Career Autobiography - Part 3: Inside the Nuclear Training Pipeline

Part 2 is Here

I survived boot camp, and then started the technical portion of Navy training.

Career Autobiography - Part 2: Preliminaries

Part 1 is here.

Ronald Reagan and I both started our respective federal government jobs on the same day.

Career Autobiography - Part 1: Prologue

I thought that it might be interesting to reflect a bit on my career path after High School.

The History Guy

I recently discovered a cool YouTube channel called "The History Guy".  This guy does brief videos about snippets of mostly-forgotten historical events that ought not to be forgotten.  Oddly enough, he even did one on my ship's original namesake, USS Barb (SS-220) during World War II. 

Pretty cool!

Sorry to say, our Cold War record was no match for that!  Also we aren't supposed to talk about it.

Boiler Drum Level Control

I've been working on this post about level control in steam boilers for a while now.  It looks like today is the day I'll finally manage to get that done.

Technical posts in the works

Yes, I've been working on some posts that are more interesting than what I listened to while driving to work.  They take a little time and research (and MS Paint work).  Thanks for your patience!

Music on the way to work

The random play feature on the MP3 player in the car never stops giving!  Today it seemed to be focused on oldies.

The Stylistics - Rockin Roll Baby (1973).  These guys have the classic Philadelphia Sound.

Although the tune below didn't play on the way into work, it is one of the premiere examples of a  song with the Philadelphia Sound.  This is great soul music that incorporated elements of funk, and set the stage for the disco era, although it was pre-disco.  The musicians were absolutely amazing.

The Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away (1981).  The Ramones are kinda cool because they don't follow the usual formula.  They don't do much of a chorus, and usually just play the same thing all the way through a song.  Four chords and a fast tempo!

Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls (1978).  This is probably my favorite Queen song, due to the great vocal harmonies and the rich guitar chordings. 

The Motels - Mission of Mercy.  Not one of the Motel's more popular songs - they were better known for the ballads "Only the Lonely" and "Suddenly Last Summer".  However I much prefer the beat and the lead/rhythm guitar work in this song.  Percussion is great, and Martha Davis kills the vocals too.

James Solberg - I'm Going Home (2000).  This guy is seriously under-rated.  This song has badass rocking blues with a gospel choir backup!

And in really really awesome news, Tool has released a new CD, "Fear Inoculum", which can be heard in its entirety HERE:

Furthermore, Volbeat has released a new CD entitled "Rewind, Replay, Rebound", which can be heard in its entirety HERE:

Yes, both of these are on my Christmas wish list.

That time of the year again: Preparing for winter

Yeah, that time of year.  Time to wrap up the normal activities that involve warm weather and prepare for those that involve cold weather!

Action Camera

I recently bought an action camera from an online auction for the very reasonable price of $9.95, plus about $4 for shipping.

Dance Music - Electronica

Once again, on the way to work a couple of cool tunes rolled around.

Yaz (Yazoo in Europe) - Situation

The Real McCoy - Another Night.  Chick in the video is not the actual vocalist for the song.

Losing You.  Originally Performed by Brenda Lee in 1963, covered by Doris Day, the Temptations, and my favorite version, by Uptown.

 

Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round

Gap Band - Party Train.  I like this one.  It has elements of funk, soul, and disco.  Awesome dance music too!

I'll probably add to this list as songs come to mind

A couple of lesser known songs from well-known bands

Was listening to my playlist on the way to work this morning and heard these really cool songs.  Just had to share these good bluesy songs.

A couple more little hikes and ideas for new adventures

Some family members came to visit recently, and it was their desire to do some hiking.  I did my best to oblige them.

Kung Fury

Kung Fury is a brilliant and humorous 2015 Swedish short film.  It is a creation of the primary actor, David Sandberg.  The entire thing was funded through Kickstarter, and many people freely gave of their time and talent to make it.

Part of what makes it cool is the over-the-top 1980's glam feel.  It has elements from Karate Kid, The Terminator, Tron, and Miami Vice, to name a few.  It uses short segments of stock footage as filler, just like a crappy 80's movie would have.

An additional 80's-era effect is when the VHS tracking goes bad just as a major fight scene reaches its climax.  The music also sounds like typical bland 80's pop/metal/jazz.  The movie is so intentionally bad that it's great - absolutely genius!  Watch and laugh.  Warning: Gore.

The film caught a lot of attention, and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.  Happily it looks like we will be treated to a full feature length film, Kung Fury II, which is scheduled to be released in 2020.  I'm looking forward to seeing it.

The sinking of the Estonia

A very harrowing tale.  It brings memories of the Titanic movie to mind.

The story of the Estonia

New post!

I am still here, just taking a brief break.  Winter is coming up, so I'll have more time to research and post about nerdy or other interesting stuff.  Meanwhile have some very cool blues.

Nuclear Instrumentation and Reactor Safety

Once again, it's been quite a while since I did a nerdy nuke post...  Time to remedy that.

Fixing stuff

One of the members of our church purchased a small "All-in-one" stereo system at the annual church garage sale.

Cute Makita Drill

We were going through my late father-in-law's stuff recently, and came across a cordless Makita drill.

A couple of little hikes

My daughter and I went on a couple of hikes recently, and saw some things we hadn't seen before.  I'm sharing it here because it's cool and interesting.

Nuclear-Powered Rocket Engines

In the previous post, I conjectured that a nuclear-powered rocket motor test had gone sideways near the city of Severodvinsk in Russia.  It turned out that I was correct in most of the guesswork.

Russian missile test and radiation spike - 3rd Update

There have been a few news articles lately about a missile testing accident in northern Russia.  This accident allegedly caused a brief spike in radiation levels in the nearby city of Severodvinsk.

Why do some LED bulbs create radio frequency noise?

A while back, I tried to replace the incandescent bulbs in our garage door openers with LED bulbs. 

I started my next shift and promptly forgot that I'd switched them out - however, the garage doors stopped working with the remote.  My wife was the one who put 2+2 together, and realized that this loss of function was due to my replacing the bulbs.  I switched back to the incandescent bulbs, and the problem vanished.

I then did a little research and learned that this is a pretty common complaint with LED bulbs and garage door remotes.  I've since managed a work-around to get LED lighting, but the problem got me thinking - and back to the title of this post: "Why do LED bulbs create radio frequency noise?".

Zenith Console, Model 10-S-464

I really should stop doing this.

Zenith Console, Model 6-S-52

I got it home.

Busted-up lawn mower

The Cub Cadet is pretty chewed up at the moment - from too much field mowing.

A handful of antique radios and other old cool stuff

This post is about an assortment of old stuff that I've picked up over the years.  I'm not really a collector, but sometimes I see something neat, and decide that I'd enjoy continuing to see it.

A couple of new tunes I recently found and liked

Vulfpeck - Cory Wong (Cory is the one playing the black stratocaster)

Periphery - Marigold.  I really like the intro.  It starts with strings, then a really crunchy guitar continues with the exact same melody. 

Below, Misha Mansoor, the lead guitarist from Periphery, does a play-through (no vocals, just amazing playing)

And since I'm discussing guitar virtuoso videos, I guess I'll add a couple more oldies.

Eric Johnson playing Cliffs of Dover.  Good stuff begins at the 1:00 mark.

Joe Satriani plays Surfing with the Alien

Fascinating interview with Joe Satriani:

Garage lighting issue

Something has been irritating me for quite a while now, and I finally decided how I'm going to fix it.

Low-background steel

In this post, I'm going to dig a little into a novel material called "Low-Background Steel".  We will get a little bit into metallurgy, the atomic age, and radiation detection.  Should be fun!

Rattlesnake, Whiskey and Uranium

One of the weirder traffic stop stories I've read about lately...

Losharik Submarine Fire - Updated

Yet another reminder how easy it is for crew members in submarine service to be killed by their own ship...

Earthquake where I once lived

I lived in Ridgecrest, California for about 10 years.  It was a pretty neat little town; isolated from most of the troubles of large California cities by large areas of the Mojave desert.  The air was clean by California standards, crime was low, and the schools were pretty good.  People there were kind-hearted and generous.

Happy Independence Day

From Spirit Lake, Idaho

Releasing my inner Oliver Douglas.  The tractor is a 1939 John Deere Model H.

Radioactive junk at my house

We've been going through a relative's stuff, and helping her to downsize now that she's getting up there in age.  As part of the process of sorting through those possessions, my wife was given a box of ceramic dishes.  She thought that they were pretty and wanted to display them.

Finishing the shop bathroom - Updated and Completed

This will be a long post.  It's been a long project.  I've got five days invested and have a couple more remaining.  Also, I took a lot of photos.

I had some material left over from a previous drywall DIY project (linked).  I decided to tackle another project out in the shop using the remaining materials.  I ended up using all the leftover stuff, and had to buy a great deal more material to complete this project, so that logic was a bit flawed...

New Old Cellphone

The cellphone that I use in the shop as an MP3 player recently failed. 

Nuisance Birds

I took this picture today from my car.  This is in a neighbor's front yard.

Explosion in the paint cabinet

I've been wanting for a long time to have a legit flammables cabinet.

Soldering goodies

Until very recently, I've only had the most basic soldering tools for electronics - stuff that a very low-income high school kid in the 1970's could afford.  A Weller soldering gun, Radio Shack soldering iron, solder, flux and a single heat sink.

I had a few bits of wire from various places.  Mostly speaker wire.  I've wired more automotive circuits back in the day with speaker wire than I'd like to admit. 

Since I've re-kindled an interest in hobby electronics (rather than soldering to keep a car or bike running), and I have more disposable income, life has improved somewhat.  Below, a soldering tip cleaner that uses brass shavings to remove burned up flux and oxidized solder.  A can of paste flux, a good set of wire cutters/strippers, and a bag of spare brass shavings.

They are like little shiny brass springs... cool!

Also this guy, a thermostatically controlled soldering station, with a solder reflow air nozzle for surface mount devices (SMDs)

Refrigerator Ice Maker woes...

The ice maker in our 14 year old Sears Kenmore side-by-side quit working recently.

Utility Room shelving and a new shop knick-knack

I've completed the drywall, painting and trimming of the furnace/utility room in the basement.

Rick Beato's very cool YouTube Channel

A couple of days ago I discovered the channel of Rick Beato (pronounced Be-Otto)

A really neat Digital Multimeter!

This is a follow-up post to the original DMM (Digital Multimeter) post here.  In that post I explained that, due to my age, I prefer lighted displays to backlit LED displays.

Drywall and finish work

I finished painting and trimming the utility room.

Fuel Economy

I track the mileage of my little commuter car with a phone app.

Drywall :(

I've been doing a bit of drywall the past couple of days.

Checking out the 2430A Tektronix oscilloscope and 2402A Tekmate

Possibly the most intriguing scope of the recent batch is the 2430A.

Checking out the 468 Tektronix Oscilloscope

I powered up the 468 scope today as well.

Checking out the 2245A Tektronix Oscilloscope and accessories

I had a chance to power up the new (to me) 2245A oscilloscope today and take a few pictures.  Of the bunch I just bought, this is probably the least exciting one.  It's the base model of the series of 2245, 2246 and 2247.  On the other hand, it's a very clean scope, both electrically and mechanically.  So while it doesn't have a lot of extended functions, it has that going for it!

Tektronix - yes!

I was a baaaaaad boy today.

Plow truck repairs

I have an old 1995 Ford F-250 truck.  It came with the 7.3 liter Powerstroke diesel engine - the first year Ford sold trucks with a direct-injection diesel.  For nearly two decades, it was my primary vehicle.

Minor home improvement stuff

I've had a couple of minor projects in mind recently, but there was always something else more pressing. 

February 2019 - a rough month for snow

February was a difficult month.  We received 56 inches of snow.  I think the normal total snowfall all winter is only 70 inches. 

Tektronix 2247A Refurbishment

I had a few days off recently, and decided to attempt to get the 2247A Oscilloscope cleaned up and working well.

Then and Now

Not too far from where I grew up is a little town named Vale, Oregon.  (Click any image to enlarge)

Early Springtime Chores

It's the time of year when we go from being hunkered down for cold and snow, to getting ready for summer weather.

"The Best a Man Can Get"

I'm done buying disposable shaving products, thanks to a recent offensive commercial from a well-known razor blade manufacturer.

The Winter Blues

Winter wasn't terribly bad this year... until February through early March.

Calibrating the Tektronix 2225

The shop is really freaking cold right now.  February and early March was brutal and snowy, and I keep the shop thermostat set just a few degrees above freezing.  I do this to minimize propane use, while also preventing the plumbing from freezing.

Isolation transformer and Variac

The isolation transformer that I ordered arrived recently, and today I had a chance to get it apart and have a look inside.

Tektronix 2225 troubleshooting update

Update:  I set the noisy Tektronix 2225 oscilloscope aside for a while.

Here it is with both channels grounded, showing plenty of garbage on the screen. Both traces should be completely flat.

The end of the Winter Blues

I always have a blah period between Superbowl and the beginning of the MotoGP season.  It's still cold and snowy, and there's very little sun between the overcast and short northern days.  I have a follow-up post about the Winter Blues and why I got them here.

Tektronix 2225 checkout and inspection

One of the things that an oscilloscope can do is "freeze" a signal, so that you can look it over and see what the device you are testing is doing.    You can spot normal and abnormal signal patterns if you can visualize the signal.

Tektronix Oscilloscope Score!

I'm a big fan of Craigslist.  Every once in a great while, you come across a screaming deal.  Today was my day for that.

Still here, just busy

I have a couple of posts in draft.  Hope to get one of them finished soon and get it posted!