Extreme Low-Tech Communication

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This has to be the ultimate achievement in low-powered long-distance communication. Ham radio operator Michael Rainey, AA1TJ, transmitted a message over a distance of over 1,000 miles by yelling Morse code with his own voice into this primitive home-made transmitter, nicknamed “El Silbo.” No power was used other than that generated by his own voice vibrating the microphone (which was a re-purposed speaker).

If you want to build your own here’s the circuit schematic and more details.

And here’s Rainey, back in 2009, using El Silbo:

On a side note, can we please apply Ham radio’s level of detail and open source spirit to the world of backyard vegetable gardening?

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5 Comments

  1. >can we please apply Ham radio’s level of detail and open source spirit to the world of backyard vegetable gardening?

    I understand the frustration, but I think that there are fairly concrete reasons why this is the case.

    I think the difference is that Ham radio is convergent, what works in one place will almost certainly work everywhere else, materials permitting. On the other hand gardening is very divergent. Due to the vagaries of climate and soil conditions, the means to achieve success in gardening is so very very different in different location, add the moving target of climate change, and ad hoc solutions are a much more reasonable approach to gardening than some other endeavors.

    Also consider that to some extent the experiments in gardening take months to years to play out.

    • I realize it’s apples and oranges. But I’d love to see more research based home scale gardening advice. Most of the gardening magazines seem to be more about glossy photo spreads.

      The problem as you point out relates to the time scale but probably also funding. Still, I think there is an opportunity here.

  2. Isn’t the commercial fertilizer contribution supposed to level the playing field so that with a few chemicals, everyone can achieve the same great, green results? (tongue in cheek. I know what you mean.)

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