GOOD TV

[Stanley]

It flooded the news channels all evening.... Far more interesting than what passes for politics these days!

[Stanley]

The favourite this morning will be the final of the World Cup in Oz......

[Gloria]

It’s tomorrow Stanley, Sunday 11am kick off.

[Stanley]

I realised later Gloria but knew you'd enjoy setting me straight...

[Gloria]

I realised afterwards that you may have been meaning the play off for third place, which was this morning.

[Stanley]

I've been watching the reruns of I Claudius, another landmark production.....

[Gloria]

The Confessions of Frannie Langton started a four night series last night, it’s a bit different, keeps the attention and we shall be watching the second part tonight.

[PanBiker]

WE watched it too Gloria. As you say a bit of a different slant for a period drama.

[Wendyf]

We are mostly watching Retro Electro on Yesterday.

[Stanley]

Book me down for Repair Shop and Youtube....

[PanBiker]

We are mostly watching Retro Electro on Yesterday.

I recorded it last night and watched it later. Perplexed to see the guy searching for 16Kv EHT on a 1950's mono TV? I cut my teeth on models like that. 6-8Kv was the norm for mono and 25Kv on later generation tri gun CRT colour TV's. He was perplexed also with the duff valve he fitted as he said that if one valve heater was faulty all the others would go out! Not so, Valve heater circuits (18 of them) in that particular design would be all in parallel not series connected.
Amused when he took it back to it's retro fan owner and said it was now working and all "original" after replacing all of the capacitors and a good proportion of the resistors in the set! I wonder what the bloke would watch on it, a lot of bother just to make it light up. the 405 line VHF TV service was finally shut down in January 1985, last transmissions in Scotland as it had better coverage than UHF and was better suited to the Scottish terrain.

[Tripps]

I'm not too hot on TV, but when the number of Black and White TV licences is mentioned, I often wonder what the sets are being used for. Am I right that there is no current transmitted programme that they can show?

[PanBiker]

In answer to your question, no. Having said that I suppose as long as they are UHF based TV's they could use a digital set top box with a modulated UHF output with an older receiver to access current standards. As long as the displays are mono I suppose that would comply for a Mono Licence. Snooker would be a bit a of a challenge as it always was. "The blue is the ball currently behind the brown which has been knocked off it's spot"

Wouldn't work with the 1950's VHF set though.

More info here:

UK Analogue Terrestrial Television Service

[Tripps]

Book me down for Repair Shop and Youtube....

Youtube has gor my measure in the last few days in a big way. As well as feeding me the site content that i have subcribed to - they now feed me with an apparently endless supply of "shorts". Is it their answer to Tiktok? Cute kids, dogs and other animals - lots of acts of kindness such as paying for poor peoples' food. Problem is I love them.

The novelty will wear off - I hope. It's a bit spooky though, how well they know what I will watch.
Here's Springwood Mickey winning the Bolton Derby by a distance in 1990. I was aware he was perhaps the fastest flapping dog ever, but I'd never seen him until today.

[Stanley]

Yes David, I think you're right. The shorts are YT's answer to Tik Tok.
Have you ever tried going into settings and erasing your viewing history? YT then has to start again trying to tempt you. That can lead to some interesting choices....

[Stanley]

On Tuesday I happened to trip over Portaloo doing one of his rail journeys and it happened to be the one where he visited Clarion House.....

[Tripps]

He's a class act Portacake as he was known in our household (never found out why). Didn't pay for his tea. . . .

Now In the Heat of the NIght has just started on BBC 4. Great film. It was on last night too, but too late even for me.

They warn us that it contains discriminatory language and behaviours. Well I never.

[Stanley]

I must be one of the millions who saw the announcement of the loss of his seat in 1997. Still a happy memory!

[PanBiker]

Portaloo.

[PanBiker]

I watched another recorded episode of the Electro Workshop. Some of the working practices on electrical and electronic repair are suspect as well as downright dangerous.

This episode showed a repair on a 100 year old table lamp. Art Deco design from the mid 1920's with all metal fittings and a crystal domed head on it. Two parallel wired metal bayonet lamp holders with integral pull/pull switches operated by a short chain on each lamp holder one of which wasn't working. He pulled the lamp holder in bits and found that a spring had broken in the switch mechanism. The lamp holders had ceramic inserts as was the style of the time. He compared it with the working one and then got full marks for using a similar and duly modified spring to effect the repair.

While he had it apart he noticed that the insulation on the wiring between the lamp holders was dry and so he decide to replace all the cabling. This is where it made me squirm somewhat. He decide to use twin cable throughout so, two tails, one from each lamp holder fed through the metal arms and joined to the main mains feed cable. Soldered connections made, insulated by heat shrink and pushed into the junction of the two metal arms. I noted that he shrunk the insulation using the soldering iron rather than a heat gun. 13A ring main plug duly terminated with the correct fuse for the wattage of lamps used.

Two major mistakes both on safety. He plugged it straight in to 240v mains with no testing for insulation effectiveness! He should have used an insulation tester at the very least with a metal lamp. That actually pails into insignificance as the entire repair had NO earth. He should have used three core twin and earth cable with the earth bonded to the metal component of the lamp. It's not rocket science but it is an example of very bad practice.

[Stanley]

I started to watch 'Woman in the Wall' but had to give up about twenty minutes in. It was just to dire and gloomy for me. (I also found it hard to suspend my disbelief over both the start of the water leak and the fact that she had a propane torch hooked to a gas cylinder and did the repair herself.....)
All right I'm picky but I watch telly for entertainment not punishment!

[Stanley]

I had another crack at Woman in the Wall because it's about the evils of the Magdalene Laundries.
See THIS Wikipedia article on the Magdalene story a terrible litany of oppression run by the Catholic Church.
So, I had another try but it was too miserable for me. Sorry, but I chickened out again.....

[Wendyf]

I shall be watching F1 highlights on Ch4 at 6.30pm then Gone Fishing with Whitehouse and Mortimer at 9pm. If you haven't seen it yet, it's not really about fishing, just two old friends talking about life in beautiful, rural settings.

[PanBiker]

And of course the suppers Wendy.

[Wendyf]

And of course the suppers Wendy.

Yes! Bob's cooking is worth a watch.