On Mar 20, 1:54Â am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 19, 6:10� pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:

You were there a couple of years, as I recall.

Yes--1998-2000.

You should write a book! Or at least a collection of stories about
your experiences in various services and locations. Military, dept of
state, ham radio...

You could put it on the web, too.....

There's a certain British approach to engineering and
craftsmanship
that is underappreciated on this side of the pond IMHO.

For example, the BBC was doing regular scheduled
electronic TV
broadcasting in 1936-37, and only shut down when
WW2 broke out.

They invented things like the re-entrant multiple
cavity magnetron,
practical jet engines, the dambuster bomb and
delivery system (fly a
Lancaster 50 feet off the water at night? No problem!)
and much more.

Somewhere here in the shack, I have a little green
hardbound book on
Baird's work.

If you mean John Logie Baird, unfortunately he barked up the wrong
(mechanical) tree for too long. But when he got together with
Farnsworth things really started to roll.

And yet people still think TV was first demonstrated to the public at
the New York World's Fair in 1939.

Whatever happened to World's Fairs, anyway?

I have an RSGB handbook from the 1960s.
It's quite different from the
ARRL Handbooks of the time - more technical,
more projects, more
advanced and varied stuff. But nothing on operating, history,
licensing, or the RSGB.

You can make up for that lack of info if you can
find a wonderful book
from the 70's called, "The World at Their Fingertips".

I'll keep an eye out, but my point was the difference in focus.
The RSGB Handbook was more narrowly focused. I think it
eventually influenced the ARRL handbook, too.

Note too that the RSGB handbook wasn't a new edition every year, or
even every 2-3 years.

One thing that I think is missing from the ARRL library is a successor
to "Understanding Amateur Radio". "UAR" was a
great book that filled the gap between the basic intro books and the
full Handbook.

For example, the phenomenal G2DAF receivers,
particularly the last
version. Incredible sophistication and performance.

Really great designs. Â He kept at it for a long time. Â
He provided many
mods for commercial rigs like the Yaesu FT-101 series.

Those early '101s sure needed them!

Of course part of that was the different economics
of homebrewing in
Europe at the time.

...and that went on through the 70's too. Â Taxes on
imported equipment
were very high throughout most of Europe.

I would not be surprised if imported *parts* were taxed/tariffed/
dutied much less than imported finished
products.

In the back of the RSGB book were ads for outfits that would
sell you complete punched and drilled chassis, panels, brackets, etc.
for various well-known projects like the G2DAF receivers, or would
make up such things to your drawings. Also the Electronique coils,
Jackson Brothers drives and capacitors, etc.

Pete Millett's site. All kinds of stuff. There's also Frank's Tube
Data Pages.

I'll check that one out.

"Frank's" is actually a collection of sites all over the world. Not
only do they have data for tubes you never even heard of, there are
often multiple data sheets from different manufacturers. So you can
compare the GL-833A from GE with the RCA 833A, for example.

� I have a 24 hour clock atop
the amp, one in the computer and one of
those "atomic clock" things
hanging on the shack wall.

I have a classic Numechron Tymeter 24 hour
digital clock for the
shack. It was made from parts of three junkers
back in the 1980s and
runs perfectly today. I might have three dollars
invested in it.

I used to have one of those and would love
to find another. Â They're
getting rather pricey these days.

Hamfests....

 I'm happy to report that I have less
in my atomic clock than you have in your tymeter. Â

My neighbor bought it
new and gave it to me when the outside temperature
transmitter quit
working. Â I found a web site where I can order the
transmitter for ten
bucks postpaid.

That's The Southgate School way of thinking and doing, right there.

P&H's later offering was a low profile, chrome plated
until called the P&H Spitfire--the LA-500M.

YES! I remember now!

There was a smattering of amps with lots of tubes in parallel, aiming
to achieve 50 ohm output impedance.

 It used six 12JB6's at 500w
input and was introduced in the early 60's.

Yup.

Back in the 1960s the ARRL Handbook had a single 3-1000Z
amp that
still looks good today. In inflation-adjusted dollars it probably
costs less now than it did then.

Those bottles are hard to come buy these days. Â
I think it is hard to
beat a pair of 3-500's for legal limit or near legal limit power.
They're relatively inexpensive, can be used with or without the air
system chimneys and sockets and the graphite anode variants
are quite
rugged.

Less than $200 each, too. Adjusted for inflation, they are cheaper
than in the early 1960s when the 3-400Z first appeared.

It is a sad state of affairs when it won't all fit in two rooms.

Not at all, IMHO!

Out here near Cameron, it is possible to buy a
perfectly good house for under 30k.

Boy do I want to move! But one has to go where the jobs are.

...right up until retirement time rolls around. Â Then you're free to
live where you like.

Sort of. Depends on the family situation, both spouse and kids. Also
one's health and ties to the community.

And most of all finances. With people living longer, having kids later
and the greater dependence on 401K/IRA funding rather than
company pensions and Social Security, retiring at 60, 62 or even 65
isn't nearly so doable as it was in times past.

I've been going through realtors listings for the southern part of
this
state, getting an idea of what's available and what prices are
like--this for our eventual sale of this place to the approaching
longwall coal mine. Â I'm not bookmarking any homes which are in
subdivisions.

IMHO the thing to do is to find a good RE attorney and agent, and
explain to them *exactly* what you will and will not accept. If they
don't "get it" right away, find somebody else.

Realtor.com is a wealth of info, too.


The best. Plus to the south are the drumlins and
the lakes. Winters
are tough but the folks there are used to them.

I think you mean that they've learned to put up with them.

Not just that; the folks really are used to them.

Most but "stay putters" have the option. Â You needn't
sell the XYL on an
antenna farm. Â Practice saying things like, "plenty of room for a
garden" and "park-like setting".

Depends on the XYL. Some will not be interested in the garden or
the park-like setting. Others may not want to move away from their
connections to the community, or the kids. Or their career.

Of course if the kids move....

The first table I built, way back in the early 1970s,
was made from
the wood in old shipping pallets. These were *old* pallets,
and the
wood in them was incredible.

I figure they were at least a couple decades old in 1970.

I had access to a radial arm saw and a
planer, and made my own stock.

There's an idea for a guy who needs a sturdy but
inexpensive table for
the shack. Â A couple of local outfits near here have
so many pallets
that they are constantly running ads in the local paper
for "free wooden
pallets".

The key is the planer. I'd take a pallet apart, carefully checking
that all the nails and staples were out, and then run it through
the planer. Took several passes but the result was square, straight
finished stock. The pieces weren't long but they were long enough,
and I knew how to do splices.

I should get that old table out of storage and put it back to work...

73 de Jim, N2EY