[BC] Silly engineer tricks

[Milton R. Holladay Jr.]

On my first visit to Bobby Lambert's house ~40 years ago, he was showing me
some of the curious things he had acquired over the years, one of which was
a Violet Ray Machine, which his family had back in the 20s or 30s.
It seems that in the 30s when he was a teen, they had a neighbor who often
came home a bit inebriated on Saturday nights and commenced playing his
radio at a disturbingly loud level.. Out came the VRM, and, curiously, the
neighbor's radio suddenly bacame so plagued with static that it got turned
off .................
M
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Murrell" <engineermike at mindspring.com>

> When I was younger (16) I built a very large speaker setup that I used as
a
> sound system for parties.  The cabinets were 5'H X 3.5' wide (Yes that is
> feet LOL)  Anyway there were 21 speakers in each cabinet and it was wired
at
> 4 ohms and could really heat up an amp if you weren't careful. LOL  Anyway
> later in life (18) a guy in the apartment below me would blast music at
all
> hours day and night while he worked out or partied.  I and my roommate got
> tired of asking him to turn it down so we went and pulled the speakers and
> amps out of storage and we carried these monsters in and put them face
down
> on the floor and wired everything up.  Wasn't long he started so we
started
> as well. He went louder so we went louder. He went what had to be wide
open
> and I went to half.  He turned his down and then there was a pounding on
our
> door.  We opened the door and he started yelling that he couldn't hear his
> music to work out and we explained that we had told him before that we
> couldn't hear our TV when he worked out.  He said to bad and I said was
that
> all your system had and he gave me that huh? look so I said is that as
loud
> as your system will go and he said why.  I invited him in to see the
> speakers and amps and explained that I had only hit about 50% and wasn't
> afraid to go as loud as necessary.  I gave him an example at about 30%
they
> were sitting up and facing him at this point and he said ok ok you win.
LOL
> We never had another issue and it wasn't long he moved out.
> Not the same but close and before my radio engineering days.  LOL
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----