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I made a pass through my basement to see what “valuable radio artifacts” (some call it junk) I could unearth.  I discovered a couple of Astatic D-104 Microphones.  (See more old Mics).  These Mics were made a long time ago and Astatic has a rich history going  back to 1933.

Here is a bit of history from the Wikipedia on Astatic and the D-104

Introduced in 1933, the Astatic model D-104 was popular for its high frequency response which resulted in very intelligible audio.

Its high output voltage was characteristic of crystal elements and its high impedance allowed for direct grid input. The early D-104 mikes used a 1″ thick case and have a large ID tag along with tapped holes for “ring & spring” mounts. The case thickness was reduced in April 1937 and smaller tags were then used and the ring holes eliminated. The “grip” switch stand (“G” Stand) was introduced in January 1938 but didn’t become popular until much later. The early “G” stand bases were gloss black with metal ID tag.

The D-104 continued in production with little change until the 1960s when a solid-state amplifier was added to the “G” stand. In 1976, an eagle and shield was added to the rear cover to commemorate the US Bicentennial. Other variations appeared from time to time until 2001, when production ceased, 68 years after the first D-104 was offered. [4]

The D-104 is often used by CB radio hobbyists and vintage amateur radio enthusiasts as part of their operating activities.

I bought the D-104′s about 5 years ago for use with my collection of vintage Kenwood (see them) and Heathkit (see them) radios.

It Worked the last time I used it !!

Once unearthed I found that one of the D-104′s worked and one did not.  “It worked that last time I used it” is a familiar phrase well known by all  who attend hamfests or flea markets.  At a hamfest or flea market the seller wants to dispose of items in the most expedient way possible.  To say that it worked the last time they used it is a good use of plausibility deniability for the seller (but bad for you the buyer).  If you’re a seller, don’t test the item.  Ignorance is bliss… and this blissful strategy could make a fast sale.  If you are a buyer, don’t forget to ask the seller about the 30/30 guarantee – 30 feet or 30 seconds.  Doubtful you will get any more than this.

But, both D-104′s really did work that last time I used it.  Really, no kidding. So I have plans for both of these D-104 microphones.  Use one.  Gut one and find out why it doesn’t work – (stay tuned for a posting on this)

The D-104 on a modern radio – the Yaesu FT-7800

The Astatic D-104 was designed in the age of tube radios which require a high impedance microphone.  High impedance is usually 5,000 – 10,000 ohms.  Modern solid state radios generally want a microphone of about 600 ohms impedance.

Would the Astatic D-104′s work with my modern Yaesu FT-7800 dual band VHF/UHF radio?   (read my review of this radio)

Nothing like giving it a try.

Spit and Bailing Wire

Since I was not sure if it would work I jury rigged a setup using a terminal strip, alligator clips, a telephone extension cable, and some paper clips.  It took about 10 minutes to set this up.

Read the rest of this entry »

700,000 Licensed Amateur Radio Operators… ??

So, at the start of 2012 there are supposedly 700,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the United States. Let’s ask some questions…  Is this more or less than in previous years?  What are the historical trends over the past decade? Over that past few decades?  How do certain events affect the number of licensed operators?  What about dropping the code requirement in 2007 – what measurable effect did that have?  What about other countries – Australia, Germany, Japan, and so on.  How large is the population of Amateur Radio operators in those countries and how do those numbers and trends compare with the United States?

If you are a stakeholder with the ARRL then you can ask even more questions… What are the trends in the ARRL sections and ARRL divisions?  How well do the ARRL membership numbers track the growth or decline of licensed amateur radio operators in the US?  What percent of the amateur radio operator population does the ARRL capture as members?  Can you measure the success of the ARRL by comparing the number of members against the number of licensed amateur radio operators in the US?

What other questions can you ask and answer if you had a load of historical amateur radio licensing data and some good statistical analysis?

Tons of Amateur Radio license data at your fingertips

There’s an informative website that provides detailed statistical analysis of Amateur Radio licenses

http://ah0a.org/FCC/index.html

Some of the ready-made reports are:

• Australian Amateur Statistics (thru 30 June 2010)
• German Amateur Radio Statistics (thru 31 December 2008)
• Japanese Amateur Statistics (thru 31 March 2009)
• Spanish Amateur Statistics (thru 31 December 2008)
• U.K. Amateur Statistics (thru 31 March 2009)
• U.S. Amateur Statistics (thru 16 January 2012)
• U.S. Amateur Radio Licensing Trends
• Average Life Table
• US Totals

For US Amateur Radio, you can drill down into ARRL Divisions and Sections

• Geographical Charts: Aug 1999 → Jun-2011
• ARRL Divisions Map
• ARRL Sections Map
• States Map

So, if you want the skinny on the statistics of Amateur Radio licensing sliced and diced in all sorts of ways plus the capability of doing you own data mining and reporting then the site URL above is for you.

Discovery, Insight, and Decision making – Turning data into information

Having the raw  data on licensing along with the statistical analysis might give insight into answering some interesting questions and pose some new questions.  It’s all about discovery and turning raw numbers (data) into information that can inform decisions and provide insights.

700,000 Licensed Amateur Radio Operators – What does it really signify?

As of the beginning of 2012 there were 700,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the US. An amateur radio license is good for 10 years before expires.  If the license is not renewed then your are off the list and are not counted in the 700,000.

But this number of 700,000 may be misleading depending on what you think it signifies.  This number does not represent the number of active amateur radio operators – and it’s the active people that matter- not the inactive.  Many people may have gotten a license for the Amateur Radio service, gave Amateur Radio a run around the block, and then lost interest after a short period of time.

This loss of interest, the fact that they have no intention to renew the license, and the 10 year longevity of the license means that this 700,000 number,  if taken to represent that number of people active in Amateur Radio, would be misleading.

The 700,000 number really does not mean a lot if the majority of them have lost interest. It may be of benefit to some to quote large numbers – 700,000 in this case – to try to make a case for significance.  But when it comes to “boots on the ground”, “showing up”, and “making a difference” it’s only the active people that count.

So, if the number is not 700,000 (a best case high-water mark) then what is it?

The ARRL as the only (national) game in town

One clue on how to find the number of active Amateurs in the US might be to look at the membership of the ARRL. The ARRL is the American Radio Relay League. The ARRL is the “only game in town” as a national organization incorporated as a 501 C(3) charity that is dedicated exclusively to the advancement of Amateur Radio.

According to the ARRL’s strategic plan its mission is:

To promote and advance the art, science and enjoyment of Amateur Radio.

And the ARRL has a Big Hairy Audacious Goal:

Amateur Radio will be recognized as a valuable, innovative, technical and public service avocation.

The ARRL, as a national organization, is the public face of Amateur Radio in the United States.  This is the value proposition from the 2006 Strategic Plan:

• Develop strategic alliances, coalitions, and relationships with a varied of public, private, and not-for-profit organizations to advance Amateur Radio.
• Maintain personalized relationships with key, government decision- makers and agencies at the national, state and local level.
• Build a strong strategic position and wide recognition as the credible source of Amateur Radio information.
• Develop positions on key issues of interests and importance to members and the Amateur Radio community.
• Become branded for being a powerful advocate and voice for Amateur Radio.

You can read more about the ARRL on their web site: http://arrl.org

So, of the 700,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators can we get a clue as to the number of active licensee’s from additional statistics based on ARRL membership? Since the ARRL is the only (national) game in town then the hypothesis is that active hams gravitate to the ARRL – there is seemingly little other choice in the United States.

ARRL Membership Statistics

The ARRL publishes membership statistics in its Annual Reports.  These Annual Reports are available on their web site back to 2002.  So, based on the number of licensed operators in the US (from the first web site mentioned above) and the membership of the ARRL (as reported in their Annual Reports) perhaps we can combine the two sets of data and mine some interesting information and ask some new questions.

Here are our current questions

1. How many of the 700,000 license amateur radio operators are actually active?
2. Does the membership numbers of the ARRL give us an insight into the true number of active amateur radio operators?

Here is the analysis based on the data provided on the web site above and data gleaned from the ARRL Annual Reports.

Read the rest of this entry »

Suppose your parents or grandparent lay on you dozens of boxes of what is shown above.  What are those?  Those are “slides”.  Slides, and the negatives from which they were produced, are a remnant of a past age of photography before the technology disruption to the industry ushered in by digital cameras.

Those slides and negatives hiding in your parents and grandparents closet may have some valuable memories.  But, how to do view those images today, in the age of digital photography?

You can unlock those memories of the past and bring them into the digital universe for less than $100.  A while ago I picked up a very low-end device that can scan these 35mm slides and convert them to digital form.

There are many units on the market that can do this.  This posting is a review of only one.  But the real purpose of this post is to encourage you to go find those slides and negatives from your parents, grandparents, friends, and family and take a look at some history.

Review of the Wolverine F2D 35mm Film to Digital Converter

This is a very low-end device at low-cost.  But, if you want to get your feet wet and take a look at all those 35mm slides and negatives then this might be a good choice for you based on my experience.

The Wolverine is very easy to use.  You don’t need any software to scan the images.  The unit is self-contained including digital storage and a wall wart power supply.  No computer is needed – but of course you will want to use one along with your favorite image editing software after you digitally convert your 35mm slides and negatives.

Scan

The Wolverine comes with two trays – one for slides and one for negatives.  Simply open the tray and load it.  Turn the unit on and scan one slide or negative at a time.  The scans are at 5 Megapixel and it’s fast.  It only takes about 2 seconds to scan each image.  You will find that you spend more time loading and unloading the trays then you will spend on scanning the images.

Trivial editing

The Wolverine does allow some trivial editing of the image before you save it.  For example, the device will scan the image and show you a preview in a small color LCD screen,  You can choose to rotate or flip (mirror) the image before you save it to storage.  If you take a quick look at the slides or negatives before you load them and get the correct orientation in the tray then this trivial editing in not necessary.  No other editing is possible, nor should there be.  This unit is purpose-built for converting 35mm slides and negatives to digital form – that’s it.   Editing can be done after you get the images on to your computer.

Upload to computer

After you scan you slides or negatives connect the device to a USB port on your PC.  As with a traditional digital camera the device will show up as an external storage device.  You can then process the images just as you would with a digital camera.

The resolution of my scanned 35mm slides came out to  be 2520 x 1680.  Certainly suitable for viewing on a large monitor or for printing.

Edit as needed

I scanned about 200 slides and negatives.  On many, the color was off.  This may be due the Wolverine digital conversion process, the age of the slides, the slide processing, or the wrong exposure when the photograph was originally taken.  No matter the source of the color error these images are easily improved with digital photography software that can be had at no lost or up to whatever level of sophistication you desire.

The Take

My family has a huge collection of slides and negatives.  I can remember as a kid sitting in the living room watching the “big screen” while images were shown one by one along with commentary and discussion with the assembled masses.  If you were real lucky/unlucky you got treated to a slide show at a friend or neighbors house while they clicked through the 80 slides in the Kodak Carousel slide projector of their vacation or their family event.  If you saw a stack of a dozen Carousels you knew you were in for quite a night – in more ways than one.

The time when the family or family, neighbors, and close friends sat in a darkened room along with snacks and drinks and the famous Kodak Carousel clicked through the recorded memories of vacations and notable events may not be altogether gone.  Some may have never known such a time.

But, with entry-level 35mm film to digital converters for less than $100, image editing software, and easy one-click sideshow creation by free software programs then perhaps it’s not that hard to re/create this family event.  In this case, the digital image replaces the 35mm slide; the computer or DVD player replaces the projector; and the large screen TV set replaces the big screen with glass beads. The chance to get together with family, friends, and neighbors to relive memories of the past remains the same.  But in this case, given that these images originated as 35mm film in the distant past they may be of special significance to children and grand children. Children and grand children many have never seen these images and events they as part of  family history. To create such an event and opportunity for them would it be worth a $100 investment and a few hours of your time?

From AMC’s Mad Men

A few days ago I went to the neighborhood pet store to pick up some food for my miniature giraffe.  On my way to the back of the store where this item is kept I passed the bird section.

On the end cap I saw a cage with parakeets.  It was a good size cage with about 30 birds in it.  The parakeets looked almost identical – hard to tell one from another.  The price of the parakeets was $25 each.

After I grabbed a bag of food from the back of the store and was making my way back to the front retracing my path I again passed the large cage of parakeets.

But on this pass, I took a look down the aisle where there were other birds on display.

Glancing down the aisle I noticed a large magnificent cage.

In the cage were ladders, bells, a mirror, plastic chains and all sort of bird-toys.  There was a large bowl of food and another bowl of water.

Inside the cage was a Sun Conure

The 30 or so parakeets in the end cap cage had a single communal food bowl and water bowl.  The birds had to take turns eating from the bowl and there was some pushing, shoving, and beak pecks among the birds to secure a position  at the bowl.  The same with the water bowl.  There was certainly enough room for all 30 birds but they all shared the same cage and had take turns with the toys and perching positions.  In the best of all possible worlds, there was enough food and water for all of them.

I looked to see the price of the Sun Conure.  The price was $500.

So it made me think that there was a basic law at work here in the Pet Store

You are treated commensurate with your value

Interesting. The Parakeets in the end cage, which were nearly all identical and common, where $25.  The Sun Conure was $500.

Why?  Was is scarcity? Certainly the attributes of the Sun Conure were more appealing than the common parakeet.

Perhaps there is an interesting analogy here with people.

If you have common skills, if there are many of you, and if there is nothing to differentiate you from the next guy in line then “society” will treat you “commensurate” with your value.

How do you increase your value?  Differentiators and scarcity along in the direction of desirability as judged by the market.  Perhaps the parakeets in the end cap cage need a union.

Recently, at a coffee shop, I heard a couple of people talk about sending a resume.  A few of the options were sending the resume by postal mail or sending the resume by FAX.  So it made me wonder about a few things.

What company has a FAX machine?  And even if they did, then where would your FAX’ed resume end up in the scheme of things?  Postal mail?  A resume in printed form is going to be at a disadvantage in a company where the Human Resources department uses software to scan and do content analysis and keyword search on resumes in digital form.  Are they going to OCR-in your FAX’ed resume?  Perhaps you will eliminated at the front gate.

What will a resume be in the digital generation?

I met many people who run away from corporate collaboration sites.  They don’t blog, write, or collaborate via these common digital age tools.  They seem to be “heads down” workers – they do only what they are told to do – no up’s and no extras.

What will be the profile of a successful employee in the 21′st century corporation?

The C-Suite is under fire from the Millennial generation.  Why isn’t the CEO, CFO, CMO, and other C-suite executives blogging?  This is the question that the Millennial generation is asking when they enter traditional hierarchical organizations.  Traditionally,  CxO’s did not have to communicate directly to employees.  Blogging and social media is the air the Millennials breathe.  They’re natural collaborators who enjoy a conversation, not a lecture.  So why doesn’t the CxO blog?  And, I definitely want to be able to post a comment in response.

What will define successful leadership for a 21′st century organization?

In some companies, traditional IT departments along with their CTO’s and CIO’s are being caught off guard by employees bringing wireless tablets to work.  “What is this unregistered device doing on our corporate internal network?”  In response, the employee might say things like.. This is a way I can work more productively… My office is wherever I have my iPad … I can work on the train on my ride to work… Why does my physical office have to be the only place I can work? … Will you implement a ROW? – Results Only Workplace and let me work at home?

Where will your “office” be in the 21′st century?

All of the above is happening right now and it’s a harbinger of the future – if not the present and the future in the making right now.  The above lists are a few trends from my personal experience in a number of companies across multiple industries over the past few years.

I came across this more comprehensive list from the source cited below.  If you are still sending your resume by postal mail or FAX then you might want to study the list below carefully to increase your chances of getting a job in this, the 21st century.

TWENTY PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2020 WORKPLACE (from THE 2020 WORKPLACE)

The 2020 workplace will be full of surprises. The best you can do is start today to adapt to, respond to and prepare for the wild cards that will surely be coming your way. So, to assist you, here are 20 trends predicted to occur in time for the 2020 workplace:

1. You will be hired and promoted based upon your reputation capital. This is the sum total of your personal brand, your expertise and the breadth, depth and quality of your social networks.
2. Your mobile device will become your office, your classroom and your concierge. Mobile phones and tablets will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world in 2020.
3. The global talent shortage will be acute. The global competition for highly qualified workers will take shape in 2020. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that U.S.-based employers will need 30 million new college-educated workers in the next decade, while only 23 million young adults are expected to graduate from college in that period.
4. Recruiting will start on social networking sites. Recruiting for the vast majority of professional jobs will start in one of the highly trafficked social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bebo, Twitter and Second Life.
5. Web commuters will force corporate offices to reinvent themselves. With the growth of corporate social tech, it will be irrelevant where employees work as long as they deliver results to the team.
6. Companies will hire entire teams. As teamwork becomes increasingly important in the global workplace, companies are seeing the value of hiring and training an entire team to tackle business problems.
7. Job requirements for CEOs will include blogging. Keeping in touch with customers, the marketplace and employees is an important role for CEOs.
8. The corporate curriculum will use video games, simulations and alternate reality games as key delivery modes.
9. A 2020 mindset will be required to thrive in a networked world. The 2020 mindset will incorporate abilities in social participation, thinking globally, ubiquitous learning and cross-cultural power.
10. Human resources’ focus will move from outsourcing to crowdsourcing.“Crowdsourcing” refers to how companies, such as Lego, Procter & Gamble and Boeing, use the wisdom of crowds to develop solutions to R&D problems, designs for products and new ideas for businesses. Read the rest of this entry »