A Crummy Commercial

Man, those things are called coffin nails for a reason ! One other thing missing from the last coupla blogs was this online archive of Willis Conover tapes: https://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/MLCC/browse/?fq=dc_type%3Asound A search on "VOA" didn't yield much though.  Needed to search on " Music USA " (the formal name of the VOA show) to find quite a few hours that were on the VOA.  For example several songs and a brief interview with "the divine one", Sarah Vaughan: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc770492/m1/#track/10 I've never heard Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald perform selections from Porgy and Bess , amazing !: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc800482/m1/#track/4 (BTW someday I'll have to post my story about listening to the song: Summertime  at GTE) Conover also wrote and acted in an Old Time Radio show: Hazel and Harold .  There are six episodes from 1946 here: https://digital.library...

One thing missing from the blog post yesterday was the radio price.  This was the latest Allied ad I saw for the S-120, on sale March 31, 1966: Inflated:    I can't really remember when I got that radio, certainly had it in 8th grade (1968-69) but did I have it in 1966 ?  I don't think so.  So possibly it was an advertised special from the local Allied store after that ?  The S-120 doesn't show in the 1967 or later Allied main catalogs.  I believe I may have QSL cards that might indicate when I started listening. One other radio in that same 1966 Allied sale catalog was the Knight-kit Star Roamer: That might have been a less expensive alternative.  5 bands versus 4 on the S-120, a signal meter - no BFO but I have read elsewhere that it could pick up Morse code and SSB.  A couple more advantages are that a safer transformer power supply is used (rather than the transformerless "hot" chassis of the S-120) with an actual fuse (rather than a ther...

I thought of this record recently: Here is the album on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nHqkXrnPs7k_Vd2dNwa78EZ3KE02orHpQ I never owned a copy but I did know about it.  (I do have a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band greatest hits CD somewhere though).  I became aware of this particular album and remember it because of this: the S-120 had really nice audio in my opinion (we won't talk about selectivity or sensitivity or dial calibration or precision though) Yes, I have a Hallicrafters S-120 and in addition to trying to listen to hams, I also used it to listen to AM broadcast radio AND especially to shortwave radio.  I listened to Radio Havana, Radio RSA (South Africa), the BBC, Radio Austalia and also to the Voice of America.  All of those stations share one characteristic, a good loud signal to the middle west of the USA at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s.  With an S-120 a good strong signal was needed due to the inadequacies of the radio, it w...

There are batteries and pumped hydro for storing excess green energy - even that wacky idea of raising and lowering weights (gravity battery): But this is a really interesting idea: Sardinia - doesn't seem real https://spectrum.ieee.org/co2-battery-energy-storage They use a big bubble to store carbon dioxide gas.  When the sun is out or the wind is blowing they pump the gas out, compress it to a liquid and store it in tanks.  Then at night or during calm periods they release the compressed CO2 through a turbine to generate electricity, the uncompressed CO2 from the turbine output is stored in the bubble.   This seems like a much easier concept (and more scalable) than gravity batteries: https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/how-these-24-ton-bricks-could-fix-a-huge-renewable-energy-problem/ All that concrete and steel and mechanical pulleys/motors and generators make the gravity battery really complicated (something like 625 cement blocks - what does it sound...

Johnnie, Kitty Wells and Jack, source: By WSM/Grand Ole Opry - eBay itemcoverpage 1page 2page 3page 4page 5page 6, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22346502 I don't know how I found this song, Lonely Island Pearl .  Maybe I was searching on something island related ?  But whenever I play it the refrain just keeps running through my brain ! source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOqT0d74QTU Mel Tillis was the songwriter of Lonely Island Pearl (his manager is also credited?).  Per the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_%26_Jack Jack died in 1963 in a car accident.  There is a good synopsis of the Johnnie and Jack act here: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johnnie-jack-mn0000235537#biography If you've ever seen the Kubrick movie: Full Metal Jacket you've heard Johnnie Wright with his wife, Kitty Wells: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNHOFyIaGD8 I'm not really much for Country and Western music (I've got the ...

This discrete transistor audio amp is from the 2nd volume of Short Circuits , project 9, page 64:   The Short Circuits books were mentioned before:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/12/short-circuits.html Volume 2 pdf:  https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt7eae2e8ef79b5522/bltd61d4842c9bc12a7/BJ8504-ShortCircuits-2-310316.pdf?branch=prod This project caught my eye as a potential LM386 killer:   It's shown operating from a 9V battery the board is nice but not not required    Presumably this means that the standby current is low although it's not mentioned - the LM386 is spec'd at 8 mA @ 6 volt supply, 4 mA typical.  The builder just adjusts a bias pot by ear to reduce distortion.  The voltage gain is quoted as 32 which is a little higher than an unboosted LM386 (gain of 20) which with the feedback bypass can deliver a gain of 200. more complicated than an LM386 circuit but not that bad A heatsink is recommended for running at 12 volts, it a...

I saw a picture of a 1950s station on Faze that had a Hammarlund receiver similar to this: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/136778372006 and a Johnson Viking transmitter similar to this: 11 meters ? source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/297845200608 And I thought of this: Jack Sprat could eat no fat,  his wife could eat no lean;  and so between the two of them,  they licked the platter clean Isn't it strange that some of the radio companies were kinda like that?  Hammarlund made receivers almost exclusively.  EF Johnson made transmitters almost exclusively.  Certainly Collins, Hallicrafters and the rest felt free to sell both receivers and transmitters. I wonder why at least those two decided to "Jack Sprat" it ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm