[ARC5] 416 KC TWEB Goodness

[Robert Nickels]

Those voice weather transmissions on the LW band were my introduction to 
a fascination with longwave beacon DX-ing and acquisition of "many" 
receivers just for their longwave coverage which was somewhat rare back 
50 years ago.   As a kid I bought a big GE console radio at an auction a 
block from my house (a long haul on my red wagon) that tuned the 
longwave band.   Little did I know at the time it was an E-155, which 
was the top of the line model in 1937, mostly I knew it was LOUD thanks 
to P-P 6L6 audio.   I lived in Nebraska and remember hearing aviation 
weather transmissions from Omaha and elsewhere just using the built-in 
loop antenna.   There's something "ethereal" about hearing those signals 
against the multiple heterodynes of beacon carriers and sidebands and it 
was raw fuel to the imagination of night flights over empty lands guided 
and aided only by a voice on the radio.

Unfortunately a poorly-done repair which caused some haywired power 
resistors to ignite the wood shelf the chassis sat on resulted in a fire 
that destroyed the E-155 chassis (but thankfully not my house!) and 
while I haven't been tempted to haul home any console radios for many 
years, that GE is one that would turn my head!

73, Bob W9RAN