Saturday, December 10, 2016

A Sasquatch of One's Own

by Andrew Ellis

It's hard to visit Southern Oregon without encountering Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch a few times.  This is his home stomping ground, after all.

I joked on Facebook that one is "required by law" to have a Sasquatch cutout in one's yard hereabouts.  An exaggeration, yes, but I did want one of my own:

There are several companies that sell yard silhouettes of one sort or another.  They all work the same way:  You buy a full-sized printed template, trace it with carbon paper onto wood, then cut it out and paint it.

I bought this one from Doug's Woodcrafts and Patterns of Edmonton, Alberta.  He sells dozens of patterns, including sea lions, buffalo, cowboys and ballroom dancers, among others.  Most cost 15-30 dollars, and include both the pattern and the tracing paper.  You just supply the wood and paint.

Mine is from pattern 1-101, a 66" walking Sasquatch.  He also sells 1-102, a standing version.  If I had it to do again, though, I'd probably select DT-103, a larger one that stands a menacing 96" tall.  Next time, maybe.

The pattern and tracing paper can both be used several times.  After doing my own, I did another one for a friend.  This is how it went at our home in Bandon, Oregon.

Most people will choose a 4 foot by 8 foot piece of plywood.  It comes in various thicknesses and grades.  Grade A is the best.  You can buy sheets with different grades on each side, so you're not paying the big bucks for a side that's not seen.

Being even cheaper than that, I used "OSB," Oriented Strand Board, instead.  It's similar to plywood, but uses flakes and odd-shaped pieces instead of smooth panels.  Like plywood, it's glued together and is quite strong.

The first step is to paint the side you're going to cut with white primer.  This protects the wood, but it mainly serves to make the traced lines more visible.  Here's my OSB ready for tracing:

I used masking tape to hold the pattern in place, but none is needed on the carbon paper, which is held in place by the pattern above it.

As seen here, the pattern is wrinkled, but that's from leaving it out in the rain once.  As received it was smooth and pristine.

You carefully trace the pattern, using some kind of stylus.  I like the capped end of a "Sharpie" marker.  It's blunt enough not to tear the paper and leaves a wide line that's easy to follow.

Once the tracing is done, it's time to move outside, because the rest of the project is pretty dusty.  You don't need to be any kind of a skilled carpenter.  Just be careful.

I used an electric jigsaw.  There are different blades for these, for cutting different materials.  A "Finish Carpentry" blade is the best here, because it makes a smooth cut and is easily maneuvered to follow the pattern.  Of course, always wear both eye and ear protection when using power tools.

Here's the 'Squatch about half cut out:

You can see that his rear-most leg is traced, but not yet cut.  That's the jigsaw I used, but any kind is suitable.  You need to use something to support him during the cutting.  I chose two inexpensive wooden sawhorses.  Among other things, one doesn't feel too badly about cutting into them by accident or dripping paint on them.

One of the distinctive things in this pattern is that some outcroppings are curved, while others come to a point.  The jigsaw easily tracks around even fairly-tight curves.  (Though you have to slow down, and the added friction when turning sometimes makes the wood smoke.)  If you have a V-shape that you need to leave, though, it's better to make two separate cuts that meet at the point of the V.  You can't get a sharp corner like that just by twisting the saw.

After cutting, you should sand both sides of the wood and around the edges.  I used an electric "detail sander," which uses 1/4 of a standard sheet of sandpaper and is easy to hold.  It won't fit in the very tightest places, but it gets into most of the nooks and crannies in this pattern.

The final step is painting.  Use whatever color you like, but the traditional one is flat black.  Be sure to use an outdoor-rated paint.  A one-quart can will easily handle more than one silhouette. 

Paint the back side first.  When it's dry, turn 'Squatch over and paint the front.  Last of all, paint around all the edges.  I found that one coat was OK for the back and sides, but covering the white paint on the front took two coats.

Timewise, the tracing took perhaps half an hour, taking my time to get it right.  (Remember to mark where you started so you'll know when you finish!).  Cutting took as much as two hours, and it's best to break it up into a couple of sessions.  I found that making a rough cut around the figure made the precision cutting afterwards easier.

Sanding took perhaps an hour.  I recommend using "100-Grit" paper, a not-fine-but-not-coarse grade.  (Higher numbers are finer. Stores usually carry paper in grits from 40 or so to at least 400.)

Perhaps it's closer to cake mix than to scratch-made-bread, but there's still pleasure to be taken in a project of one's own.

Next up is the traditional glowing red eye for him.  I'll report on that when finished.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Germanium Story

by Andrew Ellis, NO6E

The diode detector on my first "crystal set" radio was just that -
a Galena (Lead Sulfide) crystal with a fine "catwhisker" metal contact.  One felt around until one found a good spot where diode action would "detect" AM signals.  It seemed, and it was, remarkably crude.  Still, there was the something-for-nothing appeal of a radio that picked up signals (more or less) without any power other than the signals themselves.

The upgrade from the Galena crystal was to a packaged-in-glass commercial diode.  I used the granddaddy of signal diodes, the 1N34A.  Like most semiconductors of the day, it was made using Germanium.

In the decades that passed, Germanium semiconductors were replaced almost 100% with those made from Silicon.  Silicon was cheaper, more reliable and just all-around better in almost every way.  The 1N34A gave way to the ubiquitous silicon signal diode of today, the glass-enclosed 1N914/1N4148.  In hundred-quantities they're dramatically cheap, well under $.02 each.

Still, there a few places where Germanium diodes are useful, both as radio-frequency detectors and in some intentional-distortion generators used in music processors.  Germanium diodes have a lower forward-voltage drop than Silicon.  Fairness demands, though, that I acknowledge that Shottky (or "Hot-carrier") diodes, typified by the commonly-used 1N5711-series, also offer low forward voltage drops.  They're more expensive than '914's, but only about $.40 in small quantities.

When I decided to build a field-strength meter (a piece of test equipment that shows the relative amount of energy from nearby transmitting antennas), I decided to use two of the old 1N34A diodes at the detector.  How much could they cost, after all?

Somewhere north of $2.00...each.  If you could find them at all.

I checked eBay, my go-to source for things that seem too expensive from regular dealers.  I found an offer of 20 for $2.59, so I bought them.

What's going on?  Is there a worldwide Germanium shortage?  More likely, it just has to do with popularity.  Engineers tend to use the same parts over and over in projects.  The ones they choose may not be the most cutting-edge versions, but they're common.  Commonly-used parts often are "second-sourced," meaning that more than one manufacturer makes them.  That's vitally important when you order parts for your already-designed project and the normal supplier you use suddenly lists availability of one of your parts as, say, "2Q17," meaning "In the second quarter of next year." Chances are you need it much sooner than that.  

So, when you look at, say, a small audio amplifier kit and it uses the hoary LM-386 chip instead of something newer, which would also be cheaper and better, that may be the reason.  At my last job before retirement, I dragged us into using the stereo TDA2822 series amplifier instead of the '386.  Today, the '2822 is listed as "obselete," though still available. The noisy and troublesome '386 series soldiers on.  Even if they don't use the "O-Word," manufacturers often include the ominous phrase "Not Recommended for New Designs" on their data sheets.  The designer ignores such warnings at her/his peril.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Hamming it up at Jackson County's Fielder Mountain








Tuesday, September 20, 2016

It's a Cataclysm!



Cataclysm for October, 2016
by Andrew Ellis

ETA Approximate”






How one earns my wave – or doesn't.


Cataclysm for September, 2016
By Andrew Ellis, NO6E










by Andrew Ellis












Monday, September 19, 2016

Summits on the Air

Onion Mountain
September 17, 2016




To get there, you follow the sign from Riverbank Road:







Saturday, July 30, 2016

Rebirth of a website

Rebirth of the Blog!

We still live at Roguefarm, but I'm stealing the website as the destination for my new domain, WWW.NO6E.ORG .  It's my ham radio call sign.  You can email me at

I've been smitten lately with Summits on the Air (  It's an activity that gets ham radio operators, usually the most couch-potato-esque people imaginable, to hike to the top of various mountains, hills, promontories and so forth and operate a portable radio station from them.  It sounds bizarre and it is.  SOTA is catching on in the US, but is much bigger in Europe so far.

There are awards for "activating" a particular peak and for contacting people on peaks from one's home.  Those who activate enough can win the coveted Mountain Goat award, while the best "chasers" of people on mountaintops can earn the slightly less prestigious "Shack Sloth" prize.

I'll be posting news and pictures about my activities here.

In the meantime, welcome!