I feel like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here as far as blog posts go, but perhaps some of you will find these notes interesting. As I’m operating, I have a note pad on which I jot down things I find interesting. I get these things either from Twitter or from the people I talk to on the air.
Below are the most recent notes, redacted to protect the innocent. :)
Now, here are some notes about my notes on the first page:
- KiCad. I thought this was a link to a KiCad tutorial, but when I go to the link, I find it’s a YouTube channel for AddOhms electronics tutorials. They look like they’re pretty well done, and some of them deal with KiCad.
- VLF antennas – This is a link to a recent news story about the results of some work at Stanford at making a very small VLF antenna. I never got around to learning more about this, but in general, if something sounds too good to be true, it generally is, and I think this is going to turn out the same. The link I wrote down doesn’t work anymore, but you can click on the one above and it will work.
- How to create a badge with KiCad – At one point, I got the idea to create a badge like the ones they make for maker/hacker gathering for hams at Dayton. The link doesn’t seem to be working, and googling doesn’t really turn up anything.
- Spectrum Monitor. This is an online magazine covering just about all aspects of listening to the radio spectrum. I keep threatening to subscribe, but never seem to get around to it.
And, here are my notes on the second page of notes:
- Use WebSDR…. This is a note I took while chatting with W0ITT on 30m one night. When he runs across someone interested in amateur radio or SW listening, he directs them to a WebSDR so that they can listen. This has the advantage of requiring little or no investment on the part of the interested party. I think it’s a great idea.
- Python/KiwiSDR. I forget who posted a link to this, but as you can see, I failed to write it down. :(
- elements-of-content-strategy.abookapart.com. This is an online book about how to develop content strategy for a company. It’s not really amateur radio related, but I’m interested in this topic because, as a freelance writer, I develop content for high-tech companies.
We demand to see the whole report, unredacted. (I just threw that out there because I was feeling Congressional today ). %^)
On VLF – I cannot confirm or deny that certain armed forces may or may not be using VLF for communications purposes. Buy you could ask Tom Clancy about that. Then again, this subject could be all wet – since VLF can penetrate water…
I can tell you that I did use WebSDR on occasion prior to deciding to become licensed. It worked, cost nothing (I already was using the internet and had been since before it was the internet), and being an SWLer, ( a hobby my dad got me started in back in junior high school), getting the license was the next step. Listening to the traffic on the air on WebSDR only encouraged me to want to join in.
I’m going to check out the rest of those subjects – they just went on my research list. I am still studying for the Extra exam, but these subjects allow me a break while still keeping my head in the game so to speak.
Go ahead and get a year of The Spectrum Monitor. It’s a quality product.