Found A Couple Old Photos Of My Mom Practicing Her Ham Radio Skillz Back In The Day. Ham Radio Was Actually

Comets may hold the secret to the origin of life on Earth

We’ve studied life on Earth extensively, but we still have no idea where it came from. Some scientists think it may have spontaneously arisen on Earth by some unknown process. Others think the ingredients for life were delivered here by comets crashing into Earth in the early days of the solar system. The latter theory just got a huge boost.

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Comet lander Philae wakes up: How it happened and what’s next

By Lauren Raab

Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, surprised and delighted scientists this weekend by waking up and reestablishing contact with Earth, seven months after running out of power. It “spoke” for more than a minute, according to the European Space Agency, and it’s expected to be able to continue gathering information and sending it home.

Here’s a look at what the lander has done so far and what will happen next.

Continue Reading.

Image of Saturn taken by Cassini spacecraft in October 28, 2016.

Credit: NASA / JPL / Cassini

General Ham: CW Procedures/Abbreviations

Have I mentioned that the General Ham License Manual has a ton more information than the Technician manual?  If I haven’t already, it’s true.  It’s awesome.

So it’s a lot of work to spell out the full text of all words and phrases, so telegraphers developed an extensive set of abbreviations and procedural signals called prosigns.  These are two letters sent together as a single character as indicated by an overbar.   So the prosign  AR  is used to indicated “End of Message”.

And then there are abbreviations to shorten common words such as “AND” is “ES” and “GOING” is “GG” and “WEATHER” is “WX”.

Calling CQ on CW is about the same as on phone/voice.  "DE" is an abbreviation used in place of “form” and the procedural signal K replaces “over”:

CQ CQ CQ DE W0TTV W0TTV W0TTV K

A response might look like the following:

W0TTV DE W1AW W1AW W1AW K

There’s no need to send the CQing station’s call more than once unless there’s interferences or the signal is weak.  When signals are strong and clear, those responding to CQ may even just send their call once or twice.

Good idea is also to respond at the speed of the calling station but if you’re uncomfortable receiving at that speed, send the Q signal “QRS” (send slower) before the final K.  Or if you want to go faster, QRQ.

Also adjust your transmitting frequency so that your signals is “zero beat” with the other signal so that you will be on the same frequency.  This means the two signals produce the same audio tone in a receiver.  Check the radio’s operating manual for instructions on how to zero beat another signal.

And once you’re in contact with another station, the prosign KN is used instead of K to prevent other stations from breaking in during the contact.  It means “Only the station with whom I am in contact should respond”.  When asked if you are ready to receive, “QRV” means “I’m ready to copy.”  After receiving the message, “QSL” means  "I acknowledge receipt.“

Then when it’s time to end the QSO, the prosign SK is used to let any listener know that the contact is completed: W1AW DE W0TTV SK and if you’re going off the air, add CL for closing station.

Phew!

@atdiy/@tymkrs

This view of Jupiter shows the giant planet’s cloud tops taken by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft as it flew past Jupiter. This view was taken from 2,695,000 kilometers (1,842,451 miles) away. It shows the 25,000 mile long Great Red Spot, which is large enough to swallow up several Earths. Individual cloud formations are visible in some detail. The bright zones appear to become split up into the detailed flow patterns of Jupiter’s atmosphere and clouds. The area surrounding the Spot in the bright South Tropical Zone, suggests a flow pattern about the Spot which is bulged toward the north by the Spot. The Spot may be a gigantic “permanent hurricane.” The gigantic cloud swirls are thousands or more miles across. Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter in December 1974 and flew past the orbit of Pluto in 1987. A sister spacecraft, Pioneer 11 reached Jupiter in December 1975. The Pioneer Project was managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calafornia. The spacecraft was built by TRW Systems.

Hubble Hones In on a Hypergiants Home : The super star cluster Westerlund 1, only 15,000 light-years away in our Milky Way neighborhood, hosts one of the largest stars ever discovered.

js

Spacex CRS-10

The Pillars of Creation and Spotting Comet Lovejoy

This week in space news, a new makeover for one of the Hubble Telescope’s most famous images, and tips on spotting Comet Lovejoy in the night sky.

Ham radio operators for Vogue

(Nina Leen. 1941?)