Cold storage

At one time I operated a "roadie" business out of Montreal and we would often move band equipment to many northern venues during the winter in very extreme temperatures. The travel times could be, quite lengthy and only the cab was heated. On the longer runs it might be late evening before we arrived with temperatures sometimes down to -50 .(sounding like a "when I was a kid" story but true, never-the-less). The current wisdom was that the worst thing you could do was immediately move the equipment into a heated space, and many times would be left overnight when it was very cold to be moved in and slowly warmed up before using. The only casualty I remember was an amp that one of the musicians immediately moved into the heated bandroom, despite our admonissions, and turning it on. after arriving in Chicoutimi from Montreal in sub-zero temperatures, IIRC an 8hr trip. Since most electronics are built to withstand high temperatures, it stands to reason that they should also be able to withstand lower ones. The biggest problem being brittleness when subject to jars or rapid heating which would act on minute flaws due to expansion. I am going to be moving myself and most of my collection to my retirement home in central Manitoba (a hop-skip-and jump away also a shed I intend to use for storage. I would do some insulation and make sure it is free from moisture, leaky roof etc. If you're very concerned you might do what we did in the chicken coop when I was a kid there and leave a light on during extreme cold. Can't recall ever losing a chicken :^) Don't know what we used before being electified. Maybe a coal-oil lamp. A bigger problem might be critters and insects. ciao larry Reply to: lgwalker(a)look.ca