|
This bit is all my own work; and has ABSOLUTELY no
relationship (implied or otherwise) to the policies of PA, AISL, 'Herself',
or any other person or organisation... |
Back to
the NRC homepage PA homepage
January 1, 2012
Ahhhhhhh!!!! One of those evenings
26° - clear blue sky - delicious meal – sitting out on the back ramp with a post-prandial glass of wine…
What more is needed to be said?
December 2011
And the saga of computers
Switch on #1 computer on Christmas Day morning to get as message that the demise of the hard drive is predicted…
…force a backup and off to the family lunch…
…not game to leave the beast running while we are out of the house (the though of it seizing up and starting a fire) and reluctant to switch it off in case it won’t restart…
…the shops are closed until Tuesday and living without a #1 computer is a drag.
Some things don’t change much with the passing of decades: setting up a new computer and getting the needed programs and files transferred on to it still takes about a day. In many ways the procedures are simpler thanks to file and setting wizards, but over the decades the amount of ‘stuff’ to be transferred to each successive new computer grows:
· my first ‘home’ computer had about 20 cassette tapes of document files to transfer,
· the first PC about 60 5¼” floppies,
· the second PC (on 3½” disks) took about 100 disks – since then I used a cable to transfer stuff and now the wireless network.
· This latest transfer of data to a new computer tied up the home network for about 12 hours and I am finding programs, bits and pieces that the transfer wizard did not pick up!
More on trigger finger syndrome
By the end of the Oceania competition I was in real trouble: when I could not load a magazine it is definitely time for some remedial action.
On the Friday I had the cortisone/xylocaine treatment – just as well that herself went with me as by the time I got out of the surgery I was flying high from the xylocaine and stayed that way for the next day or so. A bit over a week later I could at least load a magazine for some 25 rounds and by the Wednesday after that at the December Old Farts I managed to load for both Standard Pistol and Centre Fire.
‘Trigger Finger Syndrome’
Poetic justice? I have trigger finger, not in the trigger finger but in the left hand ring finger (and developing in the index and middle fingers…).
Painting
Between e-mail problems, PA ECM, IPC-Shooting World Cup at SISC, Oceania Championships, AISL Junior Championships, etc. the painting is on hold – more in future ‘views’
Computer/e-mail problems
My incoming e-mails are back on line after over a week of server ‘problems’. This is one of those things that few would encounter, but to save the time of connecting and reading my various (personal, NRC, Google etc.) e-mail addresses I aggregate them through the server for my personal domain and (usually) they all automatically pop up in Outlook…
I opened Outlook Wednesday 26th October to find that there were no new e-mails or RSS feed notifications – odd! But it does happen occasionally…
Off to Canberra on Thursday and away from the main computer I did not try for new e-mails until I returned on Sunday – still no new e-mails… Odder!
With no e-mails on Monday 1st November I started to make some enquiries and received information that there was a ‘problem’ with the server’s database and this should be resolved by midnight Thursday 27th (this on the following Monday?)
It is now 17:39 on Wednesday 9th November and at last…
I have 157 e-mails to read and deal with…
Argh, gurgle…
Every time I open Outlook there are more…
Annealing cases
While writing one of the articles that will be submitted to the Bulletin I mentioned annealing of centre-fire cases – thinks… It’s a long time since I annealed any cases and some of my .32SWL cases have a wide range of ‘pull’ on the projectile; might as well do some and refresh my memory on this process.
1. Find a burner with enough temperature to heat the brass (normal LPG/propane torches usually won’t be hot enough)
2. Find a suitable tray ( for obvious reasons, not one of Herself’s good kitchenware)
3. Set up outside the garage door
4. Move set-up into the shade (you cannot judge the desired cherry-red in sunlight)
5. Line up 10 cases and start – oops, too much heat on the first case and the brass starts to melt
6. A little less time for each subsequent case and pop them into the water tray (things going smoothly until…)
7. Remember why it’s a good idea to apply the right amount of heat quickly when one of the cases gets cherry-red all the way to the rim (then…)
8. Remember why I used a piece of steel or aluminium to stand the cases on while heating up the case mouth – extinguish piece of pine I was using this time.
By about 50 cases things are in a routine and working well
9. Glad that annealing is not one of those things you have to do often: it’s been about 20 years since the last time.
October 2011
About paint…
I started last month thinking that two or three weeks would see the interior painting over and done with – the kitchen was a good starter with the ceiling and walls done ‘on schedule’. The lounge/dining room has been a bit different.
Rarely do I ‘bag’ any product, normally preferring to say nothing…
I have been using Dulux Nevermiss One Coat on the ceiling of the lounge/dining room.
The ceiling was sealed with an undercoat primer-sealer, allowed to dry overnight and then the (one-coat?) ceiling paint. The pink dye that fades out so you can see where you are up to is a great idea, but the paint itself…
…after the THIRD coat on the ceiling, what you see is what you get – it can remain that way as an ongoing reminder to me to never buy any Dulux product again.
…I’m not the only one – try googling the product.
The experience has been quite soul-destroying.
September 2011
…is closed, for renovations!
Not that it needed renovation work – provided one overlooks the fact that it has been in danger of collapse, implosion and/or closure by Worksafe for a while (OK, for a couple of decades).
The trigger was a visit by some friends (one of whom is a retired chef) who arrived with a portable fridge and cooked an excellent evening meal for the four of us: but (!) professional chefs have kitchen hands who clean up after them – how can one man use so many pots, pans, skillets, bowls, etc. and splatter so much marinade, oil and other bits…
Subsequently, in a moment of temporary insanity I started by scrubbing down the kitchen cupboards and walls; after inspecting my handiwork I decided the kitchen needed repainting – one wall in the kitchen is shared with the lounge/dining room so it needed doing as well – once started, I might as well do the whole lot.
This will be a long-term project – the kitchen and lounge dining rooms have taken about four weeks with furniture corralled in the centre of the dining room and covered with plastic sheeting. The main downside is that Herself’s sewing/embroidery machines and work area has been in hiatus, and herself has withdrawal symptoms (as a spin-off, my shooting excursions have been curtailed).
1. Decades of accumulated important paperwork and secret bloke’s stuff is being disturbed,
2. That pink dye in Dulux ceiling white (that fades out after an hour or two) works great in morning light and is not much use in late afternoon light,
3. If there is a gap in the painting sheets, that is where a splot of paint will fall,
4. GladWrap is great for wrapping brushes, rollers and paint trays overnight,
5. Water-based (i.e. acrylic) paints don’t smell as bad as they used to.
August 2011
In a fit of enthusiasm I have updated my Office 2007 suite to Office 2010…
…a fairly straightforward and painless process that transferred the old data files seamlessly.
Getting accustomed to the slightly different ‘features’ has been smooth. The newer version has a few changes that (so far) appear to be a bonus: predominantly the review panes in Word…
…BUT…
…the update of the Outlook program has revealed a number of ‘folders’ that had been invisible (to me) in the older version: some of these folders have been ‘interesting’ to explore: no doubt due to my own ‘tinkering’ various categorised items (e-mails and reminders) had been flagged and automatically transferring to specific folders. E-mails and reminders relating to specified keywords can be, and had been, automatically transferred to specified custom folders. E.g. any e-mail or reminder that contained the word ‘projectile’ was transferred to a custom folder that was not showing up on the normal Outlook screen – and I had about a dozen of these ‘keyword’ folders. I am searching through to find these folders and their contents (sigh!).
…customising the quick access toolbars and the ribbons to suit my preferences is a bit of a pain, but not a problem.
Even I will admit that PDF is a document format that has some advantages, but can be a pain when you want to extract a section to include in another document. Authors will persist in trying to lock a pdf document as read-only, and I have to unlock it to extract quotation material – given that pdf files are specific to electronic (i.e. usually internet) transfer, if you have the access to the internet to get the pdf file you also have access to freeware unlocking programs – why bother to lock the file in the first place. No doubt there are super-locking systems for pdf files, but I have not struck one yet (and there is always the old-fashioned, if time consuming, way developed back in 1993).
Which all leads to Corel PDF Fusion, a comparatively low cost program that converts pdf files into (among others) Word format. Over the years I have tried various pdf>word conversion programs with varying degrees of success: most of them had problems with files that included text boxes and anchored graphics. The Corel program seems to work extremely well: to try it out I pulled up the largest and most complicated pdf file I had on the computer; 449 pages with all sorts of graphics and inserted materials (yes, the ISSF rulebook). Hey, Presto!
The Corel program (understandably) will not unlock a locked pdf file; that has to be a separate step before converting pdf>word, but once any locked pdf file is unfettered the Corel program does its job well.
I am so impressed that I have changed my file associations for .pdf files from Acrobat Reader to the Corel program – and (almost) ready to delete Acrobat Reader from my #1 computer: those seemingly never-ending Adobe updates have been driving me nutty(er).
In my spare (?) time I look after a number of websites – some club websites are tacked onto my personal domain and their domain names are registered through me.
As an outcome, renewal notices for the various domain names renewals come to me for confirmations, payment, etc.
One of these sites was getting close to renewal, so I was only slightly surprised to have its renewal invoice arrive by mail (strange, why not the usual e-mail?). On reading the invoice I was struck by a/ the domain name renewal ‘service’ sending the invoice, and b/ the cost which was considerably higher than expected…
Some slug has slimed onto the ‘legitimate’ rip-off of identifying domain names due for renewal and sending out an invoice for about three times the actual cost – good money if you can get it.
And yes, the invoice is going to consumer affairs.
I have had a few ‘phone calls from a ‘corporation’ informing me that their system is reporting error messages from my computer. This one has been around in variations since the birth of the public internet – it is an ‘in’ to get you to buy their anti-virus/system repair software. They usually ask a mark to switch on their computer an open Windows Explorer to see if a particular file is on the computer (surprise! It will be one of the obscure but legit Windows files so everybody using Windows will have it on their computer).
“Aha! You need our program to fix your computer” – worse, in some cases the ‘fix’ ($$$) will actually infect your computer requiring their even more expensive program.
It is a successful scam, now warranting the scammers to work their way through the phone book on the chance that you have a computer on Windows operating system.
June 2011
PA/APSUA History
A week ago (16th June) I attended the funeral of Jack Morris – many of you will ask, who was Jack Morris?
Jack was one of the many stalwarts who formed the backbone of the ‘movement’ in years past: love him or hate him (and, as for all of us there were undoubtedly both) he was tireless in ‘working for’ the sport. Jack’s forte was a treasurer and worked his way up the system from Club to Zone to State to National and along the way various stints as team manager for o/s competitions.
Which leads to…
…over the 50+ years of APSUA/PA there have been a lot of stories and people that are disappearing from memory.
Sure it would be fairly easy to generate a list of all the various office bearers for the organisation, a list of all the pistol shooters who have represented us at overseas competitions and the like, but it would fall far short of a ‘history’.
The ‘history’ of APSUA/PA needs to be written – before to much more of the memories are irretrievably lost!
One of Peter Anderson’s phrases that come up when discussing with him some facet or person from the past is ‘you could write a book’, and I know that there are numerous hand-written pages that have been put down when we have gotten him to make a start…
Got one or more ‘characters’ in your club? Why not spend an hour or two with each of them in some fairly quiet place with a tape recorder or whatever and at least get an oral history of the club: if they have been a representative shooter, team manager or whatever, this type of session can be quite revealing.
Back to an APSUA/PA history – any volunteers?
I can remember having the thought in early January that 2011 looked like being a fairly quiet year with me spending a goodly amount of time at home…
…Ha!
E.g. in the last couple of months here has been Adelaide Nationals (11 days), Arafura (8 days), three more competitions (one as an ‘official’ and two as a competitor) and an AISL meeting in Adelaide.
I have been home more than ‘away’, but it’s a close run thing.
A fairly common topic around competitions and various meetings has been the lack of ‘volunteers’ entering the various roles involved in our sport, i.e. officiating, coaching, administration, workers.
Looking back:
· Most of us ‘got into’ our various volunteer niches in our mid-30s. While there are examples of those who came in as juniors and are still with us, and those who came in at a more mature age, for many people in their mid-30s their life is becoming more settled and they have the time to ‘get into’ one or more of the various roles that keep our sport going.
·
The golden era appears to be through the 1970s until about the mid
‘80s. Put this in the context of the
previous dot point and many of our volunteers are 70+.
I notice this when I look around at the
other volunteers when sitting at the various meetings I attend, or at the
‘workers’ at the major competitions.
Young (comparatively) volunteers are noticeable.
One couple find it amusing when I sometimes refer to them as ‘juniors’: they
were when they started out back in the ‘70s…
· Whatever it takes, we should be nurturing our potential volunteers for both the club structure and for the ‘competition’ structure – cajole, mentor, encourage, whatever it takes!
While the pistol and smallbore rifle bits of shooting run on ‘volunteers’ with a volunteer-based cost structure, one item of interest that came out of a recent meeting was how some other shooting disciplines in Australia compare:
· Shotgun generally runs to about $1 per target, i.e. for a Trap competition the entry fee is around $125 and Double Trap around $175
· The entry fee for a Fullbore Rifle Queens Shoot is up to $175. All their volunteers get reimbursed for some of their expenses and those working in the target pits get $50 a day and accommodation…
(mid) May 2011
Shortly after the Adelaide Nationals a group of the ‘Arafura Irregulars’ assembled in Darwin for another of these biannual events. In addition to the Australians we had teams from Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Taipei competing.
I was not the only ‘unfortunate’ at the Adelaide Nationals (refer below): Col Farquarson managed to run up an impressive total of broken guns (which put paid to his Iron-man aspirations).
At the Arafura Games we waited through each event to see if he could maintain his tradition, but each day he managed to complete events…
…well, all but the last event. Sure enough in the 50m Black Powder event the Gremlins struck! Campbell Morrison worked his magic and Col completed the event, but not without considerable ribbing.
Ray Andrews came in for a fair share of ribbing at Arafura as well: the highest bid (not accepted by the seller) on the one-eyed, and non-starting Range Rover was $75.
Oh, yes! I might have had a small skid shot in Rapid Fire Pistol
(late) April 2011
AARRGGHH!!
· Plan A was that if there was a spare slot in RFP in Adelaide for the Nationals I would grab it… My ‘friends’ managed to wrangle something and without any formally enter procedure on my part I was informed that I had a Start Number and had been squadded.
·
I had grabbed some ammunition out of the last brick in the Morini’s
third case of CCI (that’s 15000 rounds, kiddies) to take to Adelaide for the
Nationals. Up until the Sydney World
Cup, the ‘failure’ rate for CCI has been a single fail-to-fire and 1/10000+ is
something I can easily live with –
remember this ratio for later in this item.
· Rather than be caught unprepared, I managed to put in a practice session the day before the RFP competition – my oh my, those paper targets look different from the EST that I have been shooting on for the last six months
· The big day arrived and I strongly suspected that my ‘friends’ would undoubtedly find it amusing to ENSURE that I would get a trigger check – double checked the trigger weight a few minutes before Preparation Time and it easily lifted the test weight;
o Malfunction after the first shot in the sighting series – Karl Friehe as the RO takes the pistol and pulls the trigger – NAM – questions in my mind as I am sure I did not do anything unusual…
o Several malfunctions in the competition series with each one producing a click when I pulled the trigger but firing the shot when the RO tried – major questions in my mind…
o As expected there is a notification card for a trigger check (and one for chrono/bullet weight)
o Pistol fails trigger check… DSQ!
· Off to check the trigger for myself and it is at ≈700g!
· Later, David Moore gets the pistol eventually and we go through the trigger adjustments;
o The trigger bar is not locating anywhere near where it should with two effects, a) it passes under the release bar (explaining the NAMs) and b) when it does locate on the release bar is doing so well down the bar increasing the lever length and reducing the trigger weight.
o Setting the first stage to where it should be (length and tension) solves most of the problems and David also suggests a modified 1st stage spring
o David tweaks all the trigger settings and the trigger consistently lifts 1015+g (David’s rule-of-thumb for rimfires is 1000g + a 50c coin)
· Moral of the story – check EVERYTHING after lending your pistol to someone. The Morini was on loan to a team at the World Cup when their firearms were held up overseas (all legal and above board), but was returned with several ‘adjustments’.
March 2011h
Rebooting (a car, not a computer)
Ah, for the days when men had a few spanners and such in a toolbox and could rebuild almost any part of a car in weekend – two weekends if a few mates came over to help and brought along a 9-gallon keg!(that’s 40 litres, kiddies – see also Norm’s Buffalo Theory).
The Daihatsu has been a bit ‘off’ of late and step 1 (thanks to Google) was to reset the ECU, i.e. reboot one (of many) of its computers. Disconnect battery for about 20 minutes, reconnect battery and switch ignition on, depress accelerator pedal fully, release accelerator and start car – i.e. ‘reboot’!
How times have changed!
February 2011
Interesting!
With an AusCup at SISC over the weekend of 18-20 February came crunch time: to run to the Finals for the Rapid Fire Pistol to ‘old’ rules or the new…
I had been pushing for the ‘new’ on the basis both that the shooters and the officials needed to be exposed to the quite radical changes. The final decision was left to yours truly and I opted for the ‘new’!
1. While SISC has electronic targets, there are only two 5-target groups in the Finals Hall
- run the RFP Finals on the 25m qualification range,
2. The new format calls for a setting on the target controls that is not available for 4-seconds series
- we come up with a workaround
3. How to score (9.7 or better is a hit, less than 9.7 is a miss)
- run the Finals on the RFP sighters setting and 4-seconds series: this works well as each shooter will re-set the scoreboards when they fire their first shot
4. Practically no one REALLY knows how the new format works: the rules are a bit (euphemism) scant in some areas, and the on ISSF-TV videos the commentary masks the RO’s commands
- we run with a draft version of a RO Guide for the RFP Finals for the CRO (Len Creek got the short straw)
- a shoot summary for the benefit of Finalists, officials and spectators before we start
5. Cope with scoring
- Cheryl Moore prepares a score sheet and acts as Register Keeper and I work as ‘caller’, backed up by Barry Skead to check that I have the correct number of hits for each call (I don’t claim to be perfect: just persistent)
And off we go into the unknown…
6. In fact we all (shooters and officials) coped well with a totally new experience
- malfunction: handled. In this new RFP Finals format the shooter is credited with the hit/miss score for the reshoot
- shoot-offs: handled. At the completion of the 40-shot Final we had a tie for first place
- shooters to leave the firing line as eliminated: handled without any dramas
Interesting!
My thanks to the shooters and officials involved for their cooperation and forbearance.
I am in fairly regular correspondence with an un-named ISSF Judge in the UK who also is busily trying to keep up with the changes to the ISSF Finals. He prints out the latest version of Finals rules, usually on the morning that the ISSF releases an update later that day.
I know how he feels – as I become aware of each ‘variation’ I:
· Modify the links, etc. on the NRC web information,
· Consider how the ‘variations’ will affect the conduct of Finals
· Modify my draft text for the RO Guide for RFP Finals (RFP has most of the ‘variations’)
The ISSF refers to each new variation as being “Version 1”, though they are (as at 25/2/11) up to the 7th ‘variation’! There have been six ‘variations’ so far this year.
On the new Finals:
1. A workable
procedure for RFP Finals on paper targets
2. Update for
the PA RO Guides for ISSF Finals
Summer has arrived
It is not often that I sit out a Wednesday instead of lunching at the club, but a bit of catch-up on e-mails, etc. filled in the morning of the 2nd until departure time came around and it was TOO HOT to raise the enthusiasm to go to the club.
December and January in Sydney had the occasional hot day, but were really fairly mild, but the last few days have been murder. Herself and I have been going to Castle Hill for early morning workouts in the pool a couple of times a week; last Friday was average at 7AM, but by an hour later coming home it was very different and definitely ‘stay inside’ weather.
This is normally the time of the year when the back lawn presents a challenge for the lawnmower – currently it needs to be watered each evening to keep it alive.
The ammunition eater
There is a group forming that arrives at SISC around 10AM on the occasional Monday for a day of RFP. One of the group knew that I was going to SISC most weeks and asked if a weekday was possible (he has Mondays off work) and as misery loves company a Monday session was arranged – another is set for next week.
9000+ rounds of CCI SV so far without a hiccup.
Actually, the only FTF* and NGB** problems were during ammo testing with some (very expensive) Eley Pistol Match – the pistol was still fairly new and it will be interesting to see how that ammo goes in the next round of testing on the ballistics range.
FTF = failure to feed
NGB = no go bang
I have developed a small odd callous on my left thumb that made me wonder what was causing it.
I figured it out last Saturday: it is from the follower pin on the Morini’s magazines (I do not use the supplied ‘loading tool’) – a change from:
· the fine cuts on the right thumb that one gets from loading Walther .32 GSP magazines
· Hi-Standard finger: a callous that develops on the side of the trigger finger from the slide when it is closed after loading the magazine.
One thing that the CM22M seems to do more than my other semi-autos is accumulate crud down in the triggerworks. Discussing this with a few other CM22M owners reveals that this is a CM22M ‘trademark’:
· I am feeding the beast on a diet of CCI SV ammunition and this ammo has a considerable amount of wax on the projectile – I have taken to wiping off the excess wax with a bit of towelling
· The ultrasonic cleaner works wonders (see next item!)
On ultrasonic cleaners
I often sing the praises of ultrasonic cleaners, but in all fairness I have been using these gadgets as a tool for many years and know most of the pitfalls. They are great for cleaning all sorts of crud from a wide range of items: gun parts, jewellery, eyewear, CDs (wish I had one big enough for my old 78s and LPs): but there are finishes that they can damage, screws can move, etc.
I have posted a collection of recommendations
and cautions for all.
January 2011
A drawback of the end-of-year period is the festive season closure of both my home club and the SISC venue: and I get withdrawal symptoms!
Cleaning firearms, reloading gear, the gunboxes, etc. just ain’t the same!
…though the annual full-scale clean out of the gunbox is always good for an unexpected find or two. Turning the gunbox upside down and tapping it to see what falls out is one of those things that most of us only do once – if you are going to use that approach, probably you are also going to spend a goodly amount of time crawling around the floor to pick up the myriad of small items that you were unaware of as residing in the gunbox.
Finding a small blued screw (or more than one) in your gunbox is good for an hour or two while you try to identify which pistol (or other piece of shooting equipment) it came from.
Dry-firing palls after a while.
On dry-firing, I have a couple of photos I have taken of target groups at SISC:
· One is of a group of 25m targets in overcast conditions, the other taken on a bright sunny day.
· Colour printed on A4 landscape and placed at the appropriate height and distance, they replicate (fairly closely) what I would see at SISC
Coupled with the range commands on an MP3 player (available here) the target representations give a better representation for dry-fire practice.
And, while the e-mails/day rate has dropped off, the commercial (airlines, internet security providers, website builders, general junk, etc.) are still making the most of the season.
And, Herself suggested that the annual attempt to clear the accumulated ‘junk’ (her term!) from the chair nearest where I computerise was overdue. Visitors to the Baulkham Hills Hilton will be well aware that while there are four lounging chairs in the back room, the aforementioned chair normally is not available as I might put the occasional piece of paperwork or other essential item on it.
For the doubting Thomases, see the pic...
As a companion ‘document’ to the rogues’ gallery for the PA shooters to the Olympics/Paralympics, I have set up a similar page covering the PA shooters to the Commonwealth Games. Getting information on these shooters was tedious but at least ACGA keeps a complete sport-by-sport listing of all Commonwealth/Empire Games competitors and team officials: would that AOC would do the same, it only has data (that I have found) on medal winners…
For the photos for the CommGames competitors I was able to ‘crib’ a bit and copy many from the Olympics/Paralympics data, but as in the other document many (most?) of these photos are not contemporary with the particular Games – at least for the Olympics document I know that Rod Johnson’s are from the correct years.
If anyone has a photo for one or more that are contemporary for the particular Games, let me know and I will update data in the document.
An interesting sidelight to the exercise was discovering that there were a few names that I cannot readily put a face to. Given that the first AUS pistol competitors at the CommGames were back in 1966 (in the days before I had discovered ‘serious’ target shooting for pistols) this is not surprising, although I can readily identify with all but four of them.
I have a short note to the 1966 Games “…It is worth noting that John Murphy and Mike Papps competed in .22 Smallbore Rifle with borrowed rifles; thus keeping smallbore rifle in the Commonwealth Games…”. A fuller explanation is that the CG has regulations re dropping events without sufficient countries/number of competitors; and smallbore rifle was a country ‘short’ for the 1966 games and 50m rifle would have been dropped for the subsequent Games had not the AUS pistol shooters barrowed rifles and entered. John Murphy came 3rd and Mike Papps 23rd.
It would be ‘nice’ to have a rogues’ gallery for the APSUA/PA shooters who represented AUS at the various ISSF World Championships through the years (and there were a LOT in the early days), but I doubt that even Peter Anderson would be able to compile such a list – come to think of it Peter, now that you have all that spare time while sitting around in Malua Bay with nothing to do...
I mentioned in last month’s view that I was running short of secure storage for ammunition – easily fixed; got more storage.
Funny how small but steady changes in ‘conditions’ go unnoticed – in this case, crud in and around the internals of the triggerworks.
I don’t have a great deal of ‘feel’ remaining in my trigger finger as a result of general nerve deterioration in my hands, plus having the top of the trigger finger in a industrial press some 40 years ago probably did not help.
A small but steady aggregation of crud over 7-8000 rounds meant that I had not noticed the trigger getting steadily worse…
…Ah: the difference a session with an ultrasonic cleaner and re-lubrication makes!
…Arrgh: the amount of crud that came out!
In pre-Morini days I rarely used CCI SV ammunition, however in MY CM22M-RF I have found it to be 1/ more than acceptable for accuracy, 2/ (so far) 100% reliable and 3/ relatively cheap and available: ergo, it has been my training/practice ammo. Of the (so far) 20+ brands/types of ammunition I have tested in the CM22M-RF the CCI was one of the best for accuracy and not far behind the best.
The projectile lube on the current runs of CCI SV has a reputation for being ‘waxy’ and building up crud in the action of semi-automatic pistols. Over the years I have used various brands/types of .22rimfire and some of them were VERY greasy and/or waxy – that purple wax that was on some Lapua .22Short ammunition is memorable: but back to the present day...
...in pre-Morini days it was unusual for me to put more than 140 rounds of .22rimfire through a pistol in a day – a quick clean of the barrel, breech and slide faces followed by a light lubrication was generally more than enough to keep all the workings clean.
These days I am putting considerably more rounds through in a day’s training/practice session and yes, the CCI does build up crud on the breech faces and ramp: solution, a quick run through with a bore snake plus a brush of the breech faces and ramp every hour or so. I have put 500 rounds through the Morini in one session without any intermediate cleaning and had no problems, but why take the risk?
My RFP training/practice sessions at SISC are becoming more focussed and a session-time procedure is developing:
· Quality rather than quantity is creeping in: for the recent sessions (typically, 10:00 to 15:30hrs) I am ‘expending’ only 200-250 rounds, whereas in the early days with the Morini, 500 rounds was not unusual.
· Somewhere during a day’s session I will fit in one or two complete Stages complete with sighters, but most of the time is spent on specific development objectives with the overriding criteria that once a shot that is not a ‘9’ or better I go back to the previous part of the programme.
· I am currently working alternating my training between days ‘specialising’ in the 8-seconds series and days specialising in the 4-seconds series: throughout I am specifically working on my ‘raise’ time. I would like to get it down to around one second, but shaving off that extra ½ second (and firing a good shot) will take a lot more work.
I am sorting out a training programme, but I need to take my own advice and find a coach...
...strange about Col’s (who else would wear a shirt like that – even if it is a bit restrained for him) Air Pistol target – is that 50mm 10-ring much of a help?
December 2010
During some e-mail correspondence last week I asked of a Judge in England how he was enjoying the autumn – he was quite intemperate in his reply pointing out that it was 0°C and the forecast was for snow; lucky sod, I wonder if we could work out a swap for the next four months!
I now find myself buying ammunition in 2-case lots…
…and probably would purchase more if:
· I had enough additional secure storage space, and
· The bank balance would stand the strain.
I will never set the world on fire, but must admit that on ‘coming back’ to RFP I have not had so much fun with shooting a pistol in the last 30 years.
I can ‘blow’ a day, and a brick of ammunition, standing on a range s-o-o-o-o easily. The last time I was enthused with RFP (back in the 1970s!) there were lots of keen RFP shooters in most clubs and there were few problems with getting in some RFP practice as a group if there was a vacant 25m range. These days, finding a partner or two to get in some extra RFP is far less likely to happen, and spending any length of time by yourself on a paper target range is nowhere near as appealing – however it is very easy to put in a day on electronic targets, with or without company.
The Morini came with a manual typical of most firearms: what can best be described as ‘basic’. There is a personal ongoing development→ of information on the CM22M RF that would be also applicable in almost all respects to the CM22M.
There are companion documents for both Hammerli 208→ and Margolin MCM→
I have set up a page on the NRC web listing the PA Olympians and Paralympians→, including (for most) a pic for each. Many of these pics are not contemporary for the particular Olympics/Paralympics:
· If anyone has contemporary pic/s (e.g. Rod Johnson in 1956, 1960 and 1964 and I am sure the Papps brothers looked much younger at the time) let me know and I will update the page.
· If anyone has contemporary (or otherwise) pic/s for to fill in the blanks, let me know and I will update the page.
1. Mounted a case collator on top of the reloading press: I really did not believe that something so simple would do what was claimed – but it does! How did I live without one?
2. Took out a 50 year old orange tree with a dirt-cheap, bargain-basement electric chainsaw. The older 2-stroke chainsaw can go in the rubbish bin.
October/November 2010
The immediate memories
For better or worse, the immediate memories on getting home (i.e. back to AUS) are:
· The immediate rush that came with seeing Paula once I get out of the customs hall – I still see her as a standout ‘bird’
· The ongoing sore bum from sitting around on the departure day:
o In the lobby of the hotel waiting for transfer to the airport
o Around Delhi airport (we got there 4+ hours before book-in)
o 3-4 hours in an A330 to Dubai
o 2 hours at Dubai
o 14½ in a 777 to Sydney
All up, a lot of sitting
· My own bed and pillows
· censored
Security – or the imitation thereof:
· For a smoker where the venues were no cigarettes/no lighters or matches, it became a game;
o keeping up a supply of cigarettes and matches at the venue
o getting lighters into Delhi airport (there is a smoking room with an ‘igniter’ that doesn’t work)
o getting lighters into Dubai airport (there is a smoking bar where you have to buy a drink)
· accommodated in a hotel surrounded by scrub, vacant buildings…
· Guards looking (well, glancing) under cars coming into the hotel forecourt – using a mirror but no additional lighting at night-time
Heat, humidity and dust (and mosquitoes):
· Jon Duff (NZL, Chief Jury Shotgun) – collapsed on the venue: dengue fever
· A constant battle to beat dehydration
· The slightest sniffle becomes an infection
· The ‘interesting’ air conditioning at the hotel
The excellence of my Indian personnel in Equipment Control:
· Self-starters who coped with other problems (e.g. no EC equipment until day 1, three ranges that started at 09:00 and on some days finished at coincident times, transferring the EC gear to the ranges (remembering that we had rifle with all the clothing tests)…)
· Countersigning each and every EC sticker (there were thousands)…
Uniforming:
· A trip to uniforming took an evening and then some
· We got there after some of the other sports;
o ‘Our’ individualised uniforms had been plundered to suitably fit others
o Find something that fitted and hang on to it (otherwise it went to somebody else)
o Eventually give up and call it quits with whatever you had
o The missing bits were promised, but never turned up
o In my case, no ‘casual’ gear, just two shirts, a pair of slacks, two shirts, a water botte, cap and bum-bag; no tie, no blazer (yes, I did a presentation) or anything else…
· The evening meal was a warm bottle of cordial
Seeing:
· Quite a few CG records set
· An unnamed AUS shooter blow a shoot-off and a sure Silver by shooting on the wrong target
· A rifle shooter whose jacket didn’t comply 4 years ago represent with the same jacket (it still didn’t pass)
· Another rifle shooter whose trousers didn’t pass decide not to shoot rather than modify the trousers
· A (one only) reasonably clear day
· Delhi traffic conditions
On getting home…
There was a ‘flu going through the Athletes Village that manage to infect some of the Technical Officials as well: three of us on the shooting Juries got it while we were there and probably a few more took it back home with them. I thought I was getting over it by the time I got home, but within a few days it was back with a vengeance. Of the first fortnight back home I seem to remember about a week…
The most immediate outcome was that I did not get to range for 12 days: together with the games this meant that I had not had a pistol in may hand to fire for about five weeks – withdrawal symptoms…
… and when I did get to a range, it showed! However after a couple of hours and concentrating on front sight, triggering and follow-through, things improved.
Boys and their toys
Morini update 5 (1/11/10)
I have put all three barrel weights on the Morini taking it to 1330g all up.
· In this configuration it is a heavy, chunky piece of equipment, but for me it feels fairly natural in my hand. Noticeably for RFP, with the additional weight the pistol’s characteristics when transiting across five targets ARE different (duh!) but after a few series (well, quite a few) the change is accommodated into my technique and my rise time for the first target is becoming more consistent.
· I have also taken the recoil setting up to the point where it starts to interfere with the slide being able to come back far enough to engage the slide stop – oops! Back it off ¼ turn!
· Bummer, there goes another brick of ammunition…
Most of us, most of the time fire a match or two through a gun before calling it quits for the day and cleaning the pistol; i.e. 70 – 140 rounds.
It’s amazing how much crud builds up around the breech and bolt faces during extended sessions on the range and putting 400 – 500 rounds through a pistol. Brands of .22LR ammunition that I had never noticed as being particularly ‘dirty’ have gained a new reputation with me, but then if you are going to put that many rounds through without cleaning the pistol you should expect some crud to build up.
· Some of the modern RFP pistols are reputed to have insufficient elevation adjustment to accommodate sub-6 aiming for Standard Pistol. I (finally) have gotten around to setting up a Precision target at 25m and trying the Morini in Standard Pistol. For me, 2¼ turns up from the base setting puts the sights in the right area for the centre of the RF target and 6 turns up from the base setting works for the Precision target – no need to worry about having to change to a lower front sight height.
August/September 2010
The waiting... IS OVER!
Morini update 4 (23/09/10):
(Yet another) day at the range and:
· Arrival 10:00 hrs, departure 17:00 hrs – it’s getting worse…
·
2nd malfunction, albeit with a brand of ammunition that I do
not normally use.
The two brands I normally use (CCI 22LRN and Federal 714) have yet to have a
malfunction after some 2500 rounds: so far, so good (sheesh! Half a case of
ammunition in a few weeks).
· Some serious
testing on the SISC ballistic testing range has revealed that in this pistol my current stock of
CCI 22LRN is as good as (or better than) all but two of the other 11
brands/types tested, irrespective of price and reputation: Geco Green LR gave a marginally tighter group with R100 next (but far
too ‘hot’ for normal use) - both the Geco and CCI are well within the X-ring on
a 25m Precision target..
On the SISC ballistics testing range: if you want to find out
how good (or bad) your pistol/ammunition combination really is, this is THE way
to go – machine rest in a sheltered environment with 10, 25 and 50m electronic
targetry hooked up to the dedicated computer and chronograph!
Morini update 3 (18/09/10):
· The Morini’s first competition was the CMPC Zone RFP and the shooter let down the pistol…
· Rather than let the side down (everybody gets to know if a Judge’s pistol has any problems at EC) I gave it a thorough checking at home before fronting up to a competition EC. As-supplied it romped through, weight well under, goes through the box with room to spare, sight radius under 220mm and trigger at 1030g.
Morini Update 2:
Another day at the range and:
· Arrival 09:00 hrs, departure 16:00 hrs
· The mongrel thing still shoots lots of 10s (except when it MY fault – and what’s more, I can clearly see the sight picture identifying MY faults) – I will definitely have to lift my game!
Morini Update 1:
· Whackydoo! It is in my hot little hands and somehow (?) the next day I was at a range, with pistol and ammunition…
· Mongrel thing shoots lots of 10s – I might have to lift my game!
Arrgghh! The wait (now redundant)
My new pistol:
a. Has arrived in AUS
b. Has cleared customs
c. Is in the hands of the dealer and about to be transferred to NSW
d. Has been paid for
e. Has a Permit to Acquire in the queue...
Herself seems resigned to the fact that once I get my hands on it I will be missing for the next few days while I put in some dedicated range-time.
Update on the Baulkham Hills Hilton
As many may know, the residence suffered from a bit of storm/rain damage recently: at least the roof is now repaired and ‘fixed’. A couple of men came, replaced tiles as needed, replaced the 50 year old valleys, resealed the ridges, etc.
Now comes the next part: as part of the repairs, the kitchen will need repainting and once you start on one room...
On ammunition
There are some interesting shifts going on around the country with rimfire ammunition supplies – the availability and range of rimfire ammunition is going down and the prices are going up.
In my own situation, for the last few years my preferred .22LR for 25m events has been Federal Champion #714. This choice was based on the simple premise that in my Hammerli it was a) reliable, and b) gave the best results out of a machine rest. Interestingly, in the last bout of testing a few years back, in my H208 this ammunition gave groups as good as, and often better than, some of the (very expensive) high-reputation specialist target rimfire ammunition. However, stocks of Federal #714 have pretty much dried up and the word is that there will be no more produced by the factory in the USA; certainly it is no longer listed on the Federal website.
The search is on for a replacement brand/type, but this will not get serious until the new Morini arrives…
Once I have settled on a particular brand/type of .22LR I buy in case lots, usually two cases at a time:
· For the ‘occasional’ shooter this might seem a bit excessive, but I see it from the other extreme: to me, a case is only 5000 rounds; and 5000 rounds doesn’t last long:
o A day’s practice session of Rapid Fire Pistol I can easily chew up 200+ rounds: and I have been putting in RFP practice sessions fairly frequently of late – at about a half-brick a session – a case works out to around 20 practice sessions.
o Throw in a regular session at the range most weeks and a few competitions throughout the year (yes, I still shoot the occasional competition!) – this alone works out to about a case per year
I feel sorry for those into a serious training/competition regime. I feel even sorrier for those into a serious training/competition regime for rifle with top-level rifle rimfire ammunition costing more than six times (that’s not 1/6 sixth more, it’s six times more) as much as my usual ammunition!
· For case lots the price/round provides a saving, but it pays to shop around and be prepared to haggle.
· Buying in case lots brings in the matter of secure storage. While the legislative requirements are not quite as stringent for ammunition as for firearms, my ammunition goes into locked containers behind the back-to-base security and secure storage for several cases of rimfire plus the loaded CF ammunition takes up space. Don’t buy in bulk unless you have the secure space.
· Does rimfire ammunition deteriorate with age
o part 1? I don’t know: it doesn’t last long enough around here for me to find out – however, I do store my ammunition in reasonably constant, cool and dry conditions. Treat your ammunition storage (with the added secure storage aspect) as you would a fine wine; it might not make a lot of difference, but it cannot hurt the ammunition. Come to think of it, wine doesn’t last long around the Baulkham Hills Hilton either...
o part 2? Almost everyone ends up with small lots of ‘orphan’ ammunition, in my case made somewhat worse when longarms licensing came in and my parents transferred their accumulation of rifles and ammunition over to me <time passes> on a session with a new rimfire pistol I grabbed a package of this hand-me-down ammunition and went to the range to function test/run-in the pistol – amongst the miscellany were .22LR dating back to WW2 production and they all worked (it was a Margolin)…
Purchasing in case lots still seems a strange concept - as a pre-teenager I was allowed one (1 only) more round of rimfire for each rabbit I bagged – certainly taught one to be sure of the shot before pulling the trigger.
Boys and their toys
For anyone running Windows XP, Vista or 7, I strongly recommend you run the freebie Microsoft tool at http://www.microsoft..com/security/malwareremove/default.aspx!
This suite of programs is not instead of your anti-virus program; it should be in addition.
Note: this suite will take some time to check your computer – best to set it running and go to bed to leave it going overnight, particularly if you have a lot of data on your computer.
Despite my efforts on cleaning #1 computer (see May, below), the Microsoft suite found four more infections lurking in the background – fortunately these had not sneaked across to the various other computers that are on the home wireless network.
July 2010
Sheesh! July,
already?
How come so many of the things I had intended to ‘get done’ in the start of the year are still ‘to be done’?
Yep! Every time I turn around it seems:
· to be another stint at SISC working at a competition (another weekend down the gurgler, tank of juice in the Daihatsu, and lots of beeps from the e-tag…), or
· another trip to the airport, or
· Wednesday (a scheduled day at the range (provided I am in Sydney…)), or
· Somebody’s computer is playing up (…Spencer… can you help?), or
Boys and their Toys
Some things take a leap of faith, and cloning a hard drive falls into this category:
· Woke up around 02:30 a few days ago (aching hip), made a cup of coffee and switched on #1 working computer (a laptop that sometimes seems glued to my lap) – the hard drive made a few strange noises during the boot…
· Experience has taught me that hard drives that make strange noises rarely ‘get better’
· A replacement hard drive was called for, BUT (!) there is a world of programs (note the spelling), data and files that would be difficult (in some cases, impossible) to replace without mucho dineiro…
· A replacement hard drive was no problem; rip the hard drive out of one of the external hard drives lying around – as luck would have it, the ‘replacement’ SATA drive was spot on, if double the capacity
· A working (as opposed to U/S) CD/DVD drive was no problem; rip the CD/DVD drive out of one of the external CD/DVD drives lying around
· a) look up Norton Ghost as an option: $99 for a one off application (rejected: that’s 150-200 rounds of .22LR);
· b) look up SourceForge, the first stop for skinflints
· c) download Clonezillza
· Spend two nights researching Clonezilla
· Take the plunge and clone the computer’s hard drive to the (still) external drive – LEAP OF FAITH #1 is that Clonezilla will copy the computer to the blank hard drive, NOT the blank hard drive to the computer…
· Change the two drives over
· Boot up computer
· Arrrggghhhh! It won’t boot
· Stop everything and have a long, slow think – all is not lost; I can still put the (hopefully intact) suspect drive back into the computer
LEAP OF FAITH #2 – I can fix it (?)
A simple restart from the original Vista install CD fixed the problem under the Vista ‘repair’ option
Outcome – everything is working without the strange noises and I have doubled the hard drive capacity.
Clonezilla works, but make sure you have taken the ‘correct’ settings!
June 2010
Life is worth living…
Along with the ongoing delight of having Paula…
From time-to-time memories are triggered…
Recently I was browsing for a wine to accompany a chicken/rice dish: a nice rosé? a light pinot noir? – alas, all had the dreaded 220 (sulphides); “…known to provoke gastric irritation, nausea, diarrhoea, skin rash, asthma attacks and difficult to metabolise for those with impaired kidney function, also destroys vitamin B1 (thiamin), and should be avoided by anyone suffering from conjunctivitis, bronchitis, emphysema, bronchial asthma, or cardiovascular disease…”; including the imports.
Working my way along the shelves I found some Beaujolais – ‘thinks – now there’s something I haven’t had for a while’ – and on checking, no preservatives!
In a different life I used to sample a goodly range of European (read, mainly French) wines, including Beaujolais – soft autumn evenings, good company, good food, lots of foreign accents, and when the food suited, Beaujolais.
Bottle-opening time preceded Herself’s return from a tutoring appointment, with me in the kitchen (slaving over the cooking), and NATURALLY I sampled a glass to make sure it was not ‘off’’ and it all came flooding back – Ah! That taste…
No doubt a picnic basket, lush afternoon, crisp apple and some good cheeses and a really fine and cold bottle of Chablis lies in the future?
May 2010
While not in the league of the true ‘power users’, I feel that I can be classed as a ‘heavy’ user of computers and I certainly spend enough time working at / playing around with computers. Given the amount of time connected to the internet with a fairly open network it is not surprising that:
a) my network comes under attack from time to time, and
b) the computers get exposed to viruses, trojans and various malware.
These various malevolent attacks and infections normally get intercepted and dealt with by the various antivirus and other defence programs on the network and the individual computers…
…normally!
Finally, the law of averages caught up with me. My #1 computer got infected; and it was a doozie!
It has taken about three weeks to ‘clean’ the computer.
Step 1 was to identify (thanks to Microsoft’s knowledge base) and neutralise the infection (thanks to Microsoft’s recommendation to some third-party programs). I am not a complete novice, but this part of the process took over three days…
Step 2 was to assure myself that there were not remnants of the infection tucked away in one or more files on the computer (there were!) – the main infection would re-emerge each time the computer was booted up.
Step 3 was to assure myself that there were not remnants of the infection tucked away in one or more files on the various USB sticks I use (there were!)
Step 4 was to work my way through the other computers that had been on the network – at least for these, the system seemed clear
Step 5 was to try and figure out what damage had been done. I knew that a number of incoming e-mails had gone missing, but to discover that a goodly number of ‘sent’ e-mails had been redirected to a hidden folder instead of being sent was a new tweak to me. The twist to these two e-mail problems was that is was random incoming or sent e-mails that were diverted – I think I have found all the ‘missing’ sent e-mails, but the diverted incoming e-mails are still missing…
All up, I have done everything I can to ensure that the system is now clean, and I am confident enough to send e-mails, post things to the websites and forward files to other people.
But, for over four weeks I have been using a computer that had not been connected to the network since before the infection appeared for e-mails and any posting and forwarding of files – this has severely hampered my computer activities as most of my usual ‘current’ files were on the infected computer.
This leaves me in catch-up mode. The three weeks of cleaning, plus another week to make sure that the infection did not reappear has put everything that was on #1 computer severely hampered by the back-log.
Oh, well! It has been an interesting experience.
Over the last 30 years there have been quite a few rebuilds of various parts of this organism: bits put back together, bits chopped out, bits reengineered; but apart from a few fillings in the teeth essentially as ‘manufactured’ – but now, Electronically enhanced (at last!)
Put together:
1. Childhood disease that left me partially deaf (not a lot of hearing loss, but enough to be noticeable)
2. Fullbore (.303) as a weekly pastime back in the days when wearing hearing protection was an indication of ‘lack of manliness’
3. Exposure to industrial ‘noise’ during the early 60s (OHS was not dreamt of in those days), followed by…
4. …some years working underground with 2000-6000lbs of explosives set off during most shifts, followed by…
5. …30 years of working with industrial tools in the worst possible locations (lots of daily exposure to +140db)
6. And the occasional thoughtless sod letting off loads that made lots of noise (because REAL men use lots of powder)
are all going to leave a body fairly deaf…
…in my case, very!
I knew that the right ear was cactus except for low frequencies, but in the last few years the left ear has caught up
7. Admit defeat and try to catch up with the world
Electronically enhanced = hearing aids!
Day 1 – fitted
Sheesh! The world is a (VERY!!!) noisy place!
· Keys rattle on key rings
· Being in the same room as someone opening a packet of crisps is an interesting experience
· Being in the same room as someone unwrapping the polywrap from a newspaper is an interesting experience
· Turning the pages of a newspaper is a noisy occupation
· Small children should be banned (or gagged) when in public spaces – particularly shopping malls
· The Daihatsu has rattles
· Clocks tick and tock (ask anyone who has stayed at the Baulkham Hills Hilton, and they will tell you that there are lots of clocks that tick/tock, chime, cuckoo, etc)
· A remote control to play with
· Discover that Baulkham Hills really is under a flight path
· Have I already mentioned that small children should be banned (or gagged) when in public spaces – particularly shopping malls
· The TV volume CAN be turned down
· The volume on radios can be turned down
· Road traffic is noisy
· Toyota Priuses are not totally silent
Moving through to…
Day 4 – learning to live with hearing aids is a progressive thing
· Getting better at learning to use the settings to advantage
· Can hear ‘herself’ (without lip reading)
· Turning them off (or to mute) stops the Daihatsu rattles
· Turning them off in general areas in shopping malls almost makes small children bearable (if they are well behaved and very quiet)
· They do fit under ear muffs when on-range (seemed like a good idea at the time)
· The remote control for the aids is fun
8-10 days in… SISC for AusCup 3
· Shots from various pistols sound different (NO! I do not purposely stand on a range without hearing protection while shots are being fired…)
o The sound of shotguns down at Cecil Park Shotgun club have more treble than the whoomp that I thought was the sound of 12g
o 50m rimfire rifles do make considerable noise
o 25m is noisy, even in the off-line areas of the venue
· SISC tunnel is even noisier than I thought
Booked a flight recently and on the last page of the Qantas on-line booking I noticed a link to ‘add to your calendar’.
Intrigued, I clicked on the link:
· Downloads a small program
· Automatically adds the details for the booked flights to Outlook
· I should not be surprised, but (in its own small way), wow!
I have accused Bigpond of being one of the slowest website around (it cannot be due to lack of technology!), but wish to advise all of a new contender, Vodafone Australia.
1. Is there a Guinness book of Records category for the ‘s—l—o—w—e—s—t website’?
2. Why is it that technology company websites are some of the slowest?
The main computer caught an infection – one of those ‘scareware’ bits of malicious software that:
· pops up notices that you have a virus (looks like the real warnings from my usual anti-virus and defender programs)
· stops the real anti-virus and defender programs from running
· locks the internet browser to their website with an order screen for a US$50 scamware antivirus program
There are ways of cleaning a computer infected in this way, but it ain’t easy! You will need access to an uninfected computer with internet access and only take info and programs from genuine sites (start with Microsoft). While in this case the Microsoft ‘malicious software tool’ did not do the job, they do recommend some non-Microsoft programs
All up, it has taken 4 or 5 days around AusCup3, mothers day and various other things that have kept me away from the computer, but I think I have cleaned the infection.
Being a good citizen, I have avoided sending e-mails, etc. from the problem computer rather than risk passing on the infection – what a hassle: using ‘Herself’s’ computer is the easy bit, but it does not have my address book, current e-mails, etc.
Regards to all