OPINION : Does a swing give you a bad fist?→

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OPINION : Does a swing give you a bad fist?

On the CWOps mailing list the other day, one of the guys apologized for his bad “fist.” A CW operator’s fist is his or her method of sending. Someone is said to have a good fist if his or her sending is easily readable. Someone is said to have a bad fist if he or she is sending poorly.

The fellow who apologized wrote:

I want to apologize about my bad fist yesterday. Yesterday morning, I used my1949 Allis Chalmers tractor, which is 70 yrs old and has NO POWER STEERING to bush hog some of my 13 acre plot. My arms and hand muscles were cramping and shaking for the rest of the day! This was the first mow this spring and I am outta shape for that kind of work. I’m only in my early 60’s too. Thanks for putting up with that and all the contacts!

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OPINION : Yet Another Battery Story→

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OPINION : Yet Another Battery Story

This isn’t really an amateur radio story, but it does have a battery in it, so it could be. :)

About six months ago, I noticed that my battery-powered shaver wasn’t holding a charge as well as it used to. Recently, I’ve had to just use it with that AC adapter to shave down my beard properly.

I cracked it open and found that it was powered by a single NiMH, AA cell, very much like the one shown in the photo. The kicker is that it’s not a standard battery, but one with solder tabs.

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OPINION : Benchduino: It’s Gonna Be BIG, for Builders→

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OPINION : Benchduino: It’s Gonna Be BIG, for Builders

Far more than will admit, amateur electronic builders tend to have a prototype that looks more like a Rube Goldberg cartoon than something designed by Hewlett Packard (when they were building). Me, too. There’s just a lot of wires, connectors, rigged-up jigs, and so forth when you’re trying to get a circuit to work like it’s ‘sposed to. And, put a microcprocessor or small PC board into the mix, aye yai yai!

There are breadboards, even sophisticated ones, that help with this. And, there are design boards to facilitate with some PIC development as well as ones that help with Arduino or Raspberry Pi projects. That’s good. But I’ve seen nothing like a workbench platform for most all of these with hardware and software hooks to keep Rube Goldberg in Collier’s Magazine. Until now.

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