[BC] Our Wild TECH Youth - more memories

[John Vodenik]

Not to change the subject, but, Charles, you are going to take good care of 
my buddy Myron when he gets there.  Good guy, knows his stuff.  I even 
thought about a couple years there, then decided that it was WAY too far 
away from the real world.  Oh yea, I heard you on Field Day, forget where 
exactly, but was WAY impressed with my new rig. Kenwood TS-480 and ground 
level dipole.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>back to regular useage of the net<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
John WB9AUJ @ VOA / Delano

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles Lewis" <clewis at sto.ibb.gov>
To: <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:44 AM
Subject: [BC] Our Wild TECH Youth - more memories


>    I wonder if I am the only person who ever used the local oscillator
>    of an "All American Five" tube radio for a "wireless broadcaster?" When 
> I was about 12 years old, I discovered that the local
>    oscillator in the converter stage would radiate a fairly strong
>    signal if I clipped a good length of wire to the plate.  (Yes, I
>    know the screen acted as the oscillator plate, but hooking an
>    antenna to the screen caused problems.)  I also found that a high
>    impedance, high output source like a crystal phono pickup would
>    usually modulate the signal very nicely when hooked to the grid that
>    normally was connected to the loop antenna.  The success of this
>    varied from radio to radio, but it usually worked quite well.  I had
>    an aunt living next-door and another who lived around the corner
>    behind me.  This worked so well that I would play sacred music
>    albums for them to listen to on their radios while they worked
>    around the house, which they enjoyed.
>
>    Usually, the radio's speaker could be pressed into service as a
>    fairly sensitive microphone if desired.  I would disconnect the
>    primary winding of the audio output transformer. Then I would ground
>    one lead and connect the other to the RF input grid of the converter
>    tube.   Using four old plastic table radios, two for receiving and
>    two for transmitting, I once set up a duplex communications link
>    with my cousin who lived a few hundred feet from my home.  I broke
>    up the audio feedback loop by wearing headphones at my end.  We
>    could sit and chat as though we were in the same room.
>    If connected to my 80 meters dipole, fed against a minimal ground as
>    a T and resonated with a loading coil, I could hear this rig for
>    about a half mile on on 1610 kHz on my father's car radio.  That was
>    despite the fact that this loaded antenna hookup caused some
>    reduction in modulation depth.  (The car radio would just hit 1610
>    when tuned to the high end stop.)
>
>    Such fun!  I later did some more daring on air deeds involving a
>    good bit more power with a two stage transmitter of a few watts.  I
>    think the output stage was a 6AQ5.  I would make a quick dash down
>    the road to see how far the signal (on 1610 kHz again) could be
>    heard and then dash back home to turn it off.  I once had a trusted
>    friend who lived a few miles away across town to listen for a brief 
> transmission, and he heard it very well.  That was really exciting
>    for me as a kid.
>    Even later I went into competition with the NCSU campus carrier
>    current station with a home brewed 6AG7 & 6L6 carrier current setup
>    in my room that covered two large dorms that were fed from a single
>    transformer vault.  I built it to look as crummy as possible. The
>    object was to show the campus system's "chief engineer" that an
>    absolute piece of junk could be made to sound much better than the
>    campus system.  (I must have been a real smart alec nerd back then!)
>      I modulated it using a very large reverse connected audio line to
>    voice coil transformer driven by a Heathkit Williamson mono hi-fi
>    amp (KT-88s?).  What happened to that pile of junk after it proved
>    its point at NCSU is another long story.
>
>    Regards,
>    Charles Lewis - S9SS
>
>    Station Manager
>    IBB Sao Tome Transmitting Station (VOA)
>    Sao Tome Island, West Africa
>
>
>    P.S. I'll bet some of you young fellows don't know what an "All
>    American Five" refers too.
>    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Willie wrote -
>
>>>I said "Hi, Sue!" and she just about jumped out of her skin! He laughed 
>>>hysterically, and I explained to her what we were doing via the radio. We 
>>>all had a good laugh. (I wonder how many, if any, other people heard 
>>>those broadcasts!)
>>
>>>That was back in the late 70's, early 80's, so thankfully, the Statute of 
>>>Limitations has long ago expired on that stuff! Heh heh!
>>
>
> That would have been really cool to have a station like that. Our middle 
> school had a Lafayette
> AM transmitter which had been slightly modified.
> Randy Shaffer
> Harrisburg, PA
>
>
>
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