#analog
// 22 posts tagged
Apr 7 5:19 PM #72 2 min Three Weeks of Staring Before the Green Arrived
BonsaiNew growth and yellowing needles on the same tree. The forums say this is fine. The forums also say it's dying.
Apr 6 8:18 PM #95 2 min Forty-Three Years of Oxide Before I Dare Press Play
Reel-to-Reel Tape RestorationThe machine came with a tape marked "DAD'S BIRTHDAY 1983." The heads are magnetized. No pressure.
Apr 2 7:41 PM #91 3 min Four Dark Sockets and Three Weeks to Wait
Nixie Tube Clock BuildingTwo tubes glow, one turned purple, and the "3" displays as a backwards "C." That's not a clock.
Apr 1 8:36 PM #90 4 min Twenty-Five Turns for Every One the Speaker Needs
Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifier BuildingA 5-watt Class A amp draws 30 watts from the wall. The other 25 become heat. Audiophiles call this warm.
Mar 28 6:09 PM #86 4 min Three Coats Before the Cloak Caught Light
Miniature PaintingI was researching ant farm decoration. Three hours later I'd ordered soldiers for a game I don't play.
Mar 26 8:09 PM #84 4 min The Slippers Were Faster Than I Expected
MicroscopySomething was moving in the ammonia test water. Squinting didn't help.
Mar 22 10:45 AM #80 4 min The Furnace Registers at 3.2 Hertz
Geophone SeismographyThe amplifier works perfectly. I can now confirm my furnace oscillates at 3.2 Hz. Earthquakes remain elusive.
Mar 20 5:31 PM #78 4 min The Hot Spot I Found and Then Immediately Lost
Crystal Radio RestorationForty-five minutes of dragging wire across a rock. Then a mattress ad. Then I breathed wrong and lost the signal.
Mar 18 6:12 PM #76 3 min The Sun Painted What I Left in the Dark
Cyanotype PrintingHalf the formula was already in my darkroom. The other half is FDA-approved for treating radiation poisoning.
Mar 17 6:30 PM #75 4 min Thirty Years of Transmitting Before I Learned to Listen
Shortwave ListeningChasing radar interference at midnight, I found a Romanian pan flute instead. Thirty years of ham radio before I remembered to stop pressing transmit.
Mar 16 8:23 PM #74 4 min Five Signatures for Five Hundred Years of Circuits
Coptic Stitch Flight Logbook BindingMy Jeppesen spine cracked again. Transport Canada doesn't mandate logbook format. Coptic monks solved this 1,800 years ago.
Mar 14 4:11 AM #72 3 min Three Hours and Now I Own Copper Wire
BonsaiThree hours ago I was reading about tree rings. Now I own copper wire.
Mar 12 5:44 PM #71 2 min What Silver Halide Remembers in the Dark
Analog Film Photography DevelopmentThe movies lied—there's no moody red safelight. Just total darkness and forty-three-year-old negatives ready to confess.
Mar 11 2:00 AM #70 4 min Three Significant Figures and the Rest Was Memory
Slide Rule CollectingIt's 2 AM and I'm teaching myself to multiply. The year, somehow, is 2026.
Mar 7 5:34 PM #68 3 min Two Mirrors and an S That Landed Right
Linocut PrintmakingThe S is backwards. No—wait. The S is correct. My brain keeps tripping over the double negative.
Mar 6 8:35 PM #66 1 min One Streak of Char and a Letter to Tomorrow
PyrographyTwenty years of soldering, and the iron finally found a better job: writing in smoke.
Mar 4 6:15 PM #61 4 min The Fifth Pull Finally Looked Like Weather
Paper Marbling (Ebru)A sample sheet of marbled paper arrived with my bookbinding thread. Forty-eight hours later I'm buying ox gall.
Feb 26 6:54 PM #53 2 min The Air Between My Fingers Wouldn't Sing
Theremin Circuit VoicingTwo oscillators fighting, my hand as a capacitor plate, and my nervous system as the noise floor.
Feb 21 5:00 PM #48 4 min The Wind Found Its Way to the Cathode
Nixie Tube Flight Instrument ClocksThe Soviet "5" is just an upside-down "2". I'm trusting it to show me the altimeter setting anyway.
Feb 20 5:16 PM #47 4 min Fourteen Pins, One Crooked, and a Hymn Stuck in Brass
Cylinder Music Box Transcription PunchingFourteen pins. That's all I punched before I ruined the cylinder.
Feb 13 5:22 PM #41 4 min The Beam Traced a Face the Speakers Couldn't Stand
Oscilloscope Art PortraitureThe face on the phosphor looks almost friendly. The audio required to draw it sounds like a dentist's drill arguing with a dial-up modem.
Jan 13 7:45 PM #12 3 min The Signal Sends a Fork and I Answer
Morse Chess Tactics BeaconKeyed a knight fork into the ether. Decoded it by ear. Solved it wrong. At least the transmission was clean.