VK2TIP Newsletter December, 2001 to February, 2002

Antenna Diplexer, Switched Mode Power Supply and Computer Problems, Book Reviews, Humour, Cooking Recipes, Data Sheet Locator, an inexpensive X-ray machine, how to use old receiving tubes to produce X-rays, The Radioactive Boy Scout, From INTEL - Get your own Horoscope Wallpaper or, New Goodies for Chinese New Year. HUMOUR AND INSPIRATION - "All Washed Up - On an Island" and so much more...

www.electronics-tutorials.com

NEWSLETTER FOR DECEMBER, 2001 TO FEBRUARY, 2002

YOU ARE HERE: HOME > ARCHIVES > VK2TIP IAN PURDIE'S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOR DECEMBER, 2001 TO FEBRUARY, 2002

Back again, ah I return to the 600 a day email syndrome. How have you been? Enjoyed your break away from me? How have I been?

Oh BTW if you view this in any version of Netscape, you might get weird results including all type in bold, I don't know why. If you have disabled cookies (often the default) in any version of I.E. or Netscape, not many internet sites will want to know you in the future.

HELP NEEDED

I'm investigating the possibility of translating my pages into French, German and Japanese. The thought is to then host those pages in those respective countries.

If we have readers fluent in these languages could they contact me with their thoughts.

Also could you recommend electronic technical books written in these languages (including the ISBN)

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING

Never have I encountered so many computer problems. Why does a new 40 Gig hard drive die on me after only ten days? I still have yet to travel down to Sydney to exchange it.

Why does a three year old mother board die just when that type of replacement board is no longer available so you need to buy a new MB AND a new processor?

Oh and of course the switched mode power supply also died a few weeks earlier...

My new year resolution is to become a dab hand at repairing computer switched mode power supplies. I'll then do up a page on this particularly useful topic. Why do computer SMPS's die? I don't know, but I hope Dr. Vince Bello will provide some valuable input. Anybody have a schematic for a traditional computer switched mode power supply?

NEW PAGES ADDED

Antenna Diplexer
"Sometimes with receiving Antennas, problems arise with interference from out of band frequencies. One of many possible solutions is an Antenna Diplexer. Here we make extensive use of our knowledge of both Low Pass Filters as well as High pass Filters to incorporate both types into one combined filter I call an Antenna Diplexer". The principles outlined on this page are useful for a host of other unrelated situations, just use some lateral thinking.

Book Reviews
"Well the good people at Mc Graw-Hill Publishing were kind enough to send along a number of titles in which I was keenly interested to use as book reviews.

A great number of people do take quite seriously my recommendations and I believe it is of the utmost importance I get it right from the start. Any form of writing is quite challenging, doing a book review is particularly challenging. I need to be fair and balanced in my review, the life of a technical author isn't an easy one and it is grossly unfair if a reviewer takes a casual approach to an author's work of love, sweat and tears".

So far I've reviewed three titles. More reviews later. Would you like to be kept up to date on my book reviews? If so send me an email to be added to the book-review mailing list. No cost or obligation, just a free review brought to your attention.

Humour
I'm the life of the party... even if it lasts until 8 p.m... I'm very good at opening childproof caps with a hammer... I'm usually interested in going home before I get to where I am going...

Cooking Recipes
Yep, has actually nothing whatever to do with electronics, but over the christmas - new year period I was sick to death of electronics and wanted to indulge myself in something completely different.

Well I actually know a hell of a lot about cooking and recipes simply because in conjunction with drinking wine it's my very favourite past time and quite healthy also. No not the namby pamby health food kind of cooking, my recipes largely come from my old mum who ensured each of us kids could cook a baked dinner by the time we were 14.

You also had to be able to clean, wash, iron and sew at that age! Other recipes I learned along the way as, in my lifetime, Australia has become a truly multicultural country with a great many nations contributing their style of cooking and sharing their recipes with us.

ARRL ISSUES 2002 EDITION OF HANDBOOK

The year 2002 edition of this famous Handbook is now available from Amazon. Also on offer is a special deal of buying two books at a reduced price. Buy it with The ARRL Antenna Book (19th Ed./Bk&CD-ROM) today!

ADVERTISEMENT FREE VERSION SITE

A total advertisement free version of this electronics-tutorials site together with a printer friendly pdf version of every page PLUS direct access to all DOWNLOADS I've recommended from here, PLUS as much more FREE stuff as I can cram in and, a "FREE" Insiders Newsletter. It will be a subscriber only version. Be treated like Royalty!

COMPUTER PROBLEMS

These ongoing problems myself and everybody else seem to have with computer hardware suggests to me a section devoted to "computer trouble shooting, repair and resources" might be a great idea.

AN EXCELLENT ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

Have you invested $US 20.00 in the most excellent QRP-Quarterly magazine yet - cheaper if you live in the USA?

DATA SHEET LOCATOR

The very lovely Lisa from Gateway Electronics drew to my attention this excellent resource for Data Sheets.

In turn, someone else drew my attention to another site and drat it, I trashed that email along with some spam. I'll update this when I find it.

INTERESTING SITES

From an old radio tube, some copper wire, and other inexpensive materials � total cost: roughly $20 � you can construct an X-ray machine that will make good pictures through an inch of wood.

And Dave, WA4QAL suggests these sites on how to use old receiving tubes to produce X-rays

What happened when a teenager tried a dangerous experiment in his back yard. Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout.

FROM INTEL

Get your own Horoscope Wallpaper
Wondering what the Year of the Horse has in store for you? Find out using our special Chinese New Year Horoscope generator. Enter your Chinese and Western zodiac details and create your very own east-meets-west horoscope wallpaper. Go on, your destiny awaits.

New Goodies for Chinese New Year
This year, why not say 'Kung Hei Fat Choy' the digital way? Send your friends and family an e-card from our special Chinese New Year selection, created especially for the Year of the Horse. And while you're at it, liven up your desktop with an interactive Pinball screensaver.

HUMOUR AND INSPIRATION

The hurricane came unexpectedly. The ship went down and was lost. The man found himself swept up on the shore of an island with no other people, no supplies, nothing to do. Only bananas and coconuts. So for the next four months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice and longed for his old life. He fixed his gaze on the sea, hoping to spot a rescue ship.

One day, as he was lying on the beach, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. It was a rowboat, and in it was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. She rowed up to him. In disbelief, he asked her: "Where did you come from? How did you get here?" "I rowed from the other side of the island," she said. "I landed here when my cruise ship sank." "Amazing," he said. "I didn't know anyone else survived. How many are there? You were lucky to have a rowboat wash up with you." "Its only me," she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up; nothing did." He was confused.

"Then how did you get the rowboat?" "Oh, simple," replied the woman. "I made the rowboat out of materials that I found on the island. The oars were whittled from Gum tree branches. I wove the bottom from palm branches and the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree." "B-B-But that's impossible," stuttered the man. "You had no tools or hardware. How did you manage?" "Oh, that was no problem," replied the woman. "On the other side of the island there is a very unusual rock formation exposed. I found that if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into iron. I used that for tools, and used the tools to make the hardware." "But enough of that," she said. "Where do you live?" Sheepishly, he confessed that he had been sleeping on the beach the whole time. "Well, let's row over to my place, then." she said.

After a few minutes of rowing she docked the boat at a small wharf. As the man looked to the shore, he nearly fell out of the boat. Before him was a stone walk leading to an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white. While the woman tied up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, the man could only stare ahead, dumbstruck.

As they walked into the house, she said casually, "It's not much, but I call it home. Sit down, please; would you like a drink?" "No, no thank you," he said, still dazed. "I can't take any more coconut juice." "It's not coconut juice," the woman replied. "I have a still. How about a Pina Colada?" Trying to hide his amazement, the man accepted, and they sat down on her couch to talk.

After they had exchanged their stories, the woman announced, "I'm going to slip into something comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There is a razor upstairs in the bathroom." No longer questioning anything, the man went into the bathroom. There in the cabinet was a razor made from a bone handle. Two shells honed to a hollow ground edge were fastened onto it's end. "This woman is amazing," he thought. "What next?"

When he returned, she greeted him wearing nothing but vines and smelling faintly of gardenias. She beckoned for him to sit down next to her. "Tell me," she began, suggestively, slithering closer to him, "we've been out here for a very long time. You've been lonely. There's something I'm sure you really feel like doing right now, something you've been longing for all these months. You know..."

"You mean--?" he replied, "I can check into the Flying Pigs QRP CW Net from here????"

IF YOU ENJOY RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER

Tell a friend to subscribe, tell a news group or a discussion group, tell the world! Write to your favourite magazine! Email costs absolutely nothing, well very little anyway.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter in its entirety to other interested people. Please do.

See Robert Marlbrough, Jr. for Hosting, Design, eCommerce,
Registrations, Search Engines, Marketing, and more. Visit Rob's site today! Good value, nice bloke.
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/presswizards/

ARCHIVES OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS:

FINALLY

Please send me your valuable comments and suggestions! Tell your friends, tell a news group, tell the world!

YOU ARE HERE: HOME > ARCHIVES > VK2TIP IAN PURDIE'S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOR DECEMBER, 2001 TO FEBRUARY, 2002

The author Ian C. Purdie, VK2TIP of www.electronics-tutorials.com asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this web site and all contents herein. Copyright © 2000 - 2001 - 2002, all rights reserved. See copying and links.

These electronic tutorials are provided for individual private use and the author assumes no liability whatsoever for the application, use, misuse, of any of these projects or electronics tutorials that may result in the direct or indirect damage or loss that comes from these projects or tutorials. All materials are provided for free private and public use.

Commercial use prohibited without prior written permission from www.electronics-tutorials.com.