RadioBanter

RadioBanter (https://www.radiobanter.com/)

- Antenna (https://www.radiobanter.com/antenna/)

- - NEC (https://www.radiobanter.com/antenna/208081-nec.html)

On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:29:34 -0500, Lostgallifreyan
wrote:

Belay those. No-one beats the Welsh!
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychyrndrobwllantysiliogo gogoch

The world's supply of space characters is limited, finite, and is
rapidly being depleted by exessive consumption through wasteful
practices such as double spaced lines, putting two spaces after each
period, and kerning. Eventually, we will run out of space characters
and AllTheWordsWillRunTogether. Otherwise, think small and purchase a
new keyboard with a working space bar.

Space, the final fiasco.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Oregonian Haruspex wrote in
:

Writing software is generally one of the most frightfully boring tasks
that one can possibly do.

True, but the payoff is amazing at times. I'm coding a phase modulation
synthesiser based on Yamaha's DX7, with months full on, then slightly less
months full-off, as the only way to get free of it, and to come back at it
and see it as another person would, because I work entirely alone. Now, it si
tough, for sure, never mind 'Doctor's hours', try 'Edison's hours', sometimes
missing out whole days and nights of rest to see somethign through. Nothing
has ever imposed discipline on me like my want to make this happen, I taught
myself more than a childhood of schooling, by magnitudes, not multiples.

Now, the payoff... WHen I got past basic principles of audio and MIDI on a
PC, logarithms and bitshifts and lookup tables foe speed, etc, designed my
own realtime interpolator for MIDI data and got the pitch control engine
taking linear signals for log domain calculations, the response of pitch over
ten octaves is swift and clean, NO digital zipper noise whatsoever despite a
mere 7 bits avalaible to direct the sweep, regardless of speed. MIDI is
usually scorned for failure to acheive this, but I did it, and you'd be hard
pressed to find a commercially available synthesier that can do this. I have
a good 'analog' simulation, and a realtime variable non-linear compression
and expansion method capable of extremely realisting imitations of horn and
string sounds. This instrument has polyphony and multitimbrality enough to
allow composition for a small symphony orchestra.

It's too off-topic for me to go on here any further, but I hope this is
enough to convey the reality: that writing software, while almost
insufferably tedious at times, can lead to long moments of exhilaration like
orbital flight, it feels like achieving the building of a space shuttle in a
back yard. To be able to play a moderately realistic piano, knowing that
every part of its existence except the host machine and the coding language
used, is beyond parallel, at least for me. I think if Bach or Beethoven had
been sent a time machine with a message to the effect that they could have
had this, they'd have got in and things might have been very diferent for
music. :) On the other hand, it is because of what they did do that this is
possible at all...

Oregonian Haruspex wrote in
:

screwing about with finding libraries

I hated that part too. I looked for MIDI library code for years, on and off,
then when I finally bit the bullet and learned the core Win32 API and C, and
callback functions, etc, I found I had full control. I ended up with ALL that
I needed, within about a month. Finding libraires is overrated. I like to
build mine. I started learning about pointer iteration and dereferencing and
buffer overflows by building my own fast and safe string concatenation
function based on Theo de Radt (of OpenBSD, known for high security coding).
In many cases like these, I found that all the 'learning' in the world will
never cut to the chase as effectively as deducing what is to be done, what is
closest to doing it that is within reach, and adapting it directly. If done
thoroughly, by good effort to explore the possibilities that arise instead of
copying chunks like a script kiddie, the learning is also thorough, and the
code will become your own. Real satisfaction comes from that, enough to
counterpoise the neat reach.

Oregonian Haruspex wrote in
:

How much control do you have over the design of an antenna you are
designing?

Some to lots, depending on your budget and the space available.

I'll risk pre-empting his existing reply with my own take on this... I think
what Jim is getting at is that modelling gives you control over what you CAN
manage to do, much more easily than you can get control on what is beyond
your easy reach. So you might as well do it anyway, and adjust the model for
anything obvious that can be added into it. Broad strokes will get fine
results if placed well (as many artists have shown for centuries).

Oregonian Haruspex wrote in
:

So you take
your rough model and start trying to account for trees, the local
topography, and pretty soon it's two years later and you haven't even
bought your antenna supplies let alone run the coax because you're
still trying to account for what happens when the geese fly over the
antenna in November.

This is true too, my take on it is to make something basic and faster than
modelling it would be, to eliminate any 'plans' that were doomed to go agley
from the off...

This discussion of whether modelling is good or not is circular, how can it
end? It's like those interminable arguments about light having to be a wave,
or a particle, when it's now clear it is neither, but is a 'thing' that can
appear as either, or even both. So instead of setting each method against
each other, make them co-operate, use their complementarity. If it works for
quantum physicist, it ought to work for us, metaphor or not.

On 15/10/2014 19:29, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
Lostgallifreyan wrote in
:

Perhaps we need some organic chemists to compete,
or a writer of a German operating manual...

Belay those. No-one beats the Welsh!
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychyrndrobwllantysiliogog ogoch
I pulled that from memory, I kid you not, but I won't vouch for flawless
spelling. There might be whole syllab;les missing...

The New Zealanders do with a hill called
"Taumata*whakatangihanga*koauau*o*tamatea*turi*puk akapiki*maunga*horo*nuku*pokai*whenua*kitanatahu"

"The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of
mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute
to his loved one".

.... and no it's not from memory, I had to google it to get it correct.

Andy

AndyW wrote in
:

The New Zealanders do with a hill called
"Taumata*whakatangihanga*koauau*o*tamatea*turi*puk akapiki*maunga*horo*nuk
u*pokai*whenua*kitanatahu"

Ah, I did learn last night someone had pipped them, now I know who. :)
Thanks.

"Brian Reay" wrote in message
...
He always preached that 'real hams' should write their our software and he
claims to be a software engineer.

You were the one who was sacked as a software specialist a very
short time after changing jobs in the warmongering industry.

Perhaps he could take a break from his busy Freecell playing schedule

One of the ways to encourage newcomers is to discuss quite openly
what we do, including the pratfalls that we have, in order to show those
newcomers that there is nothing to be ashamed of. Despite your claim
to have been let go as a schoolteacher, you do not behave as
someone who encourages newcomers, insofar as you regularly sneer
at such descriptions, probably doing more to discourage rather
than encourage newcomers in passing.

Keeping mentally active, it
is true that I usually have a game of Freecell in the background, although
some games do not get much attention and can lurk on the screen for days.

and
develop his own antenna modelling package.

I'm working through a treatise of the NE Code at the moment.

I am sure another slight delay
in his 18 year project to build a receiver can stand another slippage,

Plans to build a top-of-the-line RX suffer slippage when new technology
comes along; but several other projects have been complete in recent years,
notably a chinese copy of a vibroplex.

But in your haste to sneer, you are being reckless as to the truth, for the
dream of building my own RX goes back 50 years, and not 18.

it
will make a change from the much reused excuse of 'gear hobbing' problems.

I've been quite open that I wanted an Eddystone-type dial, and being a
complete
do-it-yourselfer, wanted to have a go at hobbing the gears myself,
especially as I
have produced software in the past 5 years to supoprt the leading amateur
gear cutter in England in order to calculate the drive train ratios for
cutting helical gears. (Non-integer ratios, needing to be accurate to an 8th
place
of decimals). So, I thought I'd have a go at producing a gear hobbing
attachment
for my milling machine, and that involved quite a bit of electronics.

As I has reported, the assembly was not rigid enough to deal with the 200
tooth
gears, but it was 18 months of technicalo experimentation and dabbling.

Once again, i encourage newcomers by discussing what I do whereas you put
them off by sneering at experimentation.

This Rx must have more gears than my Rolex.

What a silly infantile comment!

You seem to be obsessed with directing abusive slurs in my direction,
many of which are not relevant to the subject of discussion.

What is it that compels you to make a fool of yourself by coming
across as a child in the school playground mouthing off insults?

"Oregonian Haruspex" wrote in message
...

Writing software is generally one of the most frightfully boring tasks
that one can possibly do.

Au contraire, it is one of the most mentally stimulating, have an idea,
jot down a prototype, and within the initial surge of excitement
of creativity, you get success, which then goes on to feed
your excitement.

Get a circuit idea, and it can be a couple of hours before you can check it
out.

Do some machining, and it can take a whole week just to work out how
to hold the workpiece in readiness for cutting!