Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

I am from Verona Italy.
Mansa your last post went straight to my heart.

If you are planning to come down in my Verona let me know, with my dialect I can open secret doors there.

I became a man drinking "Bardolino", but the "Valpolicella Superiore" is surely a gentleman wine. Not too expensive but it makes you so so happy.
It is basically a 34401a, not for beginner for sure and about the best bang for the bucks.
Always a joy to deal with, you can't be disappointed with such a wine.

Don't get me wrong it is still a easy (to understand) wine, you do not need gloves to touch the bottle.
Just sit down, open the bottle. Let it breath at least two hours if <2019. And drink it slowly.
Close your eyes and picture something like this:



Then we could talk about "Amarone"... which is a different beast.

[Vgkid]

It is interesting so see discourse  of my home town(and current residence), and its most famous industry on here.

[tggzzz]

On another note: For Christmas eve lunch, I've bought a Valpolicella that is not a Ripasso, but straight. It will go wonderfully with the fried Skrei (Large, extra high quality cod, from around Lofoten far north on the Norwegian coast.) in San Marzano tomato / butterbean / garlic / broccoli sauce.  And why do I point this out? Because there's a Dragon on the label.

I'm jealous. Despite living within a 10 minute drive from [the relocated] Billingsgate Fish Market there isn't a single decent retail Fishmonger in the area (Billingsgate is wholesale). I'm reduced to buying thin, small portions of frozen fish from the local supermarket, exactly the same as I could get from the same supermarket anywhere in the UK. As a lad brought up by the seaside with a local working fishing harbour within walking distance I do find myself pining for a decent chunk of fresh fish on a regular basis.

It isn't too bad here, but isn't as good as a decade ago. Then I could get live lobster, crab, spoots...

Daughter in Cardiff is really lucky. She can walk to two places with live lobsters. One of them is this http://www.ashtonfishmongers.co.uk/range/ where the main problem is deciding what not to have.

[Cerebus]

Then we could talk about "Amarone"... which is a different beast.

We had a bottle of Amarone for Christmas dinner last year.

When people threaten to eat someone's liver "with a nice Chianti" they should really be threatening with an Amarone, but the makers of the movie version of Silence of the Lambs changed 'Amarone' from the book to 'Chianti' in the final version of the movie because they found at test screenings that the local audiences didn't have a clue what was being talked about.

[mnementh]

Ummm... not in this case. Smithfield hams have a long-standing history,

So 1779 if you take a Caribbean reference, or 1926 if you take an American one (to put that into perspective, that's about a year or two before my father (b. 1912) joined the Army). Hardly a long history, more like current events on a historical scale. 

I'd be intrigued to find out whether Smithfield Virginia acquired its name from emigrants from the Smithfield area of London (itself a corruption of "Smooth Field"). It's no stretch to imagine emigrants from the area taking the livestock trade with them and establishing livestock farms in an area they named after 'home'. There were also a lot of transportees from London to Virginia, more I believe than there were to Australia, so any emigration might not have been entirely voluntary. Back in those days Smithfield Market and  actual farming weren't quite so removed from each other as nowadays. Someone from the area would have been well acquainted with animal husbandry. Those days an animal would be walked from somewhere relatively local to be slaughtered at Smithfield, maybe even being fattened by Smithfield to make up weight from the walk in; now you'd be hard pressed to find a resident who's seen a live pig or cow first hand*.

* I'm reminded of when Roger Daltrey of "The Who" fame decided to "buy a place in the country" and once he got there spent all his time complaining of the smell from the pig farm next door.    I'm quite happy with "country smells" and I even find the smell of cow shit quite comforting, but having a little rural experience I know that the one place you don't want to set up home is downwind of a pig farm.

Long enough history. So yeah, you guys have cheeses older than that.  In the Middle East, they have family feuds that started before the Dark Ages. China has written records older than Christianity. And of course, mankind in its entirety is but the blink of an eye in geological terms... 

mnem
"Here, hold muh beer and watch this." ~Texas state motto

[mansaxel]

Turkey is such a bland bird it needs all the help it can get.  My family's large Christmas gathering went kaput as soon as they limited it to 10 people here so my parents decided to do one of their own and my mother said they were going to get a small turkey and blah blah blah complaining about turkey. 

A duck is a much tastier alternative. Or goose.

Anyhow, I just ordered myself a small Christmas present.  A universal RF adapter kit that'll double up on the various adapters I've accumulated over the years.  That'll be a nice to have on hand, especially for portable use since it comes in a little carrying case unlike the stuff I have on hand now that lives in the RF adapter drawer in one of the cabinets in the basement.

Nice! I'm accumulating courage to bid for a [hp] 200CDR oscillator and a Tek 310 in a few minutes. Let's hope the bidding does not go bananas.

[mansaxel]

Apparently Newark US Customs is much more efficient than JFK Customs because the package would still be there.   

I've flown through both KJFK and KRWR⁰ and I much prefer Newark. Eero Saarinen did design a nice airport, but if all the airlines flying from and to it are going to either cancel (domestic) flights or serve you shoe sole with powder-based low-viscosity potato mash on international ones (I'm looking at you, Delta!) I'd much rather fly SAS into KEWR and drive from there.

Granted, I have the same kind of hatred Med saves for his fellow humans but for the concept of domestic flights in the US.

Footnote 0: It's no fun using the ICAO codes if them's gonna cheat and copy/extend the IATA ones.  How's about mapping "ESSB" to "BMA" for suitably cryptic?

Code: [Select]

ESSB 222220Z AUTO 22007KT 9999 FEW088/// M04/M07 Q1018=

[mansaxel]

The problem with wild boar is that if they don't kill you while being killed, they might get you anyway, slowly with accumulated Pripyat radiation and faster with Trichinella spiralis. If none of those appear, wild boar is delicate, indeed.

Their meat undergoes the same food safety checks as all other meat, so no real danger. I'd be much more concerned about the amount of chemicals and pharmaceuticals in an ordinary pork chop.

Indeed. It's just that for some hunters, it's a bit hard to get hold of inspectors. At least here. So, the wild boar gets a bit less hunted than necessary.

We have them on our island, but they're very shy.

In large parts of Western Europe, they've lost all shyness and they're becoming quite a nuisance, with hordes of them entering the outskirts of our cities and digging up peoples' gardens. You should see those places afterwards. As if a tank had been driven through them.

Oh, that happens here too. They are just careful not to be seen doing it.

[mansaxel]

I am from Verona Italy.
Mansa your last post went straight to my heart.

If you are planning to come down in my Verona let me know, with my dialect I can open secret doors there.

I became a man drinking "Bardolino", but the "Valpolicella Superiore" is surely a gentleman wine. Not too expensive but it makes you so so happy.
It is basically a 34401a, not for beginner for sure and about the best bang for the bucks.
Always a joy to deal with, you can't be disappointed with such a wine.

Don't get me wrong it is still a easy (to understand) wine, you do not need gloves to touch the bottle.
Just sit down, open the bottle. Let it breath at least two hours if <2019. And drink it slowly.

Then we could talk about "Amarone"... which is a different beast.

Oh, yeah. Amarone and Ripasso wines are very popular here, for good reason. With the right meal they're fantastic. But there are a lot of meals that are better enjoyed by splitting things into a Superiore for the main course and Recioto for dessert (with a Panna Cotta a glass of Recioto is simply astonishing) .  I would not serve such forceful wines as Amarone or Ripasso to fish, and therefore I selected the Superiore for that.

2019 we went through the area, started early morning in Trento, went south via Fort Belvedere to wineyard Le Bignele and then on through Verona for dinner, finally ending up in Mestre to get the children to see Venice before it sinks.  That was a long, very rewarding day. I still have a bottle of Le Bignele Recioto left. It might end up as dessert wine on New Year's eve, this or next one. I'm fairly certain it'll keep.

[AVGresponding]

hey AVG

just a heads up.  yer box is in country.


December 22, 2021, 7:49 am
Departed
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Your item departed a transfer airport in HEATHROW, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM on December 22, 2021 at 7:49 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

December 21, 2021, 8:19 pm
Departed
NEWARK, UNITED STATES

according to usps it can no longer be tracked because it is in the hands of her majesty.

ps  watched an episode of "all creatures great and small" the other night.  is it really like that over there?  nothing but green pastures and rolling hills, everybody knows everybody, and the major occupation is drinking in dimly lit smokey rooms and slapping people on the back?

edit  repaired two 5232-6014 display boards this morning.  one just had a misaligned felt mask.  the one that keeps the neons in the display unit from leaking light onto the wrong photo cells.  no idea how it got shifted.   the other was trickier.  some ape had attempted to put in some new neons and wired one up wrong.  that took a little squinting because.......well because how could that happen?

If my back did not forbid it, I would be doing little circles of excitement...  and contrary to the popular belief of many colonials, we drink coffee as well as tea, and even have a postal service so modern that it can track packages. And falsely convict Postmasters of fraud and theft, but that's another story...


Where I live is very much hills, fields, forests and livestock/wildlife, however I work in a city, and though small by global standards (around half a million by population), it has all the vice, despair, and vile behaviour you find in any city around the world.

Here are some pics of the valley where I does live, sorry about the potato-cam rez, it's what I had at the time.

[25 CPS]

Turkey is such a bland bird it needs all the help it can get.  My family's large Christmas gathering went kaput as soon as they limited it to 10 people here so my parents decided to do one of their own and my mother said they were going to get a small turkey and blah blah blah complaining about turkey. 

A duck is a much tastier alternative. Or goose.

Anyhow, I just ordered myself a small Christmas present.  A universal RF adapter kit that'll double up on the various adapters I've accumulated over the years.  That'll be a nice to have on hand, especially for portable use since it comes in a little carrying case unlike the stuff I have on hand now that lives in the RF adapter drawer in one of the cabinets in the basement.

Nice! I'm accumulating courage to bid for a [hp] 200CDR oscillator and a Tek 310 in a few minutes. Let's hope the bidding does not go bananas.

I love duck and I’ve cooked them many times.  I’ve never cooked a goose though.  My parents will not cook either because they’re claim they’re too greasy but that isn’t a problem if you prick the skin so it can drain like I’ve done here with this one.



So it's going to be another bland turkey shoved into the oven until it's dried out on Saturday.  I'm not sure how British cooking got its reputation.  For truly awful, and I mean as bland as a pile of sawdust truly awful, nothing, nothing out there beats Canadian cooking.  Consider the Ontario Government's recipe for barbecue chicken:

https://youtu.be/d5A5Etx_4DI

Barf!

With respect to the test equipment, go for it - I fully endorse the HP 200CDR and Tektronix 310A!

[mansaxel]

In other news; I pretty soon will lay hands on a (hp) 200CDR tone generator (G218 prefix) in addition to the 3552A I won from the same seller a couple days ago. Pick-up is scheduled for Tuesday.  The 310A went for a bit too crazy money. And I still have a scope (5440) in the repair queue, so am not lacking occupation.

I wanted the generator more, TBH. It's sort of necessary to have a (hp) Wien generator; in the words of Jim Williams: "History records that Hewlett and his friend David Packard made a number of these type oscillators. Then they built some other kinds of instruments." (from App Note 43)

The 200CDR has been modified with a XLR connector in the front panel. While not original, it looks like it's been done with some skill, from the outside at least.  I will report further as soon as I've laid hands on them. Reckon I need to do a recap at least partially.  The 3552A has dead batteries, so will have to extract them. I expect to run from the mains exclusively.

[tggzzz]

I love duck and I’ve cooked them many times.  I’ve never cooked a goose though.  My parents will not cook either because they’re claim they’re too greasy but that isn’t a problem if you prick the skin so it can drain like I’ve done here with this one.

Duck fat is traditionally used as insulation when swimming across the English Channel, and for the next set of roasting potatoes. I can only attest to the latter.

[25 CPS]

I love duck and I’ve cooked them many times.  I’ve never cooked a goose though.  My parents will not cook either because they’re claim they’re too greasy but that isn’t a problem if you prick the skin so it can drain like I’ve done here with this one.

Duck fat is traditionally used as insulation when swimming across the English Channel, and for the next set of roasting potatoes. I can only attest to the latter.

Same here.  For the former, a fast hovercraft on choppy seas for maximum fun would be my preference.

[GreyWoolfe]

Turkey is such a bland bird it needs all the help it can get.  My family's large Christmas gathering went kaput as soon as they limited it to 10 people here so my parents decided to do one of their own and my mother said they were going to get a small turkey and blah blah blah complaining about turkey. 

A duck is a much tastier alternative. Or goose.

Doing a take on a traditional Christmas dinner when I was growing up.  Lasagna/manicotti with marinara sauce, sausage and mom's meatballs--beef, pork and veal for a base.  I am making 7 cheese stuffed shells, everything else stays the same but I have my own sauce recipe-just as good as momma made.  Haven't done a traditional dinner for years and had the urge.

[nixiefreqq]

hey AVG

just a heads up.  yer box is in country.


December 22, 2021, 7:49 am
Departed
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Your item departed a transfer airport in HEATHROW, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM on December 22, 2021 at 7:49 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

December 21, 2021, 8:19 pm
Departed
NEWARK, UNITED STATES

according to usps it can no longer be tracked because it is in the hands of her majesty.

ps  watched an episode of "all creatures great and small" the other night.  is it really like that over there?  nothing but green pastures and rolling hills, everybody knows everybody, and the major occupation is drinking in dimly lit smokey rooms and slapping people on the back?

edit  repaired two 5232-6014 display boards this morning.  one just had a misaligned felt mask.  the one that keeps the neons in the display unit from leaking light onto the wrong photo cells.  no idea how it got shifted.   the other was trickier.  some ape had attempted to put in some new neons and wired one up wrong.  that took a little squinting because.......well because how could that happen?

If my back did not forbid it, I would be doing little circles of excitement...  and contrary to the popular belief of many colonials, we drink coffee as well as tea, and even have a postal service so modern that it can track packages. And falsely convict Postmasters of fraud and theft, but that's another story...


Where I live is very much hills, fields, forests and livestock/wildlife, however I work in a city, and though small by global standards (around half a million by population), it has all the vice, despair, and vile behaviour you find in any city around the world.

Here are some pics of the valley where I does live, sorry about the potato-cam rez, it's what I had at the time.

wow!  looks pretty nice.

the problem is that the only thing about the UK they teach in our schools is charles dickens. 

so we imagine it like this:

[Brumby]

Looks like a EC5 connector modified with an extra pin for the thermistor. If your pin diameter is 5MM, almost positive that's the case.

Nope.  Not an EC5.

I picked up a handful of XT60s and EC5s in my quest for understanding.  The EC pins are, indeed 5mm, which is too big.  Spacing is also wrong.  Looking around it seemed I needed the 4.5mm diameter pins of the XT90.  Ordered some and found them to be a perfect fit for pin size and spacing.

The XT90s I have seem to be properly solid.  The pins appear to be molded in place.  No sign of budging with some mild persuasion applied.  Looks like some filing down is in order - with maybe filling the space between the pins and the body to maintain some sort of structural integrity of the body.

[RolandK]

In other news; I pretty soon will lay hands on a (hp) 200CDR ...

The 200CDR has been modified with a XLR connector in the front panel. While not original, it looks like it's been done with some skill, from the outside at least.  I will report further as soon as I've laid hands on them. Reckon I need to do a recap at least partially.  The 3552A has dead batteries, so will have to extract them. I expect to run from the mains exclusively.

Just restored a hp 200cd. All caps were within spec and had no relevant leakage and stayed where they were. One of the output tubes was week and was exchanged.

[BU508A]

[BU508A]

The Gingerbread Dragon

[AVGresponding]

the problem is that the only thing about the UK they teach in our schools is charles dickens. 

so we imagine it like this:

Amusingly enough, given recent posts on the relative merits of different meats for the Christmas table, goose was the traditional one here for centuries, until Dickens published "A Christmas Carol", where in the closing scene Scrooge shouts from his window to a boy to buy the big turkey in the butcher's shop and take it to the Cratchit family.
A classic case of quantity over quality.

[mnementh]

*whack* Bad dragon! *whack* SI units are case sensitive! *thwap*

Ow!     

Has visions of Måns chasing a small dragon around the house with a rolled up newspaper.

mnem
*rubs snout contemplatively*   Yeah, okay... I prolly deserved that...

[Zucca]

it just jammed the printer.... wife saw it.... turned off main power but not the uC power and we got a thermal way error.

A possible improvement?



I let you know how it goes...

[mansaxel]

*rubs snout contemplatively*   Yeah, okay... I prolly deserved that...

You did, but Cerebus guessed the weapon right, and dragons are thick-skinned, so it wasn't that hard, right?  Now go take care of the family, while I do the same! (NOT in the "taking care of business" sense. Regardless of Amarone or Chianti, we'll feast with the others, not on the others! )

[Per Hansson]

Wanted to finally receive SAQ on christmas,

One presumes that's some Ho-ho-horrific Ha-ha-hamateur radio callsign that only goes on the air for Christmas? 

Actually not, it is an actual, real, working, once-commercial WT station. The only electromechanical Alexanderson transmitter that is operative (or even exists!); it's sited in Grimeton on the Swedish west coast, was built in the 1920s to assure WT connection to USA et al.

Rumour has it that it was spared because it was a convenient VLF TX backup for comms to submarines in Skagerak and Kattegat. Since it is unique it's been made an Unesco World Heritage Site, the most electrical World Heritage there is.

It is something of a chore to get working; it's a 200KW three-phase motor driving a 17,2KHz AC generator.  The TX relay probably weighs 40 kilos. And it hammers away at best "former naval operator" WPM on the days they decide to try to get it alive, and actually succeed. The time we were there they'd fried a capacitor in the antenna tuner; a Ø 200mm ceramic disc that was cracked in two. Spares were available, and on second attempt they went on air.

Ear defenders are not optional in the transmitter room.

https://alexander.n.se/

IMPORTANT UPDATE (2021-12-22):
Due to new, harder pandemic regulations in Sweden, the Alexander association has decided that there will be no visitor activities on the radio station and the transmitter hall will be closed for visitors on Christmas Eve morning, Dec 24th. Only staff from the Alexander association will be present to operate the Alexanderson alternator.
Instead please follow our traditional Christmas transmission on our YouTube channel, se information below.

Dang it, I live so near that I'm ashamed I have not been there yet.
Was planning to go tomorrow morning but now our overlords have decided that we are not allowed to have fun any longer!
Ahh well, to Youtube it is!