Recently, Dave (W2VV) and I (KC2UHB) went to Turks and Caicos to operate ham radio and get a little winter time sun. We were given a temporary prefix VP5 to operate under making us VP5/W2VV and VP5/KC2UHB. We did some DXing and worked the satellites. To our pleasant surprise, VP5 turned out to be a more desirable location than we thought, and many hams tried to make contact with us as we called CQ on 20 and 40 meters. We had a few pile-ups.
We operated an FT-857d transceiver with a 13.2V 10AH NiMH battery pack and a Buddistick vertical antenna which we brought as a carry on through airport security (no problems). It was a lot of fun operating on the beach and the ocean really improved the signal. We made many contacts in Europe and one as far as Kazakhstan. Propagation was best in the morning and evening so we amused ourselves during the day snorkeling. Now I am spoiled and have become a total beach ham. I wonder if Yaesu has free promotional orange bikinis and beach towels to go with their free promotional Yaesu hats.
Dylan Tweney wrote a fantastic article on Wired.com about hackerspaces in the US. NYCResistor was profiled along with Hack DC and Noisebridge. A fun and interesting read…
While many movements begin in obscurity, hackers are unanimous about the birth of U.S. hacker spaces: August, 2007 when U.S. hackers Bre Pettis, Nicholas Farr, Mitch Altman and others visited Germany on a geeky field trip called Hackers on a Plane.
“It’s almost a Fight Club for nerds,” says Nick Bilton of his hacker space, NYC Resistor in Brooklyn, New York…
DIY Freaks Flock to ‘Hacker Spaces’ Worldwide, by Dylan Tweney
We mourn the passing of the Club Mate and a cloud hangs over our hackerspace.
So, both of my grandfathers were engineers in their own way. My grandfather on my father’s side (Ed Joyce) was a mechanic in the merchant marine during “the” war. My grandfather on my mother’s side (Ed Latimer.. what are the odds?) worked with the army air corps at one of their Radar Research Facilities in Arizona. He later worked as a foreman with Ma Bell for basically the rest of his life… One of his past times was curb collecting electronics and repairing them. Thanks to him every kid in my home had a black and white tube tv growing up… which was a little odd since color televisions were 20 years old at that point =P. Anyways when he passed he left some old electronics stuff that was passed off to me. A pretty awesome old tube tester, bunch of tubes, and various ancient components… but also some old service news magazines. Which had articles on how to service televisions and radios, and discussion of the technology of the time. Pretty amazing stuff. A window into a bygone era so to speak. All the documents are now public domain according to my research so enjoy!
Confused/excited about all the cool things happening in Arduino-land lately? Well, luckily for you we’ve taken a look at the various Arduino families and blogged them over at the MakerBot Industries blog.
The result? They’re each awesome and it’s pretty easy to pick which one is right for you.
In celebration of Lady Ada day, a day to celebrate women in technology, here’s a spotlight on the ladies of Resistor!
Kellbot – Tinysaur champion and creator of a glowing pacman cupcake.
Pip – She’s the lab in the word Buglabs pictured here with a twitchie baby.
Diana – Fashion nerd pictured here with a fibonacci scarf.
Max – Server wrangler and practicing safety with style.
Yarnivore – Sociological analyst and crafter.
Edith – Breathing life into books with arduinos and seen here making monolithic white boxes!
You should also pop over to my friend Limor’s, aka Lady Ada’s site to check out the sale she’s having today on her electronics kits!
We had our spring cleaning at NYCR and swept and mopt and chased all the dust bunnies down and killed their processes. Shelves were built and empires extended.
photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Monochrom will be coming to NYCResistor to give a performance and bring the joys of Communism to NYC. Having just launched their propaganda rich communist video game, they are now on a worldwide tour to bring the joys of the USSR to those of us in Brooklyn who are smart enough to do what Monochrom tells us.
The performance is free and will start promptly on March 21st at 7:05 PM.
NYCResistor; 397 Bridge Street, 5th Floor; Brooklyn, NY 11201
Saturday, March 21; 7 PM
I’m going to be teaching folks how to solder and each student will be provided with a TV-B-Gone kit to solder together.
You’ll learn the basics of using molten metal to make electronics projects come to life. You’ll also learn some basic techniques for removing soldered components. If you’ve always wanted to get into creating electronics, this is the class for you!
Sign up and take the class!
Date: March 29th 4PM-5PM
Cost: $45 (Price includes TV-B-Gone kit)
Location: NYCResistor 397 Bridge St. 5th Floor Brooklyn
Sign up required! LINK
