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| Dave Tottenham and Allan George (both 35Sqn radio) with "friend" in the Ettamoga, Dec, 1969. (Anyone know where Dave is these days??) |
Next to the Club was an open air theatre that showed movies via a Bell and Howell 16mm projector, and at times would be the forum for Australian entertainers who put on very well attended live shows for the blokes.
Supplies for the Australians in Vietnam were either transported by Herc or sent via sea in the Navy supply ship "The Jeparit". In the late 60’s the protest movement was at it’s height in Australia, and at one stage the wharfies refused to load the ship for some weeks, with the result Australians ran out of Australian goods. No-one actually ran out of anything as shortfalls were made up from Yankee stores, but having to use Yankee soaps, tooth pastes, smokes, beers etc just because some blasted wharfie refused to load the ship left a nasty taste in everyone’s mouth. When the Jeparit did return to Vung Tau, chock full of Aussie stuff, a bunch of lucky blokes were invited on board for a celebratory "long since seen" stubby. (Most drinks were delivered to Vung Tau in cans-a stubby was a luxury). The Navy crew wisely provided two large tubs of fresh water to wash the salt off the stubby prior to drinking the contents. One tub was labelled Melbourne water, the other Sydney water. That little gesture went down well.
Next issue, life down town...
Scope Iron.
Our competition question last issue re the use of the scope iron was very topical and bought in heaps of answers, some of which were fabulous - seems the old scope was a much loved piece of equipment. Most blokes reckoned the answer was "E - All of the above" and Rick Toholka even quoted the "RASCAL Exam Flight" gospel according to Allan George to back up his answer. Some of the replies are definitely worth repeating here….John Dixon wrote:- I used to own a scope iron, and believe me you could brand cattle with it and you could drill/burn holes in almost anything, but sadly and I hate to admit it and if it gets out I'll deny everything, I have melted a few IC's. so, answer B. At first I threw out the 3.3 volt transformer and used it as a portable iron by attaching it to a car battery. I then had the mother of all scopes, and could vapourise several IC's at once and even start fires. Sadly I had the throw it away as the insides seized up.
Geoff Mayhew wrote:- I’ve used a scope iron for:- Burning a message into that piece of leather that used to come above the hip pocket of blue jeans. Using the transformer to supply the right amount of juice to heat up a piece of wire to cut the necks off stubbies. As an immersion heater to heat a cup of milk on those cold nights on a maintenance shift. Burning holes into masonite to make a peg board. Using the transformer to hold down a chassis whilst using a nibbling tool, and finally the nearest thing that I can think of to its actual designed use: To desolder the top cap of a large output valve before breaking off the tit, filling the valve with water, turning the power back on to the circuit and having your very own Gurgletron!
John Butler wrote:- Given the diversity of tasks to which the good old Scope iron was subjected, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it had been used to brand cattle. It has certainly branded a few Radtechs over the years - and they have the scars (or is that "brands") to prove it. Bloody marvelous what the Scope iron would do when you had the tip actually glowing red hot. Now I speak from bitter personal experience here, when I admit to frying a few IC's or transistors with the old Scope iron. Very hard to get good temperature control, as I recall. I suppose that we should not mention that the "Good Old Scope" was the chief cause of de-lamination of those vveeerrrryyyy expensive circuit boards, not to mention holes burnt in bench tops, clothing and Radtechs.
I have no personal experience in ironing shirts with the Scope, but I am sure that there are those that can tell a tale or two. Couldn't be any harder than ironing 'em with an iron, though, could it? I recall that the Scope iron reacted poorly to being used as a lever - used to crack the handles something fierce and they never seemed to work as well after that. But, anything's possible, I suppose.
The stories just keep on coming--Grahame Venn wrote:- What is the scope iron good for? I am tempted to write "all the above" but I'm not sure about the ironing shirts bit. I've had a long association with scope irons having bought my first one when I was 15 years old with money saved working in Coles one Xmas holidays. Over the years I have found lots of applications for this venerable piece of equipment. It was good for fixing everything from radios to radiators. Looking through the answers to your question, there are a couple there that I had not thought of, although the one about tyres comes close to the mark. Back in the days of my Rads experience, I used to drive a Hillman Super Minx. Keeping cars on the road on trainee wages invited lots of cost cutting schemes to be devised. At the time, I was confronted with a couple of bald tyres. Not having the money for: (a) new ones, (b) retreads or (c) re-grooved ones (legal in those days), I hit upon the idea of re-grooving them myself. Now what turned out to be the ideal re-grooving tool? You guessed it , the good ole scope iron. Now back to those answers..... hmmmm.....yes, a scope would be able to burn a tyre off a rim. What about that shirt....... now if you were to lay a sheet of copper on the shirt then heat the copper with a scope..........might work!
Dave Lugg who now lives in the Newcastle area writes:- My answer is all of the above, plus more, such as, (a) Instant heating of coffee/tea directly in mugs, (b) Welding plastic/rubber stuff together, (c) Defrosting freezer compartments without interrupting operation, (d) Universal in situ gutter/aircraft repairs; and, (e) All-in-one repair kit for the Olympic flame mechanism.
Peter Forster says:- You always burnt you hand on the damn thing when it slipped as the WO was looking over your shoulder but its most practical use was to burn a hole in a coke bottle to make a bong……
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