The 50/50 Rule

I never really had an “Elmer.” However, I took a lot of advice from hams wiser and more experienced than I, and probably the best advice I ever received was the “50/50 rule.”

The 50/50 rule basically postulates: Whatever your budget for amateur radio, for every fifty cents you spend on equipment, spend fifty cents on your antenna system. Of course, that translates to fifty dollars, or five thousand dollars, or any other sum.

Why follow the rule? Simply because time, money and effort spent on antennas pays far greater dividends than the same time, money and effort spent on station equipment and accessories. Ask any “big gun” station owner, regardless of the bands he uses to make his mark on the ionosphere, or even the troposphere.

more at http://www.eham.net/articles/3625

HamKat

A Super Solar Flare

At 11:18 AM on the cloudless morning of Thursday, September 1, 1859, 33-year-old Richard Carrington—widely acknowledged to be one of England's foremost solar astronomers—was in his well-appointed private observatory. Just as usual on every sunny day, his telescope was projecting an 11-inch-wide image of the sun on a screen, and Carrington skillfully drew the sunspots he saw.

On that morning, he was capturing the likeness of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of blinding white light appeared over the sunspots, intensified rapidly, and became kidney-shaped. Realizing that he was witnessing something unprecedented and "being somewhat flurried by the surprise," Carrington later wrote, "I hastily ran to call someone to witness the exhibition with me. On returning within 60 seconds, I was mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled." He and his witness watched the white spots contract to mere pinpoints and disappear.

It was 11:23 AM. Only five minutes had passed.

more at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm?list69914

History Channel Show to Feature Nikola Tesla

Modern Marvels, a series on The History Channel, will feature electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla in an episode scheduled to air May 14. Helping out with the program was Bob "Loby" Lobenstein, WA2AXZ; Lobenstein is General Superintendent, Power Operations for New York City's subway system. "We did 8 hours of taping interviews at my 1904 power substation," Lobenstein said. "In addition to the action scenes of me throwing the 100 year old switches and demonstrating the use of power, I did a 'Mr Wizard' talk, showing the various things that 'Mr T' envisioned and invented.

more at http://www.arrl.org/?artid=8169

Organizing electronic components

Here's a neat way to store and organize electronic components from "Marxy's Musing on Technology" http://marxy.org/2007/04/organizing-electronic-components.html

W1TP MUSEUM OF TELEGRAPH AND SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS

This site displays the magnificent keys, designed and machined by Richard A. Meiss, WB9LPU. Not only are they beautifully designed, but they are also works of art.

See more at http://w1tp.com/mrm.htm

Google Earth's Ionosphere

This just in: NASA-funded researchers released to the general public a new "4D" live model of the Earth's ionosphere. Called Earth Space 4-D, this new online tool visualizes the ionosphere using Google Earth and an Internet connection.

"This is an exciting development," says solar physicist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. "The ionosphere is important to pilots, ham radio operators, earth scientists and even soldiers. Using this new 4D tool, they can monitor and study the ionosphere as if they're actually inside it."

more at http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2008/05/02/10076/?nc=1