In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

Looking at the Lenover21 vs N2EY debate on the first voice
transmission, maybe we could make some headway by the following:

Mike, this is all old ground that was ground under the anguished
trodding feet of the exacting headmasters months ago. :-)

A century in the past. An oddity insofar as technology is concerned.

Anyone (other than the one in my ancestral land) using alternators
or spark transmitters now?


This is all in the historical record.

Jim accepts it, and Len appears not to.

Len, what is your rationale for that?

Doesn't matter what I write in here. Headmaster and Deacon,
the "right" Rev. Jim, will say I am "flat-out wrong," "incorrect"
and so forth, no matter what the subject. :-)

The only thing I'm sure about is that I was helping to keep HF
communications alive and well across the Pacific a half century
ago...24/7 service...never once having to use morse code then
or in the next half century.

If you guys want only to natter about ancient history and argue
the whichness of the what on technologies long ago kissed bye-
bye by everyone, fine. If Jeopardy ever has questions on ancient
radio days' technologies, I really doubt if any of you PCTA are
going to pull off a Ken Jennings. :-)

By the way, consider what became of ol' Reggie after the 20s.
Not much left of his "technology" in the world of radio. Some
consider him a "genius." Those folks NEED hero worship
objects for some reason. Bottom line was that Reggie just
couldn't hack it in trying to be a part of Big Radio Business not
long after that famous Christmas Eve broadcast.

You might say ol' Reg just fired up, tuned out, and went QRT.

He did invent the first heterodyne receiver (of a most crude sort).
Ed Armstrong came along and invented a great improvement,
the superheterodyne. Tubes proved superior to lil bitty spark
RF generators. Reg just didn't work much with tubes.

You too can make a "heterodyne receiver" much like Fessenden's.
Just get a crystal set and add a little RF generator tuned to close
to the signal frequency. Sort of a "detector and BFO" without the
rest of the receiver. [a direct-conversion receiver is much easier
and more sensitive, but let's not quibble among the ancient radio
re-enactors... :-) ]

I think most hams will know what a "superhet" receiver is. How
many know what a "het" receiver is? :-)