To:      999 (all members)             
  From:    E6F (John Clarkson)           
  Subject: Electronic Interests          
  Although I have only just started in   
  the field of computing I have since my 
  early days in the 1950s while in the   
  Royal Air Force had an interest in     
  radio. While at RAF Kinloss I was a    
  member of its Amateur Radio Society. On
  my demob for a few years after I did   
  a fair bit of short wave listening     
  but this stopped while bringing up the 
  family, however in 1990 I was disabled 
  from my work as a design fabrication   
  engineer. So having worked all my life 
  I had to find something to do and I    
  eventually went back to radio. I sat   
  down and looked at the situation only  
  to find those beloved valves had gone  
  out of use. So I had to rethink my     
  radio strategy. I could not afford to  
  pay the prices, and with necessity     
  being the mother of invention, I       
  designed a circuit, made the board,    
  stuck the bits in and messed about     
  until I got it to work. At the moment I
  have 13 working receivers of which only
  4 are commercial products and 3 of     
  those have been modified. I spend a    
  fair amount of time on the Air Bands as
  I have friends who fly and I am still  
  proud I was in the RAF.                
                                         
  My other interest is in the field of   
  Renewable Energy. At present I run a   
  solar panel with an output of about    
  14pW which charges a bank of sealed    
  lead acid batteries, giving an output  
  of 12 volts at 53Aph. This runs my     
  radio station alarm system and standby 
  lighting system. I shall shortly be    
  increasing the output of both the      
  solar unit and the storage batteries.  
  I am also hoping to build a small wind 
  generator to see if it is a viable     
  project but at the moment it is just a 
  dream.                                 
                                         
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  To:      999 (all members)             
  From:    E6F (John Clarkson)           
  Subject: Drifting Gray Cloud           
  Or John the Shaman- Having as a young  
  lad lived through the last war and     
  having also a great love for the       
  natural way of love peace and          
  tranquility, I have for many years now 
  studied the North American Indian and  
  the way they used to live. This also   
  brought me into contact with their use 
  of nature's medicines, a subject I have
  been looking at for many years.        
  Although I am disabled, I grow quite a 
  lot of my own herbs (not hemp). I also 
  get out when I can (walk that is not   
  in my wheelchair) and collect some     
  off waste ground near to where I       
  live. I use these to make medicine to  
  treat my own ills. I also use          
  Aromatherapy for the same purpose but  
  I have to buy in the essential oils as 
  I have not the skill or equipment to   
  produce them myself. Since 1990 I have 
  visited the doctor only twice, the     
  first time about 6 years ago. I cannot 
  tell you what his face looks like. All 
  I can tell you is he had 17 holes in   
  his head where his hair was falling    
  out. Needless to say I did not pay him 
  another visit. I have, for a layman,   
  quite a large collection of books on a 
  number of subjects from herbal         
  medicine through to crystal healing,   
  from astrology to the runes and bones. 
  How I ever found time to go to work I  
  shall never know. Still, now I have a  
  lifetime to study all the things I     
  want to (including how to operate this 
  computer)                              
                                         
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  To:      999 (all members)             
  From:    E6F (John Clarkson)           
  Subject: Cyclops The One Eyed Monster  
  This part is to deal with my computing 
  interests. I have left it till now so  
  that it will be easy to understand.    
  The reason for the heading is that for 
  the past 10 to 15 years since I have   
  lived on my own (that is off and on) I 
  have had no TV on my premises so this  
  computer now like everything else has  
  a name.                                
  I am going to try and learn enough to  
  be able to marry it up to the radio    
  station and use it to decode morse     
  rtty and weather sattelite information.
  I shall also be looking at the decoding
  of digital transmitted information     
  like inflight info etc.                
  It is with this in mind that I would   
  appreciate any info on these subjects  
  bearing in mind that I am only a       
  learner (I have been learning all my   
  life. You are never too old)           
  I would like at this time to say       
  thanks to you all for letting me bore  
  you all                                
  Have a nice day                        
  Till the next time May your god be     
  with you                               
  John Drifting Gray Cloud               
                                         
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