[MRCA] Seventies Technology

Sat May 24 13:22:55 EDT 2014

I know what you mean Tim. I had a Magnavox with remote in the early 70’s. Every time when I came home from work, the Gov’t division of Magnavox, and threw my keys on the coffee table, the TV would turn on, HI. 73 – Mike 

Mike B. Feher, N4FS

89 Arnold Blvd.

Howell, NJ, 07731

732-886-5960 

From: MRCA [mailto:mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Tim
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2014 12:40 PM
To: Rob Flory
Cc: mrca
Subject: Re: [MRCA] Seventies Technology

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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