Advice, please
 

On Apr 24, 6:37*pm, "Steve Thackery" wrote:
I remember once we must have spent half an hour farting about trying to
untangle them without success.

SteveT

Years ago Donny Council refurbed all the council houses that stood
around a 'pan handle' cul-de-sac in Dunscroft. While the scaffolding
was up all the phone wires, which ran to a central pole, were
disconnected and coiled up at the pole. When they were reconnected it
was done with no reference to their original destinations, and for a
while the tenants were answering each other's phone calls and running
from house to house with messages. I think the council electricians
did the work, so the council wouldn't have to pay BT.

Bill

Advice, please
 

On Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:04:45 +0100, "Ivan"
wrote:

IIRC there was no purchase tax on a van...

That's quite right and vans were limited to 60 mph. In 1962, I was fined
£5 at Cardigan Magistrates Court for exceeding 60 mph when I thought one
of my friends was chasing me on his motor bike. It turned out it was the
local policeman which was a bit unfortunate. However, when it was
reported in the Tivyside Advertiser I used it as proof that my van could
do more than 60 mph.

Happy days :-)

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

Advice, please
 

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Steve Thackery"
saying something like:

Most of the vans were those little Bedford things, which were really just a
van version of the Vauxhall Viva. They had seriously detuned engines but
the best gearbox I've ever used.

They didn't really - they were just rubbish. 1152cc of gut-wrenching
powah, iirc. I had an ex-PO HA van for a couple of years, sometime in
the late 70s and it wasn't too bad, but istr the later ones had a whole
extra 100cc.

Advice, please
 

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...

They didn't really - they were just rubbish. 1152cc of gut-wrenching
powah, iirc. I had an ex-PO HA van for a couple of years, sometime in
the late 70s and it wasn't too bad, but istr the later ones had a whole
extra 100cc.

Yes, we agree about the engine. But the road tests from around that time
always praised Vauxhall's gearbox, which was used in the Viva, the HA, and
probably a few other bits and bobs. And I have to agree - it had the best
manual change I've ever used. Wasted on Vauxhall crap, to be honest.

SteveT

Advice, please
 

In article , Steve Thackery
scribeth thus

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
.. .

They didn't really - they were just rubbish. 1152cc of gut-wrenching
powah, iirc. I had an ex-PO HA van for a couple of years, sometime in
the late 70s and it wasn't too bad, but istr the later ones had a whole
extra 100cc.

Yes, we agree about the engine. But the road tests from around that time
always praised Vauxhall's gearbox, which was used in the Viva, the HA, and
probably a few other bits and bobs. And I have to agree - it had the best
manual change I've ever used. Wasted on Vauxhall crap, to be honest.

SteveT


We had one of the olde Viva vans at the TV shop many aeons ago. Once it
blew a head gasket and one of the mob who worked there used to tune
motors in his spare time so the guv gave the job to him and jezzzz ..
did it shift when he'd finished with it, and yes the box was an
excellent one:)..
--
Tony Sayer

Advice, please
 

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

.........and jezzzz ..
did it shift when he'd finished with it, and yes the box was an
excellent one:)..

What a dreadful engine, though, really. Do you recall the rockers? Instead
of forged rockers running on a rocker shaft, like most decent engines, they
were pressed steel "boats", each rocking on its own stud in the cylinder
head. I recall adjusting the valve clearance by raising or lowering the
"boat" on the stud. Not in itself a bad idea, of course - perhaps the one
good thing that came out of that approach.

Sorry - I've indulged myself and this is WAY off-topic. The OP has been
very tolerant!

SteveT

Advice, please
 

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Steve Thackery"
saying something like:

Yes, we agree about the engine. But the road tests from around that time
always praised Vauxhall's gearbox, which was used in the Viva, the HA, and
probably a few other bits and bobs. And I have to agree - it had the best
manual change I've ever used.

Oh yes, the g/box was very good - light, crisp, precise. Until the
clutch cable broke and that was the start of the nightmare.
Doing a clutch cable by the book took ages and required the dexterity of
a monkey - but the shortcut involved cutting a slot above the cable
entry at the bulkhead and took half an hour.

Advice, please
 

Steve Thackery wrote:

BCF was a totally brilliant extinguisher for vehicle fires (is it banned
now?).

Still available (required even?) for aviation use.

Advice, please
 

Steve Thackery wrote:

BT has no USO in its licence for broadband, and so it will -
and must, as far as the shareholders are concerned - maximise its
revenue/investment ratio. Which obviously leads them to target those
very same geographical areas already identified by the cable companies.

But would the take-up rate be higher if they offered higher speeds in
the areas *not* covered by cable, rather than offering it in areas where
anyone who wants high speed is likely to already have cable?

Advice, please
 

In article ,
Andy Burns wrote:
Steve Thackery wrote:

BT has no USO in its licence for broadband, and so it will -
and must, as far as the shareholders are concerned - maximise its
revenue/investment ratio. Which obviously leads them to target those
very same geographical areas already identified by the cable companies.

But would the take-up rate be higher if they offered higher speeds in
the areas *not* covered by cable, rather than offering it in areas where
anyone who wants high speed is likely to already have cable?


while the local percentage rate might be higher, the total numbers will be
much less.

around 30 years ago, I went to a seminar on cable tv. There were two
speakers. the first from the, then, state-owned BT. He said that they
would provide cable television for at least 90% of the population, the
second speaker from an existing cable tv co said that they would only go
into densely populated areas and there would have to be an 80% take up. As
a result probably less tahn 60% of the whole popuation would get cable tv.

BT are now run by commercial constraints which are similar to that cable
company's.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16