 "One of my favorite things to do is talk with other ham radio operators through satellites or the International Space Station (ISS). To do this, I stand on a rooftop and tune a handheld multiband radio while tracing the orbit of a satellite or the ISS with my homemade yagi antenna."
So says Diana Eng, the author of "Listening to Satellites" in MAKE Volume 24 (our "DIY Space" issue). Diana, like many contributors to MAKE, is a "broad-spectrum" enthusiast. She is best known for her beautiful and tech-enhanced fashions, seen on her appearance as a contestant on Project Runway. She is also a jewelry designer. (My wife's favorite necklace is a Diana Eng creation that uses a couple of reed switches as a pendant.) And she is also a licensed amateur radio operator who loves to make her own ham radio equipment. In her article in this volume, Diana shows how to make a "yagi antenna," which offers much better reception than a standard whip antenna, and costs about $25 to make. Diane's article includes a section on "hamspeak," which is jargon for the jargon that hams use when they chat with each other. It will come in handy when you use your antenna to tune into shortwave radio conversations. For now, I'll sign out with an "88" and a "73."
Check out MAKE Volume 24:  MAKE blasts into orbit and beyond with our DIY SPACE issue. Put your own satellite in orbit, launch a stratosphere balloon probe, and analyze galaxies for $20 with an easy spectrograph! We talk to the rocket mavericks reinventing the space industry, and renegade NASA hackers making smartphone robots and Lego satellites. This, plus a full payload of other cool DIY projects, from a helium-balloon camera that's better than Google Earth, to an electromagnetic levitator that shoots aluminum rings, and much more. MAKE Volume 24, on sale now.
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Reminder: The Ottawa Mini Maker Faire is this weekend! They've got a great line-up of makers, hackers, and artists, so grab your friends, enemies, and pet robots, and head out this weekend to catch the show! From their website: The innovation laced through the capital region is impressive, and this first edition of the Ottawa-Gatineau Mini Maker Faire is a chance to connect creative people from all over our region in a celebration of the DIY spirit. A Mini Maker Faire brings together families and individuals who celebrate Arts, Crafts, Engineering, Food, Music, Sustainability, and Science and those who embrace the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) spirit. At Maker Faire, the focus is on the process of making - not just the finished product. 2010 Ottawa Mini Maker Faire
Saturday, November 6th and Sunday, November 7th, 12pm - 6pm
Arts Court
2 Daly Ave. Ottawa, ON K1N 6E2
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David Ye of hacker collective Split Reaction (who built the fully automatic BB gun we posted earlier this week as well as helped build the Mega Claw featured in the World Maker Faire) created a nichrome wire cutter, using an unlikely material for the frame -- Lego. Lego bricks are great for making models, but sometimes you can make real tools with them. If you want to work with foam you should definitely consider building this hot wire cutter. It’s a great tool because it doesn't leave any dust and it cuts through foam like butter. A few years back I didn't have any scrap wood but I had plenty of Lego pieces. Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in LEGO | Digg this!  Phil Ross wrote to tell us about an event coming up at CRITTER, a salon that explores the science of everyday life. Enormous Microscopic Evening is described as a "large microscope jam session." It is a free event "celebrating and demonstrating the range of equipment people are using to explore the invisible, from state of the art futuristic equipment, to home made one-of-a-kind technologies."
Phil explains more: "A microscope can be thought of as a super high octane camera, a camera that happens to have incredible zoom powers, with fine-tuned filters, diverse illumination possibilities, precise tracking, and software comfortable in handling a bazillion images at a time. These controls let us see things deeply hidden from normal view, while at the same time, showing us how to move through space with very fine control. Everyone who I've invited to this event at the Hammer uses a microscope as a central part of his or her work, research, or play. This broad cross-section of practitioners will be showing off their spectacular instruments and imagery, and will also show how they get around when they do things in micro-space.
 "In particular...er... focus at this event will be miniature and DIY microscopes. Microscope design is benefiting from the same technologies that are driving innovations in digital cameras, computers, and telecommunication devices. Cheap, mobile magnification is upon us, with scopes that easily fit into a backpack, lock to the end of a cell phone, are hacked from a webcam, or crowd-sourced to accelerate innovation. At Enormous Microscopic Evening, I hope to offer a glimpse of how these devices are enabling application in telemedicine, environmental mapping, and other areas where we might start to see the world in greater detail. And, as machines, they are pretty cool looking!" Enormous Microscopic Evening
Saturday, Nov 6, 2010, 4pm - 7pm
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310-443-7000
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If you're a kit maker and need to do tons of testing, making a test jig is one of the best ways to save time and money...
HOW TO - Make a pogo pin testing jig. For more complicated projects, you may need to have a longer testing procedure in which case we can make multi-step testers that also keep the PCB held down with little ears! The plastic pieces hold down the PCB against the pogo bed. This tester, when used with a little batch script, performs the following test:
- Reprograms the board's fuses and flash with a bootloader (via the ISP port). For this part we're using the Arduino as an ISP programmer (there's a sketch that does this)
- The computer then bootloads (via USB) a pin-by-pin testing program
- Once the board indicates the test completed, the computer erases the testing program
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