jonathan d p ferguson wrote:
> Anthony:
> 
> You actually built an electrostatic speaker? How big was this? Door
> size? :)
> I started on such a project but DNF, so, many Kudos! The dream lives on!

Probably a dozen of them anyway. I tend to jump into things with both
feet. I had best luck with narrower specimens, like 6" or a little wider
(but full hight), there are a bunch of trade-offs, I discovered. I got
to the point where I wanted to build high voltage amplifiers (to do away
with badly insulated audio transformers), but never took that step. I'm
sure today's MOSFETs would be good/better for that. There is actually an
ironic story here, which I will bore you with in the next paragraph.

I was working in the plasma display laboratory at the time, and so
theoretically had access to expertise in that area of high voltage
amplifiers, but the real principal (Dr. Waren) who really knew that
stuff had already left to start Plasmaco, and the early '90's recession
shutdown the lab. I switched horses (for my masters thesis) to a music
synthesizer project that I was doing for fun, and managed to snag the
Bitzer/Slottow Award for it. Here comes the irony: that award is named
for Waren's mentors, who invented the plasma display. I don't think I
really put that together until today.

> Also, while we're on the radio topic, any other Amateur Radio operators
> lurking around on this list?

I have a license, but mostly I just got pressured into taking the test
when I went along to a ham fest with a friend (I passed), so I'd
hesitate to call myself an operator. And anyway, politically I'm against
licensing the radio spectrum, and in favor restricting the FCC to
regulate power only (with no special exemption for any party). There
should be no restriction on the use of spectrum or modulation, except
for safety. Licensing channels is sooooo 1920, but it is a convenient
fiction for monopolists. That change, and also eliminating patent, would
revolutionize our culture and economy (in a good way).

-- 
Anthony Carrico

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