Mending not ending - again

Recently the Soldersmoke blog posted a link to this great video by The Spirited Man about fixing and repairing things.  I only wish I was half as good as this bloke at fixing things.  

I am currently doing battle with a salt pool chlorinator that's stopped chlorinating.  A call to the manufacturer for a few tips was turned into a sales pitch to buy a new one at $1380.  It's so easy to flash the plastic and buy another, but I refuse to do so - yet.  I am running out of ideas, but not yet ready to surrender to the evil lords of consumption.

On the plus side this morning I fixed a chair whose canvass seat had rotted away.  A piece of MDF board screwed on to the frame, some foam rubber and liquid nails has restored (maybe that's overstating it slightly - let's try 'returned') this chair into service in my shed.  A small victory over the evil lords!

Until next time, peace and love.

Two recent reads

Just a quick post about two recent books I have read.  Infinite Country by Patricia Engel tells the story of a Colombian family which escapes poverty in their home country to the U.S.A. and in the process become undocumented migrants in the land of the free.  Spanning twenty plus years it describes the precarious existence poor migrants face with the threat of deportation ever present.  A great book which tells a story not often heard.

Megan Nolan's novel Acts of Desperation is the story of a young millenial woman who falls in love with the wrong man and how some people seek validation in the love of others.  This book is gritty and Nolan's writing crackles on the page.  I am clearly not the intended audience for this book, but it gave me an insight into a young woman's life.  Recommended.

In the meantime I am ploughing through the Bob Dylan book I recently posted here.  It's thoroughly enjoyable, but probably for Dylan fans only.

Until next time, peace and love.

HF portable receiving loop project

The finished portable loop - the module is hiding in the grey case

Coming up in June this year I will heading off to the NSW central coast to participate in a DXpedition with three other radio enthusiasts.  Although all involved are amateur radio operators we won't be transmitting on the amateur bands.  Instead this DXpedition is aimed primarily at receiving medium wave broadcast band stations from the Pacific and the Americas.  

In preparation for the trip I decided to build a receiving loop antenna which could be easily packed into a suitcase and assembled quickly at the receiving site.  I have a Wellbrook receiving loop at my home which gives impressive performance on the MW bands; however, it is not suitable for portable operations.  

There are a few options on the market and I decided to go for the Australian made Mini-kits EME 232 which comes just as an amplifier module which needs to be constructed.  The advantage of this approach was that I was free to design the loop component of the antenna so as to maximise its portability.  It also helped having the manufacturer based in Australia in case any problems arose.

The Mini-kits module is based on the proven LZ1AQ design, although it lacks the versatility of the original which can be used to switch in multiple loops.  The trade off is that the Mini-kits version is a fraction of the cost of the LZ1AQ module.

Construction of the circuit board was fairly straightforward.  Component wise the board comprises roughly 50% surface mount components.  I had not attempted a surface mount construction before and was a little apprehensive as to how I would go, but as it turned out there was nothing to worry about.  A fine point soldering iron, thinner spec solder and my magnifying LED lamp made the job easy.

The surface mount side of the board

Next was to flip the board over and install all the through hole components.  This was straightforward enough.  

The through hole component side of the board

Along with the main module I constructed the Mini-kits bias tee board which is used to power the module by sending 13.8 volts through the coaxial feed line.  

Once the bias tee was completed it was time to tackle construction of the loop antenna itself.  I dug about in the shed for some plumber's PVC pipe to construct the frame to give some mechanical strength to the loop.  For the loop I had some LMR400 50 ohm coax in the shed which I cut to about three metres in length to give me a one metre diameter loop.  On each end of the coax I soldered the inner conductor and the coax shield together and in turn soldered each of these ends on to two lengths of 3mm wire which plug into the module.

Next was the moment of truth.  Would it work?  I did a voltage check of the module as recommended by the manufacturer and found the voltage at the board was about 1.5 volts less than that specified.  A quick email to Mini-kits who confirmed the voltage supplied would be sufficient.  

Once satisfied with the voltage supply and the construction I plugged the antenna into a SDR receiver and gave it a test run.  I was immediately impressed with the performance of the antenna.  It has slightly more gain than the Wellbrook loop, but at the expense of a slightly higher signal to noise ratio.  Given my noisy urban location I wasn't too worried about this as the DXpedition will be (hopefully) relatively quiet noise wise.

The physical construction of the loop is not suitable for a more permanent installation, although the antenna has been set up in my backyard for a couple of months now and faced up to all sorts of weather.  I may look at building a LZ1AQ loop next time and experiment with some of the other antenna designs which can be utilised with this version.

A round up of the Dxpedition will follow in due course and I will let you know how the antenna performs in the field.

Until then, peace and love.

Another book!

I have a few music books on order. Here's the latest. I'm no songwriter but it will be interesting to read about Jeff Tweedy's songwriting process.

Until next time, peace and love.

A new book!

Just arrived today.  Heylin has first access to Dylan's complete archives. 

Klara and The Sun

 

As you know I use these pages to keep a record of things I get up to.  A kind of diary I guess.  This includes a record of the books I am reading at the time.  Here's the latest one, Klara and the Sun, by Japanese-English author and Nobel Laurette, Kazuo Ishiguro.  Thrillingly my copy has been signed by the author.

Despite his fame as an author I have not previously read one of Ishiguro's books.  I don't know how people keep up with all the books that come out and there are so many I have not read.  And I consider myself a fairly regular reader.  I usually have one or two books on the go at one time.

This story is set in the future in America, but not so far away that we don't recognise elements of the portrayed world.  Klara is our narrator and an AF, or Artificial Friend.  AF's are used to keep teenage children company in this future world and Klara is purchased by her mother to keep Josie company.  Josie lives with her mother who is divorced.  We view this world through Klara's sharp observations of Josie and her environment.

In this world children attend school via videolink (Zoom anyone?) so they are socially isolated.  Next door lives Rick who is Josie's best friend.  We learn that Josie is a 'lifted' child which means she has been earmarked for a priviliged education and future.  Rick's future is not so assured as he is not one of the chosen children.  Despite this difference Rick and Josie are devoted to one another.

Rosie has a serious disease, the name of which we never learn, but we know her older sister died from this condition.  Josie and Klara become close and Klara's sole purpose as an AF is to provide unconditional friendship for Josie.  Josie's mother has another purpose for Klara in mind and this understory is disturbing.  Josie's father appears and seems to be a troubled individual, apparently holed up with a bunch of preppers somewhere up North.

A few things struck me about this book.  The adults do not come across well and the world they have created for their children appears to be cruel and ultra competitive (maybe it's more real than I first thought).  I grew weary with Klara's narration which is robotic and limited.  I can understand the use of Klara's voice to tell this story, but it's tone got to me after a while.  That all said, the book has some profound messages about the dangers of unchecked technology and the moral slippage which can occur in people's lives.  At the end it is Klara who, with her acute observational powers, understands the nature of love and humanity better than anyone else.

Until next time, peace and love.

Peter Milton-Walsh interview

Here's a recent interview between Dave Graney and Peter Milton - Walsh of The Apartments, a song from whom appears below.  This is a great overview of Peter's musical life.

Peter Milton-Walsh interview

A song for you. The Apartments - 21

 

An extraordinarily beautiful song by Peter Milton Walsh from The Apartments 2015 album No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal.

John Prine - died 7 April 2020

 

The incomparable and beautiful John Prine who died one year ago today from the Trump virus.  RIP.

Learning morse code - CW

 

 

The Hi -Mound HK-707 morse code key

One of my projects over the last 12 months has been to learn and use morse code over amateur radio.  In days of yore there was no voice communication over the wireless so radio folk had to devise a way of communicating with others.  Enter morse code.

The history of morse code is kinda interesting, but maybe not that much that I need to repeat it here.  But, it has a certain romanticism about it and to me feels like it is the essence of radio communication.  I know this is all claptrap, but if you've read this far you're into it as well.

When I was a young teenager I had some early exposure to amateur radio, but the vibe was: "it's great but you'll never learn the code".  I should have ignored this as the best time to learn morse code is when you are young!  Just like a foreign language it only gets harder as you get older.

So here I am, an older middle aged bloke with an atrophying brain and I have set upon to learn the code and better yet, communicate with it.  The computer and internet age is wonderful (and rubbish as well, but that's for another time) in that you can get so many learning resources on-line.  So I have been caning the apps trying to learn the code for nearly 12 months now.

Let me tell you - progress is slow.  It's hard, maybe one of the hardest things I have done (well maybe not: marriage, kids, degree, jobs I've had).  I have learnt all the characters and can copy slabs of text, provided it is slow ie, about 10 words per minute.  I can copy characters at 20 wpm, but slap them together as words at that speed and I am in trouble.

That's okay.  People's morse code journey is much the same everywhere.  It's all about repetition and practice.  A bit like life really.  There's probably a few savants who learnt it really quickly, but mostly not.

The conventional wisdom is you must learn to copy (receive) the code before you try and send it.  The view being that sending is 'easier'.  I have spent many hours copying compared with sending and I would say I am probably better at copying.  That's not saying much as I am pretty much rubbish at sending.

 

The Vibroplex Deluxe iambic paddle - a work of art

I have two morse code keys.  The Hi-Mound HK-707 straight key and the Vibroplex Deluxe iambic paddle.  These are two very different methods of sending CW (let's call morse code CW from hereon as that's what amateurs call it).  The Hi-Mound is from Japan - maybe 1970s and the Vibroplex I have is new (2020) but they have been making them for maybe 50 years.  Ask amateurs to say which is better - straight key or paddle - and you'll be up all night.  A straight key is probably easier for a beginner, but it has its disadvantages.

Nevertheless, I am pretty mediocre at using both of them.  I am not too concerned about this as this is just motor skill stuff, ie learning to manipulate the apparatus.  I'll get there with enough practice.  The bit that troubles my mind is copying - putting those dits and dahs into words, into sentences, into paragraphs.  That's brain work.  It's hard! Or at least I find it hard.

Eventually one must cross the Rubicon and move from the classroom into the real world.  There's no point becoming a master with a computer app and not using CW for its ultimate purpose - communicating with others.  All the experts say the only way to improve is to get on the air and make real contacts.

Getting on air with CW is a hair raising experience.  Those who are not radio operators will be asking 'how this can be?'.  But as an operator sending and copying morse code is nerve racking for the beginner.  'Will I be able to copy their signal?'  'Will they understand my ill timed and error laden transmission?'

Nevertheless I have resolved to try and make one CW contact each day whenever I am able to get to the radio.  It is day two today and I have made two contacts - one to Queensland (VK4) and one to Japan (JA3).  I was able to send and receive the essential elements of a contact (call-sign, signal report, name) but that was about it.  The fellow in Japan was sending way too fast for me, but I got the bits I needed to put him in the log and he was able to copy my scrambled eggs enough to log me.  I didn't get the weather in Osaka, but hey, next time maybe.

If I can get the hang of this I can see me getting hooked.  There is an X factor to CW that is not present in other amateur radio communications.  It used to be compulsory to learn the code in order to be granted an amateur radio licence.  That requirement was dropped about 20 years ago and yet it remains as popular as ever, perhaps more so.  I can understand why.  There is a sense of achievement in mastering the code and communicating with others around the world using this unique mode.

Until next time, peace and love - or - dah dah dit dit dit   dit dit dit dah dah  ('73' 'best wishes' in morse code).