Meet the students using radio waves to contact the ISS

This is an excellent NBC's Today Show news program with Harry Smith reporting about students using amateur radio to contact the International Space Station.

http://tinyurl.com/5a2jzrt5

International Space Station

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

Collection of vintage amateur radio books and magazines

I stumbled on a fascinating collection of links to vintage radio frequency books and magazines.  It contains some really useful amateur radio relevant material.  While browsing, I found several outstanding books on antennas that inspired ideas for future projects.  If you have an interest in radio, this site is definitely worth checking out.

https://www.qsl.net/va3iul/Files/Old_Radio_Frequency_Books.htm

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

Science Friday: Earth is a giant iron magnet

Earth is a giant iron magnet

Earth’s core is solid iron.  Around this inner core is a layer of liquid iron. The interaction between the liquid and solid iron is responsible for generating electrical currents and a powerful magnetic field.  The magnetic field is in alignment with the Earth's rotation and extends all the way into space.

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

Study of celestial phenomena...

The study of celestial phenomena at radio wavelengths, radio astronomy came into being after the accidental discovery of cosmic radiation by radio engineer Karl Jansky in 1933. -- Honor Harger

Dream about doing great things...

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them. -- James A. Michener

The Dreamer

How things really work...

When you want to know how things really work, study them when they're coming apart. -- William Gibson

Create their own problems...

Engineers like to solve problems.  If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems. -- Scott Adams

The glass is half...

To the optimist, the glass is half full.  To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.  To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.  -- Unknown

Twice as big as it needs to be!

What we will learn...

Projects we have completed demonstrate what we know.  Future projects decide what we will learn. -- Dr. Mohsin Tiwana.

Pontificating about high-concept things...

I don't spend my time pontificating about high-concept things;  I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems -- Elon Musk

The Origins of Silicon Valley: Roots in Ham Radio” Video

“The Origins of Silicon Valley: Roots in Ham Radio” Video

The ARRL Centennial National Convention presentation, “The Origins of Silicon Valley: Roots in Ham Radio,” by Paul Wesling, KM6LH, has been edited into a video and is now available on YouTube.

Vacuum Tube

“It tells of the interesting events in the maritime port of San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century, as early radio was being developed, and follows the hams who designed new devices and equipment to address steamship traffic plying the Pacific Ocean,” Wesling said. “Their efforts to break the east coast monopoly on tubes and to extend radio into the microwaves as the country approached World War II form the basis for what became Silicon Valley.”

Wesling said the presentation traces early vacuum tube development and other contributions by Bay Area amateurs, “and the continuing spirit of hobbyists and collaborators that fuel today’s high-tech mecca.” The presentation runs about 1 hour.

A graduate of Stanford University, Wesling, a IEEE/CPMT Society Distinguished Lecturer, retired from Hewlett Packard in 2001, and then served for 10 years as Communications Director for the IEEE’s San Francisco Bay Area Council.

The fewer moving parts, the better...

The fewer moving parts, the better.  Exactly.  No truer words were ever spoken in the context of engineering. -- Christian Cantrell

Engineering stimulates the mind...

Engineering stimulates the mind.  Kids get bored easily.  The have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things.  When the schools can offer that, you'll have an engineer for life.  -- Bruce Dickinson

Learn things as you go along...

I am an engineer, but what I find important and necessary is that you just learn things as you go along. -- Terrence Howard

So where did the name Google come from?

Q: So where did the name Google come from?

A: While at Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin explained the origin of the name Google in their famous paper, "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine".

"We chose our system name, Google, because it is a common spelling of googol, or 10¹⁰⁰ and fits well with our goal of building very large-scale search engines."

Good DX and 73, NJ2X

A Radio Palindrome

"I, madam, I made radio! So I dared! Am I mad, am I?”

— Spider Robinson - a palindrome.

Design your own language...

"If you decide to design your own language, there are thousands of sort of amateur language designer pitfalls." -- Guido van Rossum

Learning Python is a lot easier than C, C++, or Java

"Now, it's my belief that Python is a lot easier than to teach to students programming and teach them C or C++ or Java at the same time because all the details of the languages are so much harder. Other scripting languages really don't work very well there either." -- Guido van Rossum

Light is electromagnetic waves...

"light is electromagnetic waves: the speed of electromagnetic waves experimentally agrees with the speed of light in a vacuum, and neither experiment depended on the other view." -- J. C. Maxwell 

I turned off the light...

I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark. -- Muhammad Ali