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Ham Radio other thoughts

Ranger springs, complete! mostly

[today’s run: none]

Today we got the bed put back on the Ranger and got everything all attached.

I’ve decided that I would like to get some better bolts and washers than what I am using.  But there is nothing unsafe about what we have there now.  So we put the topper/cap back on and away home it went with my son.

Whew!  I’m glad that is done.  He reports that it drives differently now.  I’m hoping it will be “better”.

I started fooling around with a couple of new electronics projects this weekend.

I got a pile of Trimble Placer GPS units which are used to track fleet vehicles.  I’ve ordered a little GPS antenna module so that I can try these out and make sure they work.  Most will show up on my table at the Jackson, MS hamfest in January.

Also I finally got past “go” on my nixie clock project.  I don’t have everything worked out but I actually found that the display module in an old frequency counter is going to make a good starting point.  And I can ship the rest of the counter off to a guy in Ohio who wants it.  That cleans up a bit in my junk pile, double win!

Anyway, I pulled down a power supply and I was able to turn on the nixie tubes (they work) and learn a little bit about how to make them go.  And I learned that the total current draw for 6 is going to be about 20 mA, not very much.  I actually have 8 digits on this display module.  Usually HH:MM:SS is 6  I don’t know what I will do with the other two.

And!  I received an early birthday present, a drinking water filter.  My son says that will help save the planet if I can quit buying bottled water.  That’s a good point.