Chitika

Bill, Pete,

In keeping with historical events, I have enclosed a few snap-shots from the 1961 Pittsburgh Press dated Wednesday, April 12, 1961.
Yes, a few of us recall that very day. I had filed this newspaper in my Scrap Book back then. It was a bitter sweet thing, to read for most, as we hoped the U.S. to be first but none-the-less, we smiled anyway because, it proved a person could go into space and return. (Flight Breaks Barrier to Space Travel). I was very enthusiastic about Rockets, Travel and current events. I built my own capsule in the rafters of my parents home and spent all day up there in the tiny confines as I launched my own secret adventures into Outer-Space.

Hope you enjoy the photos. I can provide a better set of copies if you are interested.

73's

Harv - WA3EIB
Idaho Falls, ID

Harv: I converted a small closet into what I saw as an excellent simulator of the Apollo 11 Command Module. Bill

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Mark, K6HX, took a break from Hummingbird photography and captured some of the images streaming down from the International Space Station on Cosmonautics Day (April 11): http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/11/sstv-from-the-iss/
Very cool Mark (and I think the bird pictures are just as cool!)

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Well, it has happened to me yet again: After a somewhat happy period of stubborn luddite rejection of digital technology, yesterday I decided to jump into the fascinating world of Si5351 PLL chips.  I don't have to tell you who is responsible for this decision. But he is of Italian descent and lives in Southern California.

I'm working with an Arduino Uno board and a prototyping shield sent to me by the same Italo-Californian gentleman.  The physical wiring of the Si5351 was remarkably easy -- just four connections. Wow, I thought, this is going to be easy. WRONG.

Lady Ada's sketch and library compiled and uploaded without difficulty and the little device was simultaneously spitting out 125 MHz, 13 MHz, and 10 kHz energy. Pretty cool.

But I got into trouble when I tried to load some of the VFO circuits out there. Most of the trouble was caused by my errors in managing all the libraries and such. But as I was telling Billy, it really seems to me that the folks who work on this stuff are using another language. And the problem is that it is a NON-HUMAN LANGUAGE.   If it were French or even Chinese, it would probably be easier. But you end up getting error "messages" like "U-int-8 has not been declared!" Oh, I see. I found myself thinking back fondly to my recent problems on 40 meters with the screeching amp and the helpful ESSB guys. Ah, the good old days.

So, I'm not going as far as declaring microcontrollers to be demonically possessed (remember the regens?) But I do suspect extraterrestrial involvement in these little devices.

In the end, I got several of the VFO sketches working. You get a sense of how new the Si5351 VFO work is when you find yourself using code that was written last week or last month. Thanks to Lady Ada, Pete N6QW, Jason NT7S, Tom AK2B, and Thomas LA3PNA. All of these folks are doing great work, moving the radio art forward (even if they are working with ET).

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

http://m0dcm.co.uk/?tag=sstv

From the ARISS Web Site:

http://www.ariss.org/news.html

Latest NewsApril 6, 2015

ISS Slow Scan TV Expected Weekend of April 11
In celebration of Cosmonautics Day, Russian ARISS SSTV activity is planned for the second week of April.

Cosmonautics Day celebrates Yuri Gagarin’s famous flight on April 12, 1961 becoming the first human to reach space.

The SSTV event is planned for Saturday, April 11, beginning at 10:00 UTC and continuing until 21:00 UTC. All transmissions will use the high resolution SSTV mode PD180. Transmissions will be at 145.800 MHz. If similar to past events, 12 different photos will be sent through the weekend with 3 minute off periods between transmissions.

To receive the images in real time, all that’s required is a 2 meter radio receiver and a computer to convert the receiver’s audio to image form. The software to do this is available as freeware on the internet at sites such as http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php. Received images can be uploaded and viewed at the ARISS Image gallery found at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php .

Those capturing images are encouraged to upload them to http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/submit.php

Uploaded images may be viewed at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

Please be advised that situational demands on crew time could result in postponement or cancellation of any ARISS activity. Please pay attention to the possibility of any change in scheduling.

Soviet Union-1965-Stamp-0.12. Cosmonautics Day.jpg

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Oh the humanity! Pete Juliano has turned his digital attention to previously completed projects. Perfectly fine rigs -- whose only crime was that they used LC or crystal (VXO) oscillators -- are now being ARDUINOED by the maniacal Dr. Juliano. Not even Huff and Puffs will be spared. This is like the French Revolution! We hear that Pete has even mastered the art of cutting the square holes that are needed for his "displays," so there is no stopping him now.

Back in 2009 Wes Hayward and Bob Kopski designed a termination insensitive amplifier block for use in BITX-like transceivers. Farhan urged me to use it. The advantage of this design is that the input impedance stays at 50 ohms no matter what you hang off the other end. That's very helpful, especially when you start trying to get specific impedances at the ends of crystal filters. I'm planning on using this circuit in my next BITX. This morning I was playing around with it in LTSPICE. The "mirror" feature in that program is quite helpful when you are working on circuits like this!

Here is the article by Wes and Bob that describes this great circuit:
http://w7zoi.net/bidirectional_matched_amplifier.pdf

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

I had a nice QSO with Duke, NA1A, out there in Irvine, California on Sunday. Duke has a deep interest in the quality of SSB signals -- he is part of the ESSB group. So I was pleased when he said my BITX 17 sounded good. He recorded a little bit of my transmission. Click below to listen to the BITX 17 tran-continental, with some help from my CCI amplifier (120 W PEP) and my 17 meter Moxon antenna.

Thanks Duke!

http://soldersmoke.com/Recording by NA1A.mp3

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Chitika

One more on Gagarin

Cosmonautics Day Follow-up

Once again, into the digital morass...

Happy Cosmonautics Day! Yuri Gagarin Images (SSTV) from Space This Weekend

http://m0dcm.co.uk/?tag=sstv

From the ARISS Web Site:

http://www.ariss.org/news.html

The Slaughter of Inductors, Capacitors, and Crystals Continues...

Termination Insensitive BITX Amps

Transcontinental Recording of My BITX 17

AHMED HASSAN MOHAMMED

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