[time-nuts] Some More questions

Neon John jgd at johngsbbq.com
Thu Jan 19 19:26:56 UTC 2006


On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 15:07:47 +0100, "Poul-Henning Kamp"
<phk at phk.freebsd.dk> wrote:


>Their suggestion for a cheap environmental chamber is an old
>fridge where you keep the door closed.  After some weeks it
>will have reached a stable temperature relative to the room.

Heh.  Funny story about that.  Back in the early 80s when our amateur
packet radio club was setting up a high speed (56kbps!) wireless
network in the Atlanta area, I got the idea of using a refrigerator as
an environmental chamber.  We used a PC as the packet switch and it
required pretty good temperature control.  We'd been given a spot at
the 800 ft level of Ch 11's broadcast tower.  I realized that the
fridge would make a fine chamber.  The equipment heat would warm it in
winter and the refrigeration would cool it in summer.

Here are some photos of the fridge going up the tower:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/files/misc/tower1.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/files/misc/tower2.jpg
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/files/misc/tower3.jpg

The tower had a tiny elevator, too small to handle the 'fridge so we
slung it under the cab with rope.

Another guy in the group came up with another whacky idea.  We painted
a couple of paint cans black and glued them along with some black PVC
pipe to the refrigerator.  It looked like a giant handi-talkie!

That thing stayed up there about a year until one day when the news
chopper's live cam didn't have any blood'n'gore to broadcast.  He flew
around the tower zoomed in on the "handi-talkie" for a few minutes.

The station manager had a cow.  He vaguely knew that one of his
engineers was involved with amateur radio and was using the tower.  He
apparently didn't realize it involved a refrigerator.  He didn't give
us time to get it down properly so we went up one blustery winter day,
cut the fridge up with a demolition saw and pushed it over the side.
Sob!
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.johngsbbq.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.-Ralph Waldo Emerson




More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com mailing list