The Amp Hour (Radio Show)
An off-the-cuff radio show and podcast for electronics enthusiasts and professionals. Note: this is the "show only" version of the feed. To see the show notes, check out the main podcast feed: https://theamphour.com/feed/
  This week is another threesome. Chris & Migthyohm Jeff are jury-rigged up in a hotel room at the ESC conference.   New startup kit business Nerds Like Us Sebastian (@sgtech) linked to us on his blog Chris & Jeff visited Halted Electronics & Weird Stuff Dave retold the Robert Cringely's DEFCON hacker conference story [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-41-ExhilaratingESCescapades.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 1:52am CDT
Comments[0]

This week focused mainly around building a kit business, namely keeping costs down, keeping revenues in check and how to license your project.   Jigish linked to us from his site. Thanks! The Nottingham Hackerspace, Nottinghack, was pushed out of their old space and needs help funding a new one. Can hackerspaces thrive in [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-40-TheKitConniption.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:29pm CDT
Comments[7]

  A few audio snafus this week, but we decided to leave them in for the "real experience". We'll get it eventually.   Chris and Jeri are broadcasting a live video show to announce the 555 contest winners. Dave is stressing about the Tektronix contest. He's trailing in votes! Jeremy Blum was featured on The [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-39-MumbleMumboJumbo.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:25pm CDT
Comments[5]

  Jeff Keyzer of Mightyohm.com joins us this week to talk electronics and his new comic book!   Jeff Keyzer and Mitch Altman and Andie Nordgren just put out a comic book called "Soldering is easy!". Great resource for those just starting out and a preview of a book to be published later this year. [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-38-ComicalKeyzerComesACallin.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:09pm CDT
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Whoa! Some big news this week!   Chris has a new rig in the mail. Should help future Amp Hour podcasts. Dave officially has left his day-job at Altium (never before spoken directly on air before!). The company is moving to China, as stated in their official press release. In other news, Texas Instruments [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-37-TheChineseClairvoyancy.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:05pm CDT
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No guests this week, but lots of rants and items! Suggest future guests you'd like to hear either in the comments section or on the Suggestions Page.   Mike Cowgill is building an LCR meter. Looks like a really cool build! Welcome to Adam Ward, who recently started a new site and gave us [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-36-BigBusinessBuffoonery.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 11:56pm CDT
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The Amp Hour - Now with 100% more guests! Welcome, Jeri Ellsworth!   C vs. assembly language. Jeri still uses asm, Dave has in the past but favors C, C stands for Chris, that's good enough for him. Management of projects could improve projects, but not much can help code reviews. Jeremy is done [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-35-TheTernaryTussle.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:08pm CDT
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Chris has a new bench! New podcasts! Vintage Volts is a podcast about electronics "back in the day" by Jeff Salzman. The BeagleCast is a new podcast from the folks at BeagleBoard.org. Jaime (@jpwack) is the awesome dude who put together the text and processing behind the final Widlar poster. Tell your favorite chip vendor [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-34-TheRantRhetorical.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:38pm CDT
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Protip: If you don't understand the title, think U2... Corrections It was Electronic Design, not Design News with the new radio show we mentioned last week. Sorry! WotW (our last?) Lucas Weakley writes from Florida to show off his bench and some kind of device in a pelican case. Our first female WotW submission, Irmi from [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-33-MondayMetaMonday.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:04pm CDT
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WotW Dino (who now has a uStream channel for his workshop) Modular bench Bench with dresser drawers Bench with old Tek scope! Mitch (@mitpatterson) Bench with etching tools laid out Panorama of home lab Shoutouts DigiKey and Electronic Design Magazine have a new show! Rants DigiKey and Electronic Design Magazine have a new show! We [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-32-TheCommercialCompetitorCommencement.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:49pm CDT
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Chris apologizes for the poor audio quality on his end, it was a new setup (again) while the bench is being finished. What's your favorite movie about engineering? Piggybacking on an article by Bill Schewber article from EEtimes. Bjork pulls apart a TV and tells us about it. WTF. "You shouldn't let poets lie to [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-31-PublishPopularPartsPlease.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:25pm CDT
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WOTW Kibi (a WOTW alum!) send in pictures of a past bench! And a past beefy power amplifier! Jeremy Blum (@sciguy14) submitted pictures of his work workbench on his personal site! Great toaster SMT reflow! Not submitted, but Steve Liebson did a video interview with Jim Williams and we get to see Jim's lab. Events [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-30-FundingFusionIsNotFutile.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:08pm CDT
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This week on The Amp Hour, Dave and Mightyohm Jeff Keyzer join forces to talk about: Jeri was naughty and got thrown out of the Designcon conference! Workbench of the Week from SnakeBite & Jeff's buddy Tony The new one-stop EE shop, EEweb.com Jeff rants about Eagle and the lack of IPC footrints Forest Mims [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-29-DJandJazzyJeff.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:43pm CDT
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The 555 contest continues onward! Everyone is getting excited! Dave's classic 1976 vintage Signetics 555 timer chip (which he destroyed! RIP). Can anyone beat it? WOTW William L-shaped bench photos Laurence White Photo tour of the workshop Mr. J from Boston Home workbench Radio gear Rants Dave doesn't like how all those cupcakes he's sending [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-28-BowieAndTheBrownNote.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 6:19pm CDT
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Shoutouts Thanks to Mitch (@mitpatterson) for linking to us from his site! Alexander linked here too and asked about what to do when family and friends might not be interested in hearing about your latest project. Octopart now indexes Digikey as well! Electronics porn! Hi res photos of an old Microchip part. Light can get [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-27-TheGreenPenHornswoggle.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:53pm CDT
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WOTW None! C'mon people! But we did hear that some people have been building benches, such as John S. Can't wait to see them! Chris is planning a new bench as well! And has been doodling in Google Sketchup to get an idea of what he wants: View from the front From afar with the [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-26-TheBenandJeriShow.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:37pm CDT
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. WotW JP Wack from Santiago,  Chile Bench with awesome labels! Other work Troy Rank from Rochester, NY Bench page Stynus from Belgium Project page (tons'o'projects!) Workbenches And workbenches with Stynus in the picture Followup The 6502 was laid out by hand by one person! A new study out found that ASUS was the most [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-25-TheNASANostalgia.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:43pm CDT
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. Shoutouts Sparkfun has a new "grab bag" program for all their pick and place cast off parts. Could be some good pickins! Rants Why does the IEEE still charge membership fees to unemployed engineers? And why does the cutoff for waiving the fee occur at 13k(and below)? Is that a realistic point at which [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-24-TheDetroitDebunking.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:07pm CDT
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. WotW Adam C of Onecircuit.com submitted the first workbench of the week submission by video! Bob of Ambientsensors.com took a picture of his bench with his pup, including a signed HP 300A! Lieven Blancke of Belgium submitted two pictures of his 7 year old maker son at their bench. Also included a picture of [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-23-TheInnovationSpeculation.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:58pm CDT
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We wanted to try out a title similar to the style of The Big Bang Theory...we love it! Shoutout Another Ham-like video podcast called Amateur Logic. We like it! Thanks to the queen of science videos (Jeri) for the link! Dave got scooped! Afrotechmods did an AWESOME video about ultracaps. He arc welded a coin! [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-22-TheHardWorkHypothesis.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:27pm CDT
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. Seasonal What is on your electronics list for the holidays? Dave and Chris both need new chairs for their labs WOTW Henrik from Oslo, Norway Bench setup and explanation. Sylvain from Belgium Bench setup for RF projects. David from Portland Portable bench setup. Taking your electronics on the road is impressive! Mike from the [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-21-MoreFreagle_MoreBenches_MoreEngineersOnTwitter.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:10pm CDT
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Our first WOTWs! Mike, who works at Ascot TV in Christchurch New Zealand! More info about Mike's is here. Dave likes the Bob Parker ESR meter. David work at Delta-Q Technologies in Vancouver, Canada. More info about David is here (as are many more pictures!). David plans on doing something similar to the Electric Delorean [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-20-MilitaryElectronics_FirstWOTW.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:16pm CDT
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Shoutouts Rich Hoeg of The Northstar Nerd, linked to us from his podcast page! Be sure to check out the others on there! To Google Sketchup! For offering electro-nerds the opportunity to do 3D modeling (easily!). They have a new contest in conjunction with Ponoko (thanks to @dustynrobots for the link). Check it out if [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-19-CADPrograms_SystemsDesign_RenewableEnergy.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:25pm CDT
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Shoutouts Dave's $50 shootout is cited in Adafruit now carrying the Extech meter. Cool! There's also mention of it on extech site. NPR did a piece covering hackerspaces. Likely many have heard about it , but it's good coverage of the burgeoning trend. All About Circuits is a great resource if you've never seen it. [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-18-TransistorTypesAndWhereToGetElectronicGear.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:15pm CDT
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Links! Shoutouts Solder Smoke is back! Bill is out in the HAM shack, broadcasting podcasts for all. Go catch the latest one! A podcast about DIY Drones, check it out and hear the most about the developing industry of unmanned personal drones! Rants Chris loves the Webench tool from National Semiconductor...he just wishes there was [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-17-EEmovies_PartRants_SPICE.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:22pm CDT
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After an admittedly non-technical episode last week, we had an abundance of tech topics this week. So why keep writing when we can get to the links and you can get to listening! Shoutouts Troy Rank has a new show about e-bikes. Looking forward to hearing about the electronics in them! The 555 timer is [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-16-LEDDesigns_LastMinuteDesigns_BoardDesigns.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:30pm CDT
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Not as many links this week but the usual hour's worth of talking. We even managed to work in a comment or two about open hareware development (even though we promised not to previously). On to the links! Shoutouts There's a documentary about hacker/maker spaces that needs your help! Help fund it at Kickstarter! Dave's [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-15-AnalogComponentsFirstPersonFlyingAndIdeaOwnership.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:38pm CDT
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Dave made it home safe and sound! We're glad to have him back and appreciate Jeff from MightyOhm stepping up to the plate in his absence. This week we jumped right past the videos Dave plans on posting and into talking about current events, so why don't we do the same with the links? Shoutouts! [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-14-ChinaEntrepreneursBlueCollarReality.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 9:34pm CDT
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Holy YouTube clips, Batman! We have tons of clips this week. Me and our special guest were talking about lots of stuff and it turns out many of them were video based. We can't wait to see many of Dave's videos, he's still traveling around and is still working on editing and uploading many of [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-13-ChipsAndFabsAndGarages.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:14pm CDT
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Dave is back! And blogging from a hotel room, just like Chris did in episode 9 of the Amp Hour. He has lots of great videos he made at Renesas Dev Con and some good stories and experiences. On to the links! Shout outs! Thanks to Nathan from the Sober Newt for linking here! Thanks [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-12-DaveIsBackAndBlogging.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 7:08pm CDT
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NOTE: I apologize about the sound quality on this recording. Thanks to the Zoom H1 autogain (very bad thing) and recording in a cubby like desk at my house (nearly as bad as the autogain) I sound like a mouth breathing, key pounding cubby troll. I'm very sorry and I tried to fix it best [...]

Direct download: TheAmpHour-11-ArduinoDaveThisWeek.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 12:19am CDT
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Most of this week's discussion revolved around open hardware. The summit definitely provided some interesting conversation points, explained below. If we missed any links, please leave them in the comments! Open hardware The open hardware summit was awesome! (writing for EEtimes at ESC Boston was cool too!) Videos aren't all online yet but Limor Fried's [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-10-OpenHardwareAndSelfPublishing.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:02pm CDT
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No, not in boxers, but definitely from Boston! On a $10 internet connection no less! Highway robbery! Next week we'll do a round up of my trip to ESC Boston and the Open Hardware Summit, but for this week we stayed within the usual tech bounds. The links mentioned are below and as always, comments [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-9-FromBostonInBoxers.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:03pm CDT
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Thanks to all of those who filled out the optional survey. If you haven't yet, there's still time! Feel free to add your info! We also took some of your advice (and some of our own) and veered back towards tech talk! Yay! And based on some other feedback we received, we also tried giving [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-8-LayoutsAndDesignOuts.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:53pm CDT
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Due to time constraints this week, we're going to try going back to a mostly link-based page. If you find yourself really longing for silly and extraneous commentary encapsulating the links, be sure to let us know in the comments! Curious about the title of the episode? Now you have to listen to the show! [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-7-LoveRobotsAndPantyhoseScreens.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 11:31pm CDT
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Another episode in the bag! We admittedly didn't talk about straight electronics as we have in the past but we covered recent happenings in both the open source and (micro) and commercial (macro) electronics industries. Check out some of the links discussed in todays show below! Shoutouts and Upcoming Events: See a nerd with a [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-6-OpenHardwareAndTheCreativeEconomy.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:03pm CDT
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Today's show got a little heated, it's true. We went over a lot of things, but none more than a recent campaign to try and get more young women interested in engineering...in a not-so-great way.  We welcome all debate about the issue in the comments or a link to a discussion elsewhere. We also covered [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-5-GirlPower.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 8:55pm CDT
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Now that Dave and I have been trying to get some thoughts together a bit prior to the show (though the show itself is still quite "off the cuff"), we have some topics we can list out for you. You can use it either while listening, after you've completed listening, or hell, you can forego [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-4-CulturalDifferences.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:19pm CDT
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Greetings from the official new home of The Amp Hour! The new theme is installed (and being revised as we speak/read) and the latest episode of the radio show is directly below. We spanned topics from HP to IEEE to human interface design...in the usual meandering format. Questions for you, our listener would be, do [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-3-HP-IEEE-HumanInterface.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 11:05pm CDT
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Show 2 was recorded the week of August 2nd, 2010. This show was a bit more focused than the first show, but we still tended to ramble a bit. Ah well, nobody's perfect. Links discussed in the show: * MAKE magazine’s review of Maker Faire Detroit (learning to solder) * NYT article about mineral deposits in Afghanistan [...]
Direct download: TheAmpHour-2-CriticalMass.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:18am CDT
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This is the show recorded the week of July 26th. It was our first show ever. We first posted this on Dave's site and Chris's site and past comments from their respective communities can be found on those pages. Comments about the show can also be found at the EEVblog forums.
Direct download: TheAmpHour-1-WhatsInAName.mp3
Category:Radio Show -- posted at: 10:10am CDT
Comments[9]