[Elecraft] K3, k4 Black knobs

[Gwen Patton]

I have a few very useful lamps and light-emitting objects. I wear a
RovyVon Aurora A7 keychain light on a bead chain around my neck 24/7. It
has a handful of light levels for the main LED at the front, from 3 lumens
to 650 lumens. (The older 550 lumen version had a smaller battery and a
dazzler strobe on the main LED that the updated 650 lumen version does not
have.) There is a lantern-mode white light on the side that has 3
functions: low, high, and a flasher mode. There's also a side-mounted UV
LED (purple, "black" light). The shell of the flashlight is
glow-in-the-dark blue, and is "charged up" by the UV light. When you turn
off the light the case glows bright enough to see what you're doing. I find
it works great for a night light that doesn't wreck my night vision, but if
critters are going to be attracted to it, that may not be ideal. NEBO makes
a little keychain light, the MYCRO. It has several brightness settings for
the main white LED, but also has a separate RGB diode that they have set to
give green or red. They're both very low light level, probably around 1
lumen, but it's enough to see by. Both are charged using microUSB and have
fairly short charge times. They're both seriously durable as well.

I also plan to experiment with electro-luminescent wire. I have a nice
length in white and one in red. The red is particularly nice, bright enough
to see and even read by. Stretch it out where you need light, turn on the
inverter on the battery box, and there you go, light. My only concern is
that inverter. I haven't checked to see where it's emitting the worst
noise, but I would expect it to give off some amount of RF noise somewhere,
so it might not be ideal for radio operating, depending on where on the
spectrum that noise falls. It might be low enough and on frequencies that
won't matter to Amateur use, but I can't say for sure as I haven't tested
to see where the birdies are chirping. The benefit is flexibility,
relatively good light output, and low cost. The potential issues are in the
necessity for a high-voltage inverter that could put some nasty hash
somewhere we don't want it to. It might be shieldable, I don't know. Anyone
test such stuff for noise output?

Gwen, NG3P

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73,
Gwen, NG3P


On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 1:34 PM Bill Frantz <frantz at pwpconsult.com> wrote:

> I will add, the Tikka has 3 levels of white light and one of
> red. It also has a red blink mode, if you can think of a use for it.
>
> If you are trying to avoid insect attacks, the best color is one
> they can's see. If I remember correctly, most insects see well
> in the blue and UV range.
>
> 73 Bill AE6JV
>
> On 10/16/20 at 1:26 PM, frantz at pwpconsult.com (Bill Frantz) wrote:
>
> >The Petzl Tikka headlamp has a red LED mode. I like them
> >because they seem to be reasonably reliable compared with the
> >other small, inexpensive, headlamps I have used.
> >
> >(One of the other headlamps I otherwise liked kept the battery
> >compartment closed with a thin loop of plastic. After changing
> >the batteries only a few times, the loop broke, the battery
> >compartment wouldn't stay closed, and the contacts on the
> >flopping lid no longer completed the circuit.)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Bill Frantz        | "I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn
> up the
> 408-348-7900       | intelligence.  There's a knob called
> "brightness", but
> www.pwpconsult.com | it doesn't work. -- Gallagher
>
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