Solar Storms & CNN

CNN posted a video about the solar storms and the effects on our everyday living.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/weather/2014/09/11/solar-storm-explainer-orig-mg.cnn.html

The last thing we need is the power grid going off.

The weatherman (woman) is calling for rain today that we desperately need, my grass has not been green in a few weeks. A nice steady rain would be welcome, even on a Saturday.

Looking forward to checking out the bands this afternoon.

Enjoy your day!

Saturday Evening Post

Hope everyone had a wonderful summer.

Seems like it went by in a blink of an eye. I am hoping for a nice crisp fall season. A few tent camping trips are in the planning stages for September and October.

Let me start by saying I usually enjoy the nightly news and like to stay informed of what is going on around the world. But lately it had been pretty hard to watch to say the least. Things are just a mess, plain and simple. Lets just hope the leaders can come together and find a peaceful solution.

I did pick up a useful, fun read from Amazon a few weeks ago.

The Prepper's Pocket Guide by Bernie Carr.

101 Easy Things You Can Do To Ready Your Home For A Disaster.

This is truly a small pocket guide with 200 pages plus of great ideas and tips to get prepared for just about anything.

Chapters:

• Getting Started
• Financial Readiness
• Water Needs
• Food Supplies
• Ready Your Home
• Personal Health and Safety
• When the Power Is Out
• When You Have to Get Out

I am half way through it and so far it's well worth the ten dollars I spent. After spending close 8 days without power from hurricane Sandy a few years ago, its nice to have a plan in place.

Weekend evenings I have been enjoying listening across the shortwave bands, music talk, etc.
A nice way to relax.

Enjoy your weekend!

Simple FM Transmitter

Here is a simple FM Transmitter circuit that is easy to build and loads of fun to play with.

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Ultimate-FM-Transmitter/

This is a great way to get kids interested in electronics & building.

Please check with your local laws before hitting the on switch.

Have Fun!

New Velleman Scope Kits

Just wanted to pass along these two new Oscilloscope kits from Velleman Electronics.

Educational LCD Oscilloscope Electronic Kit - Build your own scope!

This is rated a Level 5 build by Velleman so previous kit experience is helpful.
Velleman# EDU-08


Oscilloscope Tutor Kit - A helpful kit to visualize the signals on your scope from different parts of the circuit.

Vellman# EDU06

A few cool kits to learn electronics.

I am getting back into the swing of things after taking some away time from the blog.
Between graduations and looking for a new car for a first time driver, things have been busy, real busy.
But its always nice to take a break every now and than.

On this cloudy July 4th here in NJ, the forecast is calling for a rainy day.
I am hoping for it to brighten up this afternoon and set up a patio station to get on the air.

Enjoy your day!

Learn Electronics Online

Learn electronics on YouTube.

http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=137104

5 courses and 207 videos, what a goldmine of information.

Good stuff for kids & adults.

Spy Camera Hacks

Here are a few nifty ideas for modifying a spy camera for security purposes.

I get a kick out of watching the spy camera videos and where they can be hidden. 

What ever happened to the days of just looking out the window to see what your neighbor is up to?

A common site just about everywhere these days. My friends next door neighbor has these installed all around her house. 

I guess the spy glasses are no big deal anymore when cameras are pointed at you in all directions wherever you go.

Big brother is watching all of us!

New NTE Blog / Contest

There is not much going on in my world, have not powered up a radio in a few weeks. Keeping busy with work, searching for my daughters first car, and college.

Maybe when the spring season kicks in I will start setting up in the yard and play radio. In the meantime here are a few links if your interested in checking out.

NTE Electronics has a new blog up for component education and discussion.

http://blog.nteinc.com/

Enter the J-Tron contest for a new ECG Soldering Iron.

http://www.j-tron.com

With college costs right around the corner I have been looking at part time opportunities to make a few extra bucks. I found a ideal opportunity if anyone is interested in making money with the internet.

The Wealthy Affiliate offers a complete online education for making money on the net, no matter where you live. If you have any questions or need more information I would be more than happy to get your rolling.

Enjoy your weekend!

Battery Hazards

This safety video is worth taking a look with a great tip for your used 9 volt batteries.

I keep a bag of use 9 volts but might be a good time to tape up those leads.

Today is the first day of spring.

Enjoy!

Saturday Evening Post

A few weeks ago I picked up an old scanner, the Bearcat 4 Electra receiver.

This was manufactured in 1978, Cumberland, Indiana. First impressions was the overall weight tipping the scales at about 5 pounds with its solid case. The front panel has two knobs for volume and squelch control. A toggle type switch for scan or manual control of the individual channels. 8 LEDs with small slide switches controls which frequencies to monitor. Also a nice large oval speaker provides plenty of audio.

The view under the hood.

Taking a look inside shows a assortment of old caps, resistors, & transistors from 30 plus years ago. It already had 8 crystals loaded into the sockets for local police and fire frequencies. The antenna screws into the top and might not be making the ideal connection. With the unit turned the scanner stops at certain frequencies but audio is low. There is a plug on the back for an external antenna, I might try and maybe I can get better reception and also if it was moved out of the basement. It might be worth it to use an air spray cleaner where the antenna screws in to get a better contact and clean it up a bit. The electrolytic capacitors could sure use fresh replacements. Scanners with the moving LED's are very cool. This scanner was picked up at a great price, FREE!

I found a wonderful search engine that does not track your searches and create a file / sell your life history like a few we know...

www.duckduckgo.com

I started using it this week. No reason every search has to be logged.
Does someone have to know where I am eating or my buying patterns.

Besides the turner for sale I have a few antenna books to be listed tomorrow, if anyone has interest.
Just doing some early spring cleanup.

Enjoy your Saturday night!

For Sale....

For Sale:

One Nye Viking MB-V-A Tuner.

Manual included.
Shipping is UPS ground, cost depends on your location in the US.
I can use a commercial account for shipping which will save you a few bucks.
Asking $500.00 or best offer.

If interested send me a email at info@j-tron.com

CQ Magazine Update

Just received an email from CQ magazine regarding delivery issues.

http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/news/2014_02_attention_cq_subscriber.html

The January edition should be out soon. Looking forward to the February QRP special.
CQ is one magazine that I read cover to cover.

Saw two robins in my yard today.
Looking forward to spring after this long cold winter.

Talk of more snow this weekend!

Electronic Kits For Kids

Electronics kits are a fun way of introducing children to electricity and study the wonders of science. Plus kit building offers parents valuable time with their children learning and exploring.

Today they're numerous easy to build kits with colorful blinking lights, loud sirens, and alarms to keep the interest of little ones. Kits are available with spring terminal contacts for easy wire connections with very little effort. The spring terminals are perfect for small hands and often kids are able to connect the wires better than parents. Another advantage is no soldering is required.

A number of manufacturer's offer a variety of kits for kids including Datak, Elenco Electronics, Maxitronix, Ramsey Electronics, and Velleman. A very popular selection of kits worth a look is The Electronic Lab series for ages 10 and up. The Electronics Lab is available with 50, 75, 130, 300, and 500 projects. The Lab offers the spring terminals connected right to the corresponding components and includes pre cut wires. A nice starter kit is order No. EP50, which has 50 projects including:

Finger Touch Lamp
Magnetic Bridge
Voltmeter
Morse Code
Alarm
Electronic Noisemaker
Kazoo
Electronic Keyboard Transistor Radio
Radio Announcer
Metal Detector

The Electronic Labs would be a nice way to get kids started and comfortable in simple wiring and spring terminal construction.

Another very simple kit with a long history behind it is the crystal radio order no. MX-901. This kit is recommend for ages 8-12, but we know a few adults still enjoy this kit, myself included. This crystal radio offers the spring terminals and only a small handful of components. The key to the circuit is a good solid ground connection and fully extend the wire antenna which is included. The crystal radio is unique because no battery is required. The fun part is to see how many radio stations you can pull in. Many longtime kit builders say crystal radios were the first kit they ever assembled. The crystal radio is a true classic kit.

AM, FM, and shortwave radios are also available using spring terminals and are very easy to assemble but need batteries to provide power.

Electronic kit building gets young minds thinking and exploring with a hands on approach that will build confidence with a finished project they will be proud of.

More Snow.....

This is the winter that keeps giving in the form of snow. The bad four letter word that we are tired of hearing.

Here is a picture outside my front window this morning. We ended up with about 12 inches with another 1-3 inches more tonight.

It will be a long time before I get to see my front lawn again.

Radio Shack Ad

I always look forward to the commercials during the Super Bowl, sometimes more than the game, like yesterday after the first quarter.

The Radio Shack ad was cool going back to the eighties.

Now just bring back a few ham radio rigs and accessories.

Indoor Activites

With the temperature staying in the teens these days, I am spending most of the time hunkered down with the heat up. I usually head outsides at night and put up my stealth magnet wire this time every year  but with the frozen snow on the ground it will have to wait.

In the mean time I found a few ideas for a compromise antenna found on the net and will post the results later in the week. QST landed in the mailbox yesterday and there are a few good articles of interest including: A Stealth Antenna for HF, A 10 Meter Beacon Transmitter, & Solar Banners - A Propagation Resource which describes what all those numbers mean. Very nice write up for new comers into the hobby.

Not sure if any of you have seen the devil baby video floating around on the net? It's pretty cool how it scares the day lights out of people but I am more interested in the electronics behind it.

I am waiting for the making of the devil baby video.
Stay warm!

Free Downloads

As of yesterday I still have not received my Dec. 2013 CQ magazine. I went to Face book to see if anyone else was looking for delivery on it seems like their was a delay in getting the December edition out.

With all the increases in postage and other costs it must be a challenge to put out a print magazine and at the end of the day make a profit. It seems like most magazines will be digital soon. I
prefer reading a paper magazine you can hold in your hands instead of off a screen. My e reader is still my computer now but might have to break down and pick up a cheap reader in the near future.

Popular Communications is offering a free download for the Nov. and Dec. 2013 editions.

http://www.popular-communications.com/

Enjoy your Sunday papers and free downloads.

Holiday QSL Card

Here is a perfect card for this time of year from Finland, a contact made back on Dec 30, 2011.

QSL cards are still a nice welcome surprise in the mailbox, this one was delivered right before Christmas.

New Years Day has some classics on the tube, The Honeymooner's Marathon on WPIX TV channel 11, outdoor winter hockey game this afternoon from the Big House in Michigan. Even if your not a hockey fan this one should be fun to check out, 100,000+ fans, cold, and calling for 6 inches of snow.

Also will spend time on the air and play radio maybe in between periods.
Time to break out the straight key.

Enjoy you day!