----- Original Message ----- From: "Norm of Bandersnatch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> I once bought a car remote control lock kit to try flashing a light on the > boat from a distance but the useful range was too short. > > In the JC Whitney catalog I have seen devices to control things from a > distance, to turn on your house lights from your car or turn on your car > from inside the house which might work like this. Range would be the > big > problem. REPLY Small airports have for a long time used Radio triggred field landing lights and more recently USCG has tried the system on marine fog horns in remote places that does not warrant continuous service. The idea being you trigger the PTT button to break squelch about 5 times quickly. These five squelch breaks are noticed by the radio reciver and then a relay is triggered to turn on the lights or the fog horn as the case might be. A timer leaves the lights or fog horn running for maybe 15 minutes to half an hour each time it is triggered. Technically speaking: a squelch burst would trigger a VOX circuit and increment a counter chip. When the last count is triggered, the counter output drives a transistor to fire the relay. This has been standard technology for ham radio repeaters for at least 20 yeas that I know of and I am sure I did not hear about it till after it was already in use for a decade or so prior to that. It should not be much of a challenge for any ham who makes their own rigs or is involved in seting up a 2 meter repeater site. Range would be comparable to any other VHF radio. In fact you may have to desensitize it a bit. We used 400mW 2 meter radios for traffic light control. This is low power and as such not restricted by requiring an FCC licence for each station. Range was 3/4 mile according to my own field tests. And without using any hi gain antenna. Our antenna were bare wire dipoles hand cut on the bench from SS welding rod. Arild _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
