[Elecraft] lead

[N2EY@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/24/04 9:31:56 AM Eastern Standard Time, wa2dkg@juno.com 
writes:


> It is mass hysteria...

Not really.

Tried to buy a fishing sinker lately?...

Yes - got a bunch for my antenna launcher. Yes, they're lead. 

The launcher is a homemade slingshot/spinning reel combo that I used to put 
up a trap dipole. It worked well enough with my K2 to make a well over 250 QSOs 
.

When I was
> 
> a kid in the 1930's, all the plumbing was lead, all the paint contained
> lead, and all toy soldiers, automobiles, and trains were made of lead,
> but we are still here!!!...Congress needs to set up a multi-million
> 
> dollar commission and find out why that is...

It's because you didn't eat them. Look up what happened to the Franklin 
expedition that sought the Northwest Passage.

The concern with lead and some other heavy metals is that they have been 
shown
to have serious health effects when ingested. Particularly harmful to 
children. And if it gets in the air or water, it's difficult or impossible to remove. 
That's why lead in gasoline, paint and plumbing had to be eliminated, and why 
you shouldn't just toss old car batteries (or SLA cells like the one in a K2) 
in the trash. 

The problem with electronic solder isn't that we're going to eat it or drink 
it or inhale it directly, but that someday the things made with it will wind 
up in the waste stream, and then we *will* eat/drink/inhale it.. (Not my 
K2!!!). So the regulators have decided that rather than requiring intelligent 
disposal/recycling of electronics (which makes more sense), they will eliminate the 
lead from being in the electronics in the first place. To me that's simply not 
the best or even the least expensive solution. 

73 de Jim, N2EY 


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