-> I took a bow saw out to an old stump in the yard just yesterday. Who should
-> come sauntering down the ally, but Mr. No-bath-for-a
-> month-and-talkin'-to-myself. I saw him coming from some distance, and just kept
-> on with my work. When he was within a distance for me to hear his mumbling, I
-> made sure the bow saw was free for swinging, JIC.

Wish I'd paid attention to the psycho that swung a bat at me from behind
last year.
Split the back of my head open drenching me in blood.
No reason.

-> I kinda enjoy allowing those types the breadth to go about their business. They
-> seem to be happy with it too.  Just after he passed my yard,
I noticed he
-> had bunked down in the neighbour's garbage shed. Well enough, but when a few
-> kids passed me by after school let out, I just made sure he was still there,
-> and hadn't started following them home. The cordless phone is going to be a
-> permanent part of my toolkit from now on.

I was walking my Pit Bull but refrained from using his attack command.
I survived the bat attack and didn't want to risk losing the dog
had I given him the command.

->  WC> I got totally trashed by a guy named Eric ( near killed me)
->  WC> when defending a woman he attacked.
->  WC> This was well removed from the bar in geography and time so
->  WC> word didn't get around.

-> First name basis with a woman beater, Wayne? 

I'd known him before.

-> Shoot... What you gonna do? He was being physical with her, and you tried to
-> out-machismo him: He saw that as the threat, and took out the aggression on you
-> instead of her? Man... that's a tough situation! I trust reasoning with him
-> wasn't working?   

Not a chance.
Well the girl WAS spared.
I spent the next 16 hours throwing up from the concussion every 20
minutes, you could set your watch to it.

->  -> Hall effect... See, I have to call them a spinning magnet that
trips reed
->  -> sensors. Say what you will about them, they are a sight more
reliable than
->  -> contacts arcing at umpteen K times/min.

->  WC> Hall Effect: the effect of a current in a wire to be affected
->  WC> by a perpendecular magnetic field.
->  WC> The effect is small so the sensors have very high gain
->  WC> amplifiers built right into them.

-> Ah... So no switch, just a small coil, and op amp?

No coil but yes an op-amp.                                        

->  -> stringing an antenna
->  -> out to the Willow tree,

->  WC> Radio Shack had their "P-Box" series of kits, one a 2
->  WC> transistor regenerative multiband radio performed rather
->  WC> spectacularly.

-> Regenerative?

You got it, first FET infinate impedence detector, second FET
RF and audio amp.
regeneration controlled by a potentiometer.


->  -> (Ya... I had to learn about how grounding affects those

->  WC> I sued plastic insulators as suggested in the kit, wasn't long
->  WC> before moving on to Heath Kits.

-> I never tried to "sue" a plastic insulator, 
   
What can I say, dyslexic here, I see what's in my mind what I intended
to write not neccessarily WHAT I write.

-> but I did find out soon enough to
-> use them.  I wanted to antennae the CB radio at
the time, so it
-> wasn't until I pulled out the Experimenter's Kit again that I found out about
-> the grounding a tree would provide. It wasn't soon after that I meet my first
-> guitar player over the same CB radio-waves, that eventually led me to my first
-> real girlfriend. I then realized they were more interested in musicians than
-> the sound-guy. {-|

->  WC> FET's are easier to use as they amplify voltage in a ways
->  WC> rather than current.
->  WC> FET's emulate tubes.

-> Heck... Transistors were all the rage at the time. FETs didn't show up 'til the
-> nineties, didn't they? My tech exam dealt with reactance, Ohms law, transformer
-> taps... That sort of thing. By the time I took an interest in it again, was
-> when I couldn't physically do much, and little did I know, remember much
-> either.
                                                                      
I trashed all my prized experiment tools, instruments and parts
when last I moved five years ago as I can no longer sit at a table
or bench to mess with the stuff.

-> I'll sock away more knowledge on this stuff, I'm sure. Like always, I wish I
-> had more. When Radio Shack started catering more to the consumer than the
-> hobbyist, I sure picked up some deals on reference material and components. 

Yeah, picked up a bunch of reference books for .50 cents to a dollar
myself about then

-> Kinda like Heath, we sure enjoyed teasing about them when they were there, but
-> I sure miss them now that they are gone. You might have noticed the
-> Sweep/Marker I mentioned to Roy J. It's no wonder the tech at the hospital
-> built one from kit, compared to purchasing one off the shelf. Today, with all
-> the VLSI, it puts the *hobby* in a precarious position.

MY VTVM was a Knight kit and still worked.

->  -> sense like it used to, but I do what I can. This Linux is a
great learning
->  -> experience so far, but a linear study guide *has* been hard to come by.

->  WC> Yeah  having no hard drive here I'm using SSL online.

-> [Without checking notes] Shared Secure Login?

I'm using it but don'tknow what ssl stands for except one s is for
secure.

-> Then you run an app that connects to a socket on the server? It would take a
-> special ISP to accept a Telnet client, no?

I forget off hand what port is used but it's not blocked here.       

->  WC> All and all i built a 30 Watt stereo Amp, FM stereo tuner and
->  WC> aircraft - police band VHF FM radio they sold.

-> I've noticed a couple of kit manufacturers still out there, but nothing like
-> what Heath used to produce. Usually it's just a flashing LED thingy. 

Yeah, just junk, JameCo sells this sort of stuff.
www.amazing1.com has some interesting and dangerous stuff
Some of it works and some is BS, I built several of their items from
book schematics that worked.
..
->  -> like a ME 109 with a sprung starter. <-;                      

->  WC> You couldn't kick my 1000 either though they included an
->  WC> emergency kick starter stored under the engine.
->  WC> I couldn't kick it as is was a huge high compression engine.

-> How nice of them.  Maybe a 22 blank exploding on a vaned flywheel...

I think I _may_ have been able to kick it if there was the swing pivot
most kickstarters had but a straight kicker slid over the splined shaft
no way.

->  -> Sad part is, that same computer is likely seen as
->  -> worthless, or next to it. )-:
->  -> I too have made a habit of hobbling old parts together, but am
constantly
->  -> frustrated by parts that were designed to fail. (Sorry
->  -> for burning your ear.
->  -> Guess I'm glad the last few days are over with.)

->  WC> No problem, I know what isolation does and I too "burn ears
->  WC> when they're about.
->  WC> Sony T.V.'s are a bitch to repair.
->  WC> Put in a standard replacement part and they fail again in hours
->  WC> to weeks.
->  WC> You have to get Mil spec devices to repair them as that's what
->  WC> they use.

-> So you're telling me that regulator I bought for the 12V Sony will likely
-> stress something else? 
   
You're pretty safe at the 12 volt area, I was thinking more of 
higher voltage semiconductors.
The first Sony I worked on was the last.

-> How about working on an NEC monitor. I opened it up
-> alright, but any adjustments but on the yoke seem ineffective. Do you know if
-> they use a "service" switch?         

Not to my knowledge.
Two dead monitors here one likely an easy fix but I've already 
two computers and three working SVGA monitors.

->  -> My #1 machine was from the pawn-shop w/o CPU, mem, or HD. OS -RH.

->  WC> Mine's the one I'm typing on, April or May gets a hard drive
->  WC> and I/O card for over 32 Gig then I install Linux on the drive
->  WC> w/o Windows.

-> Mine's a 100/66 MHz MB. I'd like to put a P!!! or VIA chip into it. The 256M
-> SODIMM that was promised to be 16x16M isn't, so I can only see half of it. ]-:

->  -> #2 Auction: Flaky HD, and an ill-flash on the BIOS. OS -W98

->  WC> Had Linux -Win 98 dual boot on this box but my flaky hard
->  WC> Quantum 6.4 Gig croaked.

-> I did find two 8G bigfoot drives at auction. Wish I picked up more of those. I
-> was using Windows 95/98 for so long, I quickly filled them up. As soon as I can
-> get the USB RW drive to work w/98, I plan on scrubbing at least one of those
-> for Linux/BSD. 

->  WC> My number two was bought new ( 486) at obscene cost.

-> My first PC was a 386. I did buy it at liquidation, but at what would seem as
-> obscene in todays market. It was EISA bussed, so it was worth the price if for
-> nothing but the teaching tool for me. (Resource allocation, et al.) Imagine, a
-> plug and pray that actually works!

->  WC> It died a few years back however I'd found a 486 of the same
->  WC> brand tossed in somone's trash two weeks before.
->  WC> It had a later release of the same motherboard.
->  WC> My 486 is still working after swapping that motherboard out.

-> You see, I've been telling people for half a decade that if I didn't have this
-> crap to keep me busy, my brain would have been mush a long time ago.
->  -> Not a one is better than a Celeron 466. Next, I want to
->  -> upgrade a box to a GHz
->  -> or two. (The case will take an ATX MB.) Just one more
->  -> financial duck to get in
->  -> the row, and I'll have disposable income again. 

->  WC> Same sort of difficulties here.

->  WC> Hey this is just a Celeron 433 but more than servicable with
->  WC> Linux running.

-> If you try to run any Windows software on that spec, it usually just laughs in
-> your face. With my #1, it's a super-small footprint, so it's stuck with the MB
-> that's in it. Technically, I guess my next two are more a #2a, and #2b. One has
-> a 100 MHz Slot-1/Socket-370 (Or whatever the count is.) MB w/366 MHz Celeron,
-> and the other has a 83 MHz Socket 7 w/450 MHz AMD K6-3D.    

I need a standard ATX box and PS... some day maybe.

-> I might toss a better CPU into the 100 MHz MB, but I know the 83 MHz board is
-> as fast, or as close to it, as I'm ready to take it. I'd like some power to run
-> those game demos I picked up.(I need SOME entertainment besides TV and text
-> books. ;-) How do they say, "Real soon now." or "Any
day now." Truth is, it's
-> more like, "You want it WHEN?" 

Yeah, know that feeling on fixed income.
The Pit Bull costs me 70 bucks a month amortizing food, medical care,
Frontline flea killer and Heart Guard.

Guy has NEVER screwed up worse than getting into the kitchen trash
about 7 times over 13 years.

Not at all like the horror stories you hear about the breed.
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