Archive for March, 2008

Cluster Crabs

March 24th, 2008

KH2D used to have a wall of shame called “Cluster Crabs” for all of the greatest abusers of the DX cluster network.  A tribute…

I shouldn’t get bent out of shape over what happens on the DX cluster.  But, I’ve been keeping an eye on it of late to catch 5T5DC when I can.  (I’ve got them on 40 and 80 now…hopefully.)  I could complain about the idiots who self-spot or treat the “Announce” feature like their own private chat room.  But no, this one goes out to the General class hams in the U.S. who feel entitled to have the rare DX listen in their part of the band.  I have seen this twice in the past hour!  Yeah, I know that the U.S. incentive licensing structure is an anachronism.  Seriously, if it’s that important to you, take one more written exam and you could have the run of the bands!  You should know half the stuff on the Extra from being a ham after a few years anyway.

That said, there is one eminent CW operator who has been licensed as a General for many years and it hasn’t hindered him one bit!

Henry Petroski at Design Matters

March 12th, 2008

Noted engineer and failure analyst Henry Petroski spoke recently as a part of the Design Matters series of lectures at UIUC.   He has distilled millenia of human innovation into the following short sentences:

Perfection does not exist.
Form follows failure.
Criticism leads invention.
Design begets design.
Good betters best.
Problems persist.
Invention thrives.
Technology evolves.

I’m not sure there’s much I can possibly add to that…