Fully Automatic Bug (cheap)

GHD's Mechanical version of the "ultimate autokey" harks back to the glory days of mechanical keys. Supplied with three weights, the GN907 can be configured for three different speed ranges. It has an extra contact assembly on the right, so the dash pendulum can be locked and the GN907 will operate as a traditional semi-automatic bug. The base measures 6" x 4" and the weight is

You save can some money. This one is only $1199.95 at http://www.mtechnologies.com/ghd/index.htm#bugs.

Fully Automatic Bug

GHD's "Ultimate" key, the optical sensor FULLY AUTOMATIC bug. This unbelievable machine feels like a slightly "heavy" paddle. The dash pendulum can be "locked" for semi-automatic operation. Reliable optical sensors remove the need for adjusting contacts. The 907 is supplied with three weights for a wide range of operating speeds. A universal powersupply, pre-wired for the 907, is included. The base measures 6" x 4" and the weight is 5 Lbs.

Every shack should have one of these. You can have your very own for only $1549.95. Check it out at http://www.mtechnologies.com/ghd/index.htm#bugs

A Fully-Automatic Single Pendulum Morse Key

This is a fully automatic mechanical keyer. It does both dits and dahs automatically. Unfortunately this fellow doesn't send very well and the resolution of the video isn't very good.

4D Ionosphere in Google Earth

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