Building a time delay relay circuit with 555 timer

[hevans1944]

Hop, stop that. You're getting me all excited! It's like reading Weapon Porn.

Chris

The U.S. Air Force is responsible for training me up on the AN/ASG-21 and MD-7 Defensive Fire Control Systems in 1963. I fell in love with it! Lots of servo mechanisms, Ku-band radar, electro-mechanical ballistic computer to solve the aiming problem for the M-61A1 Vulcan 20mm Gatling Gun, hydraulic operation of the gun turret and the gun itself, all of it state-of-the-art in 1963. At one point I wanted to design and build a gun mount for my Colt M1911 .45 caliber pistol to see if it could accurately hit targets beyond 100 yards. This was inspired after watching a grizzled master sergeant hit targets off-handed at the 100 yard rifle range where I was stationed. Hell, I couldn't even see the target at that distance. That idea never came to fruition, but I still practice regularly at a private range here in Dayton. After my cataract surgery I found I can now see clearly without corrective lenses things 100 yards and more away. Hitting a target at that distance is a challenge even with a 'scoped rifle on a bench-rest, much less a pistol held off-hand with iron sights, so I don't aspire to doing that anymore. But I do like working with automatic control systems. The Air Force experience led to a life-long career.

Ha! Weapon Porn, like in Star Wars? Or Rambo and Predator type movies? I love all of 'em. Might be some sort of sub-conscious reaction to "missing out" on the "action" in Viet Nam, which I used to feel guilty about when collecting GI education benefits, but now I am just grateful neither I nor my younger brother (who served in the Army) were asked to be there and do that. Nasty little war that allowed the development of lots of new weapons, including night-vision tracking systems as deployed on "Puff the Magic Dragon" used to terrorize ground troops.

 

[CDRIVE]

M-61A1 Vulcan 20mm Gatling Gun,

There! You went and did it again! Are you aware that there some out here that get woodys with that kind of talk.

It's been many years but I used to run the S. Florida 1911 circuit. Just about all of the 1911's in those matches were accurized. By some miracle and thousands of rounds of practice (I was a reloader) I managed to a attain the rank of Expert Master. That said, my favorite handgun is my Ruger Redhawk .44Mag hand cannon.

Did you know that the best (REAL) food in Nam was found at the Bien Hoa airbase? I was sooooooooo envious of those airmen! They damn near lived like civilians!

Chris

 

[hevans1944]

... Did you know that the best (REAL) food in Nam was found at the Bien Hoa airbase? I was sooooooooo envious of those airmen! They damn near lived like civilians!

Chris

Hmm. That would help to explain why the best meal of the day at Kincheloe AFB in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was breakfast SOS and re-constituted orange juice. Well, except for the troops pulling alert duty in a bunker on the flight line, ready to fly in ten minutes or less, with a full boat of nuclear weapons in the bomb bay and two more in Hound Dog missiles hanging from inboard pylons. They got steak and freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast... and any other time they wanted it. The best of the food must have been sent to Nam because I sure didn't see any of it... except when selected for KP duty on the alert pad.

That said, my favorite handgun is my Ruger Redhawk .44Mag hand cannon.

Hand cannon is right. It is now in production again, and the new version got favorable reviews from G&A magazine. (Did G&A ever run an unfavorable review of anything?) That is waaaay too much weapon for me! But I do like Ruger firearms. My wife has a nice little Ruger SR9c to complement my M1911. We both have Ohio CCW permits and hardly ever leave the house unarmed. Even when working in the yard we usually open-carry.