Craig Sawyers

It was not one of Quad's finest moments that is for sure. And on one channel only, an electrolytic is right above a power resistor, and cooks. So remedial action is to replace the two 3.3k resistors with something that can actually dissipate 0.35W, and space above the board anyway. And remove the dead electrolytics and mount replacements on the other side of the board away from the heat. Then remove the crowbars and fit a half way decent DC offset disconnect. Like this https://neurochrome.com/products/guardian-86 or this http://www.velleman.co.uk/contents/en-uk/p193_m4701a.html or this http://www.signaltransfer.freeuk.com/protect.htm just for starters.

The rated power for a resistor is in free air. So to push 0.42W into an 0.5W rating, it absolutely needs to be spaced from the board to allow convective air flow. If tight to the board, there is a hot area where it contacts the board and long term will lead to resistor failure. In fairness, even Tektronix have been guilty of that, with the board discolored under some resistors. Quad was less successful in the 405 power amp, where a 3.3k resistor feeding a 15V zener in underrated. In due course it fails open, putting one output to rail. The ridiculous crowbar then fires and short circuits the output. The power transistors and drivers then instantly fry. Then the crowbar itself blows up. Then the fuses blow.

Elizabeth Taylor, 1957, Kodachrome

An electrical horror story, from an Amazon page for a UK mains plug https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08M97WNB5?ref=em_1p_6_ti&ref_=pe_1229541_586024421&th=1 Part way down there is a how to wire it series of pictures. Live and neutral are the wrong way round. There are bare copper strands sticking out of the neutral (the one that incorrectly has the brown wire), and similarly the blue wire. And the cord grip doesn't secure the insulating jacket. In fact it contravenes just about every safety standard.

Over in blighty, there has been a ridiculously successful re-introduction of the red kite. This 6 foot wingspan raptor was pretty much extinct here, but is now a familiar sight in our neck of the woods. There are now apparently nearly 5000 breeding pairs. We see them pretty much every day. They are social birds and will hunt and roost in groups. Because of food pressure (they eat mainly carrion, and odd large insect) they are now almost feral, and will apparently occasionally take a small mammal. Beware cats! I'm sure the red kite has been responsible for some small cat disappearances. They are a real masters of the air

What sort of vehicle has bullet proof glass? And they both seem to be wearing flak jackets.

I somehow thought the punch line was going to be different

RIP Michael Collins. The man who orbited the moon but never walked there. That just leaves Buzz Aldrin from the first landing.

This is only an updated version of the FETRON, introduced in 1972 by Teledyne. A thick film hybrid JFET amp in the header of something that looked like a nuvistor. fetron.pdf

Happy birthday Kevin!

My son-in-law is an aborist in NSW Australia. In fact it is his company, and employs a team of 15. https://www.gibbontrees.com/ I can absolutely guarantee that they would not do what the palm tree clown did. In fact you can see on their website that they specifically offer palm tree maintenance and clearing.

Me too. It was a serious shock when the only thing that came up was a page from Wayback Machine from the dim and distant HC.

When the site went off-line, I heard about the UTAH datacentre fire and wondered if it was related. Same thing happened with EEVBlog, who suffered the same fate - they were evidently lucky and their bit of the server structure was not too badly pooched and came back in two or three days. But what a nightmare. Thanks for sticking with it Todd - you are an undoubted hero!

I'll look forward to hearing what was the problem, and the clearly heroic efforts to get everything back and running without any loss of historical data. Awesome.

Woah - its back! I was seriously suffering withdrawal symptoms.

I just found this on another forum, where there was discussion about audio systems possessed by demons (you know the effect - paranoia about something not quite right) Anyway, snip of another poster's reply "my turntable is haunted by a plattergeist. If I can't get it dispossessed soon, I'll have to bury it in its vinyl resting place" I'll get my coat....

Circa 1865, the ruins of Charleston SC during the civil war. Colourised.

Hope you had a great day, Doug! Happy birthday!!

One of the last concerts we went to pre-lockdown was Graham Nash - and evening of music and recollections. Completely excellent in all regards Prior to that Neil Young in one of the weirdest concerts I've been to. At one point he and his band turned their backs to the audience, went to the back of the stage and jammed for 20 minutes. And that was one of the less strange things. Also Graham Nash and David Crosby (who have since fallen out big time). At one point Nash said to Crosby "behave - or you'll have to play with Neil Young and go deaf". Superb, absolutely superb.

Although the Suez canal has been deepened and widened several times since it opened in 1869, it clearly isn't deep and wide enough to cope withe that behemoth container ship jammed across the canal. My dad was in the merchant navy shortly after WW2, on oil tankers that were pre WW2 vessels. He went through the Suez canal frequently. although those ships were toys by comparison to the monsters that sail nowadays. He told a story about losing power half way across the Atlantic - the old tub had developed perforated boiler tubes and was losing steam pressure. To keep it going he found sacks of sawdust, and fed those into the boiler to plug the leaks. When he ran out of sawdust he got the ship's supply of porridge and progressively fed that into the boiler. That limped them to port in the West Indies. Without those stunts they would have been dead in the water mid Atlantic.

I had no idea that Sony manufactured such monsters. I'm assuming back in the day.

It was like a grand tour though, with excellent hotels in interesting cities on the way. Not like Joni Mitchell's Amelia "I dreamed of 747s over geometric farms" "I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes" Must listen to Blue today....Mitchell at her poetic best.

Intrigued by that old colorized photo, I did some google-fu about Imperial Airways (now called BA!). They were first to run flights to Australia. There were 35 stops on the journey, which took just short of a month to get to Melbourne. Apparently their safety record was not great....

Interior of a 1936 airliner, run by Imperial Airways, the first British commercial airline. Looks really safe.

Happy birthday!!