[GreenKeys] Progress report.... on topic and slighty off topic

Fri Apr 12 21:59:11 EDT 2013

Thanks for showing the progress  Joe! nice cable lacing too! 

The  cats  are  great!  2 of our  3 are a  match  for  yours in size and 
color!  They are always    so curious  when I am working on things here at  
home..  

Downtown  we do not have any inside the museum  but there  are  some wild 
ones  that come to the  front of the building and  visit.

Ed# www.smecc.org

In a message dated 4/12/2013 1:13:45 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
rokumoncat at yahoo.com writes:

Hi Again...

This winter has been a PIA, with both my  health (or lack thereof) and the 
weather, and a  combination of the two. While I have been  advised by the 
local media that spring is here,  I have my serious doubts to that statement. 
BUT,  the good thing with the rainy gloomy weather is  that besides the fact 
that both the pond and the  sanitary drain pond are full to their proper  
level, the hay field that I top  seeded last fall is sprouting nicely.  I 
must say that it was very strange  earlier this month to have a driving snow 
storm  with six inches accumulation, yet the frogs were  croaking in the ponds 
at four in the morning.  

With the weather, work on the "outside  plant" has been minimal. Very soon, 
weather be  good or bad, I must repair the chicken  run and hen house. A 
raccoon had torn part of  the fence down (and had a very acute,  lethal case 
of lead and copper poisoning),  which allowed a fox (too pretty to dispatch) 
to  kill a couple of our birds. A permanent fence  repair along with an 
electric outside the fence  wire will help, I hope.

With all of the 'global warming' preventing  me to work outside this winter 
and  spring, the "inside plant" progress has  been great!

First of all, the 1950's vintage radio rack  that was given to me for 
hauling it away has  been power washed, the locks re-keyed and the  paint touched 
up. I used an auto paint cleaner  and polish on it, which really worked. 
Then I  installed a fan on top of the unit to help  dissipate the heat 
generated by hopefully  hundreds of vacuum tubes glowing in the  night.

The first photo is of the front of the rack  showing the first jack strip 
that I had  installed. This jack strip is the "source loop  signals" for my 
TTY system. Yes, that is a lot  of jacks, and I only have a few 'sources' so  
far, but one can be optimistic! The 'scope over  the jack strip is just 
sitting there for the  time being to keep it out of the way. It is DOA,  and I 
will take it out later and try to get it  operational. The space it occupies 
will be used  for a set of four loop current power supplies  that I am 
going to build. This set up will have  a four local circuit capability when 
complete,  (I hope).

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2088_zps3b57d1be.jpg

The next two photos are shots from the  back of the cabinet. In this one, 
only the back  of the 'scope can be seen, but I included it as  the chief RMO 
(Rodent Mitigation Officer) can be  seen doing her duty.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2082_zps1a02e74f.jpg

This shot is of the rear of the jack panel,  and shows the cables coming 
off of the back of  the jacks. You can see that I attempted to lace  the 
cables, but I fear that the lacing job would  have gotten me court marshaled in  
the Navy or fired from Western Electric. The one  jack that can be seen 
dangling from the strip  had to be re-soldered and the contacts polished  
because it had too high a resistance for my  liking. It is now re-seated in the 
strip.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2080_zps5087d1fc.jpg

This shot is of the shelf in the middle of  the cabinet that the screw 
terminal strips will  be located for the incoming and out-going loop  source 
signals. Note the roll of waxed linen  lacing twine. Unfortunately, that twine  
sometimes distracts the RMO from her  duties.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2086_zps930f804d.jpg

This next photo is of the jack side of my  loops unit. I found it and payed 
too much for it  on e-pay, but it was of good quality. I would  have rather 
had used a Western  Electric, but the jacks were WE and so I used  it. It 
came off of a Neve recording mixer, and  so I knew that it was a good 
quality. The jacks  were stamped with 1983, so they were at least  thirty years 
old. Thus, I took them individually  apart, (WE jacks can be disassembled and  
reassembled), cleaned them, buffed the contact  points with black 
construction paper and  reassembled them. My nine year old grand  daughter and I wired 
it for loop use and  soldered it. Yes, I taught her how to solder. No  
sexism at our QST!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2093_zps19a96892.jpg

And this photo is of the front of the rack  again, after the loops were 
installed. One of  the reasons that I used this particular jack  strip is that 
it has six distinct sets of eight  jacks. Thus, I used the sets as 
individual  loops. I know that it probably would not be a  good idea to use eight 
different devices in one  loop due to distortion, but it does give me  options 
such as putting a mA meter in the loop  or to (with out the power supply in 
the loop) to  check the resistance with an ohm meter. Unlike  Naval units, 
there is NO loop current power  supply hooked to the loops. It is strictly  
passive. I did this to give me the greatest  flexibility possible.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2094_zps66a45d48.jpg

Finally, here is one last shot of the RMO,  who is feeling quite satisfied 
with herself and  her position in 'the organization'!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2083_zps381a5522.jpg

Now for the non-TTY OT part of this  report...

As I have posted in the past, I am also  into electromechanical telephony 
and radiation  science. I am working on attempting to construct  a small 
stepper CO a.k.a. an SXS switch.  It has been slow but steady going. My  main 
accomplishments on this front is  to gather the things needed for the power  
plant. To this end, I have acquired a very heavy  steel rack, a 48 volt high 
current battery  charger, a 28 volt talk supply, and a smaller WE  power 
supply for a 555 cord board, where all the  "0" for operator calls will go. 
Some may  remember that I was going to have the 48 volt  power supply cab grit 
blasted. Well, as everyone  knows, the best laid plans of mice and men...  
Well, the grit blaster became yet another victim  of this wonderful "new 
economy", and went out of  business. There are other sand blasters in the  city, 
but they are all in very unsavory parts of  town, and I prefer not to go 
there. Thus, I am  prepping the cabinet the old fashioned way...  Take a look:

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2097_zps0723421d.jpg

Here is a view of the inside of this  monster. It is very heavy, and the 
iron inside  this thing is the reason...

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_2096_zps6b5ad109.jpg

It looks small in the photos, but it just  fits into a 19 inch rack. For me 
to move this  takes planning and a sturdy dolly. My wonderful  just 16 year 
old nephew merely picks it up and  asks me where I want it. Sigh. He is a 
good kid.  His mother tells me that I am more of a father  to him than his 
ever was. Seems that is my  fate... I have no biological children of my own,  
but many that call me dad or grandpa.

And finally, here is a cute photo of  another of the four legged kids... he 
is around  14, and was telling me in no uncertain terms  that he was not 
listening to anything that I had  to say at the moment. I think he  was 
'birdwatching' at the moment.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/IMG_1856.jpg

Oh, I forgot, one last thing. This photo I  snagged off of the Internet. If 
anyone knows  where I can find one of these for a price that  does not 
require a second mortgage on the house,  please let me know. They were called 
the "Call  Director" by ma Bell, and I remember when they  were ubiquitous. 
Now they are very hard to  find.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j291/AmourDuTigre/KGrHqUOKkEE4mCUVNCiBOTuZ
E7tg48_3.jpg

Well, that is it for now! Happy Teletyping to all!  

(I hope that I did not bore anyone too bad...)

Best,

Joe  Herdler

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