded signal reports and went our separate ways.  When I looked up the guy's call sign to fill out a QSL card, holy smoke, he's the author of fldigi (among other programs), the very digital mode program I was using to talk with him.  Here's his web site, and a page all about identifying which digital mode you're seeing on a waterfall display. Particularly noteworthy though is how that page gives a brief description of the properties of each mode, and what the mode's good for.  It's an interesting read, because while the "hows" for each mode is easy to find, descriptions of the "whys" for various digital modes are rare.

Anyway, you never know who you're going to run into when you step into the HF bands: backpackers, bluegrass enthusiasts, program developers, all kinds of creative people.

Minor Moves – not really progress yet – on Digital AM Radio

Digital-Only AM Proposal Gets a Closer Look by the FCC: article at Inside Radio, link and commentary at The SWLing Post.

Hm, this could either be the first pebble in an avalanche, or just a random pebble rolling a couple of feet down a hillside then stopping.  Time will tell, but the time is about right for this to begin.

Sidenote: Does it bother anyone else that knowledgeable people are in effect using the phrase "digital modulation amplitude modulation radio"?  Yes, we all know what is meant here, i.e., "digital modulation on the medium wave broadcast spectrum."  I promise not to go around correcting people about this at cocktail parties.

The IBM 360 and Greater Lesson Learned

In almost a tab-clearing exercise, here's a brief history of the IBM 360's development.  In an industrial way, the project was too big to fail, and so it succeeded largely due to a massive infusion of corporate resources, far beyond what was originally thought needed.

From that developmental blast furnace however came something of more lasting importance, an overall framework for efficiently managing medium-sized software development teams.  Fred Brooks laid down the foundations of software engineering and for the successes of the 1980's in his 1975 book, The Mythical Man-Month.  While there is a revised and expanded edition still in print, the original can be found here.  These are lessons that keep getting forgotten and re-discovered, much to the pain of programmers and investors alike.  If you ever find yourself involved with a software development effort, even as support staff or on the financial end, and the mention of Brook's book doesn't ring at least a few bells within the team, it is time to move on.