[Boatanchors] We do live in a solid state world

[Rob Atkinson]

I got one for you that is at least as outrageous:  In the August QST,
a guy named Steve Ford, WB8IMY published a one page article on the
need to own and use a dummy load for any ham operating an active
station transmitter.  Forgetting for the moment that it is pretty sad
when there has to be an article in QST telling hams they need a dummy
load, the second to last paragraph starts with this sentence:  "Back
in the days when hams had to manually tune their transmitters before
operating, dummy loads were common fixtures in most stations."

I had this Twilight Zone feeling--hams used to manually tune their
transmitters?.....No one does now?  What planet is Steve Ford on?   Or
am I in some parallel universe?  Dummy loads now uncommon?....I had
this crazy idea that not owning one was a dead giveaway for a lid.
Reeling with the room spinning around me I had to look in an AES
catalog to see if the rigs for sale had click stop channel switches
and if the mics for sale had echo preamps in them.

Rob
K5UJ

On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 3:48 PM,  <leecraner at aol.com> wrote:
> I stopped by All Electronics (the store in LA that advertises in QST)
> looking for a transformer.
>
> I asked the oldest guy there who appeared to be the store manager:
>
> "I need a 6.3 volt filament transformer."
>
> His response, "What's a filament transformer used for?"
>
> A true story.  We do live in a solid state world.
>
> 73
> Lee WB6SSW
>
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