arfur mo

hi all, talking knockout rods i just remembered a customer when i was on Chubbs, she was a baraster, and only worked 6 months a year and travelled six months. she had every window on the house fitted with knock out rods so she could walk arround inside and be protected. the alarm was always armed, and about every 2 weeks she'd open a window and dislodge a bar calling the police. to stop here getting nasty letters from the CPO i said to remove the phone from the cradle within 30 seconds, so at least the 999 would be stopped and we did a dress rehearsal. next call for a reset, i asked did she take the phone off the hook? 'Yes' so the Police were not called 'er! yes they were'. baffled i check this old black phone (the one's with a chrome dial) no probs, so got her to demonstrate, she sets off the alarm rushes to the cupboard and lifts the receiver as planned - then plants here fingers on the wrest buttons banghead just glad i never needed her to defend me regs alan

Yer I'am forming a new firm called "retro alarms" it all tube & batten, cc wire & foil......... i Anybody know where I can get hold of mark II escort van some wooden ladders & a flared leg boiler suit? For the complete look? your not going back far enough, tube and batten is the modern version, it's tube and saddle frames using ebony coated coppr wire and insulated staples you really want for retro don't forget the kerry spring contacts and knock out bars either. as to clothes Chubbs issued its service enginners with blue plastic 'barbers' jackets, it got a bit saucy if you went into a gay persons flat i can tell you - backs to the wall and all that regs alan

on rely-a-bell and later Chubbs CA3 they called it a 'lockblock and coffin' design, same idea keyswitch, toggle switch and a reset button. house versions had an 'AGRO' buzzer, if you touched it while adjusting it would kick you across the room. the countless number of trainee's, and a few supervisors i 'got' that way - progress? where's all the fun gone if i had an intermittent on a laced wired circuit, i'd feed a spare agro buzzer via a 12 volt hpi battery, the induction would either weld the 'rot' or blow it apart. if at night or a basement and you were lucky you would see the spark, smoke or arcing from the fault. just some 'old skills' shown to me from my original service trainer - who needs these new fangled calibrated meters . regs alan

don't let us forget Heathkit regs alan

well, well you not as old as we was reckoning, I was betting, your first 'un was made from War dept surplus relay's in a metal box the relays were the old post office tye, brown waxed paper and all the panels i admire most were made from box wood and brass shim, actually on site by rely-a-bell installation engineers. an absolute work of art and an example of workmanship and precission not seen today even on the best panels. some of the early stuff i serviced had been in place faultlesly for 40 years. regs alan

hi guys, my first panel was made an 'in house' breed by Gaurdal for Burgot Alarms, 2 zones 'feed & return' in metal case, and the lid door secured by a wardrobe lock and key. it had a large rotary switch for 'Off - Test - On' and 2 toggle switches to isolate the zones for 'part set'. an upgrade was zone lights (now ain't that cutting edge stuff or what?) best bit was they fitted a switch on the control lid door, no not as a tamper but for if the door was open it isolated the 999 trigger. the thinking was that if a fault existed and the client did not test before moving the rotary switch to 'ON' it prevented a false alarm - problem was if they left the lid door open by mistake the police never got called anyway happy days regs alan