Geez, I should get out more often!
Had some "Bumps and Lumps and Down In the Dumps" the last week, so rather than work more on the transmitter (I did get the new AC socket installed), I decided to work on cleaning up the "Storage Room" in the basement. Found some things I haven't seen since we moved here, and started sorting stuff out.
I now have another huge box of clothing to donate to our local ARC Thrift Store, several boxes of electronic "stuff" have been reduced to one box, and I have a whole bunch of somewhat rare, obscure T-Shirts to sort through from my rocket chucking days. I'm only going to keep the ones with the best graphics, and that means those with just the name of the satellite or mission name on them will be hitting ePay for disposal. I have more than enough plain, white T-Shirts with obscure logos where a pocket should be, and I don't need more. If they don't sell, they'll go to the Thrift Store.
And I dug out all the APC UPS units I have, and will probably put them on the "Come And Get It!" email list the local Ham Radio Club has. I kept the two with the newest batteries plugged in since we moved here, but they all should have new batteries installed.
I gave away a Systron-Donner 1702 Signal Generator and a Tektronix 492 Spectrum Analyzer I posted on the list last week, and that opened up some floor space, and now with the UPS units moved out, I freed up some more.
Now there's plenty of room for Pebbles' dog bed in the shop, and I'm sure she'll appreciate it.
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Good to see the sun but still with the cold wind. My rancher friend from Routt County reports snow is now to the second wire on her fences. Much more needed.
ReplyDeleteHow deep should it be at this time of year?
DeleteAh yes, random t-shirts... I've got random coffee cups...
ReplyDeleteYeah, got a whole bunch of them, too!
Delete3-4 wires. Steamboat, on average, gets 30' per winter before compacting. Variable. I've seen winters with the fence post covered and winters where there wasn't enough snow to have the Winter Carnival (February) parade and contests on Lincoln Ave (Main Street). My friends need the moisture for their pastures and hay meadows.
ReplyDeleteOuch, sounds like about HALF what they should have. There's very few pockets left of that last storm. We've got some in the backyard that turned into big clumps of ice. Haven't seen snow do that since I lived in Illinois!
DeleteSure hope we get a wet Spring, but not too wet. The runoff from the burn areas could be hellacious if we get lots of rain.
Have you seen the Tiny Spectrum Analyzers? Essentially the form factor of the NanoVNAs. I could see replacing my old HP. Probably the size of you old 492 sideways.
ReplyDeleteYou have a 141T, SiG? I cut my teeth on those at Hughes. Pretty good instrument for it's day, but GAWD are they heavy!
DeleteI don't care for those little units. Most of them are PC controlled, and I want a stand-alone instrument. I also don't have a PC down in the workshop, because I'd never get anything done!
No, I have an 8558B. It drifts like crazy, to the point that its front panel calibration adjustments are useless, but it lights up and works overall. To get the frequency, I can put the signal generator on screen to compare frequencies. My gut feel is that a spectrum analyzer benefits more from lots of shielding than a VNA does, so they're probably not very good.
DeleteA friend with one of those nanonVNAs says he uses the PC software because he can't read the display without enlarging it.
These things are called TinySA. I haven't watched any videos but there's a bunch of videos on YouTube - just search.
Just found this comment!
DeleteI had to look that one up to which it was.
Yup, they never really settle down. Sounds kinda like the Tek Spec A I had.