The Electronics Blog
All my posts on electronics, radio, microcontrollers, computers and all the things electrons are attracted to. I must be an electron. . . .’cuz I’m attracted to all those too!
Reconstituted Ham!
It’s been 27 years since I could last call myself a ham. I got my Novice licence in 1969 (WN8EGB) and quickly upgraded to General class amateur radio operator WB8EGB. Back then you had to travel to an FCC Field Office for testing, where first you were administered a Morse code test, 5 words per minute for Novice and 13 WPM for General. I think the 20 WPM requirement for Extra class kept me away from “going all the way.”
I was very active in the early 70’s, my high school years and into college. But then came a time to get a job. . . .and get married. . . . and have kids. . . and forget about all the fun I had with electronics and ham radio. Although I was inactive in the early 80’s I should have at least kept my license active when renewal time came around in 1985.
But no I didn’t. Besides a whole new play toy was coming around. . . .PCs. Computer technology took over my career as well as hobby and I never really thought about ham radio again. Let’s move to 2012.
I’m cleaning and making room in a closet for more storage boxes, when I knock over a cardboard bankers box and out comes an old logbook and dozens if not hundreds of QSL cards. Oh my! I don’t remember how many hours passed while I looked at the cards, paging through the logbook and reminiscing about a Heathkit HW-16 and SB-401 and a Yaesu FT101 that I remember having years ago. Kapow! The radio itch started again and I had to scratch it.
So I started Googling! The first thing that hit me was that transceivers were a lot more expensive than I remember. Then I thought with my small city lot I’ll never be able to put up a 40 foot tower with a Mosley tri-band beam antenna. But I didn’t get discouraged. I bought a $50 dollar Baofeng 2m handheld to listen on the airways and study for a Technician’s license. 
So I got Gordo’s Technician Class book and read through it. . . .with much of it feeling eerily familiar. Took some practice tests at HamTestOnline and felt I was ready. So today I went to a local amateur radio club and took my Tech exam and passed. The VE (Voluntary Examiner) then said for no extra money I can try the General exam. Oh boy, now I started getting jittery, but no cash out of my pocket I went along. Yep, you guessed it, I passed!
Feeling I was on a roll, I then went for the Extra class exam. It was longer with 40% more questions than either the Tech or General, and I needed to correctly answer 37 of 50 questions. I knew soon into it, my luck or more specifically my knowledge had run out! Yes, I failed that one, but walked out with my General Class license, although I have to wait for the FCC to assign me a call sign.
But still the feeling is a good one. Hope to be on the air soon.
Catching up on Electronics
So I relapsed into electronics, my hobby as a teenager and my course of study in my 20’s. My how things have changed, so I looked for some refreshers. When I first got into electronics it was still a “tube” world. Now it is all solid state. . . unless you want to go “retro.”
One thing for sure is that the Internet has put a lot of information at the hands of everybody on any subject. . . including electronics. I brushed up on the subject by simply Googling “electronics blog.” Page after page of sites, videos and information. Lots of sites, lots of info, lots of fun!
This whole world of microcontrollers was intriguing. All kinds of projects, books and sites.
Arduino Playground
Arduino Cookbook
Programming Arduino Getting Started with Sketches
30 Arduino Projects for the Evil Genius
And many many more not only on Arduino. but also electronics in general.
Make: Electronics
EEVblog
Electronic Circuits
t r o n i x s t u f f
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Wow, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!
Retro
I went to the local big-box hardware store to get a new doorbell chime. I found one that was made by Heath/Zenith. When I saw that, it brought back a lot of memories about kit building in my first 20 years of life. While I was growing up, I built many Heathkits, from ham radios to test equipment to a computer based on the Z80 processor and running CPM.
So when I got home I googled Heathkit and found this website which brought back a lot of memories: http://www.heathkit-museum.com/
Now I find out that they are going to get back into the DIY kit-building business. It will be interesting to see what kind of kits they come up with. More info. . .
Related articles
- The Soul of an old heathkit (makezine.com)
Rewiring
Spent the last several weeks rewiring parts of my 80-year-old house. It all started with me trying to get the front doorbell working. I had to change the transformer, rewire the back doorbell, and add a new AC line. In the process I thought I would add/split some existing lines.
My office is on the second floor. There I have several PCs and a server, RoadRunner modem for Internet and a wireless router. When this particular room was rewired, who knows when, at least they put in plugs with a ground. Unfortunately, they probably didn’t have an inclination that someone would someday fill the room with electrical/electronic devices. When a space heater was on, it would trip the breaker and several battery backups would start singing!
Well I ran some new lines to the office to split the computes and servers from the “standard” lines with TV, air conditioner, refrigerator and plugs and lights. Worked perfectly and no more tripping circuit breaker. I also added 2 RJ-45 cables to make a “hard” connection on my workbench in the basement…another convenience.
Unfortunately the front doorbell still doesn’t work…not because of the wiring, but because I can’t get a new line up to the front door. I thought I would use the old wire to pull the new wire…but no! I pulled and pulled, and the old wire snapped somewhere inside the wall. Looks like they buried the original bell wire into the front porch concrete slab.
So I took down the bell wire and transformer, plugged both holes at the front and back door and bought a wireless doorbell. Oh well, that’s progress.