Iran

[Litespeed]

As a side note, 

 

Jabiru sells lots of motors for drones. Quiet, light and economic.

 

 

[willedoo]

Closest I've been to it is repeatedly crashing a cheap RC helicopter. I don't know if a quadcopter is any easier; just a matter of practice I'd imagine.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Quad drone ARE easier, as they have built in stability & hover at the height you select.

 

I have three crashed helicopters, compered to One missing drone (cheapy, no hover) , & one still going strong, F P V, If I could link the drone to my Galaxy phone. Even push button "Raise Off Ground".

 

Much MUCH  easier than tree-axis flying.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[willedoo]

Reading the Iranian news this morning, it looks like the propaganda machine is in full swing. The commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division is claiming they knocked out the air base command centre and their EW forces jammed all the American drones after the attack. He's also saying that there were wounded taken to the US hospital in Baghdad. You would think if that was the case, it would be easy to verify. More likely just a few empty hangars hit, but who knows.

 

There's no doubt the Iranians have advanced EW capabilities as they were able to hack and land the CIA's RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone in 2011 and reverse engineer it. So the drone jamming part of the General's statement could be true.

 

 

[willedoo]

The U.S. has updated their casualty figures for the base attack to 50.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/us/iran-strike-soldier-injuries-pentagon.html

 

Apologies to factcheckers as I don't have the link at hand, but there was a report a while back that some drone operators stayed at their posts to keep base security going, so they might be among the injured.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

The U.S. has updated their casualty figures for the base attack to 50.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/us/iran-strike-soldier-injuries-pentagon.html

 

Apologies to factcheckers as I don't have the link at hand, but there was a report a while back that some drone operators stayed at their posts to keep base security going, so they might be among the injured.

 

This week it was reported that the list of US service personnel with concussive injuries exceeded 100.

 

A bit more background to US intelligence gathering before drones, satellites and Internet hacking.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51467536

 

 

[willedoo]

Have been reading about the Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company that makes their ITM tractors. They say it's the largest tractor manufacturer in the Middle East and North Africa; probably not a hard title to achieve. They make around 20,000 per year but due to U.S. sanctions, are only able to export around 2,000. Parts are all Iranian made except the injectors and tyres, which are imported. The company also makes engines for a variety of machinery and equipment, and are also starting to branch into truck manufacture.

 

All kick started by the U.S. sanctions creating a push toward domestic production and self sufficiency. The same thing has happened in Russia, where U.S. sanctions have boosted domestic production and manufacturing and helped the domestic economy.

 

Maybe that's what we need here. Upset the Americans to the point where they apply sanctions to Australia, then work toward getting our own manufacturing back.

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by willedoo

[onetrack]

They look like Massey-Ferguson copies. I was recently surprised to find out how big the steel industry is in Iran. They're actually exporting steel, despite the sanctions.

 

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-s-steel-production-and-the-impact-of-u-s-sanctions/29756102.html

[Bruce Tuncks]

Massey Fergusons from some years ago onetrack. Modern MF's are made in Mexico and have computers in them.

They are no good for Dad and Dave out here in the backblocks I can tell you from bitter experience.

 

[Old Koreelah]

The original Fergie must be the most-produced tractor in history.

Versions have been mass produced in many countries.

 

A couple of decades ago our TVs showed columns of desperate refugees streaming out of war zones in the Balkans, carrying everything they could salvage, often loaded onto the most prized possession of all: the family’s Fergie tractor.

[facthunter]

The "Ferguson System" You could bolt on all sorts of gadgets. Pretty small tractors, the originals. More suited for market gardens than anything else.. 35 HP (that's the 3 cyl diesel) is not enough for even a spray).  Nev

[onetrack]

And the Vanguard engine and the Fergy engine were virtually the one and the same! I can remember buying a well-worn Vanguard engine from the wreckers in 1965, to build a mobile welder on a trailer.

 

The brother and I bought a new, "bare" Lincoln "Tractapac welder", mounted in our homebuilt welder trailer and hooked it up with an offset V-belt drive to the Vanguard.

We cranked the Vanguard up, and it had just 5lbs oil pressure at about 1500RPM!! But it was only doing about 1800RPM driving the welder, and it drove it for years, until it finally died!

 

We then ripped it out and dropped in a used Holden 186 that had done 100,000 miles, and that engine was still going, when I sold the welder for scrap in 2001!

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

The "Ferguson System" You could bolt on all sorts of gadgets. Pretty small tractors, the originals. More suited for market gardens than anything else.. 35 HP (that's the 3 cyl diesel) is not enough for even a spray).  Nev

Them’s fightin’ words, Nev!

We used our red 35 for everything on our farm and it never complained about heavy loads, 3-disk ploughing, large disc harrows, pulling logs on steep hills and long hours pumping irrigation water. It must have paid for itself many times over and I hear that the plurry thing is still working, 60 years later!

[Yenn]

The little grey Fergie could go where the Fordson majors would get bogged and still pull a three furrow plough. I have pulled a new in 1962 Fordson Major through boggy ground, where the Major on its own was stuck. My first encounter with the Fergie was an eye opener. I could spend all day ploughing and not be tired whereas with the old Standard Fordson and the Major I would have been worn out with the noise. I reckon they were what pulled agriculture int the 20th century.

[willedoo]

Was it the MF that had that transmission thing, multipower I think they called it. I only have vague memories of it.

[pmccarthy]

I had a red diesel 135 that had a switch on the panel for a quick transmission range shift, it was instant and very useful when the going got tough.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon the old MF's were better than the new ones by far. There were so many of them around that parts were easy to come by.

But there is nothing much in common between those old ones and the latest models.

[facthunter]

The multipower had problems.

    IF you are going to spray, pull a set of fair sized discs you need much more that 35HP.The clutch on a 35 is far too heavy  to continually use when grape harvesting with a mechanical harvester.. I rebuilt a 35 front to rear for a reasonable figure. Doing it all myself so no labour costs involved.. Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Nev, does the mf 135 fan mount directly onto the water pump? My memory is faulty these days.

[willedoo]

I remember the older MF's weren't much chop for hauling out sugar cane at harvest time on the Coast. They were the wrong colour. All the green tractors handled the punishment well, but not the red ones..

[willedoo]

The Iranian manufacturers of that tractor are bragging that it's better than Chinese and Indian tractors. I guess with the Third World market for cheap tractors, that could be relative.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I read somewhere that the Iranians had a worse bureaucracy than anywhere. The story was about how the Chinese gave up hope for them and moved out.

Gosh, our bureaucracy is bad too. The only product of a bureaucracy is poverty.