Craig Sawyers

That is really useful information - thanks. My Lambda's are 1987, so 250V as per KG's suggestion sounds like the way to go.

That is what I have gone for too. Getting all hot and sweaty now - just waiting for: Alumina insulators Long transistor bushes 2SC3381's Casework

Finally off-shelved a project - a Gilmore class A dynamic headphone amp. Did 90% of the work four years ago and then - ooh shiney. Even did board layout and procurement, and all the parts procurement (good job since getting the complementary dual FETs now is next to impossible). So building cost was next to nothing - just getting value from money spent four years back. Outboard dual power supply with two transformers. In the amp box a Borbely current regulator and four amps - currently wired as two stereo feeds from RCA in to two Neutrix headphone jacks. Expect to upgrade to go single ended in to bridged out (need two more partly-stuffed amp boards for that - no FET's needed) and full balanced in to bridged out switchable, switchable gains and DACT to replace ALPS blue beauty. But already sounds astonishingly good after warm up. Quickly came to conclusion that I prefer DT990 to K701 in most departments. Now on to the final build stages of KG's SRM-T2 - just need a few trivial parts on back order, and casework from Kevin.

Vicki - that looks exceptionally uncomfortable. I really winced at the bone-on-bone bit. Good luck with the options - but that they can now resurface the ankle joint sounds like a very positive development.

That sounds real neat. So one 5M resistor gets 560V and goes to the high bias jack, and the other resistor gets 250V which feeds both bias pins (shorted together) on the low bias jack?

Or turn beer into Marmite and put that on the toast - best of all worlds

Eek - I now realise I should've keep up to speed with software more. Looks like a burst of transmission line noise....

My wife did a math(s) degree at University with an excellent result. Left me standing - and I did every math(s) and theory option in my electronics degree. She then went into being an accountant, and now can remember absolutely no math(s) at all. There is probably a joke about that, but since she out-earns me by a significant amount I can't quite remember it

That is a disturbing image for sure

Oooh - TTY art! It is the odd decade or three since I saw any of that. Pass the walking frame.....

Astonishingly still made [url=http://www.transcriptors.net/turntables-3/reference-series-ii/]Reference Series II

Long time since I saw Clockwork Orange. Must watch it again.....maybe

So what is new? Just part of the stupidity associated with an overpaid sport with teams of primadonnas kicking a pig's bladder into string bags. <flame suit mode> = on

We've a real problem with urban foxes in the UK - you can sight them most nights foraging around garbage. But it was brought home how dangerous that is - an urban fox got access to a house, and savaged the children as they slept. Parents woke to the sound of screaming to find a confused looking fox on the landing wondering what the fuss was about. Baby twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis seriously injured in 'fox attack' | Mail Online

I think that this is possibly the definition of "classic". Porsche 928? Gorgeous - a nightmare. Aston Martin DBS? Superb - a moneypit. Jag Mk10 - don't even consider it. In fact the older Astons had such "individuality" in panel fit that they used to lead load the bodyshell in the factory to get everything levelled off. So if you need to replace a panel, you need to find a bodyshop that knows how to lead load panel seams. About the only older car that just keeps going is an older Rolls Royce - 1960's to 1980's. You can pick them up for a song. Even the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo is only a few grand. Just don't try to go around a corner in it - straight line performance is like a bullet (0 - 60mph in 4.8 seconds), until you turn the steering wheel.

Tour de France. There have been more riders on the deck this year than I can ever remember. It is basically the riding wounded. Tyler Farrar has been riding with a broken wrist, keeping in there until it heals up, which it seems to be. Frank Schleck ended up in hospital with 8 bolts holding his shoulder together. High speed carnage. Now they are in the mountains - so hot that the roads are melting and the guys are wearing ice collars to keep core temp low enough.

'Reks - I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like going through that. Must be one of the toughest things going. Good that you and your mother are getting over the worst.

Last time in the UK was 5 years ago at Covent Garden. Tickets sold out in five minutes flat. Watched it televised - Terfel as Wotan. Actually he only survived Das Rheingold and Die Walkure and then keeled over. So John Tomlinson stepped in to the breach without rehearsal for Siegfried and Gotterdamerung - but Wotan plays a much smaller role in those operas. 17 hours of opera, and *everybody* dies apart from the Rheinmaidens. I love the damned thing - murder, incest, corruption, lust - every deadly sin on a grand scale bolted together into a single epic. Based on the same Anglo-Saxon and Germanic legends as Lord of the Rings - but with adult content, and no Samwise Gamgee (thank heavens). Oh and and every year at Beyreuth. But you have to apply for tickets each and every year until your name comes up. Miss a single year - back to the start of the queue. Currently 7 years wait.

Sorry 'bout the poor Bach 'reks. We had a much more successful classical outing - Die Meistersinger with Bryn Terfel singing Hans Sachs. Absolutely awesome production, and Terfel was stunning. One of Wagner's easier to get to grips with operas - ie there are real tunes. Booked that one in January! Rather than Tristan und Isolde which is hours of unresolved musical tension (on purpose, to match the continual tension in the stage situation) leading up to a final marvellous aria called the Leibes Tod (love-death). T und I is a tough opera to watch and get under the musical skin of. But whichever Wagner you see you are in for at least 4 1/2 hours. Or for the full Ring cycle 17 hours. Awesome. In two weeks we're up for the second Ring opera, Die Walkure, at Longborough. Pretty much an all day affair.

I have to keep looking at the different definition of gallon on each side of the pond. 1US gallon in 3.78 litres and 1UK gallon is 4.55 litres. On the freeway at 80mph in cruise I average 18 mp(UK)g, which is 22 mp(US)g. So less for sure than your 'vette - but it is a much older engine design. Also, mine is the so-called HE engine (for "high efficiency":)), which had a domed head and a monster 12.5 compression ratio. The older flat head low compression engine gave 14mp(UK)g on a good day. That sounds about right. Early Lotus cars were the same - they had a straight 6 with three SU carbs. But to fit the engine in the squat profile the engine is canted over with the carbs *underneath*. Also the Triumph TR7. Owners of all these cars are constantly tweaking the damned things. Sounds like a plan. Try shaving 1/8" off one end and see how it goes.

I was lucky - I snagged a 13" x 2-3/4" square piece of true LV. Drove a fair distance to pick it up. Have used a strip off one side to make fences out of for my hand rebate planes (3 old Record ones, and a skew mouth Lie Nielsen). It is great because of its self-lubricating properties and its extreme harness. There is the most astonishing perfume when freshly cutting the wood from the exposed oils. Lignum Vitae means wood of life, because it was believed to have medicinal properties. I cut a 4" chunk, which is the one that Kevin now has in the photos. I use a bandsaw to cut the stuff, not a table saw. There is less waste using a bandsaw too (thinner kerf), but you have to be careful to minimise wander, and cut slowly and steadily. Vera Wood is interesting - also called Maracaibo lignum vitae (Bulnesia sarmienti), and is a great wood. My wood supplier says of Vera Wood (which he calls Palo Santo wood): "Although this wood has been used for generations for the same purposes as the genuine lignum vitaes (timber from the genus guiaicum) it has become a more important choice recently because of the listing of the Guaiacum lignum vitaes on Cites appendix II. Genuine lignum vitae is currently only possible for import with Cites export and import documentation. In practice this means there is not a lot coming through."

Yeah - service repairs are always horrendous. I ended up retiring the car in around '95 after it let me down with coolant leaks far too often, but couldn't bring myself to dispose of it. So I shoved it in the garage, and when I found some time (oh - around 2 years work in evenings and weekends) I rebuilt at nut and bolt level. Horrendously expensive job. Fortunately my local Jag garage (TWR Oxford) lent me all the specialist tools necessary. So there is absolutely no way it is going to let me down (knock on wood). Plus it only gets sparingly used, and only in the Summer to keep the rust worms at bay. Throttle linkages is a doddle. You undo the locknuts on the ends of each linkage. One is a left hand thread and the other a right hand one. There is a knurled bit on each link rod to grasp between your fingers - you just turn each link rod until there is a little slack, and the throttle pedastle takes up that slack on both links at the same time. Tighten the locknuts - job done. Certainly nothing like as difficult as the pre-injection, very early 4-carb V12 engine was to adjust. Two SU carbs each side, with each one feeding three cylinders. Balancing that up really was the stuff of madness and dragons. Corvette looks like a real champ Kevin - nice beast. Like my Jag it must drink fuel like crazy

Lignum Vitae

I suspect that it is more likely to be due to interwinding capacitance in the power transformers than the alumina insulators. That is why two-pin appliances have to be double insulated to keep chassis parts away from human contact. OK, I'll bite - what vintage of corvette do you have? I rebuilt and restored a 30 year old Jaguar V12 saloon (sedan) a few years back, end to end. There are a LOT of bits in a 5.3L V12 and GM400 gearbox. For project cost imagine a pile of dollars and a shovel. For anyone remotely interested, here are some pics of the finished beast http://www.tech-enterprise.com/tekstuff/DSCN0194.JPG http://www.tech-enterprise.com/tekstuff/DSCN0195.JPG http://www.tech-enterprise.com/tekstuff/DSCN0196.JPG http://www.tech-enterprise.com/tekstuff/DSCN0197.JPG http://www.tech-enterprise.com/tekstuff/DSCN0198.JPG

Daughter's graduation ceremony yesterday, which was very good. Stupidly hot (for the UK) at 32C (90F), made much worse because we don't do room airconditioning to any great extent here, so the large and sealed marquee was a solar powered oven. The car was a blissful relief by comparison. Today off to see Die Meistersingers with Bryn Terfel in Birminham. Typical Wagner epic-length opera - starts at 4pm and ends at 10pm with two intervals.