On Mar 21, 1:25Â 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! Â 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.

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. Â 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.

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.

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. Â

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

You're right. Â Finland taxed imported transceivers
and amplifiers at
100% duty--even into the 80's.

But what about parts?

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.

Odd that you mentioned those two. Â 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.

� 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. Â I once repaired a Heathkit Warrior amp for
WA8JOC with
tandem copier transformers which I got for free.

Another example of TSS in action!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

(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. Â 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.

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.

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

(sigh)

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: Â 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.

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

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.

 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. Â 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.

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

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. Â I had trouble with a
southern
West Virginia realtor before we bought this place. Â I'd
specified "high
altitude. Â She showed me a couple of places with a great
view of a hill
perhaps 500 feet higher than the house. Â I might have had to
become an Asia specialist.

bwaahaahaa

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

Realtor.com is a wealth of info, too.

...and homes.com and a number of other sites I'm presently
browsing.

Good.

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.

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

Works for me!

 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 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.

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

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

73 de Jim, N2EY