Wouter's Blog – Page 19 – Who said it was your cheese in the first place?

New life for your FT-290R

I mentioned previously that I figured out how to make a new display for an FT-x90R. My own rig is still in pieces ‘cos I’m not quite happy with the software yet (or actually, with my reverse engineering of the display protocol, but it’s the same thing in the end).

But Dave ZS5DF wanted his rig fixed so I fitted a new display, even though it doesn’t have the ~~F key~~ “P” priority display function in firmware yet.

Two filament bulbs, because the replacement display needs light from the right-hand side and the S meter is on the left-hand side.

Component cost is close to R500 which almost puts it in good-money-after-bad territory but I like these little radios.

2016-12-12 by wrm Electronics Geek ZS1KE 0

Geas

My father always said that we should put his ashes in two clay bowls, put them on the rocks at low tide, wait for the tide to come and go, and then to go collect the bowls and serve chips and peanuts in them.

Sunday the 13th would have been his birthday, so that’s the date we chose.

Low tide.

And high tide. It got a bit rough.

The sea took the ashes, but the sea also took the bowls. This is all I managed to recover. Not going to serve a whole lot of peanuts in that :-)

2016-11-14 by wrm Gansbaai 0

Dewey defeats Truman

In 1948 the Chicago Tribune was so confident of election results that they printed the newspaper the night before and went to bed early.

Hey, maybe I‘m jumping the gun here, but the New York Times has Trump at >95% right now and that can’t be easy for them of all people.

2016-11-09 by wrm Farting around 0

I suppose it’s obvious in hindsight

Tamara had a cool dad.

2016-11-04 by wrm Get Off My Lawn 0

School project

Younger kid had to build an electric motor for a school project. Having a garage full of stuff, it was no hassle to find everything required to build one.

I made her wind the coil.

But the question is, how do kids complete (or even conceptualise) something like this if they don’t have a Wouter around the house?

2016-10-12 by wrm Electronics Geek 0

Data point

If you fill up the tank of a 1.9 TDI VW Golf with unleaded, it will go 10 kilometers before quitting.

(Determined experimentally)

2016-10-04 by wrm Cars 1

Gemsbok sirloin steaks

One gemsbok sirloin, cut into thick steaks and marinaded in a mixture of oil, lemon juice, wooster* sauce, garlic and rosemary for about eight hours. Dredge in seasoned flour…