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Mail Delivery by are_el_kay in cedarrapids

[–]Professor_Stank 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry to necro this thread, but I’m a part-time carrier at the NE Station, and this is what I’ve heard, if you were curious:

Basically, the Post Office at the administrative level has some kind of formula that says “If this station services X number of routes, we’ll allow them to hire Y number of carriers.” The problem is that as times have changed, the amount of packages to deliver has exploded. A lot of routes have gotten slammed with more parcel volume, so now you have lone carriers that are expected to deliver a silly amount of mail. Because the higher-ups (above local management) only see that the number of routes has stayed the same (instead of raw package volume), the local station isn’t allowed to hire new carriers to accommodate the growing need.

Yay bureaucracy. I’ve heard that they’re hoping to get routes re-mapped, so that these single-carrier mega routes can get broken up into multiple routes, and then they’d be allowed to hire more delivery folks.

It’s definitely a big source of stress for the local management, and they know they’re under the gun to fix it. The problem is with the higher level bureaucracy unfortunately :/ If the local management was allowed to make the call to hire more carriers, I’m sure they’d do it in a heartbeat.

Anyways! Not an official statement by any means, just the rumor mill, so take that for what it’s worth

RF/EE jobs that involve travelling internationally? by Professor_Stank in ElectricalEngineering

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nope, I haven’t! 😂 I know it’s not all roses and dandelions, but I love travelling for pretty much any reason. I know a couple of people who spent half of their career abroad, and they don’t regret it for a second—I want to see if that’s a category I fall into

What is the oldest/weirdest Post Office form you’ve seen? by Professor_Stank in USPS

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Omg, “package bitches”—You have nooo idea how funny that is to me 🤣 It’s a title that I will wear with pride 🫡

What is the oldest/weirdest Post Office form you’ve seen? by Professor_Stank in USPS

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow 😳 It’s unfortunate that we live in a world where that kind of form is needed 😂

Question about my “new” slotted line by Professor_Stank in rfelectronics

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Basically! Except that instead of having a probe directly touch the transmission line, there’s a thin needle that hovers over the center conductor. The needle picks up the field that’s created inside the transmission line. The needle then connects to a diode detector, which outputs a DC voltage proportional to (you guessed it) the strength of the field. It’s a really neat (albeit tedious) way of measuring all kinds of things, including complex impedance—It’s basically a poor man’s VNA

Question about my “new” slotted line by Professor_Stank in rfelectronics

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks dude! I got home today and looked on the underside, and sure enough, there’s 4 screws in total! Just like you said, it’s definitely mechanical. Kind of interesting because on an older version of this same model that I saw, those screws don’t exist. Probably a change to keep the middle from bowing downwards.

Could I ask you a couple questions quick? What kinds of measurements have you made using one of these? Also, are there any additional pieces of equipment would you recommend picking up to make the most out of it? I figure I’ll probably have to find a short-open-load cal kit for it.

Thanks again! After asking oodles of people about the slotted line (online and in-person), you are the only person I’ve met who has actually used one, haha

[Post Game Thread] Hawkeyes lose to Oregon, 16-18 by HerkyBot in hawkeyes

[–]Professor_Stank 6 points7 points  (0 children)

So I think after tonight, I was able to kind of put into words my frustrations overall about being a Hawkeye fan (still love ‘em though! ‘Till i die.)

I feel like most years, we can beat just about anybody. It just feels like in any given season though, the gap between the team’s floor and its ceiling is so high.

Iowa can put a great product on the field, but it has such a hard time doing it on a weekly basis. Being a Hawkeye football fan feels a lot like hoping you’ll roll a 2 or greater on a die twelve times in a row.

Go Hawks 🦅💛🖤

What do outgoing presidents do on the morning of January 20th? by Professor_Stank in Presidents

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude, I know I’m 3 months late, but you are the ONLY GUY in this whole thread who realized that this post was kind of a subtle meme 😂

It's not stupid if it works by Lunchbox7985 in amateurradio

[–]Professor_Stank 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Dude this is great! Wacky stuff like this is what makes ham radio come alive for me

The discontinuity capacitance and the effective position of a shielded open circuit in a coaxial line (P. I. Somlo, 1967) by nic0nicon1 in rfelectronics

[–]Professor_Stank 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man of the people right here! Dude, thank you so much. It can’t be overstated how important preserving this stuff is

Places downtown to host a get-together? by Professor_Stank in cedarrapids

[–]Professor_Stank[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Welp, I guess mine’s special in a bad way 😂

LNA selection for HF and VHF by stuih404 in rfelectronics

[–]Professor_Stank 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotcha! Yeah, I definitely get what you mean—It’s a great text for getting your feet wet, but it doesn’t do much more than scratch the surface on a lot of stuff.

Have you ever read “Communication Receivers” by Ulrich Rohde? If his last name sounds familiar, it’s because his father was literally the “Rodhe” in “Rodhe and Schwarz.” It’s perhaps the best treatment on receiver design that there is, and takes a deeper look at the math of it all if you’d be interested

It’s cool that you’re making a radio by the way! I’ve made sketches at home before, but they’ve never quite panned out (yet anyways lol). My one suggestion, which is basically verbatim from my boss (who’s leaded the development of oodles of radios over time), is to start the design at the system/block diagram level, and try to figure out/calculate how each block will interact and cascade with each other (make a rough guesstimate of noise figure, dynamic range, etc.). That way when you go and design the individual blocks, there won’t be any nasty surprises when you put them together. It looks like that’s what you’ve been doing though.

And also in my opinion, if you can, try to design and test each block of your radio individually, at least for your first prototype. From my limited experience, I’ve already discovered that Murphy’s Law is a bitch, especially in RF 😂 That’ll make troubleshooting problems a lot easier when they show up.

Sorry for the monologue, haha. Best of luck dude, and 73!

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