A fourth person in Pennsylvania has died of measles, the state health department confirmed Tuesday. The latest death was in an unvaccinated 18-year-old resident of Mifflin County.

In the announcement, the state health department also confirmed a county coroner's report over the weekend of the death of an unvaccinated 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County. The state had previously reported two deaths in Lancaster County; both were infants—a newborn boy and a 6-week-old girl, both too young to be vaccinated.

According to the Mifflin County coroner, Andrea L. Alcalde, the 18-year-old's cause of death was determined to be acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), which is a rare but known severe complication of measles. The condition is characterized by a rapidly progressing autoimmune disorder in which aberrant inflammation from an infection strips away the protective coverings of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Before measles vaccines were widely used, ADEM was commonly associated with measles, though other viral infections can also spur its development.

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These days, modems are pretty fancy bits of kit, what with to keep up with the speeds of cable, VDSL, and fiber connections. At lower speeds, though, it’s entirely possible to build a modem out of simple discrete components. [sv3ora] did just that, building a simple modem for the CB2 Micro.

The project takes advantage of the fact that the V1.54 firmware for the CB2 Micro enabled 75 baud serial communication. Thus, it made sense for [sv3ora] to build a 75 baud modem to suit. As was the way in the days of dial-up internet, the modem modulates data into audio, demodulates audio back into data, allowing the CB2 Micro to send and receive data over telephone lines, ham radio links, or to store and retrieve data via mediums like cassette tape.

The device is built out of good old BC547 transistors. along with a smattering of diodes, resistors, and capacitors as supporting hardware. That’s all you need to turn slow serial into audio and back again. [sv3ora] does a great job of demoing the hardware, using it to store a program on tape and retrieve it again later.

We love old school modems around these parts. We’ve even explored ways to build your own dial-up ISP in the past!