Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

[StevieBee]

A question for our Muslim friends.

It's a double header.....

First off, the call-to-prayer in Muslim countries... is this recorded or sung 'live'?

Secondly, having visited many such countries over the years, I've noticed previously this little 'bleep, bloop, blip' thing at the end. For some reason, this always made me smile a bit but have noticed that this doesn't seem to be used anymore. Why's that?

[dukeboy749r]

StevieBee said:

A question for our Muslim friends.

It's a double header.....

First off, the call-to-prayer in Muslim countries... is this recorded or sung 'live'?

Secondly, having visited many such countries over the years, I've noticed previously this little 'bleep, bloop, blip' thing at the end. For some reason, this always made me smile a bit but have noticed that this doesn't seem to be used anymore. Why's that?

Growing up in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the call by the muezzin was always live.

Some countries (or individual mosques) may have a recorded version.

I doubt that too many Arabic countries would seek to do that - perhaps in a smaller town or village?

[98elise]

Fastchas said:

Going back a coupla pages to the oval cylinders and wanting to get more valves in order to get more fuel in/gasses out; why has this design not been used as (to me) it looks like its about 20% more area to get fuel in/extract exhaust gasses than two each for inlet/exhaust?
Or perhaps it has been used?

Sorry for the amateur word.doc pic

Edited by Fastchas on Tuesday 7th May 16:28

Hard to manufacture hence costly. Imagine trying to cut the valve seats.

It's easier to add boost.

[hidetheelephants]

Fastchas said:

Going back a coupla pages to the oval cylinders and wanting to get more valves in order to get more fuel in/gasses out; why has this design not been used as (to me) it looks like its about 20% more area to get fuel in/extract exhaust gasses than two each for inlet/exhaust?
Or perhaps it has been used?

Sorry for the amateur word.doc pic

Because even with modern machine tools concentric things are much cheaper to make than non-concentric things. Valves get a hard time from exhaust gases, sealing performance is significantly aided by valve rotation which cleans the mating faces which is not possible with non-concentric designs. Your design would not flow much better as port flow is governed mostly by the valve perimeter/circumference, not valve cross-section.

Edited by hidetheelephants on Tuesday 7th May 23:14

[Doofus]

Also, you'd need square-section valve stems and guides to stop the valves spinning, and that's expensive to make and prone to wear.

[48k]

StevieBee said:

Secondly, having visited many such countries over the years, I've noticed previously this little 'bleep, bloop, blip' thing at the end. For some reason, this always made me smile a bit but have noticed that this doesn't seem to be used anymore. Why's that?

It's the RDS tones, to return the listener to the programme they were listening to. Not needed now cos it's all done digitally.

#radiojoke

[Error_404_Username_not_found]

StevieBee said:

A question for our Muslim friends.

It's a double header.....

First off, the call-to-prayer in Muslim countries... is this recorded or sung 'live'?

Secondly, having visited many such countries over the years, I've noticed previously this little 'bleep, bloop, blip' thing at the end. For some reason, this always made me smile a bit but have noticed that this doesn't seem to be used anymore. Why's that?

I know that some at least are live. There's a mosque directly across the road from the train station in Alexandria; I was waiting there for a pickup at sparrow-fart in the morning when the call to prayer started and after about 30 seconds the poor bloke had a massive coughing fit. Unfortunately the mic remained "live" as the poor sod retched his ring up. Even the locals were having a grin about it.
In Dubai though there's a group of mosques in a small locality that uses the same recording, perhaps so that they're all synchronised. There's a story (that I can't personally verify as I wasn't a witness) that a visitor once managed to substitute the cassette tape with Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" for morning prayers.
This was related to me by a Cockney Englishman who lived locally and may or may not have had intimate knowledge of the event.

Regarding the second question; no idea I'm afraid.

[droopsnoot]

48k said:

StevieBee said:

Secondly, having visited many such countries over the years, I've noticed previously this little 'bleep, bloop, blip' thing at the end. For some reason, this always made me smile a bit but have noticed that this doesn't seem to be used anymore. Why's that?

It's the RDS tones, to return the listener to the programme they were listening to. Not needed now cos it's all done digitally.

#radiojoke

I've got a tape of a Queen album and I seem to recall that has some tones at the start and end of each side, presumably for the player to figure out what tone settings to use, I wonder if it could be something similar.

[Snow and Rocks]

StevieBee said:

A question for our Muslim friends.
First off, the call-to-prayer in Muslim countries... is this recorded or sung 'live'?

Having spent quote a bit of time in Morocco it's always been live as far as I can remember. In a similar vein to the coughing story I remember once in a small village hearing the call to prayer followed by the sound of someone gently snoring away - poor chap had obviously left the mic on!

I've absolutely no interest in religion but there is something special about hearing several competing calls from neighbouring villages echoing around the foothills of the Atlas mountains - I always make a point of stopping to listen.

[ChevronB19]

dukeboy749r said:

Growing up in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the call by the muezzin was always live.

Some countries (or individual mosques) may have a recorded version.

I doubt that too many Arabic countries would seek to do that - perhaps in a smaller town or village?

Mosque next door to my (awful) hotel in Turkey (no, I didn’t come back with new teeth) had a recorded (well recorded) version. Couldn’t believe that so many guests complained about it, whilst the mosque didn’t complain about the thumping disco coming from the god awful pit of hell, seriously, Dante would’ve invented an extra level for that place.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

As an aside, I believe that some Anglican Churches now use recordings of church bells, rather than using their actual church bells, when either their bells need expensive renovation and/or they have insufficient bell ringers.

[P-Jay]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

As an aside, I believe that some Anglican Churches now use recordings of church bells, rather than using their actual church bells, when either their bells need expensive renovation and/or they have insufficient bell ringers.

Yeah the church we got married in uses a tape recording (I don't think it's really a tape). They still wanted £50 for someone to press play.

[dukeboy749r]

ChevronB19 said:

dukeboy749r said:

Growing up in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the call by the muezzin was always live.

Some countries (or individual mosques) may have a recorded version.

I doubt that too many Arabic countries would seek to do that - perhaps in a smaller town or village?

Mosque next door to my (awful) hotel in Turkey (no, I didn’t come back with new teeth) had a recorded (well recorded) version. Couldn’t believe that so many guests complained about it, whilst the mosque didn’t complain about the thumping disco coming from the god awful pit of hell, seriously, Dante would’ve invented an extra level for that place.

[bodhi]

dukeboy749r said:

Growing up in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the call by the muezzin was always live.

Some countries (or individual mosques) may have a recorded version.

I doubt that too many Arabic countries would seek to do that - perhaps in a smaller town or village?

I've only ever seen it done in Famagusta Old Town in Northern Cyprus whilst enjoying an incredibly cheap coffee in the square. Wasn't obvious if it was live or not but I'd say it was a recording - there were some enormous speakers at the top of the building it was coming from and it seemed more for the tourists benefit than the locals.

Didn't see anyone praying in the main square - but I assume most followers would hear the call and pray where they were?

[Alickadoo]

I have radios in various rooms in my house.

Some are set to FM, some AM, some DAB, some Long wave and so on. You get the picture, I am sure.

The eight o'clock pips have just gone on the BBC. Which radio is giving the most accurate time?

[Fastchas]

Alickadoo said:

I have radios in various rooms in my house.

Some are set to FM, some AM, some DAB, some Long wave and so on. You get the picture, I am sure.

The eight o'clock pips have just gone on the BBC. Which radio is giving the most accurate time?

I listen to FM in my car. Sometimes when I get back in the house, Alexa is playing the same station but it's always about 10-20secs behind FM.

[Roofless Toothless]

Alickadoo said:

I have radios in various rooms in my house.

Some are set to FM, some AM, some DAB, some Long wave and so on. You get the picture, I am sure.

The eight o'clock pips have just gone on the BBC. Which radio is giving the most accurate time?

It depends what you mean by time.

[eldar]

Fastchas said:

Going back a coupla pages to the oval cylinders and wanting to get more valves in order to get more fuel in/gasses out; why has this design not been used as (to me) it looks like its about 20% more area to get fuel in/extract exhaust gasses than two each for inlet/exhaust?
Or perhaps it has been used?

Sorry for the amateur word.doc pic

Edited by Fastchas on Tuesday 7th May 16:28

The Honda V4/8 was partly due to the racing regulation restricting the number of cylinders to 4, so an attempt to get some V8 advantages.

[Nethybridge]

bodhi said:

Didn't see anyone praying in the main square - but I assume most followers would hear the call and pray where they were?

The civilised
world has had
time telling devices for centuries,
you know Isam really needs to update itself for the 21st Century.

[Sycamore]

Nethybridge said:

The civilised
world has had
time telling devices for centuries,
you know Isam really needs to update itself for the 21st Century.

You are properly st at poems