Ever wonder what those round things were on the pilot house windows of large ships. Well, they are SPEICH Clear view screens and they are the marine equivalent of a windshield wiper.
First produced in 1938, the SPEICH Clear view screen is a high technology product, carefully engineered in all it’s details and designed according to ISO 3904. Many decades of field experience and constant technical improvements have made the SPEICH Clear view screen extremely reliable and durable even under the severe environment conditions.
Tens of thousand units have been supplied all over the world and are installed on ail kind of merchant and military ships, yachts and tugboats.
SOURCE: SPEICH
It is that time of year again. I just received my annual reminder from the folks at the Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association(MASA).
Daylight Saving Time will end November 2nd at 2 AM.
Turn your clocks back one hour.
Its also an ideal time to change batteries in your: Smoke Detectors, Radon Detectors, Carbon Monoxide Detectors, and Weather Detectors.
"Weather Detectors" are better known as NOAA All Hazards Weather Radios. Make it a habit to change batteries in these life safety devices regularly! Daylight Saving Time will return March 8th, 2009.
This is not an idea that is original to me, but it is a good one that is worth expanding upon and passing along to you. It is about storing critical personal data that would be needed after a disaster on a USB Flash memory drive.
They are small, durable and easily carried with you at all times. You should be able to find a 4 gigabyte drive for less than thirty dollars. My personal favorite is the SanDisk Cruzer, for its lack of a cap that always seems to get lost on conventionally shaped units. I own two on them.
If you are involved in a disaster, you will need some types of information for survival, and some other information to rebuild your life after the event. For example, can you list–and spell–the names and dosages of all the medications that you take? An accurate description of your home and an inventory of your possessions is necessary in order to settle insurance claims and to document losses for income-tax purposes.
The Arenac County, MI, Emergency Management Coordinator is probably doing a cost benefit analysis of his two-day-a-week job that pays $14,000.
Arenac County’s emergency management coordinator still has his job, but the commissioner who moved to fire him early this month says she still wants him to account directly for his time.
Emergency coordinator Ed Rohn appeared before the Arenac Board of Commissioners last week to explain his job duties. The Oct. 14 session fell on the heels of Commissioners Jan Stressman and Joe Sancimino moving to fire Rohn and replace him with outgoing Sheriff Ronald Bouldin.
While Stressman apologized to Rohn for not forewarning him of her abrupt approach, she added Wednesday that Rohn’s job description is still too vague for her taste.
"He says he teaches a class here and does training there, but I still can’t explain to my constituents exactly what he does for Arenac County," she said. "I’d like him to report on paper what he does, when and where."
SOURCE: Bay City Times
What your ham shack needs to make it neater is a 48 inch long, 24 outlet, rack mountable power strip to plug all that stuff into. I ran into this UL approved one on eBay. If you don’t have a rack, it can also be used with a workbench. It had a Buy It Now price of US $38.00. Shipping adds another US $9.00.
A-Neutronics, Inc. FPI4824 power strip offers 15 amp, 120V multi-outlet AC power distribution in a convenient 48 inch mountable housing. Offers horizontal or vertical power distribution in rack mount, raceway and workbench applications. Includes 24 NEMA 5-15R output receptacles with 1.75 inch center-to-center spacing. Sturdy all-metal extruded aluminum housing stands up to demanding network, laboratory or factory environments. Includes 15-ft. AC power cord, 15 amp circuit breaker. Lifetime warranty.
For various reasons Motorola has been swirling the bowl of late. This news might give their cell phone division the sales boost that it so desperately needs. Assuming, however, that T-Mobile USA’s just released G1 phone, manufactured by HTC,, hasn’t already eaten their lunch.
Motorola Inc.’s new cellphone chief is moving quickly to scale back the struggling division, simplifying the way it makes devices and cutting additional jobs.
Sanjay Jha, who also became Motorola’s co-chief executive in August, has decided to focus on Google Inc.’s Android operating system as the software platform for Motorola’s showcase phones, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Jha is expected to detail his plans — which will likely include thousands of layoffs — as early as Thursday when the company reports earnings, these people said.
SOURCE the Wall Street Journal
Thanks to Mike Yancey, KM5Z, you can download free printable HF style logsheet tenplates. They are available in either PDF, or MS Word file form.
I’m continually logging contacts on postit notes, and I always omit something — date, time, or frequency — so I decided I’d keep these around to print off and use ad-hoc, since I don’t usually keep a laptop or computer running with logging software started if I’m on HF at night.
These can be used as a temporary measure to log a few contacts and then type them into logging software later, or you can punch holes in the gutter margins (left on the Portrait version, top on the Landscape) and put them in a notebook.
It also saves you buying a commercial logbook. The MS Word formatted files are provided for you to customize.
- Portrait Orientation - 20 lines, numbered (PDF) / (Word Document)
- Landscape Orientation - 25 lines, numbered (PDF) / (Word Document)
- Landscape Orientation - 25 lines, no numbers (PDF) / (Word Document)
SOURCE: mikeyancey.com
No, you are incorrect. It stands for Multi-Frequency, an outdated telephony in-band signaling technique. For those of you who have fond memories of phone phreaking — this post is for you.
According to Wikipedia, “The end of MF phreaking in the lower 48 United States occurred on June 15, 2006, when the last exchange in the continental United States to use a "phreakable" MF-signaled trunk replaced the aging (yet still well kept) N2 carrier with a T1 carrier.”
If that news makes you sad and retrospective, then you need the services of Project MF. The project continues the tradition of phone phreaking begun by some blind guys who learned that they could make toll-free long distance telephone calls by whistling the appropriate tones into the phone. The best news is that this time it is legal.
The Project MF Web site says, “Project MF is a living, working simulation of analog SF/MF signaling just as it was used as the standard in the public switched telephone network up until the early 90’s, when most everything was cut-over by the regional Bells to the fully-digital SS7/ISDN network as it continues today. This allows a user to "blue box" telephone calls, like the phone phreaks of yesterday.“
We all know how much electrical energy a full- legal-limit ham shack gobbles up. This “whisper-quiet” home wind turbine that has already been installed at 250 locations in Scotland is now being sold in the US.
Cascade Engineering on Monday said that the Swift wind turbine, suitable for homes and other buildings, is available in the U.S. and Canada. The Swift tries to set itself apart from the existing small wind turbines with a design that reduces noise. Also, the turbine can be attached to a home, rather than a free-standing pole or tower.
Like other wind turbines, the Swift has blades that turn in the wind to power a generator. But rather than the typical three blades, the Swift has five and a ring that goes around them. That "outer diffuser" ring cuts the noise level to 35 decibels and the vibration, according to the company.
The turbine, with a seven foot diameter, also has two fins to direct the turbine to face the wind, able to turn 360 degrees and shut down if the wind is too high.
It can generate 1.5 kilowatts with 14 mile-per-hour wind and about 2,000 kilowatt-hours over a year. U.S. households typically consume between 6,500 and 10,000 kilowatt-hours in a year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
SOURCE: CNET
Some people have Way too much free time. The guy in this video is one of them. The Pumpkin Bot that he built is scary enough to put an end to Devil’s Night. You still have time to build one yourself.
