I spent three hours in the library. They've finally got the system to grant a half hour when not busy, rather than dribbling out that absurd fifteen mintues, much of it taken up by messages that your time is running out. Florida has enough money to hang boats up in the air, but nothing for enough computers to go around.
Fred was over to pick up toys, the ones I get in my twice weekly trips to BK, the only dining out I'll be doing for the next two years. He's got grandchildren. I keep the electronic toys for parts as they are so cheap compared to the Shack.Bryne called to ask about a job as a gold broker. It pays well and after he hung up, my records show it is the same place I was about to join in early 2004 around the time of my first heart troubles. I'll look it up, it was a high stress position that paid $250,000 per year. Meaning I would not have to do it forever.
Instead, I went to bingo, which is locally getting quite famous. As a reminder to all, I do not play bingo, I am the caller. The most popular caller in town, I'm told. The weekend before rent day rarely sets records. Tonight was okay. Scottie brought me a magazine about Kursk. He knows I know a lot about that piece of history, so it is agreed I'll check the article for accuracy. Ha!
I was finally able to provide my real estate lawyer with some of the proof he's been asking for. Essentially, somebody owes me $4,800 for caretaking their property while they were out of the country. The office tells me there was a strange lady around today making a total ass of herself. The fake outside cameras were replaced with real ones last March, and we may have some pending trespass charges.
[Author's note: the following is not for everybody, but it is a basic reprint of the "radio" article I did not publish in time. There are no diagrams, a consequence of the era in which it was written.
When you move wires around a magnetic field, a current of electricity flows in the wire. In the reverse, when a piece of wire is crossed by flowing radio waves, a type of electromagnetic current, it also causes a current to flow. Right now, countless invisible "radio" waves surround us, and every wire around you has a current in it.
Now a wire that matches the wavelength of those waves exhibits an unusual characteristic. It automatically acts as an antenna because it picks up radio certain radio waves better than others.
If the transmitter uses very short "carrier" wavelengths and superimposes lower frequency "human ear" waves (20 to 20,000 cycles per second), a wonderful effect occurs. The short carrier frequencies are so rapid, they "flow through" the receiving antenna and lost. What's left is the much slower waves we can hear.
The only technical part is that slower wave cancels itself out. Thus, a radio needs a diode that only allows half the signal to pass. Couple that half signal to an amplifier and it works like magic.
Older radios needed long antenna wires up to 60 feet across the back yard. It is possible to add coils and capacitors that "tune" the radio to pick up different stations. It wasn't long before someone clued in that a "variable" capacitor worked better than varying the coil. I intend to experiment with a combination of wire lengths and capacitors just to see what I pickup.
I already know this will be successful, for back in my office days, I always built a joke radio out of junk parts lying around. Phone wire, paper tubes, gum wrappers, etc. Now, I want to use real parts. Years ago somebody gave me a kit worth $60. During the next two years I put together every project in the guidebook and never learned a blessed thing. All kits teach you is how to follow directions. The real lesson is in the design phase. I gave the kit away at work.]
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