Wrong radio

[NQ6U]

The XYL and I were watching the movie Amelia on TV last night. It's about Amelia Earhart, and not a bad movie at all. There was one scene, however, that would drive any ham who's familiar with old test equipment crazy. It was near the end of the film, when some radio men aboard a U.S. Navy ship are trying to contact Earhart's plane and one operator is twisting with a knob while saying "I can't contact her!"

My reaction was "Well, maybe if you were were using a radio instead of fiddling around with a signal generator you'd have better luck."

[KG4CGC]

I knew it! People ask me all the time, why some old radio doesn't work and when I figure out through the description what it is ... sig gen!

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

That is the trouble with trying to do period equipment.
Marine radios as a rule did not live long and disposal is sometimes throwing it overboard.
I have quite a few old radios from the pre-SSB era that were removed and left to rot.

[kc7jty]

Transmitting without depressing the PTT or talking into the back of the microphoney is another Hollywood trick.

[w2amr]

I watch highway patrol every morning when I'm on the tredmill. One day last week Dan Mathews was aboard the police chopper, and Everytime he listened to the dispatcher on the radio he held the microphone up to his ear.:wtf:

[n2ize]

I watch highway patrol every morning when I'm on the tredmill. One day last week Dan Mathews was aboard the police chopper, and Everytime he listened to the dispatcher on the radio he held the microphone up to his ear.:wtf:

Speaker mic maybe ? Most of the time you wear a headset in a helicopter so you can hear what is being said over the background noise.

[n2ize]

The XYL and I were watching the movie Amelia on TV last night. It's about Amelia Earhart, and not a bad movie at all. There was one scene, however, that would drive any ham who's familiar with old test equipment crazy. It was near the end of the film, when some radio men aboard a U.S. Navy ship are trying to contact Earhart's plane and one operator is twisting with a knob while saying "I can't contact her!"

My reaction was "Well, maybe if you were were using a radio instead of fiddling around with a signal generator you'd have better luck."

Hollywood screws up stuff like this often. They'll often show someone trying to "tune someone in" by haphazardly twisting dials and flicking switches as opposed to the real way of doing it. Either they don't know or they feel audiences will respond better to dramatic twisting of dials.

[W3WN]

Remember, we're talking about an industry that thinks highly charged ionization layers due to solar activity permits someone to talk to someone else through time... on an SB-301 receiver and a busted up Yagi.

You're not supposed to pay attention to the little details like that.

[N7RJD]

Remember, we're talking about an industry that thinks highly charged ionization layers due to solar activity permits someone to talk to someone else through time... on an SB-301 receiver and a busted up Yagi.


At least they finally got one right. :nuts::lol:

[KC2UGV]

Hollywood screws up stuff like this often. They'll often show someone trying to "tune someone in" by haphazardly twisting dials and flicking switches as opposed to the real way of doing it. Either they don't know or they feel audiences will respond better to dramatic twisting of dials.

Everyone likes knobs...

[W2NAP]

Remember, we're talking about an industry that thinks highly charged ionization layers due to solar activity permits someone to talk to someone else through time... on an SB-301 receiver and a busted up Yagi.

You're not supposed to pay attention to the little details like that.

don't forget in die hard, the NYPD uses 2 meters.

[N2CHX]

As D would say, "plot device."

[K7SGJ]

21-50 by..............

[N8YX]

don't forget in die hard, the NYPD uses 2 meters.
Don't forget in real-world life that the Indy PD does as well ... :whistle:

[w2amr]

In midnight run De Niro listened to the Duke's phone calls on an old Yaesu FT-209 HT.:wtf:

[WØTKX]

http://servingsouthwestflorida.net/work/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/scottyhellocomputer.jpg

[W3MIV]

This is generally not the kind of screw-up many of you think it is. The Director and the set designers and dressers often know quite a bit more than you give them credit for. Your error is thinking they give a shit about the kind of accuracy you think important. Movie props are all about what it looks like, not what it is. Used to be in that bidness. A signal generator has a wonderful vernier dial, large and loaded with a bazillion fine graduations. Looks far better to the layman -- who is, after all, the primary audience (not RF geeks) -- than more real rigs of the day. Most had small digit windows that would be virtually unrecognizable; worse are those that had small segments (arc) of a larger graduated disk most of which was hidden behind the panel.

[W3WN]

don't forget in die hard, the NYPD uses 2 meters.
Which Die Hard?

In the original, they're using Kenwood HT's (70 cm I thought, but whatever) but pretending they're CB HT's. And that's the LAPD, not the NYPD.
In Die Hard II: Experiencing a DC Airport in a Holiday, they're using the very same Kenwood HT's as miltary-issue VHF radios.
I don't recall offhand what they used in Die Hard III: Take The Magic Trucks to Manhatten, it's kind of hard to tell.

Nor am I sure what they used in Die Hard 4: I'm a Mac, You're a Terrorist.

[W2NAP]

Which Die Hard?

In the original, they're using Kenwood HT's (70 cm I thought, but whatever) but pretending they're CB HT's. And that's the LAPD, not the NYPD.
In Die Hard II: Experiencing a DC Airport in a Holiday, they're using the very same Kenwood HT's as miltary-issue VHF radios.
I don't recall offhand what they used in Die Hard III: Take The Magic Trucks to Manhatten, it's kind of hard to tell.

Nor am I sure what they used in Die Hard 4: I'm a Mac, You're a Terrorist.

die hard 4, the mobile unit is a 2 meter rig i believe the freq read out was 144.200

[W2NAP]

Don't forget in real-world life that the Indy PD does as well ... :whistle:

well they did, until caught

[VE7DCW]

Remember, we're talking about an industry that thinks highly charged ionization layers due to solar activity permits someone to talk to someone else through time... on an SB-301 receiver and a busted up Yagi.

You're not supposed to pay attention to the little details like that.

Ah yes.... ! funny you should mention "301"..... reminded me of some bad hollywood movie I saw on T.V. a year or so ago. It was so bad I can't even remember the title of it.... one of the plot scenes showed a small desert town sheriff's department that was attempting to contact one of it's patrol cars using a Yaesu FT-301 transceiver !! .....talk about intruders on amateur frequencies.... :lol:

73

[W1GUH]

So, did a D-104 star in the movie, too? I saw the theatrical preview & a D-104 was prominent in a majority of shots in it. Hope they used it right in the movie.

[W3MIV]

So, did a D-104 star in the movie, too? I saw the theatrical preview & a D-104 was prominent in a majority of shots in it. Hope they used it right in the movie.

You will often see the D-104 used in a movie, but backasswards. That is because it does not look like a mic from the back. To the average movie-goer, seeing the mesh side means it's a mic; seeing the plain back cover does not convey the same meaning.

Trust me, it's all about what it looks like, not about reality or accuracy.

[W1GUH]

You will often see the D-104 used in a movie, but backasswards. That is because it does not look like a mic from the back. To the average movie-goer, seeing the mesh side means it's a mic; seeing the plain back cover does not convey the same meaning.

Trust me, it's all about what it looks like, not about reality or accuracy.

Great observation. What they need to do is shoot "talking on the mic" scenes as "over the shoulder." Then again...there's a ranger cabin in Disney's California Adventure where the ranger's radio is a Ranger, with no visible receiver.

[KC2UGV]

You will often see the D-104 used in a movie, but backasswards. That is because it does not look like a mic from the back. To the average movie-goer, seeing the mesh side means it's a mic; seeing the plain back cover does not convey the same meaning.

Trust me, it's all about what it looks like, not about reality or accuracy.

That's why knobs are important. And the bigger the knobs, the better.

[W1GUH]

That's why knobs are important. And the bigger the knobs, the better.

Doesn't matter if there's anything inside at all!

[NQ6U]

Yes, the D-104 showed up throughout the movie--there was in almost every scene where there was a radio in use, in fact. It looked out of place to me.

http://www.radioblvd.com/hampix/d104tug8.jpg

[kc7jty]

Doesn't matter if there's anything inside at all!

hollow tits? next best thing to air head?

[WØTKX]

You peeked under Gretchen's Party Hats?


:whistle:

[W3WN]

You peeked under Gretchen's Party Hats?

:whistle:Never had the chance. Should I get it, though, well... I'm allegedly a gentleman...