Initial testing trying to tune it in soon showed that the modulator was on it's last legs (not surprising given the age), so I ordered a SCART lead from eBay (Retro Computer Shack). Luckily the Oric tape leads also work on the Electron so I didn't need these.
Once the lead arrived I was presented with a nice stable picture. Further testing showed the drive wouldn't read the disks but although it looks like the stepper motor on the drive is faulty I could also not get them to work using another drive (although this did read the directory on a couple it got no further).
After testing the tapes (most of which worked) I decided to get out my trusty HXC floppy drive emulator and downloaded a few images to test with.
I haven't used a BBC since High School and never seen an Electron before but I must say I am very impressed with it's compatibility with it's big brother. I more recently got hold of some ROM's and cartridge's for them. And most of the ROM's are compatible with the Electron.
Also interesting is that the disk controller will also control a Winchester hard drive. Now those must be rare but would be fun to see it going.