EEVblog 1410 - Mailbag

[@djashley2002]

Thought I recognised that add-on board in the marine radio - it's an ATIS (Automatic Transmitter Identification System) board which became a legal necessity on all VHF transmitters in operation in the Netherlands, the Rheinland , and the Benelux countries in (if my memory serves me right) the mid-90s. Hence the upgrade board.

[@muzzaball]

Thanks David!

[@MendItAussie]

Is the company Dancom still in operation? We noticed a Malaysian electronics company of the same name but that was established in 1985. #AURightToRepair #AUSRepairSummit21

[@patrickverdonk880]

It sounds like 1k2 packetradio. A brust of about half a second at the end of each transmission. And the paperwork is in Dutch, not Danish.

[@billysgeo]

So... what did it do?

[@berthoogenboom8458]

@@billysgeo it sends the name of the shipp every time you push the PTT button

[@cosmiceon]

Good on you Dave for sending the kid a meter! I just bought one from you so that makes me happy to hear :) love it!

[@olafnew]

That horrible flashlight - is "Helios". How many people were shocked by it - god knows. I was a kid(1988) and nearly got killed by the damn thing. Barefooted boy walking around in the yard - decided to charge it up, and, yes of course - whilst it was charging i've got a brilliant idea of taking out a lamp for some reason. And as a family story tells - my grandmother found me lying in the yard unconsious. In electronics ever since :) The battery is a NiCd 260mAh and no remorse there - they always, ALWAYS leaked. Curious thing though - they still do make them in this form-factor, and even some descent brands do it (Sony, GP, etc), though of course the modern ones are NiMh.

[@Llirik13]

Heh, I just poked my fingers in the mains socket when I was 1 year old or 2? And this was It for me - electronics. And thous torches never make any significant effect on me. Also, it was an incredible fun to play with it plugged into the mains. I think I use it to charge some other accus. One time LED on it exploded into the ceiling.

[@marcus_w0]

BTW: The story of NASA spending millions on a space-pen is absolutely true. But there's a catch: The NASA had the idea, that highly conductive micro graphite particles floating around freely in a space craft wasn't the very best thing for safety. So they tried to change that.

[@boris3650]

I also got got mains shock 2-5 years old since than in electronics 😃😃😃

[@Anachronos1]

I had same torch. even i manage to find spare batteries. Most of ruusian electronics are immortal.

[@Superglucker]

Come on... I cannot believe in such dumbness... though this kid (you) could not possibly had known anything about electricity. :) sorry for making laugh pointlessly 🤷‍♂️ My parents got such flashlight then (in 80s) and I have a much later version from my parents of this device embossed "электроника 86-03" now, even with PCT marking with a huge film/paper capacitor but other circuit is presumably thin-film or whatever based - just about 8x15 mm substrate with four solder I/O joints . Batteries having been dumped for recycling AFAIR were NiCD tough...

[@gro0ve]

I'm originally from Belarus, which was a part of USSR. This flashlight was very popular in the village where I used to spend my summer days. I'd say that almost every household had this type of flashlight. I can't remember exactly if it was exactly this brand or any other but those wall-plugged rechargeable flashlight was extremely popular among the villagers.

[@arenaengineering8070]

Greetings from Belarus.

[@migsvensurfing6310]

Best thoughts and wishes for Belarus.

[@gro0ve]

@@migsvensurfing6310 thank you

[@dorusan]

Nice gesture with the multimeter gift. Cheers, Dave. Making electronic engineers one by one.

[@danriches7328]

I second this, Dave you're a star! Assisting young men and women that at least put in some effort is always fantastic to see and I wish we could all do this more and take a leaf from your book, nice one!!!!

[@musashigundoh]

24:40 "Helios" in Cyrillic. Quite ironic for a very dim torch. 26:03 "D-0.26D" is a 1.2V, 260mAh NiCd rechargeable cell. Modern equivalents in the same form factor exist (B330H), but they're quite rare.

[@gazooc]

Гелиос АН-0-001

[@Petertronic]

Is it the same Helios that made camera lenses?

[@TheGrantourismo]

@@Petertronic No.

[@RomanMatiyenko]

@@Petertronic that was Zenit's lens maybe some other soviet camera brand...

[@vincei4252]

Thanks for sending the multimeter to the well deserving viewer. He will cherish it. Oh, and I bought some of those protoboards, great idea!

[@TonyAlbus]

Thank you Dave! yes those small form factors are Thandar (before it was TTi)

[@EEVblog]

Yes, that's the name that was on the top of my tounge.

[@MartenElectric]

Nice one, Tony's lab on first background :)

[@TonyAlbus]

@@MartenElectric Thanks, well spotted... wait for the 9 minutes :))

[@Llirik13]

Torch name Гелиос is (Helios). We have such torches in USSR. They have selectable light beam geometry (by turning bezel). Ni-Cd accumulators. Ingenious charging circuit. And really hi tech big crystal LED (I have one story with makes me think it can produce laser beams). So much memories Dave. My Grandpa had one of this, I remember using it when I was a child, and after he died, my Grandma still used it for some extend. It have an extraordinary life span, especially in regard to thous Ni-Cd accus. Charging circuit is actually designed in such a way that it provides pulsating current, and this helps to fight memory effect in accumulators. But you must plug it off after some time (6 hours or something to not fry it) I bet thous accus still work if you clean them and charge for a while.

[@Llirik13]

It was a consumer device. It was produced in volume. In USSR there was a limited variations for every type of consumer goods. This torches was doggy in use, it is true, but also they worked, they helped us, they shined our way.

[@Llirik13]

But there was also a railway torch we have. It was powered by serviceable alkaline accumulator. This was a standard big rectangular interchangeable accumulators that was widely used in other places, motorcycles, mining lights, etc etc. And they must be charged in stages, and electrolyte was boiling inside, and, it was so much fun!

[@DielectricVideos]

@@Llirik13 I'd love to hear the story about the LED producing laser beams! I also like the use of "accumulator" in place of "battery"... Might just start calling all my batteries accumulators now :D

[@Llirik13]

@@DielectricVideos Accumulator stand for rechargeable battery here. And thous that one time usage we call just battery - batareyka (батарейка) for single quantity and batareyky fro multiple quantity. Led exploded at the time when I played with this circuit (it was connected to mains). But it was really strange. First it starts flashing pulsation light with sounds of small blasts at 10Hz and really strange color. Then it exploded by irradiating thin light beam into the ceiling. Inspection showed that led was lacking small central piece of lens(and have thin channel in rest of it), and ceiling have small burned crater in concrete. Perhaps of course this was just redhot led crystal pushed by magic smoke to the speed of sound.

[@DielectricVideos]

@@Llirik13 Very interesting, it does sound like it turned into a laser diode for a short time!

[@alch3myau]

That sigtec on the CB... I was curious too :D "Since 1996, every VHF radio that is used within the Rhine bank countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, must be provided with an Atis code, which is a personal digital identification code that is sent at the end of a transmission. "

[@mikeissweet]

My favorite segment! Love the shirt, Dave!

[@MrJohnBos]

Hi from Boston, MA. I bought the exact same RS meter you have 50 years ago. I used it back in my old Analog Devices days and it still works, I think. Thanks for your shows, I always learn something new.

[@Limhes]

We speak Dutch in "Holland", not Danish :D

[@LarixusSnydes]

I can imagine how he mistook this for a Danish device: DANCOM (i.e. Danish communication). Anyhow, this is indeed a Dutch-made Marine Radio (Marifoon).

[@preston963]

That transistor package in the C.B. you didn't know is an XO-9 package used by Philips in the early 70's usually BC147-8-9 BC157-8-9 transistors.

[@Graham_Langley]

Also known as Lockfit.

[@Cheered]

The picoprobe tips are actually easy-replaceable, just grab then with pliers and pull them out. You can also interchange them for the serated points. And turd will do just fine I guess :-)

[@mjaerkens]

Hey Turd! Grapje natuurlijk. :)

[@thekaiser4333]

Nice probes. How did you make them?

[@Cheered]

@@thekaiser4333 some off the shelf parts soldered into a custom brass piece. The front and back are gold plated receivers, an the probe tips are also off the shelf.

[@thekaiser4333]

@@Cheered - Thank you.

[@theprimalpitch190]

A pencil is a bad idea in a spacecraft with many switches and zero G. Break the tip and you've got a small random conductor floating around looking for a set of exposed terminals.

[@kryptoniterazor]

The story is a little simplified, they actually used a grease pencil

[@EEVblog]

Don't have exposed terminals.

[@plusmanikantanr]

@@EEVblog But how would you AVOID having exposed terminals ? You can't coat everything in Bakelite or something right ? you gotta have access to make repairs on-the-fly so to speak ...

[@SeanBZA]

@@EEVblog Impossible to do, you are cutting every gram, so you only use sleeves where needed, and not on all of the pins. A lot of the modules were fully potted for vibration, but almost all of the switches on the panels used either soldered or screw connections, so sleeving them all would have added extra kilograms of sleeving, which translates to hundreds of kilograms of fuel extra. They already were making panels out of aluminium barely thicker than a modern drawn can, not much more they could lose mass wise. These were the engineers who took bolts and hollow drilled them, to cut a few grams off the mass, despite this making the 2c bolt come in at $20 then. Same for panels, milled out to just have the borders thick enough, and enough thickness to survive launch.

[@arenaengineering8070]

Hello. The problem with the carbon particles from the pencil is not that it gets on the switch contacts, but that the carbon particles from the pencil get into the oxygen regeneration system and can damage the regeneration system. This applies to American spacecraft, where astronauts work in an environment of pure oxygen. Russian space vehicles use ordinary air with 78% nitrogen and 20% oxygen and there are no problems with carbon particles.

[@PaaAL]

The branding on the torch says ГЕЛИОС [gelios], as for Helios, the Greek god ;-)

[@nihonam]

and batteries are analog of B330H NiCd

[@moristo]

For 4:40 maybe it's a connector for microphone, speaker, PTT (Push To Talk) button, and multiple advanced usage.

[@TheRadioShop]

Subscribed to Tony's channel. I love RF goodness.

[@koraypekericli]

OMG I had the same torch back in the early nighties as a kid! I got it from a Russian marketplace in Turkey! It was miserably bad. 😃

[@Graham_Langley]

Those bigger-than-TO92 transistors are the Mullard/Philips Lockfit package, designed to snap into a PCB with no lead forming or cutting needed.

[@borayurt66]

Signs that shows you are watching too much KZbin: 1) Someone says "Thing of beauty" you shout "Joy forever!" 2) You can only say "Full bridge rectifier" with a deep, timbering voice. 3) Someone says "Capacitive dropper" and you hear it with a Scottish accent. Please feel free to add your own symptoms... :-)

[@erikdenhouter]

Someone says: "Good enough for..." and you are suddenly scared the police locks you up.

[@SK-dv6yc]

When you make something at work, and you think to yourself: "Good enough for Australia!"

[@gcewing]

Terms such as "chooch" and "skookum" seem like perfectly cromulent words.

[@giordanob.8515]

As soon as you pointed at the added board, my old modified Midland SSB CB transceiver came instantly to my mind. I built an external VFO equipped with digital readout and then, very very carefully, I connected it to the right spot of the Xtal oscillator by means of a plug I added to the rear plate. It worked fine and it was also very stable, with clean output. I think I knew those schematics better than my home. Merry good old times, I was sixteen then. Thanks for reviving those happy memories.

[@profpep]

Vintage transistor packages in the VHF transceiver were called 'Lockfit' packages, a Philips/Mullard design. They had pins made of metal strip, with barbs on that retained then in the PCB for soldering, (and made them a right pain to remove!).

[@OneBiOzZ]

im still doing entirely SMT prototyping on standard 0.1" proto board soldering 0603 parts between the pads and wiring sots in manually with bare copper wire not fun, going to get a bunch of these right now

[@AndySpicer]

Dave, if you have the address of that young man who lost his dad I am in the US and would be more than happy to send him some gear including a multimeter. I know it costs a lot for you to ship stuff here.

[@Yaaayishere]

I'd contribute, lets do this. Dave, lets fund a scope.

[@AndySpicer]

@@Yaaayishere I'm sure that a fund could be a really good idea but on this one we really don't need to. I have a storage unit full of gear that I've picked up at auction and such and I'd be happy to just give it to him if Dave reaches out.

[@mdbssn]

That transistor package is called an X09. I guess reasonably common decades ago, but I don't see a ton left around today.

[@SeanBZA]

Phillips and Siemens were the only manufacturers who made them, does make it easy to see German and Dutch made equipment. They also made a power transistor in the same package style, with a small tab out the top to screw to a heatsink, though often just the tab was enough for audio.

[@stuartirwin3779]

@@SeanBZA Made by Mullard too, and Philips Australia. Very popular in locally made equipment here in Australia during the 1960s. Called an SOT25 package.

[@bartuseslinux]

The radio documents are in Dutch, not Danish. Some highlights: the warranty certificate ("garantiebewijs") states that the marine radio ("marifoon") was intended for a boat called "Serdon", and the owner was responsible himself for building it in. The other document is basically a license by the PTT (national phone and mail service at the time) for using/installing a radio on the "Serdon". Looking at the handwritten notes on it, it seems that this license cost the guy fl.42,- (roughly 21 euros) at the time.

[@muctop17]

7:30 that synthesizer board is an upgrade from the 90s for sure! In the 70s we called these multichannel transceivers "quartz crystal tomb" Because you needed the propper quartz for every channel you wanted to receive and another quartz for transmit ! And these crystals were expensive these days. So normally you did not have many (fixed) channels maybe 3 or 5 to change (and 6 or 10 quartz!) and you had to open the box and plug in other crystals if you traveled to another region with other radio channels.

[@KB1UIF]

I had a very similar rechargeable torch as a kid over in the UK, my father bought it for me about 55 years ago. No idea where it went but the thing probably stopped working about 50 years ago.

[@andrewnisbet1854]

I remember connecting standalone Sigtec Selective call units to Phillips and AWA VHF radios in Seven Hills (Sydney) back in the early 90s. I saw some notes indicating they were mandatory in the Netherlands, 'blast form the past' but great technology for the time.

[@AleDiLe]

The frakos are great! They explode very loudly as they nearly never have a vent! :) Still used in the 80's as I see them often in audio equipment in the powersupply section. I saw people referring to them as "knallfrosch", exploding frog?. Also today they make devices to correct the powerfactor when you have lots of motors. Basically a box full of caps and relays.

[@douro20]

A Knallfrosch is a type of firecracker which jumps around on the ground. They are usually green coloured, hence the name which literally means "bang frog".

[@_2N2222]

I also had a Frako capacitor exploding in an audio amplifier that I built in the late 1970s. But it was entirely my fault, I did not understand the circuit well enough and exposed the capacitor to overvoltage. Nothing to blame the Frako brand in general.

[@0202fabrice]

Alessio, see if you can find my recent message about Frako caps. Still working fine after 50+ years in my German portables. You're right, no vent. May be why they had a huge voltage margin. The only cap I ever saw 'jump around" was a wet slug tantalum that had been installed reverse polarity. It sounded like a pistol shot when it let loose. The slug was ejected and left a heat trail on the adjacent insulating card. (Of course, that that was so their source and path could be easily traced!) : p )

[@KaizerPowerElectronicsDk]

For All the RF interested viewers, I made some 20 teardown videos of 900/1800/2100 MHz 3G/4G Amplifiers on my Teardown play list :)

[@muppetpaster]

4:07 I cannot read Danish either but it is from HOLLAND , so reading Dutch might be more helpful....

[@Anthocyanina]

love that big protoboard, the one thing it's missing is mounting holes!

[@stevedaenginerd]

I'd love to see a more detailed teardown and repair of the radio. I think it'd be fascinating to explore that radio's design elements in some depth!

[@202Electrics]

funny to see a fairly "modern" ATIS code generator in that old "Marifoon" Boat radio. As an intern at a big nautic equipment repair/suplier company,(Radio Holland) I had to (re)program this little devices and build them in the, back than, modern "boat radio's" with indeed earlier said ATIS identification code. this system is still used today at big harbours like Rotterdam so that the control station always knows who is talking at that moment. No one is allowed to transmit without that code when talking to the control stations. It can cause huge fines or can even cost you your permit to use the radio.

[@jankcitycustoms]

my grandparents still use those square flashlights that take the big 6v lantern battery. equal to about 1 candlepower

[@phillyphakename1255]

Mains rechargable flashlights are quite common here in the States for emergency power loss. Schools have them in every classroom, my work has one in the bathroom, etc. I think a big part of their role is insurance against the backup generator failing. You want a way to get light automatically, with or without backup power.

[@CarstenSaager]

I had one of these mains chargeable torches. Unfortunately one of the connectors came loose and got stuck in the wall socket.. As the normal 7 year old, I grabbed it with my fingers and since then I had been hooked to electronics

[@skuula]

I had one of those Dancom VHFs, which I converted to 2m ham radio with a friend. Great rig it was. Replacing the TTL ICs in the PLL to LS types brought down the standby consumption by a hundred milliamps or so

[@kevincozens6837]

Those breadboard LED bargraph devices look really useful. I'm going to get some of them. When I need just a few LEDs on a solderless breadboard I have a bunch of red 3mm through hole LEDs with built-in current limiting resistor that I picked up from somewhere many years ago.

[@Blanquart]

Nice vibrating model of the Space X Starship...

[@SeanBZA]

Somebody needs to send him the talking version........

[@mikeh020011]

As a warning the RF power transistors contain Beryllium oxide which is carcinogenic in powdered form .

[@voldemarvaglaots6690]

I recognized this flashlight immediately as you unwrapped it! I wanted one like this when I was 10-11 years old... Rechargeable batteries failed if you didn't disconnect from mains in time.

[@fabianluttenberger7153]

I heard the upcoming iPhone will come with such a handbook that includes all the schematics

[@TheGrantourismo]

Nice joke. First, all Chinese parts producers should mail their schematics to Apple, which they'll never do.

[@jackmclane1826]

It's the bow-den-say.... sort of! ;) I remember one of those "torches" as well when I was a kid. In West Germany that is. There was some trade between the blocks, so it could be an eastern product. Some of those had a decent reputation for being not overly fancy, but sturdy and reliable. I still have a GDR made hand mixer "Privileg" RG28, that I regularly use.

[@dktr2]

These flashlights were also very popular in Poland, I had one when I was little and I came up with the idea of soldering the cable to the battery, the exposure was quite large;)

[@1978garfield]

Also I assume every one in OZ gets a knife like that for their 5th birthday? I would guess its brand name is "This is a knife."

[@johnwest7993]

Stacking chips reminds me of how I used to double my memory capacity by soldering RAM chips piggy-back like this, and adding a wire to do a chip-select to switch between the second chip and the first. So that mod may be doubling the number of available frequencies, or some such.

[@homersimpson6985]

I wonder if your postman has his own youtube channel where he does mailbag before you.

[@bobvines00]

I still have that Radio Shack multimeter and still use it in the house. (My digital multimeters are out in my shop.)

[@jasonbrindamour903]

@ 12:40, let Photoinduction try that current range...LOL :)

[@MrDoneboy]

I want that 1984 shirt, Dave!

[@EEVblog]

It's Wikileaks merch, should be on their store.

[@S13Reborn]

7:53 Maybe that one could be a subtone board to be able to trigger a repeater, that's quite common in radio.

[@gcewing]

You had the same first multimeter as me! The ohms scale on mine was black instead of green, and I think it had different branding, but it was essentially the same unit.

[@-yeme-]

"DARbee-shuh", emphasis on the first syllable, the "shire" is very much shortened in speech

[@andyjdhurley]

Although I would say "sheer" rather than "shuh" but that is probably a more regional thing.

[@andrewwilson6240]

@@andyjdhurley certainly in Nottingham it is pronounced `sha`

[@sandyfordd1843]

If only English people learned to speak English! LOL

[@andymouse]

@@sandyfordd1843 We do, that's why it's called ' English ' if only Americans learned to speak English, but if your happy speaking ' American ' thats fine, I'm not criticizing you so you shouldn't criticize us LOL

[@sandyfordd1843]

@@andymouse , LOL, I’m not American, but thanks for making my point with your bad grammar, terrible punctuation and incorrect spelling.

[@vikypond3183]

Where can I buy this shirt "1984 Is not an Instruction manual". That's so nailing this epoch.

[@NullStaticVoid]

@ 25:00 is that a PCB Dave? I don't see any circuit in it. Looks like flying wires to me.By the way I have seen Soviet era diodes like that. Bought some kits from Erica Synths in Latvia. Their old Polivoks replica kits had genuine Soviet diodes and transistorrs. The transistors needed to be be shielded from light. Stray light affects performance enough to mess up an oscillator circuit apparently. (normally it's only heat we worry about!)

[@ninetailscosmicfox5585]

The Lake Bodensee border (what was) East and West Germany and Switzerland - hence the three respective plaques on the bottom corner. They were the only reason I bothered checking

[@FARLANDER762]

I've seen similar connectors to the one on the back of the Dancom on some old analog broadcast AV switchers. I would guess it's an obsolete standard.

[@TonyLing]

The big arsed power resistor is possibly for the low power 5W mode which you have to have to operate in marinas

[@Ty-vr9cd]

Yeah, that module could be ATIS, or it could be a sellcall board of some sort. Ive seen similar desighned vhf marine radios made by Skanti which come with optional selective calling.

[@arrbam02]

According to the manual, which you can also find at "rigpix": The resistor is a 10Ohm 16W and its inserted via a relay in series with the power supply to the RF power amplifier. By inserting that resistor, supply voltage to the RF power amp drops to approximately 10V and that reduces its output power to 1W. I agree, the manual is excellent. The unit is wonderfully modular in design and that VHF power amplifier should be useable in other applications, I'd love to get hold of one for experiments.

[@cambridgemart2075]

I started my career using HP sweepers and Anritsu / Wiltron storage & display units. We eventually changed over to the Marconi Instruments 6200 series Radio Test Sets which were a game changer as far as we were concerned.

[@janscherps6470]

That radio was sold in Holland, not Denmark. It is Dutch certificate.

[@parttime9070]

Is there a don't power up with out an antenna attached warning.?

[@sunpathviewer]

Always a kick!! Thanks.🙊

[@phillipsmiley5930]

SN7493 TTL binary counters! Thats an oldie, by 1978 dedicated PLL chips like mc145106 were turning up in VHF Marine radios

[@modestas3d391]

Your t-shirt are awesome ;] Is it possible to buy such ones somewhere?

[@backyardbasher]

@5:17 "dual bodge chip" , In the UK there are 2 Legal CB Radio Bands, the "UK 40" which is 27.601 - 27.991 and "Mids" 26.965 - 27.405 , there is 10khz between each channel , except on the Mid band where there are a few exceptions. In Uniden based CB Radios The UK 40 frequencies were set by a PLL IC called a TC9119 and the Mid band frequencies were set by a TC9106, to save having seperate radios I and many others used to piggyback the 9106 on top of the 9119 and switch between the two. Back in the day if you had one of these you were considered a king of the Air waves, I still have 3 radios with this mod done to them.

[@gblargg]

20:12 The layout of the numbers on the keypad... WHY???

[@MrFreeElectron]

note the brand of the TBA810 : SGS-ATES , the precursor to ST : ATES : Aquila Tubi e Semiconnduttori , SGS . The other TBA120 was very common mf opamp used in many tv's of that vintage. Those transistors are a SOT25 package. again , many audio/video stuff made in europe of that vintage used those. Even the schematics look and smell like philips.

[@MrFreeElectron]

BF195 BF196 were popular MF transistors in that package. Siemens also used it.

[@Soundfactory24]

These SOT25 BC147 transistors were also used in old electronics kits from Philips (e.g. EE 2003) with which my "electronics career" began in the 70s ;-)

[@byronwatkins2565]

Are there SMT devices on that bodge board? That would definitely be an anachronism. Even the fiberglass in the board would be unusual. Probably, the repairs required obsolete component(s). I do believe Mr. Carlson would like to play with that.

[@maurice2vd6]

"SIGTEC A1203" Radio Call sign PCB. Due to governance Ruling app. 1994 they installed those. Pres transmit key and first call sign is transmitted. I still can reprogram those A1203's

[@WacKEDmaN]

cool stuff... thanks Dave... weird so many opened packages... i wonder if auspost staff are up to new tricks...wouldnt surprise me the way the have been the last couple of years...

[@silicon1]

yeah customs must of inspected this lot of mail considering it appears nothing was stolen, otherwise i'd guess someone broke into the mailbox and looked for stuff worth stealing but that doesn't appear to be the case.

[@WacKEDmaN]

@@silicon1 usually customs reseal it with their tape, and include a declaration that it has been opened for inspection...

[@AECRADIO1]

Sigtel board might be a subaudible encode/decode, or tone burst encoder.

[@StephanWahlen]

My parents had a very similar torch at home. (live in gerrmany) It actually made sense to me as a kid, just plug it into the mains to recharge and youre good to go. No fiddling around with batteries, or charge bricks.

[@durandalgmx7633]

@04:00 "I can't read Danish" It's Dutch, and the 1st item is a warranty card, the 2nd card is a licence to use a marine radio. Good show, keep it up :)

[@czarodzi9967]

The torch didn't come with a manual and schematic, and that didn't raise a reaction?

[@woldemunster9244]

In Soviet Russia the manual and schematic come to you.

[@Majstor_P]

That torch brought back childhood memories! They were common in Serbia as well. Had two of them, one red-orange, like this from the video, and a black one. Cells started to leak and fail, one by one, so I combined them in one torch, which also failed soon after. :)

[@mikeh020011]

I used to work for a supplier of Dancom radios. I repaired faulty radios and programmed proms (not eproms) the access non standard channels

[@fiakergulaschsaft]

remarkable that you didn't admire the "mechanism" for turning on the bulb in the russian torch. the lever just pushing the metal to the bare naked bulb shaft. hilarious!

[@0202fabrice]

Telefunken Bajazzo portable radios from the 1968 - '69 era use the very same 1kµF 16v Frako caps in the audio output and power supply filters. They're still working in-spec!

[@jasonbrindamour903]

Dave, I know your time is not much, but now that you have a kid that you have been teaching electronics, I think you would have no problem selling a beginner book with updated information to teach kids and get them hooked into today's electronics. Geez, even and my age of 45 I'd still watch that series! All I really had was Mr. Wizard growing up...oh and the Gary Ed Mach from Kid Bits

[@lesliefranklin1870]

To me, that piggyback chip is likely an increase in digital memory. The "bodge" wire is likely an additional address or chip enable line not included in the original circuit. Perhaps they did this to add additional frequencies not used in the original market?

[@tongordebeke1355]

Hi Dave, The language on those forms. Isn't danish. But my beautiful language. Dutch. This device was sold in the Netherlands. And mounted in a boat. Greetings Ton Gordebeke

[@charlesball6519]

Are you sure customs isn't the ones opening your packages to inspect them?

[@bgdwiepp]

The Riedon SSA-100 is very strongly inspired by one of the many very well performing isolation amplifiers by TI/Broadcom/SiLabs (eg, the specs are the exactly the same). The thing is, the packaging is pretty unbeatable - it should be an isolated drop in replacement for a standard shunt.

[@sivalley]

What a shame the mechanical oscillator robot did not survive the cuprum impulse applicator. 😄

[@evensgrey]

The US used felt-tip pens in space. Fran Blanche did a video on fountain pens, including that there are felt-tip fountain pens and it was this type that NASA used in space because they're unaffected by gravity or the lack thereof. The problem for pencils is how do you SHARPEN them in microgravity? As for the Soviet-era mains-chargeable flashlight, I can't find any rechargeable battery chemistry with 0.26V cell voltage, so that's probably something else. 36:00 It even looks cheap on video. It looks like metalized plastic. Which is exactly what it turned out to be when smashed open.

[@paulkoopmans4620]

The blue piece of information is not really recent. In mentions the PTT, the old dutch government organization for telecom stuff. The thing describes which channels to use for certain purposes and rules. The other white piece of paper is actually a request for transmitting license it seems like.

[@priestblood]

The multi pin connector is for the microphone handset

[@Nik930714]

1:10 "you can see it, i cant". Trust me Dave, we cant see it either.

[@dxhighendamplifiers]

A good idea is to test new FNIRSI-1014B, price is 30 times less... quality is reasonable, performance with EXTERNAL 5v POWER SUPPLY is acceptable... the supply provided produces spikes in the waveform....see the superior display...the easy of use and they sell by 156 USD and sometimes 70% discount is applied over 156 USD.... display image beat anyone you compare!

[@cryptearth]

22:20 as we used to on GamesDoneQuick donation comments: "Greentings from Germany" =D 27:28 oh, yea, that Paul McCartney reference - back in the USSR ... love that song - and love to play it myself on the bass, guitar and the drums ...

[@Mihail_K.]

Never heard of or seen one of those torches (that says Gelios AN-0-001 in case anyone is wondering), but I still have somewhere a late 60s Radiotehnika RRR charger for 9V 7D-01 batteries (the batteries had a cylindrical shape but the same contacts as a 6F22), and just now investigating the topic it seems they had a cluster of ni-cad tablets inside (similar to the ones shown in the video). It has pretty much the same guts, but doubled bc it's multi voltage (the USSR used 127V in the early days and to my knowledge some places used that until the 80s). The design is such that you can just plug it into a (flat and very unsafe) soviet socket and stick your finger in there.

[@willynebula6193]

Dave the shirt is very on point!

[@Schwuuuuup]

I had a torch like this as a kid in the 90s... One night I heard a noise, I thought it was a car driving slowly and parking on the gravel parking lot beneath my window... but it kept going and going. After a while when i was properly woken up, I realized, that it was my torch in the mains plug, that was melting and boiling inside. That could have gone horribly wrong, if I hadn't woken up...

[@jtb2586]

4:01 Its called Dutch, In the Netherlands AKA Holland we speak Dutch not Danish.