Crossy

Long, long ago (2005 ish), myself and a couple of colleagues had a contract to survey all SRT crossings in an area covering Bangkok up to Ayutthaya and across to Chachoengsao. We drove many hundreds of km and visited a heck of a lot of crossings. The aim was to cost out refurbishment and upgrade to said crossings. The actual survey results are lost in the annals of time but the stand-out memory is that the number of crossings where one or more of Warning lights (red flashing and rotating yellow) Annoying "pling-pling" sound Barriers Train driver warning signs didn't function was worrying. Many crossings had a manually operated barrier instead. Sadly, the estimated cost of fixing all this stuff scared SRT and the job wasn't given to my employer. I doubt that many crossings ever got sorted properly ???? On the positive side we did get to meet a lot of interesting people and scare my mum in law by turning up unexpectedly (her home was next to a crossing in Ban Pha-Chi).

Yup, chassis connected (hopefully) to the neutral side of the mains. I worked on some Pye/Philips TVs (CT200 Chelsea) which, whilst not live-chassis, did rectify the mains with a bridge and then made the -ve of the bridge "0V". All fine and dandy until some innocent tech connected a grounded scope probe to the "0V". Bottom of the sheet, centre is the offending bridge.

It was being given a Woodbine by the big-boys behind the bike sheds (yes really) at Hindley and Abram Grammar School that put me off smoking forever. Drinking yes, women yes, smoking never again ????

Was that The Analog Shop? Not sure if it's still there, but there's certainly a place in Zeer doing the same type of kit. If you have to ask the price - you can't afford it ???? There are many explanations for the "valve sound", they certainly sound different. They "clip" gently and the distortion is second-harmonic which is less grating than the third-harmonic that bipolar transistors produce. FETs are similar to valves in producing second-harmonic distortion but they still clip hard. All very subjective.

Just so you recognise who to slap upside the head!

Second-year apprentice project (not mine, it's long lost), MW superhet radio. IF cans were deliberately de-tuned by the lecturers so we had to manually align. No sweep generators, just a massive Marconi RF signal generator. First task once completed, turn it into a transmitter of course!

And in this thread ????

"Bottles" old bean, bottles

Wobbulator in this case was a piece of kit used to align IF strips. It produced what was effectively narrow-band FM, tune the cores for maximum smoke ???? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobbulator This is a military one but you get the picture ????

... just in case you forgot ... Both beautiful all these years later!

... although this comes close ... Joss Ackland in the back seat.

A Presley cover that couldn't be less like the original ...

Can I assume we won't be flooded again this year then?? Nope, I'm not that brave!

The G8 had an electronic push-button tuner, that drifted like heck if the voltage regulator that fed the varicap went awry. It often didn't actually fail, just went off-tune when things warmed up. Nightmare! This is what it looked like to "normal" people ????

Fresh out of uni, newly married and poor I used to buy up ex-rental TVs from a place in Chepstow, re-furbish them and sell on for a profit. Quote from a mate "I saw all these TVs coming across the Severn Bridge with a little Fiat underneath, I knew immediately who it was...". Earliest sets I did in quantity were Philips G8 (this one is missing the line scan board, should be on the right).

Yeah, we had one of those beasties in the Machines lab at Bath tech. Main safety hazard (apart from getting zapped) was the massive amounts of UV emitted, hence the steel box. Memories of Mr (Fray Bentos) Bentley our Machines lecturer, now long gone. Hated calculators (which were just appearing) "Monkeys can push buttons!". But he did teach me everything I've ever forgotten about AC theory. EDIT The man himself. Sadly, it was getting knocked off his bike that led to his declining health, he was never quite the same man afterwards.

Yeah, long term low voltage will often take out low-cost switching power supplies (LED, PCs etc.) They just keep trying to work then go fzzzt. More expensive units will protect themselves. One of the reasons we have a low/high-voltage cut off device which kills our grid connection if it goes below 160V (we have an AVR that can handle down to about that level). Not particularly expensive to install and can save your less than cheap kit.

Our chooks haven't been liking the hot weather, production is well down ????

Update: - YL02 to YL10 will be open for free passenger operation 06.00 to 20.00 from Monday 12th June.

Update: - YL02 to YL10 will be open for free passenger operation 06.00 to 20.00 from Monday 12th June.

Charlie was installing a new door and found that one of the hinges was missing. He asked his wife Mary if she would go to Home Depot and pick up a hinge. Mary agreed to go. While she was waiting for the manager to finish serving a customer, her eye caught a beautiful bathroom faucet. When the manager was finished, Mary asked him, "How much is that faucet?" The manager replied, "That's a gold plated faucet and the price is $500.00. Mary exclaimed, "My goodness, that is a very expensive faucet. It's certainly out of my price bracket." She then proceeded to describe the hinge that Charlie had sent her to buy. The manager said that he had them in stock and went into the storeroom to get one. From the storeroom the manager yelled. "Ma'am, do you wanna screw for the hinge?" Mary paused for a moment and then shouted back, "No, but I will for the faucet."

An agent may also assist with providing the payment vehicle if you don't have a suitable Visa/Master card.

Long, long ago we were doing a project in Ankara, Turkey. On the walk from the car to the work-site one day there was a Turkish gentleman on a second-floor balcony with a rug and a carpet-beater (I didn't realise they were still a thing). One of my (British of course) colleagues yelled out "What's up Abdul, won't it start?". Luckily, he wasn't called Abdul (or it really wouldn't start)!