Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[Zenith]

Lots of items which are commonplace and cheap have ridiculous estimated delivery dates. CPC (part of Farnell) expect to be able to complete my order for a few SMD electrolytics by August 2023. For four 1000µF 25V radial electrolytics, they are now quoting January 2023. They've put that one back a time or two.

These were ordered as part of a larger order in October. For a lot of the line items they either had no stock, or not the full amount, so over the past couple of months, a succession of Jiffy bags has turned up, each containing a few components.

[mansaxel]

The only thing that does not hit us with insane lead times is optics. SFP and similar. They continue to be orderable with next to no lead time. The rest is a shit show.

[Specmaster]

...the doctor felt around leg and asked if there was any pain while she was pressing at various points, no pain, diagnoses, no blot, its just cellulitis and antibiotics needed, prescription would be emailed to my local pharmacy ready for me collect in the morning, 36 hours later we get there

Cellulitis => flucloxacillin I suspect. 4/day, don't eat for 2hrs before and 1hr afterwards (or v.v.). Irritating.

Cellulitis can tend to re-occur, so do whatever's necessary.

Last time I had it, after an operations (oops!), I spotted it quickly and went back to the hospital pronto.

I took part in a trial to see if an extra treatment helped clear it up quicker. Thinking about the protocol and my cellulitis, I told them I thought either I had the placebo or it didn't help. Unfortunately it was the latter. Fortunately I haven't had any more problems.

Nope, the antibiotic the Hospital prescribed was I think called Trimethoprim, only issue the pharmacy didn't have any of that the Doctor changed that to Amoxicillin, but again they didn't have that and so it was changed to once again Zithromax, 600mg once a day and taken 2 doses so far with one more day to go, can't say that I can see or feel any real benefits as yet. Trouble is having Covid as well its difficult to get a Doctor to come and have a look, even my dressings on the ankle wound. The nurses will not no longer do either. They put whatever dressings they have at the reception and my youngest was getting those for me as he was negative for Covid, but now tested positive, so my middle one is testing negative so he'll have to do that. Problem is, dressings are nowhere big enough to span the wound, so I have to cut the sticky sides of some to but them against each other till they cover and then stick the butts to each other with sticky plaster. I may have to do some pleading with someone tomorrow, as I feel, I'm being left out on a limb, hoping for the best. As previously stated using 111 or 111.online is not fit for purpose, not only do you have to wait hours for a response, then further delays of more hours and as happened the other day, nobody phoned me back as promised and then, its still remote. Where is the physical presence, where is the PPE???

[mnementh]

Is there any kind of tertiary care infrastructure in place there...? Like we have 3rd party "Urgent Care" clinics; they primarily serve walk-in patients with burns and "needs a few stitches" type stuff that one might not want to go to the hospital for, or are simply too far out of one's schedule to make it there in a timely manner.

Of course, they are also used for intermediary stuff like short-term access to prescriptions for meds like Lisinopril & diabetes supplies, etc for folk who are "between regular doctors".

They accept most major medical insurance plans, and at least in the GWN, such visits are also completely or at least mostly covered by their universal healthcare program.

mnem

[Zenith]

Fortunately I have had very little need for healthcare, so my knowledge isn't particularly up to date or extensive.

At one time family doctors could be called out to an emergency. I have the impression there's much less of that than there used to be. You could go to your local doctor's surgery without an appointment, and you'd be seen eventually.

There's an ambulance service and the paramedics are licensed to administer oxygen and some drugs. They are called to serious traffic accidents and other emergencies. They are trained in advanced first aid such as might be given to stroke victims or people who've had serious accidents. I get the impression there are long waits these days. My next door neighbour worked as a paramedic in the ambulance service for 25 years and retired as soon as she could. She said it changed over the years and there was much less respect. It came to be that they were called out for too many trivial things. She particularly hated when the rota brought them round to working in the city on Saturday nights. Drunks would call the ambulance and used it as a taxi service to take them home and that happened all the time. They absolutely weren't allowed to tell them to bugger off. She said at one time if they turned up and there was fighting, it would stop. Towards the end not only would it not stop, they could easily be involved.

There are hospital A&E departments where you can turn up and will be seen by a doctor. You may have a long wait. At one time, most towns had a hospital, even small ones. There's been a tendency to move to bigger hospitals in larger towns, so you may have a longish drive.

At one time there were District Nurses. I think they may have been attached to local medical practices. They'd visit people and change dressings, give injections and that sort of stuff. I haven't heard of them for ages.

[mnementh]

BWAHAHAHAHA!

A couple days ago, I took a last-ditch "Hail Mary" chance on saving my Lenovo Flex from the fleaBay chopshop; $31 shipped on a main board being sold AS-IS-DOA, NO POWER, NO RETURNS: IT'S DEAD, JIM.

See what's right on top...

ITS DEAD JIM_.jpg

mnem
I'm all out of pithy.

[tggzzz]

At one time there were District Nurses. I think they may have been attached to local medical practices. They'd visit people and change dressings, give injections and that sort of stuff. I haven't heard of them for ages.

Around here they don't exist per se, but there is the equivalent in an outsourced "NHS" company https://www.sirona-cic.org.uk/

While my mother needed them, up until May 2021, they were useful. Fortunately I have no more recent experience.

[Specmaster]

Yes I think that is pretty much the same across England. I remember the days when Doctors would always make home visits, at any time of day or night if needed. There was sufficient Doctors in the practises to be able have one dedicated to be on call out of hours, on a rota basis. There was also teams of district nurses who would make visits for dressing changes and general observations, and call the Doctor if they thought it was necessary. That was back in the day when the profession was a respected one and the renumeration reflected that. Think back or if you have to, google cars such as Armstrong Sideleys, Rover’s such as the 75, they were the cars of choice for many Doctors and are often quoted as Doctors cars, there not cheap either, but good,strong,reliable upmarket to reflect the drivers status.

Seeing that a certain political party has enjoyed far many more years in power over the past few decades, the decline of standards rests with them and we can all see how that is going, the fat cats are getting fatter at the expense of others, ie the workers who are seen as not important in the grand scheme of things as long as fat cats wealth continues to grow.

[Specmaster]

Hopefully I should get a visit tomorrow from a district nurse (supplied by a sub contractor) after phoning the doctor and saying that I need someone to see my leg and dress the wound for me. Doctor thought I could diy it, I explained that where it is located, I can’t see it correctly and my family are too squeamish too offer any support .

So she has requested reluctantly requested a district nurse visit for tomorrow with any luck (last time 111 service said that they would do the same, nothing happened), I expect they charge the practise and will impact on the bottom line so it would seem that profits are only major concern after all.

Prescribed round 2 of the antibiotics, again unseen, just hope that there isn’t a negative to having too many of them .

So anyway that seems to solve the riddle of District Nurses, they do exist but if your Doctors practise are willing to pay for them from a private provider, we are sliding slowly towards an insurance based health service and will sleepwalk into it unless we all remember to cast our votes with other parties that put people in front of money.

[Zucca]

I've been thinking about getting a NewScope LCD replacementfor the CRT display in my HP 8753B VNA.

VNA is another rabbit hole, no no please do not tempt me....

[tggzzz]

I've been thinking about getting a NewScope LCD replacementfor the CRT display in my HP 8753B VNA.

VNA is another rabbit hole, no no please do not tempt me....

VNAs are remarkably cheap nowadays, and it is probably worth having at least a NanoVNA around.

But, just as with scopes, the price of the necessary "accessories" is, um, noticeable. Doubly so since "metrology" and "RF" are involved

[Robert]

The "Nano VNA" things are interesting but are pretty limited particuarly the cheaper ones. When they say to use a 10dB attenuator on each port to isolate the mismatch (the ports are not 50R) it makes me worry. Their dynamic range is low enough without knocking 20dB off before you start. If you had the room even a 75R "proper" VNA with minimum loss pads would be better. You can hardly give 75R VNA test sets away.
I do have a software based VNA, a DG8SAQ V3 (needs a laptop) but that is at the higher end of these devices costing around £300 new.
RF measurement IS a rabbit hole. Proper phase stable cables start at hundreds of pounds each and buying second hand ones is a gamble with very long odds against. Then you get into calibration kits, verification kits, adaptors, etc, etc. Low cost,but known quality cal kits are available from Kirkby Microwave (Dr Dave is on some of the lists) but low cost is relative. A N type 6 GHz set is -3 dBk£
(£500, think about it).

If anyone in the UK wants to start down the Rabbit Hole I do have a couple of HP 8574A (compact 3U) VNAs available. One has the 2.6 GHz option. Price is around -6dBk£. I have 4 VNAs and two SNAs which is too many.

Robert.

[AVGresponding]

Hopefully I should get a visit tomorrow from a district nurse (supplied by a sub contractor) after phoning the doctor and saying that I need someone to see my leg and dress the wound for me. Doctor thought I could diy it, I explained that where it is located, I can’t see it correctly and my family are too squeamish too offer any support .

So she has requested reluctantly requested a district nurse visit for tomorrow with any luck (last time 111 service said that they would do the same, nothing happened), I expect they charge the practise and will impact on the bottom line so it would seem that profits are only major concern after all.

Prescribed round 2 of the antibiotics, again unseen, just hope that there isn’t a negative to having too many of them .

So anyway that seems to solve the riddle of District Nurses, they do exist but if your Doctors practise are willing to pay for them from a private provider, we are sliding slowly towards an insurance based health service and will sleepwalk into it unless we all remember to cast our votes with other parties that put people in front of money.

Too many antibiotics can interfere with your gut bacteria, which you need in order to digest food and extract nutrients.

Public services seem to be mostly terrible in cities, and mostly good in less urban areas. While I despise tories and everything they stand for, let's not forget it was Tony B Liar who started the privatisation of the NHS. New Labour are not socialists, they are neo-lib-cons, and Kier Starma is one of them, so I hold little hope for much improvement even assuming he does get in power.

[Specmaster]

Too many antibiotics can interfere with your gut bacteria, which you need in order to digest food and extract nutrients.

Public services seem to be mostly terrible in cities, and mostly good in less urban areas. While I despise tories and everything they stand for, let's not forget it was Tony B Liar who started the privatisation of the NHS. New Labour are not socialists, they are neo-lib-cons, and Kier Starma is one of them, so I hold little hope for much improvement even assuming he does get in power.

You maybe right about, I only really got involved with politics since the whole Brexit issue, who was it that introduced the PFI scheme?

As to the current debacle apparently Doctor has changed the anti biotics again, this time I have to take twice a day, 12 hours apart for 7 days. It appears the Doctor never completed the request for a District Nurse. I managed to find the number and call them, they have seen a partial completed request but they said they would declined to visit as I’m technically not house bound, and Doctors will not allow to visit them until I’m clear of Covid, so in my book it does mean, I’m in no mans land with zero support, so to me the system is definitely not fit for purpose.

[AVGresponding]

Here's an image BD139 posted on Discord tonight. Enjoy!

[mnementh]

kerm-tse.jpg

mnem
retaliatory strike.

[Specmaster]

If that’s supposed to cheer me up, nope it ain’t working, I’m going to have nightmares when I’m laying in bed trying to sleep through the pain of the untended ankle dressing and leg blisters.

On the positive side, I should be testing negative for the Covid tomorrow, feel fine in that arena, smell, taste and appetite all normal.

I dread just what the staff while find Tuesday morning in the Tissue clinic when get the pleasant job of removing the ten day old dressing will be the reaction. That’s the result of a poorly thought through system, Doctors will not allow you into their surgery’s if you’re Covid positive, and the District nurses don’t consider you house bound, so end up falling through cracks in the system.

[MED6753]

Holy jumpin' Jesus.....and you guys barf when I post the 80 year old stripper? She at least is fully clothed.

"What has been seen cannot be unseen". I am permanently scarred.

WTF.

[Specmaster]

Holy jumpin' Jesus.....and you guys barf when I post the 80 year old stripper? She at least is fully clothed.

"What has been seen cannot be unseen". I am permanently scarred.

WTF.

There you go med, I deleted that image from my reply, it is really shocking, I’m going to have troubles getting any sleep tonight between seeing that in my head, the ridiculous amount of fireworks around outside tonight, more than I can remember before.

Celebrating the end of a bad year or the beginning of hopefully a better one

[tggzzz]

If that’s supposed to cheer me up, nope it ain’t working, I’m going to have nightmares when I’m laying in bed trying to sleep through the pain of the untended ankle dressing and leg blisters.

On the positive side, I should be testing negative for the Covid tomorrow, feel fine in that arena, smell, taste and appetite all normal.

I dread just what the staff while find Tuesday morning in the Tissue clinic when get the pleasant job of removing the ten day old dressing will be the reaction. That’s the result of a poorly thought through system, Doctors will not allow you into their surgery’s if you’re Covid positive, and the District nurses don’t consider you house bound, so end up falling through cracks in the system.

Indeed.

Mind you I do have some sympathy for the medics reducing their chances of catching covid. When idly considering that a year or so ago w.r.t. some hip pain, I did wonder whether saying I'd see them in their carpark, with them sitting upwind of me. Never got the chance to ask them though.

[mnementh]

Here's hoping for the best when they do get you taken care of, my friend. I know you've had plenty to worry aboot.

mnem
*toddles off to look for some lipo to charge*

[Specmaster]

Well, surely the District Nurses and indeed practise nurses are provided with suitable PPE gear FFS.

The paramedics on Christmas Day never bothered with PPE but they were told I had Covid, bless them, they gave me the full mot and all was ok.

[bd139]

Oh bloody hell. Decided I'd catch up on the thread finally (been super busy) and got a face full of the other 80 year old stripper. I am now officially ruined

Hope all goes well Specmaster!

[AVGresponding]

Oh bloody hell. Decided I'd catch up on the thread finally (been super busy) and got a face full of the other 80 year old stripper. I am now officially ruined

Hope all goes well Specmaster!

Oh, no! You have nobody to blame but yourself here, you were the one that got the AI to make the pic in the first place! It was inevitable that someone would share it here, it just happened to be me.

Hopefully the knowledge that the image is AI generated and not a real one will allow Graham and Mike some peace of mind...

[tggzzz]

Well, surely the District Nurses and indeed practise nurses are provided with suitable PPE gear FFS.

The paramedics on Christmas Day never bothered with PPE but they were told I had Covid, bless them, they gave me the full mot and all was ok.

Most of the PPE is designed to reduce the chance of the wearer infecting someone else. The PPE designed to prevent the wearer being infected is clumsy and often needs someone else to help don it; clearly impractical at home. Then there's the issue of someone at home being infected by the roving professional, possibly by transmission from the previous person they visited.

Paramedics are heroes, where the definition of hero is "choosing to put themselves in harms way". They are probably younger than district nurses and GPs. Since the chance of infection and/or complications doubles for every 6 years of age, that can be significant. Example: a 72yo is at 128 times the risk of a 30yo.

Summary: it ain't clear!