A Crummy Commercial

I've mentioned the Lionel Communications Lab 3270 before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/12/lionel-communications-lab-mark-i.html  I saw this 3270 on Ebay in an unopened box: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167780230691  The semi-obligatory deflated price: In other words, it's actually cheaper than it was new ! They also had the Lionel Communications Lab 3272: https://www.ebay.com/itm/167780324136  This one is definitely the buy of the two based on value, (assuming that $39.95 marked on the box is accurate): Inflated price for the 3272: The cheapest person on earth defers on them both: "it could be a pig-in-a-poke" (or in this case, a sealed cardboard box.  And of course I'd open it, fiddle with it for 15 minutes and then set it aside :( Update:  I had watched both Ebay listings above, sure enough, in the early evening I got offers on both of 5% off, get thee behind me, Satan !  :)    Update 2025-9-10: Temptation is OVER:    Best Regards, Ch...

Learned another lesson today: take a picture. I've been a photographer since grade school but possibly that hasn't always served me well in the 21st century.   Nowadays once the camera has been purchased each picture taken is essentially free.  In the olden days it cost money to buy film, develop and print it - and I did my own B&W developing.  In addition, it was a certain time sink to process the film.  So maybe I'm unconsciously avoiding picture taking ? Today I was working on this: It's the clock module from the old Westclox clock that has been on/off the shame shelf seemingly since the battery leak. https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/05/boss.html    I had ripped out the battery contacts (all corroded) and soldered wires to an external battery holder.  But something just wasn't right.  Sometimes it works, sometimes not - bad for a clock.  It's a shame because the module kept excellent time. Today I was going to touch up the solderi...

Youtube served an old documentary on the cartoon TV show: Jonny Quest     It is a fan made film but well done, there were a number things I found out about the show: 1) Doug Wildey was the guiding force of the show not Hanna or Barbera.  He was a comic book guy not a cartoon guy and the art work shows that. 2) The music was composed and conducted by Hoyt Curtin, like many shows of that era the music was great 3) there were apparently subsequent Jonny Quest iterations but from a brief viewing they don't seem to be as good as the original. 4) Jonny was voiced by Tim Matheson when he was 16.  The other voices were familiar to any old time radio fan, one I recognized was Cathy Lewis who played some of the female characters (there weren't too many). 5) only 1 season of 26 shows (that'd be equivalent to 2.5 seasons of Rick and Morty ) 6) rewatching the shows there is a resemblance between Jonny Quest and Clutch Cargo although Jonny Quest was a much better show.  B...

Hearing that Jim Lovell has died makes me sad.  Here is his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Lovell  there is a high resolution version of this portrait on the wiki page Two things on Lovell:  he grew up in Milwaukee so naturally he was my favorite astronaut.  Second, he was something of a tinkerer - I remember seeing a video where he mentions creating a map light so that he could look at a map while flying his Navy plane at night.  Unfortunately something went wrong when he tried it on a night flight near Japan and his cockpit instruments went dark !  Getting home was a bit of an adventure (with the help of the bioluminescent wake of the aircraft carrier) but I suspect it cured him of trying similar stuff while flying for NASA  :) Here is a video where he tells the story (starts about 22 minutes in): He seemed to have a knack for getting out of tight situations, not just depending on luck but using his well-trained skill to work the proble...

I saw a version of this picture on Shorpy: source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017850811/  https://www.shorpy.com/node/27816  When I see kids holding rabbits I think of three things: 1) Hasenfus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hasenfus  He was originally from Wisconsin - having a name like: "rabbit's foot" was NOT lucky for old Gene ! 2) That zoo in northern Denmark that wants pet owners to donate their pets for zoo predator food, yikes ! 3) My brief time as a rabbit owner as a kid.  I built a cage with chicken wire just like the ones in the photo above except that mine was painted white.  I don't remember if I had time to give the rabbit a name because one of the neighborhood dogs tunneled through that chicken wire without a problem.  I also remember Farmer Glaubitz's wife - she sold rabbits, one time several of us went to see her and there was only one rabbit left so she did "eenie-meenie" to pick a winner - that was the first time I ever ...

I think any reasonable person knows that millionaires and billionaires are responsible for illegal immigration, for example, our President: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/report-reveals-pipeline-of-undocumented-costa-rican-immigrants-at-trump-club-a-very-open-secret/  Why aren't millionaires or billionaires put in jail or deported ?  HA ! But it made me remember this parody from Mad Magazine 110 (1967): from yellow pages for super heroes source: https://archive.org/details/mad-magazine-1967/MAD110/page/n39/mode/2up  Here's a simple, stupid solution to illegal immigration:  put a Trump or a Walton or some other millionaire or billionaire in prison and that hiring or banking or landlording will stop PDQ - and no prisons or airplane flights will be needed, those folks will go home on their own. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I remember this book from when I was a kid: source: https://archive.org/details/rattlerattledump00geis  I don't know what happened to mine.  I also had some other books: Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel , Peter and the Wolf , Just so Stories and maybe others that are best forgotten.  I guess once you learn how to read there are so many more choices that the original faves get left behind.  But there's just something about listening to Mom or Dad read a story at bedtime :) source: https://archive.org/details/mikemulliganhiss00burt2/mode/2up  I *still* like it when a book has pictures ! BTW, I was thinking of Rattle-Rattle due to this Shorpy page: a crop of just the steam shovel source: https://www.shorpy.com/node/27792  They actually put up my comment on Bucyrus-Erie !  :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm 

I was watching this video from DigiKey: source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmDfVxSnFg  And then I looked at the page on DigiKey for the magnetic connectors: project page: https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/projects/designing-interactive-led-game-tiles-from-scratch/237a699db3be477ea00c898b55a27eea  connector page: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/5359/15965217  Yikes !  $6.95 per pair (plus tariff tax !)  and only 15 in stock !  One of those hexatiles would be over $21 just for the connectors !  Of course something similar was used in a Mac, cool yet expensive. But it immediately brought the Raytheon Lectron to mind: source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon_Lectron  This was a set of magnetic modules that a kid could use to create circuits.  The modules had a magnet on the bottom which would be attracted to a steel base plate.  The connections are also magnetized but only one contact on a side s...

Continuing the quest: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/05/quest-for-maple-dale-era-photos-scans.html I remembered this from Peanuts: source: https://archive.org/details/peanutstreasury0000char/page/n137/mode/2up And I thought:  maybe I put grade school pictures in a book to press out ? I started with the Columbia Encyclopedia which is a huge book with fine print but wasn't much good for grade school reports.  No pictures, leaves or paper money was found. I'll keep looking, lots of books here, WHAP ! :) Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

I sent a message through the Nicolet73.com site to a few members of my Maple Dale class of 1969 last week.  So far the only responses have been negative.  Here is my latest online scrapbook of Maple Dale pictures and documents: https://archive.org/details/maple-dale-6/mode/2up So I decided to look for my own class photos, my Mom never threw stuff like that out, it must be here, right ?  I was really excited when I found this brown box: when I was a kid this box contained my Maple Dale class photos Unfortunately all it contained was that science flyer from the Congress Street school in Milwaukee which I attended for kindergarten and a month or so of 1st grade.  It also had my health card from 4th grade at Maple Dale.  But NO photos !  Just a lot of old letters, Christmas cards, newspaper clippings and other junk. Anyway, here are photos of the contents: I'll keep looking. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

  source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K41knr45xEA This was an interesting video both because this fellow was a demon for keeping and collecting stuff from childhood, being organized as a kid and for the negative vibe that the video transmits which he apparently got from his parents, classmates and grownups.  Wow, I guess I was spoiled because I never got this kind of discouraging feedback that I can recall.  The video is kind of a downer but interesting - lesson learned: don't treat kids negatively, they may grow up to be content creators and regale future generations with tales of your negativity !  :) Here is an ad for the second transistor radio I ever owned: note that the scale and the ironing board were less than half the price of the radio ! Ad was from the December 5, 1965 Milwaukee Journal, here is the semi-obligatory inflated price: A 10x increase in price !  I was never able to find the ad for the radio I bought, it was less than $5.99 so it might ...

They really nailed it, a perfect picture of 21st century education :) I hate starting in the middle of something, like a TV series or a movie - isn't it best to be there from the start ? When I used to subscribe to Boys' Life in the 1964 to 1965 time frame I never really read the Space Conquerors cartoons because it was a continuing story and I was starting in the middle.  Luckily a lifetime later I found this collection in two pdf files of all the Space Conquerors cartoons in Boys' Life from 1952 to 1972: https://archive.org/details/space-conquerors-in-boy-life-magazine-1952-to-1958/Space%20Conqueror%20in%20Boy%27%20Life%20Magazine%20%201959%20to1972%20%28%20and%20goodies%20%29%20/ I finally found out what happened to the galactic explorers / time travelers.  Of course a beautiful blonde queen named Rua is involved: I did like Boys' Life but after 1965 I had moved on to other magazines like Electronics Illustrated or Mad Magazine - luckily they all had cartoons ...

I scratched off one of my favorites, the house with the cats in the chimney: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2023/06/cats.html The reason: the cats are gone: source: https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/7138-N-Lake-Dr_Fox-Point_WI_53217_M87785-00662 It is a nice house with a small indoor pool but no cats ? Then I recalled my very favorite house in Fox Point (early 1970s): It is still there: https://www.redfin.com/WI/Milwaukee/140-W-Dean-Rd-53217/home/ Finally, my very favorite tree, an enormous elm: Unfortunately it is long gone, I remember standing on the stump, must have been 3 feet in diameter at a minimum.  I'm sure it finally got the Dutch elm disease and got turned into wood chips and lumber. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm