From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500

wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:


If 250,000 miles isn't accurate enough for you, then you must fault
your buddy Len too. Because he stated the distance as a quarter
million miles....

Hiding behind Len now, are we....?

Never thought I'd see the day!

(him too, I'd reckon.....)

TRUE! Maybe it's because tomorrow (the 14th) is Valentine's
Day and he has a crush on me? :-( [horrors!]

Gaaaaaaaaaah! What an image that created!!!

Quick....pass the mental floss!

Ech...I have these moments every time I come in to this
Din of Inequity... :-(


That was quite odd.

I thought it quite SOP (Standard Operating Practice) of him.

It seems to be......it's odd, though.

True, but you have to realize where you are and what he is.


You yourself have 'acknowledged' it many times in past correspondence
with me, over the past three years.

You forgot, huh? understand.

Tsk, one of the first signs of dreaded Alzheimer's...

...or Wizenheimers....

Hee hee...


Actually, Len was only off a few fractions of a percent, by your own -
ahem - calculations. You, however, were definitely in the 100%-plus
error category. Galactically speaking, of course.

I wonder on how many spacecraft this double-degreed
wonderman has worked? "NASA-aly" speaking of
course.

...I can picture him at the controls of Rocketship X-8, one hand on
the controls and the other tuning his trusty recycled BC-221 frequency
meter (reference: his homepage - looks like the set of "Plan 9 From
Outer Space, sans shower curtain and collander helmets) as he heads
off on the first manned mission to Mars.....wherever that
is.....shoulda verified those calcs....!*#$%^....

Mental picture of Cranky Spanky trying to "correct" the
guys at JPL, especially their QC folks. :-)

He once claimed that Industry Canada was wrong......look out, JPL!

I'll pass the warning on to them. JPL is just a whoop and
a holler from my place...been there...:-)


Too approximate. You're either precise or approximate - you can't
have it both ways!

He wants to have his cake and eat anyone who says he can't!

Heh.....that's fer sure! More bark than bite, though......

"The squeaky wheel gets de grease" as the old saying goes.
He gottum two degrease, collitch degrease. From a
university that was the SECOND one to build an electronic
computer...


Stopped watch theory. See above.

Cranky ought to apply for a job at NIST. He's got an Allan
Variance no one would believe!

now THAT'S funny! Best one yet!

Watch. Cranky will search for "Allan Variance," then start
lecturing about it...("he knew it all along")


Note: You can lead a horologist to water but you can't
make him prostitute himself...

True...but if he fell in, would he be a clock soaker?

Heeeeee! Five Stars for that one! Superb. :-)

Chow,
LA

On 14 Feb 2007 22:43:58 -0800, "
wrote:

From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500

wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:


If 250,000 miles isn't accurate enough for you, then you must fault
your buddy Len too. Because he stated the distance as a quarter
million miles....

Hiding behind Len now, are we....?

Never thought I'd see the day!

(him too, I'd reckon.....)

TRUE! Maybe it's because tomorrow (the 14th) is Valentine's
Day and he has a crush on me? :-( [horrors!]

Gaaaaaaaaaah! What an image that created!!!

Quick....pass the mental floss!

Ech...I have these moments every time I come in to this
Din of Inequity... :-(


Quite natural, that.....


That was quite odd.

I thought it quite SOP (Standard Operating Practice) of him.

It seems to be......it's odd, though.

True, but you have to realize where you are and what he is.

And where he is......still hiding (behind you? - hey, move over and
let's see! hee hee!) , unable to face reality.

There are quite a few lines in the preceeding posts that he has chosen
not to comment on......no rebuttal, no contest. Guess he figured that
no one would notice!

I'll be happy to point them out again when he returns with another
load of chaff.....



You yourself have 'acknowledged' it many times in past correspondence
with me, over the past three years.

You forgot, huh? understand.

Tsk, one of the first signs of dreaded Alzheimer's...

...or Wizenheimers....

Hee hee...


Actually, Len was only off a few fractions of a percent, by your own -
ahem - calculations. You, however, were definitely in the 100%-plus
error category. Galactically speaking, of course.

I wonder on how many spacecraft this double-degreed
wonderman has worked? "NASA-aly" speaking of
course.

...I can picture him at the controls of Rocketship X-8, one hand on
the controls and the other tuning his trusty recycled BC-221 frequency
meter (reference: his homepage - looks like the set of "Plan 9 From
Outer Space, sans shower curtain and collander helmets) as he heads
off on the first manned mission to Mars.....wherever that
is.....shoulda verified those calcs....!*#$%^....

Mental picture of Cranky Spanky trying to "correct" the
guys at JPL, especially their QC folks. :-)

He once claimed that Industry Canada was wrong......look out, JPL!

I'll pass the warning on to them. JPL is just a whoop and
a holler from my place...been there...:-)

Do they have a wind tunnel? They could null him out with a bit of
Newton's Third....



Too approximate. You're either precise or approximate - you can't
have it both ways!

He wants to have his cake and eat anyone who says he can't!

Heh.....that's fer sure! More bark than bite, though......

"The squeaky wheel gets de grease" as the old saying goes.
He gottum two degrease, collitch degrease. From a
university that was the SECOND one to build an electronic
computer...

Without his help, fortunately....



Stopped watch theory. See above.

Cranky ought to apply for a job at NIST. He's got an Allan
Variance no one would believe!

now THAT'S funny! Best one yet!

Watch. Cranky will search for "Allan Variance," then start
lecturing about it...("he knew it all along")

Maybe not....he's got enough balls in the air already, figuratively
speaking....



Note: You can lead a horologist to water but you can't
make him prostitute himself...

True...but if he fell in, would he be a clock soaker?

Heeeeee! Five Stars for that one! Superb. :-)

Thanks!


Chow,
LA

73, Leo

On Feb 16, 3:10�pm, Leo wrote:
On 14 Feb 2007 22:43:58 -0800, "
wrote:
From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500
wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:

If 250,000 miles isn't accurate enough for you, then you must fault
your buddy Len too. Because he stated the distance as a quarter
million miles....

Hiding behind Len now, are we....?

Never thought I'd see the day!

(him too, I'd reckon.....)

* TRUE! *Maybe it's because tomorrow (the 14th) is Valentine's
* Day and he has a crush on me? *:-( * *[horrors!]

Gaaaaaaaaaah! *What an image that created!!!

Quick....pass the mental floss! *

* Ech...I have these moments every time I come in to this
* Din of Inequity... *:-(

Quite natural, that..... *

Well, it's cheaper than going to those fake Hollywood horror
movies and I can have my own popcorn.

That was quite odd.

* I thought it quite SOP (Standard Operating Practice) of him.

It seems to be......it's odd, though.

* True, but you have to realize where you are and what he is.

And where he is......still hiding (behind you? - hey, move over and
let's see! *hee hee!) , unable to face reality.

Well, he lost his cool yesterday and gave K4YZ a slap on
the wrist with a wet noodle. He do dat 'bout twice a year
(perhaps to show off his "manliness"?).


There are quite a few lines in the preceeding posts that he has chosen
not to comment on......no rebuttal, no contest. *Guess he figured that
no one would notice!

I'll be happy to point them out again when he returns with another
load of chaff..... *

No matter to me. Hey, the guy has a "judge roy bean" complex
and wants to be "all the law east of the Pecos." Let him.
shrug


* Mental picture of Cranky Spanky trying to "correct" the
* guys at JPL, especially their QC folks. *:-)

He once claimed that Industry Canada was wrong......look out, JPL!

* I'll pass the warning on to them. *JPL is just a whoop and
* a holler from my place...been there...:-)

Do they have a wind tunnel? *They could null him out with a bit of
Newton's Third....

They 'borrow' one from another NASA agency. That was the
one they rigged to test the Mars Rover's "bouncing balloon"
deployment system. That was shown on a recent TV cable
documentary.

While JPL started out with JATO bottle design in WW2,
they drifted off into unmanned spacecraft by the 1960s
and stayed in that field of work, divorced organizationally
from California Institute of Technology (their origin) and
established somewhat close to Pasadena's Rose Bowl.
Note: "Somewhat" is an Angeleno term and "somewhat
close" could be several miles to us down here. :-)

Too approximate. *You're either precise or approximate - you can't
have it both ways!

* He wants to have his cake and eat anyone who says he can't!

Heh.....that's fer sure! *More bark than bite, though......

* "The squeaky wheel gets de grease" as the old saying goes.
* He gottum two degrease, collitch degrease. *From a
* university that was the SECOND one to build an electronic
* computer...

Without his help, fortunately.... *

Yes! :-) But Eckert and Mauchly DID crib ideas from
Atanasof at Iowa State...as was proven in the federal
copyright trial held in the US much after ENIAC had
been sold off.

Stopped watch theory. *See above.

* Cranky ought to apply for a job at NIST. *He's got an Allan
* Variance no one would believe!

now THAT'S funny! *Best one yet!

* Watch. *Cranky will search for "Allan Variance," then start
* lecturing about it...("he knew it all along")

Maybe not....he's got enough balls in the air already, figuratively
speaking....

...or maybe literally speaking! :-)


* Note: *You can lead a horologist to water but you can't
* make him prostitute himself...

True...but if he fell in, would he be a clock soaker?

* Heeeeee! *Five Stars for that one! *Superb. *:-)

Thanks!

You're welcome. A nice variant on the stock packer at a
hosiery maker: A sock tucker.

Ba-dum-bump!

[Heil off to one side, muttering, "You're not funny, Leonard."]


LA

[No electrons were annhilated in the writing of this message...]

On 16 Feb 2007 16:22:45 -0800, "
wrote:

On Feb 16, 3:10?pm, Leo wrote:
On 14 Feb 2007 22:43:58 -0800, "
wrote:
From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500
wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:

If 250,000 miles isn't accurate enough for you, then you must fault
your buddy Len too. Because he stated the distance as a quarter
million miles....

Hiding behind Len now, are we....?

Never thought I'd see the day!

(him too, I'd reckon.....)

TRUE!
aybe it's because tomorrow (the 14th) is Valentine's
Day and he has a crush on me? :-( horrors!]

Gaaaaaaaaaah! hat an image that created!!!

Quick....pass the mental floss!

Ech...I have these moments every time I come in to this
Din of Inequity... :-(

Quite natural, that.....

Well, it's cheaper than going to those fake Hollywood horror
movies and I can have my own popcorn.

That was quite odd.

I thought it quite SOP (Standard Operating Practice) of him.

It seems to be......it's odd, though.

True, but you have to realize where you are and what he is.

And where he is......still hiding (behind you? - hey, move over and
let's see! (ee hee!) , unable to face reality.

Well, he lost his cool yesterday and gave K4YZ a slap on
the wrist with a wet noodle. He do dat 'bout twice a year
(perhaps to show off his "manliness"?).

Mucho macho! Guess we need to add "putz" to the list of personal
accolades that he's acquired here on the battlefield!

That kind of answers your question in an earlier post, though - why
isn't he on the radio doing DX with CW? - or something along those
lines. There's something here that keeps on drawing him in -
something that is missing in his radio hobby. Otherwise, he's be
there! He says that he spends quite a bit of time on the radio - but
who knows? (he's always here on the NG's, furiously pounding the
beejezus out of his keyboard!).

Wonder wassup wi' dat?



There are quite a few lines in the preceeding posts that he has chosen
not to comment on......no rebuttal, no contest. uess he figured that
no one would notice!

I'll be happy to point them out again when he returns with another
load of chaff.....

No matter to me. Hey, the guy has a "judge roy bean" complex
and wants to be "all the law east of the Pecos." Let him.
shrug

That's Mr. Bean to you....



Mental picture of Cranky Spanky trying to "correct" the
guys at JPL, especially their QC folks. :-)

He once claimed that Industry Canada was wrong......look out, JPL!

I'll pass the warning on to them.
PL is just a whoop and
a holler from my place...been there...:-)

Do they have a wind tunnel? hey could null him out with a bit of
Newton's Third....

They 'borrow' one from another NASA agency. That was the
one they rigged to test the Mars Rover's "bouncing balloon"
deployment system. That was shown on a recent TV cable
documentary.

While JPL started out with JATO bottle design in WW2,
they drifted off into unmanned spacecraft by the 1960s
and stayed in that field of work, divorced organizationally
from California Institute of Technology (their origin) and
established somewhat close to Pasadena's Rose Bowl.
Note: "Somewhat" is an Angeleno term and "somewhat
close" could be several miles to us down here. :-)

I didn't realize that JPL's first project was the JATO - thanks for
that! (makes sense!).


Too approximate. ou're either precise or approximate - you can't
have it both ways!

He wants to have his cake and eat anyone who says he can't!

Heh.....that's fer sure!
ore bark than bite, though......

"The squeaky wheel gets de grease" as the old saying goes.
He gottum two degrease, collitch degrease. rom a
university that was the SECOND one to build an electronic
computer...

Without his help, fortunately....

Yes! :-) But Eckert and Mauchly DID crib ideas from
Atanasof at Iowa State...as was proven in the federal
copyright trial held in the US much after ENIAC had
been sold off.

Got a chance to see some of the remaining parts of ENIAC at the
Smithsonian a few years back. Amazing machine - and an incredible
piece of engineering in the vacuum tube era.

After seeing what a BC-221 can do when properly modified, I have no
doubt that Jim could have made a pretty nifty antenna switch out of
it!


Stopped watch theory. ee above.

Cranky ought to apply for a job at NIST. e's got an Allan
Variance no one would believe!

now THAT'S funny!
est one yet!

Watch.
ranky will search for "Allan Variance," then start
lecturing about it...("he knew it all along")

Maybe not....he's got enough balls in the air already, figuratively
speaking....

...or maybe literally speaking! :-)

Maybe!



Note: ou can lead a horologist to water but you can't
make him prostitute himself...

True...but if he fell in, would he be a clock soaker?

Heeeeee! ive Stars for that one! uperb. :-)

Thanks!

You're welcome. A nice variant on the stock packer at a
hosiery maker: A sock tucker.

Ba-dum-bump!

That's pretty witty too!


[Heil off to one side, muttering, "You're not funny, Leonard."]

......speaking of damp horologists.....



LA

[No electrons were annhilated in the writing of this message...]

....just moved around a bit

73, Leo

On Feb 16, 5:27�pm, Leo wrote:
On 16 Feb 2007 16:22:45 -0800, "
wrote:
On Feb 16, 3:10?pm, Leo wrote:
On 14 Feb 2007 22:43:58 -0800, "
wrote:
From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500
wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:

If 250,000 miles isn't accurate enough for you, then you must fault
your buddy Len too. Because he stated the distance as a quarter
million miles....

Hiding behind Len now, are we....?

Never thought I'd see the day!

(him too, I'd reckon.....)

*TRUE!
aybe it's because tomorrow (the 14th) is Valentine's
*Day and he has a crush on me? :-( * horrors!]

Gaaaaaaaaaah! *hat an image that created!!!

Quick....pass the mental floss!

*Ech...I have these moments every time I come in to this
*Din of Inequity... :-(

Quite natural, that.....

* Well, it's cheaper than going to those fake Hollywood horror
* movies and I can have my own popcorn.

That was quite odd.

*I thought it quite SOP (Standard Operating Practice) of him.

It seems to be......it's odd, though.

*True, but you have to realize where you are and what he is.

And where he is......still hiding (behind you? - hey, move over and
let's see! (ee hee!) , unable to face reality.

* Well, he lost his cool yesterday and gave K4YZ a slap on
* the wrist with a wet noodle. *He do dat 'bout twice a year
* (perhaps to show off his "manliness"?).

Mucho macho! *Guess we need to add "putz" to the list of personal
accolades that he's acquired here on the battlefield!

That kind of answers your question in an earlier post, though - why
isn't he on the radio doing DX with CW? - or something along those
lines. *There's something here that keeps on drawing him in -
something that is missing in his radio hobby. *Otherwise, he's be
there! *He says that he spends quite a bit of time on the radio - but
who knows? *(he's always here on the NG's, furiously pounding the
beejezus out of his keyboard!).

Wonder wassup wi' dat?

We will never know, I suppose, he be very close-mouthed
about anything of his off-newsgroup life. So much so that
he is close to the style of K4YZ of the "I've got it [document]
in my wallet and it's nobody's business to see it..." school
of 'referencing' what he says.


There are quite a few lines in the preceeding posts that he has chosen
not to comment on......no rebuttal, no contest. *uess he figured that
no one would notice!

I'll be happy to point them out again when he returns with another
load of chaff.....

* No matter to me. *Hey, the guy has a "judge roy bean" complex
* and wants to be "all the law east of the Pecos." *Let him.
* shrug

That's Mr. Bean to you.... *

Jawohl! click, click


*Mental picture of Cranky Spanky trying to "correct" the
*guys at JPL, especially their QC folks. :-)

He once claimed that Industry Canada was wrong......look out, JPL!

*I'll pass the warning on to them.
PL is just a whoop and
*a holler from my place...been there...:-)

Do they have a wind tunnel? *hey could null him out with a bit of
Newton's Third....

* They 'borrow' one from another NASA agency. *That was the
* one they rigged to test the Mars Rover's "bouncing balloon"
* deployment system. *That was shown on a recent TV cable
* documentary.

* While JPL started out with JATO bottle design in WW2,
* they drifted off into unmanned spacecraft by the 1960s
* and stayed in that field of work, divorced organizationally
* from California Institute of Technology (their origin) and
* established somewhat close to Pasadena's Rose Bowl.
* Note: *"Somewhat" is an Angeleno term and "somewhat
* close" could be several miles to us down here. *:-)

I didn't realize that JPL's first project was the JATO - thanks for
that! (makes sense!).

JPL's most-notable achievement (in my book) is the Deep
Space Net (all located well outside of the Montrose-
Pasadena area) with its stable PLLs and cryogenic
front-ends plus the DSP and software to make all the
received data as "clean" as possible. That and the really
deep advance planning on design of the space probes
and rovers...with knowledge that some of controls and
instrumentation and probe computers might malfunction
therefore lots and lots of safeguards have to be added.

Once in a great while, they do screw up...which gets a
lot of negative publicity. Like their orbital mechanics folks
mistakenly using a metric "wrench" instead of an English
one. A rather expensive screw up but we humans are
kind of noted for that. :-(


*"The squeaky wheel gets de grease" as the old saying goes.
*He gottum two degrease, collitch degrease. *rom a
*university that was the SECOND one to build an electronic
*computer...

Without his help, fortunately....

* Yes! *:-) * But Eckert and Mauchly DID crib ideas from
* Atanasof at Iowa State...as was proven in the federal
* copyright trial held in the US much after ENIAC had
* been sold off.

Got a chance to see some of the remaining parts of ENIAC at the
Smithsonian a few years back. Amazing machine - and an incredible
piece of engineering in the vacuum tube era.

On the University of Pennsylvania self-promotion section
about ENIAC they show an internal project of putting the
entirety of the ENIAC architecture on a single IC! :-)

Humans be too impressed by physical bigness, I think,
certainly when it comes to electronics. They don't,
generally, appreciate the amazing amount of functionality
that can be done with micro-circuits.

Of course, some like to do things just for the fun of it.
A professor up in Oregon state has built an all-RELAY
microcomputer function-alike. Fills a half dozen tall,
shallow glass-front cabinets in one room of his house.
Appears to be built of all-new parts. Rather slow, of
course, but the "clock" can be slowed down to show
human senses how the sequencing and logic paths
behave when instructed to do certain tasks. Outside
of being an instruction aid, it has no practical use
except to entertain him and anyone getting a demo.


After seeing what a BC-221 can do when properly modified, I have no
doubt that Jim could have made a pretty nifty antenna switch out of
it! *

Cranky aside, I personally think that the BC-221 "Frequency
Meter" was over-praised. Yes, it has a VERY stable tunable
oscillator and the accompanying book of numbers allows one
to "read" (heterodyne, really) out to five places, maybe six.
But, it never "metered" anything. Still, it was better than
nothing back in WW2 times.

One had to wait until around 1955 (?) to get a true frequency
meter that read out directly any input directly up to 10 MHz.
HP 524. BUFF...Big Ugly Fat Fellow of an oversized
cabinet. Used to calibrate those things. :-(

Did you know the WW2 SCR-300 Walkie-Talkie (FM, low
VHF range) was VFO-controlled? UK had a near copy but
with a different nomenclature. Used an internal crystal
oscillator to spot-check dial calibrations, allow mechanical
corrections of the pointer on the dial. The post-war PRC-8
family did the same sort of thing, "channels" were VFO-ed
and spot-checked with an internal crystal oscillator. No
BC-221 needed to set frequencies with those, no box of
crystals needed to set up a new network. Incredible
engineering design for the terrible operating temperature
ranges encountered..


* [Heil off to one side, muttering, "You're not funny, Leonard."]

.....speaking of damp horologists..... * *

"We Vulcans have a saying, 'Only Nixon can go to China'."

[line from one of the Star Trek movies...:-) has absolutely
NO relevance to anything we were talking about, but then
neither have the morsemen in here busy trying to
assasinate characters]


* [No electrons were annhilated in the writing of this message...]

...just moved around a bit

"Green" newsgrouping. :-)

LA

On 16 Feb 2007 20:53:46 -0800, "
wrote:

On Feb 16, 5:27?pm, Leo wrote:
On 16 Feb 2007 16:22:45 -0800, "
wrote:
On Feb 16, 3:10?pm, Leo wrote:
On 14 Feb 2007 22:43:58 -0800, "
wrote:
From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500
wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:
snip

After seeing what a BC-221 can do when properly modified, I have no
doubt that Jim could have made a pretty nifty antenna switch out of
it!

Cranky aside,

Good place for him!

...I personally think that the BC-221 "Frequency
Meter" was over-praised. Yes, it has a VERY stable tunable
oscillator and the accompanying book of numbers allows one
to "read" (heterodyne, really) out to five places, maybe six.
But, it never "metered" anything. Still, it was better than
nothing back in WW2 times.

Interesting point - I've wondered myself why it was called a
'frequency meter' when it did not actually meter anything.....why not
a 'frequency standard', or a 'frequency calibrator'?

snip

LA

73, Leo

On Feb 17, 5:57�am, Leo wrote:
On 16 Feb 2007 20:53:46 -0800, "
wrote:
On Feb 16, 5:27?pm, Leo wrote:
On 16 Feb 2007 16:22:45 -0800, "
wrote:
On Feb 16, 3:10?pm, Leo wrote:
On 14 Feb 2007 22:43:58 -0800, "
wrote:
From: Leo on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:50:23 -0500
wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:15?pm, Leo wrote:
On 13 Feb 2007 16:43:31 -0800, wrote:
On Feb 13, 5:13?pm, Leo wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:12:59 -0500, Leo wrote:
On 8 Feb 2007 18:01:57 -0800, wrote:
snip
After seeing what a BC-221 can do when properly modified, I have no
doubt that Jim could have made a pretty nifty antenna switch out of
it!

* Cranky aside,

Good place for him! *

* ...I personally think that the BC-221 "Frequency
* Meter" was over-praised. *Yes, it has a VERY stable tunable
* oscillator and the accompanying book of numbers allows one
* to "read" (heterodyne, really) out to five places, maybe six.
* But, it never "metered" anything. *Still, it was better than
* nothing back in WW2 times.

Interesting point - I've wondered myself why it was called a
'frequency meter' when it did not actually meter anything.....why not
a *'frequency standard', or a 'frequency calibrator'?

Well, considering when it was designed (probably some time
around 1940 or thereabouts), the name sounded good. There
just wasn't any sort of "meter" device around except for an
audio-range unit or so and it didn't have all that great and
accuracy. The "frequency standards" of that time all involved
stabilized crystal oscillators. Decimal or binary indicators
on front panels just weren't there, no Dekatrons, no Nixies,
no "thermometer" displays using neon bulbs. The flip-flop
was known but there wasn't much call for support circuitry
to drive it (Schmitt triggers, sharp rise-time drivers, etc.).
It was difficult to get an oscilloscope to reach 1 MHz
bandwidth through amplification; had to be direct to the
deflection plates!

I'd like to find out the setup used to make the Tables in
the little book that came with BC-221s. Obviously some
form of automation involved from the type face and format
in the book (typed in on printed blank pages). The
"electric typewriters" were in existance and were no
doubt used, plus servo motor systems to drive the tuning
dial, but how did they coordinate the precise heterodynes
to dial position and then type it on the book form pages?
Must have been some clever engineering innovation to do
that on a production basis back in the 1940s.

The early General Radio "Frequency Standards" (up to
around 1960) were just very big work-alikes to the little
BC-221 with more bells and whistles. A circa-1950
version was at Army station ADA's Receiver site and
always checking Transmitter site carrier frequencies
(reported on the TTY order-wire). A circa-1955 version
was in the Ramo-Wooldridge Calibration Lab where I
got a tiny bit of overtime to check the time-position of
one-second ticks against WWV HF ticks on week-ends.
Had to do that due to varying propagation delays from
Maryland (? old WWV site) to southern California. Had
a big set of marine wet cells to act as an uninterruptible
power supply...BIG ones in a separate room. The stable
1 MHz output of that GR standard went to a secondary
standard HP-524 Frequency Counter that was used for
routine frequency checks of other RF gear. Much,
much easier to measure frequencies on a routine basis
that way!

An acquaintence down here made a little PIC micro
version frequency counter in a tiny wood box that used
a 9 V dry cell for a power supply...with a Hitachi LCD
panel display, back-lit with an LED. I checked the
TCXO against the 60 KHz WWVB carrier for him. Now,
thinking about that, the progress in just a half century
of my experience in electronics is nothing short of
phenomenal. Back in 1950 the electronic counter was
a NEW thing and couldn't reach more than about 1 MHz.
Transistors were just a curiosity and not fully into any
production...ICs hadn't been born and the Microprocessor
was a science-fiction dream. There weren't any LCD
display panels and no LEDs to back-light them then.
"Digital" back then involved counting on fingers. Powering
a "complex" counter and display by a small 9 VDC
battery would have sent the claimant out of the room
amidst the sound of raucous laughter...claims of
operation up beyond 30 MHz would have added to the
hooting and hollering.

And today some olde-tyme hammes insist that manual
morse code is "essential" to radio communications!
I shake my head in wonderment at these ancient radio
dinosours of pursed, disapproving lips.