Machine registry

Perhaps a drone shoot could be an alternative to a clay shoot?

Mike

A good analysis Mick , as a child in the 50's, it took me several weeks of money earned from doing chores in our street to be able to build and fly a very simple control line model, and a half pint of KK diesel fuel had to last a month. Today's boy can have a radio controlled 'drone' at little cost, zero constructive effort, and annoy the neighbours without having to cycle several miles to a club flying field and be guided by others. The gratification is instant and the child probably will not have received adult guidance in operating it safely, so because of the extensive annoyance caused by widespread ownership, legislation follows. As you say, what else can the legislators do.

Political and economic meddling in other countries' affairs by the powerful nations of the world has bred many individuals who will use just about any means to fight those that they perceive to be their oppressor, and as just about anything can be used as a weapon , it is quite likely that more activities will be scrutinized and ultimately be regulated by government and its agencies. Perhaps it is because western, especially European countries are so averse to applying harsh punishment of lawbreakers, they seek to remove the means of harm instead.

A recent example is of course the legislation concerning acids, which has possibly caused irritation to many here and in micro-manufacturers throughout the land, but although it may bring some reassurance to the general public, it will achieve the square root of SFA in preventing those with malicious intent from creating harm to others.

Trevor

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With apologies for the snapshot quality ... I couldn't miss the opportunity for a 'Crocodile Dundee' moment:

**LINK**

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnww12a6W8o

.

Yes, it's only audio frequency; but ...

MichaelG.

Had I not missed MichaelG's Crocodile Dundee triode when first posted, I would have whipped this baby from my back pocket.

It's an ex-government 4-1000A beam tetrode. With 6000V on the anode and 45 cubic feet per minute of force air cooling, it'll deliver 4.6 Horsepower of FM Radio to an aerial.

Electronic valves are fascinating. Back in the day, they were leading edge technology. The glass bottle contains a better vacuum than exists in outer-space, and the electrode assembly is a miracle of precision engineering in exotic materials like tungsten, zirconium, strontium, vanadium, graphite, and cobalt. Parts were spot welded by operators looking through a microscope.

I've hankered after making a simple valve myself, just to see if it can be done.

Dave

It can be done. **LINK** and **LINK**

Had an industrial placement at English Electric Valve Co's Lincoln factory around 1984, working on microwave duplexer production and test. These were for pulsed radar with peak power in the 10s of kW - but average power much less than that. If I switched on the duplexer leakage tester I was developing without remembering to insert a duplexer, you could smell the ozone. Radar / microwave doesn't do anything insidious like sterilise you or give you the Big C on the sly - if anything you'd wonder why your skin was getting hot. I never noticed anything beyond the ozone smell.

It could have been a factory making plumbing fittings, as most of the materials were copper, brass, ceramics etc and processes were induction brazing, spot welding etc. The biggest valves they made then were giant thyratrons the size of hot water cylinders. IIRC, they also made parts that went into the Exocet missiles the Frogs had sold to the Argies.

A couple of years before this when I was at school, the Falklands War was going on and a friend and I constructed a 1kW linear amp for 2m band using a couple of valves rather like the finned one shown above. Power was 1kV and they lit up when you transmitted. Despite coupling this up to a large Yagi beam on a rotator, we failed in our quest to contact a family friend on a RN ship down there. Would have been something to talk about but it came to nowt. Quite possibly we would have miscalculated the transmission time but the distance was perhaps a bit ambitious.

Another valve we played with was one of those "acorn" valves. These were tiny by valve standards but we failed to prevent it from hooting uncontrollably at something like 500MHz. Transistors were a lot simpler to use!

Murray

UK gun law is now totally weird. You may have something like a blank firer, certain airguns e.g. Brocock or military surplus tucked in a cupboard or box could get you locked up. An example is that it's illegal to own a realistic replica of say a vintage "cap and ball", even in plastic unless you are a member of a recognised re-enactment group, movie maker or similar (painting it orange make it OK) but you can own a REAL one if you are a collector. There is definition of a collector but just get a couple . You can even own a semi-automatic pistol if the ammunition is no longer made commercially. There are few restrictions on muzzle loading weapons either so you can happily make that miniature cannon. Power for it is UK as long as you have less than 10kg. Of couse take any of these out in public and you will get locked up. Then again people have been locked up in the UK for having a "rocket launcher" the disposable tube from a Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW) which is probably less of a weapon than a piece of drain pipe. I've modified my daily carry Leatherman multi tool so the blades (which are accessible single handed without opening the body of the tool) no longer lock. carrying a locking knife (even a "Stanley" carpet knife) in public need a good reason. The authorities do monitor sales of some substances and equipment and that's not new. I personally have had direct experience of questions being asked. No problems because it was all legitimate. Even the new(ish) EPP licences don't apply to businesses or professionals.

Robert

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 21/09/2018 13:03:10