WELL....I had wanted to continue work on the Supra today, BUT...I had volunteered to help with "Volunteer Recruiting Fair" this morning on the Iowa, from 0800 to 1230.
Then one of the other Radio Guys who was at the table with me (we had ZERO visitors) asked if I could stick around for a while and get him checked out on the Ham Radio gear. That took an hour or so, but while I was running him through the checklist and making sure he understood everything, my cell phone rang, and it was another new radio guy who wanted to know how long we'd be hanging around......
Well, he showed up about an hour later, and brought the Hallicrafters SX-100 he bought last week with him. The radio is in stunning condition for being well over 50 years old, having been owned b a Professor at the Naval Postgraduare School up in Monterey, CA.
And he only paid $100 for it!
So he and the other guy got out the tube tester and proceeded to start checking the tubes in it, when another radio guy came in to operate the station for a few hours.
He saw I was there, and asked if I could mentor him a bit on operating the "Digital Modes" (PSK31, RTTY, SSTV, etc), so I spent a couple of hours with him going over the software we have on the station computer, the little SignaLink box that interfaces the radio to the PC, what the modes sound like, (we have tagged audio recordings of quite a few of them), and proper operating procedure.
Soon enough it was 1700, and since I didn't care to hang around and listen to the ABBA tribute band they had for "Music Under The Guns", I headed home.
The wife was out shopping, so I crashed out and took a nice little nap, and then we went out to dinner at Panera Bread.
So, had a good and busy day, but the car will have to wait until Sunday.
I have most of the EGR system cleaned out, and just have to check out and clean the vale itself, and the vacuum "modulator" that goes with it. After that I'll put it all back together, do the "engine stall" test, and should be good-to-go.
The Magnaflow P/N 332888 catalytic convert I ordered turns to NOT be usable on the car as it has an additional fitting on the side for an air-injection pump that my car doesn't have.
I'm not going to modify it because if I do that, and the smog inspector sees it's been modified, he'll tag the test report with a "TAMPERED WITH" flag, which will fail the car.
I emailed Magnaflow on Friday about this issue, but haven't heard anything back. If I haven't heard anything by Monday afternoon, I'm going to give them a call and find out if they make a CORRECT converter for the car.
The people who really know these cars well on one of the forums are split on whether I should replace the converter or not, and also split on if it will give me the cushion I need to feel comfortable about getting it smogged again. The consensus seems to be to just go get it tested after I clean out the EGR, and if it fails again, THEN replace the converter and try again. The problem with that solution is I'll have to cough up another $60 to test it again, as that EGR-repair-only "test" will burn my "Free Retest in 30 Days" from the place that failed it.
AND I'd still have to buy the converter and swap it out!
So, I'll hold off a while until I can find an EXACT FIT replacement converter, and get it retested with the repaired EGR AND a new converter.
I wouldn't mind doing a test before and after replacing the converter, but not without telling the guys on the forum to take up a collection for the $60 it would cost me!
I'm all for "Science Experiments", but not when they cost $60.......
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<i>The Fisher Saga</i> Continues - Act III -
Been working on this post since right after Thanksgiving. I'm making very good progress on the Fisher, and will most likely power it up...
You stay busy. It's good that the other fellows look to you for help, shows they respect you.
ReplyDeleteIt's an Amateur Radio tradition to pass along your knowledge and help train the new guys in things like proper operating procedures, log keeping, and equipment maintenance.
DeleteSince I'm the Station Manager for the Ham station aboard, that falls on me, and I don't mind doing it.
Yep, good on ya for hanging around! Re the car, forums are 'good' for advice that costs you money... sigh
ReplyDeleteThe young guy with the old Hallicrafters was in the USAF, and now he's an LT in the Coast Guard. He's done a lot of radio operating, but now he want to learn the technical aspects.
DeleteHe's sharp, asks very intelligent questions, doesn't "know it all", and listens. Based on what you're teaching him, he shifts his questions slightly, showing he understands what you're trying to teach him.
He's an asset to our operation, and will be a fine Amateur Radio operator after he gets some time and learning under his belt.
In the last year or so we've picked up a couple of new members/volunteers like him, and our reputation for being not only a cool place to hang out, but also a good place to learn things, is slowly growing.
And us Olde Fartes are happy we have young guys like him that are serious about learning the craft.
After the Volunteer recruiting Fair was over, I was talking to the volunteer Coordinator about the low turn-out we had this year.
She brought up a good point about while we didn't have a huge volume this year, the "quality" of the people seemed better than last year.
I'm certainly not knocking the people that showed up last year, but an awful lot of them signed up, and showed up a few times, and then disappeared.
We've seen the same thing with the two radio groups. It seems people sign up just so they can tell all their friends they're involved, but then don't make any commitment to the ship to show up and help do things.
I think some of them get put off by that fact that we need people to help with actual work, and not just hang around drinking coffee and telling "sea stories".
There's a time and place for that, but we really need people who are committed to show up and work on things!
Oh, yeah, the car forums....
DeleteThere's some excellent advice on the Toyota Supra forum I hang out on.
And as with all Internet forums, the key is learning how to filter the good from the bad!