From: "Charles Smith" Subject: Metrabyte Dash-8 A/D boards I'm building a Lehman seismograph and am trying to hook it to my computer using a Metrabyte Dash-8 board. Has anyone written the software to take data relatively slowly with it (1-10 samples/second)? I'm using the call routine furnished by Metrabyte (old software), and everything seems to be working except the delay generated by the on-board timer. I'd appreciate any advice (or software). From: Larry Cochrane Subject: PSN-L Mailing list,Metrabyte A/D boards AOL problem Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 21:49:52 Hi, Several of you have ask me about archives of past e-mail messages for the PSN-L mailing list. I have updated my system to archive messages in text files that can be downloaded using FTP or viewing them using a Web browser. For ftp users the archives can be accessed at psn.quake.net in directory /info. The archive file names are psnlYYqN.txt where YY = Year and N = quarter number (1 to 4). For WWW users set your URL to http://psn.quake.net/maillist.html. All of last years messages are in file psnl95q4.txt and current messages are going into file psnl96q1.txt. The current archive file gets updated every day at midnight (local or Pacific time) with that days messages. Charles Smith Wrote: >I'm building a Lehman seismograph and am trying to hook it to my computer >using a Metrabyte Dash-8 board. Has anyone written the software to take data >relatively slowly with it (1-10 samples/second)? I'm using the call routine >furnished by Metrabyte (old software), and everything seems to be working >except the delay generated by the on-board timer. I'd appreciate any advice >(or software). The only software programs that are compatible with WinQuake and Quakevw (software that will view PSN format event files) are EMON and SDR. EMON written by Ted Blank (tblank@........... works with several AtoD cards but I don't know if yours is one of them. My program SDR currently works with a PC Labs 711s and my 12/16 bit AtoD card I will have ready soon. I would be willing to see if I can get SDR to work with your card if it can do the following: Generate a 1 ms interrupt, do a conversion under 1 ms, and have 3 or more channels. Also to run SDR you need a 386 or faster PC, Ted's EMON will run on slower systems. Regards, Larry From: Allan Coleman Subject: Hi all, I have been experimenting with home built accelerometers, similar to the type of instrument described in the Amateur Scientist column in the Scientific American magazine dated 1975. I was was having problems with thermal noise that showed up as large amplitude 20-30 period waves. At one time Larry Cochrane mentioned that he had observed these wave patterns when operating a long period instrument. The simple fix for me was: 1. Build a cover to go over the pendulum and transducers and sealed with foam aginst the base plate to prevent drafts from entering the enclosure. This cover not to touch the supporting concrete slab. 2. Wrap the enclosure with 1/2" thick thermal fiberglas insulation then wrap it with aluminum foil (the Guralp seismometer manufacturer recommends this for their long period devices). I left the under side of the base plate exposed to the ambient temperature within the suface mounted seismometer pit. 3. Next a styrofoam box, 1" thick material with 5 sides, was made with the open side going down over the instrument and taped to the ground. The internal dimensions of the box was only about 2" longer, wider and taller than the outside dimensions of the foil wrapping. Taped the box to the concrete floor to prevent air (drafts) leaking in. Note: the box must not touch the foil wrapping. Wait about 4 hours, or slightly more, to see the output signal begin to straighten out. This applies to both horizontal and vertical instruments. Vertical intruments need an AIR tight enclosure over the pendulum, for other reasons. I would be interested in hearing from others that have had problems regarding temperature related problems and how they were, if not totally, resolved. Regards, Allan Coleman From: tblank@.......... (Ted Blank) Subject: Re: Metrabyte Dash-8 A/D boards Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 22:07:46 -0800 (PST) EMON supports DAS-4 and DAS-16, but not DASH-8. However, I have had good luck with Metrabyte cards. So I'd be glad to add support to EMON. Right now I have two other cards in-house that I have promised support for, so I neeed to work on those first. Send me a note in a couple of weeks. Regards, Ted > > > > I'm building a Lehman seismograph and am trying to hook it to my computer > using a Metrabyte Dash-8 board. Has anyone written the software to take data > relatively slowly with it (1-10 samples/second)? I'm using the call routine > furnished by Metrabyte (old software), and everything seems to be working > except the delay generated by the on-board timer. I'd appreciate any advice > (or software). > From: Peter Styles Subject: Re: Long Period Seismograph cc: Public Seismic Network Dear Group Can anyone tell me how to get hold a circuit to extend the low frequency response of standard geophone inserts, as I understand that you can get these to respond down to 1 Hz or less if you have the correct circuitry. I would like to have an Honours student do this as a project if its reasonably simple. Happy New Year and may the Earth tremble for you all. Pete Styles Department of Earth Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK. Date: Fri, 12 Jan 1996 13:43:54 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) PSN'ers, Hello from the frozen north! A quick note to let you all know that several of us here in Fairbanks have set up our own seismograph systems. And I'm working on getting local schools to set up their own stations and trade readings via the INTERNET. If this sounds rather familiar, that's because I got the idea from PSN. My hat's off (but not off for very long because it's -40F today) to you all for instigating and contributing to the PSN. Look for a webpage of Alaska PSN'ers as soon as I get it written. I'll post the address when it's up and running. regards, Bob Hammond ====================================================== Bob Hammond, Geophysicist US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center at the Alaska Earthquake Information Center, Fairbanks From: System Root Subject: Posting to PSN-L mailing list Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 20:05:10 Hi, I have noticed that several of you have had problems posting mail to this mailing list. The problem is the list server checks to see if a new message is from a member on the list. If the message is not from a list member the message is rejected. The list server checks the From: field of your message with the email address in its database for the PSN-L list. The problem arises when you have two or more email address. If you signed up from lets say your work email address and then try to send a message from another account at home, your message will get rejected because your return email address has changed. To get around this problem I modified the list to make it open to all who post to it. This way it won't check to see if the message is for a member on the list first before sending it out. The only problem with this is it makes it easier for someone to send junk mail to the list. We will have to wait and see if this becomes a problem. Regards, Larry From: jbpet@......... (Bill Scolnik) Subject: telemetry in NY/NJ area Hi: Does anyone know how I can find out if there are any remote seismometer sites in the Northern NJ/Southern NY area monitored by radio? I'd like to receive the telemetry signals if it's being done here. Reagrds, Bill Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Re: telemetry in NY/NJ area Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 00:54:25 Hi Bill, Unless there is active faulting around you (aren't us in California lucky?) you are probably out of luck. Check to see if there is a Collage or University around you that has a Seismology Department. If there is one, they may be able (or willing) to help you. Let us know if you find anything. Regards. Larry At 12:14 AM 1/22/96 -0500, you wrote: > > >Hi: >Does anyone know how I can find out if there are any remote seismometer >sites in the Northern NJ/Southern NY area monitored by radio? I'd like to >receive the telemetry signals if it's being done here. >Reagrds, >Bill > > > From: CRANSWICK@.................. Subject: RE: telemetry in NY/NJ area Bill- Contact Noel Barstow at barstow@........................ (Seismology Dept., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University) and tell her that I (Edward Cranswick, USGS, Golden CO) referred you to her. Lamont has operated local seismic arrays in New York and New Jersey for the past 25 years. I worked with these arrays when I was a graduate student there 20 years ago. They utilized the same radio-telemetry technology developed by the USGS in California with which Larry C. is familiar, but what with budget cutbacks, etc., I don't konw what their status is now. Noel does know and I am sure that she will be happy to help you. -Edward From: nickcap@............. (Nicholas Caporossi ) Subject: Re: telemetry in NY/NJ area You wrote: >Hi Bill Did you try [gopher://lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu:79/quake]? They list a number of Colleges that may help you. I am also from The East Coast,and looking for the same sites that you inquired about. Princeton Earth Physics Project has a web page,they may be of some help. Nicholas Caporossi NJ > From: wa6sul@............. (gg ) Subject: Re: telemetry in NY/NJ area You wrote: >> >>Hi: >>Does anyone know how I can find out if there are any remote seismometer >>sites in the Northern NJ/Southern NY area monitored by radio? I'd like to >>receive the telemetry signals if it's being done here. >>Reagrds, >>Bill >> >> >> > > There was an article in Monitoring TImes last year (1995) which listed the most used seismo telemetering frequencies, many of which were in the east. Check it out in your library. Sorry don't recall which month, but it was on the front cover as such. From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: telemetry in NY/NJ area On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, Bill Scolnik wrote: > Does anyone know how I can find out if there are any remote seismometer > sites in the Northern NJ/Southern NY area monitored by radio? I'd like to > receive the telemetry signals if it's being done here. Hi Bill. We don't have a listing for that area but a very easy way it to program a scanner with a good antenna system to search the 3 bands where telemetry is allocated. The emissions are narrow band FM. The transmitters are very low power and utilize beam antennas to get the signals to wherever their intended to go. Frequently several sites will send their data to an intermediate site where the signals are multiplexed on one carrier. Usually that carrier frequency is of higher power and covers a larger area. Here's a good place to start. If you get a "hit" you will hear a tone between 680 hertz and about 3000 hertz. Avoltage change at the sensor will result in a frequency change of the tone. When the ground shakes the tones warbles. Let the rest of us know if you find anything. Ken Where to search for telemetry signals 162.000 Mhz.- 174.000 Mhz. U.S. Govt. 216.000 Mhz.- 220.000 Mhz. U.S. Govt. 406.100 Mhz.- 420.000 Mhz. U.S. Govt. ________________________________________________________________________ California Telemetry Frequencies San Francisco Bay Area - Northern California 163.0500 163.4400 163.6050 163.9100 164.8450 165.8100 166.4000 166.8250 167.8050 170.3100 171.0000 172.8600 217.6000 217.6900 218.2500 406.1900 407.3520 408.5120 409.6000 410.5500 412.2500 413.5100 414.6650 415.2000 415.2250 Southern California 162.5940 162.5970 162.8060 162.8090 163.3500 163.3970 163.6060 163.6090 163.7935 163.7970 163.9375 164.0060 164.0095 164.8440 164.8470 165.8065 165.8095 166.4190 166.4220 166.6565 166.6595 167.1940 167.1970 167.8065 167.9085 171.2190 171.2220 171.4065 173.1940 175.2550 Nationwide Federal Frequencies Shared With USGS 164.1000 164.5250 164.6750 164.8000 165.4875 166.2750 166.3500 166.3750 166.8000 166.8750 166.9500 166.9750 167.0750 167.1250 167.9500 168.2750 168.5000 168.5500 169.5750 169.6250 169.8250 172.4250 172.6750 172.7250 407.4250 407.5250 407.5750 408.0750 408.5500 410.5750 411.6250 411.6750 412.1750 412.3750 412.7000 412.8250 412.8750 412.9500 412.9750 414.8250 417.4000 417.5750 417.6250 419.8750 419.9000 419.9250 419.9500 419.9750 From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: telemetry in NY/NJ area On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, gg wrote: > There was an article in Monitoring TImes last year (1995) which listed > the most used seismo telemetering frequencies, many of which were in > the east. Check it out in your library. Sorry don't recall which > month, but it was on the front cover as such. Um, that was July, 1994. Vol. 13, No. 7, page 10 actually... :) Ken Date: Tue, 23 Jan 96 16:13:46 PST From: "Jan Froom" Subject: Rod Kelley School Seismic Station in Gilroy CA is now operating. I just want to let everyone know that Rod Kelley School in Gilroy Calif is now operating a PSN seismic station. Because the seismometer is mounted in the class room, we can't crank our sensitivity up very high; none the less we are recording events in the South Santa Clara and Northern San Benito Counties with excellent results. Currently we have 6 six graders learning how to operate the station and all are doing quite well! We've teamed up with Almaden Country School in South San Jose to do some triangulation, but we still need at least another school for our third leg. Are there any K-6 (or higher) schools in this area that would be interested ? I'm also learning what it takes to teach 11 & 12 year olds, and what it takes to put a package like this together. I'd like to hear from others as to what they've done and some suggestions for additional seismic projects. Jan.... Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 16:16:24 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) Subject: Alaska PSN homepage is on the air (ether)(net)? Please take a look at the Alaska Public Seismic Network homepage: http://www.polarnet.com/Users/APSN I'd appreciate your comments and suggestions. Bob Hammond Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 16:17:19 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) Subject: Re: Rod Kelley School Seismic Station in Gilroy CA is now operating. to Jan Froom: Jan, I am in the process of helping 3 elementary schools and one home-school group set up their own PSN seismic stations. They will all trade data via the INTERNET and locate quakes with sufficient magnitude. I'll be glad to share my experiences with you as they develop. So far, I have found nothing but rabid enthusiasm from every group. Can you give me some idea what I'm in for? I've set up a webpage for the local amateur seismologists and school groups to use. It's not done yet but are web pages ever done? Bob From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Re: Shackelford Gunderson Sensors Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 19:01:27 Hi Group, I got this email from Warner Lindholm the other day. He has built a S-G sensor and made some changes to it that some of you might be interested in. This part of the message is my responce to his message. Warner is now on the psn list (thanks Tina!), if you have anything to add about damping please send it to the list. His email address is kveirs@............... Larry Hi Warner and Tina, At 10:08 PM 1/21/96 -0800, you wrote: > > >In looking at your website I noticed that you say you recently >built and installed a Shackelford Gunderson sensor. I also built one >several months ago and I'd like to compare notes with you. But >first let me mention that I'm a newbie at seismology and so >perhaps you'll overlook some of my ignorance. > >The sensor I built pretty much followed the general plan outlined >in the Scientific American article except for a few shortcuts. For >example I used a 4 MHz TTL clock for the oscillator on the pendulum. I also used a 4 Mhz TTL type oscillator. It works great and it makes building the pendulum a lot easier. >Although its output was a square wave, the resonant tanks on the >"receivers" cleaned up the waveform with a little tweaking. I had >conceptual difficulties with their method of damping and I still >find it hard to believe that this device really acts like pendulum >with a 60 second period. >Because I didn't understand how their >damping worked, I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with it, >some variants of it, and eddy current damping. (Those new neodymium- >boron-iron magnets really work!) I finally concluded that the damping >feedback circuit was meant to function as a low pass filter and that the >filter's cut-off frequency should be set to equal the pendulum >natural frequency. I also notices this, the system has very little or no sensitivity above the natural frequency. I'm not sure if it's because of the damping or the integrator that filters out the higher frequencies, or both. > >So in order to determine just what pendulum period was I removed all >damping and recorded noise. Winquake's FFT showed the period to be about >1.1 seconds which was consistent with the dimensions of the thing but >what was most interesting to me was that there was a whole lot of >stuff going on between 1 and 20 Hertz that I hadn't been seeing before. >It seemed a lot more sensitive. In thinking about I seemed to remember >that damping decreases sensitivity. I think Richter even mentioned it >somewhere in an offhand way. That brings me to my first question: why >do we need damping at all? The damping is used to dampen the ~1.2 second (on my sensor) natural resonance of the pendulum. It gets it's low frequency response because it measures displacement or absolute position. The frequency at the low end being set by the low pass filters before and after the integrator. From what I understand about dampening is it increases the frequence response of the system by flattening or damping the natural resonance. With out it, the sensor is only sensitive to the resonance frequence. >If the sensor has a peak in its response why not flatten it with filters? I guess you could do this, I just think it better to get the resonance out at the sensor. I used the damping system just like the article uses except I over did it when I made the coil. My coil has maybe 8K turns so I had to add a 10k resistor in series with the coil. >I was able to prove to myself that it's >entirely feasible using an analog notch filter or digital filters either >real-time or post-processed. Am I missing something here? In all my >reading (which admittedly isn't much) seismographs are shown with >damping. The FAQ even mentions it. Could you shed some light on this? You really need to have the dampening on the sensor. I don't think you could do it with post processing. The AtoD convert would saturate with the resonance frequence making it impossible to filter it out. Maybe if you had a 24 bit converter it could work. It may be fine now, when you get some real seismic waves it may saturate your system because of the lack of damping. > >I noticed another thing too. It seemed that whenever I was seeing a big >1.1 Hz peak from the undamped pendulum, I'd also see another sizable >one at about 2.2 Hz. Looked like 2nd harmonic to me. It didn't seem >reasonable that *if* the pendulum was a linear mechanical device that >it would produce a second harmonic so I became suspicious of the >electronics. I'd be interested in hearing what your take is on this >and if you had noticed anything similar. > It probably as something to do with the digitizing of the data or a by product of the FFT used in WinQuake. >All the above led to building yet another sensor. It's similar to >Shackelford Gunderson but in my opinion is superior. It's based >on differ*ential Kelvin capacitors that are compared by a switched >capacitor network (LTC1043). I have know idea what a Kelvin cap is. Can you describe this for me? What's on the pendulum and what's being used to pick up the signal? Do you us a integrator with your new setup? >Unbalance current feeds a low-noise, chopper >stabilized high gain amplifier (LTC1049). This preamp feeds anti-aliasing >filter and other filters before being set to a home-brew A/D converter. >As it is presently configured I *compute* the sensitivity to be about >9000volts/inch. I haven't been able to actually measure it. It's too >sensitive. > >Using this sensor and Winquake's's FFT I was able to convince myself >that the undamped pendulum doesn't swamp out other signals and that >1.1 Hz signals aren't necessarily accompanied with 2.2 Hz signals >and vice versa. By the way, when I say undamped pendulum, that's >not strictly the case. There is air damping and it isn't negligible. >The pendulum is basically a paddle with about 25 square inches of area >at the bottom and damps out after about 7 oscillations so it's >definitely underdamped. > >You know, after all this experimenting I have yet to actually >*record* an earthquake? It has been very quite the last few months. I've recorded a few local quakes but no teleseismic events. >But I do see a lot of stuff going on.I thought I'd be troubled with traffic >being as how I live in downtown Seattle practically. Sure, I can see the >difference between 4pm and 4am but that noise is minor compared to what >I get when the wind is blowing. That's what I like about the Shackelford Gunderson sensors. It's not sensitive to the local ground noise like my Lehman. I live in a very noisy (seismicly speaking) place. I have a freeway (US 101) about 400 yards from me and a industrial highway even closer. On the other side of my house, about 1 mile away, are train tracks. My Lehman picks up a lot of noise during the day that my new sensor doesn't have. >I spent some time looking at the high frequency stuff but I just don't have >the storage capacity to monitor continuously. (And I haven't written the >software to trigger on events yet. That's one disadvantage of a homebrew A/D >converter feeding a bidirectional printer port - no readily >available software.) So I think I'll look at low frequency >stuff. I saw a signal with a period of about 40 seconds go >sailing by once. Very majestic. Do you think one could >capture earth tides? I've been searching the web trying to >get a handle on the size of the effect but no results so far. >Any ideas? >Warner Lindholm from Tina's account Don't know anything about earth tides, are you sure it's now a quick temperature change. The only problem I had the my new sensor was some low frequency waves that would only start up at night. I finally filled the inside of the box, that covers the sensor, with foam rubber just like the article says to do. It now works great. Thanks for your message, I am looking forward to hearing more about your sensor and seeing some seismograms from it. Regards, Larry ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Got the following today.... Dear Larry, On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, Larry Cochrane wrote: > I have know idea what a Kelvin cap is. Can you describe this for me? What's > on the pendulum and what's being used to pick up the signal? Do you us a > integrator with your new setup? A Kelvin capacitor is a capacitor with a guard ring. The guard ring is kept at the same potential as the capacitor plate to eliminate fringing effects. I use a guard ring plus an additional guard plate behind each sensor plate so that the sensor "sees" only the pendulum which is at ground potential. The pendulum hangs between two of the plates which are spaced 1/4" from each other. The ground plate is 1/16" thick so two capacitors are formed by this arrangement each with a 3/32" air dielectric. The plate area is 16 in^2 so each capacitor has a capacitance of about 40 picofarads. The whole idea of the guard electrodes is the same as driving a cable shield with a voltage follower to eliminate capacitive effects. The ASCII schematic below suggests how the thing works. The switches are part of the LTC1043 which self-clocks at around 160 kHz. Charge is transferred from E- to E+. If E+=-E- and C1=C2, then terminal V, the opamp virtual ground, will be at zero volts, but if C1<>C2 then charge will move into or out of V. ---> V sw | sw E+o--------o o-----------o----------o o--------oE- \ \ o o _|_ _|_ --- C1 --- C2 _|_ _|_ /// /// I don't use an integrator, but there's no reason one couldn't. It's a displacement sensor above 1.1 Hz and below that frequency it's a pretty sensitive tilt meter. It easily senses the deflections in the concrete floor when I'm working around it. For this sensor 9 mV/microinch pendulum deflection translates to about 100 mV/microradian tilt. I *do* highpass filter the preamp output however. I use a blocking capacitor and the RC time constant is around 6 minutes. I do this because there are slow drifts of unknown origin which over the course of days can amount to a volt or two. I'm still working on this. I'm pretty sure part of what I'm seeing is a temperature effect. > Don't know anything about earth tides, are you sure it's now a quick > temperature change. The only problem I had the my new sensor was some low > frequency waves that would only start up at night. I finally filled the > inside of the box, that covers the sensor, with foam rubber just like the > article says to do. It now works great. I don't *think* I'm having any other temp problems. The LTC1049 op amp has a spec of only 0.1uV/degreeC. I think it's an amazing part and pretty cheap too (~$3). Are you familiar with it or some of its brethren? The Linear Technology LTC1043 Switched-Capacitor Building Block is also pretty neat. I can send data sheets if you like. Just let me know. > Thanks for your message, I am looking forward to hearing more about your > sensor and seeing some seismograms from it. I'll get our provider to set up a directory for ftp and put some data files in it. This'll take a few days. Warner Lindholm from Tina's account. From: Allan Coleman Subject: To subscribers in the Pacific N.W. Hello to the group, Due to the recent influx of new subscribers to this network I am now wondering if there are any other amateur seismologists (who have built and/or operate home built, or commercially obtained, seismic equipment) that live here in the P.N.W. I live in Edmonds, Wa. about 30 minutes drive north of Seattle and would be most interested in meeting with other amateurs, like myself, face to face to discuss the finer points of seismograph design, and perhaps visit eachother's site of operations. Please notify me if you are within easy driving distance and would like to meet. Regards, Allan Coleman Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 13:16:48 -0800 From: Allan Coleman Subject: Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer To Warner Lindholm, Though I have not built the S.G. seismometer as described in the Scientific American article of 1975 I have attempted to make a similar type of seismometer, that is, a force-balance accelerometer. The S.G. seismometer moves in direct proportion to the acceleration of the ground movement. This acceleration signal provides the necessary damping via the coil. The acceleration feed-back signal "stiffens" the system and lengthening the natural period of the pendulum. A seismometer must be designed to follow the ground motion as closely as possible so as to show the arrival of each seismic wave. A pendulum not properly dampened will continue to oscillate after being set in motion, so it will be impossible to say if you recorded energy reflected off a boundary layer within the earth or if its the seismometer off doing its own thing. Damping is very important and the method described in the original article should be followed. I have monitored many times the acceleration signal from my seismometer (obtainable at pin 6 on the summing amplifier on the S.G. design). It gives makes a recording that looks like a velocity signal but with a lot more accentuation of the weaker P waves. You'll pick up much more clearly the P wave arrival than what would be expected from a velocity seismogram. Try it for a while until you pick up some teleseismic events. The a.c. integrator as designed in the article is used to convert the accel signal into a velocity signal. The integrator's 10k input resistor and 100 microfarad feed-back capacitor form a low pass filter that rolls off at -6dB/octave at a corner frequency of .15 Hz (or 6.6 seconds). Therefore all wave frequencies above .15Hz attenuate at a rate of -6dB/oct so all the interesting 1-3 Hz waves are filtered out somewhat and to see them you have to add a lot more gain. But when you add more gain to see these signals the long period waves (greater than .15 Hz) that were allowed to pass through at the integrator at the original signal level are greatly amplified as well, which can be annoying. The seismometer must be on steady ground and protected from drafts and temperature variations as they are sources of long period "noise". The basic S.G. design is a good one but to obtain a clean velocity signal from it places great demands on the site where it is to be installed. The good old reliable Lehman design is hard to beat for being insensitive to thermal noise, less demanding to keep adjusted and cheaper/easier to make. But you can learn more about earthquakes by making devices with different responses, assuming we can get them to work as planned. That's what has kept my attention with this hobby. I hope I have been of some help to you here and what I have stated I hope is correct. I am sure that there are more experienced people out there reading this who will put me straight. Regards, Allan Coleman From: Karl Cunningham Subject: Re: Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer Date: Sat, 3 Feb 96 07:11:32 +0000 (GMT) Greetings -- Could someone please tell me in which issue of Scientific American the original article on the Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer appeared? Thanks in advance, -- Karl From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Re: Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer Hi Karl and Group, Funny you should ask, I'm just in the process of documenting the SG sensor for the PSN Web Site. The article I used to make mine is from Sept. 1975. Thanks to Walt Catino (Thanks Walt!) who scanned the article in, I can make a Web page with the Text and Drawings. I don't have it ready yet and I still need the to convert the text part of the gif files to a text file using OCR. Until then I can zip together the raw scans (in GIF format) and place them in my ftp directory at psn.quake.net. The file name will be sgsensor.zip and it will be in the /info sub-directory. I will have the drawings from the article on the PSN Web page tomorrow and add the text as soon as I can. Regards, Larry At 07:11 AM 2/3/96 +0000, you wrote: > > >Greetings -- > >Could someone please tell me in which issue of Scientific American the >original article on the Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer appeared? > >Thanks in advance, >-- Karl > > > Date: Sat, 03 Feb 1996 02:52:13 -0600 From: rond@................ (Charlie Rond) Hi Karl, >Could someone please tell me in which issue of Scientific American the >original article on the Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer appeared? September, 1975 (Volume 233, Number 3), "The Amateur Scientist", pp.182-188. --Charlie Rond --Charlie Rond -\/\--Public Seismic Network-Memphis rond@................ (901) 360-0302 [ free BBS ] From: Karl Cunningham Subject: Re: Shackleford Gunderson Seismometer Date: Sun, 4 Feb 96 17:24:31 +0000 (GMT) At 12:29 AM 2/3/96, Larry Cochrane wrote: >Until then >I can zip together the raw scans (in GIF format) and place them in my ftp >directory at psn.quake.net. The file name will be sgsensor.zip and it will >be in the /info sub-directory. To Larry -- Thanks for posting the file in your ftp directory. I downloaded it and it looks great! It's off to study it for awhile. To Charlie Rond -- Thanks for posting the date of the article. I had looked at the library at the tables of contents for SA for 1975 but I wasn't looking at "The Amateur Scientist" column. -- Karl From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) ----- Begin Included Message ----- >From owner-psn-l@............. Wed Jan 24 13:45 AKS 1996 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Reply-To: Public Seismic Network From: Steve Hammond Subject: Re: Alaska PSN homepage is on the air (ether)(net)? Here here-- Bob Hammond, I popped into the WEB and what did I see? A PSN Alaska station. This is great. Where is the station? I would like to add you and Larry's home page info to the PSN San Jose BBS front page. You doing anything with the USGS guys up there or local schools? Regards, Steve Hammond PSN BBS San Jose ----- End Included Message ----- To Steve Hammond, PSN, BBS, San Jose: Sorry I've taken so long to return your email. Here's some answers to your questions. So far, I have the only fully operational station. It is located about 8 miles northwest of Fairbanks and consists of a Mark Products L4 1 Hz vertical seismometer. The seismometer is a cast-off so is not working exactly right. I am in the process is rebuild- ing a long-period vertical seismometer (10-30 seconds) and hope to have both running routinely. And maybe get a couple of telemetered AEIC stations coming in as well. Two other amateurs are in the process of setting up their stations and should be on line soon. And then there's the two local school groups (see the info below) that I'm helping get set up with PSN stations. Yes, please add the APSN webpage to your BBS front page. The current address is http://www.polarnet.com/Users/APSN/ I am employed by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center, Golden, Colorado. I am a geophysicist assigned to the Alaska Earthquake Information Center (AEIC) which is housed at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska,Fairbanks. AEIC is a cooperative program of the USGS and the University of Alaska. I am involved with some of the local schools in earthquake education. I am also involved in a program to put PSN stations in 3 schools and with one homeschool group in Alaska. The plan is to get the 4 groups recording quakes and sharing readings so they can collectively locate the quakes. Plus learn about earthquakes, tectonics, seismology, computers, internet, electronics, etc. I'm really having fun with my PSN station. I wish I had been able to do this as a kid. Which is probably why I'm helping kids do it right now. regards, Bob From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Updates to RWC PSN Web Site Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 01:54:59 Hi Group, I completed the Web page for the Shackelford-Gunderson sensor documentation. If you have a Web browser the URL is http://psn.quake.net/sgsensor.html. I also put all of the drawings (in gif format) and text into a ZIP file so you can download all of them and view them at your end. If you don't have a access to the Web you can download the sgsensor.zip file using anonymous ftp to psn.quake.net, the file is in the /info sub-directory. I also released a new version of my data logging software SDR. SDR Version 1.4 can be downloaded using your Web browser (http://psn.quake.net/software/sdr14.zip) or ftp in the /software directory. My next project is to make a web page based on an article written by Allan Coleman, a member of the psn-l list. This article describes how to lengthen the period of a velocity seismometer, like a Lehman, by using electronic feedback. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks very interesting. My new Analog To Digital card is progressing very well. I just got back from my brothers house, he's doing the PC board layout (thanks Marc!), and it looks great! After the board is laid out I think I will only make 2 boards to make sure it works like the breadboard prototypes. If everything looks good I'll go for a bigger run of boards. I currently have a prototype in one of the dataloggers for my system. This board has a 16 bit AtoD chip (the board can have either a 12 or 16 bit chip) and is currently connected to my SG sensor and three of the USGS telemetry sensor (JCP, CGP, CMM). Unfortunately the USGS sensor do not gain any advantage by going to a 16 bit chip. Do to the limited dynamic range of the telemetry system the first 4 to 5 bits of a 16 bit chip are lost in noise. I'll keep you all informed on the process of the board. If you are looking for new data files from my system be patient, it's been very quite around here. The only event I have record for the last few days was the 7.0 near the Kuril Islands. This event was captured only on my SG sensor. My Lehman sensor did not pick up any of the phases. I'm really beginning to like the SG sensor over my Lehman for teleseismic events now that I cured the low frequency thermal noise. I did this by filling the inside of box that covers my sensor with foam rubber, just like the article said to do. This stops any thermal drafts from developing inside the box. That's it for now. Regards, Larry Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 03:29:39 -0600 From: rond@................ (Charlie Rond) Subject: Re: Updates to RWC PSN Web Site Hi Larry, Will take a look at your new stuff on the Web. Anxious to get some of the .GIF files you've done. >My new Analog To Digital card is progressing very well. I just got back from >my brothers house, he's doing the PC board layout (thanks Marc!), and it >looks great! Am really anxious to hear about the A/D card production. That's the big limiting factor here with trying to get some school systems up and running. We really need a reliable source of cards. What do you estimate will be the cost? Keep up the great work! --Charlie Rond --Charlie Rond -\/\--Public Seismic Network-Memphis rond@................ (901) 360-0302 [ free BBS ] From: Hammonds Subject: A/D board Hi Larry, I'm real interested in what your A/D board will cost too. Like Charlie Rond, I want to put them in more schools and cost is a factor. I appreciate your efforts! regards, Bob Hammond APSN PS: Mag 8.0 in Indonesia last night! From: Larry Cochrane Subject: AtoD card and other stuff... Date: Sun, 18 Feb 1996 14:52:25 Hi Everyone, The article by Allan Coleman on how to lengthen the nature period of a Lehman, or other velocity type seismometer, by using electronics is now on the Redwood City PSN Web site. If you have a Web browser the URL is: http://psn.quake.net/lpveloc.html or you can download the text and drawings using ftp. The file is lpveloc.zip and it's in the /info directory. Charlie Rond wrote: >Am really anxious to hear about the A/D card production. That's the big >limiting factor here with trying to get some school systems up and running. >We really need a reliable source of cards. What do you estimate will be the >cost? At his point I'm not sure what the cost will be. It depends a lot on what the blank PC boards will cost. Because I can only afford to make a small run of boards the cost of the PC boards are a little high. As an example, a blank PC board for my amp/filter card costs around $45.00 if I have 20 cards made. That's almost 1/2 the cost for a single channel board ($100.00) with all of the parts and a power supply. Here's what I'm shooting for: A basic 12 bit board that will work with EMON (no timing circuitry) will be around $120 to $130 each. A 12 bit board with timing circuitry that will work with my data logging software SDR will be in the $150.00 to $160.00 range. Other options will be: The board can have either a 12 or 16 bit AtoD chip. The cost for a 16 bit AtoD version will be $40 to $50 more. The board can be upgraded to a 16 bit chip in the field by simply replacing the 12 bit AtoD chip. The following options will only be useful if you plan to run SDR. The board will have circuity to decode the time from WWV by using a short wave receiver. If you can receive one of the WWV signals (5, 10 and 15Mhz) you will be able to keep the time accurate to +- 20 Milliseconds. For this option you will need to run SDR because all of the timing work is done in software. This option will be around $20 to $30. And the last option will be a temperature controlled oven for the reference oscillator. The normal board that will work with SDR will have a TTL type oscillator. These (and all crystal oscillators) are very sensitive to temperature changes. By surrounding a oscillator with a constant temperature the system timing can be keep to a few ten's of milliseconds of drift per day. Without it, the drift can be in the hundreds of milliseconds per day. The cost of this option is going to be high do to it being very labor intensive to build and test. I'm trying to keep this option under $100.00. The board will have 8 analog inputs. Currently EMON will only use 3 and SDR 4 channels. Each input will take +- 5 volts, but other input ranges will be possible. I have a question for those of you planing to use the board. The board as it is being laid out will need to be used in a 286 or newer motherboard. This is because we are using the 16 bit ISA board configuration. The very old 8088 motherboards only have a 8 bit bus (one connector on the motherboard). By using both connectors on the motherboard we can pick up some more power lines to reduce internal noise, pick up some more interrupt lines (needed to run SDR) and better mechanically holding of the board in the computer. The only disadvantage would be that you can't run the card with EMON on an old 8088 PC. Since SDR needs a faster computer, it wont run on an 8088 system. So, if a lot of people have old PC's and want to run EMON with my card we can change the board layout to remove the second connector. One thing I should note: EMON currently does not have an option to work with this new board. As soon as I can get another board built, I'll give it to Ted Blank so he can hopefully (if he has time ect..) add it to the list of boards that EMON will support. I currently have two breadboards, one has a 16 bit AtoD chip in it, and, is online in one of my data logging systems. It's the one that has my SG sensor and 3 USGS sensors (JCP, CGP and CMM). The other board is with my brother and is being used as an example for the layout. If anyone recorded any PSN format seismograms of the 8.0 the other day, way not upload them (using ftp) to my system for others to view. The /incoming directory at psn.quake.net is open to write by anyone. After uploading the file send use email to let us know it's there and maybe a short note about your system. I will move the files to the /quakes/9602 sub-directory so if you are looking for a new uploaded file and it's not in the /incoming dir look there. That's it for now... Regards, Larry Subject: Re: AtoD card and other stuff... Date: Sun, 18 Feb 96 20:53:06 -0500 From: Jim Hannon Just a suggestion for the 16 bit connector. I have sometimes found a slot on 8 bit motherboards where the extra card connector will fit down in between components. Otherwise I have at times just cut it off. Otherwise I sure appreciate cards with all the interrupts avaliable. Jim Hannon -------- REPLY, Original message follows -------- I have a question for those of you planing to use the board. The board as it is being laid out will need to be used in a 286 or newer motherboard. This is because we are using the 16 bit ISA board configuration. The very old 8088 motherboards only have a 8 bit bus (one connector on the motherboard). By using both connectors on the motherboard we can pick up some more power lines to reduce internal noise, pick up some more interrupt lines (needed to run SDR) and better mechanically holding of the board in the computer. The only disadvantage would be that you can't run the card with EMON on an old 8088 PC. Since SDR needs a faster computer, it wont run on an 8088 system. So, if a lot of people have old PC's and want to run EMON with my card we can change the board layout to remove the second connector. Regards, Larry -------- REPLY, End of original message -------- From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: AtoD card and other stuff... On Sun, 18 Feb 1996, Larry Cochrane wrote: > A basic 12 bit board that will work with EMON (no timing circuitry) will be > around $120 to $130 each. A 12 bit board with timing circuitry that will > work with my data logging software SDR will be in the $150.00 to $160.00 range. Seems like this might be a good time to get a feel for how many boards will be wanted. I'd like to start the listing with a reservation for another board (16 bit naturally... :) Ken Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 11:49:36 -0500 From: GeoMonitr@....... Subject: Re: AtoD card and other stuff... Hi, and thanks for the post. I'd like permission to report on this A/D card in my newsletter, Geo-Monitor. In fact, I was wondering also if we couldn't make some arrangement were I could post news on earthquake prediction to the PSN ??? Just thinking out loud. . .. Vince. Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 18:51:32 GMT From: Peter Styles Subject: Re: AtoD card and other stuff... Dear Larry Im very interested in purchasing one of your 16-bit boards with timing to replace our aging helicorder here at Liverpool. Anytime you are ready to sell one let me know > > Peter Dr Peter Styles sr15@................ Microseismic Research Group Department of Earth Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3BX United Kingdom Tel: 44 (0)151 794 5174 Fax: 44 (0)151 794 5170 'May the Earth move for you!' Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 09:27:12 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) Subject: GPS timing source I just received some info on GPS clocks which might be of use to PSN folks. Garmin International (Lexena, KS, 800-800-1020) makes a GPS evaluation kit for $499 (!) which includes antenna, cabling, board, and software which outputs 1 pulse per second at +/- 1 microsecond accuracy. The 1 pps is a 0-5v TTL level shift. WWV is real attractive at this price. regards, Bob From owner-psn-l@............. Wed, 21 Feb 1996 01:19:11 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Wed, 21 Feb 1996 01:19:11 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network X-Sender: Larry Cochrane X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" From: Larry Cochrane Subject: forward of some mail Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 01:19:11 Message-Id: <19960221011911.00ed4bb3.in@.............> Hi, My system had some problems sending out mail today. The following was bounced back to me. I think the problem was the e-mail message to psn-l had a forward message in it. This message had all of the email header info and it confused the mail system on my system. If you forward an email message to psn-l please edit the message first and remove any email header info in the body of your message. Thanks. One the good news is this list now has over 100 members from all over the world! Larry --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From : jmhannon@................. Subject : SAS: Seismology Network I thought this list might be interested it this. Jim Hannon ________________ Forward Header____________ Subject : SAS: Seismology Network Author : "Shawn Carlson, Ph.D." at ccmgw1 Date : 2/19/96 8:01 PM Dear Seismologist: My name is Bart Blakely, and I am a strudent at San Diego State University. I will be working as an intern this semester, helping Dr. Carlson with the seismology project, and various other projects here at SAS. Feel free to E-mail me if you have any questions or comments. There is a lot going on here with regards to seismology. Here is some information regarding upcoming magazine articles. The design of the seismology station will be carried in the April and May editions of "The Amateur Scientist" column of Scientific American. The April edition will contain information on how to build a professional quality station to detect earth motion between 0.005 to 5g. It will have three axis, and be readable on your personal computer. The best part is that construction costs will be less than $100. In May there will be information on how to build a station to detect very long wavelength electromagnetic waves for about $100. Due to copyright arragements, we can not release these designs in advance of their publication in Scientific American. Thanks to generous donations we currently have 8 working 8086 computers (IBM XT's) that we can provide people to use as data loggers. The A to D conversion for the project is being woked on by Jim Sky. We are hoping that this work will result in an inexpensive package to distribute to network members. Unfortunately participation in the network is restricted to SAS members. If you are not currently a member of SAS, and you would like to become one, you can send $35 to 4951 D Clairemont Square Suite 179, San Diego, CA 92117, or you can E-mail us at info@....... or http://www.thesphere.com/SAS/. You may also phone in your membership and use your major credit card. Thats all I have for now, but you can expect more information in the near future. Sincerely, Bart Blakely ============================================================================= Society for Amateur Scientists Shawn Carlson, Ph.D. 4951 D Clairemont Sq. Suite 179 Executive Director San Diego, CA 92117 (619) 239-8807 Phone/FAX SAS Web Page: http://www.thesphere.com/SAS/ scarlson@....... Membership: $35 per year Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 18:40:19 +0100 From: Kees Verbeek Subject: introduction Dear Seismologists, My name is Kees Verbeek ,sculptor as profession and as a part off this i'm very interestet in seismologie. Yesterday my subscription to the Public Seismic Network-list has been accepted that,s why now i intruduce myself. I made myself (with very much help from the Dutch seismologie-instituut (K.N.M.I.)) a 1908 Bosch mechanical seismograph. This very old model whrites down on smoked paper and runs now for over 2 years and works very good .The instrument is very large 300 -60-200 cm and because i,m here on sand its fundation on concrete is very deep 250 cm. From owner-psn-l@............. Wed, 21 Feb 1996 10:11:21 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Wed, 21 Feb 1996 10:11:21 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network From: RDG8%PClOs%PS@................. Date: Wed, 21 Feb 96 10:10:11 PST Message-Id: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Subject: re:introduction Kees; Welcome to the wonderful world of seismology. My name is Roger Griggs, a computer technician by trade. I work for a power company here in San Francisco California, USA. I have a Lehman long period type seismograph under my house on a block of cement. I have it connected to a computer that monitors and captures local and distant quakes 24 hours a day. I do this as a hobby and it's very enjoyable. Again welcome. Roger ----------------------[Reply - Original Message]---------------------- Sent by:Kees Verbeek Dear Seismologists, My name is Kees Verbeek ,sculptor as profession and as a part off this i'm very interestet in seismologie. Yesterday my subscription to the Public Seismic Network-list has been accepted that,s why now i intruduce myself. I made myself (with very much help from the Dutch seismologie-instituut (K.N.M.I.)) a 1908 Bosch mechanical seismograph. This very old model whrites down on smoked paper and runs now for over 2 years and works very good .The instrument is very large 300 -60-200 cm and because i,m here on sand its fundation on concrete is very deep 250 cm. ===================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 19:17:32 +0100 From: Kees Verbeek Subject: introduction Hello, Yesterday my subscription to the Public Seismic Network PSN-L list has been accepted,so this is who I am and what i am doing. I am 34 years old Sculptor from Holland and for my work i'm very interested in earth-science. For that reason i made myself a copy off a very old (1908) mechanical seismograph (bosch) ,did this with many help from the Dutch Seismic-instituut (knmi) . Making the instrument was one thing but after that was tuning it the other. It took me a lot off time to clear this job. To let it whrite on paper was the biggest problem .Now it runs for over 1 and a 1/2 year and it runs very well with no problems at all . The instrument is a long period (19 sec.) ,horizontal ,very big (almost 3 meters), seismograph ,that whrites on smoked paper. Because Holland is nothing but sand and clay i had to make a very deep (almost 2,5 meter) foundation off concrete. Now every day i pick up my "home-made" seismogram. I 'm now making plans to make a electromagnetic seismograph and that's why i'm very interested in this PSN-list because many off you already have one. I think sometimes i will cry-out for some help, till then many greetings. Kees Verbeek, Holland kverb@........ Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 20:36:25 +0100 From: Kees Verbeek Subject: introduction HELLO, yesterday my subscription to the public seismic network PSN-L list has been accepted, so this is who i am and wht i am doing. I am a 34 years-old Sculptor from Holland and for my work i'm very interested in earth-science. For that reason i made myself a copy off a very old (1908) mechanical seismograph (Bosch) ,did this with many help from the Dutch Seismic-Instituut (KNMI). Making the instrument was one thing but after that was tuning it the other. It took me a lot off time to clear this job . To let it whrite on paper was the biggest problem. Now it runs for over 1.5 year very smoothley with no problems at all. The instrument is a long period (19 sec.) ,horizontal, very big (almost 3 meters), seismograph, that whrites on smoked paper. Because Holland is nothing more than sand and clay i had to make a very deep foundation off concrete. Now every day i pick up my "Home-made" seismograms. I'm now making plans to make a electromagnetic seismograph and that is why i am very interested in this PSN-list because many off you already have one. I think sometimes i will cry-out for some help, till then many greetings. Kees Verbeek kverb@........ From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: A/D board On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, Bob Hammond wrote: > Count me in for one of your A/D boards. I'll want the WWV version > but will run EMON. Bob, you *really* must give SDR a test drive! I used to run EMON and really appreciated it. However, the display offerd by SDR's full screen multiple channels allows a better view of the seismo world. Since Larry's new card will support SDR you should take a look at what it has to offer. Ken Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 08:35:45 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) ----- Begin Included Message ----- On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, Bob Hammond wrote: > Count me in for one of your A/D boards. I'll want the WWV version > but will run EMON. Bob, you *really* must give SDR a test drive! I used to run EMON and really appreciated it. However, the display offerd by SDR's full screen multiple channels allows a better view of the seismo world. Since Larry's new card will support SDR you should take a look at what it has to offer. Ken ----- End Included Message ----- Ken, I've always wanted to use SDR but I'm cheap! I balked at buying the PCLABS A/D board because of the cost. And I was trying to find the least expensive setup for schools to use. Right now, that seems to be EMON and the Computer Boards, Inc. CIODAS08/Jr A/D board running in a 80286 PC. EMON is pretty good: I triggered on an ML 4.0 event 460 km to the south on 2/21. HOWEVER, as soon as Larry sends me one of his A/D boards, I'll give SDR a try at home for my personal station. Which means I have to come up with a 80386 machine. It shouldn't be too hard with everyone buying 100 MHz Pentiums! You know, I work with data from one of the largest seismograph networks in the U.S. But, nothing beats setting up and running your own station! Pretty cool, if you ask me. regards, Bob Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 12:47:40 -0800 (PST) From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: A/D board On Thu, 22 Feb 1996, Bob Hammond wrote: [snip] > I've always wanted to use SDR but I'm cheap! I balked at buying the PCLABS > A/D board because of the cost. Yup. Know the feeling! glad that Larry's cards will cut the cost by a BUNCH! > And I was trying to find the least expensive > setup for schools to use. Right now, that seems to be EMON and the Computer > Boards, Inc. CIODAS08/Jr A/D board running in a 80286 PC. EMON is pretty > good: I triggered on an ML 4.0 event 460 km to the south on 2/21. I agree that EMON is the cat's meow if you're looking at an inexpensive way to collect data. I REALLY wanted something that would give me a more immediate alarm mode. EMON triggers the alarm but only *after* it saves the file (or at least the older version I had did. Perhaps Ted has changed this with one of the newer versions.) Since I monitor telemetry from stations over 30 miles away a trigger on their signal gives me a few moments to get outta bed and away from the windows... kind'a nice! SDR also has different alarm tones depending upon the magnitude of trigger above the user selected threshold. Now, if only Larry would get this thing to "fly" on a laptop I'd be in seismo heaven!!! It would make my vacations at Mammoth a lot more interesting... Ken Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 13:33:11 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) Subject: Re: A/D board "Now, if only Larry would get this thing to "fly" on a laptop I'd be in seismo heaven!!!" Ken, There's a bunch of A/D manufacturers who make PCMCIA A/D cards. Such as ComputerBoards, Inc. Maybe Larry could write another driver for SDR? Maybe I should shut up, too, eh, Larry?! Well, I'll have to give SDR a try ASAP. You've got me interested in its' capabilities. thanks for the info, Bob. From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Re: A/D board Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 19:44:29 Hi, I would be more then willing to add more drivers for SDR. For SDR to work the AtoD card must be able to generate an accurate 1 millisecond interrupt and be able to do a AtoD conversion under 4 milliseconds. The 1 ms interrupt is used by SDR for all of it's internal timing to generate the 50 sample per second sample rate independent of the number of channels being recorded. I also need this high interrupt rate to be able to keep the time within +- 10 ms of UTC when SDR is used with a shortwave receiver tuned to WWV. Regards, Larry > > > Ken and Bob wrote: > >"Now, if only Larry would get >this thing to "fly" on a laptop I'd be in seismo heaven!!!" > >Ken, > >There's a bunch of A/D manufacturers who make PCMCIA A/D cards. >Such as ComputerBoards, Inc. >Maybe Larry could write another driver for SDR? > >Maybe I should shut up, too, eh, Larry?! > >Well, I'll have to give SDR a try ASAP. You've got me interested >in its' capabilities. > >thanks for the info, > >Bob. > > From owner-psn-l@............. Sat, 24 Feb 1996 08:41:23 From: Dick Webb -- [ From: Dick Webb * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- I'm sorry, but I am late to read about SDR. What is it? Thanks, Dick Webb From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: SDR On Sat, 24 Feb 1996, Dick Webb asked: > I'm sorry, but I am late to read about SDR. What is it? Hi Dick. Larry will probably jump in and fill in the gaps that I leave since it's his "baby". SDR (Seismic Data Recorder) is a software program use by some of us for data collection from our home seismometers and from the USGS telemetry channels. It provides continuous monitoring of up to 4 data input channels with user selectable parameters for saving an event to a file and for alarm thresholds. Each channel collects about 4 megs of data per day and self purges after how many days you set it to purge. If you want to go back to look at some period of time you merely have to "replay" the date/time and select the channel to view. One of the features that I like the best is that it show simultaneous displays of each of the traces for each data channel. You select the color for each channel. It scrolls across the entire screen rather than just in a smaller window as EMON does. Provides for better visual resolution and comparison for the different channels. If you monitor telemetry from different sites you can watch as an event is recorded from one sensor and wait for it to hit the next one. In my area in the SF bay area I can pretty much tell if an event is a teleseim, from Parkfield, Hollister, or the Mammoth area just from the different arrival times to the usual sites that I monitor. Each has a characteristic arrival "signature". The only problem (and it *can* be a problem) is the cost of the A/D card that SDR requires. IT needs the PC-LAB 711s to run. Larry is in the process of building some custom A/D boards with options for WWV timing signals and other whistles and bells that will be a bit cheaper than the $300.00 for the PC-LAB cards. However, if you're *really* into the spiffy features you might do as I did and live off soda crackers til I squirreled away enough money to afford the A/D card. (What the heck, I needed to lose some weight anyway). As it has turned out Larry is the equivilant of a Seismo "pusher" and I'm the junkie... You've heard the saying? The first one's free... well in my case it was true. He *gave* me the first telemetry demod board. Now I have to run a "bank" of them and he's the local "supplier" :) I really enjoyed running Ted Blank's EMON program but quickly found that I wanted to run multiple channels. SDR was the best option to fill my "needs". It's available from the PSN ftp site in case you want to play with it. Ken From: RDG8%PClOs%PS@................. Date: Mon, 26 Feb 96 8:00:07 PST Message-Id: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Subject: re:Re: SDR Just jumping in here :-) If I'm running just a single channel with a Lehman long period type, would the EMON be the better choice? Do I have to have the expensive AtoD board? I am presently using, GULP, the AS-2 system from Montrose. Roger ----------------------[Reply - Original Message]---------------------- Sent by:Ken Navarre On Sat, 24 Feb 1996, Dick Webb asked: > I'm sorry, but I am late to read about SDR. What is it? Hi Dick. Larry will probably jump in and fill in the gaps that I leave since it's his "baby". SDR (Seismic Data Recorder) is a software program use by some of us for data collection from our home seismometers and from the USGS telemetry channels. It provides continuous monitoring of up to 4 data input channels with user selectable parameters for saving an event to a file and for alarm thresholds. Each channel collects about 4 megs of data per day and self purges after how many days you set it to purge. If you want to go back to look at some period of time you merely have to "replay" the date/time and select the channel to view. One of the features that I like the best is that it show simultaneous displays of each of the traces for each data channel. You select the color for each channel. It scrolls across the entire screen rather than just in a smaller window as EMON does. Provides for better visual resolution and comparison for the different channels. If you monitor telemetry from different sites you can watch as an event is recorded from one sensor and wait for it to hit the next one. In my area in the SF bay area I can pretty much tell if an event is a teleseim, from Parkfield, Hollister, or the Mammoth area just from the different arrival times to the usual sites that I monitor. Each has a characteristic arrival "signature". The only problem (and it *can* be a problem) is the cost of the A/D card that SDR requires. IT needs the PC-LAB 711s to run. Larry is in the process of building some custom A/D boards with options for WWV timing signals and other whistles and bells that will be a bit cheaper than the $300.00 for the PC-LAB cards. However, if you're *really* into the spiffy features you might do as I did and live off soda crackers til I squirreled away enough money to afford the A/D card. (What the heck, I needed to lose some weight anyway). As it has turned out Larry is the equivilant of a Seismo "pusher" and I'm the junkie... You've heard the saying? The first one's free... well in my case it was true. He *gave* me the first telemetry demod board. Now I have to run a "bank" of them and he's the local "supplier" :) I really enjoyed running Ted Blank's EMON program but quickly found that I wanted to run multiple channels. SDR was the best option to fill my "needs". It's available from the PSN ftp site in case you want to play with it. Ken ===================================================================== From owner-psn-l@............. Tue, 27 Feb 1996 10:30:08 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Tue, 27 Feb 1996 10:30:08 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 10:28:08 -0800 (PST) From: Ken Navarre Subject: re:Re: SDR In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 26 Feb 1996, Roger asked... > If I'm running just a single channel with a Lehman long period type, would the > EMON be the better choice? Do I have to have the expensive AtoD board? > I am presently using, GULP, the AS-2 system from Montrose. Hi Roger, EMON is a fine program. I used it and really enjoyed it. I just wanted to run more "stuff"... EMON runs on a variety of inexpensive A/D cards (sorry but I don't have the list handy). The ONLY 2 drawbacks I have with EMON is (1) the smaller display "window" it uses. The left side of the screen displays options and 2/3 of your crt is for the display of the actual data. Both EMON and SDR allow for numerous lines of display. And (2) the alarm mode for EMON goes off only when a file is saved, not when the trigger threshold is exceeded. SDR begind "bleeping" as soon as the trigger is detected. Neither of these points may be important to you. EMON is absolutely perfect for data collection from a single sensor unless you're a "purist" (or a whacko like myself...). I *would* suggest using WINQUAKE to view the data collected from either EMON or SDR, though. Ken From owner-psn-l@............. Tue, 27 Feb 1996 11:26:43 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Tue, 27 Feb 1996 11:26:43 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network From: RDG8%PClOs%PS@................. Date: Tue, 27 Feb 96 11:25:37 PST Message-Id: X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Subject: re:SDR vs. EMON Ken, Thanks for your response Ken. My current software will start beeping a sonoalert as soon as the signal hits the trigger level. (wife doesn't care to much for that at 3am) :-) But I think the aspect of recieving the shake in realtime is the thrill for me and also a small measure of warning should it be the Hayward or San Andreas. So I guess EMON would not be the choice. Now I understand the SDR program will work with Larry's new boards but will the new board accept a low level input comming from my Lehman type electro-magnetic coil? If it does then I will get on the list and get into the main stream with the rest of you. I assume that one would use WINQuake to display the data? And as far as being a purist, my wife seems to think I'm more towards the obsessed level. When my daughter moved out and left for college, the spare room became the "QUAKE ROOM" with USGS maps covering nearly every inch of wall space. Regards, Roger ----------------------[Reply - Original Message]---------------------- Sent by:Ken Navarre On Mon, 26 Feb 1996, Roger asked... > If I'm running just a single channel with a Lehman long period type, would the > EMON be the better choice? Do I have to have the expensive AtoD board? > I am presently using, GULP, the AS-2 system from Montrose. Hi Roger, EMON is a fine program. I used it and really enjoyed it. I just wanted to run more "stuff"... EMON runs on a variety of inexpensive A/D cards (sorry but I don't have the list handy). The ONLY 2 drawbacks I have with EMON is (1) the smaller display "window" it uses. The left side of the screen displays options and 2/3 of your crt is for the display of the actual data. Both EMON and SDR allow for numerous lines of display. And (2) the alarm mode for EMON goes off only when a file is saved, not when the trigger threshold is exceeded. SDR begind "bleeping" as soon as the trigger is detected. Neither of these points may be important to you. EMON is absolutely perfect for data collection from a single sensor unless you're a "purist" (or a whacko like myself...). I *would* suggest using WINQUAKE to view the data collected from either EMON or SDR, though. Ken ===================================================================== From owner-psn-l@............. Tue, 27 Feb 1996 21:30:53 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Tue, 27 Feb 1996 21:30:53 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network X-Sender: Larry Cochrane X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" From: Larry Cochrane Subject: re:SDR vs. EMON Date: Tue, 27 Feb 1996 21:30:53 Message-Id: <19960227213053.242b2c75.in@.............> At 11:25 AM 2/27/96 PST, Roger wrote: > >Now I understand the SDR program will work with Larry's new boards but will >the new board accept a low level input comming from my Lehman type >electro-magnetic coil? If it does then I will get on the list and get into the >main stream with the rest of you. The AtoD card excepts a +- 5 volt input for full scale output. The card has 8 analog inputs but SDR will only use up to 4 of them. You will need to add an amplifier and low pass filter between your Lehman and the AtoD card. I have one for sale, check out http://psn.quake.net/eqamp.html. This web page has a photo and specs for the board. >I assume that one would use WINQuake to display the data? Or quakevu by Ted Blank. This is a dos program to display PSN format event files. I have a copy of it on my system. Regards, Larry From owner-psn-l@............. Wed, 28 Feb 1996 03:45:37 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Wed, 28 Feb 1996 03:45:37 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network X-Sender: rond@....................... X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 04:42:04 -0600 From: rond@................ (Charlie Rond) Subject: Re: A/D board Message-Id: <19960228034537.25824316.in@.............> Hi Bob, >I've always wanted to use SDR but I'm cheap! I balked at buying the PCLABS >A/D board because of the cost. And I was trying to find the least expensive >setup for schools to use. Right now, that seems to be EMON and the Computer >Boards, Inc. CIODAS08/Jr A/D board running in a 80286 PC. EMON is pretty >good: I triggered on an ML 4.0 event 460 km to the south on 2/21. For school systems....where can I find Computer Boards, Inc. and what is the cost of their board? Would appreciate their number or address and a contact person. Will the board operate in a PC or XT? --Charlie Rond --Charlie Rond -\/\--Public Seismic Network-Memphis rond@................ (901) 360-0302 [ free BBS ] From owner-psn-l@............. Wed, 28 Feb 1996 06:16:12 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Wed, 28 Feb 1996 06:16:12 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 09:15:09 -0500 From: BurlU@....... Message-ID: <960228091509_233257944@...................> Subject: Re: A/D board The Computer Boards CIO-DAS08/Jr 8 channel A/D, works fine in an XT or AT. It costs $99.00 The address is Computer Boards, Inc., 125 High St., Mansfield, MA 02048. Phone 508-261-1123 I use this board and it works great. Burl Updyke Penna. From owner-psn-l@............. Wed, 28 Feb 1996 10:51:36 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Wed, 28 Feb 1996 10:51:36 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 09:49:27 -0900 From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) Message-Id: <9602281849.AA24472@.................> Subject: Re: A/D board X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Charlie, looks like Burl got you the info before I was even awake (5:24am AST)! I second his comments. The board works great in the 80286 PC I use. regards, Bob From owner-psn-l@............. Sat, 02 Mar 1996 00:02:58 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Sat, 02 Mar 1996 00:02:58 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 00:01:51 -0800 Message-Id: <199603020801.AA06929@...................> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: tfrey@........... Subject: Re: AtoD card and other stuff... In-Reply-To: <19960218145225.6c70c917.in@.............> X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.10.06.22 Hi Larry! I'm having a great time, but very limited... I have experimented with several received channels... Couple turned out to be weather remote sensors! But; still kicks! But I need a demodulator board... Do you have one available (sorry I know you told me..but had a crash and lost all my saved mail!). If so how much? If not when.. you know the rest... C U tom From owner-psn-l@............. Sun, 03 Mar 1996 13:34:05 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Sun, 03 Mar 1996 13:34:05 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network X-Sender: Larry Cochrane X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Re: AtoD card and other stuff... Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 13:34:05 Message-Id: <19960303133405.3c380a4c.in@.............> Hi Tom, I'm enclosing two email messages, the last one I sent to you, and the last one you sent me. You where going to wait until my AtoD card was ready before getting the demod card. If you would like to have the one demod board I have left please send me a email and I'll build it up. When I get your check I'll send it out. My address is: Larry Cochrane 24 Garden St. Redwood City, Cal. 94063 Regards, Larry At 12:01 AM 3/2/96 -0800, you wrote: > > >Hi Larry! > I'm having a great time, but very limited... I have experimented >with several received channels... Couple turned out to be weather remote >sensors! But; still kicks! > > But I need a demodulator board... > Do you have one available (sorry I know you told me..but had a crash and lost >all my saved mail!). > > If so how much? > If not when.. > you know the rest... > ******************************Message 1 ********************************** Hi Tom, Great! The demod card only has one channel per card. The amplifier/filter card can have up to 3 channels and is used with homemade seismometers like a Lehman. The demod card has to many parts to have more then one channel. The demod card does let you select what tone to decode. The USGS analog telemetry systems can have up to 8 tones or stations per audio channel. Besides the demod card you will need some sort of data logger or chart recorder. Do you already have an AtoD converter board that can work with EMON or my SDR program? My SDR program currently works with one commercial board, a PC-LABS 711s. As you may know I am in the process of building my own AtoD card that should be for sale in about a month or so. To run SDR you will need a 386 or faster PC compatible system running DOS only. I currently have only one blank demodulator PC board left. If you would like more then 1 channel you will have to wait until I go for more PC boards. The demod card costs 120.00 per channel plus 10.00 for shipping. Please let me know if you would like the one channel I have, or wait until I have my AtoD card ready. I hope to keep the cost of the AtoD card under $160.00 for the basic options. The SDR software is free and will be supplied with the AtoD card. Regards, Larry At 09:02 AM 2/22/96 -0800, you wrote: > > >Hi Larry > > Thanks for the list I found 5!! > > Now I need to order a 3 chan and software! > > Where do I send check etc.. > thnx tom ******************************************MEssage 2******************* Mornin' Larry Thanks for the quickreply..... I am really anxious to get started, but;...... Think I'll wait till your a/d is also ready.......I would be much more assured of compatability, and since I don't already have an a/d ....welllll... I'll wait...... :[ Please let me know when they are ready... I have 4 rx for the 160 and 1 for the 400Mhz bands.. they should work just fine.. the one I'm using to detect currently has a 17 element beam, so get very good signals.. Thanks...have a good one! tom From owner-psn-l@............. Sun, 03 Mar 1996 15:19:33 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Sun, 03 Mar 1996 15:19:33 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network X-Sender: Larry Cochrane X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.2 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" From: Larry Cochrane Subject: AtoD card update Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 15:19:33 Message-Id: <19960303151933.3c989825.in@.............> Hi Everyone... I thought I would update you all with the progress of the new AtoD card. The layout of the PC board is done! The next thing to do is checking the layout, and then go for a small run of boards (2 to 4). If very thing looks good, I'll then go for the bigger run of boards. At this point I have around 14 boards ordered, so I will have 20 to 25 boards made. The checkout of the board should be done this week so I should be able to have the first boards started sometime next week. For the new members of the list. This message is in reference to an AtoD converter board I am in the process of getting ready to sell. If you download the psn-l archive files you can find out more about his card. You can download the archive files using your Web browser (under PSN Mailing List) or using ftp. The files are in the /info directory and are called psnl95q4.txt and psnl96q1.txt. That's it for now, thanks to all who ordered a board and for being so patient. Regards, Larry From owner-psn-l@............. Mon, 04 Mar 1996 04:29:37 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Mon, 04 Mar 1996 04:29:37 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 11:31:20 GMT From: Peter Styles Subject: Re: AtoD card update cc: Public Seismic Network Message-ID: Priority: Normal MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Dear Larry This board sounds great. Id love to get one and would like to have the first in the UK!. Best wishes Peter Styles On Sun, 03 Mar 1996 15:19:32 Larry Cochrane wrote: > From: Larry Cochrane > Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 15:19:32 > Subject: AtoD card update > To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l > > > > Hi Everyone... > > I thought I would update you all with the progress of the new AtoD card. The > layout of the PC board is done! The next thing to do is checking the layout, > and then go for a small run of boards (2 to 4). If very thing looks good, > I'll then go for the bigger run of boards. At this point I have around 14 > boards ordered, so I will have 20 to 25 boards made. The checkout of the > board should be done this week so I should be able to have the first boards > started sometime next week. > > For the new members of the list. This message is in reference to an AtoD > converter board I am in the process of getting ready to sell. If you > download the psn-l archive files you can find out more about his card. You > can download the archive files using your Web browser (under PSN Mailing > List) or using ftp. The files are in the /info directory and are called > psnl95q4.txt and psnl96q1.txt. > > That's it for now, thanks to all who ordered a board and for being so patient. > > Regards, > Larry > > > > Dr Peter Styles sr15@................ Microseismic Research Group Department of Earth Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3BX United Kingdom Tel: 44 (0)151 794 5174 Fax: 44 (0)151 794 5170 'May the Earth move for you!' Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 11:45:28 -0800 From: Steve Hedlund Subject: Re: Posting to PSN-L mailing list Does any know what the frequencies are in Las Vegas if there any. I would suspect with the test site here there would have to be a lot. Larry do you have any more demod boards. Steve Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 17:42:28 -0600 From: rond@................ (Charlie Rond) Subject: Re: A/D board Hi Bob, >looks like Burl got you the info before I was even awake (5:24am AST)! > >I second his comments. The board works great in the 80286 PC I use. Thanks for your reply. Have had some major problems lately with E-mail here, so I don't think I ever saw Burl's post. Can you repeat the answer, if you recall it? I had asked about using it in older machines, specifically an original PC or XT (8088 or 8086). Any word about whether it can "go back that far"? Thanks. --Charlie Rond -\/\--Public Seismic Network-Memphis rond@................ (901) 360-0302 [ free BBS ] From: bob@................. (Bob Hammond (USGS-NEIC Geophysicist at AEIC)) Subject: Re: A/D board to Charlie Rond: Burl's reply: Reply-To: Public Seismic Network From: BurlU@....... Subject: Re: A/D board The Computer Boards CIO-DAS08/Jr 8 channel A/D, works fine in an XT or AT. It costs $99.00 The address is Computer Boards, Inc., 125 High St., Mansfield, MA 02048. Phone 508-261-1123 I use this board and it works great. Burl Updyke Penna. ----- End Included Message ----- Anyone using EMON on an original PC? I'd be curious to know if it will work too. regards, Bob Hammond Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 16:28:36 -0800 (PST) From: Ken Navarre Subject: Re: Posting to PSN-L mailing list > Does any know what the frequencies are in Las Vegas if there any. Hummm, sorry Steve. Don't have any listings outside of Ca. but you could run a scanner in search mode to check for any. Look btwn 161 - 172 Mhz., 216 - 220 Mhz., 406 - 420 Mhz. Listen for any signals with a continous tones. If you find any I'd appreciate it if you'd send them along and we'll add them to the database and see if we can find any info for them. > I would suspect with the test site here there would have to be a lot. I'd bet that you're right!!! If you get out around Rachael you can find the freqs for the seismic intrusion detectors for Area 51 in the 406 - 420 mhz band also... but that's another thread... :) Ken Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 05:00:40 -0600 From: rond@................ (Charlie Rond) Subject: Re: A/D board Hi Bob, >The Computer Boards CIO-DAS08/Jr 8 channel A/D, works fine in an XT or AT. > It costs $99.00 The address is Computer Boards, Inc., 125 High St., > Mansfield, MA 02048. Phone 508-261-1123 I use this board and it >works great. Burl Updyke Penna. > > >----- End Included Message ----- > > >Anyone using EMON on an original PC? I'd be curious to know if it will work too. I use it on an "original" PC and it DOES work. That's why I was asking. Mine has only 448K RAM (needs 640K to use QuakeVU) and a 10MB hard drive...or it DID. I had to give the drive CPR last year to get it going again, but it died Friday night. EMON requires CGA color, samples one component at about 38 cps but does a pretty good job (except slowness may be a factor in aliasing on local events with higher frequencies.) It does a great job on teleseisms. Many, many thanks for repeating Burl's message...I had not received it. --Charlie Rond -\/\--Public Seismic Network-Memphis rond@................ (901) 360-0302 [ free BBS ] Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 22:59:19 -0800 (PST) From: David Josephson Subject: VHF Receivers for Telemetry Greetings, I have a pile (about 20) of former fire truck radios that are ideal for monitoring USGS telemetry. They are GE Mastr Pro's, and in about five minutes you can remove the receiver and toss the rest. The receiver is a self-contained box about 3x4x16", and all of the mating connectors, etc. are included. These are the last model they made before going to a special oscillator module for frequency control, which means you can order a crystal for about $12 that will set it on frequency. The receiver model number is 4ER41A11, tuned for the 150.8-174 MHz band. If you take the whole radio, I'd like $10. If you'd like the receiver by itself, with mating connectors, $15. It takes about 15 minutes at most to align them to the telemetry frequency of your choice, once you've plugged in the crystal. You need a regular multimeter (VOM or DVM) and if you have a strong signal from the USGS site you can use that as a test signal. The radios operate on 10 volts DC (anything from 9 to 11 is okay as long as it's stable). Performance will beat any scanner radio, particularly in the ability to reject off-channel signals. I have full schematics, tuneup info, etc. on them on microfiche only; if enough people are interested I'll make prints and copy them. I'm in the process of putting one of these up with Larry's demodulator board to monitor one of the local sites, it should work fine. If you'd like one or some, e-mail or call 408-238-6062. Cheers David Josephson Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 14:20:22 -0800 (PST) From: David Josephson Subject: Further about GE receivers I guess I should have expected this, lots of folks want receivers (which is fine) but most want them packed, shipped, and of course want them on frequency ready to use. For all of the people who mailed, there are plenty of radios. $10 if you pick up the whole radio, $15 if I take the receiver out for you. But if there are enough (say, >10) it would make sense for me to order the crystals and tune them up; it takes half an hour or so to set up for alignment and only a few minutes more for each radio. So if you would like one or more, here's another option. For $65 I will get the crystal, install, align, box and ship. You need to provide a power supply and antenna (the antenna input connector is an RCA phono type) and will need to unsolder the old wires on the connector and make up your own wiring harness to power supply, volume control, squelch control and audio output. I will providing info on how to do this, parts are available at Radio Shack. I can also get antennas fairly cheaply tuned to frequency from one of the two-way radio wholesalers, will post a list in next few days. If you'd like to do this, send name, address, operating frequency and $65 per to David Josephson, 2504 John Montgomery Drive, San Jose CA 95148. In order that it doesn't drag on too long, I'll order crystals on Monday, March 25 for everyone who has sent a check and the frequency by then, and ship the radios by the end of April. Cheers David From: Light Ray Subject: psn.quake.net server access idea! Hello. I've just recently begun experimenting (playing around) with WinQuake32 and it's data files and reading the stuff on psn.quake.net. Anyhow, my idea: The psn.quake.net machine runs WindowsNT which means that it can share directories on networks, even over TCP/IP. So, if the directory tree holding www pages (and, more importantly, seismic data files) were set to read-only shared, then other people running WinNT, Win95, and Windows for Workgroups with MicroSoft TCP/IP-32 could mount those directories as drive letters on their machines... So, say that the psn.quake.net machine was given the machine name of QUAKE, one could set \\QUAKE\Data to be drive Q: on their machine and they would be able to access all the earthquake data files without having to copy them all to their machine. And, if they wanted to copy all of these data files to their machine, it would be easy: copy q:\*.* c:\winqk32\events. To make this happen, psn.quake.net must set one or more directories as shared, install the TCP/IP, NetBIOS, and MS Networks drivers, and enter in the address of a WINS server. People that wished to access this would need to install the necessary software and enter in the same WINS address. A public access WINS server is Winserve, 204.118.34.6 and 204.118.34.11. For info on it, you can see http://www.winserve.com/ or \\winserve.001\. As for software, MicroSoft TCP/IP-32 is available freely on their FTP server for Windows for Workgroups and for DOS. It's built into/included with Windows NT and Windows 95 and MacOS. Samba allows this work with Unix machines. Tobin Fricke fricke@........................ From: Larry Cochrane Subject: Re: psn.quake.net server access idea! Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 20:14:55 Hi Tobin and Group I think my system is already setup to except this type of connection. Please give it a try and let me know if it works or if you are having any problems. Regards, Larry At 10:12 PM 3/9/96 -0800, Tobin wrote: > > > >Hello. I've just recently begun experimenting (playing around) with >WinQuake32 and it's data files and reading the stuff on psn.quake.net. >Anyhow, my idea: > >The psn.quake.net machine runs WindowsNT which means that it can share >directories on networks, even over TCP/IP. So, if the directory tree >holding www pages (and, more importantly, seismic data files) were set to >read-only shared, then other people running WinNT, Win95, and Windows for >Workgroups with MicroSoft TCP/IP-32 could mount those directories as >drive letters on their machines... > >So, say that the psn.quake.net machine was given the machine name of >QUAKE, one could set \\QUAKE\Data to be drive Q: on their machine and >they would be able to access all the earthquake data files without having >to copy them all to their machine. And, if they wanted to copy all of >these data files to their machine, it would be easy: copy q:\*.* >c:\winqk32\events. > >To make this happen, psn.quake.net must set one or more directories as >shared, install the TCP/IP, NetBIOS, and MS Networks drivers, and enter >in the address of a WINS server. > >People that wished to access this would need to install the necessary >software and enter in the same WINS address. > >A public access WINS server is Winserve, 204.118.34.6 and 204.118.34.11. >For info on it, you can see http://www.winserve.com/ or \\winserve.001\. > >As for software, MicroSoft TCP/IP-32 is available freely on their FTP >server for Windows for Workgroups and for DOS. It's built into/included >with Windows NT and Windows 95 and MacOS. Samba allows this work with >Unix machines. > >Tobin Fricke >fricke@........................ > > > To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l From: "Lloyd Verhage" Organization: College of Human Ecology, KSU Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 07:03:30 CST6CDT Subject: Re: psn.quake.net server access idea! Scientific American has an Amateur Scientist article on seismos this month. This design uses accelerometers that can detect between 5/1000 and 5 g's. The design uses three of them arranged perpendicular to one another. The article says the accelerometers are $20 a piece. I'd like to see if anyone can get them for a better price or if we can collect orders and get them at discount for a single bulk order. Suggestions? Lloyd Verhage Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 20:06:19 -0800 (PST) From: Ken Navarre Subject: Scientific American - ??? Which month was that that had the article RE: seismos in the Amateur Scientist? I just spent the better part of 3 hours crusing the bookstore circuit looking for a copy. The March issue dealt with a chemistry experiment... Was it Feb/96 or an advance of Apr/96?????? Ken From: "Lloyd Verhage" Organization: College of Human Ecology, KSU Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 07:08:15 CST6CDT Opps, sorry about that. Its the advanced April issue. Its only about two pages long, but its enough. > Which month was that that had the article RE: seismos in the Amateur > Scientist? I just spent the better part of 3 hours crusing the bookstore > circuit looking for a copy. The March issue dealt with a chemistry > experiment... > > Was it Feb/96 or an advance of Apr/96?????? > > Ken > > > Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 09:42:13 GMT From: Peter Styles Subject: Re: Scientific American - ??? Has anyone tracked down that Scientific American Article yet ?. Ive ordered copies for March but it looks as if that is not the issue. Dr Peter Styles sr15@................ Microseismic Research Group Department of Earth Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3BX United Kingdom Tel: 44 (0)151 794 5174 Fax: 44 (0)151 794 5170 'May the Earth move for you!' Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 07:51:00 -0800 From: batten@...................... (Jeff Batten) Subject: Re: Scientific American - ??? > > >Has anyone tracked down that Scientific American Article yet ?. Ive >ordered copies for March but it looks as if that is not the issue. > > >Dr Peter Styles >sr15@................ >Microseismic Research Group >Department of Earth Sciences >University of Liverpool >Liverpool L69 3BX >United Kingdom > > >Tel: 44 (0)151 794 5174 >Fax: 44 (0)151 794 5170 > >'May the Earth move for you!' > > > > April 1996 issue. I have a copy of the article. The sensor might work for local quakes, but not distant ones. The author included no traces or any info on quakes recorded. The circuit the author included makes no sense to me. Nothing to write home about. I plan to order the chip and play around with it. On another subject. I got a view of Comet Hyakutake this morning from the light polluted skies of L.A. IT HAD A TAIL OF ABOUT 1 DEG!!!! I am heading for dark skies this weekend. This will be the biggest comet since comet west. WOW! Check it out. Jeff : ) Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 19:29:53 -0500 From: GeoMonitr@....... Subject: Re: Scientific American - ??? I heard the seismology article will be in the MAY issue of Scientific American, an article by Sean Carlson, president of Society of Amateur Scientists, Vince. Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 22:56:51 -0800 (PST) From: Steve Hammond Subject: Re: psn.quake.net server access idea! I would like to comment on this. Don't take my comments as pessimism about this idea, I have not built this device so I can only repeat some details I was given by Al Booth who is a member of the PSN here in San Jose, California. Al built an accelerometer device about two years ago. He works in disk drive development at IBM and had access to some sample devices. He ran the unit under his house for a year. He never recorded an event while several other members of the PSN in San Jose recorded numerous events on the San Andreas and Caleveras faults. Al lives between them as I also do. I'm located at 37.15N 121.55W and Al's house is within 5KM of mine. It should have triggered on something... Remembering Al's comments, it's been some time so I may have them a bit out of context, I'll try to sum them: 1) the resisters have to be matched perfect because of the nature of the accelerometers operation. If they are not you can get real bogus results. 2) The device is an accelerometer and you need a source of acceleration to get it to register. During the year Al had it running, it seems that we didn't have any events in the area larger than 4.0. So, these comments may only apply to events under 4.0. The device was operational and repeatedly checked but never triggered on a local event. This would suggest that if you are developing such a device that you might use a trigger source other than the accelerometer while the device is under test. 3) The device appears to be extremely directional. While this is a desired response, I know it cause Al grief when trying to get the device to just record something. Maybe the comments will help when you are building and testing this device. Having flown around the room during Loma Prieta, I know that an accelerometer has a real potential in a large event. As a side note, Al gave the device to use to use at an education fair in Morgan Hill after he unplugged it. It was mounted in a small 2x2 plastic box and Dick Chelberg hooked the device into a chart recorder and let the kids draw earthquake pictures. It worked GREAT-- as an input device to the "shake it and see if you can draw the Loma Prieta earthquake application." We put the waveform data from Loma P above the chart recorder. Some of the kids were really good at it. I therefor think that as a strong motion device, it may have real merit. Regards, Steve Hammond SYSop PSN BBS San Jose 408-226-0675 On Tue, 12 Mar 1996, Lloyd Verhage wrote: > > > Scientific American has an Amateur Scientist article on seismos this > month. This design uses accelerometers that can detect between > 5/1000 and 5 g's. The design uses three of them arranged > perpendicular to one another. > > The article says the accelerometers are $20 a piece. I'd like to see > if anyone can get them for a better price or if we can collect orders > and get them at discount for a single bulk order. > > Suggestions? > > Lloyd Verhage > > From: Karl Cunningham Subject: Re: Scientific American - ??? Date: Fri, 15 Mar 96 19:19:37 +0000 (GMT) Greetings -- I just got a copy of the Amateur Scientist article from April SA. I too think it will not be as sensitive as the Lehman or SG seismometers in common use here. According to a *very* rough estimate, .005 g's is perhaps equivalent to a M5.2 at 100 kilometers distance -- within the range of what could be felt. This could be very useful when more sensitive instruments are saturated, and looks like a fun thing to play around with. Although I haven't had a chance to look up the ADXL05 accelerometer mentioned, I have the following comments about the schematics: It appears that the circuit has a single-pole high-pass cutoff at about 5.3Hz (passes frequencies above that). The schematic in the box on the right at the bottom of the page contains an absolute-value circuit running at a gain of 1. (If one were to look at the waveform on a scope, it would take anything below zero and flip (mirror) it to the area above zero.) It appears that this circuit is to be repeated for each of the three axes, then they are summed (still using a gain of 1) and sent to the recorder. One could certainly take each of the three axes (without the absolute value part) and feed them to A/D's individually. I hope this sheds a little light on the subject. -- Karl Subject: Scientific American Date: Sun, 17 Mar 96 21:40:01 -0500 From: Jim Hannon The recent discussions about the April SA article indicate that some of you may not have received this post of mine. I received the information below from the SAS. Note: The May issue will have another seismograph article. Jim Hannon >Dear Seismologist: > My name is Bart Blakely, and I am a strudent at San Diego State University. I will be working as >an intern this semester, helping Dr. Carlson with the seismology project, and various other projects >here at SAS . Feel free to E-mail me if you have any questions or comments. > There is a lot going on here with regards to seismology. Here is some information regarding >upcoming magazine articles. The design of the seismology station will be carried in the April and May >editions of "The Amateur Scientist" column of Scientific American. The April edition will contain >information on how to build a professional quality station to detect earth motion between 0.005 to 5g. >It will have three axis, and be readable on your personal computer. The best part is that construction >costs will be less than $100. In May there will be information on how to build a station to detect very >long wavelength electromagnetic waves for about $100. Due to copyright arragements, we can not >release these designs in advance of their publication in Scientific American. > Thanks to generous donations we currently have 8 working 8086 computers (IBM XT's) that we can >provide people to use as data loggers. The A to D conversion for the project is being woked on by Jim >Sky. We are hoping that this work will result in an inexpensive package to distribute to network >members. Unfortunately participation in the network is restricted to SAS members. If you are not >currently a member of SAS, and you would like to become one, you can send $35 to 4951 D >Clairemont Square Suite 179, San Diego, CA 92117, or you can E-mail us at info@....... or >http://www. thesphere.com/SAS/. You may also phone in your membership and use your major credit >card. >Thats all I have for now, but you can expect more information in the near future. > Sincerely, Bart Blakely >====================================================================== >Society for Amateur Scientists Shawn Carlson, Ph.D. >4951 D Clairemont Sq. Suite 179 Executive Director >San Diego, CA 92117 (619) 239-8807 Phone/FAX >SAS Web Page: http://www.thesphere.com/SAS/ scarlson@....... Membership: $35 per >year From: Jack Ivey Subject: Re: Scientific American - ??? Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 10:11:16 -0500 Greetings, seismographers, I got out the back of an envelope when I saw the previews about the Scientific American article and my conclusion was that the accelerometer will be insensitive to long period waves. If you apply a fixed _displacement_ signal to an accelerometer (i.e. move it 1 cm maximum distance at various frequencies), the frequency characteristic causes the output to decrease by a factor of 100 for a factor of 10 decrease in frequency. (Actually, this is not a property of accelerometers but a property of acceleration.) The circuit shown in the article has filtering to limit the output to 10 sec to 0.01 second periods. My calculations (see below) indicate that for sinusoidal displacement signals at a period of 6.28 seconds = 1 radian/ second (makes the calculations easy 8-) ) a displacement of *49 mm* would be required to produce an acceleration of 0.005 g. It seems like things would be falling over. At higher frequencies, say 0.1 sec period, a displacement of 12e-6 meters will produce .005 g, slightly more reasonable. My assumption in building my own Lehman type seismometer has been that a displacement sensitivity of approx. 1.0e-6 meters with a period range of 0.1 to 20 seconds is required. Am I correct about this? Jack Ivey ivey@.......... Accelerometer calculations: x(t) = Dpeak*sin(wt) Sinusoidal displacement, Amplitude = Dpeak a(t) = x''(t) Accel. = 2nd deriv. of disp a(t) = -Dpeak*w^2*sin(wt) Apeak = Dpeak*w^2 Peak acceleration Dpeak = Apeak/w^2 Peak displacement Assume that at min detectable acceleration: Apeak = 0.005 g * 9.8 m/sec^2*g = .049 m/sec^2 At w = 1 rad/sec (6.28 second period): Dpeak = 0.049 m at w = 62.6 rad/sec (0.1 sec period): Dpeak = 12e-6 m Since this is my first posting, I have included a short introduction: My name is Jack Ivey, I am an electrical engineer living in Novi, Michigan. My interest in seismology was sparked by the Amateur Scientist seismograph articles from the 50's that I found in a book when I was in high school (15+ years ago). The idea then lay dormant until recently when I started construction on a seismograph of the Lehman type. Since I live in the Midwest, I am mostly interested in distant events (preferably more distant than the train tracks at the end of the street :-) ). I am a big fan of John McPhee's books about geology (actually, all his books). Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 09:16:31 -0800 From: batten@...................... (Jeff Batten) Subject: Re: Scientific American > > >The recent discussions about the April SA article indicate that some of you >may not have received this post of mine. I received the information below >from the SAS. Note: The May issue will have another seismograph article. > >Jim Hannon > >>Dear Seismologist: >> My name is Bart Blakely, and I am a strudent at San Diego State >University. I will be working as >an intern this semester, helping Dr. >Carlson with the seismology project, and various other projects >here at SAS >. Feel free to E-mail me if you have any questions or comments. > >> There is a lot going on here with regards to seismology. Here is some >information regarding >upcoming magazine articles. The design of the >seismology station will be carried in the April and May >editions of "The >Amateur Scientist" column of Scientific American. The April edition will >contain >information on how to build a professional quality station to >detect earth motion between 0.005 to 5g. Professional station? Why did the article not contain any traces of earthquakes? Alot of people are going to spend money on the chip to find it is not very good at recording quakes. For local quakes one still cannot beat a velocity transducer. >It will have three axis, and be >readable on your personal computer. The best part is that construction >>costs will be less than $100. In May there will be information on how to >build a station to detect very >long wavelength electromagnetic waves for >about $100. Are you talking about radio waves or seismic waves? ELECTROCUTION HAZARD! The Scientific America article recommended the following to prevent destroying the sensor. chip. "Never handle them without keeping yourself discharged. Tying a wire between your wrist and something grounded, such as a metal pipe under the sink, is a good way to prevent static disasters." If the above is done, and one somehow comes in contact with 120V -60hz its game over. YOU WILL DIE. A 1 Meg resistor must always be included in series with any wire that is being used to prevent static discharge. Hope no one gets hurt. Jeff Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 11:23:14 Pacific Standard Time From: jmhannon@................. Subject: RE: Scientific American >>costs will be less than $100. In May there will be information on how to >build a station to detect very >long wavelength electromagnetic waves for >about $100. >Are you talking about radio waves or seismic waves? >Jeff After thinking about I suspect that it is radio waves for the May article. This would go along with using the accelerometer unit to look for ELF precursors to local quakes. Jim Hannon From owner-psn-l@............. Sat, 30 Mar 1996 09:51:01 Received: by localhost from psn.quake.net (router,WinSmtp -Win32- V1.07beta1.9); Sat, 30 Mar 1996 09:51:01 To: Multiple recipients of list psn-l Sender: owner-psn-l@............. Reply-To: Public Seismic Network Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 10:50:07 -0700 (MST) From: CRANSWICK@.................. Message-Id: <960330105007.2020f852@..................> Subject: RE: New Memphis Web Home Page Charlie- I was real impressed with your poem and if the home page is half as good as that, it will be great! Tell you when I check it out. -Edward Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 12:12:31 -0800 (PST) From: Ken Navarre Subject: RE: New Memphis Web Home Page On Sat, 30 Mar 1996 Ed Cranswick commented... > Charlie- > I was real impressed with your poem and if the home page is half as good > as that, it will be great! Tell you when I check it out. Edward, you won't be disappointed! Charlie did a really good job on this one. For those of you outside Calif. The Mammoth Lakes Caldera is rumbling again. Getting some nice seismograms from the telemetry here in the S.F. Bay Area. Hummmm, Larry. Maybe we should plan the next PSN meeting at the Mammoth Lakes Ranger Station just a few kms from "ground zero". It'd give us some new topics for discussion :) Last Time I was over that way I mentioned the possibility of setting up a PSN system for a lobby display to the rangers. They were interested. Maybe we should pursue this for folks stoppingby over there... Ken