In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
Arny Krueger wrote:

If so, that's pretty shoddy. What's to stop it coming into
contact with the exposed hot and neutral screws on the outlet body as
the outlet is pushed back into the box?

Care and skill.

These items are at a premium in the electrical installation industry and
are often beyond the budget of the builder.

Inded, my daughter remarked just yesterday that after the eecltrician had
been in to do remedial work, after a rather major building project, the
painters had to return to attend to the walls which were then covered in
greasy hand prints.

Bill

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16

In article , Bill Wright
wrote:
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
David Looser wrote:
The original plan, drawn up in the early '60s, was to re-engineer
Bands 1 and 3 for 625-line operation once the 405-line service was
switched off; but it never happened. I guess that the powers that be
thought that the spectrum could be more usefully used for other
purposes.

More likely they thought that getting the free TV from France was too
much competition.

UHF only TV's could not receive it.

Geoff.


Do many people on the south coast actually bother with French
transmissions? I didn't see many south-facing aerials when I ventured
into that neck of the woods.

they only "bothered" with them when they casued interference to UK
channels, although a firm in Parkstone, Dorset, used to sell suitable
aerials and SECAM receivers.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16

On 2/6/12 1:16 PM, David Looser wrote:
"hwh" wrote in message
...
On 2/6/12 11:47 AM, Ian Jackson wrote:
The UK 405-line system was almost certainly kept going for far longer
than it really needed to be. There was probably only a handful of people
who could not receive the 625-line service. At the time, I recall that
many of us said that it would be cheaper simply to buy that last little
old lady, living in a remote valley in the middle of nowhere, a new TV
set and aerial.

Maybe it would have been better to have one 625 line network on VHF,
like most other countries used until analog closedown.
Of course going from 405 to 625 would have meant ther was no room for
two networks there.

The original plan, drawn up in the early '60s, was to re-engineer Bands 1
and 3 for 625-line operation once the 405-line service was switched off; but
it never happened. I guess that the powers that be thought that the spectrum
could be more usefully used for other purposes.

Of course it could, but harmonizing spectrum with the continent might
have been beneficial as well. Have these plans been published?

gr, hwh

On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 13:47:19h +0000, Ron exclaimed:

Oh good, we're going to argue about who can boil a kettle the fastest...
you couldn`t make it up!

It is now time to call in the experts to discuss whether or not
quickly boiled water tastes better than slowly boiled water,
depending of course on how it is going to be used, probably
for making tea.

This should keep the thread going for at least another 50 posts.

On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 12:49:17h +0000, Bill Wright wrote:

The natives can be rather peculiar I'm told.

Remember, as when viewing chimpanzees at the zoological gardens,
never stare directly at any of the natives because this freaks
them out, and limit eye contact as much as possible, especially
when riding the underworld railway.

On 06/02/2012 15:43, J G Miller wrote:
On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 13:47:19h +0000, Ron exclaimed:

Oh good, we're going to argue about who can boil a kettle the fastest...
you couldn`t make it up!

It is now time to call in the experts to discuss whether or not
quickly boiled water tastes better than slowly boiled water,
depending of course on how it is going to be used, probably
for making tea.

This should keep the thread going for at least another 50 posts.

Obviously water boiled with AC is far superior to water boiled with DC.
Alternating current jiggles the molecules up more.

Tea should always be made with boiling water.

Ron

On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 08:22:55h -0500, Arny Krueger wrote:

BBC's service to the US over cable seems to be pretty serviceable.

You do need to realize that many of the programs on BBC America
are not BBC programs or programs made for shewing on BBC, but
are in fact programs made by or produced for the commercial
tv network ITV, and possibly one or two for the state owned
commercial tv network Channel 4.

PBS is a nationwide consortium of TV and radio stations

Actually PBS is a separate organization from the local
tv stations, it is not a consortium, so local stations
affiliate with and pay PBS to carry the network programming
to fill their schedules.

And PBS is TV only. Public radio stations affiliate primarily to
NPR (some to American Public Media, and even fewer to Pacifica)
not PBS.

Except in a very few cases where they pay PBS to broadcast
the audio from PBS's Newshour.

In the case of the Detroit public TV station, WTVS, is a little
unusual at it has always been non-university owned (the Detroit Educational
Television Foundation) unlike neighboring WUOM Ann Arbor
(University of Michigan) and WKAR East Lansing (Michigan State University).

On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 14:49:39h +0000, David Looser wrote:

The response was "try PBS" which I did,

Rather difficult since there are no PBS *radio* stations.
PBS is a *television* network.

and found that about 50% of the output was simply a relay of the BBC
world service.

A typical sign of an Public Radio International affiliate station
(previously known as American Public Radio, the smaller rival
to NPR).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Radio_International

Carrying a PRI relay of BBC World Service is far cheaper than
paying for NPR programming, so many smaller public radio
stations prefer this option for obvious reasons.

On Monday, February 6th, 2012, at 12:35:44j +0100, hwh wrote:

Maybe it would have been better to have one 625 line network on VHF

Of course it would have been better for the public, but it was better
for the Thatcher administration and business friends and supporters
to sell off the spectrum for commercial use since higher profits
could be made that way instead of tv broadcasts.

"hwh" wrote in message
...
On 2/6/12 1:16 PM, David Looser wrote:

The original plan, drawn up in the early '60s, was to re-engineer Bands 1
and 3 for 625-line operation once the 405-line service was switched off;
but
it never happened. I guess that the powers that be thought that the
spectrum
could be more usefully used for other purposes.

Of course it could, but harmonizing spectrum with the continent might
have been beneficial as well.

Well it might, but in practice there don't seem to have been many problems
caused by not harmonising spectrum use with the the continent. To be honest
I think the government made the right decision, the limited VHF spectrum
available in Bands 1 & 3 would only just have been enough for one extra
625-line TV channel.

Have these plans been published?

I read them in a copy of the Journal of the Royal Television Society
published some time around 1961. Can't be more specific than that I'm
afarid.

David.