A Crummy Commercial

As I kid who started school in the 1960s I immediately recognized this publication I came across recently: The scan is from this wonderful blog: https://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-weekly-reader-1960-1966.html I will be spending more time reading that blog.  I started first grade in 1961 so I *might* have seen this one while attending Indian Hill: And this 1/2 page about John Glenn was from 1962 when I we had all moved to the big school: Maple Dale: I really don't remember much specifically about My Weekly Reader except for one incident that I remember clearly.  This must have been in 1961 or 1962.  President Kennedy had started a new project called The Peace Corps in 1961.  One thing the teachers did was have students read aloud from My Weekly Reader .  I remember one girl was called on to read and when she got to Peace Corps she instead said peach crops - well as kids will do we all laughed.  Now that I think of the incident it must have been t...

I don't remember ever seeing or hearing about this: It reminds me of the Kellogg's submarine mentioned here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/02/kelloggs-submarine.html But the Power-Sub is much bigger than the Kellogg, about a foot long.  The magic pills, baking soda and fruit acid (ascorbic or citric ?) probably aren't available though. Of course it is patented: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2708810A/en Here is one on Ebay, $90 !!  https://www.ebay.com/itm/377247431224 I'll pass on that :)   The semi-obligatory inflated price (done twice, the regular site was down): Update: got this offer later in the day: That's still too much for me. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-friendship I am late to World Friendship Day on July 30, 2026 (I got the name wrong, it's International Day of Friendship but you get the idea).  Bing offered 20 points for creating World Friendship Day pictures using AI.  I tried QSL cards: This was the input: ham radio qsl card for WB9KZY world friendship day showing an Elecraft K2 radio   Kinda nothing special, not horrible but generic, another AI miss (or AI whisperer swing and miss). And I didn't even get the 20 points, so three strikes on that one, missed the day, missed a good QSL and missed the points :( Here's one of my photo QSLs: Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

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...