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NEWSLETTER FOR SEPTEMBER, 2001

YOU ARE HERE: HOME  > ARCHIVES  > VK2TIP IAN PURDIE'S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOR SEPTEMBER, 2001

Hello Folks,

Welcome to the new style of Newsletter. Also of course welcome to our 139 new subscribers this month.

The interim Newsletter produced a response greater than the normal 8, in fact 198 people replied [apathy is still alive and well]. Roughly, and I'm not going to search through to find the exact number [8, 9 or 10] of dissenters, 95% voted in favour of the new format.

Thanks to all the replies and particularly the warm expressions of encouragement, support and appreciation. Sorry I can't find time for individual replies but I'll try and broadly cover main comments raised.

With so many subscribers it is impossible to get the right mix of downloads, technical content, technical news, jokes etc. to suit everybody's tastes. I have enough trouble trying to keep some balance at home and that's with only one person to please there... What you get is the best I can do on the day(s)...

Well those 99 bounced emails I had mentioned in the interim Newsletter certainly turned out to be very interesting. Take out the usual 30 odd and we had this excess number of around 70, guess what?

Everyone of them totalled ALL my subscribers from @usa.net. Every single subscriber from there. What gives I ask myself?

By pure coincidence a day later a new subscriber came from @usa.net and being the nosey type I asked Bernard if there had been any changes at usa.net. He says:

"Well actually there is something happening in "usa.net"... they started charging for their mail service. Therefore a lot of people that used to subscribe to usa.net for free just got their email account closed or cancelled".

Golly, gee-whiz,  and didn't a "chicken little" me prophesise a few months back "the internet was no longer free".

Stand by for a lot more of this in all areas... Back to electronics.

1.     NEW SCIENCE: A Really Far Out Pioneer

This really fascinated me. Gives a whole new meaning to a "milliwatt per mile award" or, if your into sci-fi, "E.T. Phone Home".

Report: August 25, 2001
"In late April, a Deep Space Network radio antenna detected an intelligent radio signal from the direction of the constellation Taurus.  The feeble contact registered only about a billionth of a trillionth of a watt -- but it had a powerful effect on NASA scientists!..."

See:
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/news/2001/news-pioneer10.asp?list34615-91

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2.     HAM RADIO OPERATORS FEAR FOR THEIR ART

By - Mike Wendland:

Why do I devote so much space to amateur radio? Here's part of the answer below.

The other part of the answer is that most, but not all, professionals or academics I know in electronics also happen to be ham operators.

I am grateful to Brian Murrey of FP who alerted me to this very interesting news article by Mike Wendland in the "Detroit Free Press" on 7th July.

"Call them the original geeks. Ham radio operators, the hobbyists who pioneered the communications mediums we now take for granted, are still pushing the envelope and still irritating neighbors who think..."

See:
http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend7_20010707.htm

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3.     HOW TO REMAGNETIZE OLD HEADPHONES

By - Tom Provost and Gary D'Amico:

This topic had a fairly good airing on "glowbugs" lately. They're people who are in love with valve (tube) equipment, restoration and even new construction.

As they say "nostalgia is a thing of the past"...

See:
http://www.headwize.com/projects/provost_prj.htm

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4.     A GUIDE TO HOMEMADE CLEANERS

More nostalgia BUT I'm real big on this kind of thing. I'm cheap and I'm a "greenie". Before you send me "hate mail", consider this fact:

The fastest and largest growing environmental group in Australia are farmers. It's called common sense "self interest". Source: Episode of ABC-TV "Landline", a rural documentary programme for farmers in Australia.

This is a most excellent site and really worth poring over. Save money!

See:
http://www.frugal-moms.com/cleaning/homemadecleaners.shtml

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5.     AN EXCELLENT ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE - entirely non-profit

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

Visit QRP Amateur Radio Club, International - special page for you alone:

Welcome friends from Ian Purdie http://america.net/~w4qo/purdie.html

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6.     NO ONE TOOK ADVERTISING SPACE

[advertisement deleted] 7.     LINDSAY'S TECHNICAL BOOKS

No I don't have any connection with Lindsay's Technical Books but I do have a "cattle dog", that's Australian for catalogue.

Lindsay's are noted for "Highest quality books, new and old, for experimenters, inventors, tinkerers, mad scientists, and a very few normal people..."

I'm in there somewhere. Just a FREE plug because I think so many titles are so interesting.

See:
http://www.lindsaybks.com/

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8.     MY CURRENT WEATHER

If you're curious today.

See:
My weather at the moment!

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9.     DIGITAL RADIO

From Texas Instruments:

"One of the final bastions of analog processing on the planet, radio, is about to enter the digital revolution. Not since the advent of the transistor radio (also pioneered by Texas Instruments) has radio seen such a radical change in reception and transmission technology. This follows other analog to digital transformations such as CDs, cell phones, still cameras, etc. Like these examples, the change in radio will have far reaching implications..."

See:
http://www.ti.com/sc/radioinfo

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10.     DAMN "LIES AND STATISTICS"

The growth was up again slightly throughout August.... everyone still enjoying fine weather?

As at the last day of the month:

Last month, August was 54,535 unique visitors (July 52,593) looking at a total of 159,782 page views (July 157,225) - New subscribers to this newsletter were of course 139, unsubscribes were a big total of 21 (the ARRL support article?, no sense of humour?, oh well...) and I had to delete 101 "bounced" last month.

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11.     HUMOUR AND INSPIRATION (by ever popular demand) -

First off, sent by Rob (FP). The significance of a "U.S. One dollar bill".

See:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/US-dollar-bill.htm

AND - from Chuck (FP)

A young blonde lady had the windows in her house replaced with new double-insulated energy efficient windows.

Twelve months later she gets a call from the contractor, complaining that the work has been done for a year and she has yet to make the first payment.

The blonde replies, "Now don't try to pull a fast one on me. The salesman who sold me those told me that in one year they would pay for themselves."

AND Dan's (FP) contribution's

I can see the point in all of these:

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

ALSO

A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!"

The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude! " The pastor said, "Hey, here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." [dramatic pause] "Hi George, say, what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The group was silent for a moment.

The pastor said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"

AND AGAIN

"Normal people... believe that if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it isn't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet." - Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle

EVEN MORE

An engineer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess".

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want."

Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, "Look I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog... now that's cool.

Ah! the wonderful Flying Pigs

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12.     NOW ONCE AGAIN FOR EVERYBODY

Be on good terms with yourself, feel smug for the rest of this week. Go here and kindly DO something constructive for us all.
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/site-costs-donation.htm

These fine folks did! - updated
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/donor-listing.htm

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A PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION - Affiliated

Ian Purdie, VK2TIP of www.electronics-tutorials.com personally uses and recommends - Web Wizards - this is where my main site lives in the U.S.A.:
https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/presswizards/

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/

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https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/newsletter/newsletter.htm

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That's all folks

72/73's and oink

Ian Purdie Budgewoi N.S.W. Australia - Co-ords S33º14', E151º34'
VK2TIP "I'll give ya the TIP mate" QRP-L #1978. SOC #171 FP#91
URL - https://www.electronics-tutorials.com/
URL - http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic/