kevinlms

19 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

We've always kept an old style corded phone simply because it will work as long as the land line is working.

 

The problem is that the landlines require switching equipment and whilst that is also digital now, it still requires power and it also can wear out and need replacing.  Perhaps the issue is not so much that BT want rid of it, but that the Government don't feel the paying BT to retain a network of copper wires.  At the end of the day BT are a private company, they see the usage of landlines going down but are expected to manage their upkeep and network, if we want to keep the landline we need to petition the government to invest in it and I don't see that happening.

As someone whose been in the industry for many years, I agree with most of what you say. 

However I don't bother with a corded phone on standby, because the infrastructure required is no longer available. 

1 minute ago, RFS said:

And many people overlook the fact that cordless phones will not work in a power cut either, as they rely on a pwered base unit. It also does not need a power cut to take out PSTN lines, for example, if they travel above ground on poles for part of the way. A big storm could take the pole out etc..

You can actually buy cordless phones, that reverse charge the base in the event of power loss. It does of course reduce the effective life until the batteries go flat.

But of course without power to the modem etc, it's useless!

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Does anyone care what they do?

6 minutes ago, DaveF said:

Another issue with only having a mobile phone during a power cut is what happens when the mobile's masts stop working?

 

Again that has happened in parts of the county during long power cuts, it seems that not all masts have a back up generator - or if they do they don't always work.  Then you have no way of contacting anyone in an emergency.

 

David

But don't make the common mistake that PSTN phone lines 'always worked', that wasn't true either.

If the cables in the street were damaged, or the exchange lost power for too long, then they would fail, too.

The world employed many 1000's of people repairing/replacing faulty phone lines. Or I know of a major exchange, which had a serious fire and took everything out for weeks, in the surrounding district.

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

This is an article on a couple of recent deaths where the health care pendants had failed in the days leading up to their death.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/deaths-spark-concern-over-digital-phone-line-rollout/

 

I think it's a little difficult to attribute their death to the switch off, especially as in these cases the service that had switched over was not linked to the telecare provision.i.e no direct link to the performance of the pendant.  It would also suggest in these cases the Virgin service was still operating and it was the pendant that failed.

 

It's easy to use rumour to fuel concerns and whilst no doubt there is a lot of work for BT to do to mitigate much of the valid concerns for people who depend on a landline we cannot pin every incident on BT and other providers who are migrating away from copper wire.  If anything throwing everything in muddies the water where real incidents might become buried under a storm of unrelated matters and get missed by the media.

We had an incident at my club today, involving a medical pendant.

I answered the phone at the clubrooms and it was a rather anxious wife of a new member. Apparently his pendant kept going off and it was ringing all the default contacts in turn and none could speak to him.

So she rang the club, because that was where he was going, but had he crashed the car or something on the way?

What made it tricky, was that because he was a new member, I didn't recognise the name, nor did the first person I asked!

However we did find someone who knew him and his location at the club grounds.

So all good in the end. It turned out that the pendant was under several layers of clothing and he had been bumping the button and not realising.

So that raises the question about new members and medical conditions, because we also had another member have a seizure today and ambulance call out, so not an entirely happy day.

13 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Have we had this one before?

 

Yes, but not lately! 😇

2 minutes ago, Metr0Land said:

BT do (or did) provide a very basic mobile on demand when you go DV.  I got one for a friend of mind who's not tech minded.  It was very basic and very limited but did work to some extent, though of course you have to remember to keep it charged as you don't know when the next power cut will be.  In the end she sent it back and could live with outages, though by that time I'd got her quite a good basic 2G phone which I prompt her to use every couple of months so she's ~proficient with its use.

The last 2G service in Australia was turned off in 2018. Later this year 3G will be turned off - one provider already has.

Some models of 4G phones won't work on voice calls, as they can't use VoLTE - they use 3G for voice.

So be wary of acquiring older tech phones, which MAY themselves need replacing in a short time scale.

In short, check with your mobile suppliers, as to when the dates are for turning off, for various tech.

REMEMBER, they don't have the full system working one day, the next turned off completely. What they do, is as the date gets closer, they don't repair faulty equipment (maybe a restart, beyond that, they won't spend cash), and so you might end up with localised outages

2 hours ago, steve1 said:

 

Certainly doesn’t qualify as very funny…

 

steve

Which means that you are entitled to complain to the moderators about it, or just move on to the next.

Plenty of other posts not funny or repetitive.

8 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Well, $15 (today's conversion rate) for me and very well worth it as it helps support the forum.

 

That makes it:

1.25 a month

0.29 a week

0.04 a day

 

 

 

Cost me $A23.67 in early December.

Don't know about a 5 way, but if you want lots of point blades (or none), South Australia is a good starting point (sorry for the pun - not really!).

https://nrm.org.au/assets/pdfdocs/collections/multi-gauge-muddle.pdf

Gladstone Yard appears to be an interesting place.

On 22/04/2024 at 00:17, GrumpyPenguin said:

& that is the perfect time to have a "cull" of locomotives you no longer/rarely use & us ethe proceeds to pay for DCC.

I know someone who has a very large collection of locomotives and of course uses that as an excuse for no DCC and that he doesn't know how to wire it up.

Fact is he spent a lot of money on DC controllers and loads of money on switches etc, on his new large layout.

He didn't know how to wire that either, so he needed lots of help from others to wire it for him - no he did virtually no work on it himself, even though several tried to get him to assist, at the very minimum.

3 hours ago, Hogan22 said:

Hi again everyone, little update, I’ve bought the very same 24v ac power adapter from jaycar as recommended by a few of you. 
 

it’s solved my problem completely, all the motors throw the points now. It’s just a matter of getting everything wired up and plugged into my makeshift control board.
 

 

What is the voltage of the output of the CDU now?

1 hour ago, Free At Last said:

In practice this doesn't always happen.

It would entirely depend on the distance between the 2 point motors. If they were the two ends of a crossover, you'd be hard pressed to measure any difference. If they were at the ends of a passing loop, with the CDU at one end, then maybe there would be a problem.

Since the OP has a small compact layout, I doubt whether any such issue would present itself.

If he does have a problem, the solution is a thicker or duplicated wire to the furtherest.

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Here's what browsing can do - and I was using (mostly) incognito browsers. "Thank you?" AdChoices by Google:

 

This is the Wheeltappers page:

 

 

Just as well I pay my £12 a year to not get those ads!

I have a number of VCR cassettes of railway items, now the last player I had died, but I inherited a combined VHS/DVD LG player, but remote is missing. With this particular machine, you can't even start something without it. All you can do is insert tapes and discs and eject them!

I have a universal remote that claims to be combatable, but blowed if I can get it to work!

My brother MIGHT have the remote.

7 hours ago, Hogan22 said:

Based in Canberra. 

Ok, a fair distance from me!

More than adequate. They've gone up by a fair bit, since I last purchased such items.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/24vac-1a-unregulated-power-supply-bareends/p/MP3032

2 minutes ago, MJI said:

 

My VCRs had the correct time on them, but I hated when one drifted a few seconds out, had 3 on the go (all used).

 

 

Setting it to record something was pointless anyway, because the TV stations started/finished a few minutes out from the published times. Even if you allowed a bit of overlap, chances are that you would miss the start/finish of a show!

Having watched a movie on TV and finding that your recording stopped short, 2 minutes before the end, meant that you had wasted the time.

My wife used to go to see if she'd caught the end. My view was NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was MUCH worse, seeing the end of a movie, before you'd seen any of it!!

2 hours ago, Johnson044 said:

Please can anyone identify this motor? It has me baffled. It's part of an un-finished brass 3-rail or stud contact 00 gauge LBSCR I1 (or maybe I3?) that I picked up from Ebay a while back.  No markings at all except for "5" on top and bottom steel pole piece. It's 67mm long overall.

 

Thank you for any possible ideas folks.

 

John

This site might help.

https://www.binnsroad.co.uk/railways/romford/index.html

So where in Oz are you?

37 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

I like my clocks to show the right time if possible, and flashing LED displays drive me nuts (back in the 80s I seemed to be the only person in the known universe who bothered to set the clock on his vcr).

Ah yes, the number of people who couldn't record anything, if they weren't home to press the record button!

On 25/04/2024 at 19:37, PhilJ W said:

Southend pier has been cut several times.

https://www.southendtimeline.co.uk/southend-timeline-pier-diary-history-of-southend-on-sea.html

From the number of hits/fires, they should build a section that when something is coming towards it, opens out and starts the automatic sprinkler system!

4 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

If I were to claim that someone had stolen something, I don't think I'd pick a barrister...

I did some work for a number of years for a small legal firm and was told that they would always assist me if required. Never had to put that to the test and hope I never do!

9 hours ago, uax6 said:

 

Our Microwave spends most of its time turned off at the plug. The cooker would too, except that you have to set the time before the bleeding thing will cook, and its a pain in the arse....

 

Andy G

The microwave is usually one of the easiest things to set the clock on.

Some items such as ovens can be quite difficult to remember.

I'm one of these people who can't stand clocks showing the wrong time (I don't mind a few minutes, but those hours out - no way).

For non essential clocks, there is always the option, of black tape over them!

Here's another one in a series of defamation cases, by a media company which has lost, over a dog claimed to be stolen by a barrister.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-26/gina-edwards-awarded-150k-in-damages-defamation-cavoodle/103771666