I can remember when Pete Rowe and I first started playing around with 
amateur seismometers... I built a large unit with a long boom with a 
very heavy mass. Pete built a little unit, with no mass on his boom at 
all. I had my unit mounted on three massive concrete piers... Pete set 
his unit on a scrap of 2X4 under his house...
Funny thing... we both got about the same results... and Pete didn't 
have half the problems I had.
Pete finally put a small fish weight on the end of his boom... I sure... 
simply to appease me.

I've also come to the conclusion that the antique seismometers I've 
collected all have large masses and huge coils simply because they had 
to generate enough power to drive a pen motors directly, with no 
external amplification. With today's amplifiers and technology you can 
do a whole lot more with a whole lot less.

Since the only response to my query about drum recorders came from 
Chris... I took his advice and took an aspirin and thought about my 
problem. I've decided to take advantage of the antique nature of what I 
have, and capitalize on that. Part of what I've tried to inspire in the 
kids I've worked with... is the simplicity of a seismic monitoring 
system... the simplicity of a whole lot of "complex" scientific 
devices... what better way then to let them see the simple pieces up 
close... and if it looks a bit  "Rube Goldbergish"... well that will be 
kool too.

Jan in Gilroy.



  
  


I can remember when Pete
Rowe and I first started playing around with amateur seismometers... I
built a large unit with a long boom with a very heavy mass. Pete built
a little unit, with no mass on his boom at all. I had my unit mounted
on three massive concrete piers... Pete set his unit on a scrap of 2X4
under his house... 

Funny thing... we both got about the same results... and Pete didn't
have half the problems I had. 

Pete finally put a small fish weight on the end of his boom... I
sure... simply to appease me.



I've also come to the conclusion that the antique seismometers I've
collected all have large masses and huge coils simply because they had
to generate enough power to drive a pen motors directly, with no
external amplification. With today's amplifiers and technology you can
do a whole lot more with a whole lot less.



Since the only response to my query about drum recorders came from
Chris... I took his advice and took an aspirin and thought about my
problem. I've decided to take advantage of the antique nature of what I
have, and capitalize on that. Part of what I've tried to inspire in the
kids I've worked with... is the simplicity of a seismic monitoring
system... the simplicity of a whole lot of "complex" scientific
devices... what better way then to let them see the simple pieces up
close... and if it looks a bit  "Rube Goldbergish"... well that will be
kool too. 



Jan in Gilroy.