Moving on, finally!

[demag]

Sneaky but clever.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[CitroJim]

Nothing they could do could explain why this was the case (there was another dish within 100' of this site, and it had a good signal). Several years later (the same amount of time of the original objections) the signal returned.

Revenge! I like it Very subtle....

[Peter.N.]

I am fortunate enough to live in an area where no one can see my antennas, my HF is a balanced fed dipole about 200' long and nobody has ever commented about it, I get the occasional comment about the VHF beam because its probably easier to identify but only from visitors. My nearest neighbors ore about 1/4 mile away and 100' below me and they have never said a word.

Where we used to live in Kent I had a low band PMR antenna on a 20' pole, there were only three of us lived in this orchard but the man next door complained about it which resulted me having to relocate the TV business into the town - so I feel for those of you that have neighbor problems.

Peter

[CitroJim]

so I feel for those of you that have neighbor problems.

I do too... I say live and let live and so, luckily, do my neighbours, all of whom are the most wonderful you could hope for...

Seems it works both ways... My neighbours on one side of me used to rent the house but bought it from the landlord as soon as they could citing their next-door neighbour (me) as the main reason for buying and settling there

I'm chief cat looker-afterer when neighbours are away (even though I'm no lover of cats) and act as parcel receiver when neighbours are out at work and I'm not...

In return they all happily tolerate my car activities

[Peter.N.]

That sounds a good arrangement Jim.

Peter

[Hell Razor5543]

My Mum may well be going continuous cruising next year. One of the advantages of living on a narrow boat is that, if the neighbours from hell pitch up, you can pull up the mooring pins and pitch off!

[CitroJim]

My Mum may well be going continuous cruising next year. One of the advantages of living on a narrow boat is that, if the neighbours from hell pitch up, you can pull up the mooring pins and pitch off!

And always enjoy a different place... It has great appeal James... I thought seriously about doing same around 20 years ago...

[Hell Razor5543]

My Mum may well be going continuous cruising next year. One of the advantages of living on a narrow boat is that, if the neighbours from hell pitch up, you can pull up the mooring pins and pitch off!

And always enjoy a different place... It has great appeal James... I thought seriously about doing same around 20 years ago...

If anybody considers living on a boat I always say they should hire a boat for a year, and live on it for the full year (through everything that needs to be done, including essential maintenance work such as re-doing the blacking, and managing the cold weather). If they can handle it and still want to do it, great. If, however, they did not manage it well, they have saved themselves some heartache.

[CitroJim]

Excellent advice James

[Hell Razor5543]

Well, three of my family (Mum and two Brothers) now are living on narrow boats. You learn how to make the best usage of the minimal space available. Mum's library is below the deck (where ballast bricks would be).

The worst winter experience we have had was when Mum and I were out cruising over Christmas. The canals were frozen over, but 'The Black Cat' has icebreaker bows. Anything up to 2" was fair game. Less than 1" of ice would be easily broken, and ice thicker than that might cause the bows to ride up and over it, when it would then be broken by the weight of the boat ('The Black Cat' weighs 15 tonnes). The trickiest stretches where when another vessel had gone through a few days before. This meant that the open areas had frozen over again, and the ice had varying thicknesses where sheets had ridden over the ice and they had frozen together. Made for a bumpy, noisy ride. At the time Mum had not yet boxed in the engine (a 1.8l narrow head BMC diesel engine known as Eric, as it was painted bright red), and the noise of the ice breaking could drown out the engine. 'The Black Cat' is 45' long, the engine was 6' from us, and the ice was over 40' away, so you can guess how loud it was.

Mum says that everybody who owns a narrow boat with icebreaking capabilities should do it once (to learn how to do it), but if they do it again for fun they must be mad! A couple of months later she had to get 'The Black Cat' out onto the slipway to repair the blacking. It is surprising as to how sharp the ice can be.

[CitroJim]

That ice-breaking sounds a lot of fun James I'd love to do that...

Most weeks when I do the Willen Lake Parkrun I pop Gabriel in the car park serving a small residential wharf along the Grand Union... At 9 in the morning all the boats moored up have their wood-burning stoves going and very often their engines running.... I assume the engines are running to generate electricity as there's no electric hookup available on those particular berths...

It all looks pretty much idyllic to me... All the boats seem to have a bike as part of their essential kit

[Hell Razor5543]

That, and to keep parts moving smoothly. You will see that most (if not all) of the boats with their engines running will be in gear (and generating a prop wash). It helps keep the loading balanced. Some may have a dedicated generator, but most will use the engine alternator and an invertor for the mains. Mum's boat has several batteries. There is the cranking battery (once the engine is stopped it is taken out of the power loop, to make sure it has power available for starting the engine again), a couple of service batteries (two or 3, I cannot remember), and three to run the freezer (they need a LOT of power, especially as, due to space constraints, the freezer is in the engine room. Fortunately this space is not insulated, so when the weather is cold the freezer does not have to work so hard).

If Mum is heading through MK at any time, and I can get the time off (and her permission) I shall have to see if you can get to have a short cruise. I enjoy handling 'The Black Cat' as (according to the vernacular) she swims like a fish.

I came up with a useful trick when we had to make a 90 degree turn through the ice. I knew that the ice would hold the boat straight, so as we approached the turn (onto another canal) I pondered, and thought I had the solution. As we approached the turn I started weaving (to try and widen the channel we were creating) and then I went past the turn by a couple of boat lengths (much to Mum's consternation; "You missed the turn!", "I know, but I am trying something", "It had better work then"), backed up past the turn again, headed forward and then tried to make the turn. I was successful. Mum asked who had shown me that trick, and I explained that I had thought about it on the way in. I reckoned that I needed to create some space for the ice to move into as I made the turn, otherwise it would hold us straight. She grinned, congratulated me, and said that (if she needed to) she would have to remember it for the future.

[CitroJim]

If Mum is heading through MK at any time, and I can get the time off (and her permission) I shall have to see if you can get to have a short cruise.

James, that would be absolutely brilliant I'd really love it!