TWIAR News Feed

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via HACKADAY: Diodes: The Switch You Never Knew You Had

Posted: 09 Dec 2016 07:59 PM PST
http://ift.tt/2giASR2

When looking across the discrete components in your electronic armory, it
is easy to overlook the humble diode. After all, one can be forgiven for
the conclusion that the everyday version of this component doesn’t do much.
They have none of the special skills you’d find in tunnel, Gunn, varicap,
Zener, and avalanche diodes, or even LEDs, instead they are simply a
one-way valve for electrical current. Connect them one way round and
current flows, the other and it doesn’t. They rectify AC to DC, power
supplies are full of them. Perhaps you’ve also used them to generate a
stable voltage drop because they have a pretty constant voltage across them
when current is flowing, but that’s it. Diodes: the shortest Hackaday
article ever.

Not so fast with dismissing the diode though. There is another trick they
have hiding up their sleeves, they can also act as a switch. It shouldn’t
come as too much of a shock, after all a quick look at many datasheets for
general purpose diodes should reveal their description as switching diodes.

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Alleged Long-Time Pirate Liable for $23,000 Fine

Posted: 09 Dec 2016 07:52 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2gkCKsL

A long-standing investigation into the goings-on of an alleged pirate radio
officer has come to an expensive conclusion.

On Dec. 5, the Federal Communications Commission imposed a $23,000 fine on
Daniel Delise from Astoria, N.Y. for allegedly operating an unlicensed
amateur radio station at unauthorized power levels as well as for falsely
transmitting an officer-in-distress call.

Regional groups like the Broadcast Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS)
in New York City have closely watched the case. When the first Notice of
Apparent Liability (NAL) was first issued against Delise by the FCC in
September of this year, BEARS President Howard Price said in an article on
the group’s website that “our long regional nightmare is over.”

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Radio Amateurs Assisting in Wake of Indonesian Earthquake

Posted: 09 Dec 2016 07:52 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2hf0Fyb

Radio amateurs are providing emergency communication support during the
response to a December 7 magnitude 6.5 earthquake in Indonesia’s Aceh
Province. The death toll is reported at 100, with nearly 300 injured.

The IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee’s Dani Hidayat, YB2TJV,
reports that it took 2 hours for the ham radio group from the Indonesian
Amateur Radio Organization (ORARI), Aceh Region, to reach the earthquake
zone. A team led by Abdullah Ali, YB6AA, and Ismul Huda, YB6AG, and others
supported emergency communications in the field at Pidie Jaya. Zainal
Abidin, YC6FZ, was injured when his house collapsed, but his family was
safe; Huda took Abidin to the Banda Aceh Hospital for treatment.

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Communicating through the Amateur Radio Service (Utah)

Posted: 09 Dec 2016 07:52 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2hvU7aQ

During the early years of the last century, the advent of radio technology
spawned activity among amateur enthusiasts. The early applications of
wireless communication provided contact with ships at sea long before their
arrival in port. As the level of activity increased, applications of the
new technology became the object of government regulation so that today we
have a variety of services, including the Amateur Radio service, licensed
through the Federal Communications Commission.