[Hallicrafters] Sunday HCI 20 Meter Net Live From The Pole Of North!

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

If you have wondered as you wandered through the channels of electronic surf 
on your high resolution video board what the weather would be and whether 
there would be weather worth watching on the Weather Channel, then you 
probably know that it is downright COLD here in the Winter Water Wonderland 
state of Michigan. So if you are wondering whether there will be weather 
conducive to proper propagation or whether said weather will make no 
difference whatsoever as to whether there even is any weather, chill out 
dudes! Correction! Make that THAW out! For it is not the buns you removed 
from the freezer that need to thaw out, it is the ones you sit upon!

Just how cold is it in Michigan? Well my friends of those warm and wonderful 
wonders that still iminate a ghostly glow of grid greatness through the 
darkness of despair because the ski slopes are posting tidal surf bulletins, 
it ain't over till its over! Who said that anyhow? Was it Tug Boat Annie or 
that NY Mets guy Tug McGraw or the Yankees catcher Yogi The Bear? Have faith 
my friends! For the golden glow of joy from those vintage vacuum tubes will 
chase away that suffocating smog laden, acid rain erroded and Ozone deprived 
atmospheric blight with one RF 'wave' from its magical wand of propagation 
ledgerdomain with those sixth dimensional eminations of wizardry.

So please join me on Sunday February 19th for the Hallicrafters Collectors 
International 20 meter Net where we will catch a radio wave and by using the 
famous Halli DDDD1, AKA Dual Diversity Double Dribbler, to bounce the signal 
from state to state, cuntry to country and hopefully tube to output 
transformer to ear. This kind of double dribble is not a foul, so scribble 
W8DBF in your call book and be there!

The pre-Net will commence at 12:45 PM EST, (1745 UTC) with Frogzilla doing a 
real stirring version of that time honored classic "Hickery Dickery Doc, Who 
Hid The Damn Key To The Clock!" Did you ever notice the strange titles, and 
even more peculiar themes, to some of those children's nursery rhymes our 
British buddies penned with their charcoal sticks? Like "Ring Around The 
Rosie", about encircling poor little Rosie after she died from the 'Hard 
(German) Measles". Or that one about the Butcher, the Baker and the 
Candlestick Maker all cruising down the river in a bathtub together? (No 
wonder they called these things Fairy Tales!) Hmmm. Then we have those two 
teenagers, Jack and Jill, supposedly going up that hill to get a bottle of 
pure spring water, Jack ,makes a pass at Jill, she splits his scalp open 
with one smack along side the head with her genuine leather purse which 
happens to contain the eight pound hunk of Iron with a handle on it she uses 
at the laundry mat where she works pressing freshly laundered goats hair 
shirts! And these educational television advocates say that watching the 
overt violence of the Road Runner and Wily Coyote cartunes made the Baby 
Boom generation 'potentially violent'? Like these dudes didn't even have TV 
yet, unless maybe old Stone Hinge was really an alien peep show with a 
Saturday afternoon matinee weekly serial episode of Jack The Ripper!

Alright, let's adjust the RIT and compensate for a little drift here ... The 
Net proper will begin at 1:15 PM EST, (1815 UTC). Hopefully it will have 
stopped snowing here so I can 'look' at, that is feel the sun dial by the 
back step and tell what time it is! The last time I tried to do a time check 
by feeling the thing when it was so cold that the icicles were wearing long 
johns and bun warmers, I got frost bite on my time check fingers and had to 
key the desk mike using my elbow. Try that with a D-104!

The frequency will be 14.293 MHZ usb +/- for key clicks, mike splatter and 
the "Hey! Where did that come from?" racket that sounds like that old 
"Woodpecker". Remember him? What was that anyhow, low frequency military 
horizon RADAR? Anyhow, it was pecking away last Sunday and nearly drove 
K7DDG to drink Coke instead of Pepsi! (It would not have killed you Roger, 
in fact, it might have stopped that shedding problem you have with the hair 
falling off your head and onto the chassis of the National RX you were 
trying to raise from the dead! If you thought a broiled black beauty stunk, 
try some human hair dipped in high voltage and vaporized!) This sounded more 
like a rapid fire machine gun to me than it did that old Cold War over the 
river and through the hood RADAR we used to enjoy from our Vodka sipping 
brothers.

Seriously, what the heck was the old 'Woodpecker' 'really' anyhow? Speaking 
of RADAR, whatever became of that VLF underwater signal system that was 
being installed in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan?

So tune in tomorrow and let's hear who grabbed what at the bigger than a 
chubby African Rhino Orlando, Florida Ham Fest. I heard that it was well 
attended and that quite a few pieces of vintage gear were present too! 
Several told me that they saw hardly any transceivers or transmitters, 
mostly receivers and other accessories. Can anyone affirm this?

However, it was "COLD" that morning, and day too, in sunny Orlando, FL! How 
does the very low forties to possibly high thirties grab your sun screen 
bottle? No, that was not the high, rather the "gates opening bell" 
temperature! A guy could have some fresh frozen fruit picked right off the 
tree by the bright purple porta-john with a steaming mug of hot java! Glad 
to hear it was nicely attended with a variety of radios, instead of what 
looks more like a computer show.

Speaking of radios and computers: Did you know that it was William J. 
Halligan, Sr. who named Radio Shack? That is what he named the radio store 
he opened in south Boston, MA before he moved to Chicago and founded 
Hallicrafters. More on this coming in the two CD set releasing for shipment 
in late April!

Many of you now have the long awaited two audio CD set in your CD players, 
Sony "Walk - Don't Run Man" devices or Ham shack computer systems that have 
a CD drive. They are leaving here as fast as I can con somebody into licking 
these nasty tasting new $.39 stamps for me! Have you gotten a lick in yet? 
Yuck! Remember when somebody got the bright idea back in the seventies to 
flavor the glue so the stamps did not taste bad, but actually pleasant? Yes, 
I am serious, for you who were still wearing diapers back then! (LOL!) I 
remember one of the flavors was "beef stew". And the post office does not 
understand why they keep losing money? That idea went over just about as 
well as the government's twice stupid stunt with the Susan B. Ugly, I mean 
Anthony, dollar coin. They tried it a hundred years earlier with the twenty 
cent piece. Same game, same results. Anyhow, got to get this unstable tube 
replaced or that variable resistor that is supposed to be fixed, fixed, so I 
can stop drifting ...

Since Monday is President's Day, and no mail service, the rest of you who 
have not yet received your two audio CD set will be doubtless shocked to 
find something in your mailbox besides bills, junk mail and the monthly ARRL 
plea for additional funds to fight someone or some thing. What was it last 
month? The frequency allocation for ET to phone home? (chuckle. They do a 
good job, just get sick of the frequent envelope with the open hand logo on 
it!) So depending where your grid square is, watch the mail about Thursday 
to Saturday. I had one get from Flint, Michigan to Puerto Rico in less than 
24 hours!

I hope to hear many of you Sunday! Be there! Be counted! Bring a tale to 
tell, a mil surplus tin cup to pass, some non-computer chips to munch, a 
bevarage to wet your pipes with and a smile to go along with that wonder 
that still goes glow in the dark. hear you then!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF
NCS: Hallicrafters Collectors International
netcontrol at w9wze.org
HCI web site: http://www.w9wze.org

Historic Halligan Radio Project: From the HCI main page, find "New Stuff". 
Locate the link for HHRP and click on it. You can read the contents of the 
DVD and the audio CDS there, plus how to order, what is coming later this 
year and more.