It feels good to try making a better and large production of Alfheimr components like resistors, inductors, capacitors, connectors, switches, relays, microphones, speakers and cable, because sometimes I panic a bit about the 'lack' of electronics components. With every build, incredibly valuable things are used up, and I'll have to take apart things like the frequency standard when it has completely outlived its usefulness or when its components are needed. And I need to avoid building 'unnecessary' things like Iselin's LED flasher, but she is so absolutely worth that, and it is probably the most appreciated item so far apart from the radio. That LED flasher is Iselin's and she is absolutely worth it and much more. I could also use an 'unknown transistor' in both the frequency standard and Iselin's flasher, but 'unknowns' can also be used in audio amplifiers, remote control systems and much more. But I will probably have to make another LED flasher as a wedding gift for Kari. And I'm in the process of building a five channel radio control for myself, so I'll just STFU of doing unnecessary stuff.

  I've made the decision to build another radio, but with super regenerative receiver and the same standard transmitter. The radio only requires four transistors with two be switched between the receiver-transmitter circuits. I really only need one mosfet for a regenerative receiver, but a super regen uses two as the radio also has a mosfet that matches and sits on the input, and I need another transistor to get stronger output sound as I cannot build good high impedance headphones. At the same time the radio obviously needs a transmitter with those transistors, but I can reuse the design from other builds which is now well tested. The radio will be more complicated to use because of the regeneration function, and partly because the frequency of the transmitter probably gets a completely separate tuning dials than the receiver, and the receiver's regen feedback is frequency dependent and also affected by the signal strength received and so on, and the proximity to the radio operators body and things like wind induced antenna swaying can affect. The transmitter part will be almost the same except that it will be weaker, and the design is already tested, but the receiver is unknown and I do not know how well it will work practically. The Super regen radio transmitter gets AM voice mode with a carbon granulate microphone, simply because it doesn't require any transistors, and neither does making the radio triple band, as the receiver will be so wide that the radio covers something like 1.6 to 8 MHz.

  If the super regen radio works well, it may become a permanent installation in some location, which might be in the north eastern part of the nation and where I expect Midg?rds Lake M?laren to be, if it reaches that far, but we haven't even tested radios to Skiringsalr. It would be nice to accept Asbj?rn's offer of another island there for the Academy, both to make him happier, for the extra land and to have some influence there for the future. Although I'm unlikely to actually visit that place or really have much use for it, it would be nice to be able to get news from afar or just weather reports. Should the regen receiver not be worth it, its receiver will be scrapped and turned into a similar receiver to the other radios. If it works well, a couple more might be built. I have enough components for a few better radios, but there are other projects I want to do, and I need good test equipment too.

  Should I actually try to make strong spark gap radios and pure Alfheimr transmitters+recievers? It just bothers me to introduce that, as I can't help seeing it as an annoyingly primitive technological dead-end, and radio spectrum polluting, and it will probably need huge antennas which won't be discrete. And generating the power will have all sorts of issues. Can't use a water wheel during freezing cold winters, and a large battery bank and wind turbine charging will probably have to be used. But it would be valuable for the Elves as it should be 100% Alfheimr, and thus not need Midg?rd components.

  Component shortages and other things like general technology development are the reasons for experimenting with a ribbon microphone, and I would really like to have modern strong magnets. In some applications, a DC powered electromagnet might make a ribbon microphone produce a stronger signal, but an electromagnet draws current. Making thin pleated ribbons for the ribbon microphone is fiddly, and can certainly be done better. Or rather, the ribbon can be made thinner and thus more sensitive, because cranking it between two gears seems to work well enough to give it a good form. I don't think it makes a huge difference what material the ribbon is made of as long as it's not magnetic, but thinner is obviously better. A pair of twisted wires reduces interference, and so does a metal shield around the microphone. However, a small transformer or preamplifier in the microphone housing has its advantages. It will be a good thing when all AM voice radios have ribbon microphones, because they produce far better sound than carbon microphones. Better sound is obviously better, and so is more pure Alfheimr tech.

  In the future there will be tougher decisions on Midg?rd component usage, and things like the SDR dongle will surely be scrapped when it is no longer useful. The SDR dongle only serves a purpose as long as my tablet computer is working, and it doesn't need to be used when we have Dip Oscillators and so many radios, as they can be tuned against each other, but the SDR provides an extra receiver too which is easy to record from and over other frequency ranges and modulations.

  Occasionally when I'm working in the workshop or office, I still scan the lower frequency range, especially during the winter evenings when the reception should be best, in the hope of finding other radio transmissions. Mainly the 1.8 and 3.6 MHz range, but also the whole range from 0.5 MHz to 14 MHz. But I have only seen noise on the software waterfall screen and what I guess is far away lightning strikes. There is no rhythm or pattern to it. It would be both good and bad if I detected any signal. There could still be radio transmitters in other parts of this world, and not just on lower frequencies, as the SDR isn't that good or sensitive below 30MHz, and in Midg?rd it need to use band filters to not swamp the receiver.

  I even have the SDR dongles schematic as it is open-source and I modded it a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, there are few useful parts on the SDR as it is mostly a specialised computor with a high range A/D input, and its similar with other tech. That's the reason I haven't even bothered to scrap the Mobius camera yet, because most of the Mobius is just specialised chips I can't use, and passive components I don't really need to use. Integrated circuits are excellent for compactness, performance and being cheap, but not for any other use than what they were specifically made for. I have, however, thought about unscrewing the casing of Tom's DSLR camera and take both IR remote sensors, to build a remote control/call function on more radios.

  Since much of modern technology is specialised chips and computors, it is actually surprising how many small useful components there are in some things, if you are creative and not trying to make something sophisticated, and it is not something extremely compact and data-computor related. For example, the headlamp has a small microprocessor to provide different brightness and flashing patterns, and a couple of mosfets to drive the LEDs. I have no direct use for those functions, as I can solve the brightness with a resistor and just need a simple mechanical switch with two positions, so I can get a mosfet or two for radios or something, and the microprocessor might become a small fixed oscillator with two steps on the pulse length-pattern. Very limited use for that, but still something.

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  What I'm going to do, is to build the scrapped camera's flash circuit into a small box and try attaching it to my Boomstick. I want to test is how effective the flash might be at distracting or getting an opponent off balance in different light conditions, and what can be done with the right timing when attacking with the dagger hidden in the Boomstick shaft. Also, it might give a discrete mild stun-zap function to my Boomstick, which might be useful for 'magic'.

  It's both good and bad that the outside temperature has risen above zero enough for the snow to start melting and turning into sleet, as it will probably freeze during the night and thus turn most of the ground to slippery ice. After a bit of encouragement, Caecilia and Jane take the horses for a longer ride and bring some fika, and I got them to bring Haera, Skirlaug and Raneigh. We're gonna have to be used to having them here. Once they leave, I get Ciara and Kari to help me distract and divert others from the dining room and library, so I can work on the secret door behind the epic painting in the dining room.

  The work goes pretty quickly as everything is prepared. Drilling the holes in a neat row until I could get the saw through the wooden wall. Then it was just sawing downwards and taking care of the sawed off logs. I've nailed wooden planks on the sides to make the opening nice and tight against the door, attached the hinges to the door and the wall, and made a hole at the bottom of the door frame and is installing the opening mechanism and the locking lugs-hooks.

  Ciara knocks on the door and inform me that the others have returned, so I let her in and she helps me by cleaning up the sawdust and other things, before I do the last work with Ciara watching from the sofa. It takes time to file the edges of the locking lugs to make sure it locks properly while still keeping a tight gap, and reliably automatically lock, without making a lot of noise. There might be more fiddling with the mechanism in the future, but not time for that now, so I clean up so there are no traces in the meeting room. I can't bring out the cut off logs in full view, so for now they'll have to stay downstairs in the secret library together with the tools and other stuff. I might just saw the logs apart and burn in the fireplace down there, and smuggle out the tools at another time. The inner door with sound dampening needs to be installed, and so do the peep hole and the listening horn, but that's work for another day.

  Finally, I stand back and take a good look at my work. I'm quite pleased with this. If someone carefully feel behind the bottom edge of the epic painting, it is possible to feel the slight edge of the release button, but the wooden frame isn't perfect and it's very subtle, and it might be missed by someone that are feeling for it. The painting is close enough to the floor that it's impossible to see up the backside underneath its bottom edge.

  I use the sink in the b-room to wash off sweat and other stuff, and then return to Ciara who is waiting in the sofa. I thank Ciara for her help, which is so easy and nice when she's so damn sexy and easy to please. It's also a reward for me for a job well done. I do love her, and would love to spend more time just holding her. And Ciara would just love that.

  Time to leave, so we adjust our clothes, unlock the door and leave.

  Jane and Iselin give us a smile and amused look from the mezzanine sofa. Ciara doesn't bother trying to be quiet while having sex, but as usual, no one really cares to comment on me coming out of a room sweaty and happy with one of my sambos, and Iselin knows why I was in there. It's damn good that Jane seems to see the humour in how 'un-Midg?rd-like' our relationship is, instead of being sad about it. I'm pretty sure Jane would have preferred to have a real Midg?rd like relationship with just the two of us, but that's not an option and I hope we can make it work. If it doesn't work, I hope we can continue to be friends. I really really want to avoid a bad break-up with any of my sambos.

  The lake ice is so thick that they have filled the ice house without even using all the ice on the lake, so we can still ice skate at the southern end. Even the relatively small ice house requires many many cubic metres of ice, but the lake has an estimated surface area of 8-9 thousand square metres, so even if they avoided reed areas around the edges, that is a lot of ice when the ice is 0.15-0.20 metres thick. We can't expect lake ice this thick to happen every year, but even with 5 cm thick ice we will be able to fill the ice house. There is a small lake on the other island and a couple of larger ponds for irrigation use, so an ice house there too is a good idea, and there will probably be an ice house down in the harbour as well. If we have plenty of ice, we can start using it to pack fish and meat in ice barrels in the summer. Apart from the low labour cost of stockpiling ice, there are only advantages to having a lot of ice available.

  The tawing weather means that the ice is a bit wet on the surface, so falling or sitting on the ice makes you wet. But my sambos and others have another chance to learn to skate now that we have more than a dozen pairs of ice skates, and it goes better, albeit some far better than others. Jane, of course, is trying to show off while trying out 'her pair' of figure skates. There have been two pairs of those in different foot sizes, and also two pairs of hockey skates, and two simple hockey sticks and wooden pucks with a bit of lead inlaid in the centre to get the weight about right. It's not like I know the proper size and weight, so I've gone with 'seems about right'. If we're going to try playing hockey next winter, we need to test and make enough equipment. Including protective equipment. Skates are dangerous things, and so are pucks and hockey sticks at high speed. There will be at least leather protection, and helmets with mesh in front of the face, and neck protection, and I will try hockey gloves with inlaid metal braces to help protect fingers and hands, because those are also fragile things. If there are future tackles etc, then groin, back, shoulder, elbows and leg-knee will need protection.

  Those close to me isn't surprised by my focus on protection and safety, and norse elves could really start to see the value of protection in certain sports they have. There is one called knattleikr, which seems to be a form of Lacrosse-Rugby type game with 5 to 7 players on each side hitting a hardball with sticks or hands, and depending on local rules, it can be fairly okay and with penalties, or dangerous and bloody mostly played by slaves, as hitting someone in the head or face is perfectly fine if they have the ball. Players getting maimed or even killed is common for that version, but hey, that is part of the show and just good old fun.

  Ice skating is at least an enjoyable moment and something that is relaxing and fun, and even more so as we again grill sausage and try to make it a more social occasion.

  Jane and Caecilia don't quite agree on the sound and tone of the wood blocks, but that is partially because Jane and I are used to the Midg?rd Western tonal scale and division. Elves doesn't have that same rigidity, and some music use what Jane call microtonal division and combinations. But, these blocks will be made to our standards, so I record it on my tablet so we can check the resonance. It's handy to be able to measure, and with minimal tweaking it's possible to raise the resonance tone a little so it's more harmonious, and recording with measurement makes it less subjective. Frankly, I thought it sounded good enough, but Caecilia and Jane didn't, and they are the local musical authorities. The wood blocks will become a stand-alone piece that either the drummer or someone else can play. The drummer has quite a lot to strike, bang and stomp on, with different kind of sticks, especially after the drum kit got two bronze bells, where one is the same type that hangs by the ferry, because Jane found it in my attic, and apparently we both know the 'more cowbell' sketch.

  Both of them want my help building a metronome, which frankly is a good idea and shouldn't be that hard. Caecilia wants one, as there really isn't any way to get an precise rhythm as far as she knows, but they don't even have real clocks, so that makes sense. The hardest part about making a metronome, is probably the spring, as the rest should be a fairly simple clock like mechanism that makes a tick, with a weighted pendulum where one weight is movable. Iselin will be more than happy to help with that mechanism, and Bodil will probably help with the box. Of course it 'need' the classical pyramidical shape.