Heinrich Rudolf Hertz: Google Doodle for a guy who rode a wave

Google's doodle honoring Hertz

Google put up an animated doodle of their logo honoring the 155th birthday of Heinrich Hertz. The animated logo doodle was posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

Here's more from the LA Times:

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz -- who, like Van Gogh and Mozart, was a rare genius not fully appreciated during his lifetime -- is honored with a Google Doodle today, his 155th birthday. And perhaps the reason the German physicist wasn't valued for his work was that no one at that point was smart enough to do so.

Even Hertz didn't get it.

The German physicist, who was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves, did not realize at the time the broader implications of his work -- which laid the groundwork for the invention of the wireless telegraph, radio and TV.

"I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application," Hertz once wrote, according to Scotland's University of St. Andrews.

Hertz made his discoveries young -- he began exercising his smarts early and was beginning his groundbreaking work at age 28. But his life was short, likely depriving the world of a host of amazing efforts. 

Contemplating the accomplishments he did make is enough to give those with more average brains a headache.  

He was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves, and he established "beyond any doubt" that light and heat were electromagnetic radiations.

Read more here.

Knoxville Hamfest roundup: HT's and a little good fortune...and a purse?

I debated a couple weeks back whether or not to go to the Knoxville Hamfest. I wasn't sure if the family would go, or if I would even have the money to spend.

I decided to go after all, and after scraping up a few bucks, took the family to the hamfest. I put up a couple of unused radios up for sale thanks to my friend Tim (KE4OTZ) who loaned me some tailgate space.

Lauren had a good time (playing her Nintendo DS), and even got lucky at the prize booth, having been selected for the first hourly prize. She won 4 PL-259 connectors. I'm sure I will...err...she will make good use of them...

I sold two radios. One was my Yaesu FT-50R (not the 90, like I originally posted before) and an out-of-order FT-5100 I had bought off eBay a few years ago. I'd always wanted the 5100 (or its sister, the 5200 with detachable faceplate) but when I picked up this radio, I had trouble from the start. It apparently had been modified to transmit and receive out of band, but the radio needed a sequence of buttons pressed in order to enable the radio to work in the modified state. To make matters more complicated, the onboard battery was dead, so if I shut the power off, it would reset into its original state, and the sequence would need to be repeated. This, among other things (like accidentally dropping it while trying to troubleshoot it, leading some of the buttons needed to enable to mod to be stuck), led me to sell it "for parts".

But it wasn't a complete sell-off, as I took the money made on the two radios and bought my second Wouxun KG-UV2D. I sold the FT-50R and bought the Wouxun instead for Lauren to use as her radio for a couple of reasons. One is that it was easier for her to use than the Yaesu, and also I could clone the two radios with the same memories and settings so that I can show her how to use the radio and to make it easier to find frequencies to talk on.

I also scored a killing on some old ICOM radios. I was told by Tim that a tailgater was selling some ICOM 220 radios for $10 so naturally I had to check it out. I went over across from Tim's table in the "boneyard" and the guy said he had not one, not two, but three IC-2AT's (2m HTs) and an IC-3AT (the 220 HT) for sale, along with a drop-in charger, and a couple of battery packs for $15. The catch: He hadn't used them in YEARS and didn't know if they still worked. I figured for $15 I'd take a chance.

But I think it was Amber who got away with the item of the day. One vendor was selling, of all things...purses. So naturally Amber HAD to have one...but these were not just any purse. They had interchangeable "skins" so that she can mix and match! The price was not that bad...for a purse. And it took some wrangling with mom and dad, along with promise after promise to take care of the animals, water the plants, clean the room, etc. But Jes and I had to reward her good grades in school, so we fell for it. I must say, over the last two weeks, she's been using it. And she's promised Lauren she'd have her time with it as well.

After getting home from the hamfest I decided to put the ICOM HTs to the test, so I plugged in the drop-in charger and the battery packs and waited...and waited...and waited...

I started with the IC-3AT. After all, it was the big prize in the stack. As soon as I turned on the radio, the sound of static crackled the radio back from it's long slumber. It works! On receive at least...

I quickly reacquainted myself with the settings of the "brick" and scoured for a repeater to key up. I anxiously spun the thumbwheels of the VFO at the top of the radio and keyed up. NOTHING. No kerchunk, no morse code ID of the repeater...just silence. I looked on the back of the radio near the belt clip and the damned thing was still on SIMPLEX. A quick flick of the switch over to "duplex" and and quick key of the mic, and I hear "daaah dit dit......dit......." as the repeater ID'ed over the transistor-radio-style speaker of my newly-found treasure.

The 2-meter IC-2AT's were not as fortunate. While they all power on and receive, they do not transmit, except one, but it was so scratchy and noisy, I gather it's not going to last much longer. Still, for $15, I snap up at least one gem out of the bunch!

Now, unlike these ridiculous "pickers" shows that are now infesting basic cable, I did not think about turning around and running a ridiculous profit and then bragging about it to ever-increasing audiences, and yes, before I hear about it, I've watched a few episodes. I knew my friend Jason (KF4VDX) was in need of a 220 radio and couldn't afford one, not even the Wouxun dual-bander I just bought. He was a recently appointed SKYWARN coordinator, and I knew he'd need one, since the National Weather Service office in Morristown was using 220 to coordinate with several of the regional net control stations.

So last Saturday, as we got together to prepare to go to a Field Day site, I brought the ICOMs out to him. He's been working odd jobs to repair radio equipment so I figured he might be able to make use of the "receive-only" 2 meters bricks, and he'd get a 220 radio to tinker with and hopefully get some mileage out of it. The least I could do, and the IC-3AT would get used rather than collect more dust in my house. To me, it was money well spent.

Overall it was a worthwhile hamfest. I got rid of a couple of radios I didn't need, bought one Lauren could use, and gave a good friend of mine some much-needed equipment for his hamshack.

Glad I went.

FUNcube dongle making (radio) waves

Imagine turning your laptop into a high-tech radio receiver capable of receiving any frequency, any mode from 64-1200 MHz.

Enter the "FUNCubeDongle" project.

This amazing USB stick has been a hot item of late. So hot, in fact, the last batch to go on sale (104) sold out in less than a minute.

It plugs into your computer (running Windows XP/Vista/7, OS X, and Kubuntu 10.10) and with the right program turns your computer into a software defined radio, capable of receiving whatever you want between 64MHz and 1.2GHz.

It's designed to be an educational tool for helping schools to pick up satellites using the dongle and a simple antenna. Hams around the world have been using them to receive voice/data/CW/whatever on all the bands from VHF on up.

Price is set currently at £125. Good luck picking one up. I've seen a Bag of Crap on Woot take slower time to sell out that these things.

If you missed out on the last run, there's one on eBay (ends Jan. 23) you can bid on, and as a bonus you get your callsign etched on FUNcube. Proceeds from the auction benefit the AMSAT-UK team.

You can check out this YouTube video of an "out-of-the-box" test listening to several AMSAT birds.