[ARC5] Merry Christmas

Fri Dec 27 15:51:20 EST 2013

  Mike, you raise a serious point about safety vs knowledge.  You write
  about repairing a "death trap" and surviving.

 I did the stupidest things you can imagine when I was a kid.  (as sure
 as hell I frightened myself doing them.)
  e.g. I built a super-regen 2 meter receiver, but rather than winding a
  separate coil for the aerial (and thereby isolating the B+ from the
  aerial) I "tapped"
  the aerial directly onto the coil.  (The impedance match from
  "tapping" is as good as a separate winding, is it not?)
  So I had B+ on the aerial.  Clever, he?  The supply was came from a
  325-0-325 transformer "rescued" from an old B.C. set. 
  I had built a death trap.  One day  I grabbed the chassis AND the
  aerial.
  I ended up on the other side of the room - literally.
  When I stopped shaking (it took some time) I understood how stupid I
  had been.
  But I don't regret doing that - because I learned to distrust myself
  and think more clearly about what I was doing.

  I think we have all had one experience like mine, and there is value
  from being "durned stoopid".

  73 de Les Smith
  vk2bcu at operamail.com

On Sat, Dec 28, 2013, at 3:36, Mike Everette wrote:
> My hallmark Christmas was when I was ten years old and received a Remco
> crystal radio kit, the one with the single headphone and slide tuner.  My
> dad and I built it that afternoon.  It would only get one station, but
> worked okay, sounded fine.  I listened to that little radio every night
> for a long, long time until I got my first pile of radio junque, which
> included a GE AM-FM acey-deucey 7-tube radio that worked, sort of, when I
> plugged it in but hummed like a squadron of B-17s.  Dad told me the
> filter cap was shot; he showed me where it was and told me how to wire in
> a new one, bought with lawn mowing money.  Somehow I managed to repair
> that deathtrap without 'lectra-shootin' myself.  
> 
> My next hallmark Christmas was 2 years after the remco, when I received a
> subscription to the American Basic Science Club kit series... eight kits
> that took you, a month at a time, through basic electrcity, simple
> electronics, optics, astronomy, and experiments with nuclear material (a
> dot of radium as a 'source").  This was a miraculous gift and I learned
> far more from it than I ever would have in school science classes; but it
> would NEVER be allowed today because of politically correct,
> safety-obsessed, lawyer-driven idiocy in the education system  (Omigawd,
> it has a HOT SOLDERiNG IRON in it!  And HIGH VOLTAGE!  and... and...
> RADIUM!!!! EEEEEEEEK!)... in fact I saw on a web site that the ABSC was
> branded one of the top ten "MOST DANGEROUS TOYS" of all time!!!  Well, it
> didn't kill me.  And I seriously doubt that it ever killed or injured
> anyone else!
> 
> Oh yes, I had an Erector Set too; got that a couple of Christmases before
> the Remco.  I still have hardware from it in my junque box.  Just like an
> ARC-5, you can't do a proper home brew project without it... Command Set
> parts and Erector Set bolts-n-nuts guarantee success.  And once in a
> while I even use my good old ABSC soldering iron just for good measure.
> 
> 73
> 
> Mike
> WA4DLF
> 
> 
> 
> On Friday, December 27, 2013 10:56 AM, D. Platt <jeepp at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>  
> My two hallmark Christmases were, first in 1957, when I got a Gilbert 
> (erector set folks) "Erectronic Set".  This is arguably my entree into 
> radio and electronics.    A neighbor and engineer at Johns Hopkins APL 
> took notice and became my Elmer.  During his family's holiday visit, he 
> took the "BC band code transmitter" configuration and put the headphone 
> in the cathode of the 1T4 tube and made an AM transmitter out of it. The 
> second, in 1960, when I got an E F Johnson Challenger transmitter kit.  
> That kicked the ball down the field a long way for me.  BTW, when my 
> Elmer inspected my kit-building expertise (sic), we disassembled it and 
> he had me build it all over again, under his supervision and with a 
> handful or more of replacement parts from him.
> 
> Jeep - K3HVG
> 
> 
> On 12/26/2013 11:13 AM, Fuqua, Bill L wrote:
> >     My most memorable Christmas was when I was only about 9 years old and got a S-38E under the tree.
> > I knew it was coming and could not wait. Got everyone up in the early morning so I could open the package
> > and went running off to my room to set it up. It was my first shortwave receiver.
> >     I never had a train or BB gun ("you'll put your eye out kid"). My father was a mechanic and when I was
> > very young he had his own shop and put up a tall tower so he could have 2-way communication to his wreckers.
> > That and seeing him fix our first TV set got me interested in radio.
> > 73
> > Bill wa4lav
> >  
> > ________________________________________
> > From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net [arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] on behalf of Jay Coward [jcoward5452 at aol.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:32 AM
> > To: k2gkk at hotmail.com; joeconnor53 at yahoo.com; mark.k3msb at gmail.com; arc5 at mailman.qth.net
> > Subject: Re: [ARC5] Merry Christmas
> >
> > It was 1956 when I got my American Flyer set, a 4-6-2  loco with tender, a coal carrier, flat car. Gulf tanker and caboose. Two switches and a de-coupler. Still have it and I got a bottle of "smoke" fluid too. Still love that smell as much as old mil radio smell!
> > Jay
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: D C _Mac_ Macdonald <k2gkk at hotmail.com>
> > To: Joe Connor <joeconnor53 at yahoo.com>; K3MSB Mark Bell <mark.k3msb at gmail.com>; ARC-5 Mail List <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> > Sent: Wed, Dec 25, 2013 5:54 pm
> > Subject: Re: [ARC5] Merry Christmas
> >
> >
> > It was Christmas '49 or '50 at Grandma and Grandpa house when I came downstairs
> > and Dad had set up the new Lionel Santa Fe double A unit freight train set under
> > the tree.  Had the coal hopper car, searchlight car, gondola car, operating box
> > car and caboose and the KW transformer.  My best Christmas ever!  Still have it!
> >
> >
> > * * * * * * * * * * *
> > * 73 - Mac, K2GKK/5 *
> > * (Since 30 Nov 53) *
> > * Oklahoma City, OK *
> > * USAF, Ret (61-81) *
> > * * * * * * * * * * *
> >
> >
> >> Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 12:54:35 -0800
> >> From: joeconnor53 at yahoo.com
> >> To: mark.k3msb at gmail.com; arc5 at mailman.qth.net
> >> Subject: Re: [ARC5] Merry Christmas
> >>
> >> Very nice, Mark. Was there anything ever better than waking up on Christmas
> > morning and finding a Lionel Santa Fe diesel engine under the tree?
> >>                                                     Joe Connor
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wednesday, December 25, 2013 2:50 PM, Mark K3MSB <mark.k3msb at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >> I shot this early this morning before anyone got up.
> >>> http://www.k3msb.com/temp/train1.mp4
> >>>
> >>> It just wouldn't be Christmas without the old Lionel around the tree!
> >>>
> >>> God Bless & Merry Christmas to all of you!
> >>>
> >>> 73 Mark K3MSB
> >
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