Guys, I'm sorry not to have responded to your postings more promptly - for several days I have been unable to access the NE forums - don't know why - and on my return, found that several of you had posted additions to a thread I thought expired.
Tinker: thanks for the kind words. I'm not the sensitive sort, and have had considerable experience with the vagaries of communicating technical and other information across the barriers of 'common languages'.
I am by temperament, training, preference and profession a technician, and make it a rule never to tell more than I know, while clearly separating fact from opinion whenever possible. I am, in fact, an old, burned-out and retired Chief Warrant Officer, CW4, of the Regular Army (MI) - re-galvanized post-retirement as a barrel maker and riflesmith (a long-held desire, though, truthfully, without any real expectation of fulfilment - but the blind hog DID find that acorn).
I'll be sticking around.
mhb - Mike