stevetheangler

Well, my bite alarms WERE three wireless NGT camo ones like these….

… but seemed to have succumbed to foul weather possibly and possibly general component failure too…

The receiver is not responding to any of the output from the alarm heads – indicative that the fault lies within itself – but I am unable to locate any obvious faulty area (burnt out component, etc… there’s power there from the batteries and at various points on the circuit board). But on top of that, the blue LED’d head has been playing up for a short while – once it starts working it tends to be OK but problem symptoms seem to indicate a faulty capacitor – takes a while to operate after switching on, fades away, etc – and components are not easy to access as the circuit board is waterproofed by a rubbery overlay that is very difficult to peel away…

Anyway, with the problems mounting I deemed it time to call on the services of eBay once more to obtain a new set… which I have done…  and now these are on their way to me….

… which actually don’t look too dissimilar to the set being replaced… possibly the original heads will also work with the new  receiver. Only real differences as I can make out is that this new receiver uses a 9v (PP9) battery whilst the old one used 4 x AAA 1.5v ones (all the heads, old and new, use an A23 12v battery) and that the heads, at least, are black rather than camo although the receiver in the pic does look camo but may be a trick of the light, possibly? Hopefully, they will work as well as the old ones as I was pretty happy with those – they were probably the best alarms I’ve used since the original Optonics of the 80’s.

I do need to use wireless ones as my failing hearing means that to depend on the normal head speakers would mean having them at full volume generally – much to the annoyance of other anglers – and would still be unheard if I were to pop to the swim next door (eg to net a fish for Liz). However, with wireless I can have the head volumes way down low and depend on the receiver’s speaker kept close to me to indicate takes.

Anyway, hopefully, should be in receipt of these new items in a few days :)

But weather pretty grim now – and no change is forecast until Sunday and then a return to wind/rain on Monday but then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are forecasted as improved.  So possibly no fishing now until mid next week.