14-07-2018, 12:18 PM
Oh Yuk
Cheers.
Trevor
MM0KJJ. Member of, RSGB, GQRP, WACRAL, K&LARC.
Trevor
MM0KJJ. Member of, RSGB, GQRP, WACRAL, K&LARC.
That darn cat (not one of ours)
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14-07-2018, 03:38 PM
(14-07-2018, 11:17 AM)Craig Wrote: Did I post something and it vanished, or was I (as is entirely possible) hallucinating? Perhaps you were having a cat nap?
14-07-2018, 05:53 PM
This reminds me of when I was at school. A neighbour, retired from the electricity board, living in the house alongside farmland at the end of the street, fell out of favour with the landowner when he tapped off the electric fence on the farmland to protect his garden.
With my garden I prefer to keep the cats out, as they seem next to useless at keeping pests at bay. We had an infestation of mice a couple of years ago, when the cat population was at it's height. I have a theory that an increased cat population actually causes more problems than it stops. That was certainly so at one point last year when one of next door's cats was on the prowl and a rat, obviously scared by the prescence of the cat, tried to get into our house by the back door (glass, it was closed) when I was standing, clearly visible, just the other side of the door. Tracy
14-07-2018, 10:37 PM
Fortunately our cats were consummate ratters. The absolute scourge of rats, Cleo, is now 16 and ratting is a thing of the past for an effective age in her mid 80's. In fact she cannot get out of our garden now, so her days of pooping in the neighbours are long gone - so our own garden is feline ordure central.
But when we and our neighbours has a rat problem some years ago, we tried every trap (both "humane" and breakback) to no avail. Then Cleo got on their case. She got battered, because rats fight back - but the cat always won, eating a good half of the corpse. That sorted the rats out big time. Craig
15-07-2018, 06:04 PM
The cable system I worked on based on the Isle of Dogs was a Switched Star network.
Instead of a broadband signal being fed to the set top box in the subscriber's house, all of the intelligence was in the street and all signals were converted to the same VHF frequency for feeding to the home. The set top box was essentially a simple VHF-UHF up-converter and the electronics to communicate with the street cabinet. I was sent to investigate a fault which had eluded the service techs - intermittent random channel changing and interference in a block of flats. The line card in the street had been changed and the set top box but the problem still existed. I went to the subscriber's flat and found the TV switched to BBC1 where the cricket or tennis was being shown - I can't remember which. Anyway, the picture quality was perfect so the only thing to do was sit and wait. I gave the subscriber my mobile number, warned them that they would lose their picture but it would come back after a few seconds. I returned to my van, disconnected the sub's drop cable and inserted a directional coupler into the feed. I then reconnected the drop and ran a cable from the DC to my van and connected it to a 14" Grundig with multi-band tuner, so it tuned directly to the 64MHz output signal from the sub's card. I placed the set on top of a crate of various stuff, pointing into the van, closed the back door and sat down in the front where I now had an excellent view of the TV in the rear view mirror! After some while, the programme changed to the French channel TV5! A few second later and it went back to BBC1. Another few seconds and it went back to TV5 again! The one thing I noticed, though, was that the picture was perfect on both channels, which didn't quite fit the fault description. Then my mobile rang - it was the sub. I switched of the TV and disconnected my cable, then proceeded to the sub's flat. I was greeted with a dire picture bearing all the hallmarks of co-channel interference. Changing channels was difficult but worked after a few attempts - and then would revert to TV5! Back at the cabinet I started going through the often badly written labels on all the other drop cables. All those that I could read were for the terraced houses that lined the street. I got on the radio and asked how many subs did we have in the block of flats? Two - and I was given the other flat number and a foreign sounding name. I went to the other flat, explained who I was and asked if they were watching TV5. Yes! An elderly relative was staying with them who was a native French speaker and she was watching the cookery programme! So, what next? I went down in the lift and, while I was mulling this over - the problem was almost certainly in the block somewhere - turned the wrong way and found myself leaving by the back door instead of the front. I started to turn round and was greeted by a fantastic sight. The green duct emerged beside the doorway with a very large chop bone wedged in the top of it! The installers should have extended the duct up a couple of feet to where the sub's drop cables entered the building - but they hadn't (surprise, surprise!). A rat had obviously found the bone and attempted to take it home, but it got wedged. The bone was picked absolutely clean but so were the drop cables! The PVC sheath had gone, as had the outer braid and the inner dielectric. The only thing that remained was the 1.02mm copper plated steel centre conductor! So, the two conductors, stripped naked, ran parallel for about four inches and a quarter of an inch apart. Not a long distance for the low VHF frequencies to migrate to the other conductor! When changing channels, the request went back to the cabinet on a 10.7MHz carrier, which was also induced into the other drop cable and, if successful, managed to change channels on both cards! I removed the bone and pulled some slack out of the duct, then spread the bare conductors as far apart as I could. I checked on both subs and success! Both watching there own programmes with only the slightest trace of CCI. So, tidy up and return to base and arrange for an install crew to re-pull both drops and fit the missing piece of duct. (If you think this was OT, remember that it wasn't me that introduced rats into the conversation in the first place! )
15-07-2018, 06:28 PM
Sadly, the Vintage Wireless Museum no longer has a cat. Since Gerry died there has been no full time human servant at the Museum so the cat has unsurprisingly upped sticks and found a new home. We know not where.
Even when there was a cat there was still a rodent problem. Seen plenty of nibbled cable under the sheds. Fortunately all mains is in SWA, steel trunking or conduit. All new inter-shed cable will be in 50mm plastic ducts. The ducts terminate well above floor level inside the sheds. While these aren't 100% rodent proof they're very much better than nothing.
www.borinsky.co.uk Jeffrey Borinsky www.becg.tv
15-07-2018, 09:46 PM
In our street cats have never done any good at getting rid of rats. Dogs appear to do a much better job of getting them into the open.
I almost managed to kill one a few weeks ago.
16-07-2018, 06:18 AM
(15-07-2018, 09:46 PM)Refugee Wrote: In our street cats have never done any good at getting rid of rats. Dogs appear to do a much better job of getting them into the open. Well you know cats, why work hard, when you can get it done by some other means. Mike
16-07-2018, 09:19 AM
(15-07-2018, 09:46 PM)Refugee Wrote: In our street cats have never done any good at getting rid of rats. Dogs appear to do a much better job of getting them into the open. A dog? Or have you mutated?
16-07-2018, 10:41 AM
We inherited Mother-in-laws cat Pix when she passed away 2 years ago. I said "we're not having another cat!" But couldn't bare the thought of him going to a cats home so we had him: He fettles & gets brown & white fur everywhere & we have to hoover up every day or the house looks like a tip. He beats up all the neighbours cats & we have to apologise to their owners. He chased a neighbours sausage dog Sammy up their stairs where Sammy wee'd & poo'd on their bed as she was so frightened & we had to wash their bedding on a hot wash for them to say "sorry." We've been leaving the bedroom doors open for a through draft in this hot weather so he comes in & walks all over us as we try to sleep. He comes in his catflap in the back door then want's to go out the front & sits there meowing & making a fuss till someone lets him out. He sits on the garage roof staring at & judging passersby. He eats so much grub we'll go bankrupt, we've got him on Aldi cat grub but that's not much cheaper than the proper stuff. BUT somehow I've grown to love him & his daftness..
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