Magnets and matters related

[Michael Rogers]

Hallo, you boffins. Expert help please.

Question - would attaching a magnet to the outside of an electronic device, e.g. a handheld VHF radio, interfere with its normal function? Having scraped A level Physics in the mediaeval era, I should probably know the answer, but find I don't.

It's a tentative idea to stow a h.h. VHF set to the inside of the transom under the after deck where, on my boat, it would be readily to hand. Pairs of magnets and means to attach them are readily available, but I don't want to do anything which would make the set go doolally (spelling?).

Before somebody says, entirely reasonably, 'er - compass??', it's a good point, obviously. To date I haven't done much (= any at all) sailing using a compass: which doesn't necessarily mean I won't. However, having recently done the RYA Day Skipper Theory, I can find my way round a chart plotter etc, but have yet to think of a way to fit an adequate chart table into a 12 ft dinghy. Methinks GPS is the obvious answer there, but I can't allow my bank account to overheat (we impecunious pensioners and all that), so that frill will have to wait.

Michael

[EDWIN DAVIES]

Why not sticky back velcro?

[Michael Rogers]

Edwin, my experience of S B V is that, after a time, the sticky bit becomes less 'sticky' than the adhesion between the velcro surfaces, and just peels off.

Another unknown is how well the magnets I have in mind, the rare earth kind, will cope with that well-known gremlin the 'marine environment'.

Michael

[Terry Cross]

How about Velcro "wrap round" I use it on the inside of spray hoods to hold the canvas to the frame. If you email me your address I will send you some.
Terry Cross  "IONA"

[Graham W]

Terry's offer looks like it is not to be missed, especially as no-one has weighed in on behalf of magnets.

On another tack, does your VHF have a belt clip? If it does, can you not improvise something belt-shaped to clip it to?

[Ian Loveday]

I bought one of these, it fits around the rail that runs along the cockpit seats
http://www.tridentuk.com/gb/product-stow-away-bag-sa1-besa1.html?

[Michael Rogers]

Thanks, as ever, folks.

Kind offer, Terry, but I think I have some of what you refer to already. Anyway, hope to see you again at Ullswater, and look forward to it.

I like the look of your suggestion, Ian, and will look into that. Could be very neat.

I'm probably going off the magnet idea. It involves the use of Sugru, rather strange but potentially quite useful stuff which I flagged up on another thread. I'm left being rather intrigued that no-one has actually answered my question about the possible effects of magnets. Is this because the answer is, embarrassingly, obvious to everyone except me? Or, just possibly, that no-one knows....?

I know there's a patron saint of lost causes (can't remember his name). Does he also look after good-ideas-which-don't-catch-on? I ask because of my potential money-maker for which I can't find any backers - dehydrated water. It's very handy, light and space-saving, and to reconstitute it you just add water. Simple, like all the best ideas.

Michael

[Tony]

Hi, Mike. 
Dehydrated water? Hmmm! 
By the way, your spelling in your first pot is fine. 
Doolally or Dolally. 
From:
Deolali, India, former site of a British Army transit camp. 
"Doolally", originally "doolally tap", meaning to 'lose one′s mind', derived from the boredom felt at the Deolali British Army transit camp. 'Tap' may be derived from the Sanskrit word 'tapa' meaning 'heat' or 'fever'. It is also just conceivable that it derives from the Welsh word 'twp', meaning 'stultified', 'unable to reason sensibly'.