The start point of the current stereo

Rolling back the years as I've been playing a couple of records that took me back to when the forerunner of the present stereo system came in ending the classic tubed equipment made its way to the original shed in 1989.

Reasons included limited use with inputs that didn't work well with modern sources requiring many boxes and input expanders to get somewhere plus at least one needed some serous work in its control unit with component failures and the like.

This, the Rotel RA313 circa 1978 was found at a Ham Radio rally on a bring and buy stereo in good condition with the original manual that I thought would do the trick.

Apart from having inputs for my record deck with its Stanton 500EE moving magnet cartridge and tuner, there was The Great Aux which I could easily use with my first cd player a small Toshiba.

I also was running a cassette deck and Tandberg series 6 open reel deck and this had built in switching for both including copying both ways without having to unplug things.

One of first jobs was playing my cds of Now 15 and 15 blasting out Queen's I Want It All and Neneh Cherry's Kisses On The Wind and playing I Want That Man by Deborah Harry from vinyl single and frequent playing of Belinda Carlisle's Runaway Horses album.

It sounded great and was a whole lot more fun to just listen to things aided when I eventually got the matching Tuner for Radios 1,2 and 3 in stereo as by that point Radio One had gone to full time stereo rather than fading low fi medium wave only the summer before.

And the records played were the lp versions of those cds that rounded off my Now lp collection ready for the release of Now Yearbook 1990 next month on vinyl that had so many of my favourites of that year.

While the present system has better sounding sources I remain intrigued just how it might of handled them although like my current amplifier the record input was a bit noisy and had I of kept it I might of bypassed it with an external unit.

Shini is the Blue Peter 43rd presenter!

 

It has been announced who the 43rd Blue Peter presenter will be.

Shini Muthukrishnan, pictured left, aged 22 from Stafford, will go live for her first show on CBBC at 17:00 GMT on Friday.

She will co-host the world’s longest-running children’s TV programme alongside Abby Cook, Joel Mawhinney and BP pet, Henry the dog.

Blue Peter will be the first TV presenting role for Ms Muthukrishnan whose lockdown videos on TikTok celebrated her British, Indian and Malaysian heritage.

Ms Muthukrishnan, who played badminton for Staffordshire county, recently graduated from King's College London where she studied philosophy, politics and economics.

She said: “Being part of the Blue Peter team is such a surreal and exciting feeling.

“I have really fond memories of Blue Peter. As a kid, I looked up to Helen Skelton, she seemed fearless on screen. She took on incredible challenges with such a headstrong attitude that made me think 'I can be fearless too'.”

Her first challenge will involve taking part in aircraft aerobatics while also on the live show, she will also be attempting to bathe Henry the dog and cook up a tasty treat.

Blue Peter editor Ellen Evans asked about her qualities said "Shini is an exciting new talent, who impressed us with her adventurous spirit, sense of humour, determination and aspiration to have a positive impact on kids’ lives.”

As a Staffordshire resident and West Midlander, I'm delighted.

A week of activity

 Things that I have been working on this week include arrangements for going away next month from a bit of thought about what to wear as there was some talk about making a boat and taking it on water which might prove interesting as I'm not that able at staying upright and getting inside without at least some assistance as my left side is a somewhat weak and probably would be better of using walking aids and a wheelchair sometimes.

It's just when you're unable to drive you can't easily use trains carrying all that plus your case with you and getting on and off unaided.

An other element is preparing a quiz cos you cannot go to an event unless you're paying someone to put things without people being prepared to organize them themselves and that takes you into bringing what you need to undertake it.

For me that meant compiling the questions, checking the answers and printing a quiz sheet so people can just work through and place their answers on the sheet for marking and selecting suitable prizes.

New Year radio updates

We begin our first twenty twenty-four entry looking at updated things and one comes out of the airwaves, literally

Much trumpeted from the last half of twenty twenty-three was the announcement the classical pops station, Classic FM established in nineteen ninety-two would be changing the system it uses on Band III Dab radio from the original Dab system to Dab+ which is used by much of continenental europe.

In simple terms it offers high quality sound by using a more efficient coding system which means it can sound clearer and yet use less space than the old method and that was changed from 128 kilobits in Joint Stereo Dab to 64 kilo bites descrete stereo Dab+ on January second.

It does sound clearer but in the awful weather we've been having in the West Midlands over the last few days it showed another advantage which is the old standard would break up with loud "chirping" sound with the slightest signal drop, Dab+ is more resilant just fading before coming back and able to "run on" for longer when faced with intermittant rain fade.

Other stations owned by the same group had upgrades to their sound quality as capacity on the Block that transmits a group together, which is an issue on Dab nationally, had been freed up.

Most modern radios can handle Dab+ such as my Roberts Portable downstairs with its telescopic antenna so it's a win win all around and it's just a pity the BBC don't move over to it too.

We've gained a few more local stations such as one for the Churnet Valley and Moorlands FM covering the Leek area

Christmas 2023

As mentioned the christmas entry is a duo-post because in reality what it is about is the same on both this blog and the other.

Christmas got made after the messy one of 2022 and this years events that impacted many of the rituals as you notice that missing face, the usual conversation around wrapping, card writing and the like.

So it was different but with some certainties which showed in presents.

Somethings are repeats from original childhood such as the Dandy annual or reprints from classic Beano and Dandy comic strips making perfect since in the world of this short trousered little boy.

Today's Beano is almost a magazine comic mash up with much in the modern child's world where for some of us including children comics that just humour still cut it so rather than getting this years Beano annual I had the Christmas Special, a good representation of the modern Beano.

We wrote about the cd version of enlarged classic Beatles 1962-1966 compilation but I had from Dad the record version which has the extra tracks on a third disc.

I had this compilation of Erasure that covers all their hits and is fairly up to date too. 

I bought the singles but never got an album until this was obtained from Mr Claus.

Classical music is something I like and as I had been getting some brand new records I was given a copy of this classic 1970 account on vinyl.

Books did feature too with this look at the life of Biddy Baxter who was the origiinal Blue Peter producer by Richard Marston.

I tend to forget things so this very vintage Winnie the Pooh A5 dairy will no doubt prove most useful to note visits and things to remember to do

I had some money and vouchers for the New Year but while it was difficult emotionally I was glad we had Christmas again.

The Christmas break

 This is being put together at the weekend as that's very much when with me things drop off as Christmas comes into its own with places to go and people to see before the day itself starts which is normally when they'd be a post as Christmas Day this year falls on a Monday.

From memory we were strongly encouraged to sing without an electrical amplification, projecting our voices when not singing our own versions of "Jingle Bells, Robin Smells Batman fly away" and "When shephards washed their socks by night".

Santa was about on his sleigh last night ho-ho-hoeing to carols and modern christmas classics going from house to house and that's more the side of Christmas I enjoy the most

Christmas with me has always been a boys thing and no doubt if you were to drop in I'd be looking very much like these boys having just the same sort of christmas as any bio-boy which suits me right down to the ground.

Tanks to everyone enjoying the forum.

******HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!******

Christmas in comicland

We're almost at the final post before Crimbo which will be a "duo post" as that much will be happening here there simply won't be time to post immediately before then and believe or not those of us who run blogs and a forum do need time to pause.

Things that I'll be dipping into between things will include this years Beano Christmas Special, a 68 page special christmas themed edition that isn't included in your regular subscription but if you joined the new Dennis & Gnasher Fan club is included in the £20 per year subscription to that.

Meanwhile in  a ghoulish land what is now the monthly December edition is given over to Christmas with Christmas storylines featuring all our favourite characters and readers letters.

There will no doubt be a special reversed Christmas/New Year edition of Phoenix arriving soon too.