I’ve been challenged by a number of fairly costly things going wrong lately, from expensive drone repairs, to expensive aircraft repairs, to now what seems to be a possible expensive ham radio repair………….
………but then
But then……
Author: Kimberly Olsen
Waltham 8 Day Aircraft Clocks
Another slightly different project. Two Waltham aircraft clocks that were fully wound but not functioning. Follow along as I attempt to get them going.
The Patient is Doing Well
I’ve just come out of surgery for skin cancer. I’m sore and unable to do much walking. Instead I’ve been working on some things for my businesses, one of which is to repair this very expensive drone that I use at www.skyspec.com.au.
In the previous post, you can learn about what went wrong with the drone and why I’ll never buy another #Sensfly product. I’ve replaced the motor and fuse board and reassembled the drone. Some tests will be done over the next few days.
During surgery
Recovery after surgery
Something a Little Different For You
This time not Ham Radio, but electronics. The video is self-explanatory.
The Shack is a Mess But I’m ReConfiguring It
It’s been a while. I’ve been so busy creating and working on my businesses that I’ve not been in the shack much but I have enjoyed a few sessions on the HHH Net which is always great. Especially hearing that big signal from Chuck all the way over here in Oz.
I’ve purchased myself a new iMac for the shack and converted the old iMac over to Windows 10. Interesting that the RAM management of the latest Mac OS is so crap for old iMacs that windows 10 runs HEAPS faster on them. I do remember a time when Macs were all about utility. The new one is at least in my fave colour. Many of you will recognise the theme of my qsl card being used as wallpaper.
QSL card theme expanded to wallpaper
I’ve also been very busy with my other new purchase, affectionately known as TiKy. I’ve been creating a few YouTube videos featuring her.
My work on my Drone Services Company is also proceeding nicely. We recently did some reporting on a civil works project that we used as a kind of case study at www.skyspec.com.au/civil-works/
Soon I’ll begin the repairs on my vintage radio equipment and bring that back into the shack
These are Johnson Viking Ranger II
Hamarlaund HQ170
Drake TR4C
Aviation- Love of flying is a disease, some people catch it and others don’t. It’s incurable.
Now that I’m back from the remotest parts of Australia, I thought I’d spend some time updating my blog. I’ve obviously not done much with respect to ham radio while I was away, although I do have a HF radio in the 4wd. It is a Barrett 950 coupled to a Barrett 2019 autotune antenna and it workd fabulously.
I did break the 2.7m stainless steel whip on some low trees on the Canning Stock Route, so I have a new one on order. That will be a job I’ll have to attend to soon. The other job I have to attend to is the annual inspection of my sailplane. She is affectionately known as Peggy. She is a Centrair Pegase 101A, what the Americans call a Pegasus.
I completed a wing refinish on that sailplane recently. Well I’ve almost completed it- I have the wet sanding and polishing to do yet. Thinking of my other interests, which include soaring and aviation in general, I though I’d introduce you to my other interests which I document on several YouTube channels. I’ll just list the aviation based ones for now and one other. If you’re intertested in any of these, please do subscribe.
Soaring Sisters
Been a While
The last few years have been incredibly hectic. I completed some very high level projects in the corporate world in Sydney while rebuilding my businesses. On April 6 I decided to retire from working for others and to concentrate on my business interests. I runs several-
Olsen’s Tours and Training
LearntoTow.com.au
Truweigh Mobile Caravan and Vehicle Weighing and
Skyspec Drone Services
So I don’t have as much time for radio as I would like.
Anyway, I’ve been working in the remotest parts of Australia and have now returned, so hopefully I can do a few more radio projects now.
Thanks for the comments.
BTW, if you are wondering why there is now no Twitter feed in the right column, it’s because of Elongated Muskrat’s lies about free speech while banning words and supporting transphobes. All he wants is your money. He can go get X’d.
Inspirational YLs
Are you looking for ways to inspire young women to be involved in science and amateur radio? These inspirational women may be the answer.
Female Space Hams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamara_E._Jernigan
Tamara E. Jernigan (USA) formerly KC5MGF. Jernigan attended Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, CA. She graduated in 1977. Jernigan attended Stanford University, where she earned a B.S. degree in physics in 1981, an M.S. in engineering science in 1983. At the University of California, Berkeley, she received an M.S. in astronomy in 1985. In 1988 she was awarded a Ph.D. in space physics and astronomy from Rice University.
She entered the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1986 and retired in 2001. Her first trip to space was on June 5, 1991.[1] She flew on five Space Shuttle program missions (three on Columbia and one each on Endeavour and Discovery) and logged 1512 hours in space. In her last mission on Discovery in 1999, she performed an extra-vehicular activity for 7 hours and 55 minutes.
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http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/bruemmer_renate.htm
Renata Luise Bruemer (Germany) DB5PL Studied mathematics and physics at the Munich University; Ph.D. in meteorology from University of Miami, Florida, 1986; research scientist at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado; was selected as backup for STS-55 (D-2 mission).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Cagle
Born in West Point, New York, Yvonne Cagle (USA) formerly KC5ZSV graduated from Novato High School in Novato, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from San Francisco State University in 1981, and a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Washington in 1985. She completed a transitional internship at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California in 1985 and received a certificate in Aerospace Medicine from the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, in 1988. She then went on to complete a residency in family practice at Ghent FP at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1992 and received certification as a senior aviation medical examiner from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1995.
Cagle retired from the United States Air Force with the rank of Colonel in 2008. As a commissioned medical officer in the USAF Cagle served as Air Force Medical Liaison Officer for STS-30, before she became a NASA astronaut. She worked as medical doctor at NASA’s Occupational Health Clinic from 1994 to 1996. In 1996 she was selected for astronaut training by NASA.
Yvonne Cagle was a member of the Astronaut Class of 1996 (NASA Astronaut Group 16). She is currently assigned to Johnson Space Center’s Space and Life Sciences Directorate.
Dr. Cagle is also an advisor for NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program (originally named CRuSR – Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program). Currently Dr. Cagle is on faculty and serves as the NASA liaison for exploration and space development with Singularity University. During the workshop, Dr. Cagle was embedded with the crew as a crew training consultant and advisor, providing insights and feedback to both crew and study team from the viewpoint of an astronaut, flight surgeon, space development expert, and science liaison.
She has recently been selected reserve crew for Hawai‘i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), which is part of a study for NASA to determine the best way to keep astronauts well nourished during multiple-year missions to Mars or the moon. Furthermore, Dr. Cagle is also listed as an honorary member of the Danish Astronautical Society.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Caldwell_Dyson
Tracy Caldwell Dyson (USA) KF5DBF born Tracy Ellen Caldwell; August 14, 1969 is an American chemist and NASA astronaut. Caldwell Dyson was a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Endeavour flight STS-118 in August 2007. She was part of the Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station between April 4, 2010 and September 25, 2010. She has completed three spacewalks, logging more than 22 hrs of EVA including work to replace a malfunctioning coolant pump.
As an undergraduate researcher at the California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), Caldwell Dyson designed, constructed and implemented electronics and hardware associated with a laser-ionization, time-of-flight mass spectrometer for studying atmospherically relevant gas-phase chemistry.
Also at CSUF, she worked for the Research and Instructional Safety Office as a lab assistant performing environmental monitoring of laboratories using hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials, as well as calibrating survey instruments and helping to process chemical and radioactive waste. During that time (and for many years prior) she also worked as an electrician/inside wireman for her father’s electrical contracting company doing commercial and light industrial type construction.
At the University of California, Davis, Caldwell Dyson taught general chemistry laboratory and began her graduate research. Her dissertation work focused on investigating molecular-level surface reactivity and kinetics of metal surfaces using electron spectroscopy, laser desorption, and Fourier transform mass spectrometry techniques. She also designed and built peripheral components for a variable temperature, ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy system.
In 1997, Caldwell Dyson received the Camille and Henry Drefus Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Science to study atmospheric chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. There she investigated reactivity and kinetics of atmospherically relevant systems using atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared and ultraviolet absorption spectroscopies. In addition, she developed methods of chemical ionization for spectral interpretation of trace compounds. Caldwell Dyson has published and presented her work in numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.
Selected by NASA in June 1998, Caldwell Dyson reported for training in August 1998. Her Astronaut Candidate Training included orientation briefings and tours, numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) systems, physiological training, ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques. Completion of this training and evaluation qualified her for flight assignment as a mission specialist.
In 1999, Caldwell Dyson was assigned to the Astronaut Office ISS Operations Branch as a Russian Crusader, participating in the testing and integration of Russian hardware and software products developed for ISS. In 2000, she was assigned prime Crew Support Astronaut for the ISS Expedition 5 crew, serving as their representative on technical and operational issues throughout the training and on-orbit phase of their mission.
During ISS Expeditions 4 through 6, Caldwell Dyson also served as an ISS spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) inside Mission Control. In 2003, she made a transition to the Astronaut Shuttle Operations Branch and was assigned to flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) and also worked supporting launch and landing operations at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Caldwell Dyson also served as Lead CAPCOM for Expedition 11.
Caldwell Dyson was assigned to, and later flew on STS-118, Space Shuttle Endeavour, on August 8–21, 2007, which was the 119th space shuttle flight, the 22nd flight to the station, and the 20th flight for Endeavour. Caldwell Dyson was assigned as Mission Specialist #1 on this flight. During the mission Endeavour’s crew successfully added another truss segment, a new gyroscope and external spare parts platform to the International Space Station. A new system that enables docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost was activated successfully. A total of four spacewalks (EVAs) were performed by three crew members. Endeavour carried some 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and returned to Earth with some 4,000 pounds of hardware and no longer needed equipment. Traveling 5.3 million miles in space, the STS-118 mission was completed in 12 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds. Finally, during the flight of STS-118, Caldwell Dyson celebrated her 38th birthday in space.
On April 4, 2010, Caldwell Dyson joined the Expedition 23 crew aboard ISS. She lifted off on April 2, 2010 from the Baikonur spaceport aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule (Soyuz TMA-18). After 176 days duty as part of the Expedition 24 crew, she returned to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-18 landing unit. Together with commander Aleksandr Skvortsov and flight engineer Mikhail Korniyenko, Dyson landed in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2010.
In a television interview on the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, she said she is the first astronaut who was born after Apollo 11.
As Tracy Dyson, she is the host of a series on NASA TV called “StationLife”, which focuses on facets of life aboard the International Space Station.
She appeared on Episode 3 of MasterChef Junior Season 4.
On March 21, 2017, Dyson stood behind President Trump as he signed a bill for NASA to send humans to Mars in 2030s and receive $19.5 billion in 2018 funding. Dyson and fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy presented Trump with an official flight jacket during the ceremony.
You can read about many more inspiring female astronauts who were hams at the following links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Coleman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Collins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Cristoforetti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_J._Currie-Gregg
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/dunbar.html
https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/jeanette-j-epps/biography
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/godwin.html
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/helms.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelena_Kondakova
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lawrence.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Magnus
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/metcalf-lindenburger-dm.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Morgan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Nowak
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/people/orgs/bios/ochoa.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Rubins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelena_Serova
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_history/50_years_of_humans_in_space/Dr_Helen_Sharman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidemarie_Stefanyshyn-Piper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_D._Sullivan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janice_E._Voss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Whitson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunita_Williams
https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/stephanie-d-wilson/
Echophone EC-1
While I still have the restoration of my Hammarlund HQ170 to finish, and a repair of the audio circuit on my Viking Ranger II to complete, as well as a rectifier repair on a Yaesu FT101E, I could not go past this little beauty. While I have older receivers (1935 and 1936), I have been wanting a receiver from the period of WWII now for some time. This little radio was known as the morale radio.
The original EC-1 was the GI’s radio of World War 2 and it was manufactured by the Hallicrafters company under the brand name “Echophone Commercial.” It began production toward the end of 1940 and continued in production all through the war. This model radio was about the only commercial, non military radio that the government allowed to be manufactured during WW 2 and they did it for morale purposes, that is, to provide lonely, homesick and bored servicemen with entertainment. These rugged little radios have good short wave circuits so the servicemen and women could listen to shows, music and war news no matter where they were in the world. The EC-1 sold at a “reasonable” price of about $20 (about a month’s pay). Actually, for this quality of radio, $20 was a very low price and a lot of GIs got to own them either by buying them outright or receiving them as gifts.
The EC-1 radios were marketed to the GIs directly and through their families to be given as gifts. Ads for the radios appeared in magazines with a rather over the top campaign featuring a Private (later corporal) Hogarth. Hogarth was always shown as a hopeless nerd with coke-bottle glasses, but very popular with pretty girls who wanted to listen to his radio. I don’t think this nerdy girl could attract girls with a short wave radio, but those were innocent if heteronormative times.
I may have some modifications to do to the radio when it arrives, most notably for safety, unless the appropriate modifications were done in 1994 when this radio had a major service. Known as an all American 5, the 115V supply is delivered to the 5 valves in series, without a transformer or fuse. One side of the mains chord connects directly to the radio chassis which is isolated from the external box by rubber grommets only. Without a polarised plug to determine which is neutral and which is active, there is a 50% chance of connecting the chassis to the active. Life was cheap in the 1940s :-).
Back to the Drawing Board
Today I finally got myself organised enough to begin work on another mag loop, in the hope that this one will work. I believe the steel framed high-rise building is to blame for my lack of reception but in a last ditch effort, I decided to make a new multi-turn loop out of some heliax that I had brought back from Queensland. Unfortunately the PVC support I made was not robust enough for the heavier than expected heliax- back to the drawing board
Shack of VK2KMI 