Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Gee...when I was in Scotland back in 2001 I had no trouble understanding any of the locals. Even took the rental car into the country side outside of Edinburgh and no issues. 

That's the east coast, posh there they are. Glasgae is on the Clyde on the west coat, posh they are not. Govan is by the docks in Glasgow, they think that that the rest of Glasgow are too posh for their own good. 

Edinburgh and surrounds (e.g. Fife) probably has the most intelligible English speaking accent anywhere in the world. Edinburghers typically pronounce ev-er-ry syllable crisply and clearly and are quite slow speaking, in a measured and deliberate sort of way.

Really posh Edinburgh folks have an accent that is barely distinguishable as being Scots, it's more 'BBC' than the BBC has been for years. Morningside typifies the really posh Edinburgh accent, and Maggie Smith in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" does a perfect Morningside accent.



If you want incomprehensible, you want my mate Billy Smith from Orkney. There's nothing rough or ill-spoken about the Orkney accent, it's just damn near incomprehensible to outsiders and Billy in particular speaks at a mile-a-minute. For some reason I can understand Billy with ease, but most people can't, and I have literally had to act as a one-way translator on occasions.

[mnementh]

Generally speaking they manage to find you...   

The story of my life in a nutshell... 

mnem
*dumbass magnet*

[mnementh]

Crazy pricing of the week goes tohttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265277070312
I’d expect the seller to chuck their partner in for a couple of days at that price 

Oh hell yes, look at this then, also from the same seller (who, it must be said, does appear to shift this junk judging by his feedback score and is VAT registered as well) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284102793249, and its total shit, look at his list of faults, and he makes zero mention that the left woofer cone is completely ripped. I attach a photo of what a good one looks like. Is it me or has this country since Brexit gone totally stir crazy on eBay with these utterly ridiculous valuations?

OMFG... I had one of those as a punk kid. Filled it up with 10AH NiCd D-cells, and cut one of those ultra-slim AVX car stereo EQ-amplifiers (remember those under the dash of every wannabe's hoopty...?  ) into the top/back of it to get some actual volume out of the thing. 

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

Gee...when I was in Scotland back in 2001 I had no trouble understanding any of the locals. Even took the rental car into the country side outside of Edinburgh and no issues. 

I doubt that your tour took in The Gorbals...

[med6753]

Speaking of VW's. In 1955 my Father bought brand new one this exact color. Back then the "bus" was very rare in the US and folks would stare at it at traffic lights and when parked. I remember as a kid having a playground in the back seat in the days before "safety" and seat belts. Somehow my sister and I survived the ordeal. 

Back then the mechanics at the VW Dealer were all German. And getting replacement parts could sometimes be an ordeal. The starter motor went out and couldn't get one for a few weeks. So my parents would park it on a hill and dump clutch it or my Mother would get behind the wheel and my father give a push.  You COULD rope start it but apparently never tired.   

We had it until 1961 when one cold December night on the NY Thruway that little 32 hp flat four engine said "no more" and threw a rod. 

[mnementh]

Crazy pricing of the week goes to

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265277070312

I’d expect the seller to chuck their partner in for a couple of days at that price 

Careful what you wish for. Remember the stripper granny 

I can go wake her up if you like. 

*goes to DEFCON 2*

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Wait a minute.  I thought there was this French government committee with the sole purpose of keeping the French language "pure" and free of those dreaded English words.

There is even a LAW that "forbids" the use of Engish words in ads on TV or radio !  But the marketing people go around this by translating the English words or expressions within the ad itself, so it looks silly !  On TV or printed ads you have an asterisk that links to the translation in French, in tiny characters hidden at the very bottom of the screen or page, so it's kinda invisible, but on RADIO it sounds so silly, because you get the English worded slogan, then immediately after saying it in English, you hear the guy saying " XYZ  english " means "XYZ in French", so stupid !!! Why not say it in French in the first place you moron !!! 

You mean to tell me that the great unwashed masses told them to stick it where the sun don't shine? 

The "French Academy" it's called. Problem is that nobody listen to them, or really knows about them...
Worse : the GOVERNMENT a few years ago decided to SIMPLIFY the French language, because since French people can't seem to speak French any more, they figured it must be because the language is too complicated, rather than maybe it's because the education system is going south !
So they simplified the spelling of many words... flattening things out, removing all the little things that made the language rich and interesting, just because parents and schools can't fucking teach French to their kids ?! 
Luckily this reform  was so extreme, so ridiculous that people still use mostly the old / normal spelling, thank Goodness ! 
By law both spellings of a word are now legal. So if I wanted I could write using a silly spelling and get away with it.. but I would still look weird and ridiculous none the less !
So since the old / normal spelling is still authorized.. we keep using it. The new / simplified spelling will I hope get forgotten and just die...

Seems to me that this is part of what appears to be a systematical dumbing down of the educational system with the rise in Populist governments across the globe. The public no longer it seems are capable of critical thinking, that in main seems to be reserved for the Elitists for their own agendas.

[factory]

Crazy pricing of the week goes tohttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265277070312
I’d expect the seller to chuck their partner in for a couple of days at that price 

Oh hell yes, look at this then, also from the same seller (who, it must be said, does appear to shift this junk judging by his feedback score and is VAT registered as well) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284102793249 and its total shit, look at his list of faults, and he makes zero mention that the left woofer cone is completely ripped. I attach a photo of what a good one looks like.

OMFG... I had one of those as a punk kid. Filled it up with 10AH NiCd D-cells, and cut one of those ultra-slim AVX car stereo EQ-amplifiers (remember those under the dash of every wannabe's hoopty...?  ) into the top/back of it to get some actual volume out of the thing. 

mnem
 

Wonder how they got Classic FM playing, with the band switch is broken off in the MW position. 
And why is the shipping three times the amount for shipping the hp 184A scope they have.   

David

[med6753]

Crazy pricing of the week goes tohttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265277070312
I’d expect the seller to chuck their partner in for a couple of days at that price 

Oh hell yes, look at this then, also from the same seller (who, it must be said, does appear to shift this junk judging by his feedback score and is VAT registered as well) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284102793249 and its total shit, look at his list of faults, and he makes zero mention that the left woofer cone is completely ripped. I attach a photo of what a good one looks like.

OMFG... I had one of those as a punk kid. Filled it up with 10AH NiCd D-cells, and cut one of those ultra-slim AVX car stereo EQ-amplifiers (remember those under the dash of every wannabe's hoopty...?  ) into the top/back of it to get some actual volume out of the thing. 

mnem
 

Wonder how they got Classic FM playing, with the band switch is broken off in the MW position. 
And why is the shipping three times the amount for shipping the hp 184A scope they have.   

David

For some reason those old boom boxes are now demanding a high price. Don't understand why. Most of them sounded like crap back then and sound even crappier now. 

[Specmaster]

Speaking of VW's. In 1955 my Father bought brand new one this exact color. Back then the "bus" was very rare in the US and folks would stare at it at traffic lights and when parked. I remember as a kid having a playground in the back seat in the days before "safety" and seat belts. Somehow my sister and I survived the ordeal. 

Back then the mechanics at the VW Dealer were all German. And getting replacement parts could sometimes be an ordeal. The starter motor went out and couldn't get one for a few weeks. So my parents would park it on a hill and dump clutch it or my Mother would get behind the wheel and my father give a push.  You COULD rope start it but apparently never tired.   

We had it until 1961 when one cold December night on the NY Thruway that little 32 hp flat four engine said "no more" and threw a rod. 

These days they are a much sought after car and prices have sky rocketed

[AVGresponding]

I suspect that poor abused boombox is a tax scam. They'll write its "value" off their taxes when they can't sell it, or some other accountancy bollocks.



Ok, been a busy boy this afternoon, fixing and fettling and fiddling in between my MMO guild commitments. Had a quick look at the accuracy of the Metrix, and I have to say, I am very impressed.



As you can see, it easily holds its own up against the top dogs. It agreed +/- a couple of LSD on resistance too, and read dead nuts on one of my reference caps. Here's a 100µF Rubycon just for shits and giggles. Can you guess what kind of life it's had?   





I pulled the current clamp apart too:




Grrr, the ribbons've been gunked:




Clamp assembly removed, the springamathing is quite strong so it's not that:




Can you see the problem yet?




How tf does this even happen? I swear, fecking gorillas:




Those leaves are meant to, well, interleave... they are quite small and needless to say it wasn't easy to reshape and position them so that they mate up properly again. Ideally I'd like to have removed them from the housing and reshaped them more accurately but that isn't feasible as the clamshell halves are glued/welded together.
In any case, it now passes POSC (power on self calibration     ) and gives credible readings:




I'll just have to be really careful when letting the jaws close.

[mnementh]

As a British I wouldn't include automobile and seal in one paragraph. 😄

Just remember the leaky seals at the top of our cars are perfectly compensated by the rusty holes at the bottom to let the water out again.

Weren't seals a ingredient in British cars once upon a time...?

mnem
... or was it a breeding program...? 

[Vince]

Speaking of VW's. In 1955 my Father bought brand new one this exact color.

These days they are a much sought after car and prices have sky rocketed

Especially so that one as it has the " split " windscreen that commands a x20 markup, though I don't understand why. But I am not into vans so I can't know...

[mnementh]

As a British I wouldn't include automobile and seal in one paragraph. 😄

Just remember the leaky seals at the top of our cars are perfectly compensated by the rusty holes at the bottom to let the water out again.

Not if it's German. 

"The Beetle will definitely float, but it will not float indefinitely."

Classic. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

Speaking of VW's. In 1955 my Father bought brand new one this exact color. Back then the "bus" was very rare in the US and folks would stare at it at traffic lights and when parked. I remember as a kid having a playground in the back seat in the days before "safety" and seat belts. Somehow my sister and I survived the ordeal. 

Back then the mechanics at the VW Dealer were all German. And getting replacement parts could sometimes be an ordeal. The starter motor went out and couldn't get one for a few weeks. So my parents would park it on a hill and dump clutch it or my Mother would get behind the wheel and my father give a push.  You COULD rope start it but apparently never tired.   

We had it until 1961 when one cold December night on the NY Thruway that little 32 hp flat four engine said "no more" and threw a rod. 

These days they are a much sought after car and prices have sky rocketed

Yeah saw a bashed up POS the other weekend in Chichester that they were trying to shift for £23k. Fuck that.

[Specmaster]

There's a good chance that they get that or pretty close to it as well. There are also dedicated YT channels to the VW transporter kombi vans.

[bd139]

Yep. I see it like this: For half that you can buy something you’re not going to die in if you hit someone at 20mph.

Edit: accidentally drank half a bottle of wine with dinner. Will drink the other half before discord 

[Specmaster]

No where is more true than in the USA, look at this then for insane prices.

[bd139]

Can blame fucking hipsters for that 



Playing that mission made me really happy for some reason 

[Specmaster]

Here's another, they are cute,

[AVGresponding]

Bah, let them all beat each other off in one big circle jerk, wasting money on rusty old pieces of shit that'll Darwinise them in a mild impact. Good riddance to bad genes.

[0culus]

As a British I wouldn't include automobile and seal in one paragraph. 😄

Just remember the leaky seals at the top of our cars are perfectly compensated by the rusty holes at the bottom to let the water out again.

 

[tggzzz]

Speaking of VW's. In 1955 my Father bought brand new one this exact color. Back then the "bus" was very rare in the US and folks would stare at it at traffic lights and when parked. I remember as a kid having a playground in the back seat in the days before "safety" and seat belts. Somehow my sister and I survived the ordeal. 

Back then the mechanics at the VW Dealer were all German. And getting replacement parts could sometimes be an ordeal. The starter motor went out and couldn't get one for a few weeks. So my parents would park it on a hill and dump clutch it or my Mother would get behind the wheel and my father give a push.  You COULD rope start it but apparently never tired.   

We had it until 1961 when one cold December night on the NY Thruway that little 32 hp flat four engine said "no more" and threw a rod. 

These days they are a much sought after car and prices have sky rocketed

Yeah saw a bashed up POS the other weekend in Chichester that they were trying to shift for £23k. Fuck that.

Daughter bought a 50yo ice cream van for much less than that needs special fuel and additives

Anybody know of where a 2.5m high van can be stored undercover in south Wales?!

[AVGresponding]

You might try asking on the Autoshite forum, tggzzz. Lots of people there seem to rent space from farmers to store their collections of rustbuckets.



Discord is in early bird mode.

[Robert763]

Absolutely HUGE 15V 225W power supply only £99 
It's in a 5 or 6U 19" rack case 
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174902757301

EDIT. He also has the matching 60V 10V supply but it seems to have gone to 6 or 7U and £15.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174902750110