A S T R O  S A

 

INCORPORATED

 


Adelaide Branch

Welcome to the January newsletter. I hope you all had a good Christmas - New Year break and are raring to go this year. Remember that I am always on the lookout for articles for the newsletter so if you have any information that you would like to share with others please let me know. Thanks must go to Caroline and Tony this month for their contributions - they are much appreciated.

DECEMBER MEETING

This months meeting began with a late start at 8.20PM with 17 people present and an apology from Caroline. Kevin gave the Treasurers report, followed by myself with the secretaries report. This consisted of incoming information about a LTPC type system which is on the market in Australia for water heating called Quantum (see last newsletter) and the latest Dennis Lee newsletter via Roger. I also reported on a crop circle which appeared in an Adelaide suburb earlier in the week and finally I spoke about a discussion I had with a FE enthusiast from New Zealand who said that Adams and DePalma are working together on a project. He also said that he felt that the Adams motor didn’t work as presented but was put out in the public arena to get people thinking and to go on and develop their own working systems.

Ashley passed around a book called “Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries” and Tony told us the latest Internet news of a supposed FE device which is simple to build, has a ratio of 12:1 and uses a piezzo element, coil and magnet. He also donated a copy of the PODMOD patent to the ASTRO library. Robert showed two ballbearing motors that he has constructed and also gave a report on the local crop circle and Michael passed around some articles on some innovative aircraft design work.

Leon mentioned about some guy originally from Darwin who has patented a design for a vertical take off device using air in some sort of spiral arrangement. Leon said he will try and get this guy to come along to a meeting and give a talk about this device. Roger said he has done some experimenting with the Trippett device but has not had any success so far. He also explained how the calculations of input and output power are not correct so the device has a question mark hanging over it at this stage.

We then showed the video of the crop circle from the Channel 10 news, followed by an item on trees that Ian wanted to watch, but the line was drawn and the video switched off when someone wanted to watch the sport report! Steven gave a report, accompanied by photographs, of his trip to England and his viewing of crop circles over there.

With the main part of the meeting over, we then looked at the Stan Deyo video and saw a demonstration of Dino’s rogue computer and the Excalibur programme which enables access to bulletin boards using a windows environment. Dino also gave a demonstration of the types of radiation emanating from a computer and screen - not in his own best interest as a computer salesman, although Tony did offer him $10 for it!

AN ANALYSIS OF THE PODMOD

OR

A DAY IN THE LIFE A NOSEY F-E ENTHUSIAST

The following article was submitted by Tony regarding his exploits in following up the PODMOD story.

Having watched the video on Scott McKie's PODMOD and heard his rather large-scale claims for it, I decided to see for myself just what it comprised. So, with wallet in hand, I decended on the Patent Office to extract U.S. patent 5,146,395.

(Hint: never go to the Patent Office if you want cheap photocopies.)

It's kind of big; fourteen pages of text with ten pages of diagrams. It's also one of the best written I've ever come across, with a plain-english description of the PODMOD's general operation following the obligatory Patent Speak.

A most unpatent like feature was the listing of all part numbers, component values and suppliers of same. Almost as if he wants people to build their own...

THE NITTY GRITTY*

The PODMOD essentially consists of two inductors, two capacitors and a motherload of high speed rectifier diodes and expensive MOSFET switches. There is also a digital signal generator and amplifier to operate the switches in a precise pattern, and three DC-DC converters - one of which recycles part of the output energy to run the whole device.

In essence, the PODMOD is a very simple device. In operation, it is somewhat complex. The diagram published in the newsletter doesn't help much, either. Reminds me of a riot in a cartographers office...To understand it better I broke it down into simplified stage diagrams. (The patent does too, but they still look like spaghetti factory accidents.)

The heart of the device is a pair of tank circuits which are resonant at 20kHz.

For those of you who just went "Duh?" - a tank circuit is a capacitor connected in parallel with an inductor (coil). Tank circuits are called resonant because current will flow back and forth between the cap and the coil like a swinging pendulum. The number of times it will flow in a second is called the resonant frequency.

Figure 1 shows one of the basic tank units. Since both tanks operate identically, I'll describe one in isolation. All you really need to remember is that while one tank is charging the other will be discharging.

CCC1 and 2 are Constant Current Controllers; MOSFETS that turn on at a controlled rate to provide a changing resistance to current when the tank is discharging. All switches are MOSFETS too, but they are either fully on or fully off.

The patent mentions two Major Periods of operation, each made up of two Minor Periods. It takes one Major Period to charge a tank, and another to discharge it. The discharging is done in two separate operations, and each operation takes one Minor Period.

Figure 2 shows the first stage of operation. Switch 1 closes to connect L1 and C1 together as a tank circuit, while switches 15 and 21 connect the tank to V+ and GND. So Tank 1 is now charging. (Remember that while this is happening the other tank is discharging.) This goes on for one Major Period.

Figure 3. The tank is isolated from the charging supply and from GND by the opening of switches 15 and 21, and switch 1 opens to break the charging path.. At the instant these open, switches 2 and 3 close. The cap discharges through the load, CCC1 and the inductor. Part of the tanks discharge current goes through a DC-DC converter (rather misleadingly labelled a "Feedback Controller") that powers the control circuitry and tank charger. This goes on for one Minor Period - which means the cap was discharged at twice the rate it was charged at.

Figure 4.  The cap is isolated by the opening of switches 3 and 2, while switch 4 closes to connect the inductor in series with load. Current flows through the load, CCC2 and back to the inductor. Once again, this is at twice the rate of charging - one Minor Period.

POINTS OF INTEREST

1.The inductors used in this circuit are wound on ferrite toroid cores, presumably to reduce them to managable dimensions. Would it behave differently with air cores?

2. Mr McKie almost offhandedly mentions that the inductors are tuned to minimum inductive reactance by applying an external magnetic field at right angles to the axis of the toroid. Hmm..right angled magnetic field interaction? Sounds like several over-unity devices I've heard of.

3. The two Constant Current Controllers are connected in parallel, but only one is used at a time. Why? Something to do with turn-off speeds?

4.  Why did I spend all this time writing an article without getting paid? (for the same reason I write the rest of the newsletter I suppose!)

IN CONCLUSION

Is this a free-energy device, or just a very expensive timepiece? I Don't Know.

It is certainly a very intriguing invention, and a curiously revealing patent.

I've put out several feelers on the Internet to try and turn up further information regarding Scott McKie and his claimed deals with China. Keep your ears unwrapped for further news.

For those wishing to examine this doohickey in detail, a copy of the PODMOD patent.

is now in the ASTRO library. Enjoy.

*If someone could explain to me what a Nitty Gritty actually is I would be eternally grateful.

"Can't"? "Can't"?! There's no such word as "can't"! - Doctor Who

THE GRAVITY WHEEL

At the next meeting, Caroline is going to give a talk on her Gravity Wheel invention. As a fore-runner to this talk, she has submitted this article to the newsletter so that people will have some prior knowledge as to what her invention is all about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


THE MAGNETIC RESONANCE AMPLIFIER (MRA)

Discovered and proven December 12, 1994 and shared with the world on

December 13, 1994. (Downloaded from KEELYNET by Tony.)

"This is a preliminary report that will be followed by updates with more detail. Future versions will include various measurements of the components used in the circuit that is currently running. From all appearances at this date, the circuit components will simply give varying outputs and do not appear to be all that critical.

The circuit is being tested at various levels and attempts at duplication are under way. At this point, there is only one circuit. We will openly post other successful duplications or failures. Please feel free to try it yourself. The cost is minimal.

MRA is the Magnetic Resonance Amplifier. With low level ultrasonic input signals, the MRA produces usable direct current power at levels above unity. This circuit is based upon the work and theories of John Ernst Worrell Keely, and is offered into the public domain in his memory.

Without lengthy discussion about the ether, tetrahedral geometric virtual rotation, mass aggregate resonance or the rule of nines, it is possible to understand this circuit as basically a tuned magnetic and quartz amplifier. However, it WAS necessary to study those subjects in order to design and build the MRA, so if you want to fully realize how it works, avail yourself of the files on KeelyNet which contain all of that and much, much more.

In the schematic, MRA.GIF, there is a tuneable low power oscillator, which supplies a signal to one side of a barium titanite transducer. The opposite side of the transducer is connected to a primary coil, which is wrapped around a barium ferrite magnet core. The opposite end of the primary goes back to the oscillator.

A secondary is wrapped around the primary, and is connected to an ordinary bridge rectifier, and the output of the bridge is applied to a DC load. A filter capacitor can be used on the output of the bridge, and was used on the MRA which we built. Additionally, a load resistor across the capacitor will keep the output DC from getting too high as the circuit is tuned. We found that a 30 ohm, 10 watt resistor was sufficient.

One other point, the crystal transducer was thought to be barium titanate and there is reason to believe it is in fact titanium zirconate. These are disc shaped, about 3" in diameter with a 1" diameter hole in the center. The disc is about 3/8" thick and is coated with silver on both sides. Thank you for your open-mindedness. They are advertised in the back of many electronics magazines for about $5 each. We have access to a small stock and might offer them for experiments should people ask for them."

This is all I could fit in this month’s newsletter, but more is to follow next month on this device.

ASTRO VIDEO LOANS

Unfortunately I have to bring up the subject of video loans again as some people are still not returning them on time. The problem with this is that, particularly with popular ones, it prevents others from having access to them.  As a reminder, the basic rule is that videos can be picked up at monthly meetings and must be returned the following month. If you do not come to that meeting then it is your responsibility to get the video back to me via someone who is attending the meeting or by some other arrangement. The six Baumgartner tapes have finally been returned by Harley. Tapes overdue at the moment are as follows - PLEASE RETURN THEM !!!!

 

Ray Stark (Victorian ASTRO)        Dan Winter  Tape 5         July 94

Simon Beenham                              JJ Searle   Tapes 7, 8      August 94

George Cap                                    Al Bielek   Tapes 45, 46   October 94

ADELAIDE’S CROP CIRCLE

Much excitement has been generated around town in the last couple of weeks over the crop circle which appeared in the Primary Industries Department paddock at Northfield. I have heard stories on radio of pendulums wildly spinning inside the circle, reports on television by a UFO expert saying that it was definitely genuine and finally someone began telling me on Christmas eve that the Government had deliberately destroyed the circle so that no one could investigate it. Having been one of the first people on site to investigate this circle, and having some background knowledge of crop circles it is my personal belief

1.   I was told that the woman who first arrived at the site said there was already  one set of tracks leading into the circle.

2.   The individual stalks on the crops were kinked at the point of bending whereas in “real” circles there is no kinking but the crops are just bent over.

3.   The stalks of the crops were also pushed down in a circular pattern with no interleaving of the stalks and no spiral pattern from the centre. In fact the centre   of the circle was very messy  and had an elongated shape.

4.   The outside of the circle was quite irregular in shape with none of the preciseness evident in “real” circles.

5.   I took measurements of the magnetic field, electrical field (looking for variation  in both AC and DC voltages) and also looked for any abnormal frequencies which may have been present. All of these tests showed absolutely no variation  from background readings.

6.   Finally I covered the area using a broadcast band radio tuned to a portion of the band where there was no signal and turned the radio up to full gain. This also  showed no abnormal signals.

7.   The theory that the government harvested the crop so that it could not be  investigated is also not true as the circle was left there for over one week with  access available to anyone who wanted to look at it. Harvesting had already begun at the other end of the field on the day that I was there.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be held on the third Friday once again, at the usual time of 7.30

PM, the date being :  FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY.

The video for this meeting will be: DENNIS LEE talking about and demonstrating

“LOW TEMPERATURE PHASE CHANGE”

The usual applies in that please bring $3.00 to cover video purchase and newsletter printing and postage, and something for supper would be appreciated.

Well, this month’s newsletter stretched out to 8 pages again !! Hope you all enjoyed it and see you at the next meeting.