[Milsurplus] Tom Kneitel revisionist view

[don davis]

Good stuff.  I loved his humor, me being a callow kid.  Also realized he was
"limited" in tech knowledge.

Now, the real enigma is Wayne Greene, W1NSD of CQ, 73, Byte magazines.  A
very active, knowledgeable, inventive guy in his youth.  His rants over the
past 20 years are, however, amazing.  Believes the strangest stuff, and
boasts that he single-handedly invented and is responsible for most current
ham radio technical developments.  Very sad fall.

73 de don

-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Hue Miller
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2013 10:22 PM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Milsurplus] Tom Kneitel revisionist view

Great stuff? I have mixed feelings about 'great'.  For a long while when he
was at the helm of Popular Communications magazine, it seemed to be a
shoestring operation and depended greatly on monthly anecdotes and
reminisces spun out of Tom's memory, and resorted to graphics from his own
collected images. Thus the article on US monitors on the  East Coast hearing
WW2 Panzer communications, was supplemented with photos of US M-48 post war
tanks, and a photo of some grade school electronics class was somehow
associated with an article on the Chinese military.  When I commented to him
on this, he replied that I had no qualifications as a photo editor, which is
true enough. And that he owned a Trans-Am and a boat. I sure as hell wish
I'd saved that letter; it would be a classic collectible.
I also recall his caption comments in some surplus circuits collection,
comments that were intended more for humorous effect than description, and
in some instances were dead wrong, pure hearsay. Never let the facts get in
the way of a good story.
Also, in some transistor circuits collection, compiled by T.K., a diode off
the IF stage called a 'panadaptor' device. Connected to your oscilloscope,
it shows what - a CW signal as DC levels?
How about the "Ask Tom" column, which was copped from "Ask Uncle Tom" in the
automotive pages of Mechanix Illustrated. Kneitel aped the confident
savoir-faire of Tom McCahill and even too it farther, with the dangling
cigarette and the
wise-
guy answers.
I see him as a technical pretender, but a good entertainer, a teller of
stories. And good stories are maybe best when they're not 100% true.
-Hue Miller