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What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread


outlaw118

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Because the Mrs has been doing a lot of management cover at work it's fucked her tax contributions up and HMRC have sent numerous letters for some reason.

 

Now I know the ins and outs, but obviously being a piss taker I've been making out she's been dodging tax, she's even got a new nickname - Jimmy Carr.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

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My father brought this little transistor radio with him from the UK when he came visit last; it's been all over the world, has some old brochures from some defunct airline in the back (Fly TREK - Johannesburg) but over the years it's fallen silent. It used to be used in his Sprite, so the last time it was in regular use was maybe 1980. 

I taped up the battery holder and liberated some pops and crackles from the speaker from the volume dial and wave switches. Good sign there, the output stage is alive as well as the IF oscillator... Had a bit of a go at it with an alignment tool and managed to get a few local stations out of it. Needs a full rebuild but this is the radioshite version of "first start after years in a barn". Quite pleased with that really. It's also got the early NASA problem of "tin whiskers", where the germanium transistors are in little metal pots coated in pure tin to stop them rusting. However pure tin, left to its own devices starts growing tiny crystalline filaments from the surfaces and these cause short circuits if they grow far enough to touch the gubbins inside. Still, it'll live again. All the important bits still work.

Phil

 

Edit: Warmed up an oscilloscope that's not much younger than the radio last night to have a poke around inside the radio.

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Started at the IF and mixer- got a ringing capacitance somewhere.

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That has the effect of making the audio sound distorted, which it does. However, poking about I twisted the board slightly in the radio and it suddenly became much more loud and clear for a moment so there's definitely a broken trace or dry solder joint somewhere on it. I'll have to pull the board and check. Already on the way to being repaired.

 

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12 hours ago, PhilA said:

 

My father brought this little transistor radio with him from the UK when he came visit last; it's been all over the world, has some old brochures from some defunct airline in the back (Fly TREK - Johannesburg) but over the years it's fallen silent. It used to be used in his Sprite, so the last time it was in regular use was maybe 1980. 

I taped up the battery holder and liberated some pops and crackles from the speaker from the volume dial and wave switches. Good sign there, the output stage is alive as well as the IF oscillator... Had a bit of a go at it with an alignment tool and managed to get a few local stations out of it. Needs a full rebuild but this is the radioshite version of "first start after years in a barn". Quite pleased with that really. It's also got the early NASA problem of "tin whiskers", where the germanium transistors are in little metal pots coated in pure tin to stop them rusting. However pure tin, left to its own devices starts growing tiny crystalline filaments from the surfaces and these cause short circuits if they grow far enough to touch the gubbins inside. Still, it'll live again. All the important bits still work.

Phil

needs more vacuum tubes and a 90V B+ battery made out of pure unobtanium :mrgreen:

(still very cool to see tho :) )

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Work travel to the EU got cancelled due to virus concerns, so I get to stay at home / go into the office like a normal person. 
It also means I get a week with the family that I wasn’t expecting. No 18 hrs of travel each way and I get the weekend at home!

Result!

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Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

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As alluded to in the news 24 thread, the Robin left Essex this morning bound for Pickering. Perfect buyer, paid when he said he would and his collection man was the model of jovial Yorkshire efficency. I got a text from the new owner about half past five to tell me the running issue had been a broken valve spring, now repaired and running like a top. He hadn't heard of this place but I suggested he gave it a look. 

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3 hours ago, Fumbler said:

Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah

haha reminds me of one of my first times out and about mingling with traffic (like outside the starting square)

and I was just following the instructors direction and he said "take this exit at the roundabout" and as I did so I saw suddenly a 40Mph sign and suddenly I was on a slip road joining a 3 lane dual carriageway (because thats a thing...)

it was like "oh this is happening!" LOL and soon that 40Mph sign became a 50Mph sign...

ah memories :)  

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