Date: Tue Mar 8 06:19:47 1994   
Subject: Cat bandit & ZX AC problem
From: "lthompson@fisher.com" <emory!turtle.fisher.com!lthompson>

Just got this from my little brother.  Still giggling from reading it.

>I left my windows down last night & a cat pissed in my car ... It's the worst 
>reek you can imagine ... Could you send out on the Net about the air 
>conditioning thing?   It's already starting to bug me ... 

In my neighbor hood (brother is also roommate), we don't worry to much about
thieves, just the damn cats.  Eight of them meet at my house.  One is blind
and will jump on our Z's and gets scared to jump down so it will scratch
the paint with its claws on the way down.  Talking about irritating.
Now my bro' gets sprayed, JEEEZZZ!

I've been putting pet repellant on two towels and have been leaving them on
the bumpers.

On other matters, my brother wants to know how to get his air conditioning 
working (got up to 80F degrees already).  There is a circuit in his 280ZX 
that will not let the AC compressor operate until the motor is warm.  I'm
sure it is to reduce emmissions.  Probably a California model.  I think
his is an 82 or 83 ZX.  Is there a easy fix????

Lee Thompson
Austin, TX

[About the cat whiz, we've found a product that does a very good job of
getting rid of the odor.  Ryter's Enzyme Formula OdorMute.  Also claims
to kill skunk odor.  We got it from our local full-service pet store.

My cat repellants are either .22 caliber or 15,000 volts :-)  For the
latter, get 4 pieces of 1/4" plexiglass.  Roll the car up on them.
Hook a 15,000 volt neon sign transformer between ground and the car.
Stand back and watch the fireworks :-)  JGD]

Date: Tue Mar 8 18:33:04 1994   
Subject: Re: tailgators
From: Luis Maclean <emory!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!lmaclean>

> [Unfortunately this does not work.  There simply is not enough fuel
> available to reliably ignite.  What DOES work is to install a small
> gas injector in the tailpipe near the spark plug.  The results from
> this are spectacular (just ask me how I know :-), particularly
> since you can keep the engine running, cranking out volumes of
> exhaust.  JGD]

I'll bite. How DO you know?

Luis
lmaclean@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

[Well, with a 4000 rev limiter plugged into the MSD, the throttle wide
open and the injector and plug firing, the fire jet was an estimated
30 feet long!  Quite spectacular!  JGD]

Date: Tue Mar 8 19:11:21 1994   
Subject: Re: Cat bandit
From: "lthompson@fisher.com" <emory!turtle.fisher.com!lthompson>

>My cat repellants are either .22 caliber or 15,000 volts :-)  For the
>latter, get 4 pieces of 1/4" plexiglass.  Roll the car up on them.
>Hook a 15,000 volt neon sign transformer between ground and the car.
>Stand back and watch the fireworks :-)  JGD]

Yea, JGD, your one real sick puppy, but I like your style!
So what happens when the paws touch the car?  Definatly a dead, or
freaked out cat.  Probably some burnt paint too.  But hey, after all
the claw scratches, I need a new paint job anyway...

Man, if I resort to this, I'll spend the next 10 years in court.

Lee Thompson
Austin, TX

As seen on court TV!

[:-)  Actually it doesn't kill 'em.  15kv is enough to powerfully 
stimulate the muscular system.  The net result is the cat hurls
about 10 feet away and is highly addled but otherwise unharmed.
The only way it would kill the cat would be if he wedged himself up 
against the car somehow.  Then you call on the services of Mr. Garbage
Bag and Mr. Trash Compactor.  What is more common is the cat jumps
up on the car.  The corona discharge from all that fur, the ear
tips, the tail, etc, drives him absolutely crazy!  They act like something
is biting them.  They DON'T come back :-)  JGD]

Date: Mon Mar 21 17:18:10 1994   
Subject: Re: tailgators
From: frank e mcbath <emory!world.std.com!mcbath>

this weekend i went to a ham radio swap meet and saw a couple of 
interesting gimmicks for tailgators. the cheapest gimmick was a 10GHz 
gunplexer for $25-50. It is a 10 milliwatt microwave oscillator that 
resonates at 10GHz, aka the X Band, and runs off a 9 volt square battery.

the guy selling these things scraps them from security alarm systems ( 
motion detectors) and electronic door sensors (like at the supermarket). 
providing the guy tailing you has a radar detector, you just hit the 
switch and shoot a pulse. the guys radar detector lights up like a 
christmas tree and hopefully thinks it is a cop ahead and backs off.

these things were about 1 1/2" sq and easily fit into a "kleenex" box on 
your rear deck. the range was 1/4mi the guy said. he has 2 in his rear of 
his car and 2 on the front bumper.

of course the risk is a real cop pulling you over and discover that you 
are operating on his frequency band (FCC would not look kindly on this). 
but if you are an am. radio operator and have a call sign, this 10GHz 
freq is free game to you.

this guy said that his main clients for these things were off duty cops 
that wanted to jack with people.

mcbath@world.std.com
'71 240Z

[One note.  These microwave door openers, almost all made using 
Microwave Sensors Inc. sensors, use a pulsed microwave scheme designed
to avoid false alarms.  This very narrow pulse train will not trigger
better detectors.  My Escort, for example, is barely triggered 
by a long range sensor even with the antennas very close together.

This is fairy easy to fix.  The Gunn oscillator runs on 8 volts, plus
or minus a little.  If one traces the wire from the Gunn diode back
to the control board, one will find a transistor that switches 
regulated 8 volts to the Gunn.  One need only jumper this
transistor in order to supply steady power to the Gunn.  
The device no longer works very well as a motion detector but it works
VERY well as an electronic Tractor Beam :-)

I have a decent selection of motion detectors and all of them use
some version or the other of the basic Microwave Sensors package.
It should therefore be easy to figure this out on most any motion
detector.  JGD]

From: John De Armond
X-Source: The Hotrod Mailing list
Date: Sep 1992
Subject: Re: Car Alarms

>Don't waste your money on a commercial alarm.  Design and build your
>own so that the thieves don't know how it works.

Absolutely.  If the objective is to keep some scum from driving off
with your car, consider mounting some critical component so it can be
removed as an "ignition switch".  for example, if your car uses the HEI
ignition, you could move the HEI module inside the passenger compartment,
mount it on a little slice of aluminum stock and rig it with a connector
so you can simply take it with you.  Same with prom packs on
ECUs.  Fords are a bit tougher but you get the idea.  When you remove
something that cannot simply be jumpered around, the car's not gonna
move unless towed.

For things like stereos, it gets somewhat more complicated.  I don't believe
alarms will seriously stop the punks.  I'm quite fond of teargas booby
traps and such stuff :-)

John

From: John De Armond
X-Source: The Hotrod Mailing list
Date: Sep 1992
Subject: Re: Ultimate theft preventive

>	What I want to know is, can the 'puter be damaged by multiply removing
>and inserting it, what with the sudden interruption and resumption of power?
>I assume that if I ground myself, all will be well.  Given the high theft
>rates prevailing here in NJ these days, I need to have something quick!

I would not take the whole computer out if I were you.  Most modern
ECUs have the ability to learn the engine's needs based on how
you drive and from the lambda sensor feedback.  If you remove power from
the box, all that learning is lost.  You can safely remove the PROM.
There is a company whose name escapes me that makes a multiple socket
prom holder designed to get the prom up where you can easily change it.
I know they advertise in Turbo Magazine.

John