Reg Edwards wrote:
Dear OM Rich,

I have no wish to be unkind but who the hell is Kraus ?

Darned if I know!

Of what particular sect is HE the Saviour?

99.999 percent of radio amateurs, either cannot afford to obtain such
academic works, or have no chance of getting their hands on unsmudged copies
within the next 10 years by which time they will have lost all interest, or,
in any case, of ever understanding what the highly impractical authors are
waffling about.


As for other educational sources, this newsgroup is amongst the most
efficient sources of dis-information ever invented.

Is that the same as B.S?


Have you ever read any of Bertrand Russels's philosophical works on Logic.
I havn't!


But radio is just another hobby. For a few years I gazed expectantly at
Guppies in tropical fish tanks. There was an extended period of being a TN
(Telescope Nuts). Home-brewed 8" Newtonian mirrors and such stuff.

Ahh, another thing we have in common! I enjoy making telescopes. I've
made a 12.5 inch and a 6.5 inch reflector. Great hobby, but the skies
are so often cloudy, so I found amateur radio.

Incidentally, at Chance's Glass Works from where I obtained my mirror
blanks, 2 miles from where I sit at this keyboard, all the World's optical
machinery was manufactured for installation in lighthouses still saving the
lives for 100 years of many thousands of international mariners and
fishermen.. At a distance of 3 miles the world's first iron-hulled steamship
was made. At distance of 1.5 miles were forged the many giant links of the
anchor chains of the Transatlantic Queens Mary and Elizabeth. Underneath the
foundations of this house is a flooded mine which was exhausted of coal 75
years ago. Local coal and limestone was used in the blast furnces to produce
millions of tons molten iron. At a distance of 4 miles remain the hallowed
walls of the factory within which Boulton and Watt constructed the first of
hundreds of giant condensing steam engines to drive not just local factories
but world-wide heavy industrial machinery, textile mills, mine lifts, and
land irrigation pumps. In the Birmingham Science Museum is a steam hammer,
the life expectancy of the operators being about 2 years. At a distance of
4 miles is the more recent laboratory at Birmingham (the original)
University where, under the nightly rain of incendiaries and
high-explosives, Randall and Boot constructed the original 50 KW, 3000 Mc/s,
Pulsed Cavity Magnetron. Churchill was obliged to swap it for bunch of
pre-WW1 rusty destroyers plus several minor colonies of the British Empire.
We wuz robbed. The Earth's crust in these parts is the thinnest anywhere on
Earth. This house is on the slopes of Rowley Hills, a long extinct volcano,
the granite of which (renowned as Rowley Rag) is the world's finest
road-making material. Engineers of the disciplined Roman Legions first
recognised its durability 2000 years ago. Thousands of tons of Rag are still
blasted, crushed, graded and conveyed away to distant parts every day. We
survive in the midst of the dusty, soot-blackened, tainted, remains of
History!


Talking of volcanos, when is Yellowstone, much bigger than Crakatoa, due to
take off?

Could be any time! Did you know that as the earth's crust moves over the
hot spot, the volcano moves south and east? If you ever get the chance
go there. Perhaps the weirdest beautiful place on earth.



However, perhaps after occasionally doing something useful, it will be found
that Internet entertainment, amusement and verbal newsgroup sporting
activities form worthwhile passtimes. When our obese stomachs have been
thrice-each-day distended, and the roof doesn't leak, room temperature is a
comfortable 25 degrees C, the G5RV is in working order, and there's a
month's supply of Viagra in the medicine cabinet conveniently mounted on the
bathroom wall, why should we not sit back and enjoy ouselves in the short
time still available to the human race as Armageddon visibly progresses by
every news bulletin?

Yeah, but you don't have to be so cheerful about it! grin


By the way, on the subject of analysing antenna performance in the rather
obvious terms of transmission lines, has it occurred to anybody to ask what
is Zo = Ro+jXo of a magloop? Or am I just a Troll?

As a confirmed addict to lemonade, tonight I am thinning down the wicked
stuff with Scotch.

ARG, ruining good lemonade like that! But then I'm not fond of Scotch -
the drink - the people are just fine.

- Mike KB3EIA -