Amateur Radio and Other Stuff

Ten Meter Mini-Spider Antenna

I have been interested in designing and erecting a light weight, high-gain antenna that I could use in a "restricted community" and on mobile operations.

Art Follows Technology

The development of the Vacuum Tube by Lee DeForest resulted in the creation of a new musical art form.  Enter The Crooners.

This Power Point fiollows the people who made this new artform possible in the later 1929s, early 1930s, and on to the present day.

DX Code of Conduct

The tremendous positive response to my Op-Ed piece mentioned below has led me and some other interested DXers on a mission: to improve on-air etiquette.

Many have noted the decrease in civility across society in recent years and this has, unfortunately. infected the ham community. There are some hams who, bluntly,

do not act like polite gentlemen, particularly in a pile up. There are many who believe that "that's just the way things are." 

But some of us believe that this can be corrected, just as can the behavior of a misbehaving child.

Rather than lecture people, a task that seldom gets the intended result, we would rather encourage them with the positive benefits that result from polite, civil behavior.

To that end, we have come up with a DX Code of Conduct. Please check it out. .

We would appreciate feedback from you if you agree and wish to spread the word.   Please e-mail us your thoughts.

If you wish, you may publish the Code at your websiet, your club's website, or re-print it in your DX Club's newsletter. No permission needed but tell us what you are doing. .

DX Etiquette

I wrote an Op-Ed article about ham behavior that was published in the March 2010 issue of QST.  Click to view.

Feel free to link to this article from your website and if you wish to post at  your website, please contact ARRL for permission.

IARU member societies can re-publish asis in their own publications without further permission.

Keyer and Paddle from 1951

This page contains several pictures of what I started using when I first got my license.  It has been sitting around ever, the ONLY piece of ham equipment that didn't get lost between 1953 and 2002.  One of these days I'm going to replace old capacitors (we called 'em condensers) and see if I can crank it up.

Boogie Woogie and Jitterbug

This little 2 1/2 minute video shows you what popular music and dancing - Boogie Woogie and Jitterbug - were like back in the late '40s and early  '50s.

For those who were alive then, watching this video will be a trip down Memory Lane. For you younger ones, well, just compare this with your favorite

group or style. You may still like your favorite better but I hope you will acknowledge that we did know how to have fun back then. 

Remember that most of this happened before TV so there are no DVDs of live performances.  This clip is from a Boogie Woogie Festival

that is held in Switzerland every year. 

Click here to download.

Frontiers of Space Power Point  Presentation      

January 31, 2008 marks the 50th Anniversary of the launch of America's first satellite, Explorer I.  This is a presentation of about 100 slides

that chronicles a bit of what we have learned about our Earth, our Solar System, and the Universe in those 50 years.

I designed this to be a 30 minute presentation, but your review will take more or less time depending on how quickly you advance the slides.

I hope you have as much fun as I did assembling the material. I am pretty sure that you will find out a lot of new and interesting information.

You will also be astonished at the sights of our amazing universe that have been collected with modern equipment.  The pictures are the kind that will

take your breath away.   Click here to download.

Companion Articles

Remembering When U.S. Finally (and Really) Joined the Space Race - N.Y. Times - Jan 29, 2008

More information about Harry Richter, W6VZA, who was in charge of designing the satellite's radio transmitter. Output was 1/100th of a watt. Talk about QRP!

Propelling America into space - L.A. Times -Jan 20, 2008

The following files are related to my hobby, Ham Radio:  

Ham Radio and Bonefishing in The Bahamas Power Point Presentation   

Download the .ppt file here

Bahamas  

Story of my first trip to the Bahamas in Feb 2004.

Story of my second trip to the Bahamas in Nov 2004. 

Story of my third trip to the Bahamas in Nov 2005.    

Power Point Presentation of Ham Radio in the Bahamas   

Salton Sea

Story of the 2004 CA QSO party, from the Salton Sea

Story of Field Day 2005 from 232 feet below sea level. 

Story of a more successful Field Day 2006    New

Miscellaneous

How we got that way, a cute wave file.   Click to listen.   

K2 fan pictures, courtesy of Ron, ZL1TW 

Generator for sale Be sure to check this out! Guys only!

Non-Ham Stories

My friend Duane Wadsworth's career was in the semi-conductor industry

which he experienced from the early days to his recent retirement.

He is attempting to preserve some of the history of the industry that

changed our world. The LA Times published a story about him.

John Brown's Body - One of the best things I ever did was to underwrite

the composition of a piece of music. For more information about it and to

listen to the piece, click here.