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Experimental Radio Station--Call Sign G0VPH--listening to the world with a screwdriver in my hand

Other Interesting Stuff

I presume that most Amateur Radio Enthusiasts are somewhat like me and have a interest in gadgets and technology which stray outside the realms of Amateur Radio but at the same time could be connected to it.
These other interests could be  Electronics, Model Making ,  Audio,  Radar,  Tape Decks, Vintage Stuff,  Computers,  Domestic Radio's,  Cars,  Boats,  Aircraft,  Military Equipment, TV,  Steam,  and just about anything else including the Weather.  I am sure there will be many more but at the moment that will do.


THE SONY WALKMAN WM-D6C

The Sony Professional Walkman  is much sought after in the world of audio tape machine users and collectors and I was lucky that I found this one complete with leather case and in it's box in a skip. It is almost in mint condition and works perfectly. Lucky me


PS I will take a better picture of it shortly
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ENGEL GIBBS HS 10 SOLENOID DRIVEN---MERCURY TILT SWITCHES


I know for a fact these were installed in the middle of the 1960's. They were part of a control panel of a boiler set that produced steam for a London Hospital.
This type of 3X30amp 230 volt switching arrangement would be an absolute NO-NO these days unless it was for something special. Contactors and the BMS system with the help of  Health and Safety have done away with the need for these beauties.  This arrangement shows a layout for three circuits.


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BRITISH THOMSON HOUSTON


This solid piece of British engineering is heavy. I never exactly knew what this was when I first got it twenty years ago and information has been scarce.  I took these pictures years ago and just found them in the shack but I have know idea where the actual thing is, I think I may have gave it away,
I Googled it a short while ago and nothing come up apart from information about BTH the manufacture.
It looks like the history of the P58 has been lost in the passage of time, unless you know better! "my email link is in my profile"
I presume it is a radar unit dated 1945 but that is all I know.

This equipment has seen better days

                                 Spiders and a chunky tuner mechanism found inside
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TELEQUIPMENT SERVISCOPE S51A


I use this a lot and what I like about oscilloscopes is that it provides me with a graphical account, which means that I can see what I normally have to imagine, which is the movement and flow and strength of electricity.

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ENGINE CYLINDER THERMOMETER

A Lancaster Bomber engine cylinder thermometer..ref No 6a/1305 Indicator mark 1 0c to 350c fluorescent.
Brand new (60 years old) and still in it's box. This was sold as surplus and has written on the box will convert to M.Ampmeter.

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VITAVOX TYPE S2 HORN DRIVER (pressure unit)

These loud speaker(horn) devices were used in cinema's and the like.There are many people that are involved with high-end audio that would still use this item.

There is a interesting tale to go with the S2 above. The year was about 1992 and I was re-wiring a house in North London where the owner had passed away and the house had been sold. The chap that owned the house was a old boy who must have been born around 1910-15 and he had built within the house a electric organ. The house itself was the organ. The keyboard was in the parlour the valve amplifiers(KT66) which there was four were in the attic (loft) and the staircase was the area where he had the S2 speaker horns. There was so much stuff that I had permission to take it and it took me days to get it home. The electrical  components which made up the organ seem to date from the 1930s'40s-50s and 60s. There was valve amplifiers and mechanical switches everywhere. There was a cabinet full of drawings for the organ and I  still have all the drawings for the design etc. Fascinating stuff. I did have the two horns to go with the two S2's (yes I have a pair)  but I can only find one horn.

UPDATE: 12/3/2014 Yipee! I have just found the second one. It was in the shed.
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THE XENON LAMP


25000 VOLTS DC..the ceramic idolater is substantial, another one would fit on the other end

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THE Z88    CAMBRIDGE COMPUTER  1988 STATE OF THE ART WITH PC LINK

I did ponder over the need to put a picture of a old computer on this Blogspot as pictures of computers are in my opinion boring, after all there's nothing to look at, there's no moving parts, no brass or chrome and they lack soul.  I know what I mean. 

The user manual states
For the first time in a machine of it's size and portability it offers you a powerful productivity tool, PIPEDREAM, capable of tackling the most demanding applications and providing all the capabilities normally only obtained by working with separate programs on much larger computers; it combines in one program most facilities provided by the best word processors, database programs and spreadsheets.  PIPEDREAM....was designed and developed by Colton Software Limited.

1988  It does not seem that long ago but this computer that uses BBC BASIC is just a past memory and is a thing of the past.  Saying that, it does work.

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A MILLI AMP METER "very useful"

A Portable Standard milli-amp-meter, type moving coil,  original manufacture calibration certificate attached to front of meter dated 21-10-1959.

This piece of kit was manufactured local to me in South London.

Manufacturer:  Elliot Brothers (London,) Century Works, Lewisham, London SE13
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1888 TO ABOUT 1920

These phonographic cylinders are yonks old and are the earliest form of commercial recording and re-producing sound. The cylinders were engraved on the outside and they were played by rotating them in a machine called a phonograph.


Not my kit, a photo of an army 19 set (plus some other stuff) which was part of a small military vehicle display recently at the caravan park  where I have my static holiday caravan on the Isle of Sheppy, Kent.

This was there as well

A very interesting vehicle, me thinks.
A armoured GKN Sankey Radar Unit.