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Upcoming payment for this group
All, The annual payment of $220 for this group is due on January 18th. Last year, the co-owners split the fee in half and paid it. This year we are asking for donations from one or more group members. I can think of two ways for group members to donate. 1. Send donations directly to one of the co-owners (probably me) and when sufficient funds have been collected the co-owner would make the payment to groups.io. 2. Use the groups.io "Donation" facility and ask members to donate directly. I have some open questions about the groups.io donation feature and have asked them. Also, there are aspects of the Donation facility which I do not like, from privacy and financial account security standpoints. With respect to the first method listed above, I would be willing to collect donations paid directly to me using PayPal "Friends and Family" up to the $220? and make the payment directly to groups.io. Apart from collecting donations from members, this is what I did last year. If for some reason I were to receive excess funds, the excess would be returned on a LIFO basis. In any case, we, collectively as a group, will need to come up with the $220. At present, if there are any members who would like to pledge a donation, please send an email to the group owners with the amount that you are willing to pledge. This would allow me to do a bit of planning numbers-wise. As I do not want to lower the S/N ratio of the technical content of the posts, please send any pledges to the owners at [email protected]. Happy New Year, and thank you from the group owners. DaveD -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
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Our system used magneto phones: you turned the crank on the wooden box and, if the operator was home, she would answer from the switchboard in her living room.? In about 1954, a small switching office (stepper) replaced Mrs. Little.? From my standpoint, it was less automatic because I had to dial numbers (four digits at first) and because the machine wouldn't automatically forward me to another location if a friend wasn't at home.? Mrs. Little might know where almost everyone was.?? Our first number on the older system was 76J, a party line.? Dad later ordered a private line with the number 123 as he was the editor of the local newspaper and didn't want to wait for the party line to become free.
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On 1/8/22 6:40 AM, N5SE wrote: Mine was an eight party line with two sub party lines of four; 494J and 494W. Telephones had no dials. You picked up the phone and waited for the operator to whom you asked to connect you to the desired party. Our phone number was 494W4. If the phone rang 1, 2 or 3 times, the call was not for us. The 494J calls did not ring on our phone, but the conversations were connected. There was a special number that I cannot remember, but it connected to a giant party line of all phones on the system without ringing. Late at night, all the teenagers would check in and shoot the bull until the operator got on and chased us off.
[cid:fcec0819-31da-4fe4-b86b-be167bd3ef7d]<>[cid:00631173-2f55-4205-b3ee-b4c6e17360e7][cid:8a0f887c-7738-4a74-b0f4-cc9be5d19fc2]<>[cid:2db2ceec-8d4d-4de7-916f-3e1781e2b1b8]<>
________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of John Nicholas via groups.io <KE0ZUW@...>
Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 20:04
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [nanovna-users] Tip Of The Day
A good friend growing up in the 1950¡¯s father ran an appliance store. To call Rick I would say 377 Ring Twice Please. If we were not done in a minute, we could hear his father deep breathing on the phone. 377 with one ring was for the store. Talk about penny pinching!
KE0ZUW
On Jan 7, 2022, at 12:38 PM, W0LEV <davearea51a@...> wrote:
Oh yes, and remember the "party lines". They were neat in small midwestern
towns!! And the "exchange operator" who had to plug in your requested
connection(s)?
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Mine was an eight party line with two sub party lines of four; 494J and 494W. Telephones had no dials. You picked up the phone and waited for the operator to whom you asked to connect you to the desired party. Our phone number was 494W4. If the phone rang 1, 2 or 3 times, the call was not for us. The 494J calls did not ring on our phone, but the conversations were connected. There was a special number that I cannot remember, but it connected to a giant party line of all phones on the system without ringing. Late at night, all the teenagers would check in and shoot the bull until the operator got on and chased us off. [cid:fcec0819-31da-4fe4-b86b-be167bd3ef7d]<>[cid:00631173-2f55-4205-b3ee-b4c6e17360e7][cid:8a0f887c-7738-4a74-b0f4-cc9be5d19fc2]<>[cid:2db2ceec-8d4d-4de7-916f-3e1781e2b1b8]<> ________________________________ From: [email protected] < [email protected]> on behalf of John Nicholas via groups.io <KE0ZUW@...> Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 20:04 To: [email protected] < [email protected]> Subject: Re: [nanovna-users] Tip Of The Day A good friend growing up in the 1950¡¯s father ran an appliance store. To call Rick I would say 377 Ring Twice Please. If we were not done in a minute, we could hear his father deep breathing on the phone. 377 with one ring was for the store. Talk about penny pinching! KE0ZUW On Jan 7, 2022, at 12:38 PM, W0LEV <davearea51a@...> wrote:
Oh yes, and remember the "party lines". They were neat in small midwestern
towns!! And the "exchange operator" who had to plug in your requested
connection(s)?
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At my age with one bum hand and eyesight, that's why I try to avoid the small screen and tiny virtual keyboard of a smart phone. I really try to use my smart phone as a phone only. But I do understand its appeal to the younger folks. [cid:43dd1f1e-03ce-481d-8358-2b212fbb48eb]<>[cid:75e4b6ef-96a0-423a-be0f-81179cc638df][cid:6f8a3710-24fc-468f-bbcd-d679ff4a58b1]<>[cid:ccf4457b-b5fb-4947-ba63-d17b0486fd7c]<> ________________________________ From: [email protected] < [email protected]> on behalf of David Wilcox K8WPE via groups.io <Djwilcox01@...> Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 05:57 To: [email protected] < [email protected]> Subject: Re: [nanovna-users] Tip Of The Day As a ham radio operator isn¡¯t this the main reason why you bought a smart phone? David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad On Jan 6, 2022, at 11:20 AM, N5SE <bwmoore@...> wrote:
?Great magnifier! Make counting turns easy when winding very small toroids. Scan the toroid at 200 to 400 dpi. Blow the scanned image up on your monitor. Then easily count the turns. The attached image is a FT37-2 with 28 turns of 30 gauge wire and 4 turns of 27 gauge wire. This trick works to inspect any small flater object.
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A good friend growing up in the 1950¡¯s father ran an appliance store. To call Rick I would say 377 Ring Twice Please. If we were not done in a minute, we could hear his father deep breathing on the phone. 377 with one ring was for the store. Talk about penny pinching!
KE0ZUW
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On Jan 7, 2022, at 12:38 PM, W0LEV <davearea51a@...> wrote:
Oh yes, and remember the "party lines". They were neat in small midwestern
towns!! And the "exchange operator" who had to plug in your requested
connection(s)?
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I¡¯m a ¡®young pup¡¯ at 63, and our party line in rural southwest Nebraska was shared with six other farms. That was up until about 1973 when the phone company came in and trenched underground lines in. Easy to do in the soft sand of the area. My dad was the ¡°keeper¡± of our local party line, meaning he was responsible for maintaining it, replacing insulators, raising downed lines, troubleshooting outages, etc. Not much different than patching fence, although a bit more elevated. When the phone company brought in the underground, they also pulled down the existing/antiquated elevated lines. I asked them to leave up the last 3/8 mile of line running from the pasture to the house. Proved to be a very worthwhile beverage antenna. On the other hand, the dry winds blowing dust and snow across the line could easily build up several kV of static charge, and I was ¡°bitten¡± more than once. More than enough to fry a nanoVNA for sure, but the old vacuum-tube radios were able to cope just fine.. Ah, the good ole¡¯ days ¨C thanks for the trip down memory lane. Happy 2022 to all. 73 Ken -- WB?OCV From: Tim K4SHF Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 01:44 PM To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [nanovna-users] Tip Of The Day Yep, we had a party line shared by one person up the road a bit. But, I'm still a youngster, I'm only 68! Bad thing is my body thinks I'm 80, issues everywhere. But I keep waking up every morning so far. If I don't, I won't be able to put snide comments into the groups! Every Day is a Gift! 73 de Tim K4SHF
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Yep, we had a party line shared by one person up the road a bit. But, I'm
still a youngster, I'm only 68! Bad thing is my body thinks I'm 80, issues
everywhere. But I keep waking up every morning so far. If I don't, I won't
be able to put snide comments into the groups!
Every Day is a Gift!
73 de Tim K4SHF
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On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 1:38 PM W0LEV <davearea51a@...> wrote: Oh yes, and remember the "party lines". They were neat in small midwestern
towns!! And the "exchange operator" who had to plug in your requested
connection(s)?
OK, this is deviating a bit much from the intent of the NANO VNA group.io
intentions. But I love this thread......
Dave - W?LEV
On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 6:19 PM Tim K4SHF <timothytapio1@...> wrote:
I live and die on my cell phone. I don't have limber fingers so I one
finger the keys. I'm not smart enough to understand all the abbreviations
that others use. But I grew up when phones still had dials and phone booths
were on street corners and you put a nickel in.
Different strokes for different folks, we all make the world go 'round!
My $.02
73 de Tim K4SHF
On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 1:00 PM Jim Lux <jim@...> wrote:
On 1/7/22 9:08 AM, W0LEV wrote:
Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We
do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use
it
for
ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run SmiSmith
and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not. /All ya gadda do/ is rewrite 4nec2 plus NEC in Java (SimSmith is
already in Java), and you'll be all set on an Android. NEC4 Fortran to
Java might not be that hard. It's only 25,000 lines of code, but I'll
bet there's a fortran to java converter that can do a lot of it.
The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.
(NEC2 was run through f2c with some level of success)
--
*Dave - W?LEV*
*Just Let Darwin Work*
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Oh yes, and remember the "party lines". They were neat in small midwestern
towns!! And the "exchange operator" who had to plug in your requested
connection(s)?
OK, this is deviating a bit much from the intent of the NANO VNA group.io
intentions. But I love this thread......
Dave - W?LEV
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On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 6:19 PM Tim K4SHF <timothytapio1@...> wrote: I live and die on my cell phone. I don't have limber fingers so I one
finger the keys. I'm not smart enough to understand all the abbreviations
that others use. But I grew up when phones still had dials and phone booths
were on street corners and you put a nickel in.
Different strokes for different folks, we all make the world go 'round!
My $.02
73 de Tim K4SHF
On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 1:00 PM Jim Lux <jim@...> wrote:
On 1/7/22 9:08 AM, W0LEV wrote:
Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We
do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use it for
ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run
SmiSmith
and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not. /All ya gadda do/ is rewrite 4nec2 plus NEC in Java (SimSmith is
already in Java), and you'll be all set on an Android. NEC4 Fortran to
Java might not be that hard. It's only 25,000 lines of code, but I'll
bet there's a fortran to java converter that can do a lot of it.
The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.
(NEC2 was run through f2c with some level of success)
--
*Dave - W?LEV*
*Just Let Darwin Work*
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I live and die on my cell phone. I don't have limber fingers so I one
finger the keys. I'm not smart enough to understand all the abbreviations
that others use. But I grew up when phones still had dials and phone booths
were on street corners and you put a nickel in.
Different strokes for different folks, we all make the world go 'round!
My $.02
73 de Tim K4SHF
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Show quoted text
On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 1:00 PM Jim Lux <jim@...> wrote: On 1/7/22 9:08 AM, W0LEV wrote:
Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We
do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use it for
ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run SmiSmith
and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not. /All ya gadda do/ is rewrite 4nec2 plus NEC in Java (SimSmith is
already in Java), and you'll be all set on an Android. NEC4 Fortran to
Java might not be that hard. It's only 25,000 lines of code, but I'll
bet there's a fortran to java converter that can do a lot of it.
The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.
(NEC2 was run through f2c with some level of success)
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Jim, you may have gathered, I'm a fossil at 75 years old ("wise"). Once
early in my career, I became very good at dedicated machine language
programming. So much so that they really put the pressure on me to move
over to the programming group. That 1.5 year-long diversion into the early
"digital world" convinced me that I had climbed that mountain and that I
was far happier doing analog and RF design. The last 25 years were spent
between that and EMC/RFI (still RF and low microwave). In short, I don't
code. 25 klines of code.........???. You "are" kidding, aren't you??
Oh, yes, I forgot, the smart phone must also run the PC-supported
applications for the NANOVNAs (of which I have too many.... including the
HP 8753C with S-Parameter test set). The NANO and the TinySA go camping
with us, even on long month-long trips. I'm a total "fossilized" nerd when
it comes to RF and antennas. But, please, don't ask me to code. p l e a s
e.........?
Dave - W?LEV
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On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 6:00 PM Jim Lux <jim@...> wrote: On 1/7/22 9:08 AM, W0LEV wrote:
Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We
do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use it for
ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run SmiSmith
and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not. /All ya gadda do/ is rewrite 4nec2 plus NEC in Java (SimSmith is
already in Java), and you'll be all set on an Android. NEC4 Fortran to
Java might not be that hard. It's only 25,000 lines of code, but I'll
bet there's a fortran to java converter that can do a lot of it.
The rest is left as an exercise for the reader.
(NEC2 was run through f2c with some level of success)
--
*Dave - W?LEV*
*Just Let Darwin Work*
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On 1/7/22 9:08 AM, W0LEV wrote: Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We
do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use it for
ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run SmiSmith
and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not. /All ya gadda do/ is rewrite? 4nec2 plus NEC in Java (SimSmith is already in Java), and you'll be all set on an Android.? NEC4 Fortran to Java might not be that hard. It's only 25,000 lines of code, but I'll bet there's a fortran to java converter that can do a lot of it. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader. (NEC2 was run through f2c with some level of success)
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Sometimes, on rare occasion, I actually make/take a phone call on it.
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One of my favorite uses was to wirelessly connect your DRM hotspot to the Internet, so you could talk to folks all over the world while driving around. And all you needed was a smartphone to be able to do that!
Of course, I'm a little bit of an oddball, I really get a kick out of discussing the relative merits of CW while on a Zoom call.
But then, I enjoy the unusual.
73, Willie N1JBJ
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On Jan 7, 2022, at 1:20 PM, Zack Widup <w9sz.zack@...> wrote:
Cell phones do have a lot of use for radio amateurs.
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Cell phones do have a lot of use for radio amateurs. I have Locator (shows
distance and bearing between two 6-character grid squares), HamGPS, and
when I go out on microwave hilltopping expeditions I am always getting
phone calls and texts from others who want to work me. I also have an
APRSdroid app that displays my and others' locations on a map via APRS.
There are probably some others I can put on there.
Zack W9SZ
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On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 11:08 AM W0LEV <davearea51a@...> wrote: Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We
do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use it for
ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run SmiSmith
and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not.
Dave - W?LEV
On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 11:58 AM David Wilcox K8WPE via groups.io
<Djwilcox01@...> wrote:
As a ham radio operator isn¡¯t this the main reason why you bought a smart
phone?
David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad
On Jan 6, 2022, at 11:20 AM, N5SE <bwmoore@...> wrote:
?Great magnifier! Make counting turns easy when winding very small toroids. Scan the toroid at 200 to 400 dpi. Blow the scanned image up on
your monitor. Then easily count the turns. The attached image is a FT37-2
with 28 turns of 30 gauge wire and 4 turns of 27 gauge wire. This trick
works to inspect any small flater object.
--
*Dave - W?LEV*
*Just Let Darwin Work*
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Absolutely not. We bought the smart phone for camping and traveling. We do not have cell service here at home - thank heaven. If I ever use it for ham radio, it's time to have my head examined. If it could run SmiSmith and 4NEC2, I might change my mind, but it does not. Dave - W?LEV On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 11:58 AM David Wilcox K8WPE via groups.io <Djwilcox01@...> wrote: As a ham radio operator isn¡¯t this the main reason why you bought a smart
phone?
David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad
On Jan 6, 2022, at 11:20 AM, N5SE <bwmoore@...> wrote:
?Great magnifier! Make counting turns easy when winding very small toroids. Scan the toroid at 200 to 400 dpi. Blow the scanned image up on
your monitor. Then easily count the turns. The attached image is a FT37-2
with 28 turns of 30 gauge wire and 4 turns of 27 gauge wire. This trick
works to inspect any small flater object.
-- *Dave - W?LEV* *Just Let Darwin Work*
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Re: NanoVNA Saver LOG file?
On 1/7/22 8:41 AM, Donald Rasmussen wrote: Wondering if NanoVNA Saver or similar can be optioned to write a log file showing the response to a sweep every half second?
Just wanting the time, frequency, and SWR...
de Wb8yqj Don
Not that I know of. But the nanosaver.py command line utility can certainly be set up to do that. You'd write a short program (in PowerShell, or bash, or python) that sends the right command here's an example of how I ran calibration on a coax line with a relay box at the far end.? the ssh lines are talking to the computer in the antenna box to reconfigure. The ./nanovna.py lines are running the sweep, and storing the data in a .s1p file. #!/usr/bin/env bash # makes three measurements for an ant box to calibrate the cable # ssh -o ConnectTimeout=3 antbox$1.local exit if [[ $? != "0" ]] ; then ? echo "no connection to antbox $1" ? exit 1 fi ./nanovna.py -e "cal reset" ssh antbox$1.local ./rcs.py open ./nanovna.py --start 50000 --stop 100000000 --points 201 -o cable$1open --port 0 ssh antbox$1.local ./rcs.py load ./nanovna.py --start 50000 --stop 100000000 --points 201 -o cable$1load --port 0 ssh antbox$1.local ./rcs.py short ./nanovna.py --start 50000 --stop 100000000 --points 201 -o cable$1short --port 0 ssh antbox$1.local ./rcs.py open
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Wondering if NanoVNA Saver or similar can be optioned to write a log file showing the response to a sweep every half second?
Just wanting the time, frequency, and SWR...
de Wb8yqj Don
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I think it can be reasonably said that we use our wonderful, modern tools, like the NanoVNA and smartphone, to enrich and improve our social networking that started a long time before these other magical devices (twitter-enabled smartphones) were conceived.
My rag chewing on HF isn't perceptibly different than a tweet on the smart phone and likely just as mysterious in implementation as the smartphone is to the average teen-age (or other-age) user.
NanoVNA's novelty in its own right makes it interesting and extends the boundaries of our knowledge even more.
My NanoVNA has helped me extend my boundaries into areas that as a non-EE I would have never conceived so as a hammer it is awesome and as a microscope even better.
Vive la NanoVNA!
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VNA Measurement Setup Best Practices Webinar
All: Copper Mountain is a well-respected professional VNA manufacturer and
while their webinars are pitched to the pro, I can guarantee there will be
some understandable and usable content for the ham users.
The webinars are recorded so sing up even if the time is not convenient,
you will get a link to the recording.
73,
Donald S Brant Jr N2VGU
Strategic Microwave Solutions, LLC
dsbrant@..., dsbrantjr@...
Mobile 908-635-1751, Google Voice 678-948-7805
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As a ham radio operator isn¡¯t this the main reason why you bought a smart phone?
David J. Wilcox¡¯s iPad
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On Jan 6, 2022, at 11:20 AM, N5SE <bwmoore@...> wrote:
?Great magnifier! Make counting turns easy when winding very small toroids. Scan the toroid at 200 to 400 dpi. Blow the scanned image up on your monitor. Then easily count the turns. The attached image is a FT37-2 with 28 turns of 30 gauge wire and 4 turns of 27 gauge wire. This trick works to inspect any small flater object.
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N5SE
John Nicholas
Tim K4SHF
Lou W7HV
2sheds
Donald S Brant Jr
David Wilcox K8WPE
