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Components and Circuits For discussions about component types, alternatives and availability, circuit configurations and modifications etc. Discussions here should be of a general nature and not about specific sets.

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Old 30th Aug 2021, 11:12 am   #21
Cobaltblue
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

When I was at Plessey West Leigh (75 to 78) they were known as both Homers and Foreigners probably reflecting the fact we had staff from all over the UK.

There was so much stuff available and providing you didn't take the mickey and worked on such things in your own time a blind eye was turned. I built a Tele tennis all CMOS design and the WW Teletext decoder (wire wrapped except the clock) the memory being provided by one of the many reps that visited weekly.

I took me almost a year to complete debug and install into the TV (originally a BRC2000* ISTR). We had access to so much stuff, samples, redundant parts, bins left over from previous projects. Oh the days of the cost plus government development contracts

* Had lots of trouble getting it to work in the 2000 which I finally put down to poor IF bandwidth (rightly or wrongly)

Cheers

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Old 30th Aug 2021, 11:12 am   #22
Malcolm G6ANZ
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

Where I started private work was called 'work for the Chinese Embassy'. Being the NHS in the 70's there was probably more Chinese work done than real work.
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Old 30th Aug 2021, 11:42 am   #23
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

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Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy View Post
I've never heard the term 'homers', I've always known such jobs as 'foreigners'.

Andy
I understood foreigners to be, doing a paid job for someone else, in works time.
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Old 30th Aug 2021, 11:45 am   #24
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

Where I worked, this sort of thing was referred to by some folk as 'Classical Studies'...

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Old 30th Aug 2021, 12:44 pm   #25
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

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Quote:
Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy View Post
I've never heard the term 'homers', I've always known such jobs as 'foreigners'.

Andy
I understood foreigners to be, doing a paid job for someone else, in works time.
No, it is/was the term used for any job that was not official company work be it for yourself or for someone else, paid or otherwise.
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Old 30th Aug 2021, 1:18 pm   #26
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

As an apprentice (5 years) I was able to do many jobs under the bench. I was a quick worker and usually finished my timed work with many hours spare. The foreman knew of my extra work and turned a blind eye as if I put in the short time I had spent doing the work, the office that set the time would cut it down and that would be unfair to the slower guys. The firm had around 4,000 employees.
On one occasion, working on a radio, I sensed a person standing next to me. Looking aside I saw some very shiny shoes and looking upwards I saw an expensive looking suit. As I reached the face I realised it was the managing director. I said good morning and he said, you must be David, I had to admit it was me. Next he asked, if I bring my daughters record player in tomorrow could you repair it for me. Well of course I did, and a few days later a brown envelope arrived with my name on and inside a thank you note and a 10 shilling note. That was equal to a days wages in those days.
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Old 30th Aug 2021, 6:48 pm   #27
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

Where I worked the 'guvvy' jobs came out at lunchtimes and after work; sometimes at other times as well if we were slack. There was no problem using components from the stores. Some projects were personal others were a group thing with a common interest (usually amateur radio) - and very interesting set of projects there was too. Of course we had all the test gear - few could afford a decent sig gen or scope of their own back in the 80's let alone a spectrum analyser! Older techs would happily share their knowledge and suggestions for circuits with us younger whippersnappers.

I have to say that I don't think I would have a lot of the knowledge I have now without all that experience building stuff.

Happy days!

Cheers
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Old 6th Sep 2021, 9:14 pm   #28
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

I went for an interview at a company in Brighton - this was after the factory had closed for the night. When we had finished the formalities the managing director took me down to the production area with its cabinets of components and mechanical parts and throwing open the double doors said to me "just think of the foreigners we can make in here!"
I loved that job!
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Old 6th Sep 2021, 11:02 pm   #29
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

Where I worked they were known as Pee Jays or private jobs.
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 1:04 am   #30
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

When I worked for Mullards we were all invited to have a free development board for the 2650 sprite based graphics chip. We also had our enclosures made by the mechanical workshops. Also the Applications lab had a teletext keyboard PCB whch i was just given as I was 'interested'. All the application notes and brochures/data sheets could be gathered from the publications room.

At a company in Hastings we were allowed to just take electronic components from the stores to do our home projects. The director was a management graduate and doctor of Astrophysics, his point was that if we wanted to go home and become better engineers in our own time then the company was saving thousands on training. Halcyon days. Homers, guvvy jobs were the usual names but with no particular meaning, it just meant 'not for the compnay'.
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 10:11 am   #31
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

An engineer-friend from my youth [he was ancient even back in the late-60s, had a G2-and-2-letter callsign] could always be relied-upon to provide me with 'mil-spec' CV-numbered transistors, diodes etc for my early electronic dabblings.

Having been involved in electronics-development during WWII and consulting for various aviation/military-avionics companies afterwards, he always used to describe his private-jobs-done-on-company-time as "War work" - the idea being that such a description would discourage further questions as to just _what_ the thing he had mocked-up in the lab was.

He designed and built a 'phasing' type SSB exciter back in the late-1950s, using transistors in the audio and low-frequency-RF stages (and a 6146 as the output, all powered using BY100-type HT rectifiers).

I remember seeing a colour photo of it (he was also an early-adopter of colour photography/home-movies) - and its style of construction was, for want of a better term, "very Redifon".
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 1:02 pm   #32
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

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At the Admiralty, a home job was always referred to as a "rabbit" for some reason.....

Leon.
Aha! At Goodmans it was known as "doing a bunny" and I never found out why - this may be a clue!
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 2:52 pm   #33
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

The accepted term where I used to work was "PJs" for private jobs despite the possibility of confusion with nightwear.

That was in the maintenance department of a large department store, not specifically electronic repairs.

A lot of my work was on repairing light fittings, especially old or unusual types for which no modern replacement existed.
The light fittings made by myself with "everlasting light bulbs" are still in use not totally everlasting but should go for 20 years before needing new lamps.

Also a lot of appliance repairs, toasters for the canteen, vacuum cleaners, desk fans.
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 3:08 pm   #34
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

As I had generally more experience than most of the permi`s at a place where I was working as a contractor I was sometimes asked to repair / advise on non production items. One day I was carrying a obviously non company circuit board and bumped into one of the directors "what`s that, a homer?" he said accusingly. It`s the relay board out of the coffee machine, Bob, I said. "Oh, right, carry on" he said immediately.
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 3:12 pm   #35
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

Doing a job for the boss always helps, I have heard them being called Home Office jobs too.
 
Old 7th Sep 2021, 3:25 pm   #36
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

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Doing a job for the boss always helps, I have heard them being called Home Office jobs too.
Not always. There were regular situations when people would be pretty severely reprimanded for doing foreigners at work (Thorn Automation, Rugeley), yet the bosses could anything done, nothing was said.
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 4:13 pm   #37
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

That is both a shame and hypocritical, thankfully I have never worked at such a place.
 
Old 7th Sep 2021, 4:23 pm   #38
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

In the sporting world, a Homer is a referee, or umpire, who is biased towards the home team.

Cheers

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Old 7th Sep 2021, 4:52 pm   #39
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

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Not always. There were regular situations when people would be pretty severely reprimanded for doing foreigners at work (Thorn Automation, Rugeley), yet the bosses could anything done, nothing was said.
Is that what is now Ultra? And has moved from alongside the old A51 to a new place?
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Old 7th Sep 2021, 6:44 pm   #40
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Default Re: Homers, the off side work things done...

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Originally Posted by stevehertz View Post
Not always. There were regular situations when people would be pretty severely reprimanded for doing foreigners at work (Thorn Automation, Rugeley), yet the bosses could anything done, nothing was said.
Is that what is now Ultra? And has moved from alongside the old A51 to a new place?
That's right. I worked there from 1971 to '91. The facility at that time included sheet metal work, machine shop (lathes, milling etc), paint spraying, electronic assembly, etc etc. So it was possible to get almost anything done. In my final years there I worked in the publicity department as a copywriter (PR Officer was my title), so I was no longer in a 'manufacturing area'. I asked a young lad in the metal shop to bend me up a metal box for something I was making and he was caught doing it by the boss who in turn sent him to see the training officer who also laid into him. He had a right dressing down apparently. Yet the boss of the metal shop would get anything he so pleased done. Saying that, lots of stuff was done, it was just a question of whether you got caught or not. In the area that I worked in for quite many years, the test department, nothing was said so long as you got your work done. The same in the labs. Yeah, it was mainly the metal shop and the machine shop in which the bosses were two faced. Anyway, I can't complain about the amount of stuff that I got done or laid my hands on. I still use that pink hook up wire now, plus loads of resistors and caps - 30 odd years later!
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