[Laser] Add a new band for only $15 bucks!

[Les Rayburn]

While looking at the toy aisle in Wal-Mart for a birthday gift for my niece, 
I found a carded device called an "SMS Messenger" targeted at kids age 6-11. 
It's basically a pair of plastic boxes with a keypad that resemble 
cell-phones. They have an LCD readout, and can be used to send "text" 
messages between the two devices using IR light.

Practical range at nighttime is about 200 feet according to our tests, but 
daytime range was considerably less. With some modification and the addition 
of cheap lenses, these should work out to several hundred yards easily.

The keyboards are not WYSISWYG but rather use a single key to send up to 
four letters and the number depending on how many times it's pushed. Kind of 
like the way we used to send text messages using standard cell phones. Most 
of us have upgraded to Smartphones, and may have lost the skill, but it can 
be quickly relearned. The toy also allows you to program up to 12 "standard" 
messages into the device so that they can be quickly sent again.

So things like "CQ CQ CQ DE NXXX EM74 K" can be put into memory and reused 
easily.

Are these serious devices for the optical experimenter? No...but they can 
get you on a "new band" for under $20 bucks, and you can have some fun 
experimenting with optical communications.

73,


Les Rayburn, N1LF
EM63nf
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114

6M VUCC #1712
Grid Bandit #222
Life Member Central States VHF Society