"It's probably my fault but you know we have deviated from the digi meter thread here..."
At the risk of sounding like a brown nose, the way you pen your words is dead easy on the eye anyway. It all makes for damn interesting reading, so I don't think Bas will mind the slight deviation. Besides, his bro' is arriving on Monday - he's gonna be too busy with the sangria to even *think* about DMMs for a while.
Norfolk, eh? Nice part of the world. It's not exactly local to my neck of the woods, but who knows?.... maybe Ma Nature might intervene. Twould be good to share a puff, a pint and swap a few lies together. For instance, if ever we did get to rendezvous, the first thing I would ask you is why 6MHz? Why did they stick a 6MHz I.F. in there? It's fascinating. I mean, why that particular number? You know already, radio hams, etc, use their standard 10MHz / 455KHz, etc, itermediate frequencies, right? But why did they decide upon 6MHz for TV?
Naff question?
Yeah, sorry dude. But it's one of those Qs that nobody has ever explained - no reference books have been able to explain, neither.
So once you get past 6MHz, do you then drop down to the more usual 455KHz?... or am I confusing the audio I.F. with that of the visual I.F? (if you see what I'm struggling to ask).
I'll get a couple crates of apple juice sent your way if you don't mind taking time out to teach me something here.
All Rx'ed on what you said about wearing rubber shoes and all. I think we all get the point now. It's just, as Malcolmfrary said, working on a live circuit is sometimes the only option - exceptionally so in your case. My trade is the same as Malc Reade's late mate, so I can understand why he would have been working with live cables sometimes. Besides, the apprentice would normally take an hour just to go isolate the ciircuit, by which time it was quicker to work with it live anyway. It can still give you a tickle, but nowhere near as ropey as the sort of Vs you're playing around with.
Come to think of it, our old TV engineer, he gave me his copy of the Newnes transistor data book when I was around ten, maybe eleven. Funny how this memory should suddenly come home, but his words were along the lines of, "Keep one hand in yer pocket."... even though he never followed his own advice. I mean, he didn't have to, did he? He was the TV man, right? So he obvioulsy KNEW what he was doing. As far as I was concerned he was a God, so he could do whatever he wanted. Not only that - he was the dude that inspired me to buy one of those screwdrivers with a neon in the handle. My old momma went nuts when she the saw me jabbing the thing in the back of our TV. "Get outta there or you'll get yourself all kilt and frazzled!", blah. "Nah, I'll be okay. Watch THIS!....".
That warm glowey neon glow attracted me like a moth to a naked chick's bedside lamp.
When you stop to think about it, that little gun inside the tube, bombarding the screen with all those tiny electrons, scanning the entire screen at the rate of................. HOW many times per second??! Wow!... Now that IS clever.
Same deal with oscilloscopes if you think about it. Compare how they are now to back when the radar boys were first dabbling with those squigly traces on their CRTs.
Which is why I'm wondering why Don B hasn't mentioned sooner that he was a radar operator!
Jeezus Kriced! Where have you blokes been all these years??!
I need to lie down and smoke some medicine now.
I'll be moving to my new house enn-neee day now. Been busy scrubbing, painting, blah, and right now I'm cream-crackered. Not only that, since FLJ said: "she might cave in later to something else which I really do want....", I can't keep meself from wondering what the dude is up to now.
Let's us continue this conversation as soon as I'm in and back online.
Until then, keep your high tensions off her suspensions......................................