Destroying AM Radio to Save It

A Quest to Save AM Before It’s Lost in the Static – NYTimes.com

The digital age is killing AM radio, an American institution that brought the nation fireside chats, Casey Kasem’s Top 40 and scratchy broadcasts of the World Series. Long surpassed by FM and more recently cast aside by satellite radio and Pandora, AM is now under siege from a new threat: rising interference from smartphones and consumer electronics that reduce many AM stations to little more than static. Its audience has sunk to historical lows.
But at least one man in Washington is tuning in.
Ajit Pai, the lone Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, is on a personal if quixotic quest to save AM. After a little more than a year in the job, he is urging the F.C.C. to undertake an overhaul of AM radio, which he calls “the audible core of our national culture.” He sees AM — largely the realm of local news, sports, conservative talk and religious broadcasters — as vital in emergencies and in rural areas.
“AM radio is localism, it is community,” Mr. Pai, 40, said in an interview.
AM’s longer wavelength means it can be heard at far greater distances and so in crises, he said, “AM radio is always going to be there.” As an example, he cited Fort Yukon, Alaska, where the AM station KZPA broadcasts inquiries about missing hunters and transmits flood alerts during the annual spring ice breakup.
“When the power goes out, when you can’t get a good cell signal, when the Internet goes down, people turn to battery-powered AM radios to get the information they need,” Mr. Pai said. . . .

Sadly, the changes that are being suggested to save AM–including moving it to all-digital broadcast–are so fundamental that they obliterate some of the utility of the AM system. The article implies that really the only useful aspect of all-analog AM is that it’s powerful (and thus has really long transmission distances, esp. at night). That’s true, and awesome, but what makes AM extra special is that the scheme is so bone *simple*[*]
Heck, in this two paragraph snippet from my book, I teach you to make an AM receiver in about three seconds:


Building a receiver from scratch isn’t much harder, and AM transmitters are likewise within the grasp of novice electronics hobbyists. In a deep-down insane zombiepocalypse disaster scenario, we kinda *want* to have an all analog AM system blanketing the country, giving out instructions, don’t we? The greatest asset of the network isn’t just signal strength, but the ubiquity and simplicity of the gear you need to decade that signal back to human voices giving you decent advice for what to do when the Zombie Dolly Parton and Rush Limbaugh coming banging on your door.

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PRO-TIP: RadioShack “medium replacement headphone earpads” fit Sennheiser PX-100s

Mostly just posting this because I had to hunt a fair bit to sort this out. If the foam earpads on your Sennheiser PX-100s are shot, you can replace them with these guys from RadioShack (which are half the price of the replacements from Sennheiser):
RadioShack Replacement Foam Headphone Speaker Pads (Medium) : Headphones | RadioShack.com
They won’t *look* like they’re going to fit, because the skirt on the back of the pad is tighter than what you’ll see on the blown-out foam earpads that came with your headphones. But, if you slip one edge of the RadioShack replacements on, and then work carefully around the perimeter (kind of like getting a bike tire back on the rim), the skirt will slide right into place. The RadioShack pads feel good as new, if not better.
Incidentally, the PX-100s are *excellent* headphones (I don’t know if they’re $100-excellent–that’s the current price on Amazon–but were certainly worth the $50 I paid for mine, like, a decade ago). They are light, easy on the ears, fold into their own case–and thus travel well in your computer bag–and the sound is really nicely balanced, with good bass and clarity. The surprisingly good sound is a consequence of having an open-backed design, which means they function more like stereo speakers than headphones (important, since most music is mixed with actual sound systems, not dinky headphones, in mind). Most headphones are locked into plastic housings, which constrains how much air the diaphragms of the speaker can move. This fundamentally dicks with how you are hearing the music (since that’s all about vibrations in the air); the fact that the music is mixed to be heard on actual speakers doesn’t help. The result tends to be dead bass and muddy sound. An open-air design better emulates a speaker situation, with the added benefit (in my opinion) that it *doesn’t* block as much ambient sound (being sealed inside my music tends to creep me out; I have issues). Also, in my experience, and open-air headphone speaker is easier on my inner ear and ear-drum, since it doesn’t focus a blast of pressure waves into my skull.

Careers, Co-working, Forbes, and Our Blessed Age of Telecommuting

A couple of quick items now that I’m back in town and in the computing seat:
1) I continue to write a monthly column for the Ann Arbor Chronicle. The August column (which obviously snuck in kinda late; I was out of town) is about How To Launch Your Writing Career in Four easy steps:

Launching a writing career is a four-step process:
1. Get a Baby
2. Write Some Stuff
3. Go to Library Story Time
4. Check Your Email
I know, I know, you have a few questions. So, I will clarify in detail below, with footnotes.
. . .
“Hey!” you’re about to type, “This isn’t a career plan, it’s just a string of random events involving a nameless baby! None of it applies to me; I don’t even have a baby! What a rip-off!”
What’s tripping us up is this word “career.” . . .

It’s just that easy! Learn more and ACT NOW: The Ann Arbor Chronicle | In it for The Money: How to Career as a Writer
2) A few months back a nice blogger from Forbes visited my coworking community to talk about remote workers and coworking and stuff. So, if you want to read a little more about the “terrible investment decisions” portion of my “career,” check that out.

“Beach Ball Jumping” and other *terrible* Depression Era diversions

These are all courtesy of a 1937 issue of Mechanics and Handicraft magazine; click through for a deeply unsafe barrel-stave kneeboard-ish thing, a floating rifle target (!!!), and more.
That said, *damn* if the kid in the illustration don’t got some cocky *strut*! You go, beach-ball shoes kid! I’ll sign your full-body cast when you get out of the ICU!

via: More Pleasure at the Seashore | Modern Mechanix

42 gauge pickup winding wire

42 gauge guitar pickup winding wire

New Supplier!

This is the wire you’ll use to make the pickup for the $10 Electric Guitar (Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred Project 13) as described in the book.
A 750-foot spool of 42-gauge pickup winding wire will make four or five diddley bow pickups. It’s a good price for the hobbyist (just $6!), and I’ve had solid service from the company, Antique Electronic Supply.

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Holy Crap! “Beautiful LEGO” Is a Hella Apt Title for this Book!

No Starch Press (my publisher) is releasing Beautiful LEGO this fall, and it’s shaping up to be a very aptly titled book. Check this out!

No Starch’s other coffee-table-ish books (like LEGO Adventure and CUlt of LEGO have been consistent crowd-pleasures in my family (and that’s across age groups, from my folks down to my seven-year-old), so I’m pretty excited to see what’s in this latest offering.

OH GOOD GOD! THE SUN IS *REVERSING POLARITY!!!* which is gonna hella screw up my sun compass, right?

I tell you, if it isn’t one damn thing, it’s another. First the hummingbirds are fighting at the feeder, and now this.
The Sun’s Magnetic Field is about to Flip – NASA Science

Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip.
“It looks like we’re no more than 3 to 4 months away from a complete field reversal,” says solar physicist Todd Hoeksema of Stanford University. “This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system.”