On Fri, 28 Feb 1997 20:18:34 EST rob3ert@juno.com (Robert G. Parks)
writes:
>Great job, Mike!
>
>Put it in the box. Being selection number nine, I knew it would never
>make it to me!! You guys are great!
Bob and Gang;
What we needed was ten (or seventeen or...) identical, messed-up,
half-built, poorly-documented turkeys so that each debugger could take
it from ground zero all the way to working masterpiece. This is (was)
a neat contest! The fat lady hasn't yet sung, but I can tell by the
number of dead problems littering the stage that the final aria is
imminent. Anyone have any ideas about where we can find the necessary
contest centerpieces for another round?
BTW and FWIW, I have now NOT posted comments/replies to at least 12 messages this last week! I am not sure if this is good or bad, but it
may save enough time for me to finally start work on my 38 special!!
Saved you all some BW, too. OTOH- RE:
1. 73- editorially sloppy. Bad articles (poor science) and good.
Don't bother to build an antenna featured in 73 unless you know what
you're doing. But Wayne was excellent in former years- see the
earlier years of CQ. Great construction articles in the 60's.
2. Wayne Green - I have noticed an interesting phenomenon. Some
very bright people get mystic as they grow old, and begin to espouse
junk science or extreme religious views. Linus Pauling had his Vitamin
C, Wayne has code and the ARRL, Heinlein in his later years was
pretty...-- not sure what to call it. Wonder if it will (IS)
happen(ing) to me? ("Very bright" is questionable, "old" depends on
whether you ask my muscles/joints or my brain...)
3. Antennas/qrp. I highly recommend "Aerials II" by Kurt N. Sterba
("a compilation of columns appearing in WORLDRADIO 1985-93"). You may
not like his style (and I wonder if he doesn't fall into the above
category), but he is basically one of us. He runs QRP by putting a QRO
signal into the most outlandish antennas he can think of: 2 lawn
chairs, 2 shopping carts, an umbrella... He gives examples of other
feats: the guy who checked into his 80 meter net by running a T
connector out his rig- one side to a dummy load, the other to his roof
mounted 2 meter ground plane. No one noticed the difference in his signal!
4. Beer can antennas- Is anyone else bothered by the use of steel as
an rf conductor? It has 8-9 times the resistance of copper, and it is
magnetic to boot (I have absolutely no idea what effect that might have-
but if there is an effect, it is bound to be increased loss)(Except in the case of the infamous slinky, where I am sure in my bones it must
dramatically increase the loss!)(no proof, tho.) Steel whips bother me, too. Larsen plates his with copper.
5. Bulgarian plea, comment "is this a scam?" - Same occurred to me.
Is it not sad that we must consider this possibility? RE: "QRP-L is
not the place to discuss this"- then where?
6. QRO 38S- There are a lot of devices out there with higher voltage
ratings (150, 200), and higher power ratings (and lower R-on) for a few
pennies more. You could tap that 8v regulator down on the battery
string- run off 12 volts and run 48 volts to the MOSFET!!! BTW, I
don't think that output filter, even as modified, is optimized. The
input capacitance should be much higher (lower reactance). If I can
just get myself to leave the list alone, I'll start on the 38s and
eventually re-design the output filter. I also plan to make the output
switchable- PA in or out- and still match impedances correctly.
73, ; D DWink@Juno.com Dan Winkler N7IVR Seattle, WA
----------whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud ----------
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