A Crummy Commercial

A Kentucky high school student brought some radios to school in January 2025.  The school and a local deputy appear to have then gone off the deep end: seized the radios, concocted requests for a warrant after the seizure and generally messed things up.  Now they may have to PAY. Three links with a few details: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article316639936.html https://www.wkyt.com/2026/07/29/lawsuit-alleges-pulaski-co-students-two-way-radios-were-seized-without-warrant/ source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddi3l9TCcIY I suspect the narrative was something similar to this:  - a ham/student brings handie talkie/s to school so he can listen for fire callouts  - some other kid asks him: "is that all it can do ?"  - then the ham demos a QSO on a ham radio repeater  - a teacher witnesses this and gets hysterical  - off-duty cop takes the radio/s and later fabricates a paper trail to make the seizure appear legal  - the kid's family goes...

https://www.shorpy.com/node/3463 A Shorpy repost from 2008, what a difference 100 years makes or even just 18 years :( Here is the LOC version, not as good a scan: source:  https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c06973/ Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

I saw this photo and was intrigued:   source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/623678248418637908/   It almost looks like an AI generated photo - a kind of bizzaro world version of a real radio.  But no, the radios do exist like this one from Ebay: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/318272769443 It's an AM/FM clock radio but in a wooden case and looking like a Paraset or some other spy radio :) an actual WWII Paraset at the Blechley Park museum source: By Timitrius - Flickr: Suitcase wireless set, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18185437 However they are not held in high regard: https://www.walmart.com/reviews/product/25577089 (this was a different radio but still, very few products ever get such poor grades) I think these are long gone from around the year 1999. BTW, SOSL stands for Spirit Of St. Louis.  I guess it's supposed to echo the design esthetic of the late 1920s ?  Anyway, a sharp looking design. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9K...

This is an interesting article about tape recording in the postwar 1940s: https://spectrum.ieee.org/magnetophon-laugh-track I actually listened to the AI voiced version of the article which was good.  Although magnetic recording must have appeared to be inevitable, I suspect that having someone like Bing Crosby both use and invest in it didn't hurt.  AI also seems inevitable but very few prominent people (aside from the technologists) are touting AI - perhaps AI also needs a champion like Crosby ?  (What am I saying ?  :) I recall hearing that Bing was known as being casual in dress for his radio show but he apparently wasn't keen on doing two versions of the same show for the east and west coasts with hours in between.  I suppose another possible advantage of tape was that Bing didn't have to do the show in the evening, he could do it anytime during the week.  I knew about his investment in Ampex but had never heard about the origins of the laugh track bef...

Referring again to the recent buy of stuff from Ebay mentioned here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/06/buy-first-think-later.html I started fooling with the Ameco Code Practice Oscillator: from the original listing It looked a little grungy both outside and inside but it did fire up.  There are two holes marked N and P which must have been used for wiring to an external supply / charger.  Inside a mod was made to the battery holder (A Keystone, they still sell them !) to add a diode and two GE AA Nicads.  Of course the Nicads have leaked to the extent of having the wiring to the holder corrode off. As a first step I removed all the screw and bolts from the front panel: And then washed it with some liquid soap: I think it looks OK.  Here's a photo of the CPO parts themselves: Next step will be to replace that battery holder with something new - not sure if I should get the original Keystone or just use a plastic one.  I'll have to think about it.  OK, I th...

Both kinds of bucks tend to be skittish.  Here is one from last night: VVhats this ?  Another mystery communique from the IRS ?: yes, I blanked out stuff for no good reason, just for fun I believe it's my 2025 tax refund, the other kind of bucks.  Hopefully I'll find out on Monday. Yes, this is all my fault because I at least partially refused to conform.  I didn't have an ID.me account so I couldn't file my taxes online.  So I mailed them in, at the last minute.  It took a while for them to get into the system.  I had an error which the IRS corrected in my favor which was nice.  But I also entered my bank account number incorrectly - TWICE ! :(  So apparently no direct deposit this year. Update August 3, 2026: It was a checkie for Chuckie from Uncle Sam - just like 1974 ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

With the recent tornado, mentioned here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/07/tornado_0277261982.html I was wondering where the Olsons lived in 1938 when they went to see the Tom Mix Circus.  Just through dumb luck, I finally found where the Olsons lived in 1938 here: 5th entry: Charles A. OLSON source: https://content.mpl.org/digital/collection/AMP/id/445 By the 1940 census they had moved to Milwaukee and when my Dad was born in 1930 they lived in Portage. Thanks to Google I was able to let my fingers do the walking and found 527 W. Prospect on the map: And using Street View I got a glimpse of the house: hopefully the recent tornado didn't mess things up I remember my Dad saying that they lived on the Fox River - his dog (a collie named Laddie) had the run of the back yard to the railroad tracks.  Grampa had rigged up some kind of overhead wire which allowed Laddie to run free.  Apparently Laddie would periodically escape the wire.  When they moved to Milwaukee Laddi...