I couldn't agree with you more regarding re-inventing things.  I think that 
there
are a lot of roads that were investigated and abandon as dead ends years ago  
---
and with today's technology they can be very fruitful and interesting.  In some
respects this LF activity is like that.   But I still like my wheel idea.
Sometimes my sense of humor gets me into trouble -- I apologize but hope a few
got a chuckle or two out of it....

Rye

[email protected] wrote:

Hi Rik, Jim, Rye and all,

>  The error between input and
>  output phases could be corrected either by increasing the VCO
>  frequency until the output phase "catches up" with the input, or
>  decreasing it until it "slows down" to match the input. The output
>  phase could shift in either direction, although the end result would
>  always be to match the input phase.

Like in real life, it's sometimes a sad thing to have to decide one way or
another. If that PLL could take both routes simultaneously, the result would
be perfect soft BPSK again :-) . In the 30's, there was a scheme called
"Chireix modulation" which added the power outputs of two phase-modulated
class-C transmitters to achieve AM in an efficient way.

> I am working on this round thing that can be used to reduce friction rather
> than simply dragging things across the ground.....

Me too, apparently... I hardly dare say it in public, but in my opinion,
re-inventing basic stuff is not so stupid at all. Don't we learn a lot more
by own thinking and fiddling than by just believing in the solutions the
experts have come up with for us? Trying to catch a glimpse of tiny dots
encircling Jupiter in a homemade cardbord-roll telescope may be more exciting
and instructive than a great show of colourful deep-sky HST images on the
web. Which of course is not bad, either...

73 de Markus, DF6NM