I've had a busy week of online ringing. Last Saturday we tried a quarter of Cambridge Maximus, in Handbell Stadium, with the band that rang the peal of Cambridge Royal, plus Graham Firman. We didn't find it very easy, and eventually had to stop because someone's laptop was running out of battery. We agreed to try again on Thursday, ringing Kent so that we could focus more on pace and rhythm (the idea had been to get below a 3h30 peal speed).
During the week I signed up for a couple of quarters with Gareth Davies' Five o'Clock Handbell Club. On Tuesday I called a quarter of Lincolnshire, again in Handbell Stadium, which went smoothly although I found it needed a lot of concentration. About half way through, an alert popped up on my screen, from Skype wanting to install an update. I had no way of getting rid of it, so it just stayed there, obscuring my view of the trebles.
Tuesday evening was the Glasgow online tower bell practice, in Ringing Room. I used my new Handbell Manager for Mac program so that I could ring with a motion controller instead of pressing the keyboard. At one point during the practice I rang 3-4 for a course of Grandsire Triples, with Tina ringing 1-2 and everyone else ringing one bell each.
Wednesday was the Five o'Clock Club again, and we rang a quarter of Bristol in Handbell Stadium. Mike Purday called a composition with a snap start and 6th place bobs, to keep 5-6 coursing - the calling was just 6 ins (s - - s - - ) for the tenor. It went very well. Alan Winter was ringing with a pair of controllers that he has made to my design, which was satisfying.
Thursday was the second attempt at the Kent Maximus. It didn't go, because my network connection was playing up. I was experiencing a lot of delays which made it sound as if the rest of the bells were ringing late and piling on top of each other. The rest of the band didn't get the same effect, but it was extremely difficult for me to keep to a rhythm. Eventually one of my bells got stuck, which was quite a mercy.
Friday was the regular Handbell Stadium practice that Graham John organises. During the week, as I described in another article, I received a pair of 3D-printed dummy handbells from Tim Hart and installed my Arduino sensors in them. So on Friday I tried them out. They worked well, and the weight is about the same as my original wooden dummy handbells. They have longer cables, which makes them a bit easier to ring when sitting at my desk. There are some sharp edges and corners though, which is evidence for high-quality printing, but it might be a good idea to smooth out the design a little. Unusually for a Friday practice, I didn't find myself ringing any Double Norwich, but I rang some Double Oxford Minor and some Plain Bob Royal.
Round to Saturday again (today), and we had another attempt at the quarter of Kent Maximus - successful this time. We were down to 3h25 speed for a while, which is much more promising for ringing a peal than the 0ver-4h speed of the previous Handbell Stadium quarter of maximus, and similar to some of the quarters on Ringing Room. My network was behaving better - there were still a few delays, but I'm finding it easier to have the confidence to stick to my internal rhythm and ring through them. Overall it was a good quarter.
The final exciting news is that I've ordered a 3D printer of my own, which is supposed to arrive today. So I hope to be able to print more dummy handbells from Tim Hart's design (but maybe with smoother edges), and I also want to look into printing clappers for the mini-bell conversions.