Nattering.

Well, it seems the gun blog has become the gun and electronics blog... and that's ok.

MSL is now completely in the basement though I still need to arrange everything and hook up all the equipment. There's a fair bit more storage space there but there's also a lot more junk and I've got the feeling I need to sit down, bite the bullet, and fill up a 40 gallon trash bag or two. I've always had a touch of the packrat gene...

There's new stuff on the way, in both camps. There's another box of tubes coming, a 29-count lot. I *wanted* one tube, a 1S4, but for $30 I got a whole box of 1-5v low voltage tubes that are going to be much easier to play with than the six to forty some odd volt stuff from the other lots. A D cell for A supply and ten or twelve cheap rechargable nine volts (8.4v X 12 series = 100.8v) for a B supply and I'm good to go there. I have in my hot little hands a schematic for the 1S4 that makes a nifty single ended ~150mW audio amp; it's partially transistor based since it uses a hex schott trigger and a 2n2222 as a "tickler" for an inductive circuit that raises 3V to ~100 for the high tension section, essentially a crude "switching" power supply. Schematic calls for AA cells but I'll use C or D cells for time, and it also says Hammond 1650P... no way am I shoving a $75 transformer onto what's basically an overwarmed headphone amp. I'll find some cheapo little ~7K/8ohm transformer to use instead.

I have a feeling that the "chassis" I'm going to use will be improvised, and that main input will be a 1/4" mono jack... a little nifty practice amp for guitar, which I still want to learn how to play eventually. If I can make the cells fit it might get built into an upside-down aluminum backpacker's mess kit.

I did mention there's stuff coming as far as gun items... I found a cheap copy of Datig's Cartridges for Collectors, Vol I on Amazon yesterday.

To close with a strange gun, the shop has a stainless Bauer .25acp. I have an Italian pocket mouse gun, I have a French pocket mouse gun. Shall I have an American pocket mouse gun? I await pricing. I'll also have to get rid of the shnazzy second-cousin-of-pearl grips, if I can. The gun is basically a stainless Vest Pocket copy, pretty well made at that.