Test Equipment Anonymous

tggzzz wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:03 am

mansaxel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:23 am There's a railway station 1km away.

Is that railway open?

No idea, but on Street View, there's still tracks and they look recently used.

bd139 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:05 pm I would like to interject with a comment: fuck Dan-Air!

I remember one of their Comets taking off a thousand feet or so underneath me, from their maintenance facility.

I'm not sure if it was one of theirs that caused a plane an acquaintance was flying to flip upside upside down and crash into a row of parked aircraft. Cause: wingtip vortices, plus nobody checking "all clear above and behind". No injuries, but 5 aircraft were written off.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of their B727s that was on approach, was visibly descending onto hangers. It cleared the cloudbase at 900ft 15s before touchdown, saw the runway, shifted left ~100yds, and touched down.

I also saw a CL744 (think Bristol Britannia) start a takeoff run, only to throw out the anchors when it when it spotted an aircraft just off the runway. It then reversed up the runway (yes, you can do that with propellers ), accelerated with more urgency, and took off well before it reached that aircraft. Only being very lightly laden made that possible.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:32 pm

tggzzz wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:03 am

mansaxel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:23 am There's a railway station 1km away.

Is that railway open?

No idea, but on Street View, there's still tracks and they look recently used.

That google maps view is maybe 3km west, and nothing is going to be going along that track, either in the cutting or at the farm road crossing

tggzzz wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 11:03 am

Zenith wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:35 am

mnementh wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:23 pm Went to store for soda for the kids... everybody is there stocking up on everything from milk to bread to yes, dozens of rolls of TP. Lines literally 3/4 of the store deep.

Why? 80-160mm of snow forecast over the next 2 days.

Panic buying is a strange mentality. You'd think folks would keep a few cans, things in the freezer and dried beans, enough to last a few days.

We haven't seen six inches of snow here for years. It would definitely bring things to a halt.

I remember the winter of 81/82, when it was exceptionally cold[1] from early December to mid/late January. I had just moved into my first flat, and couldn't get any coal since the coalyard was frozen solid. Things went on, including my push-biking along a snow-covered back road to get to the train station. Easy cycling on unpacked snow; cars avoided going along that road.

But here the problem is that usually that the temperature cycles above/below 0C, leaving everything covered with sheet ice. Can't cycle in that, and even walking is treacherous.

[1] the coldest December of the 20th century.

Back in the day, my English-born mate went back for a visit, with the intention of spending a year there.
He experienced the 1970/71 Winter.
That year was so cold as well as snowy where he was (around Huddersfield), that he cut his trip short & came home.

My other mate and I were in the UK for the 1971/72 Winter.
In Southampton, we had one day of snow, & when I travelled to London a few days later, the tall blokes were getting a few wisps of snow in their hair.
"OK", said I, "we are quite a long way South", but when I went to Scotland at Christmas, there was no snow there, either---"cold as a witch's tit", but no snow, so the ginormous snowploughs that the Scotties kept stationed on standby had no work to do.

Zenith wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:35 am

mnementh wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:23 pm Went to store for soda for the kids... everybody is there stocking up on everything from milk to bread to yes, dozens of rolls of TP. Lines literally 3/4 of the store deep.

Why? 80-160mm of snow forecast over the next 2 days.

Panic buying is a strange mentality. You'd think folks would keep a few cans, things in the freezer and dried beans, enough to last a few days.

We haven't seen six inches of snow here for years. It would definitely bring things to a halt.

*waves from the frozen north of septic-land*

Yes, despite the madness I am still alive. The intardnet over here is totes FUBAR; I guess all the MAGA-morons are searching for "oligarchy" and "how do tariffs work".

Up here "you don't even break out the snowblower for that much"... it's not like I don't need a little cardio every once in a while. Tho the cold has been pretty bitter the last few days; -8°C or so during the day to -18°C at night. This morning I came close to a bit of frostbite after only a few minutes scraping ice on wifey's car; damned scraper-handle is aluminum and that shit gets cold.

Yes, before you say it, it were my own damned fault for not grabbing gloves.

mnem
*pisses off to the dwagon-cave to try and find something constructive to do*

mnementh wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 3:14 pm Yes, despite the madness I am still alive. The intardnet over here is totes FUBAR; I guess all the MAGA-morons are searching for "oligarchy" and "how do tariffs work".

You may be alive, but you've changed gender, viz viewtopic.php?p=9862#p9862

Yup, you need to add some more search terms for the make amurkia grate again mob.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:47 pm
I also remember the winter of '63, the third coldest since records began in 1659, and which continued until March. Since I was a child it was just fun.

For me the winter of '63 brought the bizarre sight of watching the waves lapping again 2-3 feet of snow on Hove and Brighton beaches.

I remember '63. The neighbours' pipe from the street was frozen. Ours was OK and we filled an enamel bath for them so they could have water.

A schoolfriend shot a pigeon sitting on a post with a catapult (slingshot). He saw the stone bounce off. He walked up to it and it was frozen solid on the post.

We tried making giant snowballs, but they didn't work out. We ended with huge cylinders which had picked up grass from the field. They looked a bit like giant Swiss Rolls. They took weeks to melt.

mnementh wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 3:14 pm Up here "you don't even break out the snowblower for that much"... it's not like I don't need a little cardio every once in a while. Tho the cold has been pretty bitter the last few days; -8°C or so during the day to -18°C at night. This morning I came close to a bit of frostbite after only a few minutes scraping ice on wifey's car; damned scraper-handle is aluminum and that shit gets cold.

We've been having similar temperatures here but with no snow. I'm at home laid up with a nasty sore throat so I finally made my way into the kitchen to make a plate of scrambled eggs since those would be soft and easy to eat. This was about 1:45 PM and I was surprised when I saw the plug-in voltmeter in the socket next to the stove was showing 117 volts.

There has to be a lot of electric heater use going on right now to pull it down that low when it's usually about 10 volts higher. I've never seen that voltmeter show anything less than 120 volts before, even in summer peak air conditioning season.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:37 pm

mnementh wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 3:14 pm Yes, despite the madness I am still alive. The intardnet over here is totes FUBAR; I guess all the MAGA-morons are searching for "oligarchy" and "how do tariffs work".

You may be alive, but you've changed gender, viz viewtopic.php?p=9862#p9862

Yup, you need to add some more search terms for the make amurkia grate again mob.

I thought my boobs looked a little perkier this morning.

mnem
yes, you may touch it.

Heaviest snowfall in Florida on record. Northern sections got 8+ inches.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 9:18 pm Heaviest snowfall in Florida on record. Northern sections got 8+ inches.

They have more snow than we do by far.



At least Walton County Sheriff dude's truck is engine on and heat running.

The cold plus the standby loads on my truck plus not being driven for several days while I've been under the weather completely killed my car battery. Now that I'm starting to get over the sore throat and need to get a few things at the store and put the garbage out, I decided to warm up the the truck while finishing off getting the recycling ready to go out and then do the away from home errands. The car battery was so dead the doors wouldn't unlock with the remote so the plan got changed to manually unlock it, open the hood, hook up the battery booster, finish off everything else to be done here and have yet another cup of peppermint tea while it hopefully charges up enough to turn over. Hopefully I don't have to call CAA. Then it's going to be a cruise to fully recharge the battery and then do the errands.

I had to replace the batteries in all 3 vehicles last Winter...and that was a mild Winter.

25 CPS wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:05 pm
At least Walton County Sheriff dude's truck is engine on and heat running.

The cold plus the standby loads on my truck plus not being driven for several days while I've been under the weather completely killed my car battery.

One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess would be "no". Good luck, then. We've been on Nokian Hakkapelitta R5 studless since mid-November. That plus the AWD makes driving deceptively simple even in shit weather. The saying is that AWD makes the tow truck have to unspool much more wire since the car ended up further out in the field...

Also, the standby loads. I have a "smart" charger, small 5A jobby, permanently installed under the floor in the boot. In winter, it gets plugged in most every time I park at home. Wife recently got an electric moped so I can revert to public transport for my commute, which will see the car much less used; this of course means that charging becomes much more important.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 12:30 am

25 CPS wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:05 pm
At least Walton County Sheriff dude's truck is engine on and heat running.

The cold plus the standby loads on my truck plus not being driven for several days while I've been under the weather completely killed my car battery.

One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess would be "no". Good luck, then. We've been on Nokian Hakkapelitta R5 studless since mid-November. That plus the AWD makes driving deceptively simple even in shit weather. The saying is that AWD makes the tow truck have to unspool much more wire since the car ended up further out in the field...

Also, the standby loads. I have a "smart" charger, small 5A jobby, permanently installed under the floor in the boot. In winter, it gets plugged in most every time I park at home. Wife recently got an electric moped so I can revert to public transport for my commute, which will see the car much less used; this of course means that charging becomes much more important.

And since Ford Explorers can be had without 4WD I doubt it is so equipped. Police Explorers here are indeed properly equipped with decent all season tires and 4WD.

That's a pet hate of mine. I was looking at getting a Dacia Duster here as quite frankly they're pretty cheap and surprisingly capable even against a Defender. Good for weird road trips. They come in 2WD and 4WD versions but the market is saturated with 2WD ones which you might as well buy something a little more comfortable instead of. I think most people use them as large shopping trolleys.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 12:30 am One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess would be "no". Good luck, then.

While snow may not be much of a thing in Florida I'm pretty sure that mud is. Everglades and all that. Don't forget the first part of "mud and snow rated tyres". So there's a fair chance that they do have suitable tyres, but kind of by accident as they were planning to deal with the problem from the other end.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 1:26 am

mansaxel wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 12:30 am

25 CPS wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 11:05 pm
At least Walton County Sheriff dude's truck is engine on and heat running.

The cold plus the standby loads on my truck plus not being driven for several days while I've been under the weather completely killed my car battery.

One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess would be "no". Good luck, then. We've been on Nokian Hakkapelitta R5 studless since mid-November. That plus the AWD makes driving deceptively simple even in shit weather. The saying is that AWD makes the tow truck have to unspool much more wire since the car ended up further out in the field...

Also, the standby loads. I have a "smart" charger, small 5A jobby, permanently installed under the floor in the boot. In winter, it gets plugged in most every time I park at home. Wife recently got an electric moped so I can revert to public transport for my commute, which will see the car much less used; this of course means that charging becomes much more important.

And since Ford Explorers can be had without 4WD I doubt it is so equipped. Police Explorers here are indeed properly equipped with decent all season tires and 4WD.

It's an interesting mix of transmissions that's available on regular Ford Explorers but on the law enforcement version, the Police Interceptor Utility, they're all full time all wheel drive. There are a bunch of other differences as well with extra framing, shifter on the steering column instead of centre console, etc. before considering any of the aftermarket upfitting. The full time AWD + winter tires is fantastic. This thing handles so much better in winter than my old truck which was rear wheel drive only and a total barrel of monkeys. That one got four 30 lb boxes of kitty litter every winter to keep the back end somewhat tamed.

Cerebus wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 11:53 am

mansaxel wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 12:30 am One wonders if that sheriff cruiser has reasonable tyres on. My guess would be "no". Good luck, then.

While snow may not be much of a thing in Florida I'm pretty sure that mud is. Everglades and all that. Don't forget the first part of "mud and snow rated tyres". So there's a fair chance that they do have suitable tyres, but kind of by accident as they were planning to deal with the problem from the other end.

Ah, not at all unreasonable. We're pretty careful not to drive on winter tyres in summer here; the "nordic" rubber mix (for winter tyres) becomes very gooey at summer temperatures.

The next project. A Tek 5110 which I should be picking up from the seller this coming Saturday. It will be my first 5000 series scope and it will get my usual clean/re-cap/restoration. But not until I complete the 7B92 repair which has been on hold due to no time to work on it. I should have the time this week.

Quick update on the ultrasonic cleaner, it did arrive all safe and sound along with enough jewellery cleaner concentrate to make upto about 20 litres but apart a quick unbox to check unwrap to check that is arrived in an undamaged state, which it did, nothing else has been done with it yet due to MIL being rushed into hospital with a stroke and being placed on palliative care and DNR. Eventually passing after 4 days and now begins the process of clearing of her house and disposal, so for a while at least I shall be even more of a lurker than I've been. It's going to be a long haul with SWMBO as she doted on her mum with long daily telephone chats (good job the calls were all included in the monthly fee) and now she is going at a loose end.

I will get around to taking some photos and using the cleaner in due course and sharing them with you all.

Specmaster wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:20 pm ... MIL being rushed into hospital with a stroke and being placed on palliative care and DNR. Eventually passing after 4 days and now begins the process of clearing of her house and disposal ...

Firstly, my condolences.

Secondly I went through something similar a couple of years ago, so let me know if I can offer any hints.

Please give my condolences to your wife. You never totally get over losing your Mother.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:59 pm

Specmaster wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:20 pm ... MIL being rushed into hospital with a stroke and being placed on palliative care and DNR. Eventually passing after 4 days and now begins the process of clearing of her house and disposal ...

Firstly, my condolences.

Secondly I went through something similar a couple of years ago, so let me know if I can offer any hints.

Thanks I will, but I doubt it, as I went through it 10 years ago with my mum and everything fell to me do as I was her only surviving child, (my sister died when I only 12 of the Asian flu), and I was fairly well versed by then as I had to sort everything out when my dad passed 47 years ago, mum went to pieces so I had no option, At least SWMBO has a sister and 2 brothers to help out as well.

I do appreciate the very kind offer.

Specmaster wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:20 pm Quick update on the ultrasonic cleaner, it did arrive all safe and sound along with enough jewellery cleaner concentrate to make upto about 20 litres but apart a quick unbox to check unwrap to check that is arrived in an undamaged state, which it did, nothing else has been done with it yet due to MIL being rushed into hospital with a stroke and being placed on palliative care and DNR. Eventually passing after 4 days and now begins the process of clearing of her house and disposal, so for a while at least I shall be even more of a lurker than I've been. It's going to be a long haul with SWMBO as she doted on her mum with long daily telephone chats (good job the calls were all included in the monthly fee) and now she is going at a loose end.

I will get around to taking some photos and using the cleaner in due course and sharing them with you all.

Whuff... that's hard. All y'alls must still be in the "it's all so unreal state". Condolences, my friend.

mnem
strength, brother. she needs you.