In these times, bd139 needs all the encourage he can get.
hahaha. RF = dead. Tek = dead.
The next hole is going to be audio when I'm back on my feet. I've always wanted to build a wasteful space heating power hungry JLH class A audio amplifier and some nice speaker enclosures. That gives me an excuse to buy nice old style HP distortion analyser, oscillators, voltmeter etc
Today I got my RSGB renewal letter in the post asking for the yearly £56. Have shredded it!
What did I derive from the last 12 month subscription? A pretty weak and lame defence from commercial attack on 2m, a shit rag with whining about people, advertisements, badly written technical articles, adverts from absolute chancers, wrong propagation predictions, hamfest listings which are out of date and 100 sheets of toilet paper a month. . There have been people subscribed to it for 50+ years apparently. I'm trying to work out why!? Perhaps it has electrolytes.
Oh so now you're looking to become the domestic version of the mobile high power boom box of bass then.
In moderation, yesMay I suggest a suitable tube for your audio endeavours ?
The heating effect is absolutely top of class.
Mmmmm xrays as well?
If the voltage of the anode plate is above 15kV: very likely
hahaha. RF = dead. Tek = dead.
The next hole is going to be audio when I'm back on my feet. I've always wanted to build a wasteful space heating power hungry JLH class A audio amplifier and some nice speaker enclosures. That gives me an excuse to buy nice old style HP distortion analyser, oscillators, voltmeter etc
OK, so the mouthbreathing / drooling go-out-and-buy-it hams aren't good company - scarcely earthshattering!
Did you look at any groups where they had to, at least partially, construct their own equipment? The microwavers, UWB and low power arenas look technically interesting.
As for expecting anything better from audiopools... I think you will be, um, disappointed. Uncomfortably hot frying pans come to mind.
yep....just let my arrl subscription lapse after 36 years. they have been guzzling brawndo in newington for a while. (qst should be called "2m jpole journal")
hahaha. RF = dead. Tek = dead.
The next hole is going to be audio when I'm back on my feet. I've always wanted to build a wasteful space heating power hungry JLH class A audio amplifier and some nice speaker enclosures. That gives me an excuse to buy nice old style HP distortion analyser, oscillators, voltmeter etc
OK, so the mouthbreathing / drooling go-out-and-buy-it hams aren't good company - scarcely earthshattering!
Did you look at any groups where they had to, at least partially, construct their own equipment? The microwavers, UWB and low power arenas look technically interesting.
As for expecting anything better from audiopools... I think you will be, um, disappointed. Uncomfortably hot frying pans come to mind.
Completely. I did look at the self-construction areas and they are either as dead as a dodo, require equipment I don't want to afford, are pretty much cults stuck somewhere in the 1950s or boring as fuck. All the good stuff has also been done already. Perhaps if it was 1970-1990 things might be a little different.
As for audiophoolery, I am disinterested. I am interested in measurable results. Class A amplifiers have always interested me because they are quite frankly insanely inefficient but inside the linear region, pretty damn good. Class D also interests me because of the opposite - extreme power efficiency. And of course both need power supplies which are fun to design and build.yep....just let my arrl subscription lapse after 36 years. they have been guzzling brawndo in newington for a while. (qst should be called "2m jpole journal")
Hahaha exactly that. The funny thing really is that you hit the nail on the head.
I think the issue is that the commercial equipment is relatively cheap and pretty excellent. The extreme minimalist side of things was the only thing that was interesting to me really (check tggzzz's signature) but the issue with that is you're an ant playing in a swimming pool of elephants. No one wants to even acknowledge a tiny little feep amongst the background noise when you can score a DX from some Italian with an illegal amp and a beam in two seconds or let the computer do it for you. That plus the extreme impracticality of running dipole antennas in the middle of London
Really there is no challenge. And without a challenge, what's the point?
A point to note on amateur radio though: I am being commissioned as an assembly line worker to build a QCX+ transceiver still by someone who is unable to do so due to Parkinsons so there will be some construction action which I don't mind. It's therapeutic.
The whole field of electronics is evolving. DIY now works at a "higher level" in the sense that where in the past it would have been a challenge to put together an audio amp from discrete components that did not self destruct from oscillations... it was a real challenge at the time, working with the components that were available. Nowadays, you get excellent results from an amp made from a single IC that is extremely well behaved (e.g. LM3886).
For many analog electronics projects that would have been a challenge in the past, you now reach for an Arduino (a device that is really a minor miracle when you think about what we had in the 80's or 90's) that costs a few dollars, you write a few lines of code, and boom - you have something up and working before you know it.
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
A big part of electronics as a hobby has always been to use electronic components to solve some problem (communicating at a distance, for the ham, or watering a plant, or whatever the engineer found interesting at the time). That part - using technology to solve a problem - is where amateurs will always have a part to play, it seems to me. Solving new problems, or finding new ways of solving old problems, is a creative process that "feels good".
hahaha. RF = dead. Tek = dead. The next hole is going to be audio when I'm back on my feet. I've always wanted to build a wasteful space heating power hungry JLH class A audio amplifier and some nice speaker enclosures. That gives me an excuse to buy nice old style HP distortion analyser, oscillators, voltmeter etcOh so now you're looking to become the domestic version of the mobile high power boom box of bass then.
The whole field of electronics is evolving. DIY now works at a "higher level" in the sense that where in the past it would have been a challenge to put together an audio amp from discrete components that did not self destruct from oscillations... it was a real challenge at the time, working with the components that were available. Nowadays, you get excellent results from an amp made from a single IC that is extremely well behaved (e.g. LM3886).
For many analog electronics projects that would have been a challenge in the past, you now reach for an Arduino (a device that is really a minor miracle when you think about what we had in the 80's or 90's) that costs a few dollars, you write a few lines of code, and boom - you have something up and working before you know it.
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
A big part of electronics as a hobby has always been to use electronic components to solve some problem (communicating at a distance, for the ham, or watering a plant, or whatever the engineer found interesting at the time). That part - using technology to solve a problem - is where amateurs will always have a part to play, it seems to me. Solving new problems, or finding new ways of solving old problems, is a creative process that "feels good".
Fully agree. Making equipment that used to be rocket science using standard microcontrollers is fun and opens new possibilities in your lab.
https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/homebrew-scpi-controllable-instruments-with-arduino-controllers/
Why do you think most of my stuff pre-dates 1990 and in fact much of it has those strange orange glowing globes in them? I understand it, I enjoy working on them, and you can get service documentation. Yea, parts can be a hassle sometimes but that's part of the fun. Almost all of today's equipment you can't get service info. Case in point....the Siglent DMM and DSO. If they break it's pretty much into the bin.
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
35-40 years ago | Now |
8-bit micros (Z80) | 8-bit micros (atmega328) |
ADCs, DACs, TTL | ADCs, DACs, TTL |
LED/LCD output | LED/LCD output |
programmed in C (Whitesmith's) | programmed in C (gcc, others) |
crosscompiled under unix on a PDP11 | crosscompiled under linux on a PC |
breakpoints and singlestepping via a ICE | breakpoints and singlestepping via JTAG |
The whole field of electronics is evolving. DIY now works at a "higher level" in the sense that where in the past it would have been a challenge to put together an audio amp from discrete components that did not self destruct from oscillations... it was a real challenge at the time, working with the components that were available. Nowadays, you get excellent results from an amp made from a single IC that is extremely well behaved (e.g. LM3886).
For many analog electronics projects that would have been a challenge in the past, you now reach for an Arduino (a device that is really a minor miracle when you think about what we had in the 80's or 90's) that costs a few dollars, you write a few lines of code, and boom - you have something up and working before you know it.
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
A big part of electronics as a hobby has always been to use electronic components to solve some problem (communicating at a distance, for the ham, or watering a plant, or whatever the engineer found interesting at the time). That part - using technology to solve a problem - is where amateurs will always have a part to play, it seems to me. Solving new problems, or finding new ways of solving old problems, is a creative process that "feels good".
Fully agree. Making equipment that used to be rocket science using standard microcontrollers is fun and opens new possibilities in your lab.
https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/homebrew-scpi-controllable-instruments-with-arduino-controllers/
A few technological points have changed significantly:
The whole field of electronics is evolving. DIY now works at a "higher level" in the sense that where in the past it would have been a challenge to put together an audio amp from discrete components that did not self destruct from oscillations... it was a real challenge at the time, working with the components that were available. Nowadays, you get excellent results from an amp made from a single IC that is extremely well behaved (e.g. LM3886).
For many analog electronics projects that would have been a challenge in the past, you now reach for an Arduino (a device that is really a minor miracle when you think about what we had in the 80's or 90's) that costs a few dollars, you write a few lines of code, and boom - you have something up and working before you know it.
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
A big part of electronics as a hobby has always been to use electronic components to solve some problem (communicating at a distance, for the ham, or watering a plant, or whatever the engineer found interesting at the time). That part - using technology to solve a problem - is where amateurs will always have a part to play, it seems to me. Solving new problems, or finding new ways of solving old problems, is a creative process that "feels good".
Fully agree. Making equipment that used to be rocket science using standard microcontrollers is fun and opens new possibilities in your lab.
https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/homebrew-scpi-controllable-instruments-with-arduino-controllers/
That looks very cool! - Do you have to "teach" Visa/Labview etc. the dialect of SCPI that you have implemented in the Arduino? - i.e., how does Labview etc. know how to speak the new commands to it? (I don't use Labview, I always just hit GPIB "the hard way" as most of my collection of boat anchors predates even SCPI! )
A few technological points have changed significantly:
That's misrepresenting some of the stuff though isn't it really?
I've got a TFLOP of wumph in my pocket and 5.5 of them in a box next to me
Edit: gah just found a hole in my rain coat. If only we could throw some of the research money we burned at fabrics that are prickle-bush proof
Let's consider the future, as seen from what I was using a while ago...
35-40 years ago Now 8-bit micros (Z80) 8-bit micros (atmega328)
...
Depressingly little has changed, hasn't it.
35-40 years ago | Now |
Hammers with wooden handles | Hammers with fiberglass handles |
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
(Ignoring your points that I agree with).
Let's consider the future, as seen from what I was using a while ago...
35-40 years ago Now 8-bit micros (Z80) 8-bit micros (atmega328) ADCs, DACs, TTL ADCs, DACs, TTL LED/LCD output LED/LCD output programmed in C (Whitesmith's) programmed in C (gcc, others) crosscompiled under unix on a PDP11 crosscompiled under linux on a PC breakpoints and singlestepping via a ICE breakpoints and singlestepping via JTAG
Depressingly little has changed, hasn't it.
When I came back to this area as a hobby, I was horrified at how little I needed to relearn. Yes, things are "smaller, faster, cheaper", but that was predicted and hence uninteresting.
A few technological points have changed significantly:
- stunning speed/resolution changes in ADCs/DACs
- nanopower circuits and environmentally harvested energy sources
- multiprocessor - but even there the best current technology is the XMOS' version of the early 80's Transputer/Occam - xCORE/xC
- FPGAs having greated capacity than semi-custom CMOS and PALs
- an even smaller proportion of developers understand the implications of hard realtime, and what is necessary to ensure it
Thinking about the future... what will it be like in another 20-30 years? - Chips will most likely be crazy advanced and inexpensive, mind blowing.
(Ignoring your points that I agree with).
Let's consider the future, as seen from what I was using a while ago...
35-40 years ago Now 8-bit micros (Z80) 8-bit micros (atmega328) ADCs, DACs, TTL ADCs, DACs, TTL LED/LCD output LED/LCD output programmed in C (Whitesmith's) programmed in C (gcc, others) crosscompiled under unix on a PDP11 crosscompiled under linux on a PC breakpoints and singlestepping via a ICE breakpoints and singlestepping via JTAG
Depressingly little has changed, hasn't it.
When I came back to this area as a hobby, I was horrified at how little I needed to relearn. Yes, things are "smaller, faster, cheaper", but that was predicted and hence uninteresting.
A few technological points have changed significantly:
- stunning speed/resolution changes in ADCs/DACs
- nanopower circuits and environmentally harvested energy sources
- multiprocessor - but even there the best current technology is the XMOS' version of the early 80's Transputer/Occam - xCORE/xC
- FPGAs having greated capacity than semi-custom CMOS and PALs
- an even smaller proportion of developers understand the implications of hard realtime, and what is necessary to ensure it
... a bit overly pessemistic. Your right side of the table should rather read:
- Arduino Zero (ARM 32Bit)
- Touchscreen Graphics GUI
- DACs, ADCs, ... yes, but now with a lot more bits and a lot more speed
- Tons of memory
- Better Tools (e.g., VS Code)
but lucky you, C is still there.
Edit: gah just found a hole in my rain coat. If only we could throw some of the research money we burned at fabrics that are prickle-bush proof
I just had the fancy for a ultrasonic cleaner thats big enough to accept a PCB of approx 200 x 200 until I saw the prices of those things, geez why are they so bloody expensive
I just had the fancy for a ultrasonic cleaner thats big enough to accept a PCB of approx 200 x 200 until I saw the prices of those things, geez why are they so bloody expensive
Short version: RMS factoring of the emitter power/driver circuitry required to actually do the job vs volume. Log scale in power, log scale in price vs actual usable volume.
mnem