[MRCA] Seventies Technology

[Rob Flory]

My parents had an aftermarket remote on the TV in their bedroom, which was
ultrasonic.  My sister and I discovered that if we shrieked loudly enough
we could turn the TV on and off.  The parents were not amused.

RF


On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 12:40 PM, Tim <timsamm at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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>
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