Category: SPARC Trivia

6 Feb 19

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

In the years between 1776 and 1778, Volta studied the chemistry of gases. He researched and discovered methane after reading a paper by Benjamin Franklin of the United States on “flammable air”. In November 1776, he found methane at Lake Maggiore, and by 1778 he managed to isolate methane. He devised experiments such as the ignition of methane by an electric spark in a closed vessel.

The Voltac Pile: When two metals and brine-soaked cloth or cardboard are arranged in a circuit they produce an electric current. In 1800, Volta stacked several pairs of alternating copper (or silver) and zinc discs (electrodes) separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (electrolyte) to increase the electrolyte conductivity.  When the top and bottom contacts were connected by a wire, an electric current flowed through the voltaic pile and the connecting wire.

Source … Wikipedia

3 Feb 19

“Q” codes were originally created around 1909 as a list abbreviations by the British Government to communicate with British ships and coast stations. The “Q” codes had a list of 45 codes and facilitated the communication between people who speak different languages. At the Third International Radiotelegraph Convention in London (1 July 1912) it was signed into the Service Regulations and on 3 July 1913 became a rule for use.

To distinguish the use of “Q” codes transmitted as questions from those transmitted as statements, operators used the Morse question “INT” (dit dit dah dit dah) as a prefix to the “Q” code.

Source … Wikipedia

2 Feb 19

Known as class B emission by the International Telecommunications Union, Damped Wave has been prohibited since 1930 due to its wide bandwidth and additional electrical noise. The transmission wave started at max signal and tapered off to zero for each key. The Spark Gap Transmitter and Damped Wave were last used in 1920 and replaced by Vacuum Tube Transmitters…

Source… Wikipedia (Damped Wave) …… Wikipedia (Continuous Wave)

30 Jan 19

The leap second refers to the slowing of the earths rotation (known as UT1) in relation to time. UTC (constant universal time) can be read by the position of the sun but since the advent of the atomic clock (known as TAI) which is for the most part constant from the time it was started, …. Click Here For more information and the 2 clockshttps://www.timeanddate.com/time/leap-seconds-background.html

28 Jan 19

Lloyd and Iris Colvin c.1993

Loyd and Iris Colvin from the YASME.org photo gallery, many good pictures are on that site including the original YASME sailboat.

Excerpt from the About Us Page on Yasme.org:

Danny retired from active DXpeditioning in 1963. At about that time, the famous husband and wife team, Lloyd Colvin, W6KG (SK), and Iris Colvin, W6QL (SK), began what they called the “Yasme Round the World DX-Pedition” under the auspices of the Yasme Foundation. Over the next almost 30 years, the Colvins would eventually operate from over 200 DXCC countries. Yasme volunteers served as their QSL manager, issuing hundreds of thousands of distinctive Yasme QSL cards.

Supported by a sizable bequest from the Colvins’ estate in 1998, Yasme’s activities today are conducted by a Board of Directors made up of volunteers who hold or have held responsible positions in business, law and technical areas.

Source … YASME.ORG

27 Jan 19

The era of the professional wireless operator has ended. CW communications has all but disappeared from anywhere other than the amateur radio community. The maritime, airline, military, and telecommunications industries no longer employ radio operators. Computers, digital technology, cellular networks, and satellites provide reliable communications capabilities over every inch of the Earth’s surface with a reliability and reach that would have been beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations ninety years ago. In 2015, the Board of Directors of the VWOA formally redefinined the organization. It is no longer a membership organization of active and retired radio operators. – from the VWOA website

Source… Veterans Wireless Operations Association

26 Jan 19

The YASME Foundation was formed to fund Danny Weil’s (VP2VB) DXpeditions on his sailboat YASME (the name is Japanese meaning to make tranquil). Danny was one of the first to travel to more than one location to operate – often solo in a sailboat and lugging hundreds of pounds of radio equipment – specifically to provide DXers with a “new one.” … From YASME.org

Source and more information at YASME FOUNDATION