Travis In Austin

They flew in from Houston, CC and Bmont? Guess they lucked out and beat the weather that came in Friday morning into Spinks where I was hoping to pick up Bill. I saw things cleared up nicely by Sunday so it must have been pretty coming back. My timing hasn't been good lately, I was in Hope a couple of weeks ago and Roy was out of the Country, but got to say hello to a couple of factory friends, but it sure would have been nice to see some old forum friends and meet some new ones. It sounds like it was a great time, as always, with some excitement thrown in. Looking forward to seeing more photos, especially Boxx's family.

Wish I could have been there as well, I was hoping to get Bill H. to come along with me and fly him in, but weather didn't cooperate Friday morning and I don't think he had the time to do a drive in on Sat. And back on Sun.

Did they have those up and running for y'all to hear?

An even older motor, BMW 1.5L single turbo, with associated turbo lag. With 5.5 bar of boost, 1300 to 1500 hp, race limits on fuel required backing boost down to about 3.8 Bar and 800 to 850hp.

How did those pro Heresys sound?

The Voice is what they called him. Two essential LP's "In The Wee Small Hours" and "Songs For Swinging Lovers" from '55 and '56 respectively. This was from his come back after his teenage idol status had declined. He was dropped by Columbia and picked up by Capitol after his rebirth as a movie actor. Wee is considered to be one of the best vocal jazz albums ever recorded. Those two LP's are essential in my opinion.

I can fix it, my dad hasca bitchen set of tools.

This just keeps getting better. This was apparently at an organized event called Rednecks With Paychecks. Here is a link to the event rules. I especially like the one that says Use your common sense. Maybe they added that after the 2013 event in the video?

What about suspension, a-frames, what ever those have, that would all have to be replaced or no? I am guessing it never drove the same again.

Great video, hard lesson learned. St. Jo Texas, why am I not surprised? I bet the news kept getting worse for him. He probably made insurance claim and was told it wasn't covered because off road use is excluded. Just the air bags alone was probably a hefty bill. What do you think the total cost of that lesson was? 5K?

You still near Denton? Maybe I can swing by and pick up some on the way to my cousin's house. It looks like it should keep a long time.

you are very funny , a 300kton yield B61 built with junked parts , cannibalized from defective units with vaccum tubes till 2020 - The 340KT is the 7 variant, the "strategic" model, it was updated as part of a six year refurbishment that was completed by NSAA at the end of 2008. They used tubes up until then. There are about 180 B-61s, including Variant 3 and 4s all over Europe. This is the "tactical" version and they are actively deployed and they all have tubes. Those will be replaced starting in 2020s when the Life Extended bombs are completed. This is what the General told the WSJ about tubes in nukes in '09: "We've done a pretty good job of maintaining our delivery platforms," the general says, by which he means submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles and intercontinental bombers. But nuclear warheads are a different story. They are Cold War legacies, he says, "designed for about a 15- to 20-year life." That worked fine back when "we had a very robust infrastructure . . . that replenished those families of weapons at regular intervals." Now, however, "they're all older than 20 years . . . . The analogy would be trying to extend the life of your '57 Chevrolet into the 21st century." Gen. Chilton pulls out a prop to illustrate his point: a glass bulb about two inches high. "This is a component of a V-61" nuclear warhead, he says. It was in "one of our gravity weapons" -- a weapon from the 1950s and '60s that is still in the U.S. arsenal. He pauses to look around the Journal's conference table. "I remember what these things were for. I bet you don't. It's a vacuum tube. My father used to take these out of the television set in the 1950s and '60s down to the local supermarket to test them and replace them." And here comes the punch line: "This is the technology that we have . . . today." The technology in the weapons the U.S. relies on for its nuclear deterrent dates back to before many of the people in the room were born. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122731227702749413 It costs a lot of money to upgrade, extend the life of nukes, and a lot of time. I think the only reason 3 and 4s were not upgraded is they thought they were going to be replaced, but the funding got cut for that in '09. Then the rest get upgraded, from chips that are currently used in microwave ovens to whatever we have advanced to that has proven reliability.

This is What I remember. Two trays, one for those to be tested, one for those you tested.

I was thinking the same thing, be cool to have. I have never seen on since. You dialed up the tube number, it told you the socket number, as I recall, it was a very simple meter. Red yellow and green. Lockable cabinet below to store the tubes in. A jobber came by once a month or so to restock the tubes.

The cameras are cool, but you probably cannot get film for them anymore. Have to find a surplus source for 35mm film. But they still seem to have photo services at the drug store, but no tube checkers. There was a tube checker in every drug store when I was growing up, wonder where they all went?

I thought my memory was failing me, here is the government report on refurbishment of the B-61 nuclear bomb. They are looking to have their first refurbished bomb unit completed in 2020. This is the current report on their website today. http://nnsa.energy.gov/ourmission/managingthestockpile/lifeextensionprograms Another article from the Washington Post talking about how they take vacuum tubes from a retired B 61 and use it in another one. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-b61-bomb-a-case-study-in-needs-and-costs/2012/09/16/494aff00-f831-11e1-8253-3f495ae70650_story.html The quote from the 2012 article: "They cannibalize spare B61s for parts, such as the vacuum tubes needed to keep the radars working on active bombs. If they don’t have spares, they track down outdated machines to manufacture the components themselves, as they did when they bought a machine to produce integrated circuits." We will have vacuum tubes is the B-61 until at least 2020.

It is the B-61, NATO has 200 of them, accordingly to the USAF General who testified in Congress in'09, and he told Congress they had vacuum tubes in them. I distinctly remember that he brought tubes to the hearing to show the committee what some of our nukes had in them. Watching C-span I pick up all of this crazy stuff. Now I admit you cannot trust a general testifying before Congress when he says the nuke program he is in charge of is outdated, but I thought he would be somewhat accurrate when he testified that some of our gravity bombs had a vacuum tube in them. I am pretty sure he was asked if they were in current inventory and he responded that they were a small fraction of the total and they were in Europe as part of NATO. But it was six years ago so I am probably wrong on that.

Dupe

That has got to be the worst. Saw Lafayette go from boom down to bust in the 80s, and slowly back up again. It is very sad on many levels, but I would hate the one to have to bear the news.

+1 Grew up on the A's. Was there for Game 3 in '89. But I also went to a lot of games at the Stick. Saw 4 future Hall if Fame players play there (24, 27, 36 and 44) but they were real heart breakers, always a bridesmaid, never the bride.

how about the insurance coverage of your car - are you insured and will your insurance pick up any of the costs - I am insured but it wont cover my car and not all the medical bill and me missing work Ok I sent you a pm with my email so we can talk more if you want and answer any questions. TRAVIS

good man. they are in Missouri by the way. Thanks Scrappy, I was finally able to piece a little bit of it togethet.

If you pm me your number I would be happy to talk you through everything.

The radar fuse in the B-61 bomb uses a vacum tube. The airforce requested funding back in 2009 to update and replace those bombs. That funding was denied. B-61 bombs, and yes, that is an old design that has been around forever, but they are still in use, they still count in our total for START, and they still have a vacuum tube in them. Nothing gets updated or changed on a nuke without funding and approval. The military doesn't just update nukes when they feel like it. They are all subject to treaty, inspection, and if changed, verification by the other guys. Technically, they also all use a Krytron, a vacuum tube switch used to trigger the reaction, bit I wasn't counting that.

Other coverages, if any, are more important now, ones that pay regardless of fault, like med pay, PIP, etc.