Category Archives: Ramblings

Thoughts on interesting, amusing or annoying topics

Ramblings

Solar Eclipse 12th August 2026

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There was a lot of media hype about this eclipse because it would be about 91 % in London and 93 % in Cardiff.

We went onto the church tower roof in Epsom and had a magnificent view through special Eclipse viewing glasses from about 18:50 to 19:20.  It was a bright, hot day with a cloudless sky, so no risk of any obscuration by clouds, even though the sun was quite low in the western sky, although it was not at all a sunset sky in my location.

We saw the crescent left by the moon’s  shadow move across from about the 10 o’clock position, round the top edge of the moon and down to the 4 o’clock position during this time. Of course, both the sun and the moon are moving in an arc and it wasn’t clear to me which was moving most quickly, although it felt like the sun was moving more quickly.  I think this must be the case, because the moon and the sun both move in an east to west direction (due to the earth’s rotation).

I’ve seen some web sites saying the moon moves across the sun’s disc from right to left (i.e. west to east)  whereas in reality the sun is moving behind the moon from left to right!

Although it was called a ‘deep eclipse’, it did not go anything like dark: indeed cloudy days are often a lot darker. But it was spectacular to watch and I’m delighted to have seen my first real solar eclipse after all these decades.

To add to the thrill of the night sky, later on we saw a lot of shooting stars in the Perseid meteor shower.

Unfortunately neither of these events is easy to photograph without special equipment, and we didn’t want ot spoil the experience of either by struggling instead with technology.

Ramblings

Smart Water Meter Surge Pricing

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A news item today states that a water company in East Anglia has already tried out surge pricing on water meters. So now we know the real reason for introducing ‘smart’ water meters.

Apparently, the water companies are testing out different charging models between now and 2030. The BBC has kept this rather quiet.

In one trial, the price increases as you use more water – this doesn’t need a smart meter though.

They are also suggesting that they will charge more in the summer than in the winter.

Ofwat says that overall the water companies will not be allowed to use this system to increase their total revenue – lower charges per litre in the winter will be offset against higher charges per litre in the summer. But of course, the system will mean that they don’t need to supply so much water in the summer, so this will reduce their charges, probably by a great deal, and thereby increase their profits.

Who says that increased population is a good thing?

Phones, Ramblings, Scams

EE Marketing Trick

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I have a Galaxy A14 smartphone on an EE pay-monthly contract that I manage for a disabled relative. Their last couple of phone bills have each been more than £90 and when I looked into it, this was because they were using Directory Enquiries to get the numbers they wanted to call.  I explained how to store popular numbers in the phone but this was too much hassle for them, especially as they never saw the phone bill, even though each enquiry was costing between £5 and £12!

I’d set a spend cap of £20, so why wasn’t this kicking in? Because calls to Directory Enquiries are excluded from the price cap.  What? Other companies such as O2 do include such calls.

But that wasn’t all.  When I logged into my account, it stated that the contract was unlimited calls, 5 GB data ‘£25 per month’, yet I was being charged £36 per month plus £50 directory enquiries!!!

When I asked how this could be, I was told that ‘Unlimited calls … £25 per month..’ was the name of the contract, not the amount.

This is absurd. It is as if I advertised a plane ticket to the USA as ‘a £200 everything included’ ticket, and then sent the client a bill for £1,000, saying ‘You should have read the small print, Sir! £200 is the name of the ticket, not the price!!’  Can you believe it?? And EE is a company owned by BT, who clearly no longer seem to believe in British values.

That is all bad enough, but it got even worse.  Their app gave some blurb about how much I could save on mobile phone contracts with them, because I was an EE home broadband customer. So I asked the guy on the phone what was the best deal he could offer me.  He claimed that he had a really good deal that included a Samsung Tablet for only £28 per month on a 2-year contract. I reminded him that my relative can’t use a tablet and I already have an iPad.  After pressing him, he offered a series of slightly cheaper deals, but I got too distressed by his attempts to be clever and hung up after telling him that I would go into an EE or O2 shop.

There, I got a deal for unlimited calls and data on a rolling monthly contract for £16 a month.  I’m not saying I couldn’t have got something even cheaper if I’d shopped around, but this was less than half the price I’d been paying and without a long-term buy-in.

I can’t express how disappointed I am by their marketing tactics, plus I no longer have any trust in them. How the mighty are fallen!

Radio, Ramblings

BBC Longwave Shutdown – 27 June 2026

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The BBC shut down its 1500 m, 500 kW, long wave transmitter at Droitwich on 27th June 2026.  The  transmission was at 200 kHz until 1st February 1988, when it was changed to 198 kHz to comply with international agreements that all radio transmissions should be at multiples of 9 kHz to avoid mutual interference.

Droitwich

The longwave transmission was principally from Droitwich, in the English Midlands, established in 1934, replacing older facilities at Daventry.  The aerial (antenna) was a centre-fed T, hung between two 700 ft (200 m) high steel lattice masts which were 180 m apart.  The transmission power was 500 kW and could be received across most of Western Europe, although there were boosters at Westerglen, and Burghead in Scotland, to give coverage to the Northern Isles and Shetland.

It may be noted that the site is now owned by Arqiva Ltd, who are ‘the sole provider of national terrestrial television (Freeview) and national radio transmission in the UK.’  That company is majority-owned by ‘investment groups’ such as Australian pension funds.

It is perhaps no co-incidence that the historic buildings have already been demolished (thereby obviating any possibility for ‘listed’ status), but there is some campaign to list the aerial masts.

Reasons for shutdown

Publicity about the shutdown implied that the transmitters were life-expired, being 90 years old, using amplifier valves that had to be specially made and consuming huge amounts of power.  There were two output valves in each unit each rated at 250  kW and cooled by boiling water in the ceramic cooling jackets.

However, this is by no means the whole story.  The installation had been updated several times, particularly during the Second World War, when it formed an important part of the war effort.

Moreover, the original installation had been replaced in 1960 by war-time transmitters that had been previously used near Hull for overseas broadcasting. These were about 40 % efficient, compared with 22 % for the original transmitters. At the same time, the power supplies were updated to more efficient transformer and rectifier systems to replace the motor-generator sets.

Since the original buildings had been demolished, the electronics must also have been re-housed.

The main driver for closure seems to be that with much reduced numbers of listeners, it was deemed not to be cost-effective to renew the installation, even though it carried other services, including being a frequency standard, and used for radio teleswitching of off-peak electricity services.

The move was in part due to the long-wave platform being owned and operated by a third party [Arqiva] and, in the broadcasters words, “it is coming to the end of its life as a technology”, with alternative digital platforms “offering enhanced quality listening”.

This is not unreasonable for a public service broadcaster, any more than we would expect a public railway service still to be run by steam locomotives.

In April 2024, the BBC migrated their flagship Radio 4 long-wave broadcasts to the various online and digital platforms; DAB, Digital TV and BBC Sounds.

An extension of broadcasting from Droitwich until June 2025 was negotiated by the energy industry, which relies on the BBC carrying the Economy 7 teleswitching signal on BBC Radio 4 LW. There are believed to be nearly a million homes and businesses still reliant on older meters that use the teleswitching signal.

These can now be provided by other systems such as the time and and 60 kHz carrier frequency signal from Anthorn.

In this context, it is worth pointing out that Anthorn also has a VLF military transmitter operating at 19.6 kHz and output power of 550 kW, requiring an elaborate aerial with a central mast 748 feet high and operating at several hundred kilovolts.

Second World War

The  long-wave T-aerial had no upward radiation, so could not be used for direction finding by enemy aircraft. However, the high-powered Medium Wave transmitters on-site were used for programmes in many European languages, for ‘The Voice of America’ and for Morse transmissions to resistance groups in occupied countries.  These had a vertical wire aerial which the enemy could use for direction finding.  RAF Fighter Command could order various groups of synchronised transmitters to close down, thus confusing enemy navigators. Later on the Germans used their domestic transmitters for guidance, and the long-wave transmitter was used to issue a jamming signal.

Historical Details of Droitwich

There is a fascinating BBC film from 1935 (restored by the British Film Institute) showing the construction of the station here: Droitwich – The world’s most modern long wave transmitter

Anyone watching it now will be interested in the smart hats and clothing of the workers, the manual labour of the riggers and especially the brief shot of the open 3-phase knife switches of the generators casually being closed with a fizz and a flash!

A paper Droitwich Calling written by John F Phillips of the BBC in 1994 and revised 2006, give a detailed history of the origin and development of the transmitter, and the details of the 1934 installation given below are taken from this.

It is interesting that there is no mention of how programmes were sent from the BBC studios to the transmitters, although it is known they were routed through Post Office landlines, as this gave the Government ultimate control of broadcasts, because they could just pull the plug!

Power supply

The power was originally generated on site by four 750 hp (550 kW) six-cylinder marine-type diesel engines, each driving a 470 kW alternator, which would be enough power for 5,500 homes.  In fact, the transmitter consumed about 1.1 MW under normal load. The power supply was later connected to the National Grid by two separate feeders and the generators were kept for emergency use.

There was a high-tension room containing duplicate mercury-arc rectifiers each with an output of 600 kW at 20 kV, along with two motor-generators each capable of delivering 300 kW at up to 12 kV for the medium-wave transmitter on site. The 415 V 3 ph supply to the rectifiers was controlled from a panel by open knife switches which were changed over daily – their blades were frequently felt to check for overheating!

There were filament current and grid bias motor-generators in the transmitter hall.

Elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the paralleling of power supplies and to prevent access to the transmitters when the power was on.

The transmitting valves were water-cooled, with the cooling coils being situated over a 300,000 gallon cooling reservoir.

Modulation

The long-wave transmitter employed ‘Series modulation’, whereas the medium-wave transmitters on-site use a low-power choke control (Heising) modulation. Series modulation works by placing the modulating (audio) amplifier in series with the HT supply of the final RF amplifier, thus causing the amplitude of the carrier wave to vary in correspondence with the audio signal. The advantages are excellent linearity and elimination of a modulation transformer.  However a lot of power is wasted as heat in the modulator valve and a much higher HT voltage is needed to account for the additional voltage drop across the modulator.

In each transmitter, the carrier frequency is generated in a triode oscillator running at half the carrier frequency which is fed to a frequency doubler. Elaborate precautions are used to ensure a constant supply voltage and temperature to the oscillator, thereby achieving a stability of 10 parts in a million.

Power Amplifier

The two main power valves each have an anode voltage of 18,000 V at 7 amps, equal to a power of 128 kW.  The valve filaments consume 460 A at 33 V, equal to 15.2 kW.

Aerial

An aerial transformer house, situated midway between the masts, matches the feeder impedance to the aerial, which is a single-wire T.

The earth plane (counterpoise) consists of 72 bare copper wires extending radially from the aerial transformer house, a few inches below ground.

Museum

The Droitwich Heritage Centre in the town of that name contains an exhibition called ‘Droitwich Calling’ that has some original artefacts and information about the Transmitter Station.

Project diary, Ramblings

An update on predicting football results

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I’ve just read in today’s Financial Times (11th April 2026) that ‘Eight top AI models all lost money betting on Football Matches.’

Apparently Claude Opus 4.6 made an average loss of 11 %, Grok 4.40 went bankrupt on one attempt and Gemini 3.1 Pro made a profit on one attempt but went bankrupt on another.

If they’d read my article from last year, they could have saved their time!

Essentially, you only make a profit when you predict the unpredictable.

Ramblings

Lost Episodes of Dr Who

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Last night I was looking for something entertaining to watch and saw that iPlayer had some lost episodes of ‘Dr Who and the Daleks’ from November 1965.  I didn’t see these at the time as I was a student in London and didn’t regularly watch TV.

The two lost episodes have William Hartnell and two assistants, Steven and Katarina.  What did I particularly notice, apart from the grainy and shadowy picture?  Firstly, the theme tune – I heard rhythmic harmonies in it that I’d never noticed on our boxy old 405-line set: this was a real pleasure.  Obviously the sets look cheap and cheerful – the Daleks’ flamethrowers were really quite alarming – but the main thing I noticed was the Doctor patting his assistant Katarina on the head, albeit rather gingerly so as not to spoil her hair!  He’d not get away with that nowadays!

The other thing that struck me was the closeness of many of the shots, carefully posed to show emotional facial expressions. I imagine that with the lack of definition of 405-line telly and the small screen size, this helped to engage the viewer and reinforce the drama.

And the story so far?  The representative of our Galaxy is displaying self-interest and treachery.  Sixty years on, and just as topical!

It’s worth watching.

Project diary, Ramblings

Fitting a Leaded-Glass Window

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When we had an extension on our kitchen, my partner Cari felt inspired to make a leaded-glass window to fit a window that looked over the bins and a fence.  We asked the builder to install a plain non-opening double-glazed window in a  white aluminium frame in that position. The frame had the inner rebate about  1cm deep and 95 by 75 cm height by width.

Traditional window-leading

The window was made using traditional leading (not copper foil). The coloured glass shapes that make up the pattern are each surrounded by lead H-shaped strips all designed to interlock and to fit into a rectangular H-frame about 1.5 cm smaller in height and width than the recess of the window where it is to be fitted. The glass pieces all held into the leadwork, which is then soldered together.  The glass is sealed to the leadwork with window cement to keep it stiff and water-tight. Nevertheless, like anything made of glass, it must not be bent, otherwise the glass will crack.

We really had no idea how to fit this onto the existing window! Obviously we sought advice from the stained-glass tutor, but in the end we had to use our craft skills and YouTube!

A supplier of leaded-glass windows showed how they fitted a rather smaller window against a wood-framed window using double-sided tape.  What? Then they sealed around it with mastic to fix it in place.

Materials
Double-Sided Sticky Tape
Double-Sided Sticky Tape

But they didn’t say what materials they used.  Hence the purpose of this blog.  After research, we settled on Scotch Fix Double-face Exterior Mounting Tape, 19 mm wide on 5 m rolls.  This tape is black, very flexible and very sticky, on a plastic backing.  We put this all round the face of the frame holding the existing double-window and since the tape is slightly wider than the face of the frame, we folded the edge over the frame towards the glass.  This hid the white edges of the frame.

The leaded window has knobs of solder at each joint, so would not be able to make full contact all round the edge.  Obviously we were worried that the adhesion may be inadequate, so we stuck double-sided tape onto the flat parts of the outer lead of the H-frame.  Since the tape is about a millimetre thick, this ensured a much greater contact area.

Trial fitting
Leaded-glass Window
Leaded-glass Window

The tape is extremely sticky, so as soon as the new leadwork makes contact, it is immovable without tearing the adhesive.

This meant that we had to dry-test it before putting on the sticky tape, to check that the gap between the glass frame and the window-frame was correct, and to get some practice at how best to offer up the window.  We were only going to get one chance to do this.

The gap was about 6 mm all round, so the measurements and making were excellent!  Also the window wasn’t too heavy and yet it was stiff and strong enough to survive being lifted and tilted into place.

The bottom-edge gap

We realised that the secret of fitting it correctly was to ensure that the bottom-edge gap was correct and held firmly.  We found a strip of 6 mm plywood that just fitted, and we rested this on the bottom edge of the rebate, with some small off-cuts underneath to hold it level.  The double-sided tape grabbed the edge and kept it there.

Masking Tape
Masking Tape

We then applied masking tape all round the outer face of the window and the frame, to protect them from the sealant we were going to use to seal the gap later.

Having made sure everything was spotlessly clean, we offered up the window, resting the bottom edge on the strip of plywood, then tilting the window vertical without touching the sticky tape.  There was just room to get our fingers in. Then, checking that we had a 6 mm gap on each side and keeping it vertical, we slide the glass against the sticky tape on the window frame.  It stuck immediately, and after checking the position again, we carefully pressed the lead frame against the sticky tape all the way round. It was firmly fixed.

Sealing the window in place

Now it was time to seal the lead frame in place. This is to prevent moisture and insects getting into the space behind the glass, although it does mean that it’s probably not possible to remove the window without damaging it.

CT-1 Mastic-Sealant-Adhesive
CT-1 Mastic-Sealant-Adhesive

We used White CT-1 sealant-adhesive.  This isn’t silicone and doesn’t use solvents.  Moreover, it remains pliable, which is important for a window that will be subject to considerable temperature changes – this should mean that it allows for expansion but doesn’t shrink or crack over time.  Interestingly, this product was recommended to us by our cleaning lady whose husband is a builder who uses this all the time.

After squeezing enough sealant to fill each of the edges, we smoothed it straight away.  We used thin plastic gloves, wetted  the gloved index finger with plain water and carefully ran it along each edge.  As soon as this was done, we vary carefully removed the masking tape, taking care not to get any excess onto the frame or window.  It’s important to do this immediately so that the sealant hasn’t started to skin over.  It is very sticky and messy. We needed 1½ tubes of sealant.

CT-1 is fairly slow to cure so we left the plywood strip at the bottom for a couple of days until the adhesive had set.  The reason is that when we did a test fitting, I removed the bottom support before putting in any sealant and over a period of days, the sticky tape stretched more at one side than the other, letting the window twist out of vertical.  It was very slight, but my eagle-eyed partner was understandably most dissatisfied.

It is now quite magnificent and we couldn’t be happier with it.

 

Project diary, Ramblings

Community Resolution Orders Can Cause Significant Harm

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I recently wrote about Community Resolution Orders not being a mere ‘slap on the wrist’ as has been touted and so I read with great interest about a woman by the name of Louise Gather who received this blot on her record without her even knowing about it!

She enjoyed foraging for wild food items and she had a particular interest in mushrooms.  On a particular day in November 2024, she visited a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) called Bradgate Park where she had been told that a there were some rare ‘Magpie Inkcap’ mushrooms growing. She went and spoke to staff there and found the mushrooms.  It seems that someone from Bradgate Park reported her car registration number to the police alleging that she had been seen collecting the mushrooms, which is illegal on an SSSI.

When the trust was asked why they hadn’t approached her at the time, they said she had a knife.  The woman said she did have a knife in her foraging bag to cut mushrooms, but didn’t think she’d taken it out of the bag as she hadn’t collected anything on that occasion.

A policeman visited her house when she was not at home and spoke to her husband who signed a paper apparently to the effect that she would not return to the site.  That seemed to be the end of the matter, but she wrote something on TikTok about this being excessive and she hadn’t picked any mushrooms that day.  This got picked up by the the police force’s professional standards department and they found that the police officer who visited the woman’s home and spoke to her husband had entered the Community Resolution Order onto the woman’s police record.

The Police Force’s Professional Standards Department found that the policeman involved would have been sacked for gross misconduct had he not already resigned, because the ‘case could have caused the woman Significant Harm’.

‘She could ultimately have lost her job had the community resolution remained on her enhanced DBS checks.’ 

Because the correct procedure had not been followed (i.e. the officer hadn’t spoken to her directly and she hadn’t admitted the offence) the order was rescinded.

However, this is a salutary warning that a community resolution order is a lot more than ‘a slap on the wrist’ – it is an Admission of Guilt to a criminal offence, and in the words of the Police, ‘can cause significant harm.’  

Moreover, it is not impossible for you to get one without knowing about it.

Project diary, Ramblings

We are ALL Guilty

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DBS Checks

As a leader of bell-ringers in my local church, I’m required to have an enhanced DBS check: given the poor record of churches in respect of safeguarding, this is a necessary precaution.  However, there has been some debate as to whether other ringers need to be checked, especially if they teach children or vulnerable adults.

Then, if someone should not have a 100 % clean sheet, what should be done about it?  We will leave that decision to trained safeguarding officers.

However, the corollary is what sort of offences are revealed on an enhanced DBS check – and the answer is exceedingly complex.  Whilst there are many obvious offences that will be shown (including some driving  offences), and others that are deemed to be ‘expired’, it turns out that ‘Police Cautions’ and ‘Community Resolutions’ ARE revealed in an enhanced check, such as those required when you take a responsible post as a Bell Ringer.

Police Cautions and Community Resolutions not just slap on wrist

Now, people are told that ‘Police Cautions’ and ‘Community Resolutions’ do not result in a ‘Criminal Record’ and are no more than ‘a slap on the wrist’.  This means that they quite often agree to this form of punishment as a way of avoiding court, even when they don’t feel they were in the wrong.

There was a recent case where a young man reported that he was assaulted by someone and he fought back.  On the advice of a witness, he reported it to the police but was then accused of precipitating the assault. The police told him to accept a Community Resolution and in the absence of independent advice and with the prospect of facing court, he did so.  BUT accepting a Police Caution or Community Resolution means admitting guilt.  In this case, he had to admit he was guilty of affray, whereas the situation was more probably one of self-defence.

In the absence of advice, he didn’t realise any of this: it was only later that his father realised and following a complaint, the police withdrew the alleged offence.

The important point here is that the offender has admitted his guilt and this will show up in any future DBS check which could completely blight his future prospects.  A Slap on the Wrist it certainly is not!

Live Facial Recognition

I’m also finding myself concerned about ‘Live Facial Recognition’ which is being used in my town.  They say they’re only looking for criminals, but as part of that, they’re intending to start using the entire passport database, not just ‘wanted’ criminals.

I can’t imagine that the Police would reject the opportunity to use them on suspected shoplifters and other petty criminals too.

You’re Innocent but Guilty

I remember a QC (and part-time judge) to whom I was giving technical advice saying to me, ‘Just because you’re innocent, don’t imagine you won’t be found guilty’ and he then described situations where that had happened to his clients.  In one case, the guilty ‘offender’ was no more than an innocent passer-by outside a pub when a brawl burst out onto the street.  The police were already in attendance and arrested him for affray.  He was found guilty by magistrates but was acquitted on appeal. What if he’d accepted a ‘Police Caution’?

Phones, Project diary, Ramblings

Side-effects of decommissioning legacy telephone exchanges

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AS of September 2025, OpenReach has 5,600 telephone exchanges, but only about 1,000 will be needed for ‘Fibre Broadband’ services.

So far, only three legacy exchanges have been closed as part of a pilot programme (Deddington, Ballyclare and Kenton Road) and the next 12 for closure have been announced.  These are mainly along the Thames valley, with some in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Another 106 are listed for imminent closure and as far as I can tell, these spread out from these places.  Some closures have been delayed due to active use.  It has proved to be quite difficult to move some people, especially those using some body-worn alarms, onto fibre connections, partly because these need back up power during supply outages. Some non-BT providers have been fined for failing to ensure a smooth changeover.

Internet of Things (IoT)

I’m aware that in my locality, they have been upgrading all the traffic lights to use the GSM network to communicate with the central traffic control computers, presumably because the copper landlines are being decommissioned.  This is proving quite disruptive, as  workmen progress around the various pedestrian crossings and road junctions, using sometimes badly-programmed or faulty temporary lights to control traffic whilst they do the work.

This is especially annoying in the Epsom area, where the gas and water companies are also closing roads to do their work, and most recently, major excavations to instal HV cables from the grid sub-stations to boost the electricity supply network.

I don’t think this is all caused by a change-over to green technology – population growth and lifestyle changes, such as working from home, are also a factor.

Live Facial Recognition

But I’m also finding myself concerned about ‘Live Facial Recognition’ which is being used in my town.  They say they’re only looking for criminals, but as part of that, they’re intending to start using the entire passport database, not just ‘wanted’ criminals.

I remember a QC (and part-time judge) to whom I was giving technical advice saying to me, ‘Just because you’re innocent, don’t imagine you won’t be found guilty’ and he then described situations where that had happened to his clients.  In one case, the guilty ‘offender’ was no more than an innocent passer-by outside a pub when a brawl burst out onto the street.  The police were already in attendance and arrested him for affray.  He was found guilty by magistrates but was acquitted on appeal.