Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[myglaren]

The dash is also the same as my dad's 1100, the first in Whitby and one of the first in the country.
302 CVN.
He loved the registration as he worked in the 302 building of the Fylingdales BMEWS.

[CitroJim]

He loved the registration as he worked in the 302 building of the Fylingdales BMEWS.

Bet he needed a big driver when playing with those big golf balls

[myglaren]

All gone now.

[CitroJim]

All gone now.

Buried under houses?

That seems to be about par for the course these days

[myglaren]

Replaced with a phased array radar.

Haven't been to this one but did work at the former one for a bit. Had a tour of it too. The antennas were huge, the size of a football field, and would 'swish' back and forth very quickly and silently, very impressive. As was the blue 'flame' that could be seen through the observation ports in the waveguides.

Less impressive was almost getting taken out by a golf ball -a real one - when entering one of the support buildings, the communications centre with America. Yanks playing indoor golf there, lethal.

This one was notable for its effect on a Subaru that was owned by a Whitby shop owner who lived in Malton. As she passed it, the car would die and she would call the AA to rescue her.
They couldn't find a fault and having removed it from the vicinity of the radar, it would be perfectly OK. She had to use an alternative route until she changed cars.

I imagine it is redundant now, superseded by satellite technology.

[mickthemaverick]

This one was notable for its effect on a Subaru that was owned by a Whitby shop owner who lived in Malton. As she passed it, the car would die and she would call the AA to rescue her.
They couldn't find a fault and having removed it from the vicinity of the radar, it would be perfectly OK. She had to use an alternative route until she changed cars.

Next time I come up there Steve I must do a drive by and see if all is well!!

[myglaren]

Haven't heard of anything similar recently.

[Zelandeth]

The Morris had a pretty horrible miss when it arrived here. It felt to me like fuelling so I did the right thing and immediately looked at the ignition system.

Mmm...crusty.



This much oxide gunk was removed just by hand.



That definitely won't have been helping anything.

Took it inside and gave the terminals a going over with the little brass brush attachment on the Dremel. Nae perfect, but a million times better than they were.



Not having about 1/16" of solid crust on should help. Pretty standard stuff for a car that's not in daily use and sits around for long periods.

The points were similarly crusty so got cleaned as well. Didn't mess with the gap as it looks reasonable and getting to the feeler gauges would involve moving three cars and I just didn't have time.

Only had a brief run round the block, but definitely feels like it's running smoother and is just more willing.

Hoping to use the car for tomorrow's local errands so will get a better idea of if it's now running as it should be again then.

Really does feel like with the state of the roads these days that a Hydrolastic sprung car (or oleopneumatic Citroen) really is the answer to comfort. Yes the body control is sometimes a little... interesting, and it can be bouncy on the wrong surface - but I'll take that occasional lack of composure over smashing the fillings out of my teeth any day of the week.

[CitroJim]

Good work Zel

I must say that new phased radar array is nowhere near as easy on the eye as the radomes were...

[Zelandeth]

Oh joy. Apparently I'm going to need to go find some black market solder now.

Have lead free stuff in stock already and it's generally used for new applications - but it and leaded solder really don't mix well and about 90% of the kit I work on already has leaded stuff in it. So for repair work I'm not interested in having to totally desolder and redo every joint I touch.

[CitroJim]

Oh gosh Zel That is just so OTT...

I bet EvilBay will happily provide

[Hell Razor5543]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/317855061023 ... R_iZnb6naA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/136999352065 ... R_iZnb6naA

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357800333648 ... R_qZnb6naA

[Zelandeth]

Further to the putting together the PDP-11, I needed something appropriate to actually interface with it. Terminal emulator on a modern PC is entirely too boring, though thankfully something suitable was sourced from the same place as several of the cards.

Step forward, one slightly sorry for itself looking DEC VT 100.



It's a "bit yellowed."



Not to mention filthy.

Though there's zero screen burn, and a quick look inside suggests that this one doesn't have mega numbers of hours on it.



Also has an expansion card of some description.



Be interesting to see if that adds any useful capabilities.

Job for another day though, I literally just had time for a really quick visual inspection.

Another piece of the puzzle arrived today (after some delays thanks to fun with Royal Mail) in the form of an appropriate keyboard for it.



You *can* use a modern PC one, but it involves having to build an Arduino based converter as they communicate in totally different ways...



...And I really don't have the patience for messing about like that. Plus using a modern keyboard would defeat half the point of having sought out an era appropriate terminal in the first place!

Need to do some basic electrical checks and dig out a cable for it, but I'd not honestly be surprised if this just works as they're built like tanks and tended to be stupidly dependable - and usually still are, physical or water damage non withstanding, and I seem to have escaped that from what I can see.

Will I also feel the need to use this to log in to my main workstation PC once it's up and running just because I can? Or course!