TEK TM503 Project

[bd139]

We know you like such things: you keep on coming back for more.

Unless, of course, you are just here for our company? (Newbury Sunday?)

Alas I have no wheels and have the kids this weekend or I would.

Won't be too many years before your kids have you

Get a train to Newbury, then a taxi to Chieveley. I'm sure you could cadge a lift back to the station

Urgh I'm not suicidal enough to get a train out that way on a Sunday

While only £18.50 return with my railcard, I wouldn't make it until 1h30m until after it has started and it's between 2 and 2.5 hours on the train.

Goes and looks at autotrader...

[tggzzz]

Alas I have no wheels and have the kids this weekend or I would.

Won't be too many years before your kids have you

Get a train to Newbury, then a taxi to Chieveley. I'm sure you could cadge a lift back to the station

Urgh I'm not suicidal enough to get a train out that way on a Sunday

While only £18.50 return with my railcard, I wouldn't make it until 1h30m until after it has started and it's between 2 and 2.5 hours on the train.

Goes and looks at autotrader...

Yeah, fair enough. The tube doesn't go beyond the M25.

I believe there are companies that enable short-term use of horseless carriages, some requiring belonging to a club, some allowing you to walk up and present the appropriate papers, and drive out.

Perhaps Dunstable Downs Sunday week?

[Specmaster]

Alas I have no wheels and have the kids this weekend or I would.

Won't be too many years before your kids have you

Get a train to Newbury, then a taxi to Chieveley. I'm sure you could cadge a lift back to the station

Urgh I'm not suicidal enough to get a train out that way on a Sunday

While only £18.50 return with my railcard, I wouldn't make it until 1h30m until after it has started and it's between 2 and 2.5 hours on the train.

Goes and looks at autotrader...

Glad to see you are thinking again about joining the motoring clan while you can before the C40 cities lot convince everyone in power that you do not need a car that can take you too far away from your 15-minute city area.

[Specmaster]

The Ohms did initially calibrate well but every once in a while it goes wacko.

How far out does it go when its wacko? It might a good idea to give the input stages to the ohms a good thorough cleaning with some Isopropyl just to make sure you don't have any tracking etc going on in that area. I almost gave on Black Star 4503 DMM as I'd cleaned a good 12 times but it too would go wacko at times, BD139 convinced me to try it again a few more times, and it worked, it is now one of my best meters on the bench.

[bd139]

Won't be too many years before your kids have you

Get a train to Newbury, then a taxi to Chieveley. I'm sure you could cadge a lift back to the station

Urgh I'm not suicidal enough to get a train out that way on a Sunday

While only £18.50 return with my railcard, I wouldn't make it until 1h30m until after it has started and it's between 2 and 2.5 hours on the train.

Goes and looks at autotrader...

Glad to see you are thinking again about joining the motoring clan while you can before the C40 cities lot convince everyone in power that you do not need a car that can take you too far away from your 15-minute city area.

That 15 minute city thing is fine. I cycle, walk and use public transport all the time. As does everyone here, even if they own a car, thus busting the propaganda machine a little bit.

I really I don't actually need a car. It'd just be burning money every month for no reason. I really don't need to go to a radio rally either at the moment. The only times I've needed a car are in the last year was when my uncle dropped dead and I needed to go to the funeral and loot his house. And I just hired one! Polestar 2 EV hire from hertz was 150 quid for 5 days.

This year I've managed to get to The South Downs, The North Downs, two gigs, two museums, into the city about 6 times, Malta (via Gatwick) and Suffolk trivially without one. What I haven't had to do is burn £350/month approx on vehicle TCO (tax, insurance, fuel, maintenance, depreciation, repurchase, repairs) which has been invested in other more interesting things.

The problem with car ownership, which is worth bearing in mind, is that as per my uncle who dropped dead, when he needed mobility the most they took his driving license away because he was dangerous. Better have a plan B then or welcome to isolation. He lived not far from you as well Specmaster... (Bishops Stortford). This is why I am lining myself up somewhere either ground floor, or with a lift and decent public transport connections for my future in a place where they spend the money first.

[bd139]

Yeah, fair enough. The tube doesn't go beyond the M25.

I believe there are companies that enable short-term use of horseless carriages, some requiring belonging to a club, some allowing you to walk up and present the appropriate papers, and drive out.

Perhaps Dunstable Downs Sunday week?

I did consider it. Believe me. And double up the day with another round of dragging shite back from the uncle's house.

[tggzzz]

That 15 minute city thing is fine. I cycle, walk and use public transport all the time. As does everyone here, even if they own a car, thus busting the propaganda machine a little bit.

I really I don't actually need a car. It'd just be burning money every month for no reason. I really don't need to go to a radio rally either at the moment. The only times I've needed a car are in the last year was when my uncle dropped dead and I needed to go to the funeral and loot his house. And I just hired one! Polestar 2 EV hire from hertz was 150 quid for 5 days.

Sane, for someone that lives in a big city. (But need to go to a rally/TNMoC? Was your mouth out!)

Buses here aren't too bad, provided you don't want to travel tangentially. But they do expose you to too many self-propelled virus factories, which becomes more important as you get older.

This year I've managed to get to The South Downs, The North Downs, two gigs, two museums, into the city about 6 times, Malta (via Gatwick) and Suffolk trivially without one. What I haven't had to do is burn £350/month approx on vehicle TCO (tax, insurance, fuel, maintenance, depreciation, repurchase, repairs) which has been invested in other more interesting things.

I just have a decent old 20yo car. I get it serviced once every 5 years (change oil myself more frequently!). The only non-standard expense in 10 years was a partial exhaust replacement.

Depreciation has been negative, recently.

That leaves tax and insurance £75/month, plus fuel about the same.

The problem with car ownership, which is worth bearing in mind, is that as per my uncle who dropped dead, when he needed mobility the most they took his driving license away because he was dangerous. Better have a plan B then or welcome to isolation. He lived not far from you as well Specmaster... (Bishops Stortford). This is why I am lining myself up somewhere either ground floor, or with a lift and decent public transport connections for my future in a place where they spend the money first.

If you become too dangerous to drive, there is a significant probability you won't be fit/safe enough to use public transport on your own. Being able to walk to shop/post/quacks might be the best you can hope for. (Get your finance/health LPAs in order!)

Stairlifts are quick and easy to install, especially for a single straight flight of stairs. Less so in a Grade II listed 4 storey house with 6 flights of stairs.

Remember to be nice to your daughters, for they will choose your nursing home - as my daughter continually reminds me.

Now, back to trying to contact people to find out whether they want to come to a relative's interment. It will be in a churchyard, but with no priests saying a word because of what they did when he was a child. Normally somebody else would be coordinating it with the US contingent (who will be coming), but that other person is working 15+ hours/day on a criminal case where reporting restrictions haven't been lifted. No, I haven't asked what it is, but I will probably be able to read about them sometime.

[tggzzz]

Yeah, fair enough. The tube doesn't go beyond the M25.

I believe there are companies that enable short-term use of horseless carriages, some requiring belonging to a club, some allowing you to walk up and present the appropriate papers, and drive out.

Perhaps Dunstable Downs Sunday week?

I did consider it. Believe me. And double up the day with another round of dragging shite back from the uncle's house.

Only fill up your house with other people's stuff that you want to keep, or are prepared to sell quickly on fleabay.

Everything else should be taken by a decent auction house that describes stuff decently and will ship it. It took about 5 man days to catalogue my parent's treasures, plus time taken to shift it, photograph it etc.

So... West London -> Luton -> Bletchely -> Bishops Stortford -> London. You're young and fit, so that should be a nice day's jaunt.

[bd139]

Yeah, fair enough. The tube doesn't go beyond the M25.

I believe there are companies that enable short-term use of horseless carriages, some requiring belonging to a club, some allowing you to walk up and present the appropriate papers, and drive out.

Perhaps Dunstable Downs Sunday week?

I did consider it. Believe me. And double up the day with another round of dragging shite back from the uncle's house.

Only fill up your house with other people's stuff that you want to keep, or are prepared to sell quickly on fleabay.

Everything else should be taken by a decent auction house that describes stuff decently and will ship it. It took about 5 man days to catalogue my parent's treasures, plus time taken to shift it, photograph it etc.

So... West London -> Luton -> Bletchely -> Bishops Stortford -> London. You're young and fit, so that should be a nice day's jaunt.

Yes working on that now. It's all being pipelined into eBay carefully at the moment or disposed of. Nothing is worthy of the auction house as such.

As for the jaunt, I'm trying to trade it off against jumping on a plane somewhere more interesting for the weekend for about the same price before it gets too utterly hot to bother travelling until October

[tggzzz]

Yes working on that now. It's all being pipelined into eBay carefully at the moment or disposed of. Nothing is worthy of the auction house as such.

As for the jaunt, I'm trying to trade it off against jumping on a plane somewhere more interesting for the weekend for about the same price before it gets too utterly hot to bother travelling until October

Some auction houses will take just about anything; they just make larger lots (i.e. many boxes, bigger than a palette!)

Go north, young man. Iceland beckons.

Local airport will be having direct flights to Tromso in the winter, to cater for people wanting to gaze at the Northern Lights.

[tautech]

Yes working on that now. It's all being pipelined into eBay carefully at the moment or disposed of. Nothing is worthy of the auction house as such.

As for the jaunt, I'm trying to trade it off against jumping on a plane somewhere more interesting for the weekend for about the same price before it gets too utterly hot to bother travelling until October

Go north, young man. Iceland beckons.

So does the southern hemisphere where the cooler months are to come.

[bd139]

Some auction houses will take just about anything; they just make larger lots (i.e. many boxes, bigger than a palette!)

Go north, young man. Iceland beckons.

Local airport will be having direct flights to Tromso in the winter, to cater for people wanting to gaze at the Northern Lights.

Iceland: been there done that. Tromso is a possibility but quite frankly it's too heavily traversed at the moment. Actually looking at the Azores archipelago which is far enough off the coast to have a lower temperature than anywhere else on that band. Also mountain to climb, boats to skip around on and lots of nice scenery too.

[tggzzz]

I'd forgotten you'd been to Iceland.

Azores sounds different and IIRC there are some interesting features. Are there any opportunities for impromptu island hopping? I certainly enjoy that in the Adriatic and Cyclades.

I'd watch out for the humidity (and "wet bulb" temperature), and how much wind there is.

[mansaxel]

We are considering Faroe islands, and Iceland. There's a ferry from Hirtshals in Denmark, that does go to both. Not cheap.

[bd139]

I'd forgotten you'd been to Iceland.

Azores sounds different and IIRC there are some interesting features. Are there any opportunities for impromptu island hopping? I certainly enjoy that in the Adriatic and Cyclades.

I'd watch out for the humidity (and "wet bulb" temperature), and how much wind there is.

Yes plenty of Island hopping opportunities. As for the humidity yep. Was pretty high in Malta as it was early season. Dries out a bit later on. I am mostly immune to it though. Well I am since I lost a lot of weight

We are considering Faroe islands, and Iceland. There's a ferry from Hirtshals in Denmark, that does go to both. Not cheap.

Faroe Islands are on my list.

Iceland was "ok". The scenery was spectacular and there were some very nice day hikes but it was pretty damn hard work due to the extreme distance we needed to cover (drove 1800 miles in the end), everything was priced as high as they could get away with (hospital included) and it felt more like it was a large theme park than a real place. I'm still on the fence on it. Also company wasn't great. The people there aren't that great either and seem to be a combination of pissed off with being there foreign workers and natives who assimilated the worst of all surrounding cultures (Scandinavian, American and British).

Had a lot more "fun" in Malta ambling around with a camera and hanging around in museums and cafes.

[tggzzz]

I'd forgotten you'd been to Iceland.

Azores sounds different and IIRC there are some interesting features. Are there any opportunities for impromptu island hopping? I certainly enjoy that in the Adriatic and Cyclades.

I'd watch out for the humidity (and "wet bulb" temperature), and how much wind there is.

Yes plenty of Island hopping opportunities. As for the humidity yep. Was pretty high in Malta as it was early season. Dries out a bit later on. I am mostly immune to it though. Well I am since I lost a lot of weight

We are considering Faroe islands, and Iceland. There's a ferry from Hirtshals in Denmark, that does go to both. Not cheap.

Faroe Islands are on my list.

Iceland was "ok". The scenery was spectacular and there were some very nice day hikes but it was pretty damn hard work due to the extreme distance we needed to cover (drove 1800 miles in the end), everything was priced as high as they could get away with (hospital included) and it felt more like it was a large theme park than a real place. I'm still on the fence on it. Also company wasn't great. The people there aren't that great either and seem to be a combination of pissed off with being there foreign workers and natives who assimilated the worst of all surrounding cultures (Scandinavian, American and British).

Had a lot more "fun" in Malta ambling around with a camera and hanging around in museums and cafes.

I wouldn't want to drive anywhere interesting in Iceland: too dangerous. Well, it was in '84 and '90, but they appear to have sanitised the place somewhat since then - safety barriers by large drops FFS.

Dangerous: being in a large 4WD coach, fording a river to get to the Þórsmörk campsite, and being pushed sideways by the water that came up onto the side of the coach body. Then there's the tyre-shredding glassy roads in the Sprengisandur that see vehicles very occasionally; the farms are
150km apart so you are on your own. Here's the single road junction on that main "F26" route: https://www.google.com/maps/@65.0154707 ... &entry=ttu

I really ought to post a couple of pictures.

[bd139]

I wouldn't want to drive anywhere interesting in Iceland: too dangerous. Well, it was in '84 and '90, but they appear to have sanitised the place somewhat since then - safety barriers by large drops FFS.

Dangerous: being in a large 4WD coach, fording a river to get to the Þórsmörk campsite, and being pushed sideways by the water that came up onto the side of the coach body. Then there's the tyre-shredding glassy roads in the Sprengisandur that see vehicles very occasionally; the farms are
150km apart so you are on your own. Here's the single road junction on that main "F26" route: https://www.google.com/maps/@65.0154707 ... &entry=ttu

I really ought to post a couple of pictures.

It's probably nicer now but every few miles there's a wrecked rental 4x4 held together with tape and what I assume is an Icelandic sticker on it saying "police already aware of this one".

You can get plenty of interesting places on foot in under an hour from a non F-road. A good day hike was the one attached below which was a 10km walk to the foot of a glacier which is actually not sexy and blue but post-nuclear armageddon. The risk of course was falling rocks and slipping and breaking something. Travel in pairs, just not with a German psychotherapist who would tell you a broken ankle is all in your mind.

DSC_3051.jpeg

DSC_3046.jpeg

Main driving risks are fuckwits who drive F350 trucks in the middle of the road and companions who don't drive often and can't quite work out the gears. My poor anus was destroyed by that level of puckering.

[tggzzz]

I wouldn't want to drive anywhere interesting in Iceland: too dangerous. Well, it was in '84 and '90, but they appear to have sanitised the place somewhat since then - safety barriers by large drops FFS.

Dangerous: being in a large 4WD coach, fording a river to get to the Þórsmörk campsite, and being pushed sideways by the water that came up onto the side of the coach body. Then there's the tyre-shredding glassy roads in the Sprengisandur that see vehicles very occasionally; the farms are
150km apart so you are on your own. Here's the single road junction on that main "F26" route: https://www.google.com/maps/@65.0154707 ... &entry=ttu

I really ought to post a couple of pictures.

It's probably nicer now but every few miles there's a wrecked rental 4x4 held together with tape and what I assume is an Icelandic sticker on it saying "police already aware of this one".

Well, yes, but... I didn't see many cars, let alone wrecked cars. Not so many people went 35/40 years ago. It hadn't been featured on Top Gear and the like. Reykjavik wasn't yet a have-a-party destination, Hells teeth, the first time I went beer was illegal, but spirits were legal (go figure!). Beer became legal in, IIRC 1989.

I did, however do the calculations of taking a 4x4 from here on the Immingham <-> Faeroes <-> Seyðisfjörður ferry vs hiring a 4x4 there for a couple of weeks. Both were unaffordable.

You can get plenty of interesting places on foot in under an hour from a non F-road. A good day hike was the one attached below which was a 10km walk to the foot of a glacier which is actually not sexy and blue but post-nuclear armageddon.

And more if you venture further. E.g. walking under a glacier, with your feet in warm water. Or seeing realistic remains of trolls that got caught out.

The risk of course was falling rocks and slipping and breaking something. Travel in pairs, just not with a German psychotherapist who would tell you a broken ankle is all in your mind.

Pairs of people in case of accident is obvious to everybody. Pairs of cars is obvious to anybody that has been to such places - to help you pulling out of rivers.

Psychotherapists only have hammers, so everything looks like ... etc.

Main driving risks are fuckwits who drive F350 trucks in the middle of the road and companions who don't drive often and can't quite work out the gears. My poor anus was destroyed by that level of puckering.

Ah. My experiences were different.

First of all you had to spot many roads before you could follow them. Often they were merely a couple of wheel track depressions with some moss growing in them. That implies there's no edge, so even the concept of the middle of the road is moot.

Secondly, even on the main ring-road, the concept of sides was moot since it was single track.

OK, a couple of piccies....

First Gullfoss. Note the scale of the people and absence of guardrails; back then they took the attitude that if you couldn't figure out that wet rocks + drop = danger, then the species was about to be improved. The lower picture was taken from the ledge towards the red dot. Doubt you could do that now.

i-gullfoss.jpg

Second Sprengisandur. The top is the same major junction as in the gurgle photo, but note you don't need a high wheelbase vehicle to climb out of the road channel. Nowadays it looks like you don't need self-steering cars: just put them in the channel and they will stay in the channel! The bottom shows moss in track, and the difficulty of spotting where the road is (and bugger the road edge!)

i-sprengisandur.jpg

Apologies for the lack of contrast in the latter photo - it has faded over 40 years (but less than some which are 30 years old!). Maybe the negatives would have fared better; if not then it is a Roy Batty moment

[bd139]

Impressive photos. A lot has changed!

I had to stick these ones in imgur because they broke the forum.

Your first photo reshot in 2023 . Now with railings of course. Not very high wire ones!





I may go back but I'm buying a Duster 4x4 and going the long way round. Easier now. The ferry is £550 return which is not the end of the world. The lack of parking everywhere is a problem. There are only camp sites and they are around £20 a night.

[tggzzz]

Impressive photos. A lot has changed!

I had to stick these ones in imgur because they broke the forum.

Your first photo reshot in 2023 . Now with railings of course. Not very high wire ones!

(I too had problems, until I enabled cookies)

And a tarmac path. Looks like there might have been a erosion and a rockfall blocking the path. I've tried scanning the negative but it has faded (unlike the contemporary slides) and I've only got an inadequate 2400dpi scanner.

Looks like they have railings around Strokkur too, so this picture wouldn't be possible. Distance 3-4m (It is half a stereo picture, so there's no telephoto effect whatsoever).

strokkur_b.jpg

Here's another place without railings. (Again, half a stereo picture, so that is an "eyeball-accurate" representation) It fell down in the winter of 1993

1990-ofaerufoss0001.jpg

I may go back but I'm buying a Duster 4x4 and going the long way round. Easier now. The ferry is £550 return which is not the end of the world. The lack of parking everywhere is a problem. There are only camp sites and they are around £20 a night.

I suspect it was more than £550 c1990!

From your complaint about campsites I can deduce two things:

• you didn't go and look at the prices in main supermarkets (i.e. the same size as UK convenience stores). If you had you would have seen individual medium potatoes each with their own barcodes
• your idea of a campsite reminds me of the last line in "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" by Eric Newby.[1] See picture below for a campsite I remember: a disused sheep pen. "Just put your tent anywhere you want among the rocks".

1984-stafafell.jpg

Or then the campsite at Kverkfjöll: a ridge tent, a strong katabatic wind from the glacier - and only standard tent pegs to anchor in the very coarse sand.


[1] ... because I recently re-encountered that wonderful incident Newby tells against himself where they happen to meet Wilfred Thesiger, the legendary solo explorer of the Middle East; and I’d recently read in Among the Mountains that Thesiger wrote of the same incident (and how very English for the two to meet like that!)

Thesiger invited them for a meal and to spend the night in his company. They were rather overawed and wondered what Thesiger thought of them, being so callow and inexperienced. They found out when they unrolled their mattress pads: Thesiger, who probably just hollowed-out a depression in the gravel to sleep, observed contemptuously, “God, you must be a couple of pansies”.

[MED6753]

Back on topic. Working the FG501 Function Generator.

Checked the internally generated supply voltages and both the +17V and -17V were reading about 5.09V. U430, a 741 op amp, was dead. Replaced it and now voltages are correct.



We now have an output in all wave modes.



Next step is full calibration.

Edit....correction....next step is a full re-cap, then calibration.

[bd139]

(I too had problems, until I enabled cookies)

I've uploaded photos to the post this time. Resized them. Cookies still required but at least not so many horrible ones. Image quality will suffer as a result.

And a tarmac path. Looks like there might have been a erosion and a rockfall blocking the path. I've tried scanning the negative but it has faded (unlike the contemporary slides) and I've only got an inadequate 2400dpi scanner.

There is lots of erosion indeed. A few remaining signs of where the path was to your second vantage point now lead pretty much off the edge and to your demise now.

Looks like they have railings around Strokkur too, so this picture wouldn't be possible. Distance 3-4m (It is half a stereo picture, so there's no telephoto effect whatsoever).

strokkur_b.jpg

They do indeed have railings up. I did get a shot of it going off though. Annoyingly it was pretty busy.

DSC_2647.jpeg

There's a small cute one on the way in from the car park though

PXL_20230809_154834838.jpeg

Here's another place without railings. (Again, half a stereo picture, so that is an "eyeball-accurate" representation) It fell down in the winter of 1993

1990-ofaerufoss0001.jpg

Very cool. Still around but unfortunately deep in F-road territory and the vehicle we had wasn't up for that

From your complaint about campsites I can deduce two things:

• you didn't go and look at the prices in main supermarkets (i.e. the same size as UK convenience stores). If you had you would have seen individual medium potatoes each with their own barcodes
• your idea of a campsite reminds me of the last line in "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" by Eric Newby.[1] See picture below for a campsite I remember: a disused sheep pen. "Just put your tent anywhere you want among the rocks".

Well it was camping but we did have a roof over our heads. We spent nearly 2 weeks there in the back of a Dacia Dokker kitted out with camping gear. Two Rab sleeping bags, Trangia gas stove and way too much merino. And yes we were supermarket hopping, which was pretty expensive. They don't have individual potatoes now but they do have a large selection of things which are beneath them I suspect. Including an endless supply of hobnobs, which due to the extremes of temperature during day and night had to be chipped at with a swiss army knife to consume.

PXL_20230808_193408045.jpeg

1984-stafafell.jpg

Or then the campsite at Kverkfjöll: a ridge tent, a strong katabatic wind from the glacier - and only standard tent pegs to anchor in the very coarse sand.

Bugger that. I liked my van!

[1] ... because I recently re-encountered that wonderful incident Newby tells against himself where they happen to meet Wilfred Thesiger, the legendary solo explorer of the Middle East; and I’d recently read in Among the Mountains that Thesiger wrote of the same incident (and how very English for the two to meet like that!)

Thesiger invited them for a meal and to spend the night in his company. They were rather overawed and wondered what Thesiger thought of them, being so callow and inexperienced. They found out when they unrolled their mattress pads: Thesiger, who probably just hollowed-out a depression in the gravel to sleep, observed contemptuously, “God, you must be a couple of pansies”.

That's pretty funny. But I like some luxury.

Happy and sad to look at the photos of that trip. But that's life!

[tggzzz]

There's a small cute one on the way in from the car park though

That just says "Little Geysir", so not really a warning sign per se.

Here's another place without railings. (Again, half a stereo picture, so that is an "eyeball-accurate" representation) It fell down in the winter of 1993

1990-ofaerufoss0001.jpg

Very cool. Still around but unfortunately deep in F-road territory and the vehicle we had wasn't up for that

Good discretion, and one of the reasons a 4WD coach is useful - another being that you can sit back and enjoy the scenery.

But I'm afraid that while Ófærufoss is still there, its best feature isn't: the natural bridge is gone


vs

Or then the campsite at Kverkfjöll: a ridge tent, a strong katabatic wind from the glacier - and only standard tent pegs to anchor in the very coarse sand.

Bugger that. I liked my van!

Yeah, that was character forming. As is putting up a ridge tent in a howling gale

Happy and sad to look at the photos of that trip. But that's life!

Yup. "Bittersweet" is a good concept.

[bd139]

Yes looked it up. That's a bit sad but that's change for you. Added it to the list of things to go and see when I have F-road capability.

Character building is spending two weeks in a tent in Central Asia then two weeks in a van in Iceland with a psychotherapist. Neither a gale or impending armageddon-level event even raise an eyebrow now.

[tggzzz]

Yes looked it up. That's a bit sad but that's change for you. Added it to the list of things to go and see when I have F-road capability.

Character building is spending two weeks in a tent in Central Asia then two weeks in a van in Iceland with a psychotherapist. Neither a gale or impending armageddon-level event even raise an eyebrow now.

Make sure you check that her future research reports/case notes are appropriately Bowdlerised