Memories and other stories from Pye etc PMR engineers.

[CambridgeWorks]

Earlier I mentioned a rather "strange" experience to be told later.
Well, back in 1977, I started as a temporary employee of Pye telecom on a 3 month contract covering for a close friend employee "Jim" who was needing a heart bypass. A pioneering surgery back then, even risky today. My duties were as a field engineer for S. Lincolnshire with the usual transit van mobile workshop.
Unfortunately Jim died of a perforated ulcer soon after the op. I was offered the job as full time, which I accepted.
One day, a few months after joining, I had a service call to an RX problem with an F27AM (Cambridge style) fixed station remote base, located at the top of our 100 foot water tower in town.
This involved mostly concrete staircase zig-zagging upward, followed by an iron spiral staircase up through the 250,000 gallon tank at the top.
Taking all my usual tools, I then tested said rx and discovered the mute relay was intermittent. The small blue plastic cased type I'm sure some people might recognise?
So, back down to my van, more tools, soldering iron and a new relay.
Back up again and commenced work.
However, the relay was held in place with I think an 8BA nut. Unfortunately this had a liberal coating of locking sealant on the thread and refused all attempts to budge using my small needle nose pliers.
Really cursing now, I started toward the staircase to return to my van for a box spanner. Not relishing another descent and ascent!
However, just in front of the last rung of the stairs, on my floor level was a small box spanner about 3" long! Picking it up and seeing it was never one of my own tools, I tried it and released the nut successfully. I was puzzled to say the least. It was right where I would have easily seen it at the top of the stairs on the 2 up and 2 down previous occasions. How come I did not see it before? It certainly saved the day!
To this day, it is unexplained. All I can say is "Thanks Jim, my friend".
Rob

[Biggles]

On the unexplained occurrences theme; I used to visit a radio site out in the dales which seemed to be able to create unexplained happenings. I was never at ease going there. Things would be mislaid and reappear if you were looking for them. A screwdriver would be put down then I would spend ten minutes looking for it, usually including going out of the room or back to the truck. It would seem to be just where you left it when you looked again. This happened more than once and only on that site. It used to freak me out. There is probably a psychological explanation but I found it unsettling. On another site near Kendal I had my head inside a nineteen inch rack and my mate was doing something else when all of a sudden a white rat popped it's head out, stared at me, then shot back down the cable duct. The mice and rats used to dig out the gravel in the cable trenches and try and get into the warm equipment room. Of course my mate didn't believe me but we reckoned that someone's pet rat had escaped in the picnic area car park nearby and made a beeline for the building. The same site used to be visited by the phantom cra**er who often left an unpleasant deposit on the doorstep. Someone must have squeezed through the fence to do that. Cars sometimes used to drive over the grass to get round the locked barrier and onto the track "for a bit more privacy", but if we turned up to the site they couldn't get out and had to sheepishly ask us to move our van. All in a day's work.

[G6Tanuki]

I had a comms-cabin [well, more like a repurposed garden shed...] on the roof of a long-since-demolished grain-store in South Oxfordshire. Inside were a couple of Tait VHF high-band repeaters and one low-band one, along with a UPS and loads of batteries.
When the system switched to batteries the repeater would end every repeated transmission with a low-frequency (around 220Hz) 'burp' as a notification that AC power had been lost.

One weekend the repeaters started burping and nobody I could raise at the site (night-shift, just 2 guys as 'machine minders') knew anything about power-problems so I went out there to investigate, arriving around 3AM.

Up the stairs to the top of the building, out across the icy flat roof to the comms-cabin. Unlocked the door, opened it - Waaah! I was hit in the face by a stench of ammonia and the hundreds of roosting Pigeons whose slumbers I'd disturbed and were now trying to get out!

It's hard to retain your composure (or vertical polarisation) when trying to stand on an icy roof in the dark while being bombarded by pigeons. I ended up with a seriously bruised bum.

[One of the windows in the cabin had broken and the entire local pigeon-polulation had moved in because it was a warm, dry space]

Once I was on my feet again I was then faced with digging through the inch-thick layer of stinking guano to identify the fault.

To this day I hate pigeons.

[Jon_G4MDC]

Decomposing Glys-glys are nice too.

What a pong.

[dseymo1]

Originally Posted by Biggles

On the unexplained occurrences theme; I used to visit a radio site out in the dales which seemed to be able to create unexplained happenings. I was never at ease going there. Things would be mislaid and reappear if you were looking for them. A screwdriver would be put down then I would spend ten minutes looking for it, usually including going out of the room or back to the truck. It would seem to be just where you left it when you looked again.

OT, But this seems to be an almost universal experience, which I've long believed would warrant proper scientific investigation.

[Station X]

It frequently happens to me. Put down a tool, then can't find it. It's generally right in front of me. Probably down to my assuming it's lost and searching a wide area rather than close by.

Of more concern is the fact that if I drop a small object on to the floor it goes right through it and disappears.

[mole42uk]

Originally Posted by Station X

Of more concern is the fact that if I drop a small object on to the floor it goes right through it and disappears.

That happens to me a lot. The annoying part is that it never happens to my much younger colleague.

[Biggles]

Pigeons! I used to have to go to a UHF repeater (Pye F496 if I remember rightly) which was situated in a loft, which you had to access from a ladder and a small hatch, after going through a Working Men's Club and up a couple of flights of stairs. It was known as the "pigeon loft" to all who had to go there. Not only was there a carpet of you-know-what to trudge through, alongside the dead one or two (why did they always chose to peg out on top of the repeater?) but trying to wriggle through a hatch carrying test gear was no easy task either.
Alan.

[suebutcher]

Originally Posted by mole42uk

That happens to me a lot. The annoying part is that it never happens to my much younger colleague.

Plastic modellers call this "eaten by the carpet monster". I don't think there's any such thing, it's just falling parts bouncing into convenient hiding places behind table legs or in floor gaps because they don't want to play with you.

[dave walsh]

Just seen Rob's story at post 61* [perfect for the middle of the night].
Physical objects do appear to teleport in or out sometimes. Mostly out but see the Enfield Poltergeist for falling pebbles from nowhere!

Re Halloween, try the 3 hour special from Radio 4xtra last Saturday [on I Player] "Diane Morgan Believes In Ghosts".

Dave W

[Biggles]

Most bench engineers develop an instant reflex reaction to snap the gap in their legs shut when a small part goes ping off the bench, hoping to catch it before it ends up among the biscuit crumbs and solder splashes on the floor. It works sometimes. I find that looking with a bright torch helps a lot when scratting about on your hands and knees under the bench. Or trawling the floor with a magnet on a bit of string for lost metallic parts.
Alan.

[Jon_G4MDC]

It hurts sometimes too!
Lots of labs have ESD floor tiles. Some are a flat grey colour - not too bad when you drop a part. The one I'm working on these days is speckled - what a pain! It's like looking for parts in the noise.

[CambridgeWorks]

Dave W.
I was looking at a google result of Enfield only lastFriday night! Along with "haunted" RAF sites. It included Duxford Control tower. (Look it up.)
Having a love of WW2 RAF technical achievements and aircraft, it was an outstanding end to my working life to have a service visit to do on air traffic comms on the DAY BEFORE I retired. Considering I only averaged one a year, if that, this was unusual. Where? Duxford tower of course. I was most privileged to be watching a Spitfire display practice in front of VIPs and media who were watching from the glazed gallery area. I was standing ON THE ROOF, just outside the control desk where I had been working. What a fantastic way to say goodbye to a lifetime of work! That experience will stay with me for the rest of my days. Together with a Taxy Run standing behind the pilot on the Lancaster NX611 "Just Jane" at east Kirkby. This was a special treat for my 60th birthday. My 50th, being driving "92 Squadron" locomotive on Nene Valley railway.
Alan.
OK on the legs fast reaction. Works to this day. I remember once in the mobile workshop of my Pye transit van with a W30AM in pieces on the bench but all connected and powered. The Mic. PTT in usual place between my knees so as to keep my hands free for alignment. Gripping the chassis with both hands to turn over and touching the inverter txfmr secondary tags, then as I moved, accidentally squeezing my knees, ....and the ptt! That high frequency ac HT certainly burns as well as shocks!
Another lesson learned back in 1968 at Pye Haig rd, on Westminster TX test, was that despite being "only" a solid state pa of only 5W, keep fingers well clear of RF hot spots.
Rob

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Most bench engineers develop an instant reflex reaction to snap the gap in their legs shut when a small part goes ping off the bench, hoping to catch it before it ends up among the biscuit crumbs and solder splashes on the floor.

Instinct is instinct. When you desolder something which pings-off into your lap, don't close your legs if you're wearing shorts.

Trust me on this.

[mole42uk]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Most bench engineers develop an instant reflex reaction to snap the gap in their legs shut

Exactly why we were taught never to leave the scalpel on the edge of the bench

[mole42uk]

Originally Posted by suebutcher

Plastic modellers call this "eaten by the carpet monster". I don't think there's any such thing, it's just falling parts bouncing into convenient hiding places behind table legs or in floor gaps because they don't want to play with you.

Now I feel so sad. I thought they did want to play with me. I didn’t know they were hiding.

[G6Tanuki]

Again not Pye-specific, but in the 1980s I was one of the marshals who ran the communications for the Lombard RAC Rally. Which involved lots of low- and high-band VHF radio stuff [86 and 169MHz for stage-control and 'medic' services, along with amateur-band 70- and 144MHz for those of us with suotable licences, and CB too]. At the time my 'fun' car was a long-wheelbase Land-Rover which had the radios, a microwave, a kettle, a toaster and a small 12/240V generator in the back, as well as sleeping-space [a wooden board and an air-mattress...].

On one occasion I was assigned to provide repeater-service to a stage on the Sennybridge training area. So well in advance of the event I parked-up in my assigned place, put up the telescopic mast with the bunch of high-band dipoles and 86MHz collinear on top, started the generator and did a brew-up, it being 8 hours before the event started.

After an hour or so I heard a scuffling in the dark. I thought it was probably a deer, or a badger so shone my half-million-candlepower handheld lantern into the bushes.

And four soldiers emerged from the wet undergrowth! Of course, I offered them a mug of freshly-brewed British Standard tea [strong, milk&two sugars] which really freaked them, specially when I offered to cook them toast.

Seems they were on some sort of recruitment-to-Special-Forces survival exercise and had been out on the ranges for a week or so before becoming lost.

They refused my offer of calling the range-commander [we all had a Westminster on the 'Red' channel for obvious reasons] and after I gave them a proper map-reference they thanked me for their tea and slunk back into the bushes.

Sometime I should narrate the time I had to cook tinned Ravioli in an electric kettle.

[Biggles]

In a previous job one of the sites I had to look after was up behind Windermere, in the forest. Nothing unusual about that, as a lot of sites were surrounded by trees. Anyway, I often had that awful feeling of being watched and followed as I went about the business of fetching gear from the van etc. All well and good during the day but when darkness fell it was a little more spooky. Every now and again you would hear a twig snap, or a branch fall off a tree. As there were deer and other wildlife it was pretty normal. Until, one day I was talking to a local character about the trials and tribulations of site work and he said in broadest Cumbrian; "Ohhh that'll just bi the la'al moonk whe hants that plaice, eh?" Thank you very much for that snippet of information mister, I could think of nothing else next time I was there in the dark on my own.
Alan.

[julie_m]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Most bench engineers develop an instant reflex reaction to snap the gap in their legs shut when a small part goes ping off the bench, hoping to catch it before it ends up among the biscuit crumbs and solder splashes on the floor. It works sometimes.

Oh, good -- I'm glad it's not just me who does this! It's definitely an "emergency mode" reaction -- it hurts sometimes!

Originally Posted by Biggles

I find that looking with a bright torch helps a lot when scratting about on your hands and knees under the bench. Or trawling the floor with a magnet on a bit of string for lost metallic parts.

Definitely. Vintage torches may look lovely; but vintage illumination technology is invariably dim. As technology has improved, we have just made more and more light. Modern battery technology can cram moure Joules into a cubic metre, and LEDs can remain bright until the batteries are properly spent. A good quality, modern LED flashlight is indispensible! Cheap torches are a false economy. Dodgy battery contacts, poor beam patterns and cheap tungsten filament bulbs can really ruin your day -- or your night .....

[suebutcher]

If the floor's flat, use the torch to produce raking light which will highlight small parts. (Of course it'll also highlight dust and crumbs, and raking light is useless on a carpet.)