Potpourri
Snappy Answers To Cryptic Questions
athelind: HAVE YOU SEEN THE YELLOW SIGN?
jdarkwulf: Yield?
Yeah, I know, "Yield" signs aren't yellow anymore, but I still laughed.
The Spirit of Radio
I've been having increasing trouble keeping my little stereo tuned to my preferred radio station of late. It's an analogue-dial physical tuner rather than a nice digital gizmo, and, of course, I have the perennial dilemma that my own body acts as an antenna. I can get it crystal-clear, so long as I keep my hand on it; as soon as I move away, it devolves into static.
Note that it was fine up until a few weeks ago. There was a bit of channel drift, and I would sometimes have to tweak it from morning to evening, but I could get it steady on the station with no problem.
Last night, I was driving a co-worker home, so I flipped my car radio over to the classical station, since that's better background for conversation than my usual Classic Rock.
Nothin' but static.
What the hell, thought Your Obedient Serpent. Is there something about summer that screws up radio reception?
Dot. Dot. Dot.
Right. We're pointing at the Sun. Auroras. That sort of thing.
Oddly, the Sun seems kind of quiet right now, near as I can tell from spaceweather.com. We're at a Sunspot Minimum right now. There's an active region that's been pointing away from Earth, though it's swinging in our general direction.
Anyone else having radio issues? I know most of you don't even listen to radios in the car anymore, much less while sitting at your computavational intertube omnitainment terminals, but I'm interested in hearing if the tuned-in minority are having static and channel drift like I am.
athelind: HAVE YOU SEEN THE YELLOW SIGN?
jdarkwulf: Yield?
Yeah, I know, "Yield" signs aren't yellow anymore, but I still laughed.
The Spirit of Radio
I've been having increasing trouble keeping my little stereo tuned to my preferred radio station of late. It's an analogue-dial physical tuner rather than a nice digital gizmo, and, of course, I have the perennial dilemma that my own body acts as an antenna. I can get it crystal-clear, so long as I keep my hand on it; as soon as I move away, it devolves into static.
Note that it was fine up until a few weeks ago. There was a bit of channel drift, and I would sometimes have to tweak it from morning to evening, but I could get it steady on the station with no problem.
Last night, I was driving a co-worker home, so I flipped my car radio over to the classical station, since that's better background for conversation than my usual Classic Rock.
Nothin' but static.
What the hell, thought Your Obedient Serpent. Is there something about summer that screws up radio reception?
Dot. Dot. Dot.
Right. We're pointing at the Sun. Auroras. That sort of thing.
Oddly, the Sun seems kind of quiet right now, near as I can tell from spaceweather.com. We're at a Sunspot Minimum right now. There's an active region that's been pointing away from Earth, though it's swinging in our general direction.
Anyone else having radio issues? I know most of you don't even listen to radios in the car anymore, much less while sitting at your computavational intertube omnitainment terminals, but I'm interested in hearing if the tuned-in minority are having static and channel drift like I am.