Brand new grease guns are relatively inexpensive these days, but they tend to be quite large and unwieldy for smaller jobs; they are large as they are normally refilled using long plastic cartridges of grease. Medium sized vintage grease guns made by the likes of Enots, Tecalemit, Wanner and Rom Pom are available at autojumbles […]
AVO No 1 Radiac Survey Meter
AVO No 1 Radiac Survey Meter…or Geiger Counter If you attend Ham Radio Rallies in the UK, especially in the North East of England, you will know Alan Clegg a.k.a. ‘The Valve Man’. He bears a striking resemblance to Santa Claus and, quite often, helps people find wonderful things that bring a smile to their […]
Volvo V70 Parking Brake Service Required
If you are lucky enough to own a Volvo V70, especially the later P3 version, you may go to start it one day and get a warning message saying ‘Parking brake Service required’. I recently read a post on a Facebook group in which another owner was asking what caused this. The various potential faults […]
Yaesu FT101 Mains Connector Wiring for U...
I recently bought an original Yaesu FT101 in an ‘as seen’ condition. There was no accessory socket blanking plug or mains connector supplied with it. WARNING: this information is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis. You undertake the wiring of this socket of your own volition on the understanding that you are competent to do so […]
How to repair an IKEA 3.5v 600mA Power S...
Some time ago I bought a clip-on lamp to use on my workbench. It was a bright white LED lamp that created no noticeable RF interference and it had a bendy, segmented neck, so I could angle the light where I needed it. It was ideal, although now and again it would dim a little […]
How to start a motorcycle fitted with an...
When I bought my 1954 Norton International Model 30, it came fitted with its original Amal 10TT9 carburettor. I asked a few people about it on the relevant forums; some loved them, but many did not. I did try the bike with the 10TT9 on it; cold starting was relatively straight forward, but I simply […]
Are North East company Domaincheck in tr...
I’ve used Domaincheck, aka Zebra Electronics Limited (company number 03033478) for many years. They’ve hosted my various domains, e-mails and websites, along with those of my clients when I was in business. I continued to use them after I retired in 2013. Nick Collins set it all up over twenty years ago and I got […]
A Myford Super 7 Lathe – for making roun
My Dad used to have an engineering workshop that included things like lathes, milling machines, drilling machines and the like. After he passed away we sold his workshop equipment at Mum’s request. I wish I’d kept his green Myford lathe, but I wasn’t ready for one at the time. I’ve needed various bits making over […]
Last FT-818ND from Yaesu UK stows away i...
All this talk about the Yaesu FT-818ND being ‘end of production’ made me wonder what’s coming next…my guess is it will be a touch screen job to rival the wonderful ICOM IC-705. That’s fine, but it won’t be as slim and compact as the FT-818ND…which of course is the successor to the FT-817ND and original […]
Wideband Modification for your Yaesu FT-...
The FT-817 from Yaesu has been one of the most popular portable QRP radios ever made; the discontinuation of the FT-818, its successor, was announced in early 2023. They give you essentially, a shack in a box. Full HF coverage plus 6m, 2m and 70cm, using all popular operating modes: USB/LSB/CW/AM/FM/Packet/PSK-31/RTTY. Power output is up […]