After finding one of these lanterns for sale in a electrical shop in Patong, and despite the length of the fitting, I decided to take the risk and buy one to bring back to the UK with me. The lanterns don't cost a lot, mine cost 500Baht (about £8.00p), but they come without a ballast, starter, or lamp. However, these items are very cheap to buy and are readily available, so I bought the ballast and starter separately, but didn't bother buying a tube as it would only get smashed in transit. I could have had the bracket and mounting plate for the lantern for another 250Baht (£4.00p), but decided that I'd have enough problems in getting the lantern back to the UK as a standalone item.

I knew the lantern would get thrown in and out of the holds of two aircraft along with all the other baggage, and there's the luggage carousels at the airports to encounter as well, so I thought it best if I packaged the lantern myself. I persuaded the girl in the shop to let me have some cardboard, newspaper, and packing tape, and I set to work packing the lantern up. I packed the lantern's bowl out with newspaper to try and prevent the bowl getting crushed during transit. I wasn't sure that this had worked in protecting the lantern until I was able to open the packaging on my return to the UK; happily the lantern and the bowl survived OK.

The Nulite 36w/40w ballast was not supplied with the lantern and had to be bought separately for 65Baht (about £1.00p), but a set of fixing screws and nuts are supplied with the lantern, and the receptacle holes are already pressed out in the lantern's gear tray/reflector panel to fit the ballast against.

The fitting has a cast-aluminium canopy and an injection moulded plastic bowl, but no refractor surfaces are moulded or bonded into the bowl. The general quality of the canopy's casting is very poor, and additional filling with epoxy resin has been carried out on the canopy by the manufacturers to fill the blow-holes in the casting.

 Here's the SSLL 'SY' lantern complete and assembled prior to testing. The mobile phone has been placed alongside to give a sense of scale.

 After wiring the lantern up to a feed supply and fitting the tube, the power was switched on and the lamp ran up perfectly first time. The brown mark showing up on the rear of the bowl is the remains of cardboard from the original box has got stuck to the bowl.

A similar STLL SY fitting in use in Bangkok, Thailand.