[KCDXC] The Quest for WOLF - this month's story

[Bob Brown - WØNQX]

From: TC Dailey <daileyservices at qwest dot net>
The Quest for WOLF - this month's story


Okay, I'm an older guy.. I admit it.  Hey, just check out the white
hair and you really don't need to go much further, do ya?  Well, that
understood, I'll take you back to those halcyon daze [sic] of youth
and yesteryear when kids were STILL mystified by radio... well, maybe
not "mystified", but pretty astounded anyway.  I knew it had something
to do with those really HOT tubes in the back of our 1949 RCA "Golden
Throat Tone" radio in the kitchen, and similar ones were in my
"farmer" Grandpa's 1941 Wards Airline, and also in my "city" Grandpa's
1939 Stromberg-Carlson, too.  You could smell the heat - it was kinda
neat as long as you didn't touch em', 'cause they'd burn the heck out
of your fingers - your nose too, if you got too close (pretty easy for
me  HI HI).  Anyway, when I went to Grandpa Dailey's (city) place in
Topeka, I discovered that one of the switches changed the "band", and
I began to hear some really wierd languages and funny music too.
There was this odd station near the big "5", and another one near "10"
that sounded like somebody's wierd clock, and the time was NEVER
right, except for the MINUTE!  (by the way - I still have all but the
RCA!)

So... I'm 8 years old, and my Dad had been priming me about being a
Cub Scout.  All the other boys in the neighborhood seemed to own those
cool blue uniform shirts with patches and numbers on the sleeves, and
patches on the front, too.  Growing up with a family of WW-II
veterans, a couple of whom were still in the Navy off the coast of
Korea was, well... inspiration enough, and I wanted a uniform TOO!
(the country was different then).

The "Pack" met at GRACELAND SCHOOL in Kansas City, MO.  It's still
there, but has been closed for a while, now.  It was Pack 28, and
after being "presented" to the other kids, some of whom I already
knew, I swore to obey lots of people, and after a time, became a
BOBCAT in Den 1.  The next step on the ladder to SUPERIORITY was the
rank of WOLF.  Yeah, we were the new kids, 'cause many of them had
already done their BEAR and LION badges, and even some who'd moved on
to WEBELOS - almost REAL Boy Scouts.  Dad and Mom took me down to
Macy's or The Palace I think... whichever one was the official Boy
Scout dealer, and there Dad paid for and presented me with my very own
WOLF book, an "official" blue shirt, a cap, and a yellow kerchief -
Wow!  I was on my way...

So how come I brought Cub Scouts into this story?  About a month ago,
I was perusing an antique store (when you get old enough, those
"antique" toys are what YOU played with, as a kid!), when one of the
items of my Life's Quest was beheld in front of my eyes... a 1948
edition "WOLF" book.  Not the fancy-schmanzy later versions, this one
was tailored "for the times", with simple text, simple drawings of
stuff ANY 8 year-old boy could make (who had money for toys?), and
great tasks for pleasing Mom & Dad with early attempts at being
responsible (boy, that was a stretch for me).  Ahhh, but as I leafed
through it, REMEMBERING EVERY PAGE, I came to the Holy Grail... the Ne
Plus Ultra - The Beginning...

There, on page 58 was the design and construction details of how to
MAKE a Crystal Radio!  It even shows how to MAKE a tin-foil and wax
paper capacitor!  (told you we made everything).  It promised to open
up the world of radio WITHOUT using too much electricity, so in
addition to performing all those mundane tasks in the front of the
book, like sweeping floors, helping around the house, proper flag
ettiquite (Hooray), how to make a scrapbook, family fun, and learning
YOUR neighborhood, I began to amass the parts for that highly
complicated piece of affordable technology in 1951.... the Crystal
Radio.

I first tried winding the coil on a toilet-paper roll - boy, that was
a disaster... finally settling on a Quaker Oats box (which is de
regur' anyway), and using the roll of wire I'd salvaged from a tossed
transformer (ever tried to unwind a transformer? - it takes a while),
I actually listened to my Dad, and tied the wire's end onto a tree,
then wound the BOX toward the tree (this method is actually advocated
in making the required coils for an "HBR" receiver).  After 4 or 5
tries, I finally succeeded in getting a really nice looking coil on
the Quaker box, fed the leads through punched holes, then painted the
whole thing with varnish.  I cheated on the capacitor - Municipal
Trash Collection Day in Kansas City, back then, was on Thursdays... us
kids would "forage" on the way to school, put the stuff in our bicycle
baskets (yep... rode my bike to school at 8 years old) and gathering
after school, would "review" our booty.  I found a tossed radio, and
having unwound one of the wax & paper caps, determined in my little
pea-brain that it was the same as in the book.... yep, it was... so I
wrestled another similarly looking one out, and used it.

The galena crystal was given to me by my Uncle Bill, along with a pair
of earphones (nobody called 'em headphones, back then) from a Navy PBY
Catalina - FROM GUADACANAL's Henderson Field - Really!, the coil
"slider" from a Strongheart dog-food can - it didn't work so good, so
I made a later model from that spring steel that they used on packing
crates.... stuff has a mind of it's own, similar to Copperweld wire,
then I made the cat's whisker from a safety pin (just like it shows in
the book).  I assembled the whole thing.  Imagine my distress when it
DIDN'T WORK...  my Dad actually figured out why (I hadn't sanded the
"wiped area" of the coil to remove the insulation).  I snaked wire out
of my window, and over to our big tree (never thinking that anybody
would walk INTO it ... like MOM!), ran back inside, connected the
other wire that went to the outside water faucet, and I began to hear
KMBC 980... a bit of movement of the slider and there was WDAF 610..
man, I was stoked.

Yes, at night there was The Lone Ranger, Gangbusters, Lash LaRue,
Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Roy Rogers, and the two programs I was
banned from listening to.... "Inner Sanctum" and "The Creaking Door" -
well, heck yes I listened to them anyway.... wierd dreams and all.
{my Dad's variation of punishment for minor infractions, was to take
my earphones AWAY for a suitable period of pennance - aughhhhhhh,
misery!}

So... you see... that silly book from so long ago - it's what
kick-started me into this nutty hobby of ours... and having that good
ol' WOLF book in my hands again, I spent an hour, hiding from the wife
in my my ham shack, reading EVERY page again, and remembering the
ABSOLUTE JOY of being able to BUILD a radio that really worked, used
NO batteries, drew NO power from the mains, and was ALL MINE, that
quite frankly - aimed me at my life's career path.

Thanks Dad, Thanks Uncle Bill, Thanks Mom (who always ran into the
wires and screamed "That Radio Junk will NEVER make you a penny!"...

...and Thanks - Boy Scouts of America - "I, Tommie Dailey, promise to
DO MY BEST to BE SQUARE, and to OBEY the Law of the Pack".

Have YOU built one?

73 - dit dah, dit dah dit
--

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Its not how many watts you have,
its the SIZE of your watts that matter! -- Johnny Marshall, W0JM-SK