Category: video

Another Amazing AT&T Video

This one is more focused on history than on a particular bit of theory, but what a treasure trove of history there is in this 1976 flick! Walter Brattain (transistor inventor) reading from his lab notebook! Edison’s lab assistant describing the first recording of human speech! Marconi’s daughter! Alexander Graham Bell’s granddaughter. You guys will like this one. Three cheers for AT&T!

http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/2/14/AT&T-Archives-1976—To-Communicate-Is-The-Beginning

Excellent AT&T Video on SWR

Ken, KG6PO, sent us this gem:

http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2011/3/7/AT&T-Archives-Similarities-of-Wave-Behavior

I really like the way Dr. Shive brings together mechanical and electrical phenomena. You get the sense that he had “The Knack” — note the twinkle in his eye when he explains a particularly intriguing point.

Warning: I think the AT&T archive of which this is part will become another enormous (but worthwhile) time sink for many of us. Thanks Ken. Thanks Dr. Shive.

European Very Large Telescope Video (Warning: It May Make you Cry)


The guys who run Slashdot are not known to be very sentimental, but they warned that this video may bring viewers to tears. They were right. This one is really magnificent. Makes me want to ditch the diplo gig and move to the Atacama desert. Sit back, put this on full screen mode, turn up the speakers a bit, and prepare to be amazed.

Alan’s “Scopes 4 Dopes” (present company excluded, of course)

Hi Bill,


As a follow on to the Scope 4 Dopes class that I told you about (email below – and thanks for the shout-out in #133), I have put a few more videos on YouTube. One is on the use of the Delayed Timebase feature available on the more professional analog scopes – probably not of much interest to you. But, the other two are on taking a little bit of a tour of the RF signal path of the TenTec 1254 Dual Conversion Shortwave Receiver kit that I built over the Christmas vacation. I thought these might be of interest:

(I promise – these are not as long as the 2hr Scopes4Dopes tutorial video!!)

The tour through the 1254 with a look at some of the signals along the RF path (~12min):
and a short one looking at the modulated and demodulated 2nd IF on a live shortwave signal (~2min):

Enjoy.

73,

Alan W2AEW

EME, Bob Heil, and The Grateful Dead

I really loved the TWiT interview with Bob Heil that I posted yesterday. Today we bring you a truly “must see” video on the History of Heil Sound. Really great stuff. Now I know that it was FATE that caused it to be a Peter Frampton song (using a Heil Talk Box) that helped me solve my RFI problem.

Bob Heil seems a really great guy. I liked the bio that he has on his web site.
http://www.heilsound.com/amateur/aboutus/index.htm

Name: Bob Heil
Bob Heil
Position: CEO/Founder
Started in: 1940
Bio: Bob’s life mission is to have fun and bring LOTS of people along for the trip. Bob barely got through grade school and then started making more money than his teachers by playing the (Hammond) organ. Then Bob became a pimp for his high school gym teacher (Sarah can fill you in on the details). Bob had 50+ years of “just OK” life until God sent him a red headed bundle of joy along with her bundle of joy and together they have more fun than a couple of squirrels in a nut forest.

Regen Madness



How many times have I said “never again, no more regens”? I guess I need a twelve step program or something like that. This latest bout of regen fever started with the King’s Speech movie. So I blame the Brits. All of them. Then this Belgian guy with the video comes along (see above). Now I find myself drawing out a schematic for the old regen that I picked up years ago at the Kemption Park rally in London. Someone please, STOP ME!

HomeBREW (literally!) Your Own Microphone!

During those dark days in which I was using my Astatic D-104 mic for podcast purposes (not a popular move) I checked on the mic element inside my chrome lollipop and found it to be the original crystal “Rochelle salt” element. I remember wondering about the Rochelle salt: What the heck was that? Well, this morning, the hippie technologists over at the Make blog explained it all to me via the above embedded video. It turns out that you can MAKE piezoelectric Rochelle salt crystals in your kitchen using — get this — soda ash, coffee filters, and — wait for it: CREAM OF TARTAR sauce! I’m not making this up.

Some Tech Humor

Ron Barrett


Apparently Pluto’s demotion from planet status might have been a bit unfair. Researchers say that the rival to Pluto that was discovered six years ago is actually smaller than Pluto.

And I thought this BBC skit on computer problems would yield a few chuckles from the SolderSmoke community. (For U.S. readers: Orange is a big ISP/mobile phone provider in the UK and elsewhere.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI

The Arduino Documentary

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

Embedded controllers may seem a bit far afield for SolderSmoke. After all, I kind of gave up on surface mount, and have pretty much resigned myself to “hardware defined radios.” (Someone sent me a picture of a T-shirt that kind of captured the sentiment: “I PROGRAM IN SOLDER!”) But still, for a number of reasons I find Arduino intriguing. Aside from the amazing things you can do with this device, I like the homebrew, hands-on aspect of it. As you will see in the documentary, there is a real spirit of international collaboration in Arduinoland — Italians, Spaniards, Colombians, Americans all working together on the project (the documentary itself is also available in Spanish). I also like it because it has its roots in Italy. So, even if you are not into embedded controllers, check out the documentary. I think you will like it.

The Hacker-Knacker-Maker Revolution gathers steam…

I got a bit of mail from Great Britain about the use of the word “knackers” in yesterday’s post. I vaguely remembered that this word has anatomical connotations in the UK. But it just worked so well. I needed something that would rhyme with Marx’s “Workers.” And “Knackers” is kind of close to “Hackers.” And we all have “The Knack.” So, I made use of some artistic license. Apologies to our British cousins. I’m already on linguistic thin ice with them because of my use of the American pronunciation of solder. (The Brits pronounce the L — to their ears, the American pronunciation conjures up an activity far removed from soldering.)

Anyway, the Hack-Knack-Make revolution continues. This morning I learned that the New York and Philadelphia Hacker-spaces will be featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition this Sunday. (I’m jealous — I want SolderSmoke to somehow get onto NPR. One listener suggested a letter-writing campaign…)

The poster shown above is for a documentary that is being done on all of this. Check it out: http://www.electromagnate.com/

Homebrew Transistors!

None of those store-bought parts for Jeri Ellsworth! Once again she makes us all look like a bunch of pathetic appliance operators. I like the “harvesting of Germanium” from a 1N34. And I found very interesting her comment about “early hobbyists” cracking open 1N34’s and turning them into transistors by adding phosphor-bronze collectors.

This all makes me want to fire up my Fool’s Gold crystal radio. WFAX is right down the road…

BTW: I’m very pleased to report that Jeri is currently reading “SolderSmoke — Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics.” I hope she likes it. She definitely has “The Knack.”

SolderSmoke Podcast 127 is almost ready.

YouTube meets QRSS

They seem like two very different technologies, right? They are certainly at opposite ends of the speed spectrum. But David, EA1FAQ, has made innovative use of YouTube video to present — in a very useful form — the signals received by his QRSS grabber over a three day period. This kind of system brings to to visual QRSS a bit of the retrivabililty that makes WSPR so useful and interesting.

David’s test period happened to include the time that I was out at our country place with my 3 mW QRSS beacon. Back in Rome I could indeed see my sigs in David’s video. He was kind enough to follow up with the actual shanpshot of my signal crossing the Med: