One year ago today: February 22, 2023, no three-cup size.
Five years ago today: February 22, 2019, it’s police, not law, enforcement.
Nine years ago today: February 22, 2015, 1 hr, 15 min.
Random years ago today: February 22, 2001, a successful gig.
Say what you want, because I sure will. The neighbor needed a lift to the eye clinic. Yep, he tried to rely on friends and family. And he got nowhere. I’ve always got something to say about that large group of people who would love to help you out if only they had the means. Then make sure they never have the means. He got caught. One relative, can give him a lift to the doctor, but only at 7:00AM and his appointment is at 8:30AM. And for the ride back, a different relative, but after soccer practice, yadda-yadda. I know all the excuses but it is still my opinion if my parents had helped me out 10% as much, I’d find the time.
It turned out a surprisingly warm morning, so out to the shed for three hours. This photo is a macro of the light-emitting diode inside the “Irish bulbs”, what we’ve taken to calling the St. Patrick’s day toy lights that don’t require a resistor. If you know what to look for, the green dot is the working part and it seems the same as all the others, I don’t see any resistor. A also took my old box of potentiomenters, labeled 2014, has it been that long? A tad of rust had me spraying them down in light oil and I’ve found several that seem ideal of the transistor circuit that is in the works. I may get you a photo, but these don’t look as good as other circuits, blog-wise.
That’s my secondary task today, to find something interesting for you. If not, you get the routine. I sliced the first JeePee panels using the new crosscut sled and it makes for extremely accurate cuts. Much better than the chop saw, where smaller pieces can shift. The sled I made restricts me to small boxes, a factor I did not consider and too late now. Having the panels exactly square also speed up the assembly and I’ve switched back to making smaller boxes out of overly thick and sturdy lumber. Hey, where’s the rule that says small boxes have to be balsa or thin plywood?
I took two breaks, that’s boring, but this blog is where I keep track of that. One was a nap that showed I’ll sleep like a baby tonight, the other an intense study of the formulas and theory behind the biasing resistors under investigation at this time. Long-term records show I am the only one who undertakes the serious book-study part of the chores. I’ve discovered it is at least a three-step process.To me, the input or “collector” voltage should not matter, since the control of the circuit is due to the base current. Nope, I see now that the voltage hitting the transistor has also to be matched to specs, and that is where one resistor has to be calculated. Then the second resistor is the one that brings the base current into the correct or quiescent range to operate the transistor.
See this photo, a page of lists from the railroad museum? I did not know but might have guessed that every train car in the USA by law must be registered with the government. There were are least six volumes the size of phone books just for the Northwestern Railroad. They are old, this picture had to be lightened 173%. Every piece of rolling stock, the type (hopper, tanker, flat, box) recorded with size, weight, ownership, and serial number. There shall be no privacy surrounding boxcar ownership in this country.
What appears to be tax codes and date tracking info everywhere. One could not view this level of government control without realizing where the completely useless DMV came about. Purely another government control grab, as nobody registered horses and wagons. Yet they had just as much potential as a crime or military threat to the public. For emphasis, these were not railroad files, who understandably would want to know where their machinery was, but a government registry that, on the premise that the left-most columns of a list get used the most, tracked mainly ownership. It must have added millions to the cost. Did you know the original phone directories were private government publications to track who had a phone?
Miss Teen Wyoming, 1955.
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One of my stops this morning was at a store in east Winter Haven, a part of town I don’t know. There is a supply store of computer parts, but I’ve driven past before and a warehouse that size must have more spare parts than General Motors. They were late opening up and I could not wait since I said I’d be back at the clinic. The deal is I found the short-cut, so it won’t be long to find out if he’s a good local supplier. I found a $45 budget for Wilford to order parts on-line, but have not tested his reliability on that yet. Yes, I always make a few test runs, finances is the part of the club that requires the most discipline.
This is an original 1930 something telegraph key from the Plant City museim. It used paddles instead of the traditional tapper, apparently to ease operator strain. Insert “telegraph elbow” joke here. I tested paddles a couple of times and found they are more prone to accidental error. The paddles are not operated by squeezing together rather by left or right pressure on one at a time for dots and dashes. Plus, I feel in a dire situation it would be harder to find or rig up a paddle situation, so stick with the key system. An ordinary paddle key these days carries a price tag as high as $300.
One more thing, there is a complaint against paddles that I have never heard leveled at straight keys, it is that some operators can use the paddles in an agressive and annoying manner. Behind the key in the photo is information about insulators. I learned they were originally made out of clay by potters. The later glass insulatiors were better designed to shed rain and, it says, discourage insect nests.
In the curio shop, there was aso a diorama of a WWII German anti-tank squad. It is well done despite many incorrect details. You do not set up your machine gun or park your half-track in front of the muzzle of a 75mm anti-tank cannon. Nor was it a good idea to bunch up just to save the enemy ammunition. The lack of camoflauge is totally wrong, as by the time this combination of arms was possible, the Germans had lost command of the air.
ADDENDUM
For some year already, this blog has pointed out that the election fraud techniques used by the Democrats can only function when the race is close enough that a limited number of fake ballots can tip the scales. Of course, I never get much credit for all this wonderful and free insight, or am I just saying that to rile my detractors? Either way, today I discovered there is finally a term for this factor: the Margin of Fraud. The term is new, so I may be wrong, but I take it to mean the level beyond which no amount of their fraud will work any more.
Ever more big media outfits are beginning to report bad news about Biden and his party. This is unthinkable, because the Democrat party cannot exist without most media as their fifth column. It raises the specter that none of them ever imagined Trump would come back so strong. That, and all their traditional attacks on him have backfired. For example, New York said Trump overvalued his property, which means they taxed him too much on it. Democrats generally prove incapable of thinking ahead. End result—most of their own laws get turned against them. The Internet is largely responsible for a lot of this getting exposed.
