JACMUSIC BEST LINK LIST

The "thing".
The most incredible spy bug ever made!

This was a gift from the Russians to the American embassy, and they accepted this nice trojan horse. They liked it so much, they hung it on the wall. However it was the most clever spy transmitter ever made. Inside is nothing which looks like electronics. There is only metal bar, which holds the construction together. Like every radio antenna, it will pick up radio signals. Also, determined by it's length, it has a resonance frequency. Then, there was a membrane near by, which acted as microphone, to modulate the transmitted frequency. And there you have, an FM spy transmitter. But there is nothing inside which looks like microphone or a transmitter, and nothing "electric" of any kind. Only a metal bar and small metal plate, obviously holding the wood together.

This Trojan horse was in action for many years!

At one day the "Thing" was discovered by a radio amateur. He noted there voices at an unexpected frequency, and it were talks from the embassy. So he alerted the officials.

However the device was impossible to find. This is because the Russians would operate the "Thing" from their spy car, parked in front of the embassy. In that car was a powerful beam transmitter, which they used to resonate the antenna, and listen to conversations. At the same time, it could be seen if the Americans suspect something, and they could quickly disappear without any trace of communication equipment in or around the building. .

Later it was discovered, and "the thing" is now in a spy museum.

This is totally off topic, but have a look! An abandoned B29 airplane wreck from WW2 was frozen in time, after en emergency landing on the North Pole in 1947. A group of enthusiasts spend several YEARS to restore it into flying condition. In 1995, they flew in four original overhauled engines, new propellers, and 1000's of other repair parts needed. One difficulty was, the location at the North Pole could only be used fore a few months during the pole summer. After that, everything freezes again, and they had to leave the camp, until the next summer. Another difficulty was, in WW2 the USA crew smashed all technical systems with an axe, to prevent the Russians from re-using the plane. But they repaired all of that! Imagine this incredible piece of restoration work, done at the North Pole, working from a tent camp. Tools, parts, food, fuel and people, all of that flown to.... the North Pole. Which is one of the craziest jobs ever. But... they did it, and yes, they got the engines running! Many systems were still shut down, but all systems required for lifting off the plane from the ground, were working. For radio and navigation they used external emergency devices. They had it all fueled up, and were taxiing the airplane through very deep snow, to the runway, on it's own engine power. Imagine the heart beat of those men, watching it. This was the riskiest part, because the plane got off the runway during the bad landing in 1947 too, and there was a lot of deep snow this year as well. Risk to damage the airplane was considerable. But also that worked out well.

Then, when it was ready to take off, something went wrong which can make you sick. They had powered the electric systems with a standard electricity generator, for field use. It was standing loose on the floor, in the cockpit, with some improvised hoses to a loose petrol tank, attached there on a chair. The running power generator was not tied properly, and when ready to take off, it fell over. This pulled out the hose (going up to the tank on the chair), and petrol leaked out. The generator cought fire. Due to this, the fuel tank caught fire, and this could not be stopped any more. It burned out the cockpit, and from there the whole airplane burned out completely, because it was just fueled up fully.

There is a wikipedia page about this, and also a complete movie on youtube. More here

HP130. Some say, this is the BEST low frequency oscilloscope ever made. I did not believe it myself, and I was initially disappointed, when I received it. Until.... I found out it is true. Low frequency? Well perhaps yes for the specifications, only 250kHz for the vertical amplifiers, but have you ever seen a scope with 50x Sweep magnification? It has differential inputs. It has no BNC inputs. It uses just banana plug probes, same as a multi meter. With those, I can measure fully hum free, with 200uV per division. Your own scope doesn't even habe 200uV per division, and the most sensitive range is full of noise. But the HP130 can do so with UNSHIELDED probes. It's a miracle machine. It displays many things 10 or 20x times better than my 80 Mhz Tektronix oscilloscope.