Monday, January 31, 2011

More Snow & Ice!

The snow is suppose to start early Tuesday morning, 3-6 inches than freezing rain and ice.

Wednesday they are calling for more snow as this two day storm wraps up.

Sounds like one big mess!!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Winter Scenery



A recent picture I took of a small stream by my house after one of our many storms. The forecast is calling for more snow this week, boy do I miss the beach with the warm sand between my toes.

Did some wiring on the power supply kit this afternoon, next up is installing the hardware and binding posts on the chassis.

Time to go watch some football, temps are suppose to be in the low teens for tonight's Jets game in Pittsburgh. A great time to be tucked in staying warm.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

New Kit Build


Today was a typical cold January day with temps in the twenty's and it almost turned into a lazy do nothing Sunday until I got motivated and started a new kit build.

The first kit build of 2011 is the Elenco Power Supply kit model XP-720K. This power supply has 3 fully regulated supplies, 1.25V - 15V @ 1A, -1.25 to -15V @ 1A, or 3-30V @ 1A and 5V @ 3A. It also has 6.3VAC @ 1A and 12.6VAC center tapped @ 1A. The kit also includes a sharp looking enclosure that would fit and look nice on my work bench.

This power supply will come in handy for my power requirements. By working at my usual slow pace I soldered on the resistors, diodes, and capacitors. I prefer a slow build, seems like most things are done these days at a super fast pace, so looking to change things up.

This is my first power supply kit I have built since my Heathkit many many years ago in my basement as a kid.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Just Learn Morse Code

The past few days I starting playing with Just Learn Morse Code.

This is a free download with some cool features that lets the user adjust speeds, characters, words per minute, and pitch.

http://www.justlearnmorsecode.com/

One of my goals this year is to get the code down where I am comfortable on the key and not scrambling when receiving.

We received about 4-5 inches of the white stuff today, all shoveled out so can sit back and relax tonight.