Peter Hendra wrote in
:

My wife's people (Maori's) in New Zealand

Wow...lucky guy! Maori women are a truly beautiful set of genes...(c;

Larry
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On Apr 28, 8:07 pm, Larry wrote:
Peter Hendra wrote :

My wife's people (Maori's) in New Zealand

Wow...lucky guy! Maori women are a truly beautiful set of genes...(c;

Larry
--

You like the tatoo's....right ?

Joe

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

Seriously though, I am truly appreciative of your advice in this and
all matters. What you say about backstay aerials makes sense and I
shall do as you suggest. What I would really like, as do most others,
is long range voice comms. If anything reasonable helps in any way, I
will do it. There is nothing quite so annoying as to not be able to
receive an interpretable weather fax because of poor reception.


Whatever else you can do to move as much of the suspended metal away from
the radiating antenna element is of most importance in creating more
field strength at the remote receiver.

When Geoffrey first got Lionheart, the mainmast backstay on the ketch
goes from the rear of the center cockpit right up in parallel with the
boom lift, which WAS a stainless steel cable attached to the mast. If
the boat were close hauled, that cable was only a couple of feet from the
radiating backstay and just sucked the signal the transmitter was putting
out right out of the air. We replaced it with a proper, non-conductive,
line and got rid of the mainsail problem. It matters not where the main
is sheeted to the transmission, now.

I also made the backstay antenna BIGGER, longer, with a capacitor hat
top, because I find we use the lower HF frequencies more often. The
triattic between the masts was insulated fore and aft making a flat top
insulated wire. I insisted on the highest voltage insulators because at
the top end of every HF antenna, no matter what frequency you are on,
there is no current, only very high voltage at the top. I then added a
small cable from the upper end of the insulated backstay antenna (below
the upper insulator, of course) to the center of the triattic right above
it, creating a longer antenna with a capacitor hat top.

http://www.cebik.com/gp/cp-th.html
Notice the radiation pattern graph on this webpage of a vertical dipole,
a 1/4 wave vertical against a ground plane (that ocean ground we want)
and how the radiation pattern is much more HORIZONTAL, out towards that
remote station we are trying to contact, with the addition of the
triattic capacitor hat. Anything we can do to lower the vertical's too-
high radiation angle will make our signal much stronger out over the
horizon as it will lower the angle of attack on the ionosphere.

I've been playing with antennas since I was 10. I've been burned playing
with antennas since I was 11....the day the first ham transmitter was
operated...(c; That was 1957...a great year for ham radio at the peak of
the sunspot cycle maximum.

Larry W4CSC - proof positive RF ISN'T hazardous to your health.
I'm still being burned playing with antennas...(c;
--

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

I'll add the ground from my stays. By the way, I neglected to tell
that I have a painted box section wooden mast, deck stepped. Forestay,
backstays and capshrouds are electrically connected due to their
attachment at the head of the mast. There is an aluminium sailtrack
which has no connection. Should this be a factor for consideration?


I'd feel better if you'd add a smooth metal cap at the top of the mast to
bleed off static buildup before it causes a strike.

We've learned a lot since the "lightning rod" days, one of the worst
things ever done to protect buildings from lightning. Remember those
sharp-pointed lightning rods that sprayed electrons into the air to
ionize it and GIVE the clouds a path to ground....right at the top of the
flammable barn roof? This was NOT the way to protect buildings!

Today, lightning systems use a grounded, smooth copper flashing that
distributes the electrons along a smooth, long surface to release them
over as wide an area as possible. A pointy grounded thingy ATTRACTS
lightning because there is a concentrated stream of electrons spraying
off the point, ionizing the air above the point...exactly what the cloud
is looking for.

If there's some kind of metal ring at the top of the mast that's grounded
by the various shrouds and stays, that's great. A metal cap that can
take a pretty good strike, might also keep a hit from boiling the sap in
the mast, creating a steam explosion and putting you out of the sailing
business. This alone makes a mast top bypass cap a good thing.

Larry
--

If there's some kind of metal ring at the top of the mast that's grounded
by the various shrouds and stays, that's great. A metal cap that can
take a pretty good strike, might also keep a hit from boiling the sap in
the mast, creating a steam explosion and putting you out of the sailing
business. This alone makes a mast top bypass cap a good thing.

Larry

yes, it is just as you describe, but this generates another question
(sorry). I had often thought of putting a pointed copper rod on top
grounded to the stays as per many books and articles on the matter. I
have never done so because I believed that it would act as an
attractant, rather like Benjamin Franklin's key on the kite string.

Also what got hit first during the lightning strike in Malaysia - the
day we went back into the water before setting out across the Indian
Ocean mind you - was the VHF aerial. the question is - does the damned
thing act as a lightning attractor as it is the highest thing there?

cheers
Peter

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:07:51 +0000, Larry wrote:

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

My wife's people (Maori's) in New Zealand

Wow...lucky guy! Maori women are a truly beautiful set of genes...(c;

Larry
Correction Larry,
Gene carriers - remember your Dawkins or do you wish chapter and
verse. I'd have to look it up.

If you like Dawkins (personally I think he is a pompous English prigg
- but he may act differently to Americans. In Australia he was rather
patronisingly superior to the colonials but it could also have been
nervousness), you should like Gerard Diamond. The first book of his I
read was "The Third Chimpanzee". Perhaps it is because my formal
education was in Zoology that I find him interesting but I admit to
being disappointed that he made no mention that North Americans have
only descended from the trees more recently than the population in the
Antipodes. I was hoping to find a scientific rationale for the
American failure to appreciate really good coffee - straight black and
strong (Hello Vic Smith)

Seriously though, he provides some thought provoking concepts that I
know you will enjoy. From memory, he talks about conditioning for mate
selection - pink painted mother rat's nipples causing the male
offspring to prefer mating with females with similar painted nipples
and a hoist of other thought provoking concepts. I know that you will
enjoy it. If you cannot find a copy let me know and I shall send you
one as a small payment for your valuable help.I have kept my copy and
have bought copies for other people as I don't want to lend mine.

cheers
Peter

I have kept my copy and have bought copies for other people as I don't
want to lend mine.

On 28 Apr 2007 18:32:57 -0700, Joe wrote:

On Apr 28, 8:07 pm, Larry wrote:
Peter Hendra wrote :

My wife's people (Maori's) in New Zealand

Wow...lucky guy! Maori women are a truly beautiful set of genes...(c;

Larry
--

You like the tatoo's....right ?

Joe
My Dear Joe and Larry,

Sorry guys, I too had to wait for the African articles in the National
Geographic (a la Bill Crosby) to come out for my sex education.

Sorry to burst your bubble but paint on tattoos are nowadays for the
tourists. My wife/owner no longer swings from tree to tree though she
did have her own horse at age 3 on the farm, climbs to the top of the
mast and dives under to clear the prop. without hesitation now - I
have developed whimpitis with age and only do so when she is not
around. The closest thing to a tattoo she has had is spending four
hours getting her hands and feet - even the soles - hennaed by some
Bedu women in Sudan. She is an accountant, a most boring occupation.

Sorry, her father does not dress in a piupiu (dressed flax skirt) and
run about amok with a spear and a jade club anymore. He hasn't the
time as he milks 180 dairy cows with electricity and a milking machine
and has beef cattle that have to be mustered out of the forest every
year on horseback as well as sheep. They may have eaten people up
until the late 19th century and had vicious inter tribal warfare (the
socially insensitive Christian missionaries put a a stop to that), but
today, apart from tribal and family customs, they live pretty much the
same as other Kiwians. My mother-in-law is even an Anglican
(Episcopalean to thee) minister - her 32 year long prayers for my
conversion have not yet been answered. I am still a staunch "pagan" to
use her words and shall eventually be consumed by hell fire. If so, I
am sure that I will be in the very best of company. I'd hate wings on
my back and white does not suit my complexion anyway.

cheers
Peter

P.S. to those simple souls out there. No, I am not anti-Christian
either AND I'm directing my intercourse (No, damn it!!! I'm not gay
either - look it up in the dictionary) at Larry and Joe.

* Peter Hendra wrote, On 4/28/2007 10:16 PM:
On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:07:51 +0000, Larry wrote:

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

My wife's people (Maori's) in New Zealand
Wow...lucky guy! Maori women are a truly beautiful set of genes...(c;

Larry
Correction Larry,
Gene carriers - remember your Dawkins or do you wish chapter and
verse. I'd have to look it up.

If you like Dawkins (personally I think he is a pompous English prigg
- but he may act differently to Americans. In Australia he was rather
patronisingly superior to the colonials but it could also have been
nervousness), you should like Gerard Diamond. The first book of his I
read was "The Third Chimpanzee".

I've enjoyed his books also. (Its Jared Diamond)

Perhaps it is because my formal
education was in Zoology that I find him interesting but I admit to
being disappointed that he made no mention that North Americans have
only descended from the trees more recently than the population in the
Antipodes.

??? Are you claiming that Aborigines are an earlier branch of
primates and not the same species as Homo Sapiens? (I'm sure you're
joking here.)

IIRC, he does go to some lengths to explain how the Antipodes were
populated long before other parts of the world, and then isolated.

I was hoping to find a scientific rationale for the
American failure to appreciate really good coffee - straight black and
strong (Hello Vic Smith)

A century ago people throughout the US home roasted and thus drank
quality coffee. Then the large companies started "improving" it,
first with pre-ground, then percolators, and as the final insult,
instant coffee. Instant was developed for the soldiers in WWII, where
anything warm was appreciated. It unfortunately created a generation
of Americans for whom percolator coffee is a step up. Then we
suffered through a wave of flavored "gourmet" coffee, and now
over-roasted, over-priced, milk based concoctions are in vogue.

However, that said, there has been for the last 30 years a small but
growing cadre of true coffee lovers in the US. In every area of the
country there is a high quality roaster, producing coffee that is the
equal of any in the world. Every city has several cafes that serve
high quality coffee and European style espresso.

Here's a roaster local to me:

http://www.terroircoffee.com/

George Howell was the founder of Coffee Connection years ago, and more
recently created the Cup of Excellence program, where small farmers
are encouraged to produce the highest quality beans with country wide
competitions and small lot auctions based on the results.


Seriously though, he provides some thought provoking concepts that I
know you will enjoy. From memory, he talks about conditioning for mate
selection - pink painted mother rat's nipples causing the male
offspring to prefer mating with females with similar painted nipples
and a hoist of other thought provoking concepts. I know that you will
enjoy it. If you cannot find a copy let me know and I shall send you
one as a small payment for your valuable help.I have kept my copy and
have bought copies for other people as I don't want to lend mine.

Most of Jared Diamond's works are still in print and available at
Amazon, etc. I found "The Third Chimp..." interesting, but a warmup
from "Guns, Germs, and Steel" which goes into great detail in the
question of why Western civilization evolved on a different track from
Native American, and ultimately dominated.

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

He hasn't the
time as he milks 180 dairy cows with electricity and a milking machine


I was born and raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York. My grandfather
milked 360 head of the biggest Holstein milk producers on the planet, 3
times a day. I, on the other hand, have more sense than to work 18 hours a
day like he did most of his life. I do, though, have extensive experience
running milk machines, bailing hay all summer, loading silos, unloading
silos, feeding, shoveling sh*t and spreading it across pure snow all
winter, to the delight of the crops planted in the spring....

Joining the Navy in 1964 was one good, politically-correct way out of the
dairy business.....forever....(c;

I didn't find out until I was in the Navy that you DIDN'T pour pure cream
from Grandma's precious Guernsey's onto breakfast cereal! Those idiots
were putting SUGAR on it! Very strange, city folks. They think "milk" has
only 6% butterfat in it...which, to us farm boys, is like "skim milk"...(c;

Larry
--
Still supporting America's Dairy Farmers.....every day.

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

Gerard Diamond. The first book of his I
read was "The Third Chimpanzee"

I'll keep my eye open.....

Prof Dawkins is just a typical college professor. Our math professor used
to march into the room in the morning and announce, "Good morning,
Inferiors." They don't have much behind those grey walls, you know.....

I just think Dawkins is right. The earth IS older than 6000 years old,
like Christians are teaching some really nice kids every day, here. I
agree this stupidity taught in religious schools as fact is CHILD ABUSE.

Larry
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