brad
@brad@posiwid.net
electrical engineer, synth designer, ham radio operator. alt of @kr4dio@mastodon.radio
brad
@brad@posiwid.net
The sharpest image ever taken of Venus.
From the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki.
The dark side shines in the infrared, which is how this photo was taken.
It's real!
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The sharpest image ever taken of Venus.
From the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki.
The dark side shines in the infrared, which is how this photo was taken.
It's real!
Reading "The United Fruit Company and Early Radio Development" (Drale, 2010) with interest, about the history of the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company - later TRT Telecommunications.
Commercial radio transmitters and shipboard equipment to support the banana trade, and then a transition over the years into the international telecommunications business.
You reminded me of something. Why do they call 2.0 MHz -3.5 MHz the “Tropical Band” for commercial shortwave operations.
A little bit of searching, Wikipedia no help.
As I understand it, in 1938 in Cairo, the ITU designated the 60m, 90m, and 120m bands for domestic shortwave use for stations in the "tropical area".
This was a reaction to the international overcrowding on the 49m shortwave band.
Looks like a couple books from Jerome S. Berg might shed more light, particularly "The Early Shortwave Stations A Broadcasting History Through 1945" which Google Books has in snippets only.
Might be worth checking out the book.
You would think with all the lightning they get in the tropical regions that having a domestic shortwave broadcast band in those frequency ranges would be as undesirable as the mediumwave broadcast band.
This 2003 presentation on the tropical band from Anker Petersen to the EDXC points out the steady decline in tropical band broadcasting as stations start to go off the air with transmitter problems.
http://www.dswci.org/specials/conferences/edxc_lecture/article.html
and Anker is still at it in 2024 at DSWCI with a current listing of tropical band stations logged worldwide
73 and good DX
Mini duck-pond leak test!
As long as it checks out, I’ll be building a retaining wall around it, and backfilling with gravel and river stones, so that the ducks that are coming later this summer will have a nice place to splash around.
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A watering trough turned duck pond with waterfall. Landscaping isn’t yet done, so you can see the infrastructure, plumbing, pump, etc.
And because kids are kids….
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A small child in the unfinished duck pond.
@N3VEM ducks are rough on things, kiddo is just doing some quality assurance!
@N3VEM ducks are fun if a lot of work.
@stevewa yeah - we have a decent flock of chickens already, and I had ducks years ago, so luckily it’s not all new territory. I’m mostly just planning how to make everything easy to drain and clean because of how sloppy they can be.
@brad yeah - that helps with still flowing as it builds up - I suspect I’ll end up adding a dome over top of this one, but I’m going to wait and see. This will get drained and refilled probably every couple weeks, just because of the mess ducks make, so I’m curious if regular draining and hosing out will make a difference.
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Photo of a large building with towering concrete planters beside a river
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Photo of a large building with towering concrete planters
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Photo of a large building with towering concrete planters
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Photo of a large building with towering concrete planters covered in scaffolding beside another highrise
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Artwork by Roman Verostko, colorful lines, thick black line
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Artwork by Roman Verostko, colorful lines, thick black line
Curious what my #infosec pals think of this.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/politics/biden-administration-bans-kaspersky-software/index.html
The article goes on to say that Kaspersky is banned from providing software to US users, which I guess is possible to enforce to a certain extent.
I'm in Shanghai right now, seamlessly using a VPN to access blocked content (including the linked article), so I'm a little skeptical.
Is there a way to change the default font for component identifiers in KiCad?
I'm asking because I need a professional looking PCB at work and it's quite some work to manually change every label to Comic Sans.
@brad thanks! That's perfect and something I can do on every PCB once the parts are placed! :)
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old Chinese buildings along a canal
Thinking about getting a #gameDad. Should I get an RG535V? I am familiar with https://gamedad.club but figured I'd ask around.
Mostly thinking about N64-era games, but open to others.
@W1CDN I've heard good things about the Anbernic ones
@tony yeah, just figuring out which one. The RG35XX H is apparently a little underpowered for N64, but I like the size of it. It's hard to imagine using the joysticks on the RG535V.
@W1CDN Definitely temper your expectations on N64, at least as far as control schemes go. I've tried to play N64 games on my mister with a nice controller from 8bitdo and it's still awkward due to the original controller layout.
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zig-zag bridge over a pond with koi
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zig-zag bridge over a pond with koi
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view of park with pond and pavilion
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tropical trees with lots of air roots
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View over the rooftops of Taipei with Taipei 101 skyscraper and mountains in the background
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View over the rooftops of Taipei
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Airplane at gate with jetway attached and Delta baggage trolley
Farmers in Bastrop, TX were hopeful when Elon Musk bought land nearby, but now he’s turning the area into “an environmentally hazardous industrial park.” Authorities won’t do anything because they’re understaffed and “intimidated by their powerful new neighbor.”
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/elon-musk-vs-organic-farmers-bastrop/
What was your first modem? Mine was a 300 baud VICMODEM for my Commodore VIC-20 which included a type in terminal program in the user guide.
You had to manually dial the number with the phone, unplug the coil cable from the handset when you heard the carrier, and plug it into the modem!
#RetroComputing #Commodore #VIC20 #VICModem #Modem #Dialup
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Photo of the right corner of push button phone, the top left corner of a Commodore VIC-20 at the bottom, and a brown and silver VICMODEM cartridge plugged into the back of it. A telephone coil cable was removed from the handset and plugged into the modem.
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Page 7 from the VICMODEM manual as follows.
The following computer program is for use with the VIC 20. This is a third method of turning your VIC into a terminal. You may type this into the computer and then start it by typing "run", those of you learning to program may find some of the routines interesting! For your convenience, we have provided an explanation of the listing.
Terminal Software for the VIC
100 OPEN 5,2,3,CHR$(6)
110 DIM F%(255), T%6(255)
200 FOR J=32 TO 64: T%(J) =J: NEXT
210 T%(13)=13: T%(20)=8: RV=18: CT=0
220 FOR J=65 TO 90: K=J+32: T%(J)=K: NEXT
230 FOR J=91 TO 95: T%(J)=J: NEXT
240 FOR J=193 TO 218: K=J-128: T%(J)=K: NEXT
250 T%(146)=16: T%(133)=16
260 FOR J=0 TO 255
270 K=T%(J)
280 IF K<>0 THEN F%(K)=J: F%(K+128)=J
290 NEXT
300 PRINT " "CHR$(147)
310 GET#5,A$
320 IF A$="" OR ST <> THEN 360
330 PRINT " "CHR$(157); CHR$(F%(ASC(A$)));
340 IF F%(ASC(A$)) =34 THEN POKE 212,0
350 GOTO 310
360 PRINT CHR$(RV)" "CHR$(157); CHR$(146);: GET A$
370 IF A$< >" " THEN PRINT#5,CHR$(T%(ASC(A$)):
380 CT=CT+1
390 IF CT=8 THEN CT=0: RV=164-RV
400 IF (PEEK(37151) AND 64)=1 THEN 400
410 GOTO 310
NOTE: Insert a space between the quotes in program lines 300, 330 and 360. Do not put a space in the quotes in line 320.
TIP. Once you have typed the above program into your computer, save it on your tape or disk for future reference or use.
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Screenshot of a VIC-20 being displayed on a CRT monitor with light blue border and white foreground showing a partial BASIC listing of the terminal software from the VICMODEM manual. See next photo for full BASIC listing in alt text.
@paulrickards Either 2400 or 9600 BPS Prometheus modem.
@DeltaWye Oh nice! After 300 baud, 1200 and 2400 felt so incredibly fast!
@paulrickards mine was the commodore 1670, at a blazing 1200 baud 😎
@brhfl Awesome! I had one of those too. I remember it made a carrier noise over the speaker when it powered up.
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A beige Commodore 1670 modem with googly eyes on it.
@paulrickards the googly eyes are perfect 😹
@paulrickards 300 baud internal Zoom modem for the Apple II. Didn't even take AT commands!
@scott Oh cool! It probably required special terminal software?
@paulrickards it was built in! You did PR#2 and IN#2 and then hit CTRL-T.
@scott Oh wow that’s great— nearly instant!
@paulrickards In junior high, I borrowed a 300 baud modem and CompuServe login credentials from a family friend. We got the bill a month later, too. 😅
@Tinrocket Hahaha yeah the online services bill plus the long distance to get to them lead to very uncomfortable conversations!
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VICModem cartridge, Hamtext VIC-20 cartridge, and serial port cartridge for HP85 on top of a TRS-80 pen plotter
@paulrickards same. A friend loaned me his VICMODEM, though I used it on a C64, for a while and I got hooked on BBSes fast. I bought a used 1200 baud 1670 at a computer flea market soon after. The 1670 stuck with me until I got an Amiga, and I think I kept a C64 BBS running on it for a while even after that.
@paulrickards i wish i knew/could remember.
it was a black metal-cased simplistic beauty with red leds. 2400 and came with a level shifter for my 64. not one of the big names, but very sturdy and reliable.
@paulrickards I don't remember the actual first modem, which would have been 56K, but the one I do remember is a Fritz two line ISDN modem that could do 64K or 128k!
The thing I remember very well was how quick the negotiation was with a quick zappy beep, instead of the regular modem sound. I've been trying to find a recording of that for years, but I haven't come across it anywhere. ISDN use was pretty limited worldwide.
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A cover for a fritz ISDN modem showing a blue box with green LED lights
@mejs Fascinating! I used to use ISDN at work a lot. Did you have ISDN service at home?
I did briefly in the form of IDSL which combined both B channels with the usually unused D channel to form one 144kbps link. Coming from a 56k modem, it was luxurious.
@paulrickards oh that's so interesting! I didn't know about 144kbps and IDSL.
We had ISDN at home for a minute, probably only a few years in the very early 2000s before ADSL. This was in Croatia.
History
