What were your first thoughts?

[JTL]

I think my first thought was ... I'm falling to bits!
Never had much wrong with me until I stopped smoking followed pretty quickly.

 

[Grateful]

What is the picture in your Av?

My main hobby is building radios the old way (using tubes, or "valves" as you say in the UK). The photo shows two of those radios. I really must get back to the hobby. Unfortunately it is a totally sedentary hobby, and -- since my diagnosis -- has been replaced by physical exercise.

 

[JTL]

My main hobby is building radios the old way (using tubes, or "valves" as you say in the UK). The photo shows two of those radios. I really must get back to the hobby. Unfortunately it is a totally sedentary hobby, and -- since my diagnosis -- has been replaced by physical exercise.

Thanks for the rapid reply!
I suspected they were radios but I was thinking radio ham.
Not sure such a thing still exists with the advent of the internet.
Yes I'm old enough for valves and tubes to have been normal.
Can you still get these things easily enough?
My hobby is making electronic music that too is sedentary apart from when its a fast paced rhythmic one and I get to stomp my feet under the desk!

 

[Grateful]

I suspected they were radios but I was thinking radio ham. Not sure such a thing still exists with the advent of the internet.... Can you still get these things easily enough?

Yes they are ham radios -- the receiver on the left, the transmitter on the right. They are built from designs published in the late 1960s. With this simple, home-made equipment, the communication is done using Morse Code. Ham radio is alive and thriving, with the number of licensed amateur radio operators still growing steadily at least here in the USA.

It is still possible to get just about all of the parts to build these old-style radios, or you can buy modern, very sophisticated equipment. I prefer building stuff from the "vintage" era because it uses "discrete components" rather than integrated circuits, so that you can tell exactly what each part's function is.

 

[Guzzler]

I basically bet my doctor £1 that the tests were wrong. I remember laughing in his face.

That reminds me, I owe that locum £1.

 

[Grateful]

That reminds me, I owe that locum £1.

At one point I asked my doctor if the initial-diagnosis test could be erroneous. He got rather shirty with me and said in fact, they had run the test twice, to be sure. I wish he had told me that in the first place, but never mind.

 

[JTL]

Yes they are ham radios -- the receiver on the left, the transmitter on the right. They are built from designs published in the late 1960s. With this simple, home-made equipment, the communication is done using Morse Code. Ham radio is alive and thriving, with the number of licensed amateur radio operators still growing steadily at least here in the USA.

It is still possible to get just about all of the parts to build these old-style radios, or you can buy modern, very sophisticated equipment. I prefer building stuff from the "vintage" era because it uses "discrete components" rather than integrated circuits, so that you can tell exactly what each part's function is.

You should post in the hobbies or craft threads.
Don't want to hijack this thread anymore .... sorry folks.

 

[sweetbloodsher]

I am WAAAAAAY too old to get type 1 diabetes; then, I hope my daughters and granddaughter don't have the gene. Then, thank God I'm still alive (later the hospital report revealed my kidneys were failing).