Here is a cut-down version of a simple Ham Radio themed quiz, first presented to the Sheffield Amateur Radio Club on a ‘nothing-else-seems-to-be-happening-night’ back in 2005. Not containing difficult or obscure questions, I felt it was a shame to waste it although it does date me somewhat. It may be downloaded here as zipped ‘Q & A’ PDF files. Ham Quiz Files
ПАФНУТИЙ ЛЬВОВИЧ ЧЕБЬІШЕВ - Filter buffs - would you buy a polynomial from this man? We all recognize him as our old friend Pafnuty Lvovitch Tschebyscheff (1821 - 1894) or is it Chebycheff or Chebyshev? These variations in name-spelling have their roots in the limited correlation between the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Whatever - he is still the purveyor of the mathematical function that defines the ‘wobbly’ pass-band of the filters named after him. Incidentally, the first of the transliterations is down to the mathematician, Philip J. Davis, from his book “The Thread : A Mathematical Yarn”, in which he was very interested in chasing-up the origin of the name “Pafnuty”. In the end an Egyptian Coptic anchorite became the most likely candidate having been blessed with the hieroglyphic version meaning “Belongs to God”.
The “Cat & Fiddle Inn” on the A537
from Buxton to Macclesfield.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I visited there on a day in November after I had
been to Macclesfield to pick up a HP1744A
scope. Although the road is only a few miles long,
it is not one on which to get stranded in winter.
“THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE”
(circa 1839 by J.M.W. Turner)
The Temeraire, captained by Eliab Harvey, fought alongside Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Here, in Turner’s imagination, is how it was towed up the Thames to Rotherhithe for breaking-up. Then the spars would not have been in-situ as they could have been re-used by the Royal Navy for other ships in need of repair. See the entry in Wikipedia for more information.
A FAVOURITE PICTURE
Now the sunset breezes shiver
Temeraire! Temeraire!
And she's fading down the river.
Temeraire! Temeraire!
Now the sunset breezes shiver
And she's fading down the river,
But in England's song for ever
She's the Fighting Temeraire.
'The Fighting Temeraire',
Henry Newbolt - 1898
Some thirty years after it was in vogue, I was given a Rubik’s Cube and, together with millions of others, was unable to solve it. Then along came Herbert Kociemba with his ‘Cube Explorer’ program http://kociemba.org/cube.htm and now I can brag about “How easy it was” without actually revealing the way it was done. However, I believe that not being able to solve this cube should be worn as a badge of normality and that there is hope for us all yet. In fact, after a routine CT scan, the local hospital neurological department issued me with a letter stating that my brain was perfectly normal. For this wonderful diagnostic aid one has to thank the man who invented it, the late Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, CBE, FRS and Nobel Prize winner, while he was working for EMI in the 70’s. See his entry in Wikipedia
Cocos_Radio.mp3 - Spending some years as a Radio Engineer in the Sultanate of Oman, I used to listen to the aircraft HF radio traffic, especially that over the Indian Ocean and down East from there. This snatch of a recording is all I have left and is of an American aircraft, on its way to Diego Garcia, talking to Cocos Radio. A period of radio silence has been edited out of the track.
The photo to the right is from No2. Radio School in Calgary, Canada which shows a Marconi T1154 transmitter and R1155 receiver being operated as they would have been in a Lancaster heavy bomber of WWII.
