A Crummy Commercial

I saw this issue of Radio-Electronics magazine from November 1972 on the always interesting Worldradiohistory site: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Electronics/70s/1972/Radio-Electronics-1972-11.pdf The article that caught my eye was on signal generators on pdf file page 49.  Here is the schematic of author Huffman's design: The circuit uses three Colpitts oscillator transistors which are powered via one section of a three position band switch.  The other section of the band switch connected each oscillator output to a buffer amplifier AND the 365 pF tuning cap.  This multiple oscillator approach is easy with transistors but a huge problem with tubes cost wise.  One other item: B&W Miniductor coils are used instead of either toroids or slug tuned coils.  It is much easier to wind a solenoid air-core coil than try to create a slug tuned inductor from scratch !  Also, Miniductors are still available ! https://www.bwantennas.com/Mini.html ...

I saw this video pop up on Youtube today: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuaxB90OMBc I remember him and the "magic white" but didn't realize that there was trouble between Bill Alexander and Bob Ross: Bob and Bill look happy here ? https://www.grunge.com/243657/the-truth-about-the-rivalry-between-bob-ross-and-bill-alexander/ More info on Bob Ross: https://allthatsinteresting.com/bob-ross-military When I was a kid this fellow, Jon Gnagy, was the TV art guy: https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/before-bob-ross-jon-gnagy-was-americas-first-tv-art-teacher And of course in real life (1960s grade school) it was Mr. Caucutt: this must have been in the 1970s or 1980s source:  https://sites.uwm.edu/ties-that-bind/allen-caucutt/ But Mr. Caucutt wasn't just teaching sketching or painting.   He also had more of a build / manual training kind of focus.  We got to use hammers and saws as well as brushes, crayons and pencils - it was fun until "clean up" :) Be...

Here is a really neat picture on Shorpy dot com of the Polo Grounds in 1910: https://www.shorpy.com/node/27869 See the circled area here: Here is an enlargement: There appear to be 4 people up on the roof watching the event !  I suppose this kind of thing happens all the time but rarely is it captured on film. To the west is the higher ground of Coogan's Bluff where I suspect the camera (5x7 cameras are pretty heavy) is setup.  The view is to the south and east.  Manhattan has higher terrain proceeding north.  General Washington's army beat the red coats in the Battle of the Harlem Heights but that's on the western side of the island.  Washington Island terrain is higher to the south-east (that's why there is a cell tower on the "mountain" ;). I imagine the island terrain sculpting was from glaciation in both cases. Here are some aerial views, first setup for baseball it's easy to see why Willie Mays had to cover a LOT of ground to catch those fly balls: N...

I saw a new NOVA program on the PBS schedule and actually fired up my TV on Wednesday night at 8 PM.  The first time since Sunday I have used the set.  I got comfortable and started to watch and then all of a sudden it's over and I've missed almost the whole show by falling asleep ! Luckily it was posted on Youtube this morning: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMmumIoSMpM PBS is sitting on a goldmine for a safe, effective insomnia cure ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I was using the old Thinkpad and it seemed like things were kinda slow.  Checked the available disk space and it was pretty low, 20 GB. So why not upgrade to a bigger drive ?  I looked on Ebay and holy cats, the prices:  UP ! The current 240G drive from a couple years ago: current 240G price: Since I wanted a bigger drive, a current 500G drive price: So I also checked on class 10 128 G sd cards (I use them for backups), August 2025 price: Current 128G SD price: Since the $ 13.66 includes tax, the actual price was $12.95.  So the inflated reality in less than 1/2 year from the same seller is 19.99 / 12.95 => 54% higher ! Who knows exactly why the prices are up, probably a combination of the tariff tax, inflation and postage increases. I'm sure I could shop around and get better deals but with storage media I like to buy new from a reputable brand and a seller I know who uses the USPS.  Bottom line: I decided to dump about 100G of files on the Thinkpad that I w...

It would have been nice if the Pack had beaten the Bears in the 1st round Wildcard game but this was the next best thing: The sudden death of the Bears quest for the Lombardi trophy :) source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/18/chicago-bears-los-angeles-rams-playoffs/ Live by last second heroics game after game, die by the last mistake of the season ! WHOOPSY ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I saw a picture on Face of a Hallicrafters S-108 receiver with an outboard S-meter from Lafayette.  It was a TM-59a from the early 1960s, here is the catalog page from 1962: And the inflated price: Here is the schematic clipped from the BAMA manual: A very high impedance triode DC amplifier.  It wouldn't be that easy to add to a transformerless set like the Hallicrafters S-120 though - powering the filament / lamps would mess things up for one thing. schematic source is the TM-59 manual:   https://bama.edebris.com/manuals/lafayett/tm-59a/ IF I ever do bring back my Hallicrafters S-120 as a receiver, an S-meter would be a nice thing to add.   BTW, I'm still not sure what radio (with S-meter) was used on Mission Impossible : https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/08/s-120-with-meter.html but it was certainly in the same S-120 family.  The Lafayette HE-40 was similar to the S-120 but added the meter and a couple of switches: the inside looks just like an S-120...