RadioBanter - View Single Post

November 5th 04, 01:27 AM

In article ,
PAMNO (N2EY) writes:

In article ,
(Len Over 21) writes:

In article ,
(William) writes:

(Len Over 21) wrote in message
...
In article ,

(N2EY) writes:

In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

N2EY wrote:

In article ,

(Len Over 21) writes:

In article , Robert Casey
writes:

Well, except to some who wish to turn this newsgroup into
a quasi-private Chat Room involving their own desires and
preferences..and to have them damn all others for not thinking
and feeling as they do. [yourself excluded]

That's a pretty good summation of what *you* want from this
newsgroup,
Len.
After all, you're the one telling other people to "shut the hell
up"..

I've thought that Lenover21 wanted to be the moderator in here. He
claims otherwise.

It's how he acts that makes the claims ring hollow. Perhaps it's time to
repost the "feldwebel" classic...

Saw him in a movie. Sittin atop an A-Bomb. Oooop! He jarred it
loose.

"Dr. Strangelove." :-)

No, that's not how it happened in the movie.

I wasn't talking about a "movie," Jimmie.

Okay, big expert on the USAF and SAC, how do you get from
the crew compartment of any B-52 into the bomb bay (and
which one)? How does a 180 pound human jar loose a couple-
ton Special Weapons (of thermonuclear yield)?

And, speaking specifically about "radio," whatinhell is that "Gold
Code Receiver" pictured that clicks up little characters in a
supposed "digital display?" It was NEVER on any USAF radio
inventory list, public or secure-sensitive. [there ARE "gold codes"
but those are mathematical, and NOT specifically implemented
or implementable as secure cryptographic means]

Yeah, like a (mximum) 200 pound male can "jar loose" 4000
pounds of bomb (approximate weight of a special weapons of the
time) from its shackles designed to take many g of force. :-)

Tsk. These guys go to the movies and think that all the FICTION
they see is the TRVTH and nothing but... :-)

Ya never saw it, didja?

Speak English, not baby talk, Jimmie.

I've seen several models of the B-52, even been IN a couple of them.
I've also been around Special Weapons, including the air-drop types.
I'm also fairly familiar with the past USAF radio communications
equipment, at least by sight. Knowing about "oil burner routes," and
some performance envelopes of that Big Ugly Fat 'Fornicator' (BUFF)
I also know that typical bomb-run airspeed is way too high to let
anyone ride on a "shape" (Special Weapons old term) and play rodeo
cowboy with their cowboy hat...airspeed is just too high.

Does make for a nice anti-war motion picture full of way-overdone
satire/sarcasm about the politics of the (then) Vietnam War plus
left-overs of the old-time Cold War (then still hot) of the 50s.

As a "professional" movie-maker and producer, you should KNOW
all that.

The relevant question is "Steel chassis or Aluminum chassis?"

Depends on the application.

What in the world are you gabbling about?

"Greenlee punch or Nibbler?"

Such relevant questions.

From two nonbuilders...

Kiss my yes, Jimmie boy.

My hometown is where the Greenlee company IS and I've even been
in that part of Greenlee and SEEN those punches being made...in
1949. [that part of Greenlee is just two large rooms of punch-making
and grinding machinery, very very small compared to the Main
Building they are located in] For that matter, I've also seen part of
the GC Electronics operations when their wire-stripper line was still a
part of it...and known two who worked there (in 1956). [GC is now a
merge with Walsco and most of their 'products' are produced by others
on an OEM basis]

I have a small collection of Greenlee punches which have been
gathering rust and dust. About every 5 years or so I may take them
out, oil them and rub them with some steel wool. Haven't used them
for about 9 years or so. Vacuum tube socket hole cutouts aren't a
biggie among those NOT into boatanchors. [last time I used one was
to put in a larger chassis-mount electrolytic on a repair and refurbish
mini-project, took the 1 1/8" round punch]

I suppose next you will demand I show up at Dayton with the
"citations" to prove I do things? Harrrr!!!!

Actually, it would be. Jimmie say he build with "recycled parts"
and his "rig" didn't cost him more than $100.

That's true.

Of COURSE it's "true." Jimmie SAID so. The "word" of a radio god
is solemn honesty, isn't it?

Now anyone considering any sort of metal work for radios had
better have $ome money since an average aluminum chassis
from Bud Industries, LMB-Heeger, or Hammond Manufacturing
(good folks in Canada) is going to cost about $30...and that isn't
including a bottom cover plate.
Metal cabinets are Out Of Sight.
Check any catalog, paper or on-line, Allied, Newark, DigiKey,
Mouser, even Ocean State Electronics.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.

Your imagination is limited to what you see in the catalogs of new parts.

Not MY imagination, Jimmie.

What do you do with those old chassis? Use all the old holes for the
"new design?" Make everything "fit" those existing holes?

bwahahahahahahahahaha!

Some alloys of aluminum are sort of malleable. 2024 is somewhat
that way but don't bend it too much. 6061 is NOT. One can't take
a chunk of ordinary aluminum and hammer it flat to fill in the holes
(using "recycled" i.e., previously-used), then bend/brake it back to
some new shape.

Why would anyone go through all that?

Didn't you? Something about "beating swords into plowshares" but
doing the analogue with all those old chassis?

That means BUYING chassis somewhere...or
snaffling ("swipe") them.

You mean steal? I don't do that.

Heavens, no! That would be a SIN and you'd still be mumbling
Hail Marys...

Do you have a guilty conscience, Len?

No. I DO have a conscience. Right now its wondering why I'm wasting
all this time writing a reply to an unrepentant PCTA-er who is bound
and determined to rationalize (one way or the other) that he is perfect
ham in every way.

At early 1990 prices, that average
chassis alluded to before would cost about $25. So, for six chassis
in the photograph that would be a total of about $150.

Except they weren't bought new out of catalogs. Which drastically reduces the
price paid.

Prove that. Show your work.

The excuse to be given will be that he "bought it at a flea market"
or some hamvention for "a very low price." :-)

How is that an "excuse", Len? It's the truth, in some cases. In others,
chassis, panels and other parts were recycled from other sources.

Riiiighhhht.

For example, the transmitter section is built in the case from a BC-191/375
tuning unit, with a new panel made from a piece of sheet aluminum. Total cost
about $2.

Riiiiighhhht. :-)

Whatever the story is, it will have the usual embellishments, the
brags of greatness, the usual suspects. :-)

You mean like the guy who claimed to have handled X million messages per month
24/7 at a military radio station, but didn't bother to mention the 700+ other
personnel there at the time?

U.S. Army radio station ADA sent 220 thousand TTY messages a
month in 1955 in 24/7 operations, radio circuits all over the Pacific
on HF. Pacific edition of the Stars & Stripes military newspaper had
that item in it ('Stripes' was and is still available to the military public
and to dependents). Each and every team supervisor at transmitters
was immediately responsible to keep those radio transmitters
operating when scheduled.

No brag at all. Just a description of duties. I did that as one of the
team supervisors. A long time ago. Many others of E-5 and up also
did that on other shifts [we were on a 12-day cycle, 3 on each shift
and 3 days off as the 4th part of that].

The Photographic Company was not involved in radio communications
yet was a part of the 8235th Army Unit then known as the FEC Sig
Svc Bn (that's "Far East Command Signal Service Battalion" to you
civilians). They worked in downtown Tokyo then in their own large
still-and-motion-picture lab...that rivaled that of the LIFE magazine
photo lab in NYC. Headquarters Company had the Outside Plant
Telephone crews...the ones who put up all the 30 to 70 foot poles
that held wire lines and the antennas for both receiving and trans-
mitting sites. 'Outside Plant' did not send or receive anything but
were needed. Control and Teletype Relay at Chuo Kogyo (outside,
near Camp Drake) were another group that did, respectively, the
radio and wireline circuit control and the torn-tape teletype relay
operations (latter from about 200+ chadless-punch printed tape
machines). I'm not counting those specifically doing microwave
radio relay ops & maintenance (which I also did) or the "Carrier
Equipment" necessary to multiplex several circuits on the same
voice channel (wire or radio).

"Carrier" operations would later morph into handling the terminal
equipment for the DSN-DCS which is now the mainstay for military
communications worldwide (primary, there are other routes by
other means as secondary). The old "carrier" duties now occupy
most of the 78th Bn still at Camp Zama, Japan.

Jimmie, I can get even MORE specific about all of that old stuff
because: (1). I was there; (2). I have documents to prove it;
(3). I have personal photographs as well as Signal Corps photos
(with mimeoed ID on the backs, as military standard then) from
those days; (4). I have other documents obtained as gifts from
a now-retired civilian engineer who was there at the time and stayed
with the station complex after the USAF took over in 1963 (he now
lives in California); (5). I have been in correspondence, both
written and telephone, with another who was there at the same time
as I, has been a amateur radio licensee for years; (6). The
Pacific Stars & Stripes did check out some of my material and
published it (article by staffer Rick Chernitzer who did the interview)
on 10 November 2002 (it's in the middle of that Sunday edition, a
"double truck" or two-page spread as the publishing folks sometimes
call it).

No, I don't have a TO&E (Table of Organization and Equipment)
which every battalion and up has. A TO&E would itemize all the
equipment and who is where in the organization. I don't see much
need to get one. I've been in correspondence with 5 others who were
there, in that battalion, at the same time I was. We might put one
together from memory, but WHY do you need to account for all
(approximately) 700?

Or the guy who claims to have operated from T5 but cannot recall what bands,
modes, radios, or antennas were used?

You will have to take that up with "him."

Of course, you WILL "correct" him when "he makes errors" because
YOU have done all that military and commercial civilian radio
communications and "know what it is like," don't you? Of course
you do...you READ about it in your various Janes books. You KNOW
what it is like to be within flying distance of nastyfolks who Have The
Bomb and want to "correct" others about NATO aircraft code names.

I'm wondering what YOU do "to serve your country" which is as good
of better than actually serving with the military? Come on, TELL US.
Show us your heroism and wonderful deeds that makes YOU so
superior you can denigrate those of us who DID serve in the military.