I am running a small circuit that includes a PIC off of a 24 VDC battery
system.  I am minimizing my current draw by having the PIC sleep most of
the time.  I wake it up every few seconds, have it power up the analog
input conditioning circuitry, make its decisions, send an output signal if
required, and then have it go back to sleep.  Current draw using this
scheme is peanuts.  My problem is the quiescent current that a classic 7805
regulator uses, roughly 3.5 mA.  I saw the earlier messages about the Maxim
and TelCom regulators.  They look great but their maximum input voltage is
around 11 volts.  I've considered various dropping resistor and zener
schemes to use in conjunction with one of the low power regulators but they
all end up sucking up as much current as the original 7805.  Any clever
ides out there on this?

Thanks.