009's Outside Interests

Ever wonder what 009 does in his spare time?

 Well contrary to popular opinion I do have interests outside AutoSpies. When I am not working on my project car or traveling, my two favorite passions have always been loudspeaker construction design and believe it or not rocketry. So here is an exclusive  peek at those activities.

Loudspeaker Design and Construction:

Since the early 80’s I have been designing and building a variety of loudspeaker projects for personal and commercial use.  While the science is well known, he challenges of creating a design that is relatively simple, compact, accurate and clean sounding design is not.  Most of the projects I have built over the years utilize high raw components speaker from the finest European and American manufacturers and incorporating them into a hand built cabinets with high tolerance hand built crossovers. 



If the design is for a mobile platform ,the challenges are quite unique.  I typically measure the acoustics of the specified vehicle and start building a project from the sonic perspective first.  While you can simply plop in a box with a pair of 12 inch woofer and get decent sound, to move to the next level and provide a clear and precise sonic sound stage takes quite a bit more work.  I prefer to minimize the electronic wizardry of filtering and strive for a relatively flat curve without the need for equalizers.  My first high end mobile systems containing raw component speakers were in the early 80’s preceding the current craze by almost half a decade.



Rocketry: 

Ok, I know it sounds a bit odd to say I am  a rocketry nut.  Visions of the small rockets commonly found in the local hobby shops comes to mind to most of you.  However, while these are a staple to beginners, there is a whole world out there of large scale rockets.  This is a area where I am just beginning to spend some time.  These are high tech designs that stand over 5 feet in height and can attain altitudes of well over 5,000 feet.  These are the big boys, and many times require FAA clearance just to take flight.

 I first got hooked watching one take off at a regional event, and was totally mazed at the sheer power and speed they have. Some of these designs can actually break the speed of sound under the correct conditions, they are simply amazing to watch.  As I progress and obtain advanced certifications I hope to provide you with several videos of my launches.  Here is an idea of what a large scale rocket looks and sounds like. Not really the toys you remember, now are they?

Now while this is a cool extreme video you actually can see the power of the engines as they propel a car over 1500 ft. in the air.  Not something to do at home, but sure is fun to watch..