mezzoman253

The annual RSPB birdwatch runs from 29th to 31st January this year. You can choose any 1 hour period. See https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/biggardenbirdwatch/2021/how-to-resources/how-to-guide.pdf I know many of you will be aware of this, but some may not. Rob

looking at 5H-MOG it has a pod under the starboard wing. I Googled it and found this http://www.vc10.net/Technical/oddities.html Interesting site for all things VC10. Rob

Thanks to those who've posted cards. I'd hoped for a few more, but time yet. Rob

On the BBC web site https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55372499 "737 Max: Boeing 'inappropriately coached' pilots in test after crashes" Rob

Season greetings to all. Stay safe and well, and let's hope for better in 2021. Rob Rob

I tend to stagger the joint by a few inches, it seems to put less strain on the joiners on reasonable radius curves. For tight radius Set-Track is better, as Chimer said above. Rob

The red biplane is a Beech Staggerwing Rob

Further to my earlier post re Ryanair order. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55177846 Rob

Ryanair have just ordered another 75 737 Max's to add to their already large(135) previous order. We use Ryanair to Memmingen( Munich West) as our daughter and family lives in Germany near Friedrichshafen. No other airlines fly there direct from here, so we're stuck with Ryanair. We accept it for what it is, a cheap and cheerful way to get to where we want to go. We could fly into FDH with Lufthansa, but that involves going to LHR and changing in FRA, taking much longer and more expensive. The train is more expensive and even longer. I'm not happy with the 737 Max, yet. That may change dependant on it's coming service record. Ryanair were considering taking the "Max" logo off of their new aircraft to alleviate problems with customer fears. Not sure if that is still the case. At present they haven't taken any deliveries of the "Max". Rob

Hi Paul, Many thanks for that link, excellent. Rob

Hi, Not specifically railway related, I was purchasing an item on eBay and when I got to checkout there was a section with a tick box to add this voucher "NECTAR20". I ticked the box and 20% came off the purchase price, going from £199.00 to £159.20. Now what I'm asking is, is this a promotion or is this coming off my Nectar card? I can't seem to find anything on eBay about this voucher code and haven't had a mail from them about it. Anyone enlighten me please. MTIA, Rob

Just had a mail from Rails of Sheffield re class 37's, some regional exclusives for grabs e.g. https://railsofsheffield.com/products/38762/Bachmann-32-390sdds-oo-gauge-class-37-7-37710-loadhaul-diesel-locomotive-dcc-sound?utm_source=Mailing+List&utm_campaign=db196fe827-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_27_11_11&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_74d01bc2ed-db196fe827-5752093 HTH Rob

Hi, You may want to look at this thread for some ideas. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122118-bachman-mauritania-sound-failure/ HTH Rob

Well I though everything was OK, then today I had no sound from the speakers. sound was OK, as I had another app' using it and it was working OK. When I looked at sounds the speaker and headphones were there but it said " not plugged in". It clearly was, so I tried another set and the same. Long story short, I had to reload the RealTek drivers and eventually the sound was back with the speakers showing again. Why on earth did an update reset a load of my sound settings, and re-install my USB connected mouse and display?? As I said above, I didn't download this update (2004) because of these very problems having been flagged up. But MS seems to do what it likes mostly! I'm fairly PC savvy, but most people aren't. In this pandemic situation, losing your PC is not what you want. Rob

Yes that's true, however I'm with EE and didn't know about the 14258 code to block of up to 10 numbers. Whilst this is just a drop in the ocean, anything that can reduce these calls by any amount is welcome. Rob

The screengrab below may be of help to some. Rob

I was on 1909, and 2004 was there as an option to download. After 6 hours or so I'm now on 2004. (Slow BB less than 10M/bs). I've not checked everything, but it appears to be doing OK. We'll see tomorrow if it's done any damage. Rob

Today I used my desktop for the 1st time in a few days. It's W10 pro 64 bit. The internet seemed to be running very slowly, so I had a look at updates and sure enough it had started a download of 2004. Now that download had been an option previously, and I purposely hadn't downloaded it as a few things that had come to light by others, impacted on certain things I use the PC for. So I'd left it until such time as I was happy that the problems were resolved. So I wasn't happy to see it being downloaded without me asking for it. My question is, has the option now run out and it's not user selectable, or has MS just decided to do this on it's own? Thanks, Rob

Better late than never from the Beeb https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-54250044 Rob

You'd want to be on LW, as the fundamental frequencies would be 10-50Khz, even then you'll probably be picking up harmonics of those at broadcast LW. Unfortunately the mains itself is now polluted so much by PLT, LED lighting, and cheap SMPSU, to name but a few. You can only do so much to clean it up. Mainly getting your own house in order with filters and ferrites liberally spread on the mains and output leads. These devices can radiate at frequencies up as high as 100Mhz plus. All that noise is radiated by the mains acting as an aerial. Rob

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_Phenom_100 Rob

Scientists believe they have found evidence of life on Venus. No cause for alarm, it's believed to be armless.

Something a little different https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GdpwPRSGgA&feature=youtu.be&_ccCt=YHe8iTczE7xImyaB7n4L1a_ykX31BejPg43BVF~4isTFR8qgFxoR9d~gqpRqXqVn But surely it's a Hurricane? Rob

I was wondering that too. If a replacement it could be that the filtering is not present (very common on cloned CE marked kit) and the switching frequency of the PSU is getting out on the power leads. Although the tone sounds about 10Khz, and usually 20Khz is common on SMPSU's. A ferrite on the output lead may cure that but it needs to be the right material mix for the frequency involved. A lot of the clip on ones usually shown are only effective from about 10Mhz upwards. As the tone sounds around 10Khz, is it the DCC switching frequency being picked up? What is CV9 set to? It's the Motor PWM frequency in multiples of 1Khz. If it's set to 10 (10Khz), you may be able to increase it so it's not audible, if that is in fact the problem. Usual disclaimers. Rob

I thought that looks familiar, and then it dawned on me. I'd been there in 2008 on a preserved steam trip from Stuttgart Korntal. So you could run this...........................