Howey, Paul

Nori:

2022/3/19, Lr., 18:20

Dear Joseba,

Thanks for the message, I hope you are having a nice weekend. (...). It is beautiful weather here, though quite windy.

OK regarding your questions for the CCB -

I chose you and your friends in the first case because you are very nice people with an attitude that I like  - I guess that is a Basque trait !

Also my thoughts are if we can get it to work on a Woodcock then it should work well on any other bird. Being nocturnal and living in the forest are two very negative factors for a solar powered transmitter.

As you know I have been working on this for too long, about 10 years.  (...)

This PTT weighs about 9 grams, less than my original 10 gram goal. Having made these I can see ways of making it even lighter. During these 10 years I have had new ideas and smaller components have become available, hence this PTT.

The specifications are similar to the 17g GPS PTT except it is lighter. As we develop the software more it will have more features, it can record all of the GPS fixes it takes for it's lifetime that could be downloaded if the PTT was retrieved. It uses an accelerometer as the activity sensor which could be used to give some interesting data, though I doubt this would work on a Woodcock due to the very low energy budget.

There are some even better Solar Cells that might be available in a year, maybe these would work better in the forest.

So it is an ongoing story which I hope you and your friends will be willing to be part of.

We can talk about an interview, but as you know I prefer to remain anonymous!

Have a good evening, I'm now going to make a nice drink - you have one also.

Take care,

Cheers Paul

 

2022/3/19,

Dear Paul,

In some few days the birds will 'APPEAR'... No doubt!

I was called by the CCB, the Club.

They want to publish something about your new PTTs, in the Club's magazine.

What is the information that I can give them about those PTTs?

Tell me, please, ... Give me some data... Some characteristics, your plan...?

On the other hand, I have planed to ask you for an Interview for that magazine... (let' think about that)

The questions would be something like those: (this is just without thinking about them)

a) why your interest for the woodcocks?

(Remember that your German friend told you that it was impossible to track those small birds...)

b) you give us a couple of PTTs when you performed the FIRST revolution, with very new solar micro cells... Remember? That was great.. Why you chose us?

c) Now, at the start of the SECOND revolution... Why did you choose us?

Plus anything you want to say...

We shoul think about all this... it's a good plataform to spread your work...

Thanking you in advance...

Have a nice time.

Best

joseba

 

Howey, Paul

Nori:

2022/2/5, Lr., 13:37

Dear Joseba,

It is really nice to hear from you, I hope you and your three girls are fine.  We are both well.  (...)  I also needed to check with Ted before giving you an answer.

I know that you normally catch the Woodcocks around now, so I hopefully am not too late again.

Let me explain where we are, I have two of the 10 gram GPS PTTs here for you but I am waiting on Ted to finish the software for them, we discovered a few "Bugs" that affect the GPS message recording that need to be fixed.  I was hoping he would have done this months ago but it's priority has unfortunately fallen way down the list.  We are so close yet so far !

I have told him we need to get this completed in the next few days and I will work with him over the phone one day next week to make sure it is done, probably on Wednesday.

The problem is are we too late ?  -  Do you still have the opportunity to catch two birds ?  -  Am I correct in thinking that you catch them just before New Moon when it is darkest ?

If we can get the software finished and tested next week then I think I can complete the PTTs by "say" the 18th Feb at the earliest.  We would then have to get them to you from here in the UK, I'm not sure with all this extra Brexit paperwork how easy that will be.  Do you have any experience with that lately ?  It would be nice if we could just bring them to you !

Anyway the basic question is - Is it too late ?  We will deal with all the other problems as they occur.

Have a great day, hopefully it has warmed up there, it is about 9 deg C here today.

Bye for now,

Sincerely,

Paul

e-mail (2020)

Nork: Howey, Paul

Bidaltze-data: 2020(e)ko otsailakren 17(a), astelehena 15:05
Nori: joseba felix tobar-arbulu <josebafelix@outlook.es>
Gaia: Re: 

Hello my good friend Joseba,

Thank you for the message and attachment. I'm sorry I did not send you New Year greetings - Thank you for yours, I am a delinquent at heart !

(...)

I have been very busy working on our new PTTs but progress has not been as fast as I would have hoped, physically I have the design for a sub 10g GPS PTT finished and several prototypes built, but the software for it is not finished.  As soon as it is then I would like to donate a couple of them to you to track Woodcock. Though I fear it will be too late for this year ?  Remind me of when your team can trap Woodcock.

I've also been working on several other new PTTs, a smaller Popup tag for fish and a potentially 1 gram one ! - I will know soon how much it actually weighs as I am finishing the first prototype now.

Hopefully you have been enjoying your walks in the countryside over the winter, here we have been experiencing the wettest winter I can remember, luckily we live on top of the hills and our land drains well. Others have not been so fortunate with flooding in many places around us.

Well that's my update on life for the moment, I will listen to the Coates interview when I get home later, thank you.

Take care of yourself and our best wishes to your wife and daughters.

Sincerely, 

Paul

-----------------------------------------------
Paul W. Howey PhD.
President
Microwave Telemetry Inc.
8835 Columbia 100 Parkway
Columbia
Maryland