Messages

1

Amateur Radio / Re: Huntsville Hamfest 2019

« on: July 18, 2019, 2208 UTC »

The last time I was in that neck of the woods I was coming back from Houston. I got a motel room in Cullman just in time to watch the last couple of hours of "O.J. And Al's Wild Ride". I'd been hearing bits of it on the radio through the day, but when I saw it on TV after checking in, I was floored.

Why the cops didn't throw a spike strip across the highway and shoot our gun waving, melon-headed, ex- football hero still perplexes me?

2

Huh? / Re: Penguins ignore police, return to sushi shop

« on: July 18, 2019, 2136 UTC »

How does their venom rate, Al? Just a swelling effect or fatal?

3

Huh? / Re: From the "things that could, no, will, go horribly wrong" department

« on: July 18, 2019, 2131 UTC »

Satyr? Yeah, he can write it all, fiction, non-fiction, plays, poems and all the rest of that junk. Cypherin' is his top skill. He can figure out train schedules and racing forms at the same time.

My real exposure to Andy Devine came from old cowboy movies on cable access. I lived in a place where you were lucky to get two channels due to terrain. In the mid-late 60's a friend's Dad started a cable company, seven channels, plus the access one. It was a modern miracle.

The guy and his best friend, the local HS sports announcer loved old cowboy movies. They showed those old two and three reel serial westerns from the 30's, with cliff hanger endings, between 6 and 8 p.m. on weekday nights. Andy was in probably a third of them as either a sidekick or a bad guy.

The guy who owned the cable company and his buddy were more entertaining than a lot of those films. They started with a bit of buzz and got drunker as the show went on. The mistakes in the films were a real hoot. Our heroes of the Old West would be saving wagon trains from wild Natives, while you could see cars and trucks going up and down highways in the far background. Why those settlers didn't take the bus is beyond me?

4

Huh? / Re: From the "things that could, no, will, go horribly wrong" department

« on: July 17, 2019, 2102 UTC »

"Plunk yer magic twanger, Froggy!"

I saw it in re-runs sponsored by the local "Buster Brown Shoe Store" in the early 60's. Our Buster Brown store shared a building with Western Auto. When their "Red Ball Express" sneakers hit the market their slogan was "Run faster and jump higher!". In 1964 to promote the brand, they strapped a guy into a jet pack in an empty lot behind the building. He flew over the building and scorched the Hell out of couple of antique cars at the street fair.

I wore Buster Brown's to school and church. Red Ball Express? They weren't P.F. Flyers, my normal playground kicks. In the summer we went barefoot. "Aaw Ma! I don't need no shoes!"

Fansome had hooves, we had to take him across the river to get shoed once a year by the blacksmith.

5

Huh? / Re: From the "things that could, no, will, go horribly wrong" department

« on: July 17, 2019, 1058 UTC »

It makes you wonder what became of Andy Devine, doesn't it?

6

Bacon, BBQ, Beef, And More / Re: Arby’s Has an Answer to Plant-Based Meat: A Meat-Based Carrot

« on: July 16, 2019, 2155 UTC »

Slow day today, Al. Or is your Arby's obsession acting up again? You and that Horsey Sauce!

7

The RF Workbench / Re: Audio jacks/plugs as QRP RF wire quick connects

« on: July 16, 2019, 1844 UTC »

It is when it gets twisted. That's when it got split and turned into general low profile antenna wire. Those 100 ft. "Dollar Store" rolls of the stuff were much less bulky to carry into the woods than coax. 65'-67' ft. length for the feed, 33-34' for the dipole all for a buck and change.

They lasted about 5-7 tx'es, which was fine for my needs. When I split some of them I'd string them through a hayfield as a BOG which worked great or used them just to experiment with Made a nice MW mag loop out of the stuff about 20 years ago until a late tomcat got tangled up in it.

8

Huh? / Re: From the "things that could, no, will, go horribly wrong" department

« on: July 16, 2019, 1816 UTC »

Slim Whitman saves us in the end, as usual.

I've had a number of suit and tie jobs over the years. When I had to go to conferences I'd wear red socks with my navy blue suits. It got back to one of my bosses. I told him, "It worked for Slim Whitman, I figured it would work for me?" (Slim always wore red socks) My boss thought it was hilarious, as he knew those things were nothing but booze soaked B.S. fests.

My penchant for blue suits and red socks wasn't appreciated by my soon to be wife on our nights on the town either. Hey, they matched my antique ruby cuff links! My guess is she didn't like those, "I wish I could be with that guy." looks, that I got from the other women in the places we went? At least that's how it struck me. I wasn't buying that, "You look like a loon!", she was trying to foist upon me.

Follow Slim in style and both he and Johnny Otis in facial hair and you'll never go wrong. Duke Ellington is a good example, too. That pencil thin mustache is hard to get right, but don't let it frustrate you, it takes time.

9

Bacon, BBQ, Beef, And More / Re: Braised chicken thighs

« on: July 15, 2019, 1135 UTC »

I've got a cousin who owns a couple of BBQ joints. Whole legs and thighs are his second top bird orders. A half chicken is number one for the crowd who aren't there for the pulled pork. The pig is there until they sell out for the day, the bird is an all day item.

10

Other / Re: (Юнiк Радiо=Yunik)RURIK Radio 7055/7050 LSB 1400 UTC 02 Mar 2019

« on: July 14, 2019, 2316 UTC »

"Pig Dog", those were fighting words in my home town in the US. I didn't know it was used anywhere else?

11

Huh? / Re: From the "things that could, no, will, go horribly wrong" department

« on: July 14, 2019, 2255 UTC »

I had an Uncle by marriage who worked for one of those three letter agencies. When Area 51 started getting attention my cousin made the mistake of asking him "What's out there?". His reply was "None of your damned business!" She then asked him if he'd ever seen a UFO? He said, "I work as consultant to the defense industry, I've seen plenty of things in the air I couldn't i.d., but dollars to donuts they were ours." She wandered off satisfied.

He and I often speculated that when she ran, her head rattled. Dumb as stump. At least she was pretty.

12

The RF Workbench / Re: Audio jacks/plugs as QRP RF wire quick connects

« on: July 13, 2019, 1949 UTC »

I used it when I made up patch cords for my vintage Drake receivers from the "Twin Series" of TX/RX's. It's what they were set up to take for RX from the factory. RG-9 is the 75 ohms mini coax that I prefer. A crimp-on RCA male plug and you're rocking with an antenna that matches a dipole at the feed point. It's about as easy as it gets.

I knew a pirate that used either RG-6 or RG-9 feedline for a TX in the power ranges you're talking about with a 1:1 balun for years. He would occasionally add an amp and run roughly 150 watts of AM through the stuff, no problems.

I've used Dollar Store speaker wire for both feedline and the antenna, using a tuner. and had good results. That RF has to go somewhere.

13

Huh? / Re: From the "things that could, no, will, go horribly wrong" department

« on: July 13, 2019, 1922 UTC »

"Serpentine, Stan, serpentine!" Alan Arkin, "The In-Law's", a vastly underrated film.

14

General Radio Discussion / Re: California Earthquakes Disrupted HF (Shortwave Radio) Propagation on West Coast

« on: July 13, 2019, 0328 UTC »

https://news.stanford.edu/pr/91/911231Arc1006.html

There's also an ex-usgs guy who has made a career out west of predicting earthquakes using pet lost-and-found ads in the San Jose Murky News.

I remember that guy. I understand he passed recently.

He was doing some groundbreaking work involving penguin behavior in south Chile before those big 8 mag. quakes there towards the end.

15

European Pirate / Re: Radio The White Man 6225.3 AM 1812 utc 11 Jul 2019

« on: July 11, 2019, 2003 UTC »

I didn't know that waffle was still alive?