An Image Of The North Polar Region Of Jupiter. 

My Radio-inActive Life

I am a non-practicing amateur radio operator. K4EYO is my callsign. I have a General Class license, but I got that after the FCC did away with the Morse code requirement, so to some people that doesn’t really count.

There is still the Extra class license out there, my one last goal, the pinnacle, the zenith of the U.S. Amateur radio licensing system. I’m putting that off, because once I pass that test, well, what’s left? I already have the Holy Grail of licenses, which is the General Radiotelephone Operator’s License (GROL). But that’s for working on radio equipment on ships in the Great Lakes and in the oceans, and also for supervising avionics techs, or something like that. In other words, very non-amateur. It’s a lifetime license, so I don’t have to deal with renewing it, which is the coolest thing about it, to me.

Ancient History

When I was a kid, way back in the 60’s my best friend’s dad was a Ham (that’s what we call ourselves in Amateur Radio-Land) and he tried to teach a bunch of us kids Morse code via LPs. We sat in the basement and wrote down what we heard, or what we thought we heard. I hated it. But he had a great ham shack (equipment room) with lots of postcards (QSL cards) from his radio contacts all over the world. Cool. He also took us to the local radio club meetings in nearby Hazel Park, MI. All I remember from that was all of the cigar smoke and the swap meet equipment - old Hallicrafters and Heathkits. These were the computer geeks before there were computers.

And that was it for my radio experience. We moved to Atlanta and my attention was refocused on not being beat up by the various gangs at my new high school and pretending to like Elvis.

Not So Ancient History

Years later (1990-ish) I wound up going to a technical school in the mountains of North Georgia, which is a story for another day. But there I could pick from auto mechanics, brick-laying (yep!), practical nursing, electrical wiring, and electronic technology. They used to have watchmaking(!), which is what I would have taken, but instead I settled for the electronics program.

We had a couple of old guys who taught us all about analog circuits, tubes (we had a room full of tubes - must be worth a fortune now), and antennas. I loved this stuff.

We also had a younger guy who taught us about digital circuits, PLCs, assembly language, and who asked me at one point what the hell I was doing there, and not in a university somewhere.

I owe him a debt of gratitude for encouraging me.

It was here that I got my Technician class license and my GROL (first person in something like 15 years from the school). We re-established the dormant radio club at the school, which had three or four members. We’d go to hamfests (conventions for radio geeks), and talk to each other on 2 meter radios in our respective cars.  We strung antennas up on the roof of the classroom. We also tried to communicate with MIR as it made its passes overhead, along with the other thousands along the east coast. Remember MIR? From Wikipedia, ca 1993:

One guy had an HF setup at home. I just had a mobile 2m radio in my VW Bug, and a 2m handheld radio that stayed on my hip, as I played geek wannabe.

A Slight Divergence- typewriters

We moved back to Atlanta and my new skills got me a job repairing typewriters (actually, the auto mechanic track would have been more useful). This was a very cool job, but the pay was terrible. But I learned how to repair/adjust IBM Selectrics via sets of slides in Carousel trays, and older mechanical machines like Smith Coronas, Remingtons, Olivettis just by figuring them out. I keep thinking this is what I’d do if I started my own business. But then I come to my senses.

White Collar Work

Then I got into call center work, first answering phones, then managing, then building them as a project manager. This was the period where I’ve earned the most money so far.

The problem with project management is that by definition, projects are temporary. And so are project manager jobs. At this time there was also a huge movement to move call centers to India, and I didn’t like the thought of that commute.

Blue Collar Work

After being unemployed for 7 months I went to a Georgia Department of Labor job fair in 2001, where the local transit authority (MARTA) had a recruiter looking for radio techs. I was the only one there who had radio licenses and education (the line for computer maintenance/IT jobs was a mile long). 2 months later I had a job and became underemployed.

So now I was in a real radio shop! I could talk about radios, bring in my equipment to adjust and tune…

Nope. Only one had a ham license, the old-timer. The rest of them couldn’t care less about radios. And to add injury to insult, we were not allowed to work on our own stuff, even off the clock.

But I did get great training on 800 mhz trunking systems. And it got me motivated to go to college to get a degree in Economics (“you won’t get rich studying economics, but at least you’ll know why”, as the old joke goes.)

Back to White Collars

It was a few months after graduation that I got a new job at MARTA, as a Maintenance Planner for the computer maintenance group. 7 years later and I’m still doing that. Still not getting rich.

Urban Radios

This is when I upgraded my license to “General” and started putting together a radio setup. But we live in a high-rise, so antennas are more of a challenge. And to keep from singeing the fur on the cats, I had to look at low power (QRP) systems. I have always preferred these anyway, just to be an iconoclast amongst the iconoclasts.

For decades the radio magazines touted home-built (or store bought) 1000 watt or more systems. Just blast that signal out there, power bills & other people’s TV reception be damned! Not really, RFI is bad.

QRP systems appeal to me just like bicycles and economics appeal to me: Efficient use of resources.

So I’ve built assembled a little 40 meter radio, and built assembled an iambic paddle and have built assembled a meter in an altoids can. Now I just need to revisit my old nemesis, Morse code.

See, these low powered, efficient systems are that way because they don’t transmit voice. No fat sidebands. But they only use 3 watts instead of 100 or 1,000.

So I need to string up some wire, or build some exotic coil loaded beast to transmit from the living room, which could double as a scratching post for the cats. And then we’ll be in business.

Now

And six years later nothing has changed, except for the thick layer of dust on my stuff. I really should wire it all up and at least listen to chatter out there.

But I also need to make a shirt, finish the kitchen cabinets, build a workbench…

Aerospace Engineering Magazine  April 1962

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is such a crazy, turbulent storm (the largest known storm in the universe) that it creates sound waves that travel hundreds of miles up and actually heat the planet’s upper atmosphere.

I repeat: sound waves are heating Jupiter’s atmosphere. The area above the Spot is a thousand degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the surrounding atmosphere.

Here’s the journal paper. Here’s our story.

Image credit: Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA

The second closest planet to the sun, Venus. Venus is about the same size as Earth, having a 12,104 km diameter. Venus has phases, like our moon, that can be seen as a crescent to a full circle. When visible at dusk and dawn, Venus is the brightest shining object in the sky (besides the sun & moon of course), brighter than mercury and mars. It is the hottest planet, and it’s surface temperature can reach up to 470 degrees Celsius. This is because Venus traps the sun’s heat, unlike mercury which doesn’t. A day on Venus lasts longer than its year, lasting for 19 days over. Venus is definitely a planet we could explore more, we just need to find a way to combat the blistering heat! ☀️

The NASA Village

Today in the NASA Village… Environmental Monitoring: How Clean is it?

So, the International Space Station has been operating for 16 years now. Do you wonder how clean is the air astronauts breathe or the surfaces that the astronauts touch each day? Are there hazardous levels of bacteria or other toxic components in the drinking water supply? Obviously on this (18+ year) long duration endeavor, we have to monitor the air quality, the microbial content of the air, surfaces, and water, the sound levels we are experiencing, and the radiation doses that we are being exposed to. These data are not only critical for safety of the astronauts while on board, but for long term occupational health monitoring. Future deep space explorers will benefit from lessons we are learning now. 

Needless to say, there are some specialized pieces of hardware that we have to know how to operate in order to perform this environmental monitoring. Elisca Hicks first joined NASA by working in the Education and Outreach Program. She later transitioned to the Space Medicine Training team in 2005. Elisca currently has a dual role in the Space Medicine Training Team. She is an instructor, she teaches the environmental monitoring hardware to Space Station crew members, but she also coordinates multiple medical student and doctor programs at Johnson Space Center. 

This media slide containing mold is what Elisca teaches us to use. This helps us identify if there are issues or areas that need our additional attention.

This picture shows mold found growing on a kit that was being used in an experiment. Inside the kit were tubes that contained a swab and liquid in them. The tubes were damaged (cracked lids) and they leaked, causing the mold to grow on the kit.

Here Elisca is showing me how to place the media tray in the microbial air sampler.

Consider that the lack of gravity means that dust does not collect just on the upper surfaces, but on all the surfaces. The ventilation system moves a lot of the debris to the filters, but electrostatic forces result in the potential for debris to collect pretty much anywhere. The worst air quality can be seen when the callouses of the crew members feet begin to come off about month 2. Remember, we are not using the bottoms of our feet for walking, so we actually get callouses on the tops of our toes from sliding them under handrails!

Next time on the NASA Village… You Need to Experience It.

Do you want more stories? Find our NASA Villagers here!

Goodbye to M42 for this year.  But I’ll see you again in November.  Meanwhile I can look at this picture I took in January of this year.

www.astrotidbits.com

How I Discovered Halley’s Comet, by Edmond Halley

On Monday, June 10, in the Evening, the Sky being very serene and calm, I was desirous to take a view of the disk of Mars (then very near the Earth, and appearing very glorious) to see if I could distinguish in my 24 Foot Telescope, the Spots said to be seen on him. Directing my Tube for the purpose, I accidentally fell upon a small whitish Appearance near the Planet, resembling in all respects such a Nebula … The Reverend Mr. Miles Williams, Mr. Alban Thomas, and myself contemplated this Appearance for above an Hour … and we could not be deceiv’d as to its Reality; but the slowness of its Motion made us at that time conclude that it had none, and that it was rather a Nebula than a Comet.

Read more. [Image: Wikimedia Commons]

What is the next step for hacktivists, radical or not. What’s 4Chan, what’s Anonymous and what’s the next thing? What’s the real deal - Ray Johansen gives his views.

Revolutionaries are always controversial. Some get proven right, some as a doing bad, some seen as doing equal amounts of both.The truth is complex. So we let Ray give us his views.

As part of our transparent process, we’re making some of our research interviews available for all.  Check out both our Transparently Unedited interviews on our YouTube channel where you’ll and also find other awesome clips from a diverse set of characters.

Just a typical Saturday in our courtyard calling Ohio using Morse code.