Water Softener for boat or RV

 

Portable 16,000 Grain Mobile-soft-water(tm) Unit with Tank, Tank Head, Lead Free NSF 61 Male GHC Tank Connections, Distributor, Resin and Instructions. Used in Rv & Car Wash Applications. 

•  I bought one of these from Amazon for $215 a few weeks ago and am very pleased with the results so far.  The water has been very soft and it has not needed recharging yet. 

  Basically, it is recharged by adding a couple of boxes of common salt (#4 for this unit).  You dump the salt in from the top and wait for 10 minutes.  Then a trickle of water is added to mix the salt around the resin for 5 minutes and then you flush it  a little bit faster until the water doesn not taste salty.  I am not sure about recharging with the oceans saltwater.  I do not think you would want to recharge this on a passage due to fresh water wasting but it should be good for the onboard tankage volume. at a 30 grain hardness it would soften about 500 gallons.

What do you see?

 

I saw the young lady first then the older lady second.  This was a just for fun post.  Your view of my boat is not my view of my boat - Ha!

Seasick or queasy on the water?

Stugeron (cinnarizine)

This antihistamine can be bought from pharmacies to treat travel sickness - read on for advice on its use, warnings and side effects. This is not the only solution provided in this blog entry.  No guarantee is implied nor is my expertise on the subject.  Try canadapharmacyonline.com

What is Stugeron used for?

• Relieving nausea, vomiting, attacks of dizziness or spinning sensations (vertigo) and sensations of ringing or other noise in the ears (tinnitus).

How does Stugeron work?

Stugeron tablets contain 15mg cinnarizine as the active ingredient. Cinnarizine is an antihistamine medicine that works in the brain. It prevents an area of the brain called the vomiting centre from receiving nerve messages sent from the vestibular apparatus in the inner ear.

The vestibular apparatus provides continual feedback to the brain about our body position. When something disturbs this, such as movement of the head when travelling by boat or car, nerve signals are sent from the vestibular apparatus to the vomiting centre in the brain. This can cause sensations such as nausea, dizziness or spinning sensations (vertigo) and the reflex of vomiting.

Cinnarizine works by blocking histamine and muscarinic receptors in the vomiting centre in the brain. This prevents the vomiting centre from receiving nerve messages from the vestibular apparatus. In turn, this prevents disturbances in the middle ear from activating the vomiting centre and causing nausea, vertigo and vomiting. 

Compazine (prochlorperazine) 

5, 10 or 25 mg. suppositories (not oral) have, in my opinion, proven to be the most effective prescription anti-nausea and anti-anxiety medication that causes the least drowsiness. As anxiety can cause nausea and since Compazine treats both it is an important drug to carry aboard. Suppositories are far more effective than tablets once vomiting has started.

Transderm Scopolamine 

1.5 mg. patches may work when no other drug does, but one MUST first test this drug out on land as documented side effects can be severe. Avoid using for more than three days. Scopalamine is also available in tablet form (Scopace 0.4 mg.) but this is much less effective once vomiting has started.

This is what my wife takes and it does stop the seasickness - done, gone.  The side effects with her are drowsiness  and lethargy.  On real pleasant days this gives me time at the helm with no interruptions.  On bad sea days it means she is below in the aft quarter berth in a state of mellow tranquility. Study this effect before you use in any longer term basis as one of the other methods may be best.


CAUTION! With any drug, prescription or over the counter, there are published side effects.

 

How to Fix a Scratchy Volume Control on a Baofeng UV5R Amateur Radio

Introduction: How to Fix a Scratchy Volume Control on a Baofeng UV5R Amateur Radio

Baofeng handheld radios, you either love them or you hate them. For the price it's an impossible to beat deal for the newcomer in the ham radio hobby. The UV5R and it's variants are extremely popular and can be found for under $30 new. Being so cheap, people look at them as disposable radios. As soon as one starts to act up it gets tossed in a drawer or worse, in the garbage.
A common ailment to any low priced handheld radio that's been used in harsh environments or seen much neglect is the volume control starts to get scratchy. Keep in mind we are talking budget priced radios here, not high dollar public safety grade stuff. A funny thing about the UV5R is you can buy almost any part for it just like the $1000+ moto / tyco / ge / harris etc stuff. These cheap radios are repairable and this is the easiest fix ever for a dirty volume control!
What you will need...
A suitable torx mini screwdriver that fits the torx screws located in the battery compartment or on top back of radio.
A small phillips screwdriver to remove belt clip screws.
A can of spray non residue, non lubricating, fast evaporating electronics grade cleaning spray.

Step 1: Remove Belt Clip

Use a small philips screwdriver to remove the belt clip (if your radio has one). The belt clip is installed under tension and it's base will want to spring up as you loosen the screws. If your radio has no belt clip but has the belt clip screws in place, remove them.

Step 2: Almost Done...

Remove the ONE torx screw that is located on the back of the radio, closest to the volume control. Leave all other torx screws in place. If you remove both top torx screws the spring loaded assembly that locks the battery will come apart. It's not hard to put back together if you paid attention to how the parts line up. There's no need to take it off though.
It turns out Baofeng drilled the holes for the fasteners all the way through the metal. That one torx screw I asked you to remove lines up perfectly with the volume control and makes a perfect place to squirt contact cleaner into the radio.
Hold radio with volume control pointing down and use the red straw tip on the contact cleaner to get a good shot into the torx screw hole. Work the volume control from OFF to full volume a few times. Give it another good shot of cleaner and work the volume control a few more times.
Now shake the radio out to get as much liquid out of it and set it face down in the sun or directly infront of a fan for about 15-20 minutes. This will allow it to dry thoroughly. Once dry, put the battery on and try out the radio before reassembly. Don't skip this drying time!! You dont want to short out your radio!
If all is well, the radio will power up and volume control will be smooth again. On some really crusty radios you might have to repeat the cleaning process. Once again, don't forget the all important drying time!
All good? Reassemble. As you saw, Baofeng drilled the holes all the way through. This means if a screw is missing, it's a convenient place for stuff to get INTO the radio. If your radio doesn't have a belt clip make sure it's got screws in the mounting holes. The screws MUST be the correct length. If too long, they will short out or crack the circuit board. Got no screws to put in? A small dab of RTV silicone in the holes works great and can be picked out later if you get a belt clip.
Hope you have found this instructable of help!

It's later than you think