Checking on the arrivals for Stanstead Airport I notice there was a fairly rare Antonov 124-100 coming in this evening from Istanbul and it was touch and go if I'd be able to get a shot or two of it before the sun went down, and here is one, bathed in the evening golden sunlight, another 5 minutes and the light had gone completely.
I'll bet the Russians would love to get the one and only AN-225 back from the Ukrainians even though it got recently bent up a bit from a landing accident.
That was a -124, unless the -225 has had an accident I haven't heard about!
OK, let's have fun with TEA!
Today: checking the reference frequency output of my radio clock (not converted to OCXO version):
Feed its output and the 10MHz GPSDO reference into a pair of these:
The signal generators are set to 100MHz output (multiply the 10MHz input by ten), and the 100MHz outputs are in turn fed to this contraption:
It's a 90* phase shifted coupler and two mixers. These convert the difference of the two 100MHz signals to a nice I/Q signal (at DC).
One can show this on a scope in XY mode:
Or use the frequency counter to see the residual difference frequency (times ten):
Here one can see some TCXO PWM control residue as side peaks of the 10MHz output:
Of course USPS can't do what they are chartered to do. Ergo, deliver packages on time. The 6BY8 tube has been sitting at Newark, NJ distribution center since May 8th. Was supposed to be delivered today. Not happening. It dropped into a black hole.
Assholes (Count up how many times I've said that )
Of course USPS can't do what they are chartered to do. Ergo, deliver packages on time. The 6BY8 tube has been sitting at Newark, NJ distribution center since May 8th. Was supposed to be delivered today. Not happening. It dropped into a black hole.
Assholes (Count up how many times I've said that )
DeJoy not giving you de joy?
He's saving the USPS from bankruptcy - you best be glad it even exists!
I'm ordering anything I can from Amazon or an Amazon seller. I ordered a female to female N adapter Saturday. It arrived the next day from (presumably) from a warehouse locally delivered by an Amazon van. Of all the things they would stock they had that part there. And delivered on Sunday!
And by slavishly using Amazon for more and more you (I include us all here) are slowly seeing the end of any chance of small local retails survival and even mid to large wholesale/retail suppliers. This shitstorm started a long while ago with Costoco etal and Amazon is the evolution of the model of decimate and dominate as a corporate plan.
Of course USPS can't do what they are chartered to do. Ergo, deliver packages on time. The 6BY8 tube has been sitting at Newark, NJ distribution center since May 8th. Was supposed to be delivered today. Not happening. It dropped into a black hole.
Assholes (Count up how many times I've said that )
DeJoy not giving you de joy?
He's saving the USPS from bankruptcy - you best be glad it even exists!
I'm ordering anything I can from Amazon or an Amazon seller. I ordered a female to female N adapter Saturday. It arrived the next day from (presumably) from a warehouse locally delivered by an Amazon van. Of all the things they would stock they had that part there. And delivered on Sunday!
And by slavishly using Amazon for more and more you (I include us all here) are slowly seeing the end of any chance of small local retails survival and even mid to large wholesale/retail suppliers. This shitstorm started a long while ago with Costoco etal and Amazon is the evolution of the model of decimate and dominate as a corporate plan.
What do you want me to do about it.
(don't get me wrong, I am not complaining ...)
And by slavishly using Amazon for more and more you (I include us all here) are slowly seeing the end of any chance of small local retails survival and even mid to large wholesale/retail suppliers. This shitstorm started a long while ago with Costoco etal and Amazon is the evolution of the model of decimate and dominate as a corporate plan.
What do you want me to do about it.Like all of us we should consider what it is doing to our communities that is all. Anything specialty retail is going or has gone the way of the Dodo and mid level is heading that way.
It doesn't mean don't use them just think if what you are ordering. Cutting out local whenever you can is ultimately cutting your own throat.
And by slavishly using Amazon for more and more you (I include us all here) are slowly seeing the end of any chance of small local retails survival and even mid to large wholesale/retail suppliers. This shitstorm started a long while ago with Costoco etal and Amazon is the evolution of the model of decimate and dominate as a corporate plan.
What do you want me to do about it.Like all of us we should consider what it is doing to our communities that is all. Anything specialty retail is going or has gone the way of the Dodo and mid level is heading that way.
It doesn't mean don't use them just think if what you are ordering. Cutting out local whenever you can is ultimately cutting your own throat.
Let's be honest here there are a few factors that are affecting local communities:
1. Migration of first world countries to service industries.
2. 90% of retail purchases are unnecessary lumps of conspicuous consumption and that is dying off in favour of necessity and experiences.
3. Neatly moving on to entertainment and experience have replaced the desire to own things.
4. Local businesses as a rule offer the worst experience, service and support unless they are very niche and most of those are doing online trading now because a singular local area doesn't have enough customers to sustain business.
Quite frankly everyone's living a pipe dream of local being best. It's a lie and a cunning piece of marketing.
Your community is more than local businesses. It's parks, sports, recreation, social interactions, events and leisure and we're being sold a lie by a dying sector that it's about local businesses selling tat that no one wants or needs any more.
Loom smashers can stay in the last century thanks.
Edit: We're all getting old here as a rule and remember the old days with rose-tinted glasses but looking objectively the whole line of thinking which our lives started on, pre-internet mostly, is obsolete. We gained so much since then and killed off our isolationist territorial tendencies which I think are really what drives "local is best". That and the desire to show status through ownership which again was just a post-war boom marketing scheme that we were sold no more valid than a useless chunk of rock stuck to a woman's finger being sign of love. It's dead. That whole world is gone. Thank fuck. It was horrible and stupid.
Also we're just a bunch of monkeys on a rock floating in space. Locality is a matter of perspective...
Sorry rant over.
And by slavishly using Amazon for more and more you (I include us all here) are slowly seeing the end of any chance of small local retails survival and even mid to large wholesale/retail suppliers. This shitstorm started a long while ago with Costoco etal and Amazon is the evolution of the model of decimate and dominate as a corporate plan.
What do you want me to do about it.Like all of us we should consider what it is doing to our communities that is all. Anything specialty retail is going or has gone the way of the Dodo and mid level is heading that way.
It doesn't mean don't use them just think if what you are ordering. Cutting out local whenever you can is ultimately cutting your own throat.
Let's be honest here there are a few factors that are affecting local communities:
1. Migration of first world countries to service industries.
2. 90% of retail purchases are unnecessary lumps of conspicuous consumption and that is dying off in favour of necessity.
3. Entertainment and experience have replaced things.
4. Local businesses as a rule offer the worst experience, service and support unless they are very niche and most of those are doing online trading now because a singular local area doesn't have enough customers to sustain business.
Quite frankly everyone's living a pipe dream of local being best.
Your community is more than local businesses. It's parks, sports, recreation, social interactions, events and leisure and we're being sold a lie by a dying sector that it's about local businesses selling tat that no one wants or needs any more.
Loom smashers can stay in the last century thanks.
Your community is more than local businesses. It's parks, sports, recreation, social interactions, events and leisure and we're being sold a lie by a dying sector that it's about local businesses selling tat that no one wants or needs any more.
Loom smashers can stay in the last century thanks.
Edit: We're all getting old here as a rule and remember the old days with rose-tinted glasses but looking objectively the whole line of thinking which our lives started on, pre-internet mostly, is obsolete. We gained so much since then and killed off our isolationist territorial tendencies which I think are really what drives "local is best". That and the desire to show status through ownership which again was just a post-war boom marketing scheme that we were sold no more valid than a useless chunk of rock stuck to a woman's finger being sign of love. It's dead. That whole world is gone. Thank fuck. It was horrible and stupid.
Also we're just a bunch of monkeys on a rock floating in space. Locality is a matter of perspective. Change is inevitable.
Sorry rant over.
Seeing a bunch of shopping malls bulldozed over and returned to a natural state wouldn't bother me in the least. In fact, I welcome it.
Local Businesses and in particular Small Business were among the largest employers. I think the decline and direction is likely irreversible at least in Country Oz and at minimum I need to have freighted in from Melbourne raw materials due to this dumbing down of retail to Big Box style stores not carrying what is needed.
If we take Electronic components then what was here 6 or 7 years ago was a 'reasonablely' run by a Lady Engineer Store with a great idea of what her customers needed including a mix of the usual E-Toys and PC gear to keep the component side viable. She retired and the low cost PC making entity that brought her business fucked it totally in two years due mainly to NFI and the rise of Evilbay/Amazon for a lot of what they used to carry. I now have a poor attempt at an Electronics store 2 1/2 hours away which certainly isn't worth the drive to be disappointed.
The lack of quality support be it repair or service of goods is also screwing us over as the solution becomes junk it and buy another 2-3 year solution for the least possible $ from Evilbay/Amazon.
Living in a major Capital I suggest you are out of touch with small retail and community as the jobs in YOUR area are certainly more likely to be Service or Government ones. We unlike you do not have same or even next day delivery and fortunately so far AmazonOz sucks Donkey Balls.
Seeing a bunch of shopping malls bulldozed over and returned to a natural state wouldn't bother me in the least. In fact, I welcome it.
Seeing a bunch of shopping malls bulldozed over and returned to a natural state wouldn't bother me in the least. In fact, I welcome it.
Oh yes definitely that.
We have some behemoth shopping centres here and they are progressively dying. No one wants to drive all the way to one on the off chance that a retail outfit might actually have some stock of something you're not sure if you want or not. Financial pressures have done away with that thinking for most people and anyone with any money left is sensible enough not to spend it in one.
My personal hell is this temple of conspicuous consumption: https://bluewater.co.uk/our-business/about-us . My ex-wife would religiously drag me around there for the day before Christmas to do all the "Christmas shopping" which involved suffering for 5-6 hours buying stuff at full sticker price, dragging it all around with 2 kids at the time, getting fucked for some overpriced garbage for food and then crawling home with a smoking credit card and wondering how the hell to pay it all off. Now everyone gets a Christmas card, apart from the kids who mostly just want cash (bank transfer) or Amazon gift card (email) because then they don't have to got to the ridiculous temple of indulgence to kneel before the gods of retail while being shafted up the arsehole.