I get lots of emails including an exciting notification that $282,567.19 has been deposited for me in a Bank located in Nigeria.
Often the emails may involve questions about my published projects or perhaps a comment on a You Tube video. Some were referred to me by others. Mail is good and a distraction from my day job at the Board and Care Facility.
That said there should be a bit of effort on the part of the sender to frame the question so it can be answered. One email simply said "Send Me the Code". So OK the code to my Junior HS padlock was 38 22 34. It took two more rounds to get to which code he wanted.
Just in the last week came two emails requesting technical information with one specifically on how to address a noise problem in a radio. This noise issue was something I ran into personally and found a couple of miracle cures. I was happy to respond to that inquiry for it was a real world problem for me.
This power conditioner circuit came from Bill, N2CQR and solved a problem I had with this beautiful color OLED that had a switching power supply installed on the back of the display. The switching noise was being picked up through the power rail to the LM386
Follow the two yellow wires!
The other suggestion was to purchase an inline ground isolation device (Amazon ~ $8)
It takes time to respond to these emails and I heard nothing back from this sender. A courteous reply like Thank You or I got it would seem appropriate.
Then there is the separate category of what I call the Snarky comments from some Home Brewer's who think homebrew is just like building a kit. These are real comments from real senders.
Some of the comments are actually all in one. A ham was building the P3ST direct from my design. He should have waited for K7TFC's kits to be available.
His issue was the Band Pass Filter. Since he didn't know where or how to find the correct part specified, he substituted a smaller value than what was required for the section coupling capacitor.
He measured the response with his newly acquired Nano VNA and saw a peaked curve which is indicative of too small of a coupling cap. His email to me "My Nano VNA says there is a problem with your design."
My email back -- check the section coupling cap it is the wrong value. His email back where do I get those small value caps. I gave him three answers including a twisted wire gimmick.
His email back -- I never built a gimmick but it won't work as the wires are too floppy. K7TFC's kit part for the BPF section coupling cap is a twisted wire gimmick.
The real thrust is this person was unprepared to take on a project like the P3ST sans any getting smarts about the circuits and worst ever -- he was not listening but wanted to simply say your design sucks!
We all need to do a better job of listening and be responsible in our answers. If you don't know say so. I marvel at these .io groups where a question is posed and an answer is given by one of the resident "lurkers". Typically it is answer that could cause damage to a radio or is solving a different problem.
WE like to think we know everything but we don't. In a recent solder smoke podcast I mentioned the use of Lissajous Figures to display a 90 degree phase shift. Bill asked me what was the correct pronunciation of that word. I admitted I didn't know. I just say "Lisa Juice". To me the correct speak is not as important that if I see an ellipse in the right hand upper quadrant that it is not 90 degrees.
73's
Pete N6QW