Left Coast Political Scene

September 01, 2022, the last third of 2022. Fall will arrive in three weeks and the outside temperature today will be greater than 100F. I suspect that for some segment of our great nation the temperature seems as hot as Hell, and we are not talking OAT. (Outside Air Temperature). MAL might be one of those places! This series on resurrected radios will soon come to an end and likely many are breathing a sigh of relief. Who wants to read about this old stuff? But as I pointed out with the SBE-33 -- it was an extremely sophisticated design. This will terminate the Resurrected Radios Trek! As I sit in front of the SBE-33 and "twiddle the knobs", I am really impressed at the late 1950's early 1960's technology. There is some pure genius in this design! Yet when I stack this "prize of old" versus my homebrew SDR transceiver, there is no comparison with today's technology.  The sophistication of today's technology insofar as frequency stability with a read...

Updated 8/21/2022 It is amazing that ham radio is subject to fads. The fad du jour for 2021 and earlier this year was the Nano VNA and the Tiny SA. Listen on any band or read any blog during that time and those two devices were mentioned incessantly. It was sort of like the ticket to ride and therefore you were a part of the "In Crowd" if you could utter those words.  I always felt the Nano VNA, as a test instrument, was suspect and was oversold about what it could do. There are even rumors of "Fake" units being sold for a low cost. Just think a Nano VNA being sold from anywhere starting at $39.95 to a whopping $200. A huge Red Flag guys!  At N6QW, I have two in boxes, and both have a fine coat of dust covering them. Why 2? -- The first one never worked properly and the second was always suspect in what it showed. I guess the Nano VNA truth has been found out! Think about it -- today the lack of a mention is like they never existed. How cruel!  The current Nano VNA ...