Fire and Steel

One of the more 'fun' toys I've picked up over the last 5 years has been a 'stick' welder or 'buzz box' as some call them, as well as a wire feed welder.  The adjoining photo is of my older son learning the basics once he overcame his initial intimidation.   The wire feed or 'big red' is just visible in the background...  That table he is working at was built using a combination of the stick welder and a wire feed unit borrowed from a neighbor prior to my obtaining the one I now have.  The table is made of salvaged steel from the local scrap yard.  The top is a piece of 'catwalk' grate.  It's basically a bunch of parallel strips of flat stock set on edge and held in place with 1/4 in rods on the bottom side.  The rods keep the strips on edge, and the strips provide a relatively light weight but very rigid platform.   The thing I like about it is that I can cut steel, drill, weld, etc., with minimum damage or alteration of the table serface. You can beat the hell out of it and it just takes it. The junk piled up on the bottom are miscellaneous GoKart parts...(that's for another time).  The second photo is of the pipe sections my son was practicing with.

This shot (sorry for the poor quality...it was taken using the camera in my cell phone ) also shows the grate or strips on edge that make up the welding table's top.  I mounted casters (wheels) to the bottom of the table so that it could be moved around as needed.  If you do much welding sooner or later you'll want a platform to get your work up off the ground.  It's a real lower back saver...!  Sorry I don't have better pictures of everything.  Maybe I'll add them as time goes on(?).

What's in a name...?

Gee, nothing written in a couple of days.  I was just putting breakfast away, and for one strange reason or another that dreaded phrase by the late comedian Jim Varney: "know what I mean Vern?" just popped into my head...   ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Varney )

There was a time when I wished my first name could have become my last, and I could have a more 'normal' first name like 'Andrew' or 'Mike' or even 'Steve'.  But no, the fates (and my parents) determined that I should forever be the boy with three last names and no first (I won't mention the middle name)...  The big reason was that hardly anyone it seemed had the worldliness to understand that it was a traditional Dutch name, that my first name wasn't 'Van' (a mistake some still insist on making today) but rather a variant of the German 'von' meaning 'from' or 'of'.  The other irritant bit of trivia is that some would clumsily insist on trying to pronounce the 'd' at the end of 'Zandt', not understanding that it is silent.  Some 'Van Zandt's' have even long since dropped the letter from their name.  Perhaps just to avoid the frustration of hearing it.

One day while sitting in class in Junior High School, I was summoned to the office over  the intercom.  Someone in the front office had handed a poorly written note (some irony here I'm sure) to a student who's sole duty it was to earn extra credit by mangling names over the intercom. She had uttered my name in such a way as to sound a bit like "Varoom Von Zip".  The class erupted in laughter as I tried to slither out of my desk, along the floor and under the door into the hallway...  (A musician friend of mine actually wanted to form a band with that name after hearing the story)

But I have to admit that Jim changed all that.  Thanks to all his hill-billy antics on TV,  I only hated my first name.  Mostly because I couldn't go a day without hearing some smart-ass repeat that nonsense as if they thought they were being original and funny...   But as time went on, I got used to it and realized that I could do the joke and get a bigger laugh than anyone over it.  After Jim Varney died, so did the joke and life went on a bit less goofy.   But I don't blame the guy, nor do I gain satisfaction in his passing...if anything experience helped me to grow a skin and learn to take but one more joke.  And after all he paid a pretty hefty price for all of his success and the abuse of cigarettes.

Thanks for all the laughs Jim...

Radio Active...

I've been a radio geek since about 1965 and a licensed Ham radio operator (off and on) since 1971. I didn't really understand much of the technical side of things until about 1977 or so, so much of my activities up until then were limited to just trying to make 'contacts' with other hams on the air...  Remember, this was long before the personal computer, the internet or cell phones!

It really wasn't until about the last 15 years that things really started to 'take off' for me in regards to building equipment for use in my station. My latest creation is an antenna tuner that is loosely based on one published in the 1995 ARRL Handbook.  What I couldn't find locally or in my 'junk box', I purchased online. But the majority of the parts (right down to the rectangular knobs) are surplus, NOS (new old stock) or 'used'.   I was able to produce the meter faces using software available on the web.  The cabinet is Aluminum sheet stock that a local metal fab business cut and bent per my specifications.  This was a design process from start to finish and I'm really happy with the way it functions.  Unfortunately the paint job didn't turn out well at all, but that's another story...  This ATU will provide a 1.1:1 SWR on all bands with my 140 foot wire antenna from 160 thru 10 meters.  Measured (estimated) loss is nearly non-existent on 160 thru 40 and about 3% at 10 meters.  Good enough for what I use it for...

At one time I was intrigued with building 'recreations' out of old issues of QST magazines that featured construction articles.  One such article describes a 'regen' from the mid 1940's.  I incorporated a couple of 'upgrades' to make it a bit safer and also less obtrusive from an RF standpoint.  The original circuit consisted of a 6J7GT as a regenerative detector with a 6V6GT in a single ended amp configuration.  Band changes occurred by swapping out plug-in coils.  While I kept the plug in nature of the coils to change bands, I mounted toroid coils inside the tube bases rather than 'air' windings around them.  This coupled with changing the 6J7GT to a metal jacketed 6J7 and the addition of a 6J5 metal tube as a RF pre-amp, helped to reduce generation of RF from the receiver.  The safety enhancement consisted of using a cable that plugs into the remote power supply, rather than the exposed screw terminals originally used by the Author. This eliminated any exposed contacts reducing the potential for any 'shocking' experiences.  I was pleasantly surprised at just how well the whole affair worked.  Regeneration was smooth and easily adjusted.  Finding parts that allowed faithful reproduction outside of the changes mentioned above was somewhat of a challenge.  The original cabinet wasn't available, but a similar 'slope front' cabinet was obtained from Bud Industries by special order.  Some components also had to be substituted, but for the most part remained very similar.   The interesting similarity between the original and the one I built, is that in 1944 some component shortages (due to the War effort) presented builders of the day with similar challenges.  The Author of the article claimed that parts shortages wouldn't pose as big a problem with this receiver (perhaps due to use of more commonly available items?).  At any rate, it is a nice addition to my 'Vintage Homebrew' radio collection.

Motor boating

I didn't build the boat that I have, but I did pay for it several times over. My initial goal was to have a boat I could live on, and if I had to flip burgers to pay for moorage, etc., then so be it. But it's good to keep in mind just how easily a fantasy can get away from you...

The first departure from my seriously half baked plan was when I got married. The second was when my wife and I were about 7 months pregnant. It was then that I spotted my boat in a slip in Friday Harbor just sitting there minding it's own business. Not being able to leave well enough alone, I asked the couple that was on board if I could have a look around. They didn't seem all that enthusiastic at having a 6ft 2in Sasquatch invade their floating vacation world, but a glance at the big "For Sale" sign reminded them that this sort of thing might happen. I got the 'grand tour' and the rest is history...

Now, don't for a second get the idea that I'm complaining about the whole marriage - kids thing. I wouldn't trade it (or them) for anything. I love them dearly. It's just sort of weird how it all came about and sort of confirms the old saying: "never say never". I was at a point where at worst I figured I'd spend the rest of my life either as a confirmed bachelor, or (at best) in the company of a female companion. The 'having Kids' part of the equation hadn't really occurred to me...

Looking back, I also couldn't have lived on a boat the size of the one I own anyway. Some people do it, but I don't think it would have worked out for very long. I still complain everytime I have to take a shower on board. The 'head' is not only the throne room, but also shower room and powder room (for the ladies). My refrigerator at home has just about as much room as the bathroom on my boat. So I'm quite satisfied that I deviated from that part of the plan as well...

Analog thoughts in a digital world...

Ok, so I'm a bit slow to start one of these bloggy things. I don't usually have that much to say much less try to share it... But this is a grand experiment and well, you'll always have the option to change the channel so-to-speak. I might post anything from navel lint to plans for a new flying machine... Professionally I have training in several areas. Like Material science (corrosion mainly), Internal dosimetry (they call it 'invivo bioassay' or some such thing nowdays), Robotics/Electronics and Computer Science. In my spare time I've enjoyed SCUBA diving, hang gliding, wind surfing, bow hunting, fishing, boating, water and snow skiing, brewing beer and biodiesel, motorcycling, trying to play a guitar, welding and well, the list goes on... I'm adding to it almost on a daily basis and that's really no joke!

Since I do like to build things, I figure I'll use this space to share that. Take it or leave it, I don't expect anything here will lead to universal answers or the meaning of life. If it causes you to suddenly experience an epiphany then my effort here won't entirely be for not.