Tom Whitwell's 52 things I learned in 2016: #48

#48:

Intervision, the 70s Soviet answer to the Eurovision Song Contest, was judge by electricity grid voting: “those watching at home had to turn their lights on when they liked a song and off when they didn’t, with data from the electricity network then being used to allocate points.” [Nick Heady] (Fluxx have been working with National Grid on several projects this year)

Learning

The modern impediment to learning is attention, not access.

— The Stoic Emperor (@TheStoicEmperor) August 4, 2018

Twitter QotD

I like this...

Heard this today... You either WIN or LEARN, there is no LOSE.

— BobW K0NR (@K0NR) May 23, 2015

CTRL+SHIFT+V

Learn something everyday... beats pasting into notepad then again into Blogger.

googledrive Copy text without formatting using Ctrl/Command + Shift + V. Learn how from our Top Contributor Dan Z. goo.gl/b5VuGm Tue, Feb 18 13:26:18 from web

Ohm's Law Remix

A new way to teach Ohm's Law...


My take... it should be another tool in the toolbox. If the old way isn't sinking in with a particular student, then see if this approach works. I'm not quite ready to rewrite all the books.

UTK Greeks

UTK Greeks having some fun in more constructive manner at CCA than say some others more recently in the news.

Word of the Day: Panoply

I was trouble-shooting an Active Directory/DNS problem at work today and was using my google-fu to find a resolution. My search lead me to Troubleshooting DNS - which did not help me solve my problem, but did expand my vocabulary:

"Windows supports a whole panoply of naming services: DNS, WINS, HOSTS, LMHOSTS, and more."

And thus, I present "panoply" - a wide-ranging and impressive array or display.

So Microsoft has an impressive array of naming services. Who knew?!?

Happy Thought for the Day

From The Adaptive Curmudgeon:

"When mankind cannot manage brass threads...we're slowly devolving to losers in mud huts. I'm of the opinion we're well on that path."

N6R - Playing with HF on the IC-7000

Well, I've been listening for N6R on 20M at 14.255 MHz. I can barely make out some activity. As I mentioned, they are celebrating Reagan's 100th Birthday. I can't really hear N6R from Thousand Oaks, CA. I have heard a couple of stations from Oklahoma City and somewhere in Colorado working him.

I've been playing around with a lot of the settings on my IC-7000. I'm taking my best guess with:

Noise Reduction (NR) - it does eliminate some of the noise, but it keeps me from hearing N6R at all.

Pre Amplifier (P.AMP) - the Pre Amp does help me hear him as it magnifies the weak signal. According to the manual, it improves the signal to noise ratio and is useful for weak signals.

Attenuator (ATT) - The attenuator blocks undesired signals, which doesn't help me at all.

Noise Blanker (NB) - The noise blanker did not help and given the description in the manual (eliminates pulse type noise such as from a car ignition), I'm not surprised.

IF Filter (FIL) - I tried the IF Filters, too, but none of the 3 default passbands filters seemed to help either. There are some step size adjustments, but I didn't understand them enough to play with them.

IF Filter Shape - I did try the "soft" and "sharp" filter shapes, but they didn't seem to help.

And now, some Net has started on 14.255 MHz and run off the special event station. I'm spinning the dial to see if I can find him again.

Looks like I need to check out the Reagan Library website, too.

"Extra" Special License

A discussion about the value of the Extra class license.

"Second, I don’t think many people can go through that memorization process without learning something. I have a friend who always claims that he passed the Extra test by memorizing all of the answers. He’s just playing dumb, though. He knows a lot more than he gives himself credit for, and I think that you’ll find the same thing is true for the clods who claim to have passed by simply memorizing the answers."

I'm not sure how much I learned as I passed my Tech and General in less than about six months. I have to agree that I learned something. The "doing" will teach me more than the studying ever did, but you have to start somewhere.