Hexacopter

Posted by on December 27, 2010 No comments

Ok, this thing is just freakin’ sweet. Thanks to Van A. posting this on Facebook, I was introduced to this design. Let me just say, I WANT ONE!!! I would LOVE to do aerial video, watching live through some video glasses, feeling like I’m piloting from the air! Check this out!!!

I think it could be fitted with a camera system that recognizes and avoids obstacles, which would aid significantly in things like GPS “Coming Home” feature. Very cool design. I love the pilot, because he flies like a badass.

There are other videos of things like aerial surveillance!

Strange Digital

Posted by on December 27, 2010 Comments Off on Strange Digital

I was tuning around this morning at about 0730 Zulu, and I flipped my radio to 5 MHz. I stopped on 5.332, where I heard a strange digital sound, rapidly pulsing. I opened up Digital Master 780, and took a couple of screenshots of what I heard. If you can identify this mode, I would be very interested in finding out what it is, so I can receive and possibly transmit it!

The two squiggley lines are non-related. The vertical lines are the signal as depicted by Digital Master 780′s waterfall display. Click the image to view larger.

Sea Water Antenna

Posted by on December 25, 2010 Comments Off on Sea Water Antenna

I posted this on my Twitter when it came out, but I wanted to re-post it here, to share again. This is a sea water antenna that was designed and can be used in a variety of applications. I thought it was a very neat concept, and I would even like to try building one. It isn’t high on my priority list right now, but it would definitely make for a fun and interesting experiment.

SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific has developed a technology that uses the magnetic induction properties of sodium chloride (salt) in sea water to create a UHF/VHF/HF antenna.

(From http://www.southgatearc.org/news/october2010/sea_water_antenna.htm)

More Fractals

Posted by on December 22, 2010 Comments Off on More Fractals

I wanted to share a video with you that was shared with me by a friend (thanks David). It’s discussing fractals, fractal geometry, and how they came to be. It’s about 1 hour long, and was an episode on Nova, on PBS. I would love to discuss these more with someone, so please feel free to contact me or comment on my page to start a discussion!

Nova: Hunting the Hidden Dimension