----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 9:58
AM
Subject: LF: Water softeners
I've been plagued for some years now by a "water
softener" that puts up drifting jaggies every few kHz all the way up the
HF spectrum to at least 30 MHz. The only redeeming factor is that they drift
so much they don't jam me for long. The culprit is owned by a little
old lady who is a great friend of mine and lives about 500 metres away. She is
absolutely convinced it works and I haven't the heart to tell her it's
rubbish. Our water here is neutral and doesn't need softening but she got
talked into it by a water heating "engineer" who mended a broken pipe for
her. She has what I call the "elephant-gun syndrome". For those who don't know it:
A man is seen carrying a huge "elephant gun"
around Victorian London. After a while his friends get curious and ask him why
he's always carrying it. "To keep London free of elephants, of course",
he replies. "But there aren't any elephants in London", they tell him.
His retort? "There you are - it works!!!"
There's an awful lot of that about these
days!
Walter G3JKV.