Martin

What I want to find out - as I write this from aboard our bus - is whether the dish can be used for something other than internet. I imagine a self-seeking sky dish would be more useful in these days when you can get 3G internet cheap enough. Anyone with suggestions please post. I am guessing that a dish is a dish but that maybe the LNB would need to change and the self seeking part would need to point to the Sky satellite and not whichever one it is we use for internet access. Should be do-able with the right technical knowhow. It will be someone with that knowhow who buys this thing no doubt. Martin

Although you cannot see the actual dish on these photos, you can see our aforementioned bus on our website. Go to http://www.connexions-bc.co.uk/professiona...exions_bus.aspx I have the quote in front of me for the initial installation: 74cm Apollo VSAT System with Automatic Alignment System: 1 x 74cm dish 1 x Transmit Modem 1 x Receive Modem 1 x LNB (External transmit & receive electronics) 1 x Communication software USB Connectivity 1 x Auto alignment system 1 x communication software Total: £11,000 (This didn't include the installation cost either - which was extra) The communication software and alignment software used to be run from an attached PC, but an upgrade took place a while ago which did away with this and everything was done from a single box without the need for a PC. We kept the PC and software connected though as it provided signal strength information and graphics to show what the dish was doing. We don't expect to receive much more than £150 for this - so someone can grab a bargain. I must point out - and you should do your own research as prices will have changed (doubtless in the downwards direction) that there were in 2003 the following four packages available through our supplier at that time: Bronze: Download 512kbps/Upload 128kbps: £60 per month Silver: Download 640kbps/Upload 128kbps: £165 per month Gold: Download 768kbps/Upload 128kbps: £198 per month Platinum: Download 1024kbps/Upload 128kbps: £267 per month THAT WAS IN 2003! I will find out what the current costs are and post them here. Meanwhile, there is a datastorm user forum to look at: http://www.datastormusers.com/ and a motorsat website http://www.motosat.com/ to keep you interested. MArtin

Hi guys - I haven't been on this forum for probably 12 months, but I have a chunk of equipment at the office which may be of interest to some of you. And it's going cheap! Five years or so ago, the company I work for fitted out a double-decker bus for use by young people as an advice centre. It has all sorts of stuff on board reminiscent of something from Pimp My Ride! There are two playstations with flat screens, DVD players, various bits of audio equipment - including DJ equipment and the facility to plug everything in outdoors for mobile events. On top of the bus is a satellite dish which feeds internet to the five PCs on board. We have recently changed our service provider and maintenance company and as part of the deal they insisted on installing a brand new dish. There was nothing at all wrong with the old one - it was just that the maintenance company were useless. This dish is fully automatic and has built in GPS receiver, altimeter, slew and tilt guages and electronic compasses - all to enable it to determine where in the world it is, how high and which direction the bus is parked (and whether or not it is on a flat road or a hill). Given line of sight to the right bit of sky, you hit the button on the modem and it rises from the "stowed" position and points itself at the satellite. It then fine tunes itself having picked up a signal so that the strongest signal is received - adjusting itself whenever someone gets on or off the bus and tilts it. Download speed is dependent upon which package you subscribe to - our supplier used a german ISP I beleive, but I can point you in the right direction. The beauty of this system is that there is no need to run it in conjunction with a mobile phone - most sat-internet things use the dish for download but require a mobile for upload. This one is a transmitter/receiver so as long as the dish is up, you are online - truly satellite broadband! If anyone is interested and wants more information - contact me on my office address mshorthose@blackcountryconnexions.co.uk and give me your email address. I am going to put together a package of info including pictures and that is best sent by email rather than trying to post it on the forum. If there is enough interest and people make offers, I will probably bung it on Ebay so you can fight it out on there! I will post details of the auction on this board if this happens. Best Wishes all - hope the Credit Crunch hasn't hit you too hard. I am glad we sold Octarine when we did and took a hit on making a loss - otherwise we would still have it now! Martin

Hi Guys & Gals, I've been offline for months now due to the pressures of work. There is simply not enough time any more and once you get behind on these threads it can take weeks to get back up to date again. I'm not coming back full time just yet as there are major work projects afoot but I just called in to see if the forum was as lively as ever! This boat that sank in Woodseaves Cutting near Market Drayton... I saw it and can confirm that it sank. It was pulled in to the side though and so as users of the cutting will know, it could not sink far! I was taking the local WI for a trip that evening and took a walk through the cutting to make sure I could get past. The boat was aground on the towpath side at an angle of about 45 degrees. The water level on the canal side was about 6" above gunwale height and water was flowing in through the bow and stern doors. Some of you will know of my relationship with a particular boatyard in Market Drayton that I feel I shouldn't name on air. The owner of said boatyard was aboard the stricken boat in a wetsuit, manhandling a petrol powered pump nozzle. BW engineers were also on site with their own pumping equipment and as I watched, both pumps were set to work as the boat-owner left the scene almost in tears. I don't think he could bear to watch. After about an hour, the boat was finally refloated and stern-hauled back to Tyrley for the night. I was overjoyed at first when I saw said boatyard owner on the back of this sunken boat - I thought it was HIS boat! The fact that it was a customer's boat saddened me immediately. Chatting with a BW guy on site while pumping was in progress, I asked about the cause. He said that the weedhatch had not been secured properly or that the new engine had been too powerful and blown the hatch off. Speaking to a senior BW guy later, he said that the hatch wasn't in place at all. I heard that the boat had spent 18 months out of the water in Market Drayton having various works completed at a cost of some £15,000. This on a 1976 boat must be more than it was worth. Works done are supposed to include replating of the bottom, new engine, new gearbox and a partial refit. I am reliably informed that there was no adjustment made to the ballast on the boat to take account of the extra weight so water might also have poured in through vents and other outlets. If the BSS examiner had checked the boat while it was still on the hardstanding, he cannot have been aware of the problems to come. Anyway, I guess another court case will be heading in the direction of this boatyard in addition to the one still outstanding for the boat on which the wooden top was replaced by steel only for the surveyor to condemn it as not seaworthy or whatever the canal equivalent is. What really amazes me is the suggestion that the boatyard had the gall to CHARGE the boatowner a callout fee for the pumping out in Woodseaves cutting. The figure I have heard mentioned is £800!!!! Needless to say, the boat was taken elsewhere for works after the incident. On the good side, I understand the boatyard lease expires at the end of August 2005 and so perhaps this little bit of canal might be a bit safer if they move out! Have fun Yawl Martin

You still need to address some of the issues brought up on this thread. Two batteries still seem a bit mean for what you are demanding of them - even if you switch off the central heating pump. It would do no harm to investigate your system thoroughly and work out how it works - maybe even draw a couple of wiring diagrams! This will doubtless help you in the months ahead when something stops working. Something will stop working - this is boating and the nature of the beast. If at the end of it all, you find everything is hunkydory, then great - but you will then have a thorough understanding of your boats electrics into the bargain which will save you time and probably money in the long run. I picked up this gem recently from a neighbour who had pumped central heating. He has a thermostat on the boiler outlet pipe which switches on the pump when the water near the stove gets towards 80 degrees. The pump then sends this hot water round the system and then turns off (as the pipe cools) so that the next back boiler of water is heated. Over a short while, the whole of the central heating system gets hot. With just a room stat, the pump will pump even with a system full of cold water as the fire heats up - a waste of power! Martin

There are advantages to Propane - especially in the winter - but it does seem to burn cooler than butane. Can any chemists out there confirm that this is the case? If I'm correct, it could just be something you'll have to get used to - increase cooking times, use a higher setting... M

I can see a cutter being useful on a high revving outboard where it could probably deal easily with a fishing net - or on an outdrive - but I'm almost certain that a slow rotating narrowboat propshaft wouldn't work so well. A length of rope will just get tangled round the cutter as well as the prop making unravelling it even more tricky. Just my opinion though.

There was a stand at Crick - must have been five years ago - on which there was a demonsteration (homage to Fred D there!) of a simple filtration system. They were extracting water from the GU and offering it filtered to drink. Where are these guys now? Are they still alive?

Can I suggest you check out Andy Burnett's Brokerage site. He always puts plan drawings with photographs. The first boat on his site at the moment "Andy Burnett's Site" is a 57 footer and there are loads of photographs inside and out together with a drawing. I would be inclined to find a plan of a shell you like the photos of and then using Photoshop or similar erase the internals from one of Andy's plans. You can then bung in your own. Just a thought - and an apology to AB for the suggestion! Martin

Barge - see Longboat

The owner of a boat we looked at a few years ago had some trouble. The boat was a converted FMC Boat - "Bream" - and suffered a fire on board, the source being the Dickinson stove. While this may be an isolated case, it makes one think about insurance. The owner had left the boat for a short while and the fire occured while he was out - the stove was just sitting on tickover and not cooking, equivalent to leaving the pilot light lit on a gas appliance. As such, the insurance company refused to pay up as the fire was left unattended. In the end, I understand Dickinson themselves made a substantial goodwill payment, but the poor guy was still left out of pocket and faced with a refit. How many of us pop to the pub in winter and leave the fire going - hoping for a nice cosy boat on our return? Aside from this, they can I believe get a bit toasty in the summer - especially if this is the only source of hot water. Even at tickover, they are still quite hot.

My Dell Latitude laptop has a "Travel Adapter" which I bought to power it while away on holiday. It plugs into a cigarette lighter socket and also the power supply of plane/train. If you can find a laptop for which these are available from the manufacturer it will save messing with third party gear which may or may not work right. There are similar printers available too which can be used for incar printing but these are priced as executive accessories - not so much the printers themselves but in the consumables; the ink tanks are tiny! No problem running my Epson Photo C86 inkjet on a Sterling Quasi-sine inverter!

Well spotted that man! It just goes to prove that you should always read the question!