The past meeting’s program in which we enjoyed the old film, “Crystals go to War” created much discussion about the crystals used for transmitting and receiving. Rich Nagle W8KU provided a short presentation prior to the film that included some show and tell samples of crystals. Thanks to Ken Osicki K8OAE for the photo:
Above, a disassembled FT-243 transmitting crystal. Inside, is a thin sliver of quartz sandwiched between two metal squares, foil electrical contacts, a rubber seal and a spring that applies a constant gentle pressure to the “sandwich”. The highest square in the above photo, is the fragile sliver of quartz.
Next meeting Monday October 19th
Our next meeting is Monday October 19th, a business meeting. A major topic will be the finalization of the slate of officers for the 2016 PRC election. If you wish to hold an office in the PRC contact RIch Nagle W8KU, Elections Chairman.
I can’t stress enough how important is for everyone to step up and do what they can to keep our club going. No function in this club is all-consuming. It’s the minimal effort of many that make the PRC possible. We have a couple of officers who can not be available next year. Those slots are open. If they are not filled we can not remain an ARRL affiliated club! Please do what you can. Discuss your interest with Rich Nagle W8KU, Elections Chairman.
Microsoft Creates the Quietest Place on Earth
You might think that a library reading room or well-insulated basement is a quiet place, but compared to the anechoic chamber in Microsoft’s audio lab, they’re about as quiet as a jumbo jet. The chamber, housed in Building 87 on the company’s Redmond, Washington, campus, was recently verified by (who else?) Guinness as being the quietest place in the entire world, reaching an eardrum-bending -20.3 decibels.
That’s amazingly close to the limit of how quiet things can be on our planet: -23 decibels or so, which is the amount of noise made by air molecules bouncing off one another. Of course, it’s much quieter in space — silent, in fact. But going to space is cheating, since there’s no air to propagate sound. The previous record was -13 decibels, set at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis.
For the video: Quietest Place on Earth
NBC News
Hal Rogers K8CMD
Communications Director