[Milsurplus] Down the Rabbit Hole...

[COURYHOUSE at aol.com]

I was  really  lucky as a kid  got my hands on an   ARN-7 that had the 
supply converted to  60 cycles.
best broadcast bad  dx  recv. I have ever had!
 
Ed! KF7RWW
 
 
In a message dated 1/14/2014 10:04:43 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
ka2ivy at verizon.net writes:

When I  was in high school and learning to fly, the story of Amelia 
Earhart  fascinated me deeply. Among the equipment on her plane the Radio 
Direction  Finder, RDF, was very fascinating. I quickly learned about the 
ADF,  automatic direction finder, and set out to get one.  The ARN-7  
required a good bit of 400 cycle power, but our friends in Lima Ohio  
were able to come up with a semiautomatic version that could work  on  24 
volts DC only. I quickly discovered I had a 12 volt dynamotor that  would 
power it, so after rewiring the filaments i had  an operational  unit. My 
parents very grudgingly allowed me to take it on road trips, and  annoyed 
the crap out of them triangulating stations and plotting our  progress, 
sometimes with startling accuracy. In the summer of 1968, I got  an ARN-6 
system together with parts from Fair in Lima and G&G in New  York City. 
Mobile operation would have to wait three more years until I  had my own 
car and freedom to install it and a 24 volt power source. In  the mean 
time, in the fall of 1968, I had some fun DXing with it.   The loop could 
be manually controlled, so I could null out a station. I  would set my 
alarm clock to wake me at 23:50 on Sunday night, and wait for  local and 
regional stations to sign off for weekly transmitter service. As  they 
went off, the ARN-6 allowed me to null out one station and hear  others. 
After about ten minutes, I would reset my clock and go back to  sleep to 
wake up one hour later. Now, at 00:50 on Monday,  I could  repeat the 
effort and log stations in the mountain time zone.  It was  amazing as to 
how quiet the band would get, and the distant stations of  low power that 
could be heard.

Bruce  Gentry, KA2IVY



On 1/14/14 2:04 AM, Thomas Adams wrote:
>  Sometimes in fooling around with radio, the obvious is hiding in plain  
> sight.
>
> Even tho the sport of AM Broadcast Band DXing  is a dying art (being 
> slowly poisoned to death
> by IBOC  garbage that is definitely NOT "On Channel"...  unless you 
>  accept ADJACENT channel!),
> while pursuing it sometimes you can get a  surprise or two.
>
> Alice in Wonderland went down a rabbit hole  and made all sorts of 
> interesting discoveries...   sometimes
> there are OTHER technological rabbit holes that contain  interesting 
> things, hiding in plain sight.
>
>
>  Switching to DF mode and setting the RF gain to the center of the 
>  meter scale, out of curiosity I took a
> bearing on WSM, using the usual  method; put WSM in the null of the loop.
>
> Yep, there it was, at  about 160 degrees...  but I was a bit surprised 
> to note that  there was another signal
> there that WSM had been obliterating ("Clear  Channel" doesn't mean 
> diddlysquat anymore...).
>
>  Turning down the RBB and listening to the new signal...  it was 
>  carrying Fox Network. Signal strength
> was quite good; an easily  readable signal. It was near the top of the 
> hour, so I stayed, just  in case these
> guys STILL observed the time honored, but usually  ignored, practice of 
> Station Identification.
>
> Yep,  they DID do an ID...   KGAB, Cheyenne...
>
>
> Too  bad that Chief Engineers these days don't know diddly about 
> reception  reports or QSL cards; THIS one
> would be well worth writing  for!
>
>
> Mr. T.,  W9LBB
>
>
>
>
>
>
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