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Where to find...

Where to find Nemo? I have no answer! And whether the head of DHS will be sacked or impeached. Same answer! 

But if you want to build my MC1496 based Direct Conversion Receiver



or the upscale 1496 SSB transceiver... then where to get quality MC1496 IC's. The answer is Jameco Electronics for the leaded version, and the single unit price is $1.95. Mouser sells an SMD unit for $0.35.

Funny how about 15 years ago I bought the same leaded IC from Jameco for $0.69 unit cost. I think I splurged and bought 20 for less than $15.

Jameco also has the hard-to-find miniature ceramic trimmers we all love to use in homebrew band pass filters.


Where to find Accountability

The blame game is ongoing in our Nation's Capital. It will take on the proportions of the biblical times where St. Peter thrice declared I do not know this man. I guess it is easier to deny things once you move up the chain of command.

This reminds me of an incident at Chu Lai, in 1965.  I had the OOD watch and about midnight we received what we thought was a probe in our defenses. 

Standard protocol: I took a squad of men along with myself and we proceeded to investigate. At that time there was a certain looseness in what kind of arms you carried and while I had a 45, that day I wished I had a .45 caliber Grease Gun. The Marines had M-16's and the Seabees M-14's. (The reason I wished I had a Grease Gun.)

We had with us this interesting tool called a rocket flare. It was about 18 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. The cap was removed and placed on the base and essentially was a firing pin to fire a 22 cartridge which ignited the flare. The initiation process is where; you pointed it upwards and slapped the base with the palm of your hand. Our flares were armed as we searched the area of possible penetration.

Things were going smoothly as we inched along in the pitch-black night when all of a sudden, I saw a flare going horizontal and it hit our point man on the side of his face. I immediately shouted the command "hit the deck" awaiting enemy gun fire. 

Two of the Seabees closest to the point man doused out the fire as we were all lit up. Luckily there was no follow-on firing from the Viet Cong. We carried the injured man back to sick bay and immediately we were all interviewed as to what happened.

There were 12 of us and minus the severely injured man there were 11 different statements of observations. No two matched. 

Finally, the real truth. One of the squad members with size 14 shoes admitted that he tripped. He had an armed flare in his right hand as he fell the flare hit the ground first and its trajectory was more horizontal and thus hit the point man. The Board of Inquiry ruled it as an accident attributable to the fog of war. 

The purpose in sharing this story is that likely we will never fully know what happened in Minnesota, as the prevailing winds blow in the direction of obfuscation with zero accountability. Come the Mid-Terms we all get to send our message of accountability. 

Them that know, now don't care if you know.

73's
Pete N6QW

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