CAKE Crumbs Nov. 11, 2017

CAKE  Crumbs notes Nov 11/2017

Those present on this cool bright morning were Fred KJ6OOV,Gary K6NUL,Kerry K3RRY, Peter K6UNO, Glen KG0T, Cap KE6AFE, Reed N1WC, Don K6GHA, Jim K9YC, Richard W1WUH and your scribe Ron W6WO.There was never a dull moment as could be expected with such a group.

We love exhbits of any technology and era. Today the most unusual was a Norden bombsight gyroscope that Peter supplied. It weighed several pounds and clearlly was remarkable engineering. Peter remarked how the era often combined sophisticated engineering,with rudimentary technology. Today, of course, a gyroscope might well be included in a cell phone.

Kerry showed a handsome APRS Tracker from Byonics, enclosed in a Pelican 1030 case  plus a battery isolator. Don K6GHA showed a solar powered project called “Lighting for Literacy”. This poject is aimed at children in 3rd World Countries and built in part by schoolchildren here. Fred showed pictures of a Yagi antenna that he had rescued, recycled and modified for 2meters and some astounding atronomical images he had recentlycaptured .

Ron mentioned a DIY project described in the recent IEEE Spectrum magazine which was a cordless temperature controlled soldering iron. A rapidly evolving (dare I say Penomenon) called Block Chaining is claimed will likely affect many aspect of our lives. It involves BitCoin encryption, dataprocessing and networking on a global scale.  The Chinese have a huge bitcoin vault and the amount of energy used in this facility meant it had to be built where energy was local and cheap, as in Mongolian coal powered generation plants.

Some other threads of discussion were discerned. Kerry’s preparations for Iron Man. Fred spoke of his dislike for end-fed antennas wheras Ron thinks they are generally maligned (a topic for another day!

Have you noticed that some topics rise to the surface in several forms, almost simultaneously. Ron mentioned he had recently read the report on Noise by Jim K9YC and the following day later checked into a Webinar on the topic of Automobile Electromagnetic Compatibility. This presentation is now available in the archive of Computer Simulation Technology and is highly recommended because of its general relevance to Ham Radio. You have to create MyCST account. A recent development is a new device from Xilinx called the ZyNq, it combines separate processors, one for serial procesing and a FieldProgrammable Gate Array FPGA for fast Digtal Signal Processing. See QEX Nov/Dec 2017.

Finally: Glen we appreciate the effort that you made to be with us and wish you a speedy and complet recovery from your injuries

With apologies for any errors or omissions

73 Ron W6WO