Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 27

Page 11

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STROKE IDENTIFICATION: – Bruce Jones

STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters....S.T.R.  If everyone can remember something this simple, we can possibly save a lot of lives.

At a friend and family BBQ, a friend, Ingrid, stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics), she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

We got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, she went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Next morning her husband called telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital – and unfortunately, later that day the poor lady passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had we known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.

A neurologist I have spoken with says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of the stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which in a lot of cases is where the difficulty occurs.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

This is where the '3' steps, S.T.R. come in.

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster and the stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms. With the correct knowledge of what to look for, anyone can recognize someone suffering a stroke. All it takes is to ask three simple questions:

S           Ask the individual to SMILE.

T           Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today)

R           Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the 000 emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

There is now a Fourth Indicator, the Tongue.

The latest indicator, that suggests a person has suffered a stroke, is to get them to:-

                        Stick out Their Tongue

If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side, then that is also an indication of a stroke.

From the Ripley’s Museum department.

One day a C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky young bloke driving an F-16 flashed by. The young bloke, of course, couldn’t resist it, and decided to show off.

He called up the C-130 pilot and said, 'hey - watch this!' and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb and finished with a sonic boom right across the nose of the C-130.

The F-16 pilot pulled up beside the C-130 and asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?

There was silence for about a minute, then the C-130 pilot said, 'That was impressive, but watch this!'

The old Herc droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said: 'Well, what did you think of that?’

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, 'I didn’t see nothing, what the heck did you do?'

The C-130 pilot chuckled. 'I stood up, stretched my legs, walked down the back, went to the toilet and made a hot cup of coffee.

AND

Recently a routine Police patrol car parked outside a local neighbourhood pub. Late in the evening the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk.

The man stumbled around the car park for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an eternity and trying his keys on five vehicles. The man managed to find his car, which he fell into.   He was there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off. Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off (it was a fine dry night). Then flicked the indicators on, then off, tooted the horn and then switched on the lights.

He moved the vehicle forward a few feet, reversed a little and then remained stationary for a few more minutes as some more vehicles left.  At last he pulled out of the car park and started to drive slowly down the road. The Police officer, having patiently waited all this time, now started up the patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and carried out a random breathalyser test.

To his amazement the breathalyser indicated no evidence of the man's intoxication. The Police officer said 'I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the Police station - this breathalyser equipment must be broken.' 'I doubt it,' said the man, 'tonight I'm the designated decoy'

More Caravanning moments. – John Broughton

I recently bought a solar panel which I hoped to attach to the van which would then make me self sufficient in that electric stuff whenever I stopped for a day or so in the bush. However, when I bought the panel I must have slipped into senior’s mode because I’d forgotten I had modified the caravan’s wiring. Normally hooking up a solar panel to one’s van’s electrical innards is a breeze, but not now….

You might recall that I virtually rewired the caravan using a 2 pole 4 position Kraus Naimer switch which are normally used in electrical switchboards and are obviously designed by Europeans for their exclusive use. The idea was to be able to switch the 2 Gel Alco 100D AH batteries separately between the smart charger, 1Kva generator, normal supply and of course the inverter for 240Vac (note never purchase a 12V/240vac unit over 600Watts as this is the limit for hair dryers, it's more economical to convince the missus to get a short "manageable" haircut).

This configuration had not been attempted before and was the source of much debate with the battery supplier (whom I later found out was a used car salesman and knew the jargon but knew nothing about electronics, I was in good company)

Gel batteries have several states of charge i.e. float charge 13.8 vdc, absorption or bulk charge 14.8vdc and a "trickle" charge of 13.2 vdc. Some of the charging units use Pulse-width Variable Modulation (PVM) to ensure that the charge is absorbed in the battery’s chemical reaction more efficiently and at less risk to overheating. 

Confused? So was I,

Now try to imagine how a former Rad Tech would approach the issue of connecting a solar panel to the complex rewired caravan, easy just substitute the generator input for the solar panel,. After purchasing the "best value" for money, fold up, finger jamming, 100W panel variety, I had a look at the accompanying literature which says the panel puts out some 15.7 vdc. So!, no problem, simply find the adjustment screw and "tweak" the output voltage...no such bloody luck. Like the F111 electronics gear it's all sealed up. No problem go to Jaycar, do not pass Tandy, collect $200 for a new regulator. 

Nowadays most electrical gadgets are made in China, they are relatively cheap and work like a dream, this unit had all the promise of being exactly what I wanted, the lingo seemed plausible "PV" Photovoltaic controller with "PVM", bloody hell, I can actually remember some of that lingo, surely this thing can't be too hard to install.

Frank Alley has got it right about the Chinese, they economise on everything including the instructions which are in “new English" i.e. no adjectives, no pronouns, no conjunctions and verbs are a “phoreign fenomena”.

I am reminded of that medical ditty,  “the thigh bone is connected to the shin bone, the shin bone is connected to the…” etc, etc, the new regulator is just what the Doc ordered except, when in tow, the latent voltage to the regulator is triggered by the car battery. No problem, a diode should do the trick,  but trying to remember the way current flows is a problem, remember this little beauty (at right).

Back in the old days of 6BL8’s, 6BM5’s, 1S2’s etc we had sayings such as “does current flow up the hill, or is it blocked by the fence”?   Must have been a long time ago because I can’t remember, same as I can’t remember what the left hand rule (or was it the right hand rule) or any of that other stuff that Frank taught us all those years ago, was all about..

Eventually I simply put a multimeter on the offending diode and presto ...but wait there's more, is the ohm metre actually measuring flow from -ve to + ve, what’s the polarity of the leads, do I need to reverse the polarity? After unpacking the offending diode (20amp) I find that I need to mount the offending unit on a heat sink, (you remember those bits of aluminium that have many fins to dissipate the heat), no problem I'll simply screw it onto some scrap aluminium.

Nope, not so, there are specifications that go with the warranty so I need to buy a 1" Sq. finned unit, but hang on a minute, this diode has three pins, by now I'm wearing my extra magnification reading glasses, (I strongly recommend these for frustrated ex-Rad Techs especially when using a Scope soldering iron !!)

They gave me this mud map, and with it and a bit of luck, I eventually worked out that the diode is a bi-directional type so I connect both outputs to the regulator, via a fuse and of course the offending diode. The rotary switch circuit is modified to accommodate the supply to the regulator and the output is connected to the caravan inverter's  "external input" .......... will it work??

It has been raining in Newcastle for just over two weeks so I have not been able to check out the system, one day soon I hope!!.  I have also purchased a "reversing camera" and am looking forward to the installation of this unit, (these are strongly recommended to avoid potential divorce proceedings when parking the van with she who must be obeyed giving directions. In addition a set of hand held walkie talkies are indispensable to avoid the embarrassment of having the whole caravan park hear you attempting to give and receive directions when manoeuvring the caravan, (I said left is actually right when using the mirror stupid?) 

Stay tuned for more caravanning adventures. JB

The mighty Scope.

Talking of scope irons, we received this (we forget from whom) some time ago ………….

In the mid 60's I was a member of 36Sqn (who were flying the old 3-bladed C130A Hercules). In those days (before Toolboards), we were each issued with our individual tool-boxes - mine contained a Scope iron.

One day, a low-down mongrel decided to pinch my trusty scope and, as you can imagine, I was devastated. Being a typical singlie (wine, women and songs), I could not afford to buy another one to replace the stolen scope so I resorted to a drop of booze inspired ingenuity.

I managed to scrounge some form of transformer which roughly looked like a scope tranny. I then found an old broom handle and cut the appropriate length to form the handle of a "new" scope and painted it black. I then inserted a length of steel rod into one end of the handle and secured it with Araldite. I also glued a copper scope tip onto the end on the rod. Into the other end of the piece of broom handle, I glued a length of cable and then attached it to the tranny. Bloody brilliant - I don't think the Equippo's will never know!!!

I then returned to the "Scope" to the store - excellent idea as it was then not part of my AIU. I waited a few days then submitted a demand for a new one. After I received my new scope, I realised the BIG mistake I had made when returning my bodgie scope was that I attached a Serviceable tag to it instead of a U/S tag. My "new" scope was my bodgie one!!!! In the words of that immortal Toyota advert - "Bugga".!!!

A few week's later, I repeated the process (but with a U/S tag this time) and eventually received my brand new scope - bliss!!!

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