A Crummy Commercial

Charlie's Angels was a show that probably everyone watched at least once but might not want to admit it.  Kate Jackson was my favorite :) I remember them like this: But I kinda wish I hadn't seen this: But consider the fact that Kate Jackson is 77, Jaclyn Smith is 80 and Cheryl Ladd is 74.  They've got nothing to apologize for. Also, don't want to forget Farrah Fawcett-Majors (who would have been 79 now):   as Roger Ebert liked to say, the girl with the great . . . TEETH  :) BTW, this is why I never attend any school reunions, I remember those people as they were: young and slim and strong - with lots of plans and ideas for the future. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

looking at this EDN Design Idea :  https://www.edn.com/custom-diy-dmm-smd-fixture-for-low-z-measurements The thing that caught my eye was the clamp - the article calls them: Lever arm-toggling ?  Really ?  In the olden days of the 1970s/80s/90s we called them: De-Sta-Co clamps because that's what was stamped into the clamp  :)   I imagine that there are many generic versions now.   In our receiving inspection department they were used for holding a device-under-test (DUT) in place on a test fixture.  With ICs this wasn't necessary but with other items it was required to hold the DUT in place to minimize affecting the temperature or whatever.  https://www.destaco.com/clamping/manual-clamping/hold-down-clamps Where did we get them ?  why here: https://www.mcmaster.com/products/destaco-clamps/ I wonder if Destaco ever considered doing what Louboutin did with their shoes - Destaco clamps always had red handles :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

What appears to be an AI voiced video about Heathkit: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQOG1hp54g I think the video was interesting but it really overstates the value and historical impact of Heathkit.  It also says that surface mount was the first killer of kits.  I don't think I'd go quite that far.  They rank cost as factor 2 but really surface mount was a part of driving cost lower. However I do think that Heathkit was important in my pursuit of radio and electronics as both hobby and career.  Ironically the trouble I had building the HW-16 was actually a boost: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/06/hw-16.html The HW-16 was really a receiver-transmitter.  There wasn't a lot of circuitry shared between the two halves.  The receiver was built on a circuit board and worked first time.  The transmitter was three tubes and built point to point - and much simpler than the receiver - but it didn't transmit right.  Thanks to the Heathkit m...

These pictures aren't super great but I'm including them for completeness.  First, a couple from 1972 Baldings Hill: Second, a couple (from prints) from the Evans farm, 1975 mockup: Mockup: the Glen Gates Gang would often have a rehearsal two weeks (?) before the actual Field Day at the end of June.  So it was a chance for me to take some black and white shots for myself. Third (from negatives) three of the tower raising - this also looks like a mockup, not many people and the extension pipes aren't inside the tower: The winch (usually manned by Mike Millar) would have been behind me in these pictures. One thing I didn't mention about the negative digitizing: I could only scan either 126 or 35mm film or slides with the Canon scanner.  But using the DSLR and the light source it will also be possible to digitize larger format negatives - for example although the first two pictures above were from prints, the camera used was an old Ansco 620 roll film folding camera (with ...

I finally got around to making a light source to use with my copy stand, DSLR and negative holder, as first mentioned here:    https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/light-bulb-dummy-load.html It uses an empty KLIM dry milk can - BTW the real airmen portrayed in The Great Escape supposedly used the KLIM tins from their Red Cross Parcels for various escape tunnel items, so there is a long history of repurposing old KLIM tins. source:  https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205402300     I took an unused IEC power cord from some item and cut off the female connector.  Then stripped back the wires and connected them to a Leviton keyless lamp holder (keyless means no switch).  The lamp holder is screwed to a piece of wood which is fastened to the KLIM tin. gotta connect that ground wire to the tin ! I used a rubber gasket around the hole punched in the tin and tied a knot in the cable for a strain relief.      A round diffuser from my ...

My aversion to these Collins radio machines was mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/09/collins-s-line.html Saw these photos on the K9YA Face page: source:  https://www.facebook.com/k9ya.telegraph See those RCA jacks (3) and plugs (2), especially in the middle picture ?  All a bad actor has to do is lift the hinged lid and then unplug or swap the RCA plugs around and voila, radio not working.   That was a "welcome to the real world" moment :( Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

For some reason I had a memory pop up of the Burny Brothers Bakery outlet store in Northlake IL, here's a video (with Chicagoland media personality of the 20th century, Fahey Flynn): source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBZxwFgWGHc BTW, when I lived in Northlake the Burny Brothers store wasn't quite as nice as it is on the video.  It was more like a convenience store without too much stock.  But the thing I remember was something like this: source:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/256334091091 The one at Burny Brothers also had a perforated metal hood around it.  The baked goods at Burny Brothers weren't super fantastic or low priced but they all came in boxes and I thought that machine was really cool because when buying more than one box of goodies the cashier would tie the boxes together. Here's a video of a more recent machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOKgKa3fOEw And another video with a slo-mo of the tying of the knot (this was probably like the one at...

No, no, not that Astro, he was an early 1960s phenomenon. There you are, the CIR Astro 200, a late 1970s ham radio, one of the first synthesized HF rigs.  Here is an interesting blog by KA7OEI: https://ka7oei.blogspot.com/2025/05/refurbishing-cir-astro-200-hf-amateur.html Notice the price: Not cheap considering a ham could get nearly four Heathkit HW-101 rigs for about the same money.  The thing I noticed wasn't so much the price but those six panel mounted switches: The switches look a little amateurish (maybe appropriate considering the market?) - CIR should have bought 6 extra hex nuts and properly mounted the switches.  Previously blogged on here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/09/panel-mounting-switch.html Maybe it was a question of cramming it all in there and there was no room to accomplish proper mounting ?  A rig which was supposedly a subsequent version of the CIR Astro 200 was the Swan Cubic Astro 150: Here they ditched the panel mount switches for the m...

IMO the internet stinks for recent history, the boring details like what did this place look like in 1969 - that kind of thing.  However there are a few outposts like Pinterest that do have a little history (along with a LOT of ads). Recently I saw this Red Barn ad in a Pinterest email.   Curiously while I don't think I ever was in a Red Barn restaurant the ad did spark a memory. As I recall there was a Red Barn on Fond du Lac avenue right next to Amateur Electronic Supply.  So I jumped in my internet car and tried to take a "drive" around that area.  Unfortunately Microsoft Bing has killed their streetside part of the maps.  Fortunately Google did a pass through that area for street view fairly recently in November 2025. I *think* this used to be the Red Barn: the barn roof is gone though To the north is where AES used to be: South of the Red Barn was Evans and Kunz pet shop: And finally here is the former Fruit Ranch food store: I tried to verify some of these...