OVER 2 YOU, 110 (10/12/02)

WEATHER STATION

Does anyone know of or can recommend a software or instrument package that I can connect to my PC to monitor and record changes in the weather, such as air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction?

Bill Halliday, via email

Davis Instruments manufacture consoles, sensors and software for all these variables that can be connected to a PC. For more details got to: www.davisnet.com.

John S Goulding,

I would like to sing the praises of my Monitor II system, which I bought in 1994 from Davis Instruments in the USA (www.davisnet.com/weather/products/weather_mon.asp) and has done sterling service ever since. The UK agent is ICS Electronics Ltd, Arundel, Tel. 01903 731101. I record both inside and outside humidity and temperature, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure every half hour. Then I download to my PC once a week, although there is memory enough to store a full month of data. My job took me round the world and in the Gulf my system provided evidence, which became Exhibit A in a contractual tussle on a major construction project.

Roger Harris, Shaftesbury, Dorset

I purchased a weather station manufactured by Oregon Scientific from Alana Ecology (www.alana-eco.net), which downloads data to my PC on a continuous basis if required. The station records max/min data until the memory is cleared. Time, pressure, temperature in/out, wind speed/direction, wind chill, rainfall, humidity and dew point are all recorded. Graphs are produce also to show tends etc. I am very pleased with this equipment, which has been working for over two years now.

Mike Curtis

There are numerous automatic weather monitoring systems on the market .I use one from R&D Electronics in Broadstairs, Kent (www.weathermonitering.com). The package includes rain, temperature, sun, wind and pressure sensors, connected to a data logger, which records all the data onto your computer. There is also a display cabinet with a visual readout of these readings.

Clive Allen

Weatherview (www.weatherview32.com) will do what you want and a whole lot more! Features include automatic data acquisition and storage, weather data updates on screen, climatological database for over 8200 locations in US with daily record data. The calculated parameters include wind chill, dew point, rate of change and heat index. It captures and displays data, forecasts, satellite and Doppler images from the Internet.

Stephen Thomas

I suggest the excellent weather stations that can be connected to a PC manufactured by RMG Monitoring. It supplies products for the amateur and professional including all software and you can buy online from their website at www.weathermonitoring.co.uk

Steve & Kill Kilbee

MISSING BELT

I have an old Phillips reel-to-reel tape recorder and quite a number of tapes but I can't play any of them because the machine's drive belts have perished.  Is it possible to buy drive belts?  If so, where?

Jeremy Quinlan, via email

Try Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk); otherwise a few well-chosen elastic bands can work wonders. One of my VHS machines, so salvaged, has been running perfectly for a year now!

Anthony Gorman

I got a complete set of new belts for my old Philips N4308 tape recorder from C. Braddock at The Tape Recorder Centre, Blackpool, (Tel: 01253 345049). They are not cheap but are worth trying it if you have some valuable material. If the recorder is similar to mine then you may find that the rubbers in the clutch mechanism have 'melted'. As far as I know you cannot get these but I managed to make replacements from some 3mm square catapult rubber.

Mike Adnett

I was in the same position last year and managed to get belts for my old reel to reel and cassette recorders. I purchased them from Action Electronics in the USA. Its web address is www.action-electronics.com/caraudio.htm.

Norman Morton

Try  lpbelts@yahoo.com. This US firm will supply to given dimensions but not I think for specific makes. Carefully measure the existing belts and state all dimensions in inches using a vernier guage or micrometer. Deduct 10% of belt length to allow for stretching with age. I recently restored a 20-year-old Hitachi cassette player this way.

Vic Manning

When I was working O-rings in a wide range of sizes were obtainable from chemical or laboratory apparatus suppliers, I expect there are other sources.

TB

The drive belts in my 30-year-old BASF radio-cassette player had perished badly about two years ago. A local repairer had accumulated a supply of rubber "O" rings used for sealing hydraulic systems etc. We were able to select two of these of the correct size and flexibility and the set has worked perfectly ever since. A Yahoo search using  "hydraulic o ring site:co.uk" brought up some suppliers.

Peter White, via e-mail

EXCEL COLUMNS

I receive monthly information in terms of a date and a quantity for each day. It comes in the form of two columns; in order to present that information in chart form I am tediously rewriting the info into two rows. Is there a formula for converting from columns to rows? Alternatively is there a way of constructing a chart from two columns?

Tony Bryan, via email

To change data from rows to columns in Excel (and/or vice versa), select the cells required, copy, go to a new worksheet or workbook, and select the Paste Special function (from Edit or by using right button on the mouse) and the select Transpose. The selected cells will then be pasted in as required.

Duncan Makin

Highlight the second column, copy and cut the column. Go to the bottom of the first column and paste the second column directly underneath the first column. Highlight the whole column and copy and cut. Open a word processor document and paste the column. Do a global search and replace for return (usually ^p or\p) with tab (usually^t or \t). Locate the tab that separates the first column from the second column and replace it with a return. Copy the whole lot (which probably looks quite a mess) and paste it back into the spreadsheet. Hey presto 2 rows.

Roger Cherrill

SHEET MUSIC

Apart from ebay does anybody know a source of old (probably out of publication) song sheet music?        

David Minor, via email

For quality low cost sheet music and records try the Oxfam Bookshop at Henley-on-Thames.  Best to visit or contact: oxfambookshenleyonthames@yahoo.co.uk

David Partick

LOOSING TOUCH

My 85 year-old neighbour has lost the sense of touch in his fingertips and finds it impossible to use a mouse.  He also has difficulties when using the keyboard. He has heard of a 'glove mouse', which sounds useful, but there does not seem to be in production any more. He is now confined to a wheelchair and would find the use of his computer now more valuable than ever. Has anyone any suggestions or experience of using a PC with this kind of disability?

Dougie Morrison, via email

Some years ago I bought a Microsoft EasyBall for my granddaughter. It is designed for young children as an introduction to on-screen cursor movement. It is essentially a trackball with a huge (100mm diameter) bright yellow ball with a large single button. It plugs into a serial port and can even be used at the same time as a conventional mouse or trackball. It comes with its own software (we used to run it on Windows 95) but it also seems to run

happily on the standard Windows mouse drivers.

Bryan Scott

WORD FOR BEGINNERS

I am in my eighties, my main use of my PC is to e-mail and write letters. Because of lack of use I have forgotten many of the intricacies of word processing that I was taught on a course a couple of years ago and so I am continually referring to manuals. Can anyone recommend a book with tests and exercises to keep me up to scratch?

N. G. B., via email

I find "The Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Word 97" invaluable. It is published by Access Publishing, 3015 112th Avenue NE Suite 205 Bellevue WA 98004 USA.

Gill Bullus

CAN YOU HELP?

Does anyone know where I can obtain the names of soldiers listed on the El Alamein War Memorial who died on the 9th December 1942, with no known grave? Is there a Memorial website with listed names? In the past I recorded the names by hand but I lost the list in a recent house move.

Derick Jonner, via email