Welcome To The Weekend

 Nice weather here, up to 87* today, but there's a front coming through, so it's cooling down and hopefully we'll get some rain. There's a winter storm warning for the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, extending up through the Medicine Bow Range, which starts at the Northern end of the Never Summer Mountains. 6~12" of snow forecast, with winds up to 65MPH. Over on The Plains, they're having winds of ~40+ PH, with gusts going to 75MPH. And NOAA has issued a severe blowing dust warning fo most of the Eastern part of the state.

Tried my hand at just monitoring 6 Meter Meteor Scatter last night for the April Lyrids, and was rewarded with this:

 

The highlighted entries in the log are people calling "CQ", and from the recorded signal strength levels, I could have worked most of them. But not being the Night Owl I used to be, I was fast asleep. Still, that's a whole lot more than I expected to receive just using my 20 Meter vertical antenna. I have a 6 Meter dipole I'm planning on putting back up, and a 5/8ths wave 6 Meter vertical that will be going up as soon as my son and I dig the holes and set the poles. I had a very similar 6 Meter antenna back in SoCal that a friend had loaned me, and when the band was open, it was really, really, really good.

Have a good weekend, and be safe out there!

80 Degrees Today!

 Warmest so far this year. Should be like this all week, and then drop down into the 50's/60's for a few days.

Trees are full of buds, lawn is greening up, and all the flowers have come back from the dead in the front garden area.

Time to bust out my Ross Root Feeder and give the trees and shrubs a Spring boost.

Y'all be safe out there!

Revell Releases New Kit of Russian Cruiser Moscow....

 I've heard it's quite difficult to build as you can't find all the parts....

Looks Like He Got His Wish

 Ukrainian stamp honoring the solders who were captured on Snake Island.

Sometimes Karma's a bitch....

Audio Dummy Loads Finished

 Between the botched flooring, and the delays, and then the plumbing leaks and plumbing repair, I've been a tad busy. It's also the start of the Spring Lawn Care Season, so there's been a lot of that going on. Hoses to lay, newly seeded areas to be kept moist, and trees and shrubs to feed.

And The Little guy was over Thursday night and all day Friday, then The Kids came by for dinner with the New Little Guy, who's taken quite a shine to me and my funny noises and faces.

ANYWAY..... I had most of the parts and a sketch, so I sat myself down and built these up.

The resistors are 8 Ohm, 100 Watt, Non-Inductive resistors in a series/parallel connection. It gives me 8 Ohms at 400 Watts, bigger than any amplifier I'll most likely encounter. I also tapped the point between the two 4 Ohm sections, which also gives me 4 Ohms at 200 Watts, also more than any amp I'm likely to encounter.

So now that I have these, and all my Test Equipment appears to be squared away, I can finally get back on the big Pioneer SX-980 receiver that's been a doorstop the last few months.

Rock On!

 

YAY! Plumbing All Squared Away

 Well, the plumber was back today to reseal the two downstairs toilets. The one off the laundry room wasn't screwed down to the floor securely, which means it will rock back-and-forth, and eventually break the wax seal. It showed no sign of leakage....yet.

The basement toilet was just sitting on the floor...NO bolts, with the decorative caps just sitting where they're supposed to be covering a bolt. It didn't show any signs of leakage, either, but he said it was an accident waiting to happen. I made a crack about it "Not Even Being A Home-Owner Grade Repair", and agreed with me, saying even a home owner knows enough to go get the missing parts.

The drywall guy came and inspected the garage ceiling, complemented me on ripping the soggy stuff out, and said it would be about $175 to replace the drywall and fiberglass insulation, tape it, and paint it.

I estimate the plumber's bill will be about $600, labor and materials.

Oh, well...save $1k on the flooring install, and give $800 to other contractors to fix the mistakes the "flooring guy" made.

And the Ham Radio bands have been very good this week. While Mike The Plumber was here, I talked to several Japanese stations, some South/Central American stations,  heard some Europeans, and several stations from "Down Under", all on 12 Meters/24MHz, which hasn't had any activity since the peak of the last Solar Cycle.

Nice to see Cycle 25 off to a roaring start.

66 Awesome Dance Moves

 From a friend of mine. Quite fun to watch and pick out which movies they took the clips from.

This Is NOT How You Seal A Toilet To The Floor!

 GROOOOAN.....

We had a local plumbing firm come out to repair the leaks caused by the :handyman" guy who put in the flooring and new steps. That fiasco could be a post all it's own. Suffice to say I would have given him a "C-" for the work he did, until the leak started.

This is what the plumber found under the toilet in SLW's bathroom:

I don't know what the heck he used in place of a proper wax ring, but it looks like it was squeezed out of a tube. The plumber said he'd never seen anything like this, as even "Home Owner Level" repairs he'd seen at least had the correct sealing rings used. She was gone for the week after the work was "finished", so her toilet wasn't used, but mine was in daily use.

The one in my bathroom was worse, as the floor flange was loose, caused by using too small hardware to hold it down. The heads of the flat-head bolts holding the flange to the floor were small enough to pull through the dimple in the flange, causing the flange to loosen up, and combined with the wrong size wax sealing ring, allowed water to leak down the outside of the drain pipe, and run along to the lowest spot, where it dripped off and soaked the drywall.

I ripped all the soggy drywall and insulation out of the garage ceiling, and put a fan on it do dry it out, which is easy to do this time of year as it's so dry here.

The aftermath in the garage:

Aggie Plumbing, who I can't say enough good things about, will be back on Monday at noon to pull and reseal the two downstairs toilets. Considering the "quality" of the work the handyman did on the upstairs toilets, we think it's a wise decision to pay the man, and have the other two toilets checked, and most likely resealed.

And they gave use a referral to a guy who does drywall repair, so he'll be out here on Tuesday to repair my  Damage Control activities from when the leak started.

ANNNND SLW had a "talk" with the handyman, who politely told us to cancel the balance owed on the contract, keep the remaining materials, and it was nice meeting us. He's a good guy, but his skills are lacking in a lot of areas.....

30 Years Ago Today....

The USS Missouri was decommissioned for the last time.

So "Happy Retirement" to the ship and her caretakers. We spent some time on the Mighty Mo when we went to Hawaii a few years ago. Being part of the USS Iowa family, we were treated like royalty, and got to see some Behind The Scenes things that aren't normally open to the public.

And of course, we went to the USS Arizona Memorial, where I was doing OK until I saw the oil bubbling up...

Oh, Joy....A New Plumbing Issue....

 Well, they guy we hired to do the flooring and stairs finished up last week, just in time for SLW to head to LAX for a week to celebrate her oldest son's birthday. I picked her up at the airport this afternoon, and we got back here around 1730. A little before 1800 I went out to the garage and noticed water on the floor. And it was coming from a drywall seam in the dropped ceiling....never a good sign, as the ceiling is dropped here for pipe access to the upstairs bathrooms. I ran out and grabbed a bucket, shut the water off to the two upstairs toilets, and knocked a hole in the drywall to let it drain.

I noticed the drywall was soggy for quite a few inches along the seam, so, since it all has to come out, I opened it up some more to see what's up there.

RATS! It's packed full of (now very soggy) fiberglass batts for insulation, since the garage isn't heated, and would be a huge heat loss through the floor.

Since it was now open and drained, I then turned on the water to one toilet, flushed it twice, shut the water back off, and went down to look. The wife's toilet didn't cause any new water to appear, so I went back upstairs, turned the water back on for the toilet in the master bedroom, flushed it twice, turned the water off, and went back down.

Yep, water was now running out, confirming it's that one particular toilet. 

SLW called #1 Sone who's a cracker-jack Home Improvement guy (way better than Tim, and equal to Al), and the first thing he asked was whether the flooring guy had "doubled up" on the wax sealing rings for the toilets. I know he put new ones in, but only used a single sealing ring.

Since the new flooring is 7.6mm thick, and the underlayment is 1.4mm thick, it means the toilets are now 9mm (.35") higher than they were before. #1 Son says that's more than the rings can accommodate, so now I have to get a plumber out here tomorrow to redo the rings, and make sure everything else is up-to-snuff.

Yeah, I know, it's a First World Problem, and when I think of all the people that don't have indoor plumbing, I'm grateful (in a way...) to have these "problems".

Gorgeous Day Here

 75 degrees, sunny, mild breeze, bright blue skies, and puffy white clouds. Supposed to get some rain mid-week, which will be nice to clean things up, and I expect we'll get another snowstorm in April.

Still a bit crummy feeling, but took the dog for a walk anyway. Always good to get out of the house on a day like today. Things are greening up some, the tulips have popped up through the soil, and the iris' are sprouting up. Be time to spray the emerging weeds soon, and in another few weeks it'll be time to feed the trees, shrubs and lawn.

And The Cycle of Life continues on.......

Back to the basement shop, where I have a ton of stuff to photograph and list on eBay. Hope y'all have have a great weekend.

Ugh....Had A Case of Crud....

 Wasn't feeling 100% on Saturday, progressing to sore throat and generally feeling crummy on Sunday with a mild case of the trots.

Slept most of today and now feeling better, but still a bit fuzzy. Should be back to full power tomorrow....

Diesel Is How Much?

 Was just listening to a Ham in Australia talking about fuel prices. Last year diesel fuel was $1 per liter.

This year it's $2.50 per liter. A two-hundred and fifty per cent increase, all due to "policies", and not the true cost.

Astounding.....

Minor Audio Project

 Now that I've got my test equipment stuff all sorted out, there's one thing I need to build before I can test audio amplifiers, and that's an Audio Dummy Load. Similar to the Dummy Loads, or Dummy Antennas, that I use when testing transmitters, but specialized for audio use.

It's basically a Load Bank of non-inductive resistors with some "5-Way" binding posts, and it will allow me to run just about any amplifier I'll ever have to test.

The green things are 8 Ohm, 100 Watt resistors, and are connected in series/parallel to give me 8 Ohms at 400 Watts.

The brown board is a cut-off piece of the flooring we just had installed that I kept a few pieces of. It's non-conductive, easy to drill, and best of all, FREE! The two red and one black items are the binding posts, and I'll drill the piece of aluminum angle to use as a bracket. One will be the common, one will be for 8 Ohms, and the third will be for 4 Ohms. By tapping the junction of the four resistors, I'll have a 4 Ohm load rated at 200 Watts, and that should be plenty.

Why a dummy load? Well for one, I don't have any speakers that can take that power level, and two, it would deafen you in the shop.

Russian Comms In The Ukraine: A World of Hertz

 Excellent article here from the Royal United Services Institute, whose catchy headline I shamelessly swiped.

In case of TL;DR, the gist is that their digital tactical radios don't work very well, and are NOT widely deployed.

One thing caught my eye, and I have to pass it along: It is possible that the delivery of the Azart radios has been troubled by corruption.

The Azart is their 6th generation, walkie-talkie-type secure radio.

I'm shocked, I tell you.....Shocked!

Breaking Bad

 Started watching Breaking Bad last night with SLW. My son is a huge fan, but I never watched it because I was traveling a lot when it was on, and didn't want to get hooked (a la Sopranos and X-Files) and miss a bunch of episodes. He started watching it here, and it looked interesting, so I bought the boxed set.

It's good. Very good. I'd only seen Byan Cranston in Malcom in the Middle, and the "Drive" episode of the X-Files.

If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching.

So Much for "Two to Six Inches of Snow".....

 Yep, it stopped snowing around 2130, and we didn't get any more. Total was 3~4", and most of that has disappeared already. The sidewalks are clear, and the streets are melting.

Guess my threat of firing up the Ariens scared it away.

Colder than you-know-what today; Bright and sunny, but only about 15 degrees. Got down to 3* last night, and expected to be below zero tonight.

Time to stoke the fireplace and watch "The Glenn Miller Story" tonight.

12 Degrees and Snowing....

 We have about 2~3" on the snow table, and we're expecting another 2~4" before it stops. The Ariens is gassed up and ready to go tomorrow, and should make child's play out of 6". The more I use it, the better I get at stopping, starting, steering, and setting the speed it travels at. I'm just glad we've had light snows this year to give me the practice for when the big stuff eventually shows up.

My replacement Textronix 2465B oscilloscope arrived the other day, so I spent some time getting it up on the bench. It's identical to the one I had, which is going back to the guy I got the replacement from. These are marvelous oscilloscopes, the last of the Tek scopes that were easily repairable, wide bandwidth for capturing fast signals, and has some built-in measurement capability, like a DVM and a Frequency Counter. I really liked my original one, but it has well over 20,000 hours on it, and some of the controls were getting a bit wonky. This one has 1612 hours on it, and has been completely gone through, cleaned, and calibrated. Should be good for another 40 years now.

Yeah, it's more than I "need", but it's very versatile, and good test equipment is a joy to use.

Good bye, old friend. The Doctor will see you shortly, and then on to your new home.

The empty water bottles were used as "corner protectors" in the shipping carton the vendor used. Two in each corner, keeping the box squared up, and preventing damage. Pretty clever, and they work perfectly.

Around the House and Shop....

 Besides listening to the shortwave and tinkering in the shop, I've been helping with some home improvement projects the SWL decided she wanted to do. We're getting new flooring installed in all four bathrooms and the laundry room, along with removing the carpet from the stairs, and putting laminate on them, too.

Some demo work on the stairs. These are the short set of stairs from the main level to the den/laundry level:

And the main stairway:

The vertical pieces are wood, and the treads are MDF with a finished, rounded front edge. And of course, the sent our installer/handyman guy the wrong size. ARRRRGH!

This is the laundry room looking into the #3 half-bath/powder room:

Just about finished down here, but over half the baseboards they sent our guy were the wrong ones......DOUBLE ARRRRRGH! And it's going to take 14 days to get the replacements. The bathroom is finished, but he only had enough of the correct baseboards to do half the laundry room, so he did the "hard half" so we could get the washer and dryer back on-line ASAP.

So, everything has slid to the right by two weeks. Looks like now I'm going to have to buy some nice wood wall plates for the outlets and switches so the rooms look "finished".

And down in the "Wizard's Workshop" I put the repaired Heathkit Total Harmonic Distortion Meter to it's intended use for the first time. Yes, it's been rebuilt, and all the alignment/calibration tests went by-the-book after it was repaired, but how well does it actually work? Can I believe the measurements it makes? Are they reasonable, and do they "make sense" and look "real"? Are they repeatable?

So far, the answer appears to be yes to all of the above. I have four audio signal generators, so I set up a shoot-out test to see which one was the "best" in terms of lowest distortion. The results were as expected, and repeatable. I used a 1kHz, 2vRMS signal from each generator, and compared them to each other on the Heathkit. These are relative measurements, not absolute, as I have no calibrated source of specific levels of distortion to test the Heathkit analyzer with.

Up first was my newest unit, the HP 8904A Multifunction Synthesizer. As expected, it showed the lowest level, reading .02% THD.

Next up was a Heathkit SG-1272 Audio Generator, which read a little under .03% THD.

Next was another Heathkit generator, the IG-18 Sine-Square Audio Generator, showing a bit under .1% THD (found my notes) .05%. which surprised me a bit, as this one was modified for improved performance. It's better than the Heath spec, which is "Less than .1% from 20Hz to 20kHz", but I've read where some of these modified units can be better than .02%. It's very touchy to get calibrated, and I could probably tweak it a bit while connected to the analyzer to improve. Didn't take a meter photo, but it's the middle brown box here: 

And coming in dead last, is the audio generator section of the Heath IG-37 FM Stereo Generator at a staggering FOUR PERCENT of THD. Look where the range switch is set. I had to go UP three ranges to measure it.

This thing's going on the block to get it OUT of here!

And I'll go through the IG-18 generator to see if I can clean it up a bit without a lot of effort. I have far better test equipment to use than the two old Heathkits, but they'd be OK for somebody just starting out.

Hope y'all have a good week ahead.

Where's Russia's Air Force?

 Interesting article here at One America News.

My son's not a big fan of OAN, calling it "Fox Lite", but the articles seem well-written. BUT, as Eaton Rapids Joe points out, beware of "Garbage-In-Garbage-Out".

Shortwave Activity........ Used Yours Lately?

 Many of you have a Shortwave receiver, but how often do you use it? Or, have you ever used it? Well, this would be a good time to get it out, read the manual, and get some practice.  Believe me, when TSHTF is no time to learn how, and you should get comfortable with it before then.

First, let's cover some storage aspects.

If it uses batteries, NEVER store it for any length of time with the batteries in it! Same with any battery powered GPS units, or walkie-talkies you may have. If you're worried about The Dreaded EMP, keep the radio, charger/"wall wart" if it has one, and a pack of batteries in a steel ammo can. If you're really paranoid, then tape the seams closed with some adhesive backed, aluminum foil tape, like that used for HVAC ducting. You do not want generic "Duct Tape", as it has a fabric backing. You need something like this, readily available at home improvement stores. You don't a $1000 Mu Metal "EMP Case" like some places are selling. A galvanized steel garbage can, with the lid sealed down as above, is adequate, and has a lot of room in it. Oh, one other thing about the whip antennas commonly used on small, portable SWL sets. NEVER push it down to close it from the top! You'll bend the whip 90% of the time, which at least, is maddening. Telescope it back down using the largest sections, and then carefully push the top section in.

Next, how to use it?

Well, as the computer guys say, RTFM. You have to know how to turn it on, select the Shortwave frequency bands, and tune it. It may or may not have some additional functions, like an attenuator, usually a switch marked "Local/DX", a "Mode Select" to listen to to Single Sideband, AM, or FM. The better ones will have a "Wide/Narrow" selectivity setting, and possibly a Noise Blanker, or some kind of "Noise Reduction" function. Get to know how to use them, and try and get a rough understanding of what they do. Print out the chart of frequency bands from the above Wiki link, and keep a copy or two with the radio. A very good reference book to have is the World Radio TV Handbook, which has all you need to know about specific frequencies. HIGHLY recommended!

In case of TL;DR, here's the chart:

The chart also gives time of day and time of year for "best" reception on the listed bands. A good way to start,  is to tune in the signals from WWV, on 2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0 and 20.0MHz. If you can't hear WWV in the CONUS, 24 hours a day, frequency dependent, then you have some problems beyond this brief post.

So what else is out there besides The Tick?

Well, things have changed quite a bit since I started listening waaay back in 1961 when my Dad bought me my first Shortwave Receiver! I didn't have a Hallicrafters radio then, but I sure remember this:

Yes, Radio Havana is still active, along with the BBC World Service, China Radio, and quite a few Religious broadcasts with everything from Fire and Brimstone, to Bible Study and Discussion programs.

For other references, the Wikkipedia has good general knowledge sections, and there's a wealth of SWL, and HF Comms info on the Web.

Radio Reference is a site I belong to, and is highly recommended. I'll add it to the side bar for easy look up.

So get those radios out, and learn how to use them!

And So It Starts.....

 Just heard old Vlad has sent forces in to the Ukraine, and they're shelling Kiev. He's also told their military to lay down their arms....

More here at the One American News site....

Happy Birthday BB-61!

 Today is the 79th anniversary of the first time BB-61, USS Iowa, was commissioned.

In celebration of the date, the radio guys were up and operating, and I talked to two of my friends, one on 20 Meters (14MHz), and 17 Meters (18MHz), and we had good signals both ways.

Happy Birthday, USS Iowa!

Chevy's New "LT-6" DOHC V8 Is A Nuclear Warhead For The Z06 Corvette!

 DOHC, 4 valves-per-cylinder, Flat Plane Crankshaft, 8600RPM redline, and Six-Hundred Seventy Horsepower from 333 Cubic Inches........astounding.

No superchargers or turbochargers; This is pure, Naturally Aspirated, RPM-driven, Horsepower.

Read all about it here in Don Sherman's great article.

Cracking The Case I Call....The Rusty Bolt Caper....

 Well, after slotting the screw heads, using my Horror Freight "Electric Flamethrower", and slugging away for 30 minutes, I got the three remaining screws holding the case halves together out.

Some "persuasion" was required...

 I tore up two of the three, and had to re-slot them as deep as I could with the Dremel, and along with a generous helping of heat, I got them loose with about five mighty whacks of my BFH hand sledge. I think it rather appropriate it's often called an "Engineer's Hammer".

Since I want to set the position to zero degrees elevation, I connected the rotor to one of the control boxes I have with some short jumpers, and tried to turn on the control box.

RATS! The power switch was jammed, so that's getting fixed. The housing for the switch is the black rectangular object.

SO....since I'm now "Waiting On Parts" (again!), I put these aside and opened the case for the azimuth rotor, which I've repaired many of. One thing I've learned (DAMHIK!) is to split and separate the case in a big pan or box to keep the bearings from scattering to the four winds.

Having 80 grease covered bearing balls rolling around loose is not fun. These bearings were packed with a dark gray grease most likely containing Molybdenum Disulfide, an Extreme Pressure additive to the grease.

The gear train in the azimuth unit looks fine, and there's no sign of water ingress, so this unit will get cleaned up, regreased, reassembled, and tested.

So, back to waiting for FedEx/UPS/USPS to get the parts to me so I can finish this up, and ship it out to our blogger friend BillB.

Yaesu G-5500 Azimuth/Elevation Rotator Rebuild

 One of my readers had asked me if I wanted to sell one of the sets of Yaesu Az/El rotators I had, and I said I'd clean a set up and let him know when it was ready to ship. Note the Tools of Violence to the right. Impact screwdriver, large ball-peen hammer, and a 10mm deep socket, in a 1/2" drive ratchet. Getting the screws out of these things can be a real chore!

In the process of cleaning it up and getting it ready to run on the bench, I popped off the terminal strip on the Elevation rotator, and the blank-off plate on the other half of the housing so I could look at the bearings inside and see how bad the grease was.

Annnnd...no surprise here, it had dried out, congealed, and was falling out in chunks. Soooo....time to split the case halves, and at a minimum, repack the bearings.

Yup....the grease has expired.....

 Same "ex-grease" on the other side of the through shaft:

See the red stuff? Rust from the bearing cages mixing with the grease. The bearing cages are notorious in the Yaesu elevation rotators for crumbling into rust. And considering how the external hardware looked: 

I'm not surprised that the retainers are close to giving up the spirit. They're relatively inexpensive, or were, and come two to a package, along with the 40 bearing balls that should get replaced if you're doing a deep dive into the rotor:

I was able to get the screws on the azimuth rotor loose with just a couple of whacks with the impact screwdriver:

But I still have a couple of stuck screws on the elevation rotor after slugging away for a good hour:

And the screw heads are getting chewed up enough that the impact screwdriver can no longer find purchase on them. I'm going to slot them with a Dremel Tool, and then use the flat-blade bit in the impact screwdriver.

All this rusted out hardware will get replaced with stainless, and the Philips-drive heads replaced with socket heads.

This started out to be a "Clean Up and Check Out" project, but it's turning into a rebuild project. I'll use Mobil1 red, tacky, synthetic grease to repack the bearings, as it doesn't ooze oil everywhere in the Summer, and doesn't freeze solid in the Winter.

Have to call Yaesu Friday morning and get the parts ordered.....

 

Meanwhile, Back In The Workshop....

 All is not High Technology and Electronic Wizardry. Sometimes more mundane projects go under the knife to be revived.

First up was SLW's Dirt Devil "Stick-Vac". It had stopped working due to the little cloth filter being completely clogged, and the roller brush being jammed with "stuff". Cleaned all the bits and pieces, put it back together, and it works as intended.

This one can have the roller brush and long handle removed, and used as a "Dust Buster". It's great to use on the stairs.

#2 and #3 items are some very solid, all hardwood bar stools she bought at the local "arc Thrift Store". The first one she brought home was made so well I had her go back and get it's mate. Some goober had used wallboard screws to try and reattach the legs to the top. Needless to say, they sure held well, but weren't put in properly, so the top and legs weren't square, and they wobbled horribly. Took me two hours to get the drywall screws out (one had the head break off, GRRRR!) so I could clean up all the mating surfaces and put it back together. A few squirts of good wood glue, and some clamping time, and they were back in fine shape, with no wobbles when on the floor.

I always leave things clamped overnight to let the glue really set up.

Not bad for $25 and some "free" labor/materials.

 Cheap chinesium stools like this are $40~$50 each, and are made from softwood, or particle board. These are American Made, solid hardwood (looks like a baseball bat, so maybe ash?), and are now good for another 25 years or so.

Been lightly snowing sine around noon, and there's maybe 1/2" on the "snow table" in the backyard, but 6~8" is expected overnight. I fueled the snowblower, and gave the maw another coating of Ariens "Sno-Jet" so the snow won't stick, and I'm ready for tomorrow.

And since I've got the bench clear now, I brought a Yaesu G-5500 Azimuth/Elevation antenna rotator in from the garage so I can (finally!) get it all checked out and packed up for BillB, if he still wants it.....

Radio Amateur Bob Bruniga, WB4APR, SK

Bob was a well-known fixture in the Amateur Radio community. He's best known for his creation of the APRS, the Automatic Packet Reporting System. 

The following obit is from the ARRL.

 

*************************************************************************************

APRS Developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR (SK)

The creator of the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, died on February 7. An ARRL Life Member, Bruninga was 73. According to his daughter, Bruninga succumbed to cancer and the effects of COVID-19. Bruninga had announced his cancer diagnosis in 2020. Over the years, he readily shared his broad knowledge of and experience with APRS, among other topics in the amateur radio and electronics fields.

While best known for APRS, Bruninga was also a retired US Naval Academy (USNA) senior research engineer who had an abiding interest in alternative power sources, such as solar power. In 2018, he authored Energy Choices for the Radio Amateur, published by ARRL, which explores developing changes in the area of power and energy, and examines the choices radio amateurs and others can make regarding home solar power, heat pumps, and hybrid and electric vehicles. Bruninga drove an all-electric car and had experimented with a variety of electric-powered vehicles over the years.

APRS originated in 1982, when Bruninga wrote his first data map program that plotted the positions of US Navy ships for the Apple II platform. A couple of years later, he developed what he called the Connectionless Emergency Traffic System (CETS) on the VIC-20 and C64 platforms for digital packet communications to support an endurance race. The program was ported to the IBM PC platform in 1988, and was renamed APRS in 1992. The recognized North American APRS frequency is 144.39 MHz, and APRS is globally linked via the internet. Bruninga founded the Appalachian Trail Golden Packet (ATPG) event, which fields APRS nodes from Stone Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine each July.

ARRL Contributing Editor Ward Silver, N0AX, remembered Bruninga this way: "Bob kept pushing APRS beyond its origins as a position reporting system. He developed and helped implement numerous other uses of APRS in support of what has become the 'Ham Radio of Things,' with great potential for future amateur radio applications. Bob's far-reaching vision and imagination were as good as it gets."

Bruninga mentored USNA midshipmen in building and launching amateur radio satellites and CubeSats, beginning with PCsat in 2001. PCsat was the first satellite to directly report its precise position to users via its onboard GPS module. Subsequent USNA spacecraft included PSK31 capability (HF to UHF) and other innovations.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) ARRL liaison Rosalie White, K1STO, recalled that Bruninga attended many ARISS-International meetings and contributed “enormously” to ARISS APRS activities, leading a team in developing protocols and software for rapid message exchange via a packet “robot.”

White said APRS remains a key staple in the new ARISS InterOperable Radio System (IORS) that’s now on board the ISS. She added that Bruninga offered input for future NASA Lunar and Gateway opportunities in which ARISS hopes to take part.

Last year, ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, on behalf of ARRL, honored Bruninga with a brick in the ARRL Diamond Club Terrace at ARRL Headquarters. ARRL sent him a letter of appreciation along with a replica of the brick.

Bruninga held a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech (Georgia Institute of Technology) and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. Bruninga was a 20-year US Navy veteran. Dayton Hamvention® honored him in 1998 with its Technical Excellence Award.

Bruninga authored and co-authored numerous academic papers over the years, and was frequently in demand as a speaker and presenter at amateur radio gatherings.

Survivors include his wife, Elise Albert; daughter, Bethanne Bruninga-Socolar, WE4APR, and son A.J. Bruninga, WA4APR. Arrangements are pending, although his daughter said that a celebratory memorial service will be held this summer in Annapolis, Maryland.

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 Rest In Peace, Bob. You did a lot for the Amateur Radio community.

Good Gravy.........It Works!

 I got back on the Heathkit IM-5258 which was on the back burner for over a week while waiting for parts. The parts arrived while I was doing the Timebase Project, so they sat for a while.

After replacing "The Lone Photocell" and adjusting it, I was staggered to see it within the tolerance range, and almost at the target value when I turned the analyzer back on. I spent about 15 minutes adjusting it, then put a dab of sealer on the wire leads so they wouldn't bounce around, and put the cap on it. I did the same with the four photocells in the other housing, and it took a couple of hours. If you bumped one while adjusting it's neighbor, you had to go back and at least check that it didn't get moved off of it's target value. Tedious, but required.

Final tally is all of them are within the allowable range, and they're all within 5% of the target value. Getting them any closer would be an exercise in futility, so I'm going with what they are. Once the photocells were adjusted properly, the rest of the alignment/calibration went by the book.

Here it is measuring the residual distortion of my little Heathkit SG-1272 audio generator:

 It's reading about .04%, within the published specs for the generator, but others have reported this generator as being better than that. Suspecting a Ground Loop, I disconnected the oscilloscope from the "Output" jack, which lets me measure any phase shift between input and output, which I don't care about.

And here it is with the 'scope disconnected:

 It's reading about .015%, a definite improvement.

And yes, with NO input, and the input jack terminated, it reads "0.0%", meaning the needle doesn't move off zero.

Are these readings believable? Well, it's on it's most sensitive range, and the meter is barely off the zero. The rated accuracy is listed as "5% of Full Scale", so that number of ".015%" is open to some interpretation. It's literally at the limits of this instrument, but it does show *something* is there. It also shows how careful you have to be making these measurements. Everything has to be shielded, you should be running on an isolation transformer, and a little experience and luck don't hurt, either.

SO.......was it worth it? In terms of Educational Value, absolutely. Repairing this piece of test equipment and the companion Intermodulation Analyzer has helped me understand the measurements they make by understanding how the measurements are made. Understanding how a measurement is made leads to insights about what the measurement represents.

In terms of "Bang for the Buck" and usability of this instrument? A big "MEH"....There are far better instruments to use in this day and age to make these measurements with. This one is a 1970's hobbyist-grade device, made with decent quality parts from a proven design, but it sure ain't no HP instrument! Things like the knobs, switches, and controls are consumer-grade and are a bit sloppy.

This thing fought me tooth-and-nail. The chassis was bent, a rack handle was bent, the plastic coupling for the tuning shaft was broken, one of the power supply regulators had failed, The Lone Photocell had gone out-of-tolerance, and it was (and is) a beat-up, filthy mess...

Sometimes I feel like this when I finish one of these:

BUT........ it keeps me out of bars at night.

Looks like I can finally get back to my Pioneer SX-980, which started this trip down the rabbit hole......

Workshop GPS 10MHz Timebase Wrap Up....

 Gee, now that I've got the HP Z3801A "SmartClock" up and running nicely, why don't I go ahead and use it as the 10MHz Master Oscillator for all my test equipment?

So I spent this afternoon doing that. Had to move some things and string a cable from the receiver over to the antenna sitting in the window, and then plug it all together.

Here's the antenna, doing a very nice rendition of "Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me" as it's at least 20" below ground, in an East facing window, with a metal window well. I'm picking up satellites from the other side of the house when their elevation is high enough. I'm guessing it's reflections it's picking up. "It Works", but will work as-intended once I get the antenna outside and up in the air.

This is the software I'm using. It's "Lady Heather's Disciplined Oscillator Control Program", emphasis mine. The program icon is a Dominatrix with a whip, as seen in the extreme lower left corner. It does everything I wanted to do, and more, and it's a free download compared to the other paid (and crappy) software I'd been using.

 So here it all sits, an "obsolete", surplus GPS Clock, with a cast-off, rescued old laptop I was given, providing an extremely accurate, stable, 10MHz reference signal to all my test gear.

"Old" Technology can be very useful when properly applied.....

And speaking of Old Technology, the photocells for the Heathkit THD Analyzer have finally arrived, so that turkey can go back on the bench.....