Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but black.
I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It had a rod
coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it had two cords
coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a single wire to
an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary phones,
put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the stations. Oh
My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all over the US.
KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg stations in
Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I fell asleep
listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my eyelid
and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the flight of
that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve

SteveB wrote:
Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but black.
I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It had a rod
coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it had two cords
coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a single wire to
an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary phones,
put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the stations. Oh
My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all over the US.
KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg stations in
Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I fell asleep
listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my eyelid
and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the flight of
that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve


Yeah, but KOA ws in Denver, and it, with KSL in SLC, came into Northern
Alberta just fine - Fibber Magee, Amos 'n' Andy, even boxing from
time to time. Then, by international agreement, the "clear channel"
concept was abolished, doing away with the listenability of anyhthing
distant...

My eye? The blockbuster firecracker that didn't go off, so I lit the
end of it and was blowing on the spark when it finally got the message.
Fortunately no permanent damage to my cornea - but I also got the message..
/mark

"Mark F" wrote in message
news:3Wl6j.6228$iU.2903@pd7urf2no...
SteveB wrote:
Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but
black. I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It
had a rod coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it
had two cords coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a
single wire to an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary
phones, put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the
stations. Oh My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all
over the US. KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg
stations in Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I
fell asleep listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my
eyelid and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the
flight of that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve
Yeah, but KOA ws in Denver, and it, with KSL in SLC, came into Northern
Alberta just fine - Fibber Magee, Amos 'n' Andy, even boxing from
time to time. Then, by international agreement, the "clear channel"
concept was abolished, doing away with the listenability of anyhthing
distant...

My eye? The blockbuster firecracker that didn't go off, so I lit the
end of it and was blowing on the spark when it finally got the message.
Fortunately no permanent damage to my cornea - but I also got the
message..
/mark

It was KOB Albuq. and I forgot about KSL. That was 52 years ago.

Steve

"SteveB" wrote:

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

I spent many a night drifting off to sleep listening to WSAL on my crystal
radio. http://www.wsal.com/

Wes

On Dec 7, 8:03 pm, Wes wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:
What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

I spent many a night drifting off to sleep listening to WSAL on my crystal
radio.http://www.wsal.com/

Wes


I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

Managed to build a few too once I laid my hands on some schematics...
sold one or two of them IIRC.

Later on there were some really sophisticated circuits available.

Ahhh, memories.

Wolfgang

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:14:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

My crystal radio, I coupled to a wire run along the clothesline outside
my window. I used tinfoil inside & out on my bedroom window, and oddly
enough, it worked. Pretty sure I read about it somewhere, can't imagine
I would have made that up.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

World Something Radio, on shortwave here. Insert sound-effects here,
you know the ones.

Ahhh, memories.

Indeed.

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:53:19 GMT, Mark F wrote:

SteveB wrote:
Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but black.
I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It had a rod
coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it had two cords
coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a single wire to
an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary phones,
put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the stations. Oh
My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all over the US.
KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg stations in
Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I fell asleep
listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my eyelid
and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the flight of
that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve


Yeah, but KOA ws in Denver, and it, with KSL in SLC, came into Northern
Alberta just fine - Fibber Magee, Amos 'n' Andy, even boxing from
time to time. Then, by international agreement, the "clear channel"
concept was abolished, doing away with the listenability of anyhthing
distant...

Many a night I spent hours listening to XERF 1570, after the local
station, CFOR Orillia, Ontario went off the air on the same frequency.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

wrote:



I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

Managed to build a few too once I laid my hands on some schematics...
sold one or two of them IIRC.

Later on there were some really sophisticated circuits available.

Ahhh, memories.

Wolfgang


Golly Wolfgang,
THAT brings back memories...

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:14:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Dec 7, 8:03 pm, Wes wrote:
"SteveB" wrote:
What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

I spent many a night drifting off to sleep listening to WSAL on my crystal
radio.http://www.wsal.com/

Wes


I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

Managed to build a few too once I laid my hands on some schematics...
sold one or two of them IIRC.

Later on there were some really sophisticated circuits available.

Ahhh, memories.

Wolfgang
I used to scrounge old "tombstone" and "cathedral" sets, get the
"Radio College" schematics and totally rebuild them. FANTASTIC SW DX
with some of those radios. As well as BCDX.
Did my first complete strip and repop on an old RCA when I was13. It
was an early '30's model in '64/'65 for my grade 8 science project.
Boy I wish I still had a few of those around today!!!
When I left for Africa in '73 I got rid of about 200 tubes - about
half were NOS Octals and Loctals - an a handful of the old 0Z4 etc.

Built my first stereo Phono about the same time and the first LP I
bought was Wilf Carter - and I think I still have it.


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Mark F wrote:

My eye? The blockbuster firecracker that didn't go off, so I lit the
end of it and was blowing on the spark when it finally got the message.
Fortunately no permanent damage to my cornea - but I also got the message..

That brings back a memory... Late 70's, used to go out to a
somewhat remote beach north of Santa Cruz for July 4th fun
with a friend from work. We had, uh, imported fireworks...
fun stuff up to 1" rockets and M-80's. We were launching
M-80's with a wrist rocket. Now, I'd been burned pretty good
by 'safe and sane' Red Devil fireworks when I was about 12,
under the supervision of my parents no less. Still played
with fire, but played with a lot of respect.

My friend gripes that I'm releasing too soon, mine are going
off just above the water where his go off high up.

Well, after he's launched about 30, I finally suspend common
sense. Against my instincts, I get set and my eyes are
locked on the fuse about 1/4" from the case. When it burns
to that point, I'm releasing. Tom lights the fuse, and
FOOOSH, I'm staring at nothing but burned fuse less than a
foot from my face!

I distinctly remember one really impressive Thump of a
heartbeat. I released and turned my head to my left, in the
direction I was launching. It went off about a foot or two
away from the wrist rocket. The blast and flash momentarily
blinded and deafened me.

I swore never again to ignore my gut instincts in such
situations, and Tom decided maybe I wasn't such a wuss after
all....

Maybe another time I'll tell about the next 4th, when Tom's
wife dropped a lit cig in the shopping bag with 2 bricks of
firecrackers, 2 gross of bottle rockets, a gross of M-80's
and two dozen 1" rockets. That was my last trip to the beach
with them....

Jon

I used to make motors by hand. Cut some round discs out of tin can lids,
then cut them to a H pattern. Drill a hole in the middle, and use a 16d
nail for the shaft. Stack some together. Wind them with wire, and tape the
ends on the shaft so the rotating field could reverse with each rotation.
Make the outer windings using pieces of tin can. Powered, of course by one
of those six or eight inch tall two inch round diameter red batteries with
the round screw nuts on the top.

I had forgotten about that.

Steve

Jon Anderson wrote:

Maybe another time I'll tell about the next 4th, when Tom's
wife dropped a lit cig in the shopping bag with 2 bricks of
firecrackers, 2 gross of bottle rockets, a gross of M-80's
and two dozen 1" rockets. That was my last trip to the beach
with them....

I was riding with Uncle Stanley and his son was tossing firecrackers out the
window. One came back in rear side window and touched off the bricks in the
back. Sounded like WWII.

Wes

A friend and I were driving around in the suburbs with M80's in the
mid-1970's, I was the passenger. I lit one and threw it over the top of
the car into some woods. We went around the block and came back and the
frickin' woods were on fire. Took us a while to get it put out.
Completely ruined a new pair of shoes I was wearing. Scared the hell
out of me. Many houses could have been lost.

Dave

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
It looked like a space ship rocket.

Yep, it was a Rocket Radio. Like these:
http://www.crystalradio.net/misc/rocket/index.shtml I had one as a kid, and now
have a reproduction that I bought at Restoration Hardware.

I remember listening to mine in class before the teachers even thought of
banning radios in the classroom. I used the steam radiator and the window
screen as antenna & ground.

After that, a few of the rich (and cool) kids had lunchbox-sized portable AM
radios. They used tubes, with A and B batteries. Most had a power cord tucked
away inside so they could be plugged in to save the batteries. Being able to
score your own radio for Christmas was a big deal, but being able to afford the
batteries to play it was an even bigger deal!

Transistor radios came later.

Vaughn

On Dec 7, 6:44 pm, "SteveB" wrote:
Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but black.
I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It had a rod
coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it had two cords
coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a single wire to
an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary phones,
put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the stations. Oh
My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all over the US.
KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg stations in
Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I fell asleep
listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my eyelid
and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the flight of
that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve

I am concerned about the coming of digital radio. Radio was one of
the things that you could show young people to get them interested in
science and engineering. Fathers could make their sons crystal set
radios very easily. Kids could learn the theory of AM radio pretty
easily. The number of children less than 10 years old who obtained
their ham licenses (which required passing a theory test) is legion.

When digital finally replaces current radio broadcasting we won't be
able to do that. Can't use parts from current telephones to make a
simple telephone, either.

At least a balsa and tissue model airplane will still fly, and you can
still find them at hobby shops :-)

SteveB wrote:
It was KOB Albuq. and I forgot about KSL. That was 52 years ago.

Steve
Yep it's still here. I didn't know when it started but I've
only been here 18 yrs.
...lew...

Gerald Miller wrote:
Many a night I spent hours listening to XERF 1570, after the local
station, CFOR Orillia, Ontario went off the air on the same frequency.
Gerry :-)}

Don't recognize the X call sign. Where is it?
...lew...

clare at snyder.on.ca wrote:

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:14:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:


On Dec 7, 8:03 pm, Wes wrote:

"SteveB" wrote:

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

I spent many a night drifting off to sleep listening to WSAL on my crystal
radio.http://www.wsal.com/

Wes


I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

Managed to build a few too once I laid my hands on some schematics...
sold one or two of them IIRC.

Later on there were some really sophisticated circuits available.

Ahhh, memories.

Wolfgang

I used to scrounge old "tombstone" and "cathedral" sets, get the
"Radio College" schematics and totally rebuild them. FANTASTIC SW DX
with some of those radios. As well as BCDX.
Did my first complete strip and repop on an old RCA when I was13. It
was an early '30's model in '64/'65 for my grade 8 science project.
Boy I wish I still had a few of those around today!!!
When I left for Africa in '73 I got rid of about 200 tubes - about
half were NOS Octals and Loctals - an a handful of the old 0Z4 etc.

Built my first stereo Phono about the same time and the first LP I
bought was Wilf Carter - and I think I still have it.



Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:34:31 -0700, Lew Hartswick
wrote:

Gerald Miller wrote:
Many a night I spent hours listening to XERF 1570, after the local
station, CFOR Orillia, Ontario went off the air on the same frequency.
Gerry :-)}

Don't recognize the X call sign. Where is it?
...lew...
In Mexico. I used to listen to the oldies show on XERB "100,000 watts
from Rosarita Beach, Mexico" after midnight.

Bob

Lew Hartswick wrote:
Gerald Miller wrote:

Many a night I spent hours listening to XERF 1570, after the local
station, CFOR Orillia, Ontario went off the air on the same frequency.
Gerry :-)}


Don't recognize the X call sign. Where is it?
...lew...


Mexico.

Jim Chandler

Lew Hartswick wrote:

clare at snyder.on.ca wrote:

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:14:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:


On Dec 7, 8:03 pm, Wes wrote:

"SteveB" wrote:

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.


I spent many a night drifting off to sleep listening to WSAL on my
crystal
radio.http://www.wsal.com/

Wes



I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

Managed to build a few too once I laid my hands on some schematics...
sold one or two of them IIRC.

Later on there were some really sophisticated circuits available.

Ahhh, memories.

Wolfgang


I used to scrounge old "tombstone" and "cathedral" sets, get the
"Radio College" schematics and totally rebuild them. FANTASTIC SW DX
with some of those radios. As well as BCDX.
Did my first complete strip and repop on an old RCA when I was13. It
was an early '30's model in '64/'65 for my grade 8 science project.
Boy I wish I still had a few of those around today!!!
When I left for Africa in '73 I got rid of about 200 tubes - about
half were NOS Octals and Loctals - an a handful of the old 0Z4 etc.

Built my first stereo Phono about the same time and the first LP I
bought was Wilf Carter - and I think I still have it.


Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...


Where was the 763rd, Les? That number sounds familiar. I spent my
three and a half years ('61-65) at the Washington Air Defense Sector
(WAADS) at Fort Lee, Va. and it sounds like it was one of ours.

Jim Chandler

Lew Hartswick wrote:

clare at snyder.on.ca wrote:

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:14:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:


On Dec 7, 8:03 pm, Wes wrote:

"SteveB" wrote:

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.


I spent many a night drifting off to sleep listening to WSAL on my
crystal
radio.http://www.wsal.com/

Wes



I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

Managed to build a few too once I laid my hands on some schematics...
sold one or two of them IIRC.

Later on there were some really sophisticated circuits available.

Ahhh, memories.

Wolfgang


I used to scrounge old "tombstone" and "cathedral" sets, get the
"Radio College" schematics and totally rebuild them. FANTASTIC SW DX
with some of those radios. As well as BCDX.
Did my first complete strip and repop on an old RCA when I was13. It
was an early '30's model in '64/'65 for my grade 8 science project.
Boy I wish I still had a few of those around today!!!
When I left for Africa in '73 I got rid of about 200 tubes - about
half were NOS Octals and Loctals - an a handful of the old 0Z4 etc.

Built my first stereo Phono about the same time and the first LP I
bought was Wilf Carter - and I think I still have it.


Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...

Sorry, I meant to type Lew not Les. Damned fingers, I just washed them
and can't do a thing with them. :-)

Jim

After a Computer crash and the demise of civilization, it was learned
Dave Hinz wrote on 8 Dec 2007 02:00:38 GMT in
rec.crafts.metalworking :
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:14:44 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I remember the rocket crystal set...a friend had one and we tried it
out on different "antennas". One that worked well was the insulated
guy wire on electric power poles.

My crystal radio, I coupled to a wire run along the clothesline outside
my window. I used tinfoil inside & out on my bedroom window, and oddly
enough, it worked. Pretty sure I read about it somewhere, can't imagine
I would have made that up.

I taped a sheet of tin foil to the inside wall of my dorm, got
pretty decent reception using that as an "aerial".

Also fell asleep listening to the local ROCK station in Toronto.

World Something Radio, on shortwave here. Insert sound-effects here,
you know the ones.

Used to listen to WABC out of New York when I lived in Boston. The
Jean Shepard show. One night, he's reading the Cremation of Sam Magee
when I tune in. Gets tot he climactic ending, and shrieks! I shut off
the radio. Oops, now I don't know how it ends. Next day, I cop to my
Dad what I was doing, and he pulls the book off the shelf "The Collected
Poems of Robert Service." I still have that book.


--
pyotr filipivich
Old farts these days - no like when I was a boy. We used to
have us Real Geezers in those days. Now, they'll let anybody
with a little gray hair be an old fart.

"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
. ..

That brings back a memory... Late 70's, used to go out to a
somewhat remote beach north of Santa Cruz for July 4th fun
with a friend from work. We had, uh, imported fireworks...
fun stuff up to 1" rockets and M-80's. We were launching
M-80's with a wrist rocket. Now, I'd been burned pretty good
by 'safe and sane' Red Devil fireworks when I was about 12,
under the supervision of my parents no less. Still played
with fire, but played with a lot of respect.

My friend gripes that I'm releasing too soon, mine are going
off just above the water where his go off high up.

Well, after he's launched about 30, I finally suspend common
sense. Against my instincts, I get set and my eyes are
locked on the fuse about 1/4" from the case. When it burns
to that point, I'm releasing. Tom lights the fuse, and
FOOOSH, I'm staring at nothing but burned fuse less than a
foot from my face!

I distinctly remember one really impressive Thump of a
heartbeat. I released and turned my head to my left, in the
direction I was launching. It went off about a foot or two
away from the wrist rocket. The blast and flash momentarily
blinded and deafened me.

I swore never again to ignore my gut instincts in such
situations, and Tom decided maybe I wasn't such a wuss after
all....

Maybe another time I'll tell about the next 4th, when Tom's
wife dropped a lit cig in the shopping bag with 2 bricks of
firecrackers, 2 gross of bottle rockets, a gross of M-80's
and two dozen 1" rockets. That was my last trip to the beach
with them....

Jon




A few year later and up the coast a bit in Half Moon Bay I was doing
something similar. We had got some firecrackers that made M-80's seem like
greenie stickum caps. They were about as big around as a silver dollar and
about 4 inches long.

We set it with a cigarette fuse down near the waterline and we had taped a
Bic lighter to the side of the thing. We retreated to the cliff side of the
beach and sat waiting.

The result was a mushroom cloud after a very big flash and boom.


--

__
Roger Shoaf

Important factors in selecting a mate:
1] Depth of gene pool
2] Position on the food chain.

......my older brother & I took my long unused 16" tricycle apart and
inverted the fork, flipped the main part upside down and rigged up a a board
for a seat onto what used to be the underside of the small platform meant
for your friend to stand on while you sat & pedaled.
This was in the early 1950s and about 20 yrs later Mattel invented the Big
Wheel and made about a Bazillion dollars. sigh
Steve in OK
(also listened to KOMA on a Crystal radio)

----- Original Message -----
From: "SteveB"
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 6:44 PM
Subject: When I was a kid ............


Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but
black. I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It
had a rod coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it
had two cords coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a
single wire to an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary
phones, put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the
stations. Oh My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all
over the US. KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg
stations in Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I
fell asleep listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my
eyelid and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the
flight of that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but
black. I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It
had a rod coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it
had two cords coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a
single wire to an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary
phones, put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the
stations. Oh My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all
over the US. KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg
stations in Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I
fell asleep listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my
eyelid and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the
flight of that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:12:59 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, Bob
quickly quoth:

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:34:31 -0700, Lew Hartswick
wrote:

Gerald Miller wrote:
Many a night I spent hours listening to XERF 1570, after the local
station, CFOR Orillia, Ontario went off the air on the same frequency.
Gerry :-)}

Don't recognize the X call sign. Where is it?
...lew...
In Mexico. I used to listen to the oldies show on XERB "100,000 watts
from Rosarita Beach, Mexico" after midnight.

Yeah, if that's the one I'm remembering, it had a bandwidth about 4MHz
wide. I often wished they'd tune the damned xmitter and only broadcast
on -one- station at a time. And give that announcer a lozenge.
(Wolfman Jack

--
Smokey the Bear's rules for fire safety should apply to government:
Keep it small, keep it in a confined area, and keep an eye on it.
--John Stossel in _Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity_

On Dec 8, 2:28 pm, pyotr filipivich wrote:
...
Used to listen to WABC out of New York when I lived in Boston. The
Jean Shepard show. One night, he's reading the Cremation of Sam Magee
when I tune in. Gets tot he climactic ending, and shrieks! I shut off
the radio. Oops, now I don't know how it ends. Next day, I cop to my
Dad what I was doing, and he pulls the book off the shelf "The Collected
Poems of Robert Service." I still have that book.
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s
--
pyotr filipivich
Old farts these days - no like when I was a boy. We used to
have us Real Geezers in those days. Now, they'll let anybody
with a little gray hair be an old fart.

OK, what are the requirements? I have the scruffy beard and the 1990
pickup truck and the basement full of strange old machinery but don't
really have the performance perfected yet.

Jim Wilkins

"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...
On Dec 8, 2:28 pm, pyotr filipivich wrote:
...
Used to listen to WABC out of New York when I lived in Boston.
The
Jean Shepard show. One night, he's reading the Cremation of Sam Magee
when I tune in. Gets tot he climactic ending, and shrieks! I shut off
the radio. Oops, now I don't know how it ends. Next day, I cop to my
Dad what I was doing, and he pulls the book off the shelf "The Collected
Poems of Robert Service." I still have that book.
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s
--
pyotr filipivich
Old farts these days - no like when I was a boy. We used to
have us Real Geezers in those days. Now, they'll let anybody
with a little gray hair be an old fart.

OK, what are the requirements? I have the scruffy beard and the 1990
pickup truck and the basement full of strange old machinery but don't
really have the performance perfected yet.

Jim Wilkins

The secret question for initiates is, "Did you ever own a Spud Gun?"

Answer must be, "Yes."

HTH

Steve

"Steve Monroe" wrote in message
...
.....my older brother & I took my long unused 16" tricycle apart and
inverted the fork, flipped the main part upside down and rigged up a a
board for a seat onto what used to be the underside of the small platform
meant for your friend to stand on while you sat & pedaled.
This was in the early 1950s and about 20 yrs later Mattel invented the Big
Wheel and made about a Bazillion dollars. sigh
Steve in OK
(also listened to KOMA on a Crystal radio)

Hey, it took that guy a long time to collect on the intermittent windshield
wiper idea. I'd go for it.

Steve ;-)

SteveB wrote:
"Steve Monroe" wrote in message
...

.....my older brother & I took my long unused 16" tricycle apart and
inverted the fork, flipped the main part upside down and rigged up a a
board for a seat onto what used to be the underside of the small platform
meant for your friend to stand on while you sat & pedaled.
This was in the early 1950s and about 20 yrs later Mattel invented the Big
Wheel and made about a Bazillion dollars. sigh
Steve in OK
(also listened to KOMA on a Crystal radio)


Hey, it took that guy a long time to collect on the intermittent windshield
wiper idea. I'd go for it.

Steve ;-)
But I did that modification to my tricycle in the mid 1930's. And I
don't think I came up with
the idea myself.

Bill K7NOM ( in California)

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:34:31 -0700, Lew Hartswick
wrote:

Gerald Miller wrote:
Many a night I spent hours listening to XERF 1570, after the local
station, CFOR Orillia, Ontario went off the air on the same frequency.
Gerry :-)}

Don't recognize the X call sign. Where is it?
...lew...
I think the studios etc. were in Del Rio TX. while the transmitter was
across the river.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XERF-AM
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

Then I believe you qualify for the "Old Geezer" club Bill. G
Funny that the thread about square head set screws made me think of doing
the trike mod years ago. The forks on bikes & trikes are held on with that
type of screw.
Steve in OK

"Bill Janssen" wrote in message
...
SteveB wrote:
"Steve Monroe" wrote in message
...

.....my older brother & I took my long unused 16" tricycle apart and
inverted the fork, flipped the main part upside down and rigged up a a
board for a seat onto what used to be the underside of the small
platform meant for your friend to stand on while you sat & pedaled.
This was in the early 1950s and about 20 yrs later Mattel invented the
Big Wheel and made about a Bazillion dollars. sigh
Steve in OK
(also listened to KOMA on a Crystal radio)


Hey, it took that guy a long time to collect on the intermittent
windshield wiper idea. I'd go for it.

Steve ;-)
But I did that modification to my tricycle in the mid 1930's. And I don't
think I came up with
the idea myself.

Bill K7NOM ( in California)

"Vaughn Simon" wrote in message
...

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
It looked like a space ship rocket.

Yep, it was a Rocket Radio. Like these:
http://www.crystalradio.net/misc/rocket/index.shtml I had one as a kid,
and now have a reproduction that I bought at Restoration Hardware.

I remember listening to mine in class before the teachers even thought of
banning radios in the classroom. I used the steam radiator and the window
screen as antenna & ground.

After that, a few of the rich (and cool) kids had lunchbox-sized portable
AM radios. They used tubes, with A and B batteries. Most had a power
cord tucked away inside so they could be plugged in to save the batteries.
Being able to score your own radio for Christmas was a big deal, but being
able to afford the batteries to play it was an even bigger deal!

Transistor radios came later.

Vaughn


I used to scrounge old vacuum tube hearing aids. With a crude tuned circuit
in place of the microphone, they would receive local stations. They would
fit into a shirt pocket. My teachers never caught on.


Steve R.


--
Reply address munged to bugger up spammers

Jim Chandler wrote:
Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...



Where was the 763rd, Les? That number sounds familiar. I spent my
three and a half years ('61-65) at the Washington Air Defense Sector
(WAADS) at Fort Lee, Va. and it sounds like it was one of ours.

Jim Chandler

763 AC&W sqdn. Lockport NY (just east of Niagara Falls)
CPS6-B radar with search kit installed while I was there
1951 1953. S/Sgt when departing 3 Dec 1953.
Seems a lifetime ago. :-)
...lew...

"Lew Hartswick" wrote in message
...
Jim Chandler wrote:
Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...



Where was the 763rd, Les? That number sounds familiar. I spent my three
and a half years ('61-65) at the Washington Air Defense Sector (WAADS) at
Fort Lee, Va. and it sounds like it was one of ours.

Jim Chandler

763 AC&W sqdn. Lockport NY (just east of Niagara Falls)
CPS6-B radar with search kit installed while I was there
1951 1953. S/Sgt when departing 3 Dec 1953.
Seems a lifetime ago. :-)
...lew...

Psssst. As one old fart to another, 54 years IS a lifetime to many people.
Sometimes, I tell these young farts, "I've got shoes older than you."

I was five in 1953, so you got a few on me.

Steve

Anyone local remember "Chester", the dial-up computer at Seattle's
University of Seattle? Circa 1968, 1970 or so. You could call up, and
select a variety of recorded material. My fav was Old Radio. Plays,
narrated Edgar Allen Poe stories, etc. Phone charges didn't count back then.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

SteveB wrote:

Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by the
discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When I was a
kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books. My
most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana, but black.
I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship rocket. It had a rod
coming out of the tip with a small black ball on it. Then it had two cords
coming out. One was a two wire to an ear bud. The other a single wire to
an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary phones,
put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the stations. Oh
My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations all over the US.
KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA. Bootleg stations in
Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in the US. I fell asleep
listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back single
shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and came back
into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad rolled my eyelid
and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to this day the flight of
that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve




--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal"
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

Ahem... University of Washington
JR North wrote:

Anyone local remember "Chester", the dial-up computer at Seattle's
University of Seattle? Circa 1968, 1970 or so. You could call up, and
select a variety of recorded material. My fav was Old Radio. Plays,
narrated Edgar Allen Poe stories, etc. Phone charges didn't count back
then.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

SteveB wrote:

Another thread is going back to such musings, along a line started by
the discussion of music, then into old phonos, and the thing of "When
I was a kid" ............

When I was a kid, I sent off for all sorts of stuff from comic books.
My most memorable thing was a radio that looked like half a banana,
but black. I'm sure it was Bakelite. It looked like a space ship
rocket. It had a rod coming out of the tip with a small black ball on
it. Then it had two cords coming out. One was a two wire to an ear
bud. The other a single wire to an alligator clip.

You would clip the clip to the silver finger hook on the old rotary
phones, put in the ear bud, then move the rod up and down to get the
stations. Oh My! I was living in Las Vegas, and got radio stations
all over the US. KOMA, Ok. City. KOA Albuq. KOMO Seattle. KNX LA.
Bootleg stations in Mexico that were exceeding FAA wattage limits in
the US. I fell asleep listening to that radio many a night.

Ah. When I was a kid.

What was one of your favorites you didn't put yer eye out with.

BTW, the first time my dad took me out to shoot my new crack back
single shot BB gun, the BB traveled to an old car fender, bounced, and
came back into my eye. I watched it during its whole flight. My dad
rolled my eyelid and the BB fell out. I was lucky. But I remember to
this day the flight of that BB in slow motion. My first shot with a gun.

Steve





--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal"
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

SteveB wrote:
"Lew Hartswick" wrote in message
...
Jim Chandler wrote:
Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...


Where was the 763rd, Les? That number sounds familiar. I spent my three
and a half years ('61-65) at the Washington Air Defense Sector (WAADS) at
Fort Lee, Va. and it sounds like it was one of ours.

Jim Chandler
763 AC&W sqdn. Lockport NY (just east of Niagara Falls)
CPS6-B radar with search kit installed while I was there
1951 1953. S/Sgt when departing 3 Dec 1953.
Seems a lifetime ago. :-)
...lew...

Psssst. As one old fart to another, 54 years IS a lifetime to many people.
Sometimes, I tell these young farts, "I've got shoes older than you."

I was five in 1953, so you got a few on me.

Steve



'48 was a good year, me too.

George

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:16:38 GMT, George wrote:

SteveB wrote:
"Lew Hartswick" wrote in message
...
Jim Chandler wrote:
Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...


Where was the 763rd, Les? That number sounds familiar. I spent my three
and a half years ('61-65) at the Washington Air Defense Sector (WAADS) at
Fort Lee, Va. and it sounds like it was one of ours.

Jim Chandler
763 AC&W sqdn. Lockport NY (just east of Niagara Falls)
CPS6-B radar with search kit installed while I was there
1951 1953. S/Sgt when departing 3 Dec 1953.
Seems a lifetime ago. :-)
...lew...

Psssst. As one old fart to another, 54 years IS a lifetime to many people.
Sometimes, I tell these young farts, "I've got shoes older than you."

I was five in 1953, so you got a few on me.

Steve



'48 was a good year, me too.
That was when I started in the electrical trade - step and fetch and
hold the light for my Dad.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

Gerald Miller wrote:
On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:16:38 GMT, George wrote:

SteveB wrote:
"Lew Hartswick" wrote in message
...
Jim Chandler wrote:
Brings back a lot memories. Same kind of things but mine was done
in the 40s . By the 50s I was into Ham radio and the MARS station
at the 763 AC&W sta.
...lew...

Where was the 763rd, Les? That number sounds familiar. I spent my three
and a half years ('61-65) at the Washington Air Defense Sector (WAADS) at
Fort Lee, Va. and it sounds like it was one of ours.

Jim Chandler
763 AC&W sqdn. Lockport NY (just east of Niagara Falls)
CPS6-B radar with search kit installed while I was there
1951 1953. S/Sgt when departing 3 Dec 1953.
Seems a lifetime ago. :-)
...lew...
Psssst. As one old fart to another, 54 years IS a lifetime to many people.
Sometimes, I tell these young farts, "I've got shoes older than you."

I was five in 1953, so you got a few on me.

Steve


'48 was a good year, me too.
That was when I started in the electrical trade - step and fetch and
hold the light for my Dad.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

I remember the early crystal sets, breadboarded on what ever was
available. I had KUJ (50,000 watts) just over a half mile away so volume
was not a real problem.

Can you still get germanium diodes? Haven't seen one for many a year.

Later we went to adding single stage amps, just for the fun of it,
utilized a 2N107 transistor with a AAA battery. Hid them in a large pen
case, ran the earphone up the sleeve of my shirt and never got caught in
class.

Oh, the fun it was.

George