03 May 2014

First time in Japan

This morning on 12 m I got my first reply from JA. OM JF2IWW was 539 with deep QSB, but he copied my 5 W and gave me a 439. Then fading took him away and I missed most of his message, but I heard his final greetings.

I would like to know more about his power and antenna, but there is nothing online.

02 May 2014

How cellphones vibrates

Vibration alert in mobile phones is accomplished with a small but powerful electric motor that spins a small asymmetrical weight. In the picture below the motor is the "horizontal cylinder", while a 50 €cent coin gives an idea of actual size. The third object is a 1F 5V supercapacitor.

Small motor, 1F 5V supercap and a 50 €cent coin.
What do these have to do in my blog? Well, I bought two rubber band powered airplanes as a gift, and as soon as I saw them flying I immediately wanted to "improve" them with a longer flight time. How? My idea is to use the small motor and the supercap. The total weight is about 5 grams and the motor runs longer than 10 seconds off the supercapacitor. I need to figure out a way to easily power the motor after launch: a normally closed tactile switch could be handy.

Nevertheless, a bigger challenge is how to connect the motor to the propeller...