[Spooks] equipment

[Milspec390 at aol.com]

Yes!, Yes! -

    One of the  'advanced' devices for the crystal set was the 'loading 
coil', which enabled one to tune yet lower to the mysterious 'Beacon' band. A 
crucial point you raise, good ground system worth its weight in gold. Old  method, 
ground to a water pipe, tie in to mains. Unfortunately, with PVC pipe 
replacing iron, a system of driven rods, even one, will do wonders to enhance signal 
strength, particularly on lower freqs. Goes a long way towards eliminating 
noise as well.
    A preselector twixt antenna and receiver - essentially a loading coil and 
tuning cap - improves dynamic range by blocking all but a narrow bandpass 
around the desired signal. One of the reasons the R-388 and R-390 receivers 
perform as they do. It's why they're still used aboard navy surface combatants. 
With RF flowing out of every pore of the ship, the '390 front end, by virtue of 
its continuously variable preselector,  attenuates all but the desired freq.
   Many quick 'n dirty methods of improving reception. Hopefully, the looming 
twin-idiocies of Digital AM broadcasting, IBOC-D, and Broadband Internet Over 
Powerlines, BPL, won't demolish the hobby with their always-left-unmentioned 
massive emissions of noise.
   We've come a long way, from the days when the FCC forbid any harmful 
interference, however slight, and for good reason; to the present, when now they 
speak of 'acceptable levels of interference'. Acceptable to whom? The 
greaseballs who stand to profit by wrecking wide swaths of RF spectrum? Corporado 
sleazebags - thankfully,  DOD is fighting this tooth and nail - who marginalize 
those expressing concern over harmful interference as 'a handful of ham 
operators'? One couldn't deliberately devise a better method by which to jam radio 
reception to all but paid subscribers. That couldn't possibly be their intent. Oh 
no.

   "Acceptable levels of interference", as the FCC now terms mass-jamming for 
profit, are akin to acceptable levels of syphilis, typhoid, axe murders, tap 
water cyanide levels, and other delights deemed necessary to 'reinvent' 
society.    

                                                                 Inventively,

                                                 Paul Vincent Zecchino

Englewood, FL

PS - If you haven't written the FCC re BPL and IBOC-D, please do so. You 
influence counts. Use it. You needn't be a ham - I'm not - to have your voice be 
heard. These twin proposals will wreck reception for many in addition to hams.