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The strange dial sticking out of the right side of my head is a barometer for measuring air pressure, not inside my head but atmospheric pressure. The other strange object sitting on top of the switch boxes will be immediately recognisable by a few strange people who have difficulty with one of their trouser legs.
I retired from my profession during 1995 and began building kites to further my hobby of Amateur
Radio, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view the kite building began to take over
my life and I inadvertently found myself working full time again. I now only build kites when I feel like it, It's
only a hobby now and that's the way I intend it to stay.
There are three other VHF/UHF rigs, An Alinco DJ-G5 used for back packing and possible emergencies.. An Alinco DR-150E used in the car and a very simple Yaesu FT-23R which is exclusively used in the kitchen to monitor my favourite frequency S22, 145,550 Mhz. I am also a compulsive designer and builder, the debris in the shed is witness to that.
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Two simple Lightening Detector Circuits.
My home was struck by lightening on 8th June 2003 and cost my insurance company several thousand
pounds
to replace my computers and radio equipment. Lightning is a terrible force of nature and a warning of its approach
will give you time to disconnect everything, hopefully in time before a strike hits. I have also recently taken up hill walking which represents another chance of possibly being struck so I decided to do something about it. The circuit I am now using is my version of http://www.techlib.com/electronics/lightning.html which I have updated to more readily available transistors 2N3906 and 2N3904. All I need from this unit is for a buzzer to sound each time there is a discharge and to turn itself off immediately to await the next discharge. The original SCR version would not reliably turn off when using a DC supply but this more complicated version is be very economical powered by two AA cells, or with the addition of a 78L05 a miniature 12v or 9v battery.
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