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Contents Vol.20, No.2; February 2007 SILICON CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Features 11 Viganella: Solar Power With A Twist Imagine living in a village with no sunlight for 84 days straight. The Italian village of Viganella solved the problem using a giant mirror – by Ross Tester 14 New “Naked” WiFi Distance Record Think WiFi is only good for 100 metres? Well the record for a non-amplified signal is now 280km! Here’s how they did it – by Ermanno Pietrosemoli 40 Review: Teac GF350 Turntable/CD Burner You’ll love this unit if you have lots of old vinyl records – by Barrie Smith Remote Volume Control & Preamp Module – Page 24. 42 Review: Jaycar Gets Into Wireless Microphones Jaycar enters the wireless microphone market with three attractively-priced models – by Ross Tester 57 Mater Maria College Scoops Technology Prize Pool Two students from Mater Maria Catholic College, Warriewood, win our inaugural “Excellence in Education Technology” awards Pro jects To Build 24 Remote Volume Control & Preamplifier Module; Pt.1 This digital unit works with any universal remote control and features an attractive blue LED readout and an optional rotary encoder – by Peter Smith 36 Simple Variable Boost Control For Turbo Cars Variable Boost Control & Fuel Cut Defeater – Pages 36 & 38. Simple circuit “intercepts” and stretches the standard boost control signal for even greater engine performance – by Denis Cobley 38 Fuel Cut Defeater For The Boost Control Use this with the Variable Boost Control to eliminate the standard factory fuel cut to the injectors at boost levels of 16-17psi – by Denis Cobley 58 Low-Cost 50MHz Frequency Meter; Mk.2 Review: Teac GF350 Turntable/CD Burner – Page 40. Updated project can run from internal batteries and now includes a 10kHz rounding mode for measuring 36MHz PPM R/C transmitters – by John Clarke 78 Bike Computer To Digital Ammeter Conversion Stan takes a cheap bike computer and turns it into a digital amp-hour meter with the aid of the mighty Picaxe! – by Stan Swan Special Columns 44 Serviceman’s Log Customers and their strange antics – by the TV Serviceman 70 Circuit Notebook (1) 4-Channel RF Remote Switch; (2) Sinewave-To-Digital Clock Shaper; (3) Tachometer & Elapsed Time Accumulator; (4) Picaxe-Controlled MP3 Doorbell 88 Vintage Radio The quirky Breville 801 personal portable – by Rodney Champness Departments   2   4 76 83 Publisher’s Letter Mailbag Product Showcase Order Form siliconchip.com.au 98 Ask Silicon Chip 101 Notes & Errata 102 Market Centre Low-Cost 50MHz Frequency Meter, Mk.2 – Page 58. February 2007  1