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Email: jez.whitworth@googlemail.com

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Popular posts from this blog

Community Phone: Finished Build

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It has taken months of hard work, both sat at a computer screen and in the workshop but the community payphone hacking project is now complete. It's been a huge amount of fun, despite it being a steep learning curve in integrating with old technology but I now have a working model of a hacked payphone and it's a delight, if not a relief to finally get to this point. It still holds true to the main point detailed in previous posts but as the project has evolved so have the features it now offers. The main idea behind the #RecodeThePhone project still remains, to save the disappearing phone boxes by repurposing the payphones that reside within them, whilst offering free calls, mailbox facilities and access to helplines to the people who need them. Previous versions: The #RecodeThePhone operating system now offers the following options: Option 1 : Free phone calls for registered members Option 2 : Free mailboxes for registered members Option 3 : Help and support lines Option 4 :
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Shortwave Listening and QSL Cards

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I'm enjoying a bit of downtime at the moment and investing time developing my interest in radio. Earlier this year I studied for my amateur radio Foundation license and passed (my tips for passing can be found here ) but afterwards it soon became apparent that there is so much to the hobby I don't want to spread myself too thinly. I would describe myself more of a listener than a talker and the concept of shortwave listening (SWL) really appeals. Anyone can take part, you don't have to have a license which makes me love it even more as it's accessible for all. I am very fortunate to live close to Stonehenge here in the south of the England and I went for a walk with my Xhdata D808 radio. Some say that shortwave isn't as popular as it once was, and that maybe the case but from the point of view of an absolute beginner, I found it to be busy and after a fun afternoon of casting my net into the sea of Megahertz I've already written three signal reports to Germany,
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Building a Zoltar Fortune Teller: Part Two

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Work has continued on the Zoltar fortune telling machine and there has been quite a bit of progress made. Here is where the latest project video and steps I've taken so far. The miniature concept that I made prior to this build worked really well with the marker pointing towards the answer, but I didn't think it works when scaled up, so an alternative needed to be found. As the crystal ball is one of the main props with any fortune telling machine, I decide to use the crystal ball to indicate the YES / NO answer and what better way that turning it the colour red for NO and green for YES. As I like to try and incorporate materials in my builds that have been salvaged, I went on the hunt for a suitable crystal ball and found this old glass lamp that is perfect for the job, plus it lights up perfectly when lit from its base. For this functionality I'm using another Microbit as the one currently running Zoltar's coin acceptor and blinking eyes has no scope for anything ad
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