@yo-its-me
Circumstances makes sure I can't retire or I would! I love amateur radio, talking to folks around the world but I just don't have time for that hobby even though I have some really good radios. Check out the venerable ICOM 756 Pro III, very old now but still a very high class transceiver. They were top of the line back 20 odd years ago and now superceeded by what is called Software Defined Radio which is all the rage now but I get by with my old analog stuff.
I even have a Collins rig, a KWM2, from the 1960's and IT was top of the line back then. The new stuff is all well and good but I get just about as far away contacts as any of the new stuff and my rigs are a mere 100 watts out, we can do 1500 watts if you happen to have 5000 bucks to buy such an amp🙂
@sonhouse saidSDRs still need hardware though, or can they operate on software alone?
@yo-its-me
Circumstances makes sure I can't retire or I would! I love amateur radio, talking to folks around the world but I just don't have time for that hobby even though I have some really good radios. Check out the venerable ICOM 756 Pro III, very old now but still a very high class transceiver. They were top of the line back 20 odd years ago and now superceeded by what ...[text shortened]... are a mere 100 watts out, we can do 1500 watts if you happen to have 5000 bucks to buy such an amp🙂
@sonhouse saidI think scientists are encouraging older folks like us who have retired to keep up with a wide variety of activities, which utilize as much as our brain as possible. Some retired folks get lazy and end up watching tv for hours and this encorages the onset of Dementia, Alzheimer's and other age related brain disorders.
@Rajk999
Funny thing about me, I try to eat well, I love spinach and such but I work second shift and find myself eating a lot of Arby's chicken sandwiches for lunch🙂 My biggest exercise for the week is mowing the lawn with my lawn tractor🙂 But I do compose a lot of music, up to 311 tracks on soundcloud now that folk music is pretty much dead as a paying proposition, I ha ...[text shortened]... s you count the hundred bucks you MIGHT get playing at old folks homes singing Danny Boy *shudder*🙂
So you are probably in a very good place brain-wise with your activities, amateur radio, and music, chess etc, utilizing as many parts of the brain as possible. So keep that going.
Learning a foreign language, art/craft is also great if you were in the science field.
@Rajk999
Still in a science field as it turns out, my company is called Infinera, we make optical modulators taking 32 RF coaxes conducting several Gigahertz each and combine those signals to modulate laser light into a single fiber with a capacity of nearly one TRILLION bits per second per fiber.
Being a long time RF guy, the coax conducting the RF signals are a technological marvel in themselves.
You probably know about coax cables, like the ones feeding your internet or cable network TV and even satellite dish TV still feeds coax to the house and sets which of course gets converted to HDMI cables but the input coax for all that is rather large, about a 1/4 inch diameter, conducting maybe a gigahertz or so.
These coaxes called IPEX cables are the diameter or smaller than angel hair spaghetti, a full blown coax cable, that is to say, an outer insulating layer, an inner woven metal conductor shield, then another inner insulator, and inside that a thin wire conductor. Frigging amazing they can get multiple Gigahertz through that cable and have four pairs of 16 cables all together, the 16 cables into a connector about an inch and a bit long. It is amazing they figured out how to minimize cross talk between cables and those cables are good for 14 gigahertz with 97% of the energy starting out at 100% at one end and only losing 3% of the input energy and at that incredible wavelength. Example, 300 megahertz is a wavelength of one meter, about 40 inches, 3 gigs 10 cm, 30 gigs, 1 cm, so 14 or so gigs, wavelength of about one inch, 2 cm. That is extraordinary to conduct that high a frequency down a buried wire like that.
And four sets of 16 of those suckers!
The thing is, even that level of information down one optical fiber is going to be old hat in another few years, there is a development of what is called the "Optical Frequency Comb' which you can liken to an AM radio with the dial able to tune in a few hundred channels, each one carrying independent signals.
So the same thing has been invented for fiber, but this time 'colors' which are actually basically RF at wavelengths so short they become visible light or in this case, Infrared which is invisible to our eyes but light nonetheless.
And now they can cram 233 such independent optical channels, like radio stations with their own individual frequency band all in one fiber.
They say that technology can carry the entire worlds rate of internet data down one optical fiber!
Anyway, that is the field I am in right now.
@sonhouse saidMost interesting.
@Rajk999
Still in a science field as it turns out, my company is called Infinera, we make optical modulators taking 32 RF coaxes conducting several Gigahertz each and combine those signals to modulate laser light into a single fiber with a capacity of nearly one TRILLION bits per second per fiber.
Being a long time RF guy, the coax conducting the RF signals are a technolog ...[text shortened]... orlds rate of internet data down one optical fiber!
Anyway, that is the field I am in right now.
- Joined
- 16 Feb 08
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- 120983
@sonhouse saidI know we sometimes clash on a few things sonhouse, but I’ve always admired your work ethic and approach to life in older age.
@yo-its-me
Well my family has entries, my great grandpa lived to over 100, 103 or so, my Grandma lived to 104, my mom lived to 100, and I am on my way at 82, working full time 5 and 6 days a week and composing music on Soundcloud, up to 301 tracks there now and I wrote a paper on gravitational lensing which is sited in another paper I hear is soon to come out.
And a rating here and USCF of 1700+.
Other than that, I am just another dodo🙂
Salute.
@sonhouse saidGet yourself a QRP rig. It will keep you fit and thus increase your longevity due to all the hills you need to climb to work anyone. 🙂
my rigs are a mere 100 watts out, we can do 1500 watts if you happen to have 5000 bucks to buy such an amp🙂
@Rajk999
They do need hardware but half as much as analog radios. Processing circuit Q for instance can be done with software, getting the best bandwidth out of a signal where you are looking at a weak signal next to a powerhouse signal, software can facilitate that kind of analysis. Rejecting strong signals next to weak ones so the weak one can be heard is a hundred year battle in radio.
@Xanathar
Sounds like another ham floating around here🙂 What is your call? If you are a ham, PM me your call, I got burned here putting my call on RHP. QRP is fun for say being on vacation at a site where you can sling some wire in a tree and such.
My problem right now is getting a nice wire antenna I got years ago up in the air, I made a fan dipole and it turned out I suck at making fan dipoles🙂 Frequencies way off so need a lot of work. I do have a rig expert antenna analyzer, great tech from Ukraine of all places.
@divegeester
Thanks for that! I can post you my soundcloud link if you want to listen to my folkie tunes.
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- 16 Feb 08
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- 120983
@sonhouse saidOk but I’m not much of a music buff
@divegeester
Thanks for that! I can post you my soundcloud link if you want to listen to my folkie tunes.
- Joined
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- 120983
@sonhouse saidI’m sure it’s very good; far better than anything I could produce.
@divegeester
That's fine, I wouldn't force my amateur stuff on anyone😉