On 15 Dec 2010 20:52:22 GMT, Sébastien MEDARD wrote:

There should free software displaying this gray line with UTC time, no?

Hi Sébastien,

I'm sure there is - somewhere. GoogleEarth would be an elaborate tool
to accomplish this.

I found the "Receiving Antenna Handbook" quite cheap, but the "Loop
Antenna Handbook" is still expensive. Between $60 to $257... I will try
the cheapest.

Myself, I would not advise spending more than $20. Professional
antenna books barely give more than one section of the first chapter
to its discussion.

OK. But today we probably ask more to radios than yesterday, no?

No, probably less. Being an OM, (40 years ago) I also taught classes
for repair and maintenance of Collins' famous receiver, the R-390. EVEN
NOW (40 years later), this is probably the best receiver for its price
(and even two to three times its price).

Do you calculate that in constant dollar from the 50's?

Today's cost matched with the price of equivalent performance from an
available vendor.

I can imagine the teaching class. Everybody with a Collin's in front of
him/her... A one year project to restore completely one of this legendary
radio. I would like that!

There were two to a radio. 40 to 30 hours learning the schematic
theory of operation; and troubleshooting and tuning procedures and 30
to 40 hours in front of the radio. The class was 2 weeks long.
Complete restore unnessecary, of course, as the last class had fixed
any problem. No, we had a data bank of known problems, known
solutions, and the time to debug them averaged over at least 100
students for each problem.

With a good DSP outside (Audio DSP only), can beat every other ones?

Good for filtering, probably tighter than the mechanical filters
(theoretically), but there are many, many other considerations.

It seems not easy to get one, especially in Europe...

That seems like a very real impediment. And with it weighing in at 85
pounds (40 kilograms), the cost to deliver would add considerably.

So, my comment was a lapalissade? Certainly.

You got the picture

In technicolor and 3D.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC