About 10am CDT this morning CNN started reporting that former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe was on board the plane. Shortly after that, reports started coming out that former Senator Ted Stevens was possibly on board. About 2pm we learned that Stevens had died.

A coworker and I speculated that they were just looking for O’Keefe’s body, because surely we’d know it by now if he was alive. About 3pm we finally learned that O’Keefe was alive. Initial reports seemed to indicate that he only had minor injuries, but around 10pm tonight they announced he was in critical condition.

I understand the remoteness of the crash site and the poor weather, and the fact that getting information to the media isn’t the first concern, but it still seems like information was trickling out awfully slow.

I would imagine surviving a plane crash is something that weighs heavily on one’s mind. Especially when someone else doesn’t make it. The late Sen. Ted Kennedy survived a plane crash in 1964, less than a year after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated.

The plane involved in this crash was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter, an amphibious plane. They haven’t been produced since 1967. The US Army was once the largest operator of the Otter, having 184 of them.

After leaving NASA in 2005, Sean O’Keefe was the chancellor of LSU for three years. He is currently the CEO of EADS North America. A subsidiary of EADS North America, American Eurocopter, produces the UH-72 Lakota Light Utility Helicopter in Columbus, Mississippi for the US Army.

I replaced the ensemble with a Core 2 Duo setup a few months ago when one of them went bad. Let me know via email if you want it.

Numerous books have been written about the Manhattan Project, so I won’t even attempt an outline here, but below are the main Wikipedia articles for your reference:

• Manhattan Project
• Trinity
• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Surrender of Japan

Read these and some of the links on these pages and you’ll know a lot about the bombs, their development, why they were used, etc. Below are a few of the facts that were new to me or that I find particularly interesting. I’m sure there were more, but I didn’t take notes.

One of the things that makes the Manhattan Project so interesting is that these scientists took a completely theoretical idea and made a working weapon in less than four years (12/1941 – 8/1945). Granted, they did have virtually limitless resources and some of the brightest minds of their time.

In my opinion, the single most interesting person involved in the project was Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director. He famously lost his security clearance in 1954 for having ties to Communism. History has cleared his name regarding any spying. It is now known that the KGB tried to recruit him numerous times, but they were always turned down.

The project actually produced two different types of nuclear weapons: one based on Uranium-235 and another on Plutonium-239. The element Plutonium had only been discovered in February, 1941.

The Uranium-235 was produced in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The site was picked, in part, due to the availability of cheap hydroelectric power from TVA. At one time, the site used over a sixth of the electrical power produced in the United States. Due to security concerns, the Governor of Tennessee did not know Oak Ridge existed for some time, even though it would soon become the fifth largest city in Tennessee. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the area of the Oak Ridge complex where the Uranium was enriched is now an EPA Superfund site.

Copper was in short supply during World War II, so Oak Ridge was loaned 14,700 tons  of coinage silver (currently worth $7.3 billion) from the US Treasury to create massive electromagnetic coils. Approximately 99.965% of it was returned to the Treasury after the war.

Due to the small amount of Uranium-235 available and the confidence of the scientists, a test was never carried out using the Uranium design. They didn’t know for certain it would work until it was dropped on Hiroshima. As an engineer, I’m astounded that they pulled this off in such a short time with no final test.

On July 16th, 1945, a Plutonium weapon was tested at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico. The test was code-named Trinity. The explosion was heard 200 miles away. The Army put out a press release explaining that a remote ammunitions magazine had exploded. Near the explosion, the sand was turned to a light green, radioactive glass that came to be called Trinitite.

In the brainstorming stage of target selection, Kyoto was a favorite. Supposedly Kyoto was taken off the list by Secretary of War Henry Stimson who had honeymooned there.

On July 26th, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was released, in which the Allies requested an unconditional surrender from Japan. It promised “prompt and utter destruction” if they did not surrender. The Japanese did not respond.

On August 6th, 1945, three B-29s left Tinian headed toward Hiroshima by way of Iwo Jima, a six hour flight. They were picked up by the Japanese on radar, and the alert was initially raised, but after determining there were only three planes, the air raid sirens were turned off. The Japanese had previously decided not to intercept small formations with fighters to conserve fuel and planes, which is what happened on August 6th. When the planes arrived at Hiroshima it was clear. Had it been cloudy, they would have diverted to Kokura.

“Little Boy” was dropped from the Enola Gay at 8:15 local time. It detonated 1900 feet above the city, as designed. Approximately 70,000 people (~30% of Hiroshima’s population) died immediately. It is estimated that up to a total of 200,000 people died by 1950 due to effects from the bomb.

On August 8th, the Soviet Union finally declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria.  Japan had been hoping to avoid war with the Soviets. They still did not surrender.

On August 9th, Bockscar and its supporting B-29s headed for Kokura. They had orders to drop the bomb only if they could see their target. Weather scouting planes flying an hour ahead reported clear skies. Bockscar was delayed due to a supporting plane missing its rendezvous. By the time it arrived in Kokura, it was cloudy. They diverted to the secondary target, Nagasaki.

At 11:01 local time, “Fat Man,” a Plutonium bomb similar in design to the one tested previously, was dropped on Nagasaki. Between 40,000 and 70,000 people died immediately.

At this point the officials in Japan were still split on the issue of surrender. Early on August 10th the Emperor himself came out in favor surrender, as long as he could retain his power. The Allies continued to demand an unconditional surrender. Finally, on August 14th, the Emperor and his government agreed. The was an unsuccessful coup d’état by elements of the military that did not want to surrender.

The US planned to have another nuclear weapon ready by August 17th, and it would have most likely been used had Japan not surrendered.

There is, of course, a debate about whether or not nuclear weapons should have been used on Japan. I have my opinion. I encourage you read up on the facts and develop your own.

If you know of any related, interesting facts that I missed, please post them in the comments.

I’ll be taking two classes again this fall in the continuing pursuit of my PhD in Computer Science at Ole Miss. I’ll also be teaching CSci259/390 (C++) on Monday and Wednesday nights.

Sometime in late September or early October I’ll be taking my comprehensive exams, the first of three major milestones in the PhD process. There are four exams, covering Systems, Algorithms, Programming Languages, and Software Engineering. I’m not worried about them, but I’ll be glad when they’re over. Right now I feel guilty if I do anything other than study for “comps.”

I’ve 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 several other ham radio and electronics projects I need to post about. Back in the spring I presented a tutorial on microcontrollers at the ACM Southeast conference.

James and I have another backpacking trip tentatively planned for September, which I’m really looking forward to. We had intended to go in the spring but got busy and never planned anything.

Of course, I need to post an update about Luke and Liam, which I will try to do soon.

Obviously, I plan on posting to my blog a little more frequently. I’ll continue to post shorter stuff over on Twitter.

I’m now up to Experiment #16 in Make: Electronics; about half way through. I’ve learned a good bit, even though the book is definitely aimed at newbies. I have skipped a couple of experiments that didn’t seem like they offered enough new experience for the amount of effort they would require.

I would recommend the book to anyone with one disclaimer: be prepared to spend a lot on tools and supplies. I’m also not terribly fond of the author’s recurring intruder alarm example. I feel like he could have come up with a better project. On the other hand, I don’t know of a better hands-on, beginner’s guide to electronics.

For now, I’m suspending my efforts on the book to finish up my DDS-60 card. More on that soon.

You can see all of my pictures here. I was pretty happy with my pictures, especially considering all these were taken with my Fuji point and shoot. You can view an enlarged version of any photo on this page by clicking on it.

I did a lot of backpacking in my high school days, but this trip was my first in over ten years. I’ve done two 10 day treks in New Mexico and two multi-day trips on the Appalachian Trail, but that was all back when I was in shape from playing three sports.

Just before we left I weighed my pack and found it was just over 50 pounds. Never again. I made it, but there’s no reason to carry that much stuff. Next time my pack will be at or under 45lbs. Some people go a lot lighter, but I’m realistic enough to know 45lbs. is a pretty lofty goal for me.

One of the trail markers that guided the way.

We arrived at Big Hill Pond State Park on Friday around 5pm or so, with just enough daylight to make it the mile or so to our first campsite. Each campsite has a small cabin, which we were happy to use. For supper we had some homemade chili I had cooked the previous day. We played a rather lengthy game of chess which James eventually won.

The cabin we stayed in the first night.

We got a late start Saturday morning, which was not good because we planned to walk about seven miles that day. Before lunch we walked through two different swamps. The second one had a mile long boardwalk that allowed us to walk right over the swamp. We ate lunch at the base of a 70′ observation tower that was formerly used as a fire tower. From there it was a quick three mile walk along some ridges to our campsite.

A view of Travis McNatt Lake, not far from our cabin on the second night.

My MSR Dragonfly Stove setup to cook supper Saturday night.

Several trees were completely orange or red, but there were some trees that were still completely green. I suspect another week or two would have been the peak of fall foliage there. Temperatures ranged from the sixties during the day to low thirties the second night. The forecast was so devoid of precipitation that I actually left my rain pants and gaiters at home. I did bring my rain jacket and pack cover, just in case.

Sunday morning we had a four mile walk around Travis McNatt Lake to get back to the car. We got a much earlier start than the previous day and made it back to the car by 11am.

One of the neat features of Big Hill Pond State Park is the train track that runs through it. It passes through in one of the more remote parts of the park. It’s a little surreal to see a modern train passing through what passes for wilderness in the eastern US. Big Hill Pond was actually “built” in 1853 when dirt was excavated to build a levee across the creek bottoms for the Memphis to Charleston Railroad. Today the track still goes to Memphis and actually parallels Poplar Avenue for quite a ways in east Memphis. Trains seem to pass through every couple of hours, day and night.

A train passing through the Big Hill Pond State Park wilderness.

For a couple of desk jockeys we handled the physical exertion pretty well. Of course there weren’t many big elevation changes, which helped a lot. James was dragging a little at lunch time on Saturday. Lunch seemed to perk him up a bit and he made the rest of the hike fine, though he was pretty exhausted once we made it to the campsite. It didn’t hit me hard until Sunday morning. James had a skip in his step, but I was very happy to make it back to the car.

I had a great time and will definitely be planning another trip soon. However, I won’t go until I’m in better shape. I haven’t done much in that regard since the trip, but I just bought some new running shoes and I’m ready to get going.

I would definitely recommend Big Hill Pond State Park as a first backpacking trip or for someone like me who is doing their first trip in a long time. The cabins are great because you don’t have to worry about buying or carrying a tent. There isn’t much elevation change, it’s relatively remote, and the the scenery isn’t half bad.

PanaVise Junior in action

PanaVise makes a whole series of vise bases and heads, and I’ll probably end up with several of their products, but Junior model is absolutely perfect for working on small circuit boards.

A similar product is the ubiquitous “third hand,” as seen here. I have one of those too, but I don’t use it nearly as often as the PanaVise Junior. Some people actually use them to hold to hold small circuit boards while working on them, but either their third hands are much sturdier than mine or they’re crazy. It’s nice for attaching connectors to wires and that sort of thing, but I wouldn’t say it’s essential. I got mine for $4-5 from an electronics supplier. For that price, it’s not a bad deal for occasional use.

Along the same lines, I have a pair of medical hemostats that I use for holding things. For instance, a lot of projects will require you to solder headers onto a circuit board. It’s virtually impossible to get the headers to stay where you want them. I use the hemostats to hold the headers while I solder one pin. Remove them, check for alignment, reclamp, and solder the far pin, then remove and solder all the other pins. It makes dealing with headers much easier. It got mine from SparkFun for a few dollars.

I got a Circuit Specialists Soldering Station for $45. It’s a 40 watt temperature-controlled station. I have the one with the digital temperature display, but they have an analog version for $5 less. The analog one is more than accurate enough, but I like the digital look. It comes recommended by others, and I have no complaints. The grip on the iron gets a little hot, but not to the point of being uncomfortable. I’ll probably upgrade eventually, but I expect it’ll be several years. You could probably get by with a non-temperature-controlled iron, but I think this one is definitely the best bang for buck.

For through hole work I use a 1.2mm chisel tip. Most people would probably use the next size up, but I enjoy the extra control the smaller tip gives you. For surface mount work I use a 0.8mm conical tip.

I decided on 63/37 Kester 285 solder, in 0.031″ diameter for through hole and 0.015″ diameter for surface mount. The 63/37 refers to the percentages of tin and lead in the solder. The 285 refers to the type of flux. Flux helps the solder stick to the objects you’re trying to solder. While solder sticks to metals like copper very well, it doesn’t stick to oxides very well. Unfortunately, the high temperatures involved in soldering cause accelerated oxidation. Flux helps prevent oxidation and also serves as a wetting agent, causing the solder to flow. Some fluxes must be cleaned off the board after soldering. I don’t have time for that, so I settled on Kester’s 285, the most active flux I feel comfortable leaving on a board. There are also “no clean” fluxes, but they tend to not perform as well. Especially while you’re learning to solder, stick with something like Kester 285. You can also get lead-free solder, but it’s not beginner friendly either.

I bought my solder from Digikey in 1lb. spools. It runs $20-30 per spool.  It’s hard to find good solder in small amounts. Radio Shack has small quantities of solder, but I have no idea if it’s any good. If you’re just getting started in this hobby I’d be glad to give you some solder. There’s no way I can use it all before it goes bad. (This type of solder has a shelf life of three years or so.)

I also have a flux pen, but I’ve only used it a couple of times when hand soldering surface mount ICs.

You need a way to clean your soldering iron’s tip. Most irons come with a cheap sponge that you wet. I use a Hakko 599B tip cleaner. It looks like a pot scrubber, but it has flux on it that cleans your tip. It also doesn’t drop the temperature of your tip like a wet sponge.

Sometimes you need to remove solder. There are two basic ways to do this: a desoldering pump or desoldering wick. The pump seems to be the old standby, but I’ve had way more luck with wick. I never use the pump these days. I use TechSpray wick and it does a good job. I use size #3 for through hole components and size #2 for surface mount.

I use Xcelite 378M pliers and 170M shear cutters. Amazon has them for $14 as a pair. You can make do with a small pair of regular pliers, but cutters like this are virtually essential. Home Depot carries an identical set under the Cresent brand.

Good lighting is essential for this sort of thing. While not ideal, I use a Petzl headlamp when soldering. Magnification is also important. I have a 10x jeweler’s loupe that I use for checking joints after the fact. I’d love to have a lamp/magnifier combo that clamps to my desk, but they’re expensive, and I’m sure my kids would find a way to break it. One of those magnifier visors would be nice too.

So, yes, getting setup to solder is a little on the expensive side, but it’s not bad compared to a lot of hobbies, you don’t have to buy it all at once, and it’s a good skill to acquire. Let me know if you have any questions.

Dummy load in vise, on desktop.

So, what the heck is a dummy load? When you’re testing a transmitter, you can’t just transmit without anything connected to the output. You could fry your final amplifier. So you need a dummy load that presents the correct impedance, 50 ohms in most cases. As it just so happens, I’m getting ready to build a transceiver, and will need a dummy load for testing. Also, this particular dummy load involves several surface mount (SMT) parts, and I wanted a little practice with those before beginning my next project, the Softrock Lite II 30m software-defined receiver.

This kit was designed and sold by NorCal QRP, a low-power (QRP) ham radio club based in Northern California. They have put together several kits over the years. They actually retired this kit a couple of years ago, but I inquired on the qrp-l list and someone had one they weren’t planning on building.

Some hams are intimidated by surface mount (SMT) components, and rightly so; they’re pretty small. Have a look below. The small black thing to the right of the penny is a 2.2 kOhm SMT resistor. SMT components come in different sizes. This size is referred to as 1206, which means it’s 0.126″ × 0.063″. It’s one of the larger sizes of SMT components.

As it turns out, soldering SMT components isn’t too bad. I used a small tip on my soldering iron and small solder (0.015″ diameter) and had no problems. There were no SMT integrated circuits on this project, but there would be on my next project.

Tonight I started on another SMT project, but using solder paste, a griddle, and an embossing gun instead of solder and a soldering iron. More on that later.

After checking out the reviews on Amazon I settled on Getting Started in Electronics by Forrest Mims. It has glowing reviews, many reviewers crediting Mims for jumpstarting their career in electronics. It’s also very short, at 128 pages.

I’ll be honest, I was disappointed. I’m probably a little more experienced than the target audience for this book, but not by much. While I did learn a few things, I found it to be way too high-level and not at all hands-on.

My next attempt at gaining an intuitive understanding of some electronic concepts will be via Make: Electronics. It’s a relatively new book by the guys at Make Magazine, of which I’m a subscriber. I read an interview with the author and editor a few days ago, and they actually mentioned that their intent was for it to be a modern day replacement for Getting Started in Electronics. (GSiE was originally published in 1983.) From reading about the book, it is decidedly more hands-on. While I’m sure some of it will be repetitive for me, I expect to learn quite a bit as well.

While I’m waiting on that to arrive, I’m going to read a couple of Sherlock Holmes short stories. I hope to see the new movie in the not too distant future, and I don’t want my image of Holmes’ world to be tainted by Hollywood.

While I’m very excited about the ATS-3B, I’m going to force myself to leave it alone until I finish my Softrock Lite II 30m software defined receiver and my Small Wonder Labs SW-40+ 40m CW transceiver.

I’m not sure I’ve even mentioned my Softrock Lite II on the blog before. I’ll have to do a proper post on it soon. I have mentioned it over on Twitter. It is done, as in all the parts are installed. However, I’m not able to receive any signals. The helpful guys on the mailing list tell me it needs a proper 50-ohm antenna. I was trying to use a small piece of wire as an antenna for testing purposes.

I have ordered and received everything I need to build a 30m dipole antenna that will be installed in my attic, at least for now. I’ve even cut the wire to length. I just need to solder everything and put it in the attic. I’ll probably borrow an SWR meter from one of the local hams to ensure it’s resonant on the 30m band. Hopefully the Softrock Lite will just work once it has a proper antenna. If not, I’m confident I can troubleshoot it with the help of the guys on the mailing list.

The SW-40+ is mostly done. All the components are installed on the board. However, I still need to align it, integrate the K12 keyer, and put it in the enclosure. I’ll also need to learn Morse Code before I can get much use out of it. I’ve been practicing occasionally, but I’ll have to put a lot more time into learning it before I’m good enough to try an on-air contact.

I’ve also been tinkering with AVR microcontrollers, but that’s a long-term project, so I’m content to let that sit while I build the ATS-3B.

I hope to get up a post about the backpacking trip soon. Two things are holding it up. Mostly, I’ve been insanely busy since I got back. Secondly, the memory card that has the pictures from the trip on it seems to be corrupted. I’ve ordered a card reader so I can attempt to recover them.

Luke and I went for a hike in the Bailey Woods near Rowan Oak yesterday. I haven’t used my hiking boots in quite a while, so I wanted to take them for a spin. For eleven year-old boots they are holding up quite well. We arrived at Rowan Oak less than thirty minutes before sunset. It was already getting dark, and Luke was initially a little concerned about going into the woods. Once I got him in there he did fine though. We’ll definitely have to go back soon.

The forecast currently calls for a low of 39 degrees Saturday night. My sleeping bag is rated for 30 degrees, but it’s about 12 years-old, and I haven’t always taken care of it. So, last night, I gave it a little test run in the backyard. Initially I was quite toasty, but around 4:30am I woke up and was a little on the cool side. I have another sleeping bag that’s rated for zero degrees, but I use it so little it’s at my parents’ house, an hour and a half away. Luckily, someone was already headed this way, so it’ll be arriving tomorrow.

I bought a 2GB micro SD card for my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx GPS. Saving my position every second, the card will fill up after approximately 197 days on continuous use. Overkill? Absolutely, but any computer scientist worth his salt loves a large data set.

More tomorrow…probably. There’s lots left to do.

We had tried to go last Wednesday, but Luke fell asleep on the way. On Thursday we tried again, even though Liam was sick and sleepy.

We didn’t get any good pictures of the two of them together, but some with Luke by himself aren’t bad. I’ve also included some "outtakes" showing what kind of mood Liam was in.

I apologize in advance for the corny titles and captions. Apparently corniness is a symptom of sleep deprivation.

I think I’ve found my destination. Big Hill Pond State Park is near Pocahontas, Tennessee and is less than two hours from Oxford. It has several miles of relatively flat trails, perfect for the out of shape backpacker. Even better, it has four shelters, lessening the need for carrying a tent. I’ve never been, but I hear it’s a very nice place.

I’m looking for some guys to go with me. I’ve got a backpacking stove, first aid kit, and that sort of stuff. All you’d need is a sleeping bag and some appropriate clothes.

I was thinking the weekend of October 16-18th, leaving Oxford midday on Friday and returning Sunday afternoon. That should put us in the peak of the fall foliage with cool, but not too cool weather. Of course, I’ve let that date get awfully close, so I’m flexible.

Anyone interested?

Last month NIST updated WWVB Radio Controlled Clocks: Recommended Practices for Manufacturers and Consumers (PDF), its guide to making and using WWVB-controlled clocks. WWVB operates at 60kHz, way down in the low frequency band. A half-wavelength antenna for WWVB would be a little over a mile and a half long. NIST also operates WWV, which broadcasts at 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 25MHz.

Building a WWVB-controlled clock is on my list of electronics projects, but it’s not one I intend to get to anytime real soon.

The ATS-3B was designed by Steve to be the ideal radio for backpacking. He lives in New Hampshire and backpacks the Appalachian Trail often.  (ATS stands for Appalachian Trail Sprint.) I haven’t done much backpacking lately, but I’m looking to get back into it soon.

Most ham kits use through hole parts, which are easier for some people to handle. The ATS-3B uses lots of surface mount parts, allowing it to be very small. I’ve used surface mount parts on a couple of projects and actually prefer them. I’ve always soldered them by hand. Steve seems to prefer the solder paste/warming plate/embossing gun method. I’m not sure if I’d give that a try or stick with soldering by hand. Here’s a YouTube video of Steve doing it both ways.

Steve only offers ATS-3B kits periodically. I believe he’s offered them about three different times now. He’ll be offering them again sometime in late fall, and I’ll be ready. This will also be the last time Steve will offer this kit, as some of the parts he uses are being phased out. He’s already working on the ATS-4, which looks to be a very nice (though somewhat larger) radio.

On the other hand, we did score 28 points in the fourth quarter. But, then again, we’re still talking about Memphis here. A lot of Ole Miss fans would have been very depressed if not for that flash of hope in the fourth quarter. I was a little pessimistic before the game, and I haven’t seen anything to calm my fears yet. Our next game is Southeastern Louisiana in two weeks.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Florida dominated Charleston Southern, Kentucky looked impressive against Miami (Ohio), South Carolina won, but looked weak against NC State, Tennessee blew out Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt blew out Western Carolina, Georgia lost to a tough Oklahoma State, Alabama looked sloppy at times, but beat a good Virginia Tech team, Arkansas beat Missouri State, Auburn looked a lot like us against Louisiana Tech, LSU looked sluggish against Washington, and Mississippi State looked decent against Jackson State.

Nationally, No. 6 Ohio State just barely beat Navy at home. No. 3 Oklahoma was beaten by No. 20 BYU, and their QB, Sam Bradford, was injured. No. 14 Boise State beat No. 16 Oregon at home and everyone is acting surprised. Boise State, you’re obviously pretty good. Could you perhaps join a real conference so I don’t have to listen to people be surprised when you win?

Finally, if you haven’t heard about the punch, please get out from under your rock. Blount was suspended for the year. Too much? Maybe, but not by much.

By the way, my lawn looks much better now than it does in the photo. It’s amazing what a little fertilizer can do.