Senior - Newbie Be gentle

Hi. Name's John, I reside in Northern England.

I was (many years ago) an aviation correspondent on a variety of UK newspapers. Never lost my love of airports, planes etc etc.

So I have now got FSX Steam.

I have begun to get to grips with cfg files and find myself hunting old-time aircraft.

I'm a pensioner, so purchases are off limits - I got FSX cos I saw how much freeware stuff you can get.

I'm gonna be reading around and asking where I need to.

So. There you have it.

HI.

Welcome to the club!

For some classic planes check out http://www.cbfsim.co.uk/CBFS_HOME.php

Senior - Newbie Be gentle

*fellow senior gently massages John's brain and fills it with Flightsim's extensive "early aircraft" download list available here*

:cool:

Welcome John. - Doug

Wait... "W2DR?"

-.. .    .-- .- ....- --.- .. --   
-. --- -   ... .. .-.. . -. -   -.- . -.--   -.-- . -   .... ..   .... ..
--... ...--

Cheers- Doug

Hi John,

There are a surprising number of very good freeware planes available.

I thoroughly endorse the recommendations below for CBFS, Ant's airplanes ( a nice T-28 too), Manfred Jahn's planes.

I would also add the following:

- anything by Tim 'Piglet' Conrad in the file library

- anything by Milton Shupe and colleagues at Sim OutHouse

- Rob Richardson's site http://www.robertjamesrichardson.co.uk which has many of his excellent planes Shackleton, Hornet, Vampire, Venom etc

- the CalClassics site

- older Alphasim planes that are now free from Virtavia

- planes by Thomas Ruth ie AN225, various Airbus versions

- anything by Dino Cattaneo eg F-35, F-14.

Lots to have great fun with.

Also I am a member of the North West Flight Sim Group http://www.nwfsg.org.uk that meets every month in Heald Green - south Manchester to share experience and knowledge. You would be very welcome to join us - next meeting is on 21st March - first visit is free.

Have fun

Ray McDonnell

-.. .    .-- .- ....- --.- .. --   
-. --- -   ... .. .-.. . -. -   -.- . -.--   -.-- . -   .... ..   .... ..
--... ...--

Greetings, fellow ham! I delighted to learn that the rumors of your demise are indeed unfounded!

.... . .-.. .-.. --- / .... .- .-. .-. -.-- .-.-.- / -. .. -.-. . / .--. .-.. .- .. -.. / - .- .-. - .- -. / .. -. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / -.-. .... .- .. .-. .-.-.-

My greatest regret was having to sell my KWM-2A and 30L1 many decades ago. These days all that's available and/or affordable are imported rice-boxes... :(

[quote=n4gix;

My greatest regret was having to sell my KWM-2A and 30L1 many decades ago. These days all that's available and/or affordable are imported rice-boxes... :(

I dunno what that stuff is selling for now. I never had any Collins gear, but I still

have a lot of old Drake gear. I notice what I see on fleabay is quite often fairly

reasonable.. But sometimes also insane too.. Never know.. Guess depends who is

selling, and how proud the owner is of the gear being sold.

I imagine the 30L1's are still in pretty high demand, being they can be used with

anything.. My user name here on FS.com used to be my call, and it still is on the

other FS site, but it got lost in a system crash or something a few years ago, and

after not being around for a while, I couldn't log back on with it. So I changed to this

user name, I guess in 2010 judging my my "join date".. I've actually been here since the

90's, but all the earlier posts were under the old user name which was -. -- ..... -.-

Greetings, fellow ham! I delighted to learn that the rumors of your demise are indeed unfounded!

.... . .-.. .-.. --- / .... .- .-. .-. -.-- .-.-.- /
-. .. -.-. . / .--. .-.. .- .. -.. /
- .- .-. - .- -. / .. -. / -.-- --- ..- .-. /
-.-. .... .- .. .-. .-.-.-

 

My greatest regret was having to sell my KWM-2A and 30L1 many decades ago. These days all that's available and/or affordable are imported rice-boxes... :(

Well, if not entirely unfounded, they have been greatly exaggerated. *knocks on wood*

I can only imagine how poor newbie John feels now that we have totally hijacked his thread. :p I plead insanity.

I don't know any Harry, I don't wear kilts and if there was a polychromatic patterned one in my seating appliance, it would have a dog on it, rendering it moot. :)

I had a Collins 1-KW CW/SSB transmitter that was jet black, 30 inches square, weighed about 250 pounds and sat on the floor, was about 3 feet high and doubled as a desk-side table (Collins: the absolute best in the world, IMHO) plus a Drake receiver, with a 75-ft tower supporting the apex of an inverted-V antenna and an American flag with a floodlight below it shining up. Seagulls feared me.

I think the Collins Transmitter was a KWS-1 but I can't remember the model number of the Drake. Ended up with a Yaesu transceiver which I took mobile in boats, airplanes, semi-trucks and a 1970 Ford Country Squire station wagon from Florida to the Left Coast and back, twice. The antenna on that car was nicknamed a Bug Smasher due to its ginormous green-covered tuning coil. You tuned it to whatever freq you wanted by adjusting the length of the upper mast with a knurled compression ring. When it was extended, I had to guy it off to the roof rack to keep it from smacking into the cars around and behind me at highway speeds. :cool:

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled program. Something about flight sims, I seem to recall.... :p

old user name which was -. -- ..... -.-

That's an outlaw call if I ever saw one. John Wayne was right. You Texicans are weird. :p

That's an outlaw call if I ever saw one. John Wayne was right. You Texicans are weird. :p

Sure like it better than my old one which was .-- -.. ..... -.-. .--- .-..

Everyone always used to mistake the .-.. for an --- it seemed.. And the newer one

sure is a lot faster on -.-. .-- The newer call has my for and aft initials in it..

Yep, I think the big Collins 1 KW was the KWS-1. An oldie.. And the Drake receiver

might have been a 4 line receiver, unless you had one of the 2 line receivers, or a 1A,

which was the first.

I have two of the 4 line receivers, one of the first R4's, which is serial# 0058, and one

of the last of the R4C's. Also have a 2C and 2CQ speaker/Q multiplier. My 4 line xmtr is

a T4XB.

These days I use my dinky Icom IC-706mk2g more than anything, being as I get on the

radio more when I'm camping at my dirt patch in OK, then I do here at home.

I recently picked up a Yaesu FT-100, which is basically the Yaesu version of the 706,

but haven't even tried it yet to see how I like it... Lazy I am..

I can run mobile from my truck, but I've always been too chicken to drill holes and such

in my fairly pristine car so far.. So do without in it. :(

Returing to the OP's topic..... Historic Jetliners Group

http://simviation.com/hjg/main.htm

http://simviation.com/1/browse-Vintage-66-0

Lots of FS9 updated to FSX Microsoft

Don't know about Steam

..I have begun to get to grips with cfg files and find myself hunting old-time aircraft.

I'm a pensioner, so purchases are off limits..

I'm a Brit pensioner too (age 66) and am rolling in cash, for example I bought myself an £1100 (1600 US dollars) computer last year, so double-check that you've filled in your pension, housing ben and council tax claim forms correctly, and PM me if you need advice about it.

I'm on old-time aircraft nut too, below is a pic of my current FSX stable, most are freeware, i find a good way to search for them on the net is simply to type in 'FSX xxx' into the google search box (where xxx is the name of the plane you're looking for), and something usually comes up. Some are better than others, so if you don't like one, delete it and try another, I do it all the time. Also type 'FS9 or FS2004 xxx' because many will work in FSX.

PS- I'm computer-illiterate but I find adding aircraft is a piece o' cake, there's usually no fancy file-juggling involved, so if I can do it anybody can..:)-

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/CMSF/FSX-ac1-1.gif

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/CMSF/FSX-ac2-1.gif

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/CMSF/FSX-ac3-1.gif

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/CMSF/FSX-ac4-1.gif

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/PoorOldSpike/CMSF/FSX-ac5.gif

I'm a Brit pensioner too (age 66) and am rolling in cash, for example I bought myself an £1100 (1600 US dollars) computer last year, so double-check that you've filled in your pension, housing ben and council tax claim forms correctly, and PM me if you need advice about it.

Hey there>

FIRST thanks to all for the kind welcomes. About to post first question in other area.

And I'm fine on HB, C Tax etc, I have tamed local benefits team, I have a direct line to the manager shd I hit snags.

I don't know any Harry, I don't wear kilts and if there was a polychromatic patterned one in my seating appliance, it would have a dog on it, rendering it moot. :)

Um, your original transmission must have suffered from excessive --.- .-. -- then, since the characters after "DE" when punched into the query box at http://qrz.com yield both "Harry" and the "plaid blanket"... :confused:

Swinging the subject back to aviation, I've been trying for years to get the "India" out of my callsign so I could brag that the lovely

"N4GX" was mine... ;)

Regardless, it's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of even more hamviationists, there are quite a few of us around!

your original transmission must have suffered from excessive --.- .-. -- then, since the characters after "DE" when punched into the query box at http://qrz.com yield both "Harry" and the "plaid blanket"... :confused:

Ugh. The dreaded Cue Are Mary (QRM) syndrome. I can't apologize for what some automated online code-reader returned from my code- I've never used a code translator so I don't know where they get their info, but I can assure you that there was no HARRY, PLAID BLANKET or CHAIR in my code. I just double-checked what I wrote (using my Mark IV Mod 7 Eyeball) and I can confirm that what I actually said was "DE WA4QIM NOT SILENT KEY YET HI HI 73", hence my befuddlement at your subsequent transmission which said "HELLO HARRY. NICE PLAID TARTAN IN YOUR CHAIR." I'm ROFLing at it but I don't understand it. Just to make sure I still have most of my marbles, I copy-pasted my code into this code translator, added the word-separating slashes which never would have been transmitted but which are apparently required by online code translators, and here's the result:

So then I repasted my code without the word separators, thinking that maybe my triple-spaces between words were somehow causing the translator to conflate adjacent code bits to come up with HARRY and the other stuff, but without the word separating slashes, it still output this: "DEWA4QIMNOTSILENTKEYYETHIHI73" which is exactly correct except for the lack of word separation. Still no HARRY and the other stuff.

I tried to do the same thing at qrz.com, but I couldn't find a code translator there, just a bunch of blog-type articles about various ham stuff.

Swinging the subject back to aviation, I've been trying for years to get the "India" out of my callsign so I could brag that the lovely

Bombardier BD-700-1A10

"N4GX" was mine... ;)

Ah. Delusions of grandeur. As far as I know, it's an occupational malady common to most of us airplane drivers. ;)

Regardless, it's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of even more hamviationists, there are quite a few of us around!

Same here! Thanks.

Ugh. The dreaded Cue Are Mary (QRM) syndrome. I can't apologize for what some automated online code-reader returned from my code- I've never used a code translator so I don't know where they get their info, but I can assure you that there was no HARRY, PLAID BLANKET or CHAIR in my code. I just double-checked what I wrote (using my Mark IV Mod 7 Eyeball) and I can confirm that what I actually said was "DE WA4QIM NOT SILENT KEY YET HI HI 73", hence my befuddlement at your subsequent transmission which said "HELLO HARRY. NICE PLAID TARTAN IN YOUR CHAIR." I'm ROFLing at it but I don't understand it.

I have no need for any such online crutch for simple code. I may be sixty-six, but I'm not quite senile yet... :p

Okay, the error in reception came from my improper parsing of your 'code string.' When I went to http:qrz.com to do a license lookup, I found no entry for WA4QIM at all.

So, thinking perhaps that the "IM" part may have been a contraction of "I am" (I'm) since it made logical sense in the context of the entire sentence, I looked up "WA4Q" and found that a fellow ham named "Harry" holds that callsign, and the picture on his entry shows his shack and rack, along with a chair and said tartan plaid blanket in same...

...hence my reply "HELLO HARRY. NICE PLAID TARTAN IN YOUR CHAIR." :cool:

This morning I checked http://hamcall.net/call/WA4QIM and note:

HamCallâ„¢ Query Results: WA4QIM:1983 ->

Last accessed: 08 Feb 2012 Lookup count: 2

Searching further here, http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp yields no results.

So, while the operator is not yet a "silent key" apparently the license is... :)

The "confusion" stemed purely from a human (me) mis-parsing the received code string as:

"DE WA4Q IM NOT SILENT KEY YET HI HI 73"

So, mystery is solved!

Okay, the error in reception came from my improper parsing of your 'code string.' When I went to http:qrz.com to do a license lookup, I found no entry for WA4QIM at all.

Sent you a PM detailing the reason for my long-expired Advanced Class FCC license.