Archive for April, 2006
Off to Chains for a serious go at this antenna design that has been frustrating us for a while. Positive results too, seems inserting the bare antenna in a plastic tube has a remarkable affect on the performance… So we tried an Idea that Chain had to use a better design for the matching part of the aerial using coax instead of twin feeder, this proved an enormous success in respect that the plastic tube had no influence on the performance and the specifications using the 70cm (430-440mhz) band were flawless. However, the 2 meter performance had somehow depreciated…Though acceptable, we both felt this problem could be overcome and improved. Unfortunately I had to nip off to fetch my Daughter who was at a birthday party and the experimentation which I was really getting into, was cut off. Also Angel (hi hun) had come back with some very tempting looking fresh mackeral and seemed dissapointed I had to leave..(sorry 🙁 )
My dad won £50 on the grand national at the local pub sweepstake and insisted I join him for a beer…
Not alot else really…
April 9th, 2006
Off to Reigate today for 8am, Oxted, Crawley, East Grinstead, Burgess Hill and finally Brighton… Dodgey boiler today, worked on a Baxi Solo, it had a bent bracket on it wich ultimately meant that the flue didn’t line up properly, and never could have. Bit scarey really to think this had been chugging away merrily for two years! Still, this is what I am paid for, putting right everybody elses cock-ups so it seems. Met a nice old lady who reminded me of my Nan, had the faded Welsh accent with London overtones, quite spritely for 87, insisted I had a cup of tea and force fed me biscuits.
No highlights today I’m afraid. My Daughter let me down, she was supposed to stay with me tonight but made some lame excuse about something or other, I switched off at that point. Spoke some more about antennas with Chain, we are gonna end up with an aerial with almighty gain and untouchable performance with the research we have put in between us, if only we understood more than 5% of it! Really we need to experiment with different materials, Chain came up with a new co-axial design for the matching part of the antenna which looks a bit better than the present 300 ohm feeder cable we are currently using, maybe using low loss RG213 which is substantially thicker than what we have used for the loading, will also help improve the performance.
Popped in said Hi to My Sis and borrowed a film, Crash, which seemd kinda intense and I was a bit tired to get my head round it, another watch during waking hours should tie up the loose ends of what looks like a good film…
One more thing, had a call from ISP today, can mean only one thing, they haven’t been able to get money from poxy Bank, so I may well get booted off in the very near future. I would say I will write each entry from now as if it was my last, but that would be really quite sad! If there forms a gap at least the reason is now clear.
April 6th, 2006
Over to Lancing for 8am, nice sunny day, bit chilly though and after a knock on the first customers door I was confronted by a small, scrawney ninety odd year old man, with purple stripey legs, in his underpants clutching a zimmer frame on wheels asking me if I was his home help!
“No,” I explained, “I’m here to repair your boiler,” at which point be mumbled something, adjusted his false teeth and invited me in before shuffling off to his bedroom muttering something along the lines of,
‘I suppose I better get up then.’
As I entered the bungalow I was engulfed by a heavy atmospheric presence of ammonia with a thick aftertaste that I can’t quite describe, it was quite obvious to me this man was in need of a visit from his home helper. As it happens, he was a very jolly fellow who suffered from severe vertigo and can’t stand for long without falling arse over tit, I happily agreed that I understood his condition and was very sympathetic, the difference being I need to drink 10 pints of Strongbow first!
I left feeling quite sorry for the old fart after stories of his days when he used to cycle round the country, i did say to him, “Wise move staying away from the cliff edges,” but he didn’t get it, he just nodded, smiled and then made a strange squelchy noise… Not being sure exactly which part of his body actually made the sound, I decided time to go, and off I went.
Finished early, 1.30pm locally too so home in no time. Basically, apart from backing up loadsa crap junking up my PC and having a look at some antenna stuff, I did sod all for the rest of the day. I feel I am able to organise things better, albeit small things, but something as simple as creating seperate accounts on my PC for kids (as they dont let me near it when they’re here), backing up my files and a bit of a tidy in here makes me feel I have things more under control. Which is a good thing…
April 5th, 2006
Well last night I was expecting a call to tell me where I was suppose to be going this morning, didn’t happen. So this morning had no idea where I was meant to be, I rang the office who told me to ring Andy and pair up with him as he was reasonably local in East Grinstead. He wasn’t, he was in Sutton, so after bodging a portable stereo to the ciggy lighter in the van so at least I had some noise to listen to, I jollied up the M23 to Sutton. It was at about Polegate I started to think, ‘How will I be able to ring Andy once I get there with no credit on my mobile phone and no cash for a phonebox?’ At that point I slung the van into a Uturn and floored it back to Eastbourne to borrow my Dad’s phone. Eventually got to Sutton 10.40 (ish) am. Met Andy who said most of todays work had been cancelled and we had two small calls to do, so by 1.30pm I was back trundling along the M23 towards home, lovely sunny day, music playing thinking this job isn’t all that bad really. When really I should’ve been thinking, I haven’t had a really bad day…Yet!
Evening picked my Daughter Jade up and she had a natter with Chain on the radio, which may’ve been kinda illegal but I was thinking woteva, there are so many abusers of that particular band now no-one would take the blindest bit of notice. Then it was onto Chain’s for tea, soldering and some VSWR madness. We experimented on a particular antenna design we’ve been looking at for ages, I actually use this design as my base station antenna at home and it works very very well. The strange thing is we cannot seem to make another that keeps its high spec once put inside plastic tube? (my one is in tube btw and is ‘almost’ spot on). So we need to think deeper…
April 4th, 2006
Yep started with Servowarm today, picked up 8am and off to Brighton with some dude called Andy. More jobs in Hassocks, Burgess Hill and then Dorking before picking up my van from New Malden. Turns out there was no fuel card with the van for me to fill up with deisel, after a phone call to head office and being told to fill up with my own funds and keep receipts I burst out laughing. Eventually a more promising compromise was to use Andy’s fuel card. Sorted. Oh, and no code for radio either so no sounds for the way home…How crap is that!
Evening popped in to see Chain and get savagely licked to death by Smudge and then into retro room for a demonstration of various console games machines, games of which I was really crap at… Reminded me why I don’t really do games very much. So after sharing my tea with Smudge I came back here.
April 3rd, 2006
Well it’s Sunday! Went to Chain’s yesterday to look at tumble dryer that packed up…seems it over heated and the safety cut out kicked in. After a little looky at the reason why it over heated it became obvious that we needed a new vent through the wall. A trip to ESK for a cheapy core drill didn’t produce any goods so out came the hammer!!! WAHEY!!!After a few garden wall repairs to use up left over pug, we curtailed our Bob the Builder impersonation to become Antenna Designers…
April 3rd, 2006
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