Craig Sawyers

Ah - I'd linked in to the Appalachian trail, for which the stats are correct. Much further from Washington State though. Although there is a Transamerica trail, it is usually cycled. From Astoria Oregon to Yorktown Virginia, 4261 miles. Or the Transameric run, LA to NY next due in 2011. Usually 64 days. Longest leg 59 miles.

Uh - looking that up, it is 2200 miles with 475,000 feet of ascent (er - 16 Everests). Apparently the record stands at about 47 days - or about 47 miles a day and 10,000 feet average. Jeeze. In the UK, you'd have to do Lands End to John'o'Groats, back again, and then return to John'o'Groats to cover the same distance. And you'd never get that amount of ascent.

Yeah - the big ones cover a lot of the country. The longest individual event is the Canal Run Grand Union Canal 145 mile Race - Welcome at 145 miles, from Birmigham to London. I've organised a Thames Path run twice, from the Thames Barrier to the Source, which is 185 miles, but as a relay with individual legs of between 5 and 20 miles. Both these are flat of course. But the US has some of the toughest ultra trail runs in the World that UK trail runners would find really difficult to cope with.

Metabolising fat is a real bugger. Once the glycogen store has gone, and you're in the fat burn zone, it is total misery. I'm a stone or more over at the moment, so I know what I've got coming. I don't tend to use software. If I'm training for something specific like a marathon or some long-distance stupidity I draw up an excel spreadsheet. You can't do any of this stuff without building up and grinding out the miles. Reckon that over the last 35 years I've covered the thick end of twice round the planet.

And that is a solid two weeks. Not counting my semiconductor difficulties the total integrated build time must have been at least 80 hours, and probably a fair chunk more.

Absolutely. Today was just a single mile, partly for the reason you said, but also because I was honestly knackered. Tomorrow as they say is another day. The big thing is psychological - but as (when I'm fit!) I do ultra distance trail running, I know all about the battles with the mind.

Good heavens - I'd missed that too. Must have been amazing to have your exploits immortalised in a series, which was made all the better by the testimony sections where the real guys talked before or after an episode. Still - he made 92, which is not at all a bad age to go.

The building is the fun of the chase. I can't understand desiging stuff for the hell of it without reducing it to practice and testing the design in real hardware. It is a bit like designing a bridge using CAD and FE analysis but not knowing whether the design is fit for purpose. Or am I just being wierd?

Superb excellent series.

Signed a New Year pledge to exercise every day in 2011. Did it once before in my mid/late 40s - but it sure is a lot tougher in my mid 50's. Permanently tired. Running up to 5 miles a day, or an hour and a half in the gym.

Interesting guy, Sacha Noam Baron Cohen. His characters are always brilliantly conceived, and usually very uncomfortable to watch. But who can forget Borat's mankini?

Five years ago I arranged a seminar at the Rutherford Lab on the future of SiC electronics, then almost at a research stage. Astonishing how quickly this has progressed into real devices. The concept of a 1200V, 17A JFET that works at up to 175C is truly amazing. Note: JFET!!! We live in exciting times when leading edge semiconductors are not based on anything resembling conventional semiconductors. The next thing will be devices based on diamond - also addressed at the seminar - but three or four years behind SiC. http://www.e6.com/en/media/e6/content/pdf/The%20MIDDI%20Project.pdf

Well, what are we talking - $30 each? So $120 for four. And that replaces four EL34's at $120 for a Winged C quad from Parts Connexion, plus

20mA standing current through the output devices - wow! Twice the T2 value. WOOF... Or reduce R39. My 2sc4686a have a low voltage gain of 25, or about 30 at ~600V. Conditon for operation is that the base current of Q23 plus the equal currents through Q20 is the current through R39. So say 10uA through each half of Q2 = 20uA plus 5mA/30=200uA about. So R39 would have to be halved in value (in the T2 the current through R39 is 100uA). Or chose the operating voltage of Q16/17 bases to double the voltage across R39 and so double the current through R39, and keep value at 62k. Just saves another transistor is all. Which all goes into the heatsinks. I make that an additional 9W dissipation for each sink. Sounds like a helluva good project to me. And although the power MOSFET's are expensive, they are certainly going to be less expensive than the tubes and teflon sockets, and also saves the cost of a third transformer for the heaters.

Have a look at the PSU Designer line that is the transformer secondary rms current (listed usually I(T1), scroll along to the rms column). You will see that it is a factor of several times (around three) greater than DC current. That factor is precisely the same as that given using Schade's graphical method. The relevant graphs are here Electronic Transformers - Rectifiers with Capacitor-Input Filters . The one you want is called Figure 52 on that web page, top graph line. For a full wave rectifier, "n" = 1 (Schade's method also takes care of voltage multipliers, which have different integer values of n)

How many lines did Schwarzenegger actually have in the movie? "I'll be back", "Get out", "Fuck you, asshole" are the instantly memorable ones. Whatever, it was not a big speaking part I actually think Terminator 2 is by far the better movie, Wayne's World notwithstanding

Terminator. For the first time in years. Not a bad movie.

I was just trying to get a rise, Doug I succeeded....

I must admit, as an Englishman (well Geordie) that Scotland has reputedly the worst food. They have the highest incidence of heart attacks and the lowest life expectency in the British Isles. They have a particularly heart congesting option at the fish and chip shop - battered and deep fried Mars Bar. For those who don't know what a Mars Bar is - it is a sort of chocolate filling, with a caramel top, all inside a chocolate coat. About 3 x 1 x 1 inch. And very good they are in moderation - but battered and then deep fried is a Scottish speciality, to be taken on the way home from the pub. And now I'm buckling up to come under fire from the Scots on the forum

As they would say in my home city of Newcastle - "You looking for a Byker kiss?"

Is that a slot at the bottom rear? It isn't a transmission line perhaps? DSP speaker control (including DSP room EQ) was pioneered at Essex University in Malcolm Hawkesford's group. In the late 80's and early 90's. The guy who was doing this as part of his PhD is called Richard Bews, founder of LFD audio Lfd - amplification phono stages analogue interconnects digital interconnects loudspeaker cables

Ah - so that is why the judges chose your cake as the winner - they were on a solvent high! Better than ground up pot

Yes - here it is http://www.alliedelec.com/Images/Products/Datasheets/BM/GC_ELECTRONICS/796-2068.PDF . The red stuff is 1700V/mil, and the black is 3800V/mil.

Ah - it is Red-X corona dope. A super high voltage conformal coating. The Mr Fixit for balky 7000 series Tek DC restoration and HT supplies (some of which run at 21kV). In the olden days, Tek used a black version of this on the ceramic strips holding the voltage multiplier components.

Yup. Forgot that one. My T2 ones have insulation barriers between all windings - including the heater ones because two of them float at -500V. Although the wire insulation is OK in principle, a combination of winding tension, pressure high points, and then friction as the transformer heats and cools makes it last the square root of bugger all time in practice. Same principle is at play with interwinding screens - they absolutely need double insulation barriers on either side otherwise the thermal/friction/tension will always end up with shorts to windings.