RadioBanter - View Single Post

Dave Heil[_2_] · March 24th 08, 05:41 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
On Mar 21, 1:25� am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 20, 1:54� am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 19, 6:10� pm, Dave Heil wrote:

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...
Funny you should mention it! � I've got most of the work done
on a memoir
of the travels as they relate to amateur radio
with just enough of the
non-radio events thrown in for flavor.

This is truly excellent.

I dunno if any excellence is involved, but the material is factual.

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

Naw, I plan to finance my next rig with the proceeds.
� There'll be DVD's
as well. � I'm still in the process of importing the videotaped
material,
editing and glitzing it up.

Perhaps a sample could be on the web, such as how Amazon lets you see
a small part of a book.

There's only a couple of short video clips from Guinea-Bissau, much
more from Sierra Leone and Botswana (including a colorful cast of
characters) and quite a bit of Finland (shot in the early and mid-90's
and in 2003). The DVD's will be fleshed out with photos and audio clips.
Sample clips may well be made available.

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.
Yep. The rotating wheel was wild.

It was theoretically correct, but impractical for "high definition" TV
in real time.

But there is was--moving pictures sent over the air a long time before
most folks thought it would be done.

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.
I think that's probably due to the relatively small number of radio
amateurs in the British Isles. �

But the market wasn't just the UK. I suspect the Commonwealth
countries, both current and former, would be a market. Aussies,
Zedders, etc.

You're right. Add South Africa to the "etc." Even if we added those
amateur populations, the RSGB Handbook wasn't widely distributed but it
was known to be a very good one. Its sister publications--and I'm
specifically including the series of "Technical Topics" books by Pat
Hawker--were also very good.

As I recall, the RSGB handbook
was nearly thirty dollars in the 70's.

The one I have is earlier, and I think it worked out to about $13-15
or so - back when an ARRL Handbook was $4. Plus you probably
had to pay postage, duty, etc.

I bought mine along with one of the "Technical Topics" books at RSGB HQ
in 1978 when the place was still located on Doughty street "just down
the street from Mister Dickens' house". Those books and a one year
membership in the RSGB equaled a bunch of 1978 dollars.

Having bought "real" engineering books, I can say that both the ARRL
and RSGB Handbooks were and are true bargains.

I'd have to agree. The current ARRL Handbooks have much more material
than the older ones. The ARRL Antenna Handbook is another bargain.

The ARRL Handbook back then was mostly the work of W1DX,
aided by the staff. The book evolved over time - the whole book
was not rewritten every year.

Agreed. There were often just minor changes from one year to the next.
I still have a number of the early 1930's Handbooks on the shelf here.

The RSGB Handbook had many authors, and underwent serious
expansion and revision between editions. Since there was not
a set schedule for when the next edition would come out, the
changes were much greater.

It was a similar story with the excellent "RADIO Handbook" edited by
Bill Orr. It was updated only periodically and not on any particular
schedule. I'm not certain how many contributed to the effort though.

Friend of mine is trying to collect all the post-WW2 Handbooks,
and has most of them. He has all the post-WW1 QSTs, in part because an
OT gave him a lifetime collection, knowing he would appreciate and
care for them.

I'm not bothering will all of 'em so I have selected editions from the
thirties through present day. I haven't bought one since 2003. The
League currently has the 2007 Handbook on sale at a bargain price so I
may have to grab one of those.

W4HAV, then one of the corporate VP's at Cincinnati Milactron, gave me a
run of 1934-1958 QST. That was the start of my collection. I bought
the 1958-1963 and the 1920-1933 runs, a year at a time from various
hamfests, typically in one-year bundles. I have only one issue from
1919 and that cost quite a bit. I ended up purchasing the QST CD's
covering the early period.

The Southgate Library keeps expanding, too. What you see in the shack
picture is but a small part of it. Then there's the stuff I have
in electronic format...

The expanding library is one of my worries about a move. There's mostly
complete run of Popular Electronics through the early 1970's, a mostly
complete run of Electronics Illustrated from the same period, a mostly
complete run of 73, a mostly complete run of Ham Radio and Ham Radio
Horizons and a complete run of CQ from its beginning in 1946. It took a
number of years to find some of those rare 1946 issues. There's
twenty-some feet in technical books here in the shack with the overflow
out in the heated barn.

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.

I agree. � It was full of information set forth in an
easy to follow style.

Both theory and practice, code and voice, HF and VHF.
Half the price of a Handbook.

I don't recall when it was dropped from the ARRL technical book series.
Do you?

I would not be surprised if imported *parts* were taxed/tariffed/
dutied much less than imported finished
products.
You're right. � Finland taxed imported transceivers
and amplifiers at
100% duty--even into the 80's.

But what about parts?

They weren't taxed at anywhere near that. That same thing extended (and
may still extend) to imported automobiles. My '95 Dodge Neon cost me
around $12,000. It's European equivalent, the Chrysler Neon, sold in
Finland for $44,000. A Lada (Russian Fiat) cost about $20,000.

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.
As far as I know, Jackson Bros. is still in the business of making
vernier reduction drives--top notch stuff.

Yes, but not as top-notch as BC-221, LM or ARC-5 drive/capacitor
combinations.

Then again, the military could afford to pay. It would be interesting
if Ivor or another G-land newsgroup reader could tell us if Jackson
Bros. made high quality drives for the British military.

Odd that you mentioned those two. � The only 833A I've
got sitting around is an Amperex.

I used to have an RCA 833A, but it got sold. I have some
experience with them, but not as much as with the more-common
"ham" amplifier tubes.

WNOP was a 1 KW daytime only jazz station in Newport, Kentucky from the
fifties until just about a decade back. Their studio, for the last
twenty or so years of the station's existence, consisted of three large,
connected vertical steel cylinders. The whole shebang was painted
bright orange and bobbed up and down on the Kentucky side of the Ohio
River across from Cincinnati. The transmitters and three-tower critical
antenna array were on top of a hill in the Delhi neighborhood of Cincy.
Until the early 80's, WNOP's transmitter was a 1948 Raytheon running a
pair of 833A's at a nice dull red glow.

� I'm happy to report that I have less
in my atomic clock than you have in your tymeter. �
My neighbor bought it
new and gave it to me when the outside temperature
transmitter quit
working. � 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.

I'm used to it. � I once repaired a Heathkit Warrior amp for
WA8JOC with
tandem copier transformers which I got for free.

Another example of TSS in action!

The guy who owned it didn't have much money to spend on a repair.
Transformers capable of handling a KW were not found lying about. His
amp ran for many years with those copier transformers and, from the
outside, his amp didn't look any different from any other Heath Warrior.

Yep, relatively low plate voltage and high current jobs. �
One fellow did
a homebrew amp design which appeared in CQ in the 60's,
which used
sixteen horizontal output tubes. �

The most I ever saw was a picture in QST of a 75 meter monoband amp
with something like thirty-six 1625s in parallel. Output impedance was
75 ohms; fed the antenna through a lowpass filter. Of course the
output C was so enormous it couldn't go any higher, and IIRC there was
quite a pile of bias pots.

That's a lot of bottles and 1625's were really cheap as surplus in those
days. It wasn't a very practical design, but it worked.

Now if a guy wants some
oomph for
cheaper, 811A's are a pretty good bargain as are 572B's.
� With four
811A's making 800 or so watts output, that's an inexpensive way to get
9db more than the typical 100w rig and it is down only about
2.5db from
the legal limit.

Yep. But with four 811As you often need to neutralize even in GG, and
depending on where you get your bottles a pair of 572Bs may be the
better deal.

Well, not just "may be" but, IMO would be the better deal. An 811A is
good for 65 watss plate dissipation for 260 total watts of dissipation
for four. Four of the 572's are capable of dissipating 640 watts for
just a little more money.

The solid-state option has been around for decades, but the high cost
stops a lot of hams.

The MFJ AL-600 costs roughly what the company's AL-572 runs. The AL-572
will run 1000 watts CW output. The solid state AL-600 runs 500w CW.

In April 1976, a legal-limit solid-state all-band HF linear amp was
the cover article in QST. If someone had told me then that in 2008
there would be more models of tube-type linear amps being made for
hams than in 1976, and that hams would be buying and using them, I'd
have not believed it.

I'd have had no trouble in believing it. :-)

(3-500Z tubes)

Less than $200 each, too. Adjusted for inflation,
they are cheaper
than in the early 1960s when the 3-400Z first appeared.
That's what I mean. � Price 3CX800's, 8877's or 3CX1200's and
you'll get
an idea of what a bargain the 3-500's are.

Those ceramic-metal tubes were never inexpensive in the first
place.

Well, the 8874's weren't terribly expensive when introduced. In fact,
neither were tubes like the 3CX800, but they price increases have been
out of line with other tubes. Ten-Tecs latest high power amp, the Titan
III, uses a pair of the Russian 4CX800 tetrodes. Those are quite
reasonably priced compared to the 3CX800 triodes.

Unlike almost all commercial/military applications, in ham radio,
when an expensive final tube fails, it's up to the owner/operator
to pay for the replacement.

Right. Destroying one or more high power vacuum tubes while in the
employ of a company or government with deep pockets isn't the same as
doing so when you are the guy responsible such expenses.

Well, there's likely a move in my future and something's going to have t
o go.

(sigh)

I'm fifty-nine and it is likely time to decide which material things I
hold dear enough to hang onto for the long run. It is probably about
time to simplify my life. I can make some folks smile by giving them
some things. I can sell some of the items and generate a little income
instead of paying someone to haul them to a new location.

Depends on the family situation, both spouse and kids. Also
one's health and ties to the community.
Pass it along to the kids now: � There is an applied implication that
that they travel to visit the parents.

That's good advice in theory but in practice it often works out to
be more complicated. Traveling with little kids is both expensive
and difficult, and in families with two careers just getting everyone
off work and out of school at the same time can be a challenge.
(Vacation and sick days are often used up when the kids are
sick, and there's never spare cash laying around. So it's often
more practical for Grandma/Grandpa to travel.

My grandparents always sat at home and we did the traveling even when we
lived in Florida in the pre-Interstate Highway days.

Still, all that means is you draw distance circles around where the
kids are. Doesn't mean you have to live down the street.

If the kids have jobs which cause them to relocate every few years, it
might be better to choose a place you like. We're a much more mobile
society than ever. There are exceptions. My neighbor was born in his
parents house across the road. That's all the farther he ever got from
home. Now his son has the old family farm and a younger son has built a
home 1/4 mile down the road. This approaching coal mine means a
windfall for me. It is a family tragedy for the neighbor and his family.

And most of all finances. With people living longer, having kids lat
er
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.
Right now probably isn't a good time to hang it up so early.

All depends on the situation.

If you have a pile of money, any time is a good time. A lot of folks
don't have a pile of money or their investments have taken a beating or
their home has lost value or they are unable to sell it.

� Then
again, many people seem to believe that they're going
to need the same
amount of money as they now earn in their retirement.
� The house is apt
to be paid off, they do less driving. � They don't have the kids to
support. Many of them don't need as large a house.

Agreed, and there are tax advantages, such as getting double
exemptions after 65, the capital-gains exclusion for selling the
big house, the lack of tax on SS after age 70, etc.

People flock to states with no income tax or with no tax on pensions or
government pensions. A lot of those states are in the warm, sunny
southland.

OTOH things like health care costs, rising energy prices, etc.,
work the other way.

Exactly.

What I've done in the past is to write it up in the offer, "subject to
there being no restrictions on the installation of an amateur radio
tower/s."

After a couple of false starts with a Cincinnati realtor back in the
70's, I got the agent working with us up to speed on what we
wanted in
addition to style, size of yard, number of bed and bathrooms:
no antenna
restrictions and located on high ground. � I had trouble with a
southern
West Virginia realtor before we bought this place. � I'd
specified "high
altitude. � She showed me a couple of places with a great
view of a hill
perhaps 500 feet higher than the house. � I might have had to
become an Asia specialist.

bwaahaahaa

It's gospel. My mentor lived along the New River at Hinton, West
Virginia. Hinton sits at 1200-some feet above sea level, but is
surrounded by 3000 foot or better mountains. He never installed a beam
antenna. There'd have been little point. Most of his DX was worked on
40m, where the wave angle of arriving radio signals was often higher
than on upper bands.

But a good example of the problem, and the need to get the
RE attorney and realtor to understand *exactly* what you
will accept.

Look at the property. Ask questions. Get confirmation in writing.
Take along a portable receiver. No place is a good amateur radio
location if there's some noise source blotting out big pieces of the
radio spectrum.

You have the most important resource, too: Flexibility. You don't have
to move this month, or this summer, or land in a specific school
district or some such.

That's right, but I'm not looking forward to dismantling antennas and
towers and putting something similar up in a new location. I shudder
when I think about holes to be dug, concrete to be poured, etc.

I'm thankful that my XYL and I agree that neither of us wants to be
hemmed in by neighbors. � She likes vegetable and flower
gardening.
I like multiple towers.

Works for me!

Best is that she doesn't object to the aluminum and copper overcast. I
have friends whose spouses have apparent veto power over towers and
antennas.

� I'm thinking 3 or 5 or 8 acres. *grin*

Think big, think flexible. Could you subdivide some acres for other
homes? Lease for farming?

One of my friends rented some of his land to a local farmer. After a
few years, it became more trouble than it was worth. I don't want to
spend large chunks of my life just mowing grass. Some land can be
allowed to grow up, leaving cleared areas for towers. Some can be
planted in widely spaced clumps of trees. I think my pal intends for
some of that land to be used for beverage antennas for 160 and 80m. He
has a farm tractor and will just brush hog the land a couple of times
yearly.

One local fellow (retired from the Postal Service) bought up better than
1,000 acres of hilly land out the ridge from me. He became a
millionaire after his retirement in just one short day. How? He sold a
million dollars worth of timber to the Amish.

One thing that was/is popular in WNY is to have a woodlot. Usually a
piece of land that is heavily wooded, had no utilities and won't pass
the perc test.

The owner cuts a couple of cords of wood every year, sells some, uses
the rest for heat. The profit on the wood sold pays the RE taxes. Only
the crowded and not-so-good trees are taken; the really good ones are
left to grow and given room.

See above.

Of course you have to love to cut, split and stack wood, but a lot of
us do.

....and a lot of us don't. I'll happily pay someone to cut, split and
stack wood. I did some of it when I was younger.

"Wood warms you twice - once when you cut it, again when you burn it"

I don't think many folks have suffered a fatal heart attack while
burning it, heh.

Dave K8MN