AjW

We had a mix of portholes, opening portholes and custom bus windows from them, all in brass/brass finish. They were good folk to deal with and quite local so we could drop in and chat.

What are you going to put in your fridge that it is essential to keep cold? Not had one for 5 years and we're not dead through food poisoning...yet ) We've a box that slides under a bench seat for chillables and the only thing that goes off is the soya milk after 3-4 days if it's not been drunk One day I'll get a slab of marble. I do miss an ice box and my lubbly jubblies. Not exactly a cheap alternative, but an alternative POV.

We've got an edimax 6200n. When in the office I can turn the Wifi off with an external switch and just use the ethernet cable. But wifi means I spend more time on the sofa Consumes 0.1 to 0.3 Amps off the 12V. They are definately worth getting as you can put the put the dongle on the roof and the router up and out of the way on the inside of the boat. No more sitting next to windows!

Head to the local university/college and find the furniture/product design dept. Plenty of bods willing to help out due to needing projects and the novelty/challenges of boat dimensions brings a bonus. I had a prototype L-shaped sofa bed combo 1/2 dinette (figure that out without a diagram) made last summer; it cost me £200 and it will last for years. I'm having another version made (with refinements) next year. It's fun designing bespoke stuff and getting other people to make it cheaply!

Most turbines are rated for speeds above 12mph which is above average for most places in the UK. Check here: http://www.bwea.com/images/misc/noabl_c.gif But you can't compare the ratings of the turbines as they rated for different wind speeds: http://www.bettergeneration.com/wind-turbine-reviews.html I have a Wren. At 10mph it's enough to run the laptop/modem/router etc during the daytime. At 15mph+ it's enough to do that, charge the laptop battery from flat and chuck a bit into the leisure batteries. If we leave the boat for a day at those speeds the leisure batts go from 12.2v to 12.8v. I live with wide open spaces for 270degrees round the boat catching wind from West, South and East.

Bolt to the head, trailer to the butchers. Cut out the middle man.

mine's lilac pm me your email and I'll send a pic or 2 if you want.

Or head for Aldi and pick the cheapest which will work fine for your needs. These come with a 3 year warranty included which you won't get from PC-world. Internal broadband is OK in strong signal areas, but out in the sticks you'll be wanting to get the dongle on the roof or up near a window.

It goes both ways. We were hauling logs and branches up from a ditch at the side of the towpath and a passing dog walker said it was nice to see people clearing up after the authorities. I would leave logs etc that are on the ground in winter as there is more likely to be wildlife hibernating or living under it. AFAIK logs etc in the rivers/canals belong to BW or relevant authority, but as these tend to get trapped behind lock gates until flushed through I'm sure the law is not strictly enforced...

Got my dangler stuck at the top of a two foot pole on the roof and rarely have speeds below 500kbps, and usually above the 1Mbps mark. I'm in a very rural area with no masts in line of sight. Works best with the dongle horizontal but a rain cover means it is usually hanging vertical. And slightly to the left I'm on T-mobile and the software allows me to lock the dongle to either 2G or 3G which makes a helluva difference to maintaining a connection (Tools->Options->Network) especially with email clients. Low signal strength on 3G/HSDPA will usually give slower internet speeds than high signal strength on 2G, but I've locked my dongle to 3G and it copes fine. The light on dongles will change between 3G and HSDPA depending on what you're downloading or the data requirements so don't use the colour of the light as an indication of signal strength. When your choosing a provider do some research on the local masts etc because providers share masts and networks so switching between them won't always solve the problem! Most providers have coverage maps on their networks and of the 3 dongles I've tried the software allowed me to view all the available networks.

You'll probably need a UPS if you're running a desktop from batteries+inverter. Or a sharp eye on the voltmeter...

Something like this? http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/Huawei_D100_Router

Use a 12v freezer with a custom thermostat instead of a fridge... http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html

It's not just the value of the property, but the likelihood of someone getting a mortgage for it that'll affect the price, and that's determined by the property type, e.g. some city centres are saturated with flats that can't be sold because people can't get mortgages on them.

Square base plate, two triangular uprights welded to it with bolt holes to allow it to be lowered. Under the base plate and on the inside the roof are two rubber sheets, but I need to put in slightly thicker ones Can just about make it out in this photo; Guys are held with a kee-clamp thingy bolted through the roof The flex 200 turbine has an even number of blades which can increase the forward/backward motion of the turbine, so get a really stiff mounting pole. To get the turbine out of head/hand reach you'll need a pole about 8ft+. Our boat changes horizonticality depending on how full the water/fuel tanks are and other ballasting so try allow for a bit of variability in how vertical the pole is to keep the turbine horizontal. A.

Try it without the battery. The laptop has to both recharge the battery and power itself so you need to work out which bit is giving you grief. Ditch the battery first and see how it runs.

As it's a linear mooring all you need are some strips of paper representing boats, and a tape measure representing the mooring. Shuffle the paper around parallel to the tape measure......

Next time your at a water point with decent pressure try shoving the hose into the skin fitting. You'll need someone inside to keep a rag loosely over the sink drain/overflow to prevent splashes. It took a few minutes of blasting and drainingfor us but the crud came out. Use an old wire coathanger or the poundland flexisnake to help things along...

Possibly The biggest impact of living on a boat is water usage as far as I can tell. Average daily usage in the UK is 100+ litres per day (not including 'virtual' water), some of which you'll get through at work as part of your paid bathroom vacation strategy. 2 of us get through a 350 litres a fortnight on a boat and that's with me working from here as well. There's alot of greenwash around at the moment, maybe boating has become part of it. We're floating around on water next to nature so must be eco-friendly!

http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ There are doubts as to the accuracy because the location/no of masts is always changing. Not all masts are operated by all carriers so the nearest mast to you might not be the one you're communicating with.

If you fancy getting your hands mildly dirty; http://marccus.blogspot.com/2009/04/adding...xis-huawei.html http://www.djinsonic.com/general/external-...or-huawei-e220/

Coming from castle marina we've turned 58' opposite the pubs/court or at the end of the straight (where the canal turns south to the river). We were told that turning by the pubs/court is risky due to detritus on the bottom but we didnt scrape anything.

Sorry, Workshop manual, yes, I could do with that one too!

Buy one that is too wide and too long for some parts of the canal system, say about 7' wide by 70'. When you're done with it sue the vendor, fitter and builder for producing something that is useless, and get your money back.