A Crummy Commercial

I was looking at a W1FB column on page 94 of the November 1988 issue of Monitoring Times magazine: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Monitoring-TImes/1980s/Monitoring-Times-1988-11.pdf Doug mentioned that the radio pictured in the column could be purchased from either Oak Hills Research (his former company at the time)  OR  Marlin P. Jones & Assoc.  So I tried searching for Marlin P. Jones and found this: MPJA closed earlier this year (May 23, 2025).  Yet another surplus place is gone.  :( I can't remember buying much (if anything) from MPJA but I did get their catalogs and check them over.  As I recall they had a lot of more industrial items like wire, switches and open frame power supplies although the DeMaw column does mention that radio.  Looking on the Wayback for MPJA.com just directed to the Skycraft site.  That's another loss, no evidence left of their offerings. I've never bought from Skycraft Surplus although I do have a...

While listening to an episode of the Old Time Radio show, The Great Gildersleeve , (unfortunately I don't have the date) there was a Kraft commercial at the end for an ice cream mix called Frizz: . Here's a different Gildersleeve show with a Frizz commercial:  https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/comedy/the-great-gildersleeve/leroy-wants-a-motor-scooter-1946-12-18 source of photos:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/905079743/vintage-1940s-box-of-kraft-frizz-ice?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details https://www.nytimes.com/1944/07/17/archives/news-of-food-ice-cream-mixes-demand-attention-in-review-of.html Fun with Frizz booklet cover: Frizz is a really strange name for a food product.  Somehow I'd expect hair in that ice cream, yuck !  Kraft also sold Pabst-ett which was a legacy from a purchase of a prohibition cheese product from Pabst Brewing: https://www.pabstmansion.com/2022/06/pabstett/ Parkay and Pabst-ett commercials:  https://www.oldtimeradiodo...

The Packers host the Bears at Lambeau on Sunday.  So I was looking a little at the Bears history.  In 1965 there were three Hall of Fame players taken in the first round of the NFL draft.  Two of the three Hall of Famers were selected by the Bears: Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers: Butkus, Sayers, Halas in 1965 The third Hall of Famer ?  Joe Namath, but he went to the upstart NY Jets in the AFL.   Butkus and Sayers were amazing players the defensive and offensive rookies of the year: but not super happy about it    Sayers in particular was the kind of player that everyone wanted to see - at any time Sayers could run for a touchdown.  Butkus was also very intense and productive but they tend to make more extended NFL Films sequences with John Facenda (voice of God) narration for offense than defense. a Butkus clip in this post but it's Pat Summerall narrating:  https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-guy-named-butkus-1942-2023.html But the thing...

gallop Gertie, gallop I started re-watching the video series: The Mechanical Universe , one of the excellent Annenberg/CPB educational TV shows shown on PBS stations in the 1980s.  Episode 17 was on resonance: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODs4eyQTz5Y These are well done shows with nice graphics (for the time).  But if I'm any example, just watching a show, even multiple times, doesn't always get through to me.  But it's a good starting point and entertaining as well. The first of the two memorable instances of resonance in this episode was the Tacoma Narrows bridge (aka Galloping Gertie) collapse.  The cross winds in the narrow straits caused turbulent air flow around the bridge which in turn excited the natural resonance of the bridge.  This resulted in reinforced oscillations which built up until the deck collapsed into the waters below.  I guess with later suspension bridges like the Macinac Bridge between the upper and lower peninsulas ...

Remember this: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/11/i-should-have-done-this-before.html I got another couple emails from DigiKey to my old email address on Tuesday: I checked the Digikey site and sure enough my email address was changed, so I changed it back. And then I fired off another nastygram to Digikey - the response was worthless: So why care ?  Because of stuff like this: If I get rid of the web site the old email address will be gone - I might not be able to get onto the Digikey site.   I'm not sure what the problem is but I'm losing confidence in Digikey. Update: I got yet another email to the old account this morning: I guess even when stuff gets changed it just doesn't change in the 21st century Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Saw a couple of interesting videos on the Be Smart channel: first one on photosynthesis:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ_T4zMBx6E In grade school I remember watching: Our Mr. Sun and wondering about the take on photosynthesis, the details of which weren't really known in the 1950s.   photosynthesis is mentioned at about 36 minutes:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucQNFBNAdnk This is undeniably true: although imperfect, photosynthesis gets the job done I also got a kick out of this: I actually have confused Joe of Be Smart with the guy on the right, Hank Green, of Scishow, who got cancer, lost his hair in treatment, then regrew his hair after remission but it came in curly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhAWyOuIedc The second video: seedless fruit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8c1ObYSlQI Reminded me of the book: The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan.   He tells the "real" story of Johnny Appleseed.  Even seeded fruit like apples are all...

Phil Anderson, W0XI was mentioned previously here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/07/phil-anderson-w0xi-sk.html I saw this Kantronics QRP transmitter on Face: It's an interesting design - the thing I noticed was the classic mechanical design of a Bakelite box plus a top plate.  Another interesting detail, the key was connected between the positive power and the rig - this is similar to the original Tuna Tin 2 transmitter.  But instead of another transistor the Rockhound uses a CMOS hex inverter chip as both the crystal oscillator and the driver of the VN66 output MOSFET. I wonder how it sounds ?  Probably depends on the crystal, antenna, supply, blah blah blah :) I imagine that the Rockhound might have been paired with the Kantronics 8040 receiver, manual here: https://www.manualslib.com/download/3124657/Kantronics-8040-B.html The 8040B was a FET heavy design.  Here is an ad from the May 1980 issue of 73 Magazine for the Rockhound, the 8040B and the Freedom VFO: An...