Radiomariner

The snorers disturb me not, it is the fornicators that do!

Have you checked the aerial co-ax for continuity and shorts? Either could cause your problem. In addition to the obvious, the "front end" of the radio is matched to the co-ax which is matched to the aerial and any such physical change (including water ingress) can upset this matching and drastically reduce the radio's sensitivity. After dark signals can improve due to factors described in an earlier post My chief suspect would be water ingress to the co-ax, (the braided outer shield can corrode as well), a break in the inner core (usually where there are kinks or sharp bends). Another consideration is badly made or badly fitting co-ax connectors The aerial connection at the back if the radio working loose often causes a similar symptom. When new the contacts are self cleaning as they slide in. Over time the springy bits loose tension, the contact surfaces oxide over and make poor contact. For this reason the cable should not be stretched tight so that any vibration may tend to pull it out, or too long and unsupported so the cable weight puts a strain on the plug. Hope this has been of some help.

Was it ever possible to travel from London to Edinburgh by canal as suggested in the news bulletin ?

.....and there was a man in in those parts, Babcock the son of Willcox...

Does anybody know for sure why I could not get my comments #88 and picture #89 on same page.? Not so sure, some rings were broken

On the subject of big engines. Next Post #89 is a Sulzer 7RTA. (Long Stroke) There are only 7 pistons as opposed to 12 in the earlier pictures. Thats me in the white hat and gleaming white overalls! The job was to pull the pistons and inspect the liners. All seven were done in three days during which time for operational reasons the engine was on a six hour notice of readiness. Only one cylinder done at a time with the remaining six kept warm with hot jacked water. It was in the Persian Gulf and the air temperature there at the cylinder heads was 55 deg C. Inside the crank case where I had been a little earlier unbolting the cross head it was a lot hotter still. Comments seperate from picture because for some reason Once I downloaded the photo, I could not fit in any text. (Probably picture too big.

Go back for SWMBO! Nah! Just waited for her to catch up at next bridge hole!

i am surprised nobody has mentioned," ensure gear is in neutral". If a higher throttle setting is required for starting and the gear engaged the sudden surge can pull out mooring pin which dangles in the water on the end of line and entangles in the prop bringing the engine to a sudden stop. (I don't think there is need to ask me how I know this) Making sure SWMBO is on board is quite important else you can get a wailing noise in your ears for about a week.

I take it you are talking about the control taps on the appliances. The isolation valves should be open for the tightness test. I would not rely on WD40 to maintain the gas tightness. There are specialised greases for this purpose PLEASE NOTE. I made an error in my previous post #9. I said the pressure dropped 5mb over 5 minutes. Five & Five had stuck in my mind, my manometer had dropped by about 5mm over that time which equates to 1mb. Nothing like as bad, but still of significance enough to fail the test which calls for "No discernable drop"

A drop test is something quite different. The term should be "tightness test" My reason for posting is to advertise that the second part of the test using a bubble tester has recently been extended from 20 seconds to 60 seconds. Since this changed I have examined 3 boats that would have passed under the old 20 second ruling, but failed because regular bubbles started appearing at around 30-45 seconds. One of them also had a test point so I was able to carry out a manometer tightness test. The pressure was dropping at about 0.5mb over a 5 minute period, which is I am afraid fairly significant. Quite an eye opener edited to change 5mb to 0.5mb (about 5mm on manometer) apologies for the error. It is still however a drop significant enough to fail the tightness test.

BES OK. I ordered an automatic bottle change over device a year or so ago. Discovered it was too large to fit in my gas locker. No problem with BES changing over for a smaller manual change over and the refund was rapid. With regard to the OP There was reports on this forum where some regulators failed allowing High Pressure being applied to appliances. One resulted in an explosion that blew the boat's cabin doors off. The owner I believe suffered only from singed eyebrows and lashes. The gas had been shut off at the bottles over winter. The time taken from opening the bottles to reach the hob and press the ignition button was enough to allow sufficient gas to leak, for this to happen. An over pressure device would have prevented this

It was probably due to my mind-set at the time, but for the life of me, now, I can not understand why I thought this was appropriate to this thread!

For me, definitely cross straps. If there is a need to stop, letting off one of the cross straps will allow the towed boat to slide along the opposite side. Also, when the towed boat has a small rudder advise that the steerer on the towed boat be prepared to assist the steering with use of a pole. Good communications between boats would be helpful.

Wow! There are tramcar books! I remember as a wee boy going down the twisty stair of a tramcar and on seeing the driver, thinking that was the best job in the world! Mind you, I also envied the conductor who at the terminus was allowed to walk the whole length of the tram with his hands out flipping the seat backs over to face the other way with a beautiful machine-gun like clatter. I guess that as a child I was sadly lacking ambition!

Might be a problem. Don't electic trains us the rails as part of the electricity return circuit?. You may have to connect a "jumper" lead across each break! Leave the jumpers to the end however. This way, no trains will be coming along to chup your hands off while wielding your hacksaw!

Yes, you are correct. I was referring to the fiberglass type wool. (Usually Pinkish in colour, Still available). Non the less, drying out still necessitates removing panels etc. Always best not to let it get wet!

I think you mean 50mm! To be honest, most spray foam lined boats I have seen fall well short of this, varying between 5mm and 20mm. Which, in my opinion does very little more than, when adhering to the steel properly, reduce condensation. Yes extra insulation will certainly help. Sorry can not advise on best type. All I am sure about is that rock-wool is pretty poor once it is soaking wet, and will not recover well once dried out. (Experience). Water ingress in a boat can come from many sources. If you go for 'wool-like' material make sure it is encased in a watertight jacket

OJ1 Never came back. I guess he has it all sorted now. OR could it be that has now lost all power an is unable post?

I remember being made most welcome at the "Ansty workers club" nearly forty years ago. They had a sign up "Boaters Welcome". Boats, mostly hire, were moored all along that stretch opposite the cottages, and their occupants ashore using the club. A couple of years ago, it was late and getting dark so I decided to risk mooring there. Within minutes, two burly men approached and using language that would make a matelot blush indicated to me that I could not moor there. I moved on and vowed never to bother with Ansty again I, remember the Hotel boats there, and I think, is it "Bison" in your picture?

Possible, but unlikely. It is normal to bring ALL -ve returns to a common -ve bus which then connects to the battery -ve. For three circuits to fail this way would indicate three separate faults. Considering the OP's photo of the distribution/circuit breaker panel. I would suspect that the +ve 12V goes to the WC switch first, and from there it probably links somewhat as follows:- Sub circuit 1 - WC - Aux2 - fridge - Lights1 - water pump - shower pump Sub circuit 2 -WC - Aux1 - Radio - Lights2 - Headlight and Horn. Assuming that "Lghts2" supplies the in cabin side lights, and that the radio works, a break in the circuit between the "radio" breaker and the "lights2" breaker would have the result the OP describes. I suspect that a push-on connector has worked loose or if soldered, a "dry Joint" has developed at (if my assumption of the arrangement is correct) either at the radio or lights2 breaker.