The Night Mail

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

The Google Earth satellite view of our house and the street view seem to be up to date except that the footprints and broken bricks on the drive following HH's last visit aren't visible.

 

Dave

 

I wonder how many scrotes use Google satellite view to spy on potential target houses, escape routes etc. before going on the rob?  Not a 100% reliable, but must be useful.

 

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Indeed.  I kept my last 50-odd 35mm film cannisters knowing I'd eventually find an ideal use for them, but eventually my wife needed something for the different coloured beads of her Diamond Art pictures.  When mine ran out she found someone selling them in bulk on eBay, who had obviously been doing the same "collecting" for years.

 

In the absence of film canisters, a very good alternative are the plastic containers that diabetic blood test strips are supplied in; they are almost the same size but the lid is hinged rather than detachable.

A certain Bear has a bagful of the things at the moment (a friend is prescribed them) so if anyone can make use of them then send me a p.m......

 

[Tony_S]

14 minutes ago, polybear said:

Google satellite view to spy on potential target houses,

My brother said he saw a drone outside his lounge window. It seemed to be doing a reconnaissance of his property. 

[PhilJ W]

14 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

My brother said he saw a drone outside his lounge window. It seemed to be doing a reconnaissance of his property. 

I thought that was illegal without the owners permission.

[newbryford]

11 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I thought that was illegal without the owners permission.

 

If someone was eyeballing it for a future "job", they're highly unlikely to ask for permission.

 

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

My brother said he saw a drone outside his lounge window. It seemed to be doing a reconnaissance of his property. 

 

He might want to call "H H Drone Eliminators, PLC". IIRC they are somewhere in Shropshire.

[AndyID]

I don't know what it's like where you are but it's taking on a distinctly Bruegel winter look around here 😀

 

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

My brother said he saw a drone outside his lounge window. It seemed to be doing a reconnaissance of his property. 

 

While not entirely legal I don't think it would be too difficult to electronically detect the presence of a drone and jam the control signal. Depending on its level of sophistication that would either cause it to crash or "return to base".

 

A couple of years ago someone was flying one around here. It hit a tree and landed on our property. I requisitioned the remains.

 

The next day the owner was hunting around looking for it and asked me if I had seen it. I did tell a bit of a porky and denied that I had but feeling slightly guilty later I called him to say that I had just found it 😀

[5 C]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

He might want to call "H H Drone Eliminators, PLC". IIRC they are somewhere in Shropshire.

"Who you gonna call? Dronebusters!"

Edited December 3, 2022 by 5 C
Typo

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I don't know what it's like where you are

 

Neither do I - it’s still dark 

[Happy Hippo]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

He might want to call "H H Drone Eliminators, PLC". IIRC they are somewhere in Shropshire.

We now have our own specialist service for this:

 

Dave's Drone Destruction Detachment:

 

Fifty quid (growled in an East London accent)

[polybear]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I thought that was illegal without the owners permission.

 

It's catching them that's the problem - just ask Gatwick Airport....

 

1 hour ago, 5 C said:

"Who you gonna call? Dronebusters!"

 

Search for "Drone Chainsaw" on Youtube to see just what some people get up to with those things.  Can you imagine one of those in London at rush hour?

[Tony_S]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

not entirely legal I don't think it would be too difficult to electronically detect the presence of a drone and jam the control signal. Depending on its level of sophistication that would either cause it to crash or "return to base".

My brother has a lot of legal transmitter aerials on his roof. He was more interested in the possibility of cooking the electronics rather than sending it home. If it had been low enough he reckons his cat would have had it. 

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

We now have our own specialist service for this:

 

Dave's Drone Destruction Detachment:

 

Fifty quid (growled in an East London accent)

Actually it wouldn’t be too far as my brother lives in a county that is next to Shropshire. If the naughty drone was still around he would probably be discussing a franchise deal. Simba his cat unfortunately has had much experience in ground to air activities.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

My brother has a lot of legal transmitter aerials on his roof. He was more interested in the possibility of cooking the electronics rather than sending it home. 

 

I'm guessing a Phalanx Gun would be frowned upon.......

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Search for "Drone Chainsaw" on Youtube to see just what some people get up to with those things.  Can you imagine one of those in London at rush hour?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmraDvQVURs

Bursting balloons is not recommended.

9 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

While not entirely legal I don't think it would be too difficult to electronically detect the presence of a drone and jam the control signal. Depending on its level of sophistication that would either cause it to crash or "return to base".

 

A couple of years ago someone was flying one around here. It hit a tree and landed on our property. I requisitioned the remains.

 

The next day the owner was hunting around looking for it and asked me if I had seen it. I did tell a bit of a porky and denied that I had but feeling slightly guilty later I called him to say that I had just found it 😀

Apparently the drone motors are very good for powering model railways being coreless, very compact and mostly 12 volt DC.  So a downed drone will provide between three and seven motors.😉

[Tony_S]

41 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I'm guessing a Phalanx Gun would be frowned upon.......

Even if a drone is recording images on your property, shooting it down or jamming it so it crashed is apparently an offence. Following it home and "having a word " isn't. 

[Happy Hippo]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Even if a drone is recording images on your property, shooting it down or jamming it so it crashed is apparently an offence. Following it home and "having a word " isn't. 

You have to prove it was over your property and causing a nuisance.

 

They have to prove it was flak bait brought down by you and not someone else they were annoying.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

You have to prove it was over your property and causing a nuisance.

 

They have to prove it was flak bait brought down by you and not someone else they were annoying.

I can imagine my brother’s cat doing a very good “nothing to do with me, mate” performance. 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tony_S

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

You have to prove it was over your property and causing a nuisance.

 

They have to prove it was flak bait brought down by you and not someone else they were annoying.

 

And proving where the jamming signal came from would be nigh on impossible for Joe Average

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And proving where the jamming signal came from would be nigh on impossible for Joe Average

When my brother was in his teens and still at our parents house he had a lot of aerials on the roof. Radio amateurs had to be careful about causing any interference to broadcast tv and radio  signals, otherwise you could expect a visit from I think in those days the GPO. Anyway one evening a woman from down the road called and started screeching she was going to get my brother to stop transmitting as she was getting a lot of tv interference. He tried to explain that from his log he hadn’t been using his radio at some  of the interference. She carried on complaining. He asked if he could see the interference but she just wanted him to take down his aerials. This was somewhat stressing my mother who didn’t want any confrontations with near neighbours even those 10 houses away. Anyway an inspection cleared him if any wrongdoing but before that he had wandered about doing a bit of rdf and was pretty certain of the source. It was all coming from the backyard workshop of the complaining woman’s husband. 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tony_S

[TheQ]

35mm Film canisters were very popular at sailing clubs.

It is a requirement that when you protest another boat you display a red flag.. 

But where to keep it? Use very light cloth with the flags top string through the can, tied to the boom, the bottom string through the lid hanging below.

Pull string, flag pops out...

At our club a green flag is also used to accept a penalty when racing on the river as it's too congested to do the normal 360 turn for hitting a buoy or 720 turn for hitting another boat. So the finishing officials add on a time penalty on seeing a green flag flown.

I've still got a couple of those flags somewhere..

 

Meanwhile I've been building copper clad track for the first time in around 40 years. This is for a future project that will use 009 decauville / jubilee track.

This was a first experiment,  the first panel went together ok, but very slowly , I tried a slightly different method to speed things up, which was a disaster.

The jig I used, I made over the last couple of weeks, it didn't hold the rail well enough, so it was the usual problem of needing three hands, rail, solder, soldering iron..

Also the eyes aren't what they were I ended up using the Steve Fletcher double glasses technique..

 

Thoughts on a better jig are progressing..

 

Drones, cheap toy ones can use 27 35, 40 or 49 MHz. 27 and 49 MHz being most likely UK.

459 MHz is mostly used for Non video transmitting drones.

2400MHz is used by the drones that transmit video.

The easiest way to jam a drone is to use another radio controller as the source,  but you'd have to modify it to  manually change channels easily. A directional aerial would help. For ultimate ease of finding the culprits frequency a spectrum analyser would be needed but at 2.4GHz  that would be another £250.

It's getting expensive for a one off event.

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

[SM42]

A tidying we will go

 

A tidying we will go

 

Hey ho a tally ho

 

A tidying we will go.

 

We are tidying ( hiding stuff in cupboards and behind chairs) in anticipation  of Mrs SM42 entertaining tomorrow. 

 

This will mean untidying again next week so I have space to get things done. 

 

Ho hum

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

27 minutes ago, SM42 said:

A tidying we will go

 

A tidying we will go

 

Hey ho a tally ho

 

A tidying we will go.

 

We are tidying ( hiding stuff in cupboards and behind chairs) in anticipation  of Mrs SM42 entertaining tomorrow. 

 

This will mean untidying again next week so I have space to get things done. 

 

Ho hum

 

Andy

 

Now you know how to do it you might be required to do it more often.

 

Fiendish how the Memsahib's get you without you even realising you've been got until it's to late.

[SM42]

Just now, Winslow Boy said:

 

Now you know how to do it you might be required to do it more often.

 

Fiendish how the Memsahib's get you without you even realising you've been got until it's to late.

 

More often

 

I'm the only one who does it.

 

Andy