SolderSmoke Daily News — Ham Radio Blog
Serving the worldwide community of radio-electronic homebrewers. Providing blog support to the SolderSmoke podcast: http://soldersmoke.com
On the cover of issue 173 of our beloved SPRAT magazine they had my little Direct Conversion receiver. We joked on the podcast about the old song by Doctor Hook about getting on the “Cover of the Rolling Stone.” Well, on the cover of issue 174 they have one of Pete’s magnificent creations.
Thanks again to the guys who put so much work into SPRAT magazine. They are now looking for some help. Please subscribe, and check out page 4 of issue 174 for details on the help that GQRP is looking for.
Oh man, I’m sorry I missed this one. John sent it to me in January, but it got lost amidst all the uBITX messages.
I like it! It shows that I am not the only one guilty of re-purposing Benton Harbor Lunch Boxes.
But what should we call it? It is now more Hyderabad than Benton Harbor. How about Hyderabox? That’s it!
Should I put the uBITX board to the front of the box so that the LCD can be connected to the board DIRECTLY via the connector on the Raduino board (no jumpers needed), or should I put the uBITX board to the back of the box so that I can stick the PA heat sinks out the back? In the later case I’d have to use 4 inch jumper cables to connect the LCD to the Raduino. This use of jumpers seems to increase the possibility of noise from the display.
What say the Knack Wizards? Back of the box with LCD jumpers, or front of the box with no jumpers but heat sinks inside the box?
Thanks to Armand WA1UQO for alerting me to this. I really liked the book — “Crystal Fire” — that this 1999 video is loosely based on. I’m also a fan of the narrator, Ira Flatow, whose melodious voice is heard each week on NPR’s excellent “Science Friday” radio show.
A few observations and thoughts on the video:
— I liked the irreverant Calypso song “Hell’s Bells Laboratory.” It looks like those folks had a lot of fun. And wow, Shockly’s secretary was named Betty Sparks. TRGHS.
— I have the same big Variac on my bench. And I have one of those “third hand” devices.
— I’d like to build my own replica of the point contact device with the triangular piece of lucite and the gold foil.
— While Shockley seems to be the real bad guy in this story (he seems to have all the bad characteristics of David Sarnoff, Lee DeForest, and Steve Jobs), I liked the his use of “physical intuition” to understand devices and the problems they were meant to solve.
— The image of the two Japanese founders of Sony working in the late 1940’s in a bombed out department store was very powerful.
— Although I came on the scence a bit later, I WAS one of those kids who used a transistor radio and an earphone to surreptitiously listen to rock-and-roll music.
— “More transistors are made each year than raindrops fall on California.” Hmmm….
More info here: http://www.pbs.org/transistor/
Extra interviews: http://www.pbs.org/transistor/tv/index.html
Back when some us were thinking of new names for the podcast, Steve, N8NM thought of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix and came up with this set of lyrics (listen to the video above to get the tune).
First, let me thank the many, many MANY, loyal listeners from around the world who wrote in with expressions of support and sympathy. Special thanks to our UK listeners who were notable in their indignation for they saw as a blatant example of US litigiousness “gone mad.” One loyal British listener went so far as to pledge to immediately end his patronage of the Birmingham Vaping business known as SodderSmoke. We found this quite, well, suprising. But we were chuffed, nonetheless. Thanks OM!
The expressions of concern were really quite touching. One listener asked if he should — in an effort to keep us out of hot water — destroy his SolderSmoke coffee mug. With fans like that, well, what can I say?
In responding to the legal crisis, our listeners displayed ASTOUNDING creativity in their crafting of alternative names for the podcast.
Buck seems to have a real “knack” for name-smithing. He wrote:
The easiest would be Solder Haze – it’s a simple scan & replace. But
We mentioned on the last podcast that we had some difficulties that led to a long delay between Podcast #202 and #203. We couldn’t go into detail, and we are still somewhat limited as to what we can say, but we thought that today we should bring you all as up-to-speed as we can with what has been going on.
First, an apology. Some of what we told you was, in retrospect, kind of misleading. Pete’s computer didn’t really crash. Sure, he did have to reconstruct a lot of files, but his original computer was just fine. The problem was that it had been taken by court order as part of the legal mess we find ourselves in.
Here is the deal: We got hit with a “violation of trademark” lawsuit. It seems that one of the new agricultural industries that has sprung up recently in California has taken a very aggressive legal stance in protecting their “rights.” Part of this effort is a proactive filing for trademark protection for any product name that could in the future be related to their product. So apparently anything with “smoke” in the name was scooped up by them. They also claim to forsee the possibility of a “solder-scented recreational product.” We also suspect they are in cohoots with the new electronic cigarette “vaping” industry. We have heard that they are working with a “vaping” company in Birmingham, England that calls itself “SodderSmoke.” (As you may have heard, the word has a different connotation in the UK.) They are using this British Vaping thing to bolster their claim that we are violating their trademark.
Pete feels terrible about all of this. The fact that he is located in California was what allowed the LA lawyers to take us to court in that state. And we have been advised that we do not have much of a chance in this matter. You see, marijuana has become a very important product in Pete’s state. And “vaping” with e-cigarettes is also very big out there. So there is big money and big cultural forces behind this effort. We a tiny small fish caught in the net of big new industries.
Pete wants to fight this (you know how he is) but I think we will have to just give in and move on. Look, STARTING TODAY they are threatening to sue us for ONE MILLION DOLLARS every instance in which we use name of the podcast that you have all come to love so much. I am scrambling to expunge the title from all the blog files. Just look at the header on the top of this blog page.
So at this point we find ourselves in search of a new name. We turn to you, our loyal listeners, for ideas. We hope to come up with something that will remind people of what we once were, of the good times we had under the old name. Please send us your suggestion. PLEASE DO NOT use the e-mail address that has the old name in it. That would just make the lawyers and the “farmers” rich. Instead, send your suggestions to n2cqr@yahoo.com
Bill and Pete
