Comments for Ben's Blog

Comment on Starting a new job by Derek

Derek — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:22:07 +0000

Congrats on the new job, Ben! I’m glad you found something fairly quickly, and it sounds like it should be a nice job. Lots of new stuff.

Comment on My homemade 2m 1/4 ground plane antenna by bnp

bnp — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:02:02 +0000

David,

I apologize for not replying sooner.

If you used a plastic-coated coat hanger you’d need to strip back enough of the plastic to get a good connection between the SO-239 connector and the coat hanger.

Don’t worry about the particular metal too much. Just as long as you can get a good solder joint.

You’ll need a relatively beefy soldering iron due to the thermal mass of the vertical. This is one case where a soldering gun might come in handy. Be careful not to melt the dielectric in the SO-239 connector. I managed to do that once before getting it right.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Comment on Embedded Development Course by bnp

bnp — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:27:44 +0000

They have to buy an Arduino and a breadboard. We’re going to provide everything else except for components for the final project.

Comment on Embedded Development Course by Andy

Andy — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:46:04 +0000

Interesting… I’m guessing the students are required to buy a small arduino kit? I think they need more of this in CS!

Comment on Embedded Development Course by Derek

Derek — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:21:35 +0000

Sounds fun. I’d take it if I were still in Oxford. :)

Comment on My homemade 2m 1/4 ground plane antenna by kata-lin

kata-lin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:45:21 +0000

it works quite well with alinco dr-135.

Comment on My homemade 2m 1/4 ground plane antenna by David H

David H — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:04:37 +0000

Hello,

I’m interested to building this little 2 m 1/4 ground plane antenna. I have just a couple of questions.

Can I use plastic coated coat hanger wire or should I strip it back?
Also the vertical element. It seems that It would be rather tricky to solder it to the top of the So239 as there’s not alot to attach onto. What should I use for the vertical? , brass, copper? Would an ordinary soldering iron do the job?

regards,

David VK2FEAA

Comment on Free Socket 939 MB, Processor, and Memory by bnp

bnp — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:47:18 +0000

Agreed.

Comment on Free Socket 939 MB, Processor, and Memory by Derek

Derek — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:10:02 +0000

I guess. They do have a lot more soldered elements than most PC components. The failure rate still seems disproportionately high, though.

Comment on Free Socket 939 MB, Processor, and Memory by bnp

bnp — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:40:08 +0000

Motherboards definitely seem to be prone to failure. Not sure why that is. Too many points of failure?

Comment on Free Socket 939 MB, Processor, and Memory by Derek

Derek — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:24:05 +0000

What is it with motherboards breaking? Can we really not make them more durable? Processors and memory seem to run indefinitely in the absence of a power surge or a problem right out of the box, but it seems the MTBF of the average motherboard is only about 3 years. And it’s never that the audio or a USB port just stops working. It’s always some weird intermittent crash that at first looks like a different component is the problem.

Comment on Small Wonder Labs SW-40+ by Update « Ben’s Blog

Update « Ben’s Blog — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:18:42 +0000

[...] recently finished my Small Wonder Labs SW-40+, a small Morse code radio for the 40m ham band. I’ll be posting about it soon. There are also [...]

Comment on ATS-3B and project update by Arthur

Arthur — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:01:23 +0000

I have one and love it

its an amazing little Altoids tin size six bands radio about 4 oz

I have worked 40 states and as far away as 4820 miles on 4 w

Comment on PanaVise Junior by Andy

Andy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:13:59 +0000

agreed, perfect price and perfect for small stuff

Comment on My homemade 2m 1/4 ground plane antenna by Internet Banking

Internet Banking — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:06:25 +0000

Just wasting some in between class time on Digg and I found your article . Not typically what I like to learn about, but it was absolutely worth my time. Thanks.

Comment on MintyBoost by NorCal Dummy Load « Ben’s Blog

NorCal Dummy Load « Ben’s Blog — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:10:30 +0000

[...] about a couple of them. This kit, the NorCal Dummy Load was my third project, the first being the MintyBoost, and the second being a AVR microcontroller programmer that I haven’t had a chance to post [...]

Comment on The ATS-3B by ATS-3B and project update « Ben’s Blog

ATS-3B and project update « Ben’s Blog — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:59:10 +0000

[...] couple of weeks ago the ATS-3B I posted about a while back became available again, and for the last time. Mine arrived in the mail [...]

Comment on St. Peter’s Pumpkin Patch by Andy

Andy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:15:09 +0000

One must consider how Liam felt. The world as he sees it was being taken over by giant pumpkins, most nearly as big as he is.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be at least a little concerned if I saw a field full of ~6ft pumpkins….. and while I might not cry about it… Liam certainly has no other way to express his concern about the situation.

Oh, and it would probably lead to nightmares as well….

In conclusion, I would have to say that any repercussions from this event you may have brought on yourself.

Comment on Planning a backpacking trip by Backpacking trip is on « Ben’s Blog

Backpacking trip is on « Ben’s Blog — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:06:42 +0000

[...] Ben’s Blog Family, news, politics, economics, ham radio, and other random thoughts « Planning a backpacking trip [...]

Comment on Planning a backpacking trip by bnp

bnp — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:38:52 +0000

Sounds like fun. Unfortunately, odds are good you’ll move again before I make it out there. :)

A friend of went out there to hike Mount Rainier earlier this year.