[ARC5] Hacks and TVI

[David Stinson]

OK- my last word on this (for this day at least)...

I'm not a "car person," car persons.
But think of that wonderful 1930-mumble 
Packar-For-Chev-mobile and that 
Flat-V-Hemi-6-8-Double-Barrel-Boom engine 
that everyone wants. Got that picture? OK...

To play off the old/surplus automotive analogy:

A whole bunch of those cars with a whole bunch
of those engines get released to the general motoring public.

A few grease-covered guys who have taken the time 
to understand cars and engines get them, tinker them,
tweek them and get them running more-or-less 
as intended. The engines run within specs and they 
run clean, with no nasty oil smoke or "rich fuel" stink (TVI).
These guys have cool fun with a cool car for a long time
(most of us in this group are these guys).

A whole lot more "wannabes" get the cars and engines.
Most of them said they were going to make jumped-up 
"hot rod Lincolns" out of them.
A very few of them actually accomplish it.
Some put the cars away until they could "get around to it"
( and thank Goodness they did ).
But the most by far knew nothing of how cars operate 
or how to work on them, nor would they take any time to learn.
They yanked parts here and welded stuff there.
They whacked and hacked, lopped and chopped.
They couldn't name half the stuff they discarded 
nor tell you the "why" of half what they added.

These "wannabes" wrote articles and told their buddies about
their "expert modifications." They poured 90-weight oil
into the crank case of that poor, doomed engine and
forget to fill the radiator (if they hadn't removed it).
They took the flywheel off, then put the wrong one on, backwards. 
Then they tried to drive that Franken-Car down the road.
It spits, spews, chokes and smokes 
until it throws a rod and the wheels fall off.

The wannabes all gathered together and agreed: 
The car was smoke-bellowing JUNK to start with! 
They tore them all to pieces "as a source of parts," 
piled the parts out in a field for the rats to live in 
and told the next three generations
about that sorry, smoke-spewwing (TVI) junk-mobile.

There is nothing laudable, innovative or instructive in blind, 
willfully-ignorant flinging-about that results 
in pointless destruction and waste.
That is exactly how it went with surplus radio gear.
I'm very grateful for the first group, and 
bless the procrastination that kept some gear in one piece 
long enough for me to find it.
I'll even acknowledge that the demand created by the 
second group resulted- accidently- in some preservations.
But the second group should not be congratulated 
as "innovators" or any such thing. 
They were just vandals. 

73 Dave AB5S