[MRCA] Seventies Technology

[Tim]

Hi Rob -
In the 1970's - 80's we had a laser lab at work and we used an old
mechanical (Zenith?) TV remote to remotely turn on and off the overhead
lighting while working on experiments. The remote handheld consisted of 4
tuning forks with 4 buttons that hit them to operate 4 different functions
- worked great, no batteries.

However, all the optical tables had zillions of 1/4-20 tapped holes in them
to mount optical gizmos and those mounts all had 3/16 allen head screws.
Unfortunately, dropping a 3/16 inch allen wrench on the table top generated
the exact freq that then turned the lights off (or on). Drove us crazy.....

Solution?  Wrapped the wrench with a bit of tape to kill the "Q", no more
problems... Except occasionally when the old telephone rang....LOL

Tim
N6CC


On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 4:49 AM, Rob Flory <farmer.rob.flory at gmail.com>wrote:

> The primary television set, actually the only one in my house that isn't a
> computer monitor of some kind, is a 70s-era RCA XL-100.  We like to
> demonstrate it to our kid's friends as "not even needing a remote".
>
> I did find myself wishing it had a remote one time, when I had a hernia
> repair and wanted to watch a movie and then go to sleep.  The problem was
> that when the VHS tape was done, the screen would go to snow and sound to
> annoying noise.  I installed a remote in the form of a 20-foot piece of
> nylon cord attached to the power plug of the TV set.
>
> I still have the manual for the thing and would probably make a go at
> fixing it when it quits, if it quits before I do.
>
> The only problem I have had is the one we have with a lot of our gear, the
> mechanical switches in the tuner.
>
> RF
>
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