October 20, 2007
Power Supply Overload
I won an Icom 706MKiiG radio on eBay a few weeks ago, and I've had it now for about two weeks. It's a fantastic little radio that does everything from 160M up to 70cm (1.8Mhz to 470Mhz), which is quite a range for a new ham to explore.
The radio came with a nice LDG antenna tuner, and a promising Kenwood PS30 power supply (which can supply 15Amps/20Amps max at 12 volts). Unfortunately, the power supply got pretty beat up on its way here. The back end is dented in, and the main circuit board inside is actually cracked inside. The power read 15.5 volts between the leads (which is, as it turns out, normal for the radio when it is not under load). The radio would not turn on when connected to it, though.
Fortunately, I had built my ATX power supply, and jumpered the radio to it using my voltmeter leads. The radio worked! But the ATX unix doesn't supply enough amps to work the 706 at max power (~100 watts on the HF bands). Still, I was happy to have a working radio at low power, and my ebay seller has been super nice and responsive in getting an insurance claim on the supply going.
I bought an identical power supply from the Northwest Swap-n-Shop. Unknown to me, this one had been sitting on a shelf for a decade, in the original box, with the original manual!
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| ...the manual -- click to enlarge if you want a printable copy |
"They don't make 'em like they used to," is what comes to mind. It's quite amazing to me to see a manufacturer include a complete electrical schematic with their product! Power supplies are quite simple devices, but I don't have much of an electronics background. Having a manual was enough motivation for me to tear apart the bad PS30 and get my soldering iron out.
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| A repaired supply |
My assumption was that the PCB was just cracked, and when i tore it apart it became very obvious which connections had been severed. I jumpered the cut traces with a little 12 guage wire leftover from the ATX conversion project, tested with a voltmeter (still 15.5volts, which is okay for a radio), plugged it in, and voilla! It powers my radio with quite a bit of power now.
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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The Curve of Binding Energy
John McPhee follows famous physicist Ted Taylor in this piece that was -- and probably still -- ahead of its time.
Originally published in 1973, McPhee outlined the coming security and environmental issues surrounding the plutonium enrichment processes. For the most part, though, McPhee invites the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, although he does point out the ease with which any number of people could obtain the material (though not necessarily the manufacturing prowess) to make an atomic weapon.
The question still sits in my mind after reading -- are we being too paranoid, or not paranoid enough?
Rated 
by reid
on October 01, 2007
by reid
on October 01, 2007
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Zodiac
Zodiac touts itself as an 'eco-thriller,' and it is just that. Told from the first-person perspective of ST (or Sangamon Taylor), the book recounts a roughly six-month period of his life busting big corporations for violating environmental laws.
Not the tree-hugging political activist type, ST is equipped with chem labs, scuba divers, maps, and an organization (GEE International, the Group of Environmental Extremists) that masterfully brings the press into the fold to scare the public with the very real dangers posed by illegal dumping. It's sort of a Sierra Club member's wet dream -- a band of ecowarriors that actually get things done.
ST finds something odd happening in Boston Harbor during his tale: a new form of pollution that could poison everyone on the planet in a matter of weeks. His quest to uncover exactly who and what is causing the latest spike in toxins goes all the way up to the President of the United States, and could end up costing him his own life.
While a neat and fast-paced tale, the novel drags on a bit toward the end, begging disbelief from even the most forgiving sci-fi folk. While not as good as his latest offerings, it's still a great read for those that enjoy a good Stephenson novel (or even those who don't).
Rated 
by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
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Cat's Cradle
A few years ago, I attempted to woo an online datee, and she immediately criticized me for my politics. I protested the war on Iraq, which was "a shame." She defended her position of complete noninvolvement by standing behind Vonnegut.
It may seem odd to open a review that way. My assumption is now not that she was an idiot, but that she had only read Cat's Cradle, and only with a rather odd viewpoint.
Cat's Cradle looks at a cold-war world where the personifications of religious, political, and scientific single-mindedness collide to destroy the world.
Vonnegut tells a masterful tale, but it makes me wonder what one person's indifference would do to prevent us from all dying? So for now I will continue to unblindly stop unjust wars, even while I'm only reading.
Rated by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005