Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 3/9/25 3:07 AM, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 9 Mar 2025 00:20:19 -0500, c186282 wrote:
 

    There's a huge tome called the "ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook"
    (sometimes several small tomes) that cover just EVERYTHING that is or
    ever was in comm tech - from iron-filing 'detectors' and mechanical
    sine-wave generators on up. Had one, lost it somewhere, very sad.
    Vast practical knowledge between those covers.

 I think mine is from '92. You need to start a little simpler though. How
about a spark gap generator sending Morse code with a receiver built from
a lead pencil and a Gillette Blue Blade?

   Found one on Amazon, bought it ! 2013 ed I think.
   I think I've heard of the 'pencil' solution before.
   The interface with the knife-edge kinda replicates
   a point-contact or galena point diode. Low efficiency,
   but if you are fairly near a transmitter ....
   Came across old diagrams - Quaker-Oats round boxes
   wrapped to form the antenna transformer/inductor,
   galena crystals, sharpened point contact you had to
   tweak around by hand looking for the 'sweet spot'.

Early tech is fun.

   Often it was VERY clever ... max leverage of
   19th-century stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Rhinebeck_Aerodrome
 The last time I was there was in the '80s. A guy had built a Bl
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_XI
 It uses wing warping rather than ailerons. I asked him how he learned to
fly it and he said you keep taxing a little faster and getting a few feet
higher off the ground until you decide to go for it.

   Wing-warping decidedly WORKS. The downside is that
   it only works at very LOW speeds. Beyond that the
   necessary flexibility works against you - flapping/
   oscillation sets in. Seeing this, Curtiss came to
   the idea of the aileron.