Occasional writing on technology, astronomy, temperature metrology, creativity and photography.https://calibratedideas.com/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/dwarf-mini-telescope/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/dwarf-mini-telescope/A small, relatively affordable instrument that can find and stack deep-sky objects from a light-polluted garden. First images and early impressions.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://calibratedideas.com/blog/wspr-home-assistant/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/wspr-home-assistant/WSPR signals tell you how radio propagation is behaving on any given day. I wanted that data inside Home Assistant, so I built an integration to bring it there.Tue, 22 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://calibratedideas.com/blog/live-train-display/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/live-train-display/A small, always-on departure board for my two nearest stations, Meols Cop and Southport. The look is there; wiring up the live Darwin data feed is the part still to crack.Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://calibratedideas.com/blog/ham-radio-dashboard/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/ham-radio-dashboard/A lightweight online dashboard that brings live operating conditions, RF propagation and an ISS video feed into a single readable view, adapted for G0IKV from VA3HDL open-source HamDashboard.Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://calibratedideas.com/blog/first-video/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/first-video/I set myself a challenge: learn to make a YouTube video. The subject chose itself, a short comparison of two Roberts radios, one from the 1950s and one from today, and what carries across the seventy years between them.Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://calibratedideas.com/blog/southport-printing-block/https://calibratedideas.com/blog/southport-printing-block/In 2012 a friend let me examine an old metal printing block showing Southport Marine Lake and its landmarks. Its date and purpose are uncertain; an archaeologist put the typeface at around 1890 to 1920.Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT