My antenna is safe through a night long hard storm

A big typhoon has passed by east of here. I thought the wind won't blow too hard since the counterclockwise swirling of the typhoon wind and its movement could have offset each other. But it happened only when the typhoon was right east of here for a while. The wind noise woke me up at 3 AM in our local. I could not fall asleep after that.

 

I was anxious about the antenna. As soon as I came into the shack, I measured the SWR. As ;low as usual! Great. And the direstion? It is pointed at the same direction as yesterday. The rotator was working OK. So far, no damage. I am always impressed at this tribander for from 40 to 15m. The structure is not very rigid but is flexible against winds. I started using this type of beam in the end of 1990s. Several years ago, considering it might have deteriorated after over ten years of use, I have replaced to a new one of the same model. It works as 3 elements on 40 and 4 elements on the other two bands. Hopefully, it will go on working for another 10 years. 

 

 

The 3.5 elements ! of Yagi above that tribander is for 10m. The half elements of the 1st director was missing while I was not aware of that, not this time, but a few years ago. Chris G4BUE, the editor of the FOCUS at that time, noted that defect when he looked a photo of my antenna, which Bruce K6ZB submitted to that magazine. Despite of a bit higher SWR than before, it works OK. Without Chris' notice, I might not have realized it.

A crisis in CW culture

The band conditions have been good for a week or two. When the sun was going to sink here, as always, I listened to 40m and called CQ beaming to NA. As Dick N7RC often told me after having worked in his ranch, I needed relaxation of CW music after having worked hard in the garden.

As I have repeatedly written here, I get very few callers from NA. I am almost used to it. The time has changed. Nowadays, in the US, there are much less CW operators staying up late at night. Or they would just listen on the bands and won't try to touch their paddle/key. That's OK for me. I have accepted that reality as it is.

But, not so infrequently, I am called by the guys who could hardly communicate on this mode. They won't tell me to slow down. They won't ask me about what I had told them. They would go on a QSO like a template and quit there as if nothing problematic had happened. Isn't it a real crisis that there is such a ham, not exceptional, in the US where the culture of ham radio was born?

Do they feel bored with conversing with me? Are they too busy after midnight? I suspect they could not copy other than the routine informations such as name or QTH.  I won't blame them. But it is still a crisis for CW culture.   

Sorry for my complaint too familiar to you readers of this blog.  I am too often astonished by such a scene on the air. That is the reason why I have repeated this here.

Egg plant and tomato with garlic and basil

This year, we have had many egg plants grown in the garden farm. This is the dish of home brew egg plants. Canned tomato was added with garlic and basil in olive oil. Basil was also home brew. Powdered cheese was sprinkled in the end.

 

Taste? Like spaghetti sauce haha. Still enjoyable. I was happy to have used basil for cooking.

 



 

Morse code sounds like music.

This paper has been found by Atsu JE1TRV.

It may mean the talent in music may help to learn code, even though this research emphasizes it is for lerning foreign languages.

It was amazing to me Morse code is still alive in this way.

Our sense to feel good code like a music doesn't seem to be out of focus.

Let's enjoy good quolity of music on the air.

quote:

Am J Psychol. 2013 Spring;126(1):95-104.

Musical experience influences statistical learning of a novel language.

Shook A, Marian V, Bartolotti J, Schroeder SR.

Source

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. a-shook@northwestern.edu

Abstract

Musical experience may benefit learning of a new language by increasing the fidelity with which the auditory system encodes sound. In the current study, participants with varying degrees of musical experience were exposed to two statistically defined languages consisting of auditory Morse code sequences that varied in difficulty. We found an advantage for highly skilled musicians, relative to lower-skilled musicians, in learning novel Morse code-based words. Furthermore, in the more difficult learning condition, performance of lower-skilled musicians was mediated by their general cognitive abilities. We suggest that musical experience may improve processing of statistical information and that musicians' enhanced ability to learn statistical probabilities in a novel Morse code language may extend to natural language learning.

Partita No2 by Bach

My daughter usd to practise violin until the end of jr. high. For a practice piece, she was given by her teacher a piece from the Unaccompanied Sonata for Violin No3 by Bach. When she all of sudden started playing that piece at the practice room, I happened  to be there with her. The atmosphere has abruptly changed. Every note of this piece was quite different from the other works. It has struck my mind even though she was not far from perfect with violin at that time yet. Bach's music, whatever it might be, sounds different to me. It was a pleasure for me to listen my daughter playing it before me. No chance for me to listen to her playing Bach since then, though.

 

Bach has been a special composer to me ever since I got interested in classical music. It expresses a universe itself as well as tender emotion appealing deeply to our mind. There is no single note unnecessary for a music. 

 

This work, No2 Unaccompanied Partita for Violin, is one of the best musics not only among the other 5 unaccomapnied sonata/partita but also among his all works. The last piece, in the style of Chaconne, is very famous. The other pieces are, however, really great. This music convinces us that there is something valuable shining in our lives even when it seems to have lost its ray of hope.

 

Harn is a great performer especially for Bach. Needless to mention of her perfect technique with the instrument. She plays Bach in the way it should be. It sounds warm as well. Is it her or Bach who is whispering just close to us? You may listen the composer, through her, breathing  beside you.

 

This is the piece I would bring with me in my pilgrimage if it comes true.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall has deepened.

A couple of days ago, I went to a hot spa near by. It is only 40 minutes drive from here. It belongs to "a road station", where drivers stop by for meals or rest for a while. It was on a week day, so that most of the people dipping themselves in the hot spa were aged ones. When I told that to my wife in the evening, she laughed at me telling I was one of them. Sure it is.  

 

 

 

 

On the way back home, I purchased some vegetables being sold at that station. Very fresh and reasonable.

 

There was a large farm of Soba, whose flowers were fully out, along the street. I remembered of the same scenary on the way to the office. I commuted there listening the piano trio in a moll by Ropartz.

 

 Fall has deepened.

 

A memorable place will be gone soon

Some of you might have visited Akihabara Radio Store (ARS) in Akihabara, a downtown in Tokyo, famous for radio parts shops. That store has rows of small branch stores along narrow walkways beneath the railway of Chuo line. It has been established 64 years ago. Many hams have gathered there for radio parts. Whenever I went there, I found a lot of people around there. There have been such radio stores all around Akihabara. They have been downsized owing to the prevaing computer shops. 

In 1960s when I was a newcomer in ham radio, I used to go there once a month looking for some parts. I used to make a single 6BA5 receiver for the very first home made one in my life. When I turned it on, the tube suddenly exploded. What a scary event! I didn't know why. Maybe, the high voltage DC was wired to the heater of 6BA5. I have made all my equipments by myself later on. All the parts were purchased in Akihabara.

I have often attended the other radio store named Radio Department Store close to ARS in Akihabara. In my low teen days, I have known to one of the personnel, a young man, who has kindly helped me to collect the parts I needed. Almost twenty years later, when I was a postgraduate student at my mother school, I needed a radio part and went to the same store. I found that person working at the same branch there. He has not recognized me, of course. I felt it went back to my kid days then. That Radio Department Store was replaced to a computer shop not so long after that.

Recently, the news said that ARS would be finally closed by the end of this Nov. One of my memorable places, or I should say, the last place in my good old days will be gone away soon. Shall I visit there again before it is closed?