Mike 🛰W8TAU 🏡EN73 @W8TAU@mhz.social

The gr-osmosdr project is looking for maintainers:
http://lists.osmocom.org/pipermail/osmocom-sdr/2019-September/001983.html

Might see if the kids are interested in helping me build a practice oscillator when I get back from my work trip. (I’ll be in .- --.. next week.)

Haven’t been on the satellites lately. Work and family have kept me busy.

But! I’ve been listening to a lot of CW, and now I’ve gone and borrowed a J-38 straight key, so… uh… watch out!

RT @BrennanTPrice@twitter.com

I am pleased to serve the next year as the first alternate Director, and plan to do more listening and counseling than activism in that role. While I am a longtime member of AMSAT, I am still newly active in this field and have a lot to learn.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/BrennanTPrice/status/1175086232189243397

RT @BrennanTPrice@twitter.com

Congratulations to @abraxas3d@twitter.com @WD9EWK@twitter.com @n0jy@twitter.com and @glasbrenner@twitter.com for winning seats on the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors. Was humbling to be considered with them, @PRStoetzer@twitter.com @WE4Bravo@twitter.com and AB2S. I am hopeful that all of us will continue to advance the cause as best we can.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/BrennanTPrice/status/1175084907636432899

Congratulations to @abraxas3d@twitter.com and @WD9EWK@twitter.com on joining the @AMSAT@twitter.com board and @n0jy@twitter.com and @glasbrenner@twitter.com on re-election! 🛰

Someone made exactly what I’ve been looking for to practice listening to CW! Listened to a bunch of this in the background today.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6jaK1F2bhkCFBo-_qwftUw8I4zt03aXr

I passed!

Here we go!

Practice exam last night: failed (36/50)
Practice exam today: passed (41/50)

I think this is going to depend on which questions show up on my exam tonight. Didn’t have enough time to master the entire pool.

Conventional current flow vs electron flow is confusing in much the same way as pointer declarations & use in C.

The underlying concepts are not confusing, but the syntax & conventions we’ve devised make them seem so.

Explanations assuming otherwise only further confuse things.

I've realized that it's a lot easier (for me at least) to internalize the larger concepts than it is to memorize discrete facts in isolation. If I put in the time to grok the theory, then I can lean more on my intuition to help confirm the details of application.

Aha!

This little section showing how equations for combining series and parallel conductances can be derived from Kirchhoff's laws together with Ohm's law made a bunch of key relationships click for me:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_and_parallel_circuits#Combining_conductances

I'm still glad I studied liberal arts in college, but I suspect a lot of these questions may have been answered if I had gone for an EE or CE degree instead. Probably more fun to have it as a hobby though. 🤷‍♂️

I'll be honest: Part of my curiosity is motivated by a fantasy of unplugging – taking a little notebook of graph paper & a solar powered calculator into the woods to think without all the distractions of sitting at a computer with all the world's information at my fingertips.

I'm interested BOTH in the reasoning process (e.g. combine resistances, etc. in X order, and then...?), AND in the minutia of what it this looked like on paper.

Did people use drafting pencils? Graph paper?

What did professional artifacts look like vs. hobbyist sketches?

I really want to know how this was done.

How did we physically draw up and reason about circuit designs before computers could compute SPICE simulations and all that?

https://twitter.com/W8TAU/status/1170039222205603845

Could you please retweet to see if we can reach someone who knows the old techniques?

I’d like to spend more time thinking about circuits without sitting in front of a computer.

Anyone (old timers maybe?) have good reference material for how to do pencil and paper electronics work?

(Clearly this was done at some point to get the computers in the first place.)

Haven’t made as much time for studying as I would have liked. Probably not going to make it through a thorough study of all the Extra Class material before the exam on the 13th.

Given how close I came without study when I took my General though, that may be OK.

RT @karen_darlin@twitter.com

Me, an RF engineer, hiding under the bed:

Armed robber:

Me:

Armed robber: Good VSWR means a good antenna

Me, busting out from under the bed: ACTUALLY VSWR is only a measure of impedance match & doesn't account for current flow or field distrib-- aw crap https://twitter.com/JacquelynGill/status/1168906816350314498

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/karen_darlin/status/1169013983979933702