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This weekend, I gave The Orange Dragon a much-needed upgrade: a nice, big rear-view mirror.
Jun 252017
May 252017
My new Kubota L3301HST tractor’s loader valve developed a couple of minor (and as it turns out, related) issues. The fix was very easy.
May 142017
At the 22nd annual Military Radio Collectors Group meet in San Luis Obispo, CA, I gave a presentation on an interesting piece of equipment called Audio Frequency Monitor AN/PTA-1. This set allows wiretapping of both two-wire and ground-return field telephone lines, using several different intrusive and non-intrusive coupling methods.
May 082017
Here are my pictures from the 22nd annual meeting of the Military Radio Collectors Group, at the Camp San Luis Obispo NCO club. A good time was had by all. We had 48 folks on the sign-in list. Weather was a bit chilly on Friday, but we missed the worst of the incoming storm.
May 032017
It’s about time that I wrote a quick blog post about the 6m fox hunt transmitter that I made for Military Radio Collectors Group events. I made it out of an AN/PRT-4A transmitter. From the outside, it looks unmodified. But on the inside it has a few changes!
Apr 302017
I discovered an issue with the alignment between the backhoe and its subframe on my tractor, which is getting it a free vacation at the dealer’s shop so they can take a look at it. I’ve also made a simple little upgrade to the implement height adjust lever stop.
Apr 232017
The newest member of my motor pool is a brand new Kubota L3301HST tractor. Say hello to The Orange Dragon!
Mar 122017
I bought this neat little piece of test equipment in an online Goodwill auction. Not much military surplus electronic equipment shows up there, but every now and then something cool pops up.
Nov 062016
I found this 1950s-era Canadian military radio in an online Goodwill auction, of all places. It is missing its whip antenna, but a friend in Australia is helping me out with that. This one may be tricky to repair if it doesn’t already work, because all but one of the vacuum tubes are hermetically sealed into individual metal cans. The modular construction made these easy to repair in service, but I don’t have a stock of spare modules to draw from.
Nov 052016
Thanks to David Reid W6KL, I now have my first Teletype Model 28! I’ve had a number of Teletype Model 33 machines over the years, but this is my first 28. I’ve always been impressed with the 28 machines I’ve encountered at Military Radio Collectors Group meets, so I’m happy to finally add one to my collection. This one was owned by Al Tipsword W6GER (SK) before David adopted it.
Oct 312016
So here we are at the end of October, 2016, and with it, the end of Retrochallenge 2016/10. My silly project is much too vast in scope to finish in just one month, so this isn’t the end of my project… it’s just the end of October, for me.
Oct 242016
I sure picked an impossibly huge project for Retrochallenge! There’s no chance of finishing the whole project during the month of Retrochallenge, but I’ve made a good start.
Oct 162016
A friend of mine just brought me this old rack-mount chassis containing two " half height floppy drives. It turned out to be much nicer than just a box with a couple of floppy drives inside: It also contains a 7-slot S-100 bus backplane! So, now this begins my quest to acquire a set of S-100 cards to turn this back into a working computer.
Oct 012016
I have decided to participate in Retrochallenge 2016/10, which is pretty much an excuse to spend the month of October working on a retrocomputing project. Ok, let’s be serious: That doesn’t really make October much different than the preceding or following months for a lot of us retrocomputing enthusiasts. But this month, it’s official!
I’m taking on an ambitious project which will almost certainly remain unfinished at the end of the month: Converting a DEC RL02 into a ginormous USB hard drive, so I can use it for imaging and writing RL02 packs!
Sep 182016
My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer which my dad bought for Christmas in 1981. With a built-in RF modulator, it plugged into an antenna switch box mounted on the family color TV. That old Magnavox TV is long gone, but I still have that Color Computer.
A “holy grail” that I seek for my collection is one of the Radio Shack color televisions which were featured in advertisements for the Color Computer. There are two that I’m looking for.
Jul 242016
After fixing the failed extruder thermistor on my Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer, it didn’t surprise me at all when the heated bed thermistor also failed. Read on to see how I replaced it.
Jul 102016
I replaced the broken thermocouple in my MP Select Mini 3D Printer this weekend, and it’s back up and running again! Here’s how I did it.
Jul 042016
I’ve measured the resistance vs. temperature of the thermistor in my MP Select Mini 3D printer. It looks like the thermistors that I speculatively ordered don’t have the exact same temperature curve, but they may be close enough to use my printer with a manual adjustment of the temperature set points to compensate for sensor error.
Jul 042016
On June 15, I saw this cryptic tweet from Elecia White. Being out of the loop, I asked what the new toy was, and was directed to Brian Benchoff’s review on Hackaday of the new Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer. It’s an exciting new 3D printer with a very attractive price point, and I had to have one! Read on for my not-so-smooth initial experience…
Jun 112016
I’m spending some time working on my Data General Nova 3 again, after a long hiatus. Here are some pictures of the backplane.