Blinking LED

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The blinking LED I got from Mouser, 804-WP56BID by Kingbright, works fine.  But the 40 mcd brightness rating means it can be harder to see in high light levels.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Kingbright/WP56BID?qs=58z0TXQGVSSigALogKJCBg%3D%3D

So it occurred to me:  why not add a regular high brightness LED in series with the blinking LED ?   I tried it and it works nicely, the series resistor can be tweaked due to the increased voltage drop across two LEDs versus one but it's not super critical.

And then another idea:  use a blinking LED to "gate" an oscillator, specifically a crystal calibrator.  Crystal  calibrators, for example the Model 226 from Ten-Tec:

https://www.qsl.net/w/wb4kdi/TenTec/226_Calibrator.pdf

used to offer this capability, it made it easier to spot a calibration signal with a receiver.  So I tried this with a VE3DNL calibrator:

http://www.wb9kzy.com/ve3dnl.htm

It worked OK.  At 10 MHz the calibrator signal is shifted up about 10 Hz and the signal is weaker by about 6 db (understandable since the LED lowers the voltage to the calibrator).  But once the signal is spotted the LED can be shorted out so the signal will be stronger and  on frequency.

Not sure exactly how useful this mod is, but it certainly is simple and inexpensive.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm