Had my normal breakfast, then worked up a blog entry. J went for a walk around the campground while I continued working on the blog entry. She came back, and we left at 11:22 in the Jeep.

We went to Cafe BellaLuca in Truth or Consequences at 11:47 for lunch. I had a Moretti La Rossa and a Roman Calzone (proscuitto, pepperoni, salami, onion, mushroom) — the same thing I had on our first visit on November 9, 2009 — why mess with a good thing?! J had a cup of truffle squash soup and a house salad. J said the soup was "totally awesome!" We both thoroughly enjoyed eating out there. We left at 12:50 and ...

Went to the Radio Shack in Truth or Consequences to pick up parts to repair the Klipsch iFi. (You may read more about our Klipsch iFi on my blog entry for yesterday.) I was a bit concerned when I went in because the walls were filled with cell phones and the like — not parts like most stores I'm familiar with. Fortunately, the drawer/bins in the back had exactly what I was looking for. We left at 12:59.

We went to the Post Office in Arrey, just south of Caballo Lake State Park, at 1:22 to pick up our mail. Unfortunately, it hadn't arrived yet, so we'll get to go back.

Repaired Our Klipsch iFi

We returned to the RV at 1:35, and I started to repair our Klipsch iFi speaker system for our iPods. (You may read more about our Klipsch iFi on my blog entry for yesterday.) The image to the left shows whole iFi circuit board and the bad capacitor that caused the fuse to blow. The round silver thing under the big black plate is a really heavy transformer. The wires and circuit board at the bottom of the image are 110VAC, and the wires and circuit boards at the top of the image are for the low-voltage components.

The bad capacitor, also shown in the image below left, was a 4700µF 25V electrolytic capacitor with radial leads. Radio Shack only carries a 4700µF 35V electrolytic capacitor with axial leads, so installing the new capacitor required some jury-rigging. Fortunately, the axial leads were long enough to reach the holes in the circuit board that had been used for the original capacitor.

After I removed the bad capacitor, I soldered in the new capacitor and put some electrical tape "insulator pads" where the capacitor leads might rub against other components. Then I installed a new 2A 250V slow-blow fuse, and put the board back in the subwoofer enclosure to see if the new capacitor fixed everything — it did! :) It was great to hear the iFi putting out great-sounding tunes again! We listened to Affirmation by Savage Garden. Then I took the board out of the subwoofer and drilled a 1/8-inch hole in the metal circuit board support that was right next to the new capacitor. I put a piece of padded double-sided tape between the capacitor and the metal circuit board support, then ran a small tie-wrap around the capacitor to hold it tightly against the metal circuit board support. Then I put the board back in the subwoofer and put the subwoofer back in its normal location with some hard drives strapped to the top of it. It's so nice to have the iFi working again!! :) BTW, the eBay auction for an iFi ended after I finished the repair, and it went for $138.50 — just a little bit more than the $8.90 for parts at Radio Shack. :)

Guide to Electronics Terms

My father grew up building his own ham radios back in the vacuum tube days. He was also a big fan of Pogo, and he identified with the character Howland Owl, "the swamp's self-appointed leading authority, a self-proclaimed 'expert' scientist, 'perfessor', doctor, explorer, witch doctor, and anything else he thinks will generate respect for his knowledge." (My Unky Joom identified with Churchill "Churchy" LaFemme, the turtle.) My father had some Howland Owl-inspired electronics terms that he taught me:

• Cowpissiter - better known as a capacitor
• Rectum Fire - better known as a rectifier
• Smolder - better know as solder; generally used as a verb, as in "to smolder" something

I processed the images I took of the Klipsch iFi repair then started to work up a blog entry.

I had dinner of lunch stuff (ham-and-Swiss, etc) at 5:45. Did some computer work, and continued to listen to some great-sounding tunes: Apurimac II by Cusco, In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson, Joy Of Life by Karunesh, An Ancient Muse by Loreena McKennitt, Amarantine by Enya, and Madman Across The Water by Elton John. It was 24°F (-4°C) when we went to bed around 9:45.