Midwinter calling, day 20

Hidden treasure

I've not used the tablet case since we moved in, and just thrown in the accessories, but I need an memory card reader and remember the small internal extra compartment I've practically forgotten about where I've kept a spare memory card reader and memory cards. I feel something else and remember I've thrown in a couple of USB sticks as well, but what I take out is not a USB stick. I just look at the small cheap USB SDR dongle, software defined radio, which I'd completely forgot was there. I bury my head in my hands as I remember I put it there a couple of years ago together with a thin 5 meter wire antenna. I stopped using this SDR a few years ago when I bought a better one for home use, and put it there because the SDR dongle is 'good to have'. An SDR can be used for a lot with different software - software that I have installed on the tablet. Why didn't I find it a couple of weeks ago? Why didn't I even remember I put it there? It would have made radio construction easier, and more accurate. Why didn't I think about the SDR when I was lying in the tent up on Hardangervidda and panicking? I had been able to search through all frequencies for Digital radio, FM, medium wave AM, analog or digital TV and more. Sure, I wouldn't have received anything, and probably started to suspect something was broken or something, but I could test it with my VHF/UHF radio by recording on the tablet and walking away 200m or so.

FAIL!

Done is done. At least I can control the frequency range precisely and fine tune the various parts a bit so that I might get a little increase in signal and sensitivity. A dB here and there means a lot in the end, and I can now actually measure the dB difference. The SDR is still oh so valuable, not least because it already has HF input and I have all the software on a tablet plus schematic for it - opensource FTW! Since Jane loves when the tablet's server is online, I'm going to string up the antenna wire in the ceiling and leave the SDR receiver on for longer periods of time to scan the lower frequency ranges, plus focusing on the most likely frequencies someone might have brought a walkie-talkie for, such as hunting bands, marine radios and PMRs. There is a tiny chance that some other person has come here, and built or brought a short or long wave radio transmitter. Unfortunately, walkie-talkies are quite rare these days, and if someone brought a 'common' PMR UHF walkie-talkie with them, I won't hear them more than a couple of kilometers away. And why would anyone within such a short distance to even try? Since it is over open water, I might be able to hear someone in Lysesund, but not much further.

It's very unlikely someone is near since no one so far mentioned any rumour of another human or technologically advanced civilization. Yeah, best to scan the longwave bands, and trying to find long wave skip.

I look through the compartment to see if there is anything else I missed, and also find a small USB ISP dongle for Atmel/Arduino programming, and a micro 32GB USB stick and the microSD reader I was looking for on the bottom, that have a 32GB memory card in it. My fondness for buying compact small USB sticks and microSD readers is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It makes me remember that before the trip I actually took out a flight controller FC+ESC for a quadcopter from the last Drone race flight. That is so damn tragic, because that ESC had something like 24 powerful push pull mosfet, voltage regulators, leds, and capacitors etc. I could have built so many powerful amplifiers for audio or radio with one that it is a bit ridiculous, because a 40A Mosfet for 6S lipo batteries should be able to make a 300W amplifier for audio or radio, and it doesn't need to be high frequency capable for my use so they certainly are capable enough. It would have been hard as hell to unsolder without a hot air station, but at least the components would have been here, and I could improvise a hot air solution. I really should have brought at least the Karearea Titi quadcopter or Cinewhoop, Fatsharks and the small RC radio on my hike. So many uses for that, in many ways. Why haven't some time travelling novel ever included the helpful tip to bring a small ESD ziplock with surface mounted mosfets, transistors and diodes? Oh, and PowerLEDs.

Learn, adapt and move on. And I am very happy for the things I had with me.

I can't practically use the USB ISP dongle. I can write programs for the ATmega and have that software too on the tablet, but it is probably an OTP processor; One Time Programmable i.e. cannot be reprogrammed, nor can it reprogram itself. I could use the 12MHz crystal in my frequency standard, but I'd rather use 3.6MHz instead of 3MHz because of the antenna length, which is about 1/5 longer. If it had been 4MHz, I would probably have chosen it instead and tweaked my radios, because it would have meant 1/10 shorter antenna length, and that would be 4 important meters, while 6MHz feels a bit too high a frequency and too much work to rebuild everything to. It's just easier to just leave the ISP dongle as it is, although it wouldn't be wrong to have more reference frequencies in the frequency standard build, and I can re-use the three surface mounted LEDs for other things.

I check what's on the memory card, but that's just blank. The USB stick isn't, and I find some backups of images, roleplaying files, programs and other things, but also some books and a few documentaries like 'Moon Machines', 'Eiger; Wall of death', 'Dr Horrible's sing-along blog' and some movies too. YAY! 'John Wick' feels like it will be hard to explain, and 'The Martian' and 'Spaceballs' even more so, but something like 'Frozen' could be fun to watch, and 'Maleficent' could definitely be interest. Iselin probably wants to see 'The Martian', and maybe Kari too. 'Trolltyg i Tomteskogen' i.e. the animated 'Gnomes' feels appropriate for this culture. Iselin will probably want to see the documentary series 'Moon Machines'.

I tell Jane about my find before dinner, and she is so happy for all the movies I've found. She has only seen 'Frozen' and 'Maleficent', but she likes both movies. Jane can't help to try to talk about movies as we eat and try to explain it to Ciara and Kari, which is a bit entertaining. Jane is right that the animated 'Frozen' might be a good movie to show them, since it is animated and have similar culture to here. Jane enjoy I have a Disney movie, and that one. We change subject and Kari gives me an update about building projects, and when the Ice house comes up, I point out that in 'Frozen' they cut ice blocks for an Ice house, and that's why Kristoff sells ice blocks in the summer. That just hasn't connected for Jane, and she facepalms and groans about being a moron and blind.

Everyone is looking forward to the ice house being built by the road east of the mansion. The location is behind the mountain and should be well protected from direct sunlight all year round, and only on early summer mornings will the sun shine on that spot, but then there are leaves on all the deciduous trees and shouldn't be a problem. If it seems to be a problem, we may have to erect a free standing wooden wall so that the outer walls don't get sunlight, but I am most worried about wind in combination with warm weather. Last summer was warm. The ice house will be almost 6x5m on the inside and around 5m high, and will have external walls of stone with a lot of earth outside, with an internal wooden house behind well-insulated walls and roof. It is a good solid floor with drainage, because 90-120 tons of ice will hopefully fill the icehouse this spring. An advantage with the location, is that we have been able to use the slope of the terrain to make loading-unloading ice easier, and drainage is also easy and the water flows out to a lower reservoir for ice-cold water in the smaller 'cold house' below the Ice house. We will try to store food and use the Cold house more like a root cellar with ice-cold water in it, but we still have to be careful about opening the Cold house and letting warm air in.

Carpenter Engdrid has completed a large and well-insulated ice box. He is getting very good at understanding and recreating what I sketch, and the water collection should work well. I've even added a little insulated window with three panes of glass to check the ice without opening the door or hatch. We're just waiting for it to get cold enough to freeze some water in buckets overnight. Having the ice box in the basement would perhaps be better than the pantry, but even with a food elevator it is harder to use, so we will try there first.

To change the topic from her own 'Frozen' blunder, Jane enjoy talking about my SDR blunder, and after dinner when I show them, Jane, Kari and Ciara helps me fine tune the radios. Jane also pokes at me to build those carbon microphones. By designing something more like a classic telephone handset where you talk into the microphone instead of into the side, there should be less of a problem with the carbon grains being packed uneven, and certain patterns on the rear carbon plate should also help. By hanging the handset upside down on the side of the phone box, gravity should also help to loosen the carbon grains between each call. We actually have barrels of charcoal in the basement, so carbon is less of a problem, although it's hardly pure carbon.

The problem with lying in bed and trying to sleep is that my mind wanders, especially listening to the rain and wind outside. So much has happened in the last few weeks while Iselin has been away. Almost 3 weeks have passed. Anything could have happened and I might never know. Is she even coming back? I should have built radios after Kari sailed with Jane to buy Tom's stuff. That way, Iselin could have helped me build and we could test sending messages, signal strength and range during this journey. Even if we only reached part of the way, that would still be contact a day or two earlier. Hindsight is easy.

Crap. I shouldn't have said that I wanted a night for myself again.

It is hard and I feel a little dirty and guilty as I push the button to Caecilia's room. I feel a little better when Caecilia arrive and she realise that I finally used the button the way she wanted since it was installed a month ago, and seductively and smiling Caecilia slips under the duvet.