11 meters

[kk4fpx]

Anyone here use 11meters? I know several Ham's in this area that do,but you don't hear them talking about it.I wonder if they use cb jargon or if they try and use plain language when they use cb.I don't have 11 meters myself but I don't think it would wrong as long as you didn't break the fcc rules.
Just thinking about it because I heard some of my family members talking about it.

[N8YX]

We have Hondaline CBs on our Valkyries, J&M CBs on our Concours-14s and a few base rigs in the shack. At this moment a CPI CP-2000/BC-2000/DM-1 lineup is used for 11M ragchewing or bike-to-shack comms.

[KG4CGC]

Last time I checked, we have a group of locals that do nothing but play music, speech clips and noises on 11m. One guy I have to give props to, plays his guitar and the modulation is perfect. He is also quite talented.
Mid 90s, we had a nice group on 35 and 37. Then the people on 15 decided that they didn't want us to talk.

[KG4NEL]

I use it driving, not at home.

[KG4CGC]

We kept one in the truck until a year ago March. It became pretty useless where as I used to defend the use of mobile CB to all the naysayers.

[WØTKX]

It's been a while. I would go there sometimes to get away from QRMers on 75 and 2 meters.

True story...

[NY3V]

I remember when the FCC, in their infinite wisdom, gave our 11 Meter band away to the Continental Babblers.

[N8YX]

I remember when the FCC, in their infinite wisdom, gave our 11 Meter band away to the Continental Babblers.

Amateur operators never had the 11M band as a "primary" allocation - it was designated as an ISM band and we were granted access as secondary users. Therein lies the problem with non-exclusive spectrum: It can be and often is reallocated on a whim.

[kk4fpx]

I hate to say this because a long time ago I was a CBer.But we have a ex CBer around here that everyone wishes would go back to CB.He drives everyone nuts on 2 meters.

[N8YX]

I hate to say this because a long time ago I was a CBer.But we have a ex CBer around here that everyone wishes would go back to CB.He drives everyone nuts on 2 meters.

We get a lot of that on 20 and 75M as well.

[WØTKX]

Exactly. It's not the frequency, it's the operators.

[KG4CGC]

Had the Mt. Mitchell repeater shutdown on a disabled ham and I one morning for mentioning the dreaded band.
Censorship, pure and simple.

[N8YX]

Had the Mt. Mitchell repeater shutdown on a disabled ham and I one morning for mentioning the dreaded band.
Censorship, pure and simple.
And this right here is why private, closed repeaters need to be de-coordinated and the pairs reassigned:

They are not serving the interests of the public, especially when the control operators of the machine will shut it down for such an asinine reason.

For a Part 97 violation, yes. Because they simply disagree with the content of a legal exchange between licensed operators? No - emphatically.

[N7WQY]

I use it for short range communications with family members who are not hams works good if one of the nephews has a flat tire or radiator boil over but it isint much good for anything else though there is a nice group on channel 28 once in awhile who try to use the 11 meter for what it was intended for as a kind of public service band. I ve heard them make phone calls for or offer to bring gas etc for people who need a little help. The band isint completely useless it is just the grade of people that use them. and thats on 80 meters too. just listen to 3.840+/- some night.

[PA5COR]

I never looked down on 11 meters, but never used it, did some repairs on radio's though.
Testing one or the other and use the 11 meter band as condx tester, if i hear italians pop up in SSB there i know 10 will be opening up too.

Here the 11 meter band is as good as dead, it is seldom i hear a peep from the Netherlands, and that is a pity, in summer there are mostly some tourists that have one in the car or some truckers i can hear.

Reading about your 75 meter band -3800-4000 KHz i seem i don't miss much here not having it ;)

[N8YX]

11M turned into a time machine of sorts for me last evening. When I was first becoming involved with all things radio and most things electronic I made a lot of friends in the area via CB...this right around the height of the stateside "boom" in the late 70s. Long about the time I really began to chase the opposite sex (by way of motorcycle) most of my on-air friends had slipped away and boxed their stations.

Several years later I set up another radio ensemble and made another group of friends...and along came another bike or three.

Etc.

Around 7PM yesterday I heard one voice from the first crowd and one from the second checking in to our local AM chat channel. To say I was surprised to hear these guys after almost 30 years is a mild understatement.

[N7WQY]

11M turned into a time machine of sorts for me last evening. When I was first becoming involved with all things radio and most things electronic I made a lot of friends in the area via CB...this right around the height of the stateside "boom" in the late 70s. Long about the time I really began to chase the opposite sex (by way of motorcycle) most of my on-air friends had slipped away and boxed their stations.

Several years later I set up another radio ensemble and made another group of friends...and along came another bike or three.

Etc.

Around 7PM yesterday I heard one voice from the first crowd and one from the second checking in to our local AM chat channel. To say I was surprised to hear these guys after almost 30 years is a mild understatement.

When i was a teenager met one of my first girlfriends on the cb she was the daughter of a local trucker and i had some wonderful conversations as well as "other things" :) I know some call it the chicken band or childrens band but i wouldnt talk down about it. it is kind of like an old friend to me though not used much anymore alot of us got our start or our first interest in radio with these radios you could go buy at the local sporting good stores and could be afforded with a summer of lawn mowing money. I will always remember it fondly. :)

[kb2vxa]

There for a time between serious and chaos my CB took on the mysterious quality of catnip. It attracted every cat in 3 counties, day and night for a few years each in turn came around looking to be fed like they were working shifts. It was sometimes hard to keep them all happy, the supply of cat food was not unlimited and I need rest once in a while between catnaps. Lucky me, I never had to go to the vet but all good things come to an end, it was fun while it lasted. No problem, along came that one special kitten, she was all I could handle and more.

I can't say what the attraction was but I suspect a combination of factors. Late nights I put on the phones and close talked the mic in a low voice giving my voice that breathy late night Jazz DJ quality, my well known (to you) sense of humor and my habit of reading obscure song lyrics beat poet style. (Zappa and Bolan were top of the list.) You know how you fantasize about that intriguing radio personality and wonder what he/she is all about in person? That must have been the catnip and since I don't have a radio face like Scott Muni or Alyson Steele (you WNEW-FM listeners know what I'm talking about) the combination led to... Kindness Kennels?

Yeah, those were the daze and then CB went to hell in a hand basket so after a few years hiatus my addiction became too much to bear. I finally took Dave Popkin's advice and with a bit of arm twisting by KB2SFH I took the plunge and here I am. Where the heck is Sue anyway?

[N2NH]

I gave up on 11 Meters when I couldn't mount a roof antenna after my move to Brooklyn (despite previous assurances that I could). That was in 1979. Best move I ever made.

[kb2vxa]

I think we had that conversation, something about stringing a dipole across the courtyard?

[W7XF]

Isn't there a crossband repeater on Vancouver Island...input 27.185, output 14.313??? :lol:

[VE7DCW]

Isn't there a crossband repeater on Vancouver Island...input 27.185, output 14.313??? :lol:

Well ....I'm on Vancouver Island and there ain't no such repeater ...... :rofl:

You could'nt inflict that kind of punishment on poor innocent CB'ers having to listen to Mr.Kooky and company .... aaaaack !! :ugh:

[N2NH]

I think we had that conversation, something about stringing a dipole across the courtyard?

Yep. That was one possibility. The other was a Vertical on the highest point. 140' up on a 200' hill with no obstructions as far as the eye could see. I hit the WECA repeater with a 5 watt handheld from my living room window. That was through the skyscrapers in Manhattan and about 34 miles away. Even got their newsletter for awhile since I was so far from them.

[KG4CGC]

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/Aliens%20Guy/6f2af44a.jpg

[KA9MOT]

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/Aliens%20Guy/6f2af44a.jpg


Yup! You got all 11 of them!

11 1/2 for the freebanders!

728372837283728372837283728372837283728372837284

[kb2vxa]

Now you have me wondering how big a 160 meter post would be... or... 1750 meters. EEK!

[KG4CGC]

Now you have me wondering how big a 160 meter post would be... or... 1750 meters. EEK!

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/drinks/ce3ef326.jpg

[KA9MOT]

YUUP! That's 160M!


http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/drinks/ce3ef326.jpg

[KG4CGC]

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/15596430.gif

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/bebop5/drinks/0d1a0ca4.gif

[NY3V]

How many Pills do you use? I take three for Hypertension, 4 for Potassium, 1 for Prostate, but at 68, I don't need no stinkin' blue pills. ;)

[KA9MOT]

9 in the morning and an injection, and 2 of those 9 pills make me pee.
2 at noon or when I remember and 1 of those makes me pee.
5 at night, with an injection and none of those pills make me pee.

Road trips and naps are a bitch when your medicine makes you pee.

[kb2vxa]

"YUUP! That's 160M!"

I just HAD to ask... EEK! X 160. Well, you could have been a cheeky bass turd and posted 1750. OH DON'T YOU DARE!

"5 at night, with an injection and none of those pills make me pee."

Lucky you, it could be worse, you could be the source of Slimatron fuel. Among other things I take furosemide but thankfully I can skip it on those gotta gota days, otherwise the Bat Phone rings and I spend all day in the Bat Room. Now how did we get from transistors to pharmaceuticals anyway?

[n2ize]

I ran CB as a youngster back in the very early 1970's (before the CB boom). Mostly used to chat with local friends from school and from the local area. Wanted to become a ham back then but was too lazy to prepare for the test and head down to FCC headquarters to take it. We used "handles" rather than call signs and the FCC didn't take a liking to that. I remember getting a registered letter from Washington telling me they weren't too pleased. These were the days when Popkin used to make the rounds in the NYC area and vicinity. I drifted away from CB for a long spell and then got back into it during the mid to late 80's. By 1988 or 89 or so I got my ham license and drifted away from CB for good. I think my old CB rig may still be somewhere in the attic.

Some of my older ham rigs have 11 meters on them. In particular the Model 122 VFO on my Viking 2 (circa 1952) has an 11 meter position. I forget if the Valiant has 11 meters in it or not. Never ran it on 11 though. No desire too. Matter of fact I rarely put those rigs above 40 meters.

[WB2CAU]

Anyone here use 11meters? I know several Ham's in this area that do,but you don't hear them talking about it.I wonder if they use cb jargon or if they try and use plain language when they use cb.I don't have 11 meters myself but I don't think it would wrong as long as you didn't break the fcc rules.
Just thinking about it because I heard some of my family members talking about it.

Yes, I admit to recently taking a renewed interest in operating on CB. After all, it is radio. It is quite a bit different than it was when CB was my passion in the mid 1960s. I've seen it change drastically over time. Gone are the YLs, XYLs and youngsters in my area. Gone too are the numerous CB base station antennas in every neighborhood. Gone are the days when the majority used legal power. Gone are the days when there was licensing and you used an FCC-assigned identifier. The Internet and cell phones have contributed to a large extent the demise of CB's popularity, compared to the 60s and 70s.

But, myself and a few others have started to operate some evenings here on Long Island having real conversations and using conventional language on CB instead of the usual "we be waving da hand at ya, caw mawn" and then having nothing else to say.

Station identifiers through the years have morphed from FCC call signs, name "handles", and now self-assigned three-digit numerical identifiers are most commonly heard.

Yes, it's a different CB world now than it was when I first was introduced to it in 1963.

CB for several decades has been the entry portal into the radio hobby for a great majority of today's licensed hams. Hams have benefitted by CB and CB has benefitted by the ham radio community. It has always been a symbionic relationship. Furthermore, interest in CB as youngsters has propelled many into electronic and radio-related career paths.

For the record, Class D CB (27 MHz) just celebrated 54 years of existence in the middle of this month. It was established by the FCC in September 1958.

[kb2vxa]

"I forget if the Valiant has 11 meters in it or not."
Hokay, the Valiant and early Valiant II had 11M but the late production Valiant II looked like this and had a few slight modifications. Externally as you can see the meter changed, so did the color and it had aluminium knobs. Internally the driver became a doubler and another tank circuit added, 11M became 6M. The baby brother Ranger went through the same evolution.

"The Internet and cell phones have contributed to a large extent the demise of CB's popularity, compared to the 60s and 70s."
Sorry Charlie, neither existed when CB died. By the time the 80s came around the band was the worst sewer imaginable, overcrowded with the unmentionable spread out from 25-28.??? and skip didn't help matters any. Simply put, CB destroyed itself like that overcrowded rat colony in the experiment, they ate each other and those remaining were insane. It simply never recovered having essentially been replaced by more viable communications.

[N2NH]

"The Internet and cell phones have contributed to a large extent the demise of CB's popularity, compared to the 60s and 70s."
Sorry Charlie, neither existed when CB died. By the time the 80s came around the band was the worst sewer imaginable, overcrowded with the unmentionable spread out from 25-28.??? and skip didn't help matters any. Simply put, CB destroyed itself like that overcrowded rat colony in the experiment, they ate each other and those remaining were insane. It simply never recovered having essentially been replaced by more viable communications.

Hopefully, the FCC will see that the band isn't being used and re-allocate it to Amateur Radio as a data band.

[N2NH]

Now you have me wondering how big a 160 meter post would be... or... 1750 meters. EEK!

Ah, yest, LowFers. Back in college, I mentioned to my friend that there was no restriction to broadcasting on 1750 Meters. You could use phone and broadcast legally much like the Long Wave stations in Europe were doing for decades. I even contacted the FCC field office and spoke to one of their agents who reluctantly agreed that there was no restrictions on either phone or broadcasting. We were off on a fool's errand as we made connections and found resources for our 'radio station.' We found the missing link to the whole thing, schematics for a LF transceiver that an old guy who lived on Chambers St had 'invented.'

We got there and the place was an inventors workshop. Which meant that he was in the process of inventing a hundred things (or more) at one time. There were benches everywhere and snippets of plans on the floor. He was a loner and also totally deaf and bad at reading lips. He actually gave us the place where we could buy his plans at a pretty reasonable price (his were at his patent lawyer). Then he bid us goodbye.

All was well until we tried to leave the building. The door to the outside was locked from the inside as well as the outside. He couldn't hear us knocking on his door and we couldn't leave. Talking through the mail slot only garnered odd looks as people thought it was Candid Camera. Finally, after two or three hours, someone came home from work and let us out.

We started looking at how long the antenna would have to be. The restrictions back then, IIRC, were the antenna couldn't be over 20' high and the output from the transmitter had to be 100mw or less. The height restriction was something that we were familiar with as CB'ers. Not too hard except we couldn't put one up that was 300' long since we were in the city. That was the end of our month-long plans to build the legal LowFer pirate broadcasting station.:cry:

[N8YX]

Hopefully, the FCC will see that the band isn't being used and re-allocate it to Amateur Radio as a data band.
Good luck with that, and for a couple reasons:

One, 1.7MHz of "unused" 10M spectrum is sitting right next door;

Two, despite commentary about the band being under- or non-utilized, the various Class D CB manufacturers (OEMs such as Honda and Harley-Davidson included) continue to do a decent business with regards to new radio sales. And let's not forget eBay and the vintage CB equipment auctions - certain models never fail to move or to command high prices.

Someone's putting those radios to use.

[n2ize]

"I forget if the Valiant has 11 meters in it or not."
Hokay, the Valiant and early Valiant II had 11M but the late production Valiant II looked like this and had a few slight modifications. Externally as you can see the meter changed, so did the color and it had aluminium knobs. Internally the driver became a doubler and another tank circuit added, 11M became 6M. The baby brother Ranger went through the same evolution.

Okay, so my Valiant, being and older one probable does have an 11 meter position as well, much like my Model 122 VFO that I run with the Viking. My Globe King 500 however does not have an 11 meter tap. But rest assured with some minor modification it could run 11. Of course I have no intention of trying it. CB is a wasteland around these parts. And my days of pumping up some wattage on 11 are long past decades ago. It no longer thrills me,



"The Internet and cell phones have contributed to a large extent the demise of CB's popularity, compared to the 60s and 70s."
Sorry Charlie, neither existed when CB died. By the time the 80s came around the band was the worst sewer imaginable, overcrowded with the unmentionable spread out from 25-28.??? and skip didn't help matters any. Simply put, CB destroyed itself like that overcrowded rat colony in the experiment, they ate each other and those remaining were insane. It simply never recovered having essentially been replaced by more viable communications.
The sewer that 11 metres became in the 80's and early 90's was indeed a self destructive entity. It reached a point where you couldn't even have a decent conversation running the legal power. Soooo,,, lots and lots of stations started running leenyars... thinking it will blow away the offending stations that were "stepping on them" (often deliberately). The leenyar worked until everyone else got a leenyar and they were all in the same boat... Then they started spreading into 10 metres. When I first became a licensed ham one of the first things I hear was a couple of our local CB ops in the CW portion of 10 metres.

[kb2vxa]

"Hopefully, the FCC will see that the band isn't being used and re-allocate it to Amateur Radio as a data band."

Mmmm... yeah. I hate to pin your bubble BUT it's being used but not as much as in times past.

11M never was a viable band, with 4W out a transmitter that meets FCC requirements OK but at Amateur power levels things can get dicey. Unless I'm mistaken harmonics and spurs must be 60dB down from carrier level but as power goes up so do harmonics and it takes little to disrupt TV channel 2 with the second harmonic and 5 with the third. Neighbors with OTA TV would be wondering why the dreaded blue screen of death keeps interrupting reception.

Then CB is a viable business, it ain't dead yet so there would be such a howl from manufacturers (money talks) and CBers who would have to get General Class licenses to continue operating legally. Since way too many haven't the word in their vocabulary hams would have to contend with 14.313 from one end of the dial to the other. Looking at the big picture the FCC created a monster and they know it. Appropriately taken from Hotel California; they stabbed it with their steely knives but still can't kill the beast.

"My Globe King 500 however does not have an 11 meter tap. But rest assured with some minor modification it could run 11."

Been there, done that with a scratchy Apache, simply diddle the VFO down from 7 to 6MHz and on the 10M position you're there. One small fly in the ointment, then you have pretty much a dedicated 300W CB transmitter.

"CB is a wasteland around these parts."

Don't cry,
Don't raise your eye,
It's only CB wasteland.
CB wasteland,
They're all wasted!

"It no longer thrills me."

The thrill is gone
It's gone away for good
The thrill is gone baby
It's gone away for good
You know I'm free, free now baby
I'm free from your spell
Oh I'm free, free, free now
I'm free from your spell
And now that it's all over
All I can do is wish you well

"Then they started spreading into 10 metres."

And that ain't all, when I was licensed in '95 there were NYC taxis most no speeky dee Englee all over the bottom of 10 running enough power to clobber the whole tri-state area. Despite numerous complaints the FCC somewhere between Dave Popkin and Riley Hollingsworth did nothing so Steve Mendelssohn (SK) the ARRL NYC champion grabbed the bull by the horns. Working with the mayor and the Taxi and Limousine Commission gave them a choice, pull the illegal radios or the TLC pulls your medallions (licenses). That ended that pretty quick. Meanwhile some ham took another not so legal approach, he set up a robot on one frequency after another in FSK mode sending NO CB in Morse continuously for hours... oh well.

[n2ize]

I used to hang out on 27.135 (Ch. 15) and talk to the Monster stations down in Coney Island. Gino, Artie, and the Brooklyn Gangstas. They had fans up and down the coast from Maryland through Jersey and on up through my neck of the woods and beyond. One night they declared me a bona fide member of the 'awesome stations". That was an honour. Magnificent men and magnificent stations.

There was a station down in Freehold NJ called the "buck 98" ($1.98). Some nights I could hear him really well.

[kb2vxa]

Methinks you're mistaken, they hung out on 21. More often than not Artie Windjammer (take gas, take the pipe, take the GAS pipe dayh dayh da daya) locked beams with a guy in Keansburg, NJ whose handle I don't recall and with the Val-yen-tay blazing away my scratchy Apache was the only one that got their attention. Artie was such a joker with his moll and dell, the hammer and ring among other weird things we had some really great times. Then there was Bob Base, at first he made sense then as the evening progressed he got more and more drunk babbling away until he finally passed out. Some years later we had Budweiser Bob on 2M pretty much the same. Those were the days of the CB Superstations, mostly happiness is a big Johnson including a desk kilowatt run at half power because flat out the power supply couldn't handle modulation peaks, one demonstration sounded like mud.

Around that time not part of that crowd was Jimmy on Static Island, another one with a Valiant transmitter and Browning receiver, it wasn't the Valiant that pinged. (;->) He was the local CB god (Mister Know It All) with worshipers bowing at his feet so one day Jack WA2V (SK) and I decided to play a dirty trick on him. Backing up a few years when he was new with his Browning Eagle pair Jack switched on his recorder when Jimmy asked for a radio check, the first dirty trick in mind. Jack told him electrons on the cathodes become dislodged from vibration in shipment and settle to the bottom of the tubes so to bring the signal up he had to get them back on the cathodes. Turn the rig over and tap on the bottom while whistling into the microphone for a minute or two. (whistle tap tap whistle tap tap...) How do I sound now? Up about an S unit and the audio is a little louder but you're only halfway there, the electrons are now at the top of the tubes. Turn the rig over and repeat the process. (whistle tap tap whistle...) How about now? You're 20 over and the audio sounds great, you did it! <to be continued> Flash forward to the CB god with his worshipers gathered round; Hey Jim, would you like to hear what you sounded like when you first got on the air? Sure! Jack played the tape and the channel erupted with a mix of laughter and mass heterodynes, over it all god roared "JACK, I'LL KILL YOU!!!"

Those were the days CB was our sand box, then the cats pooped in it and everybody became a Texan speaking a language heretofore never heard in Texas.

[n2ize]

Methinks you're mistaken, they hung out on 21.

Early on they did. But in the later years they all hung out at night on channel 15. They were the "Monster Stations" of the day and I was sort of their Westchester liaison. They always used to get a kick out of talking from So. Brooklyn to Westchester and beyond while all their local "puppets" would be jumping up and down and trying to make some noise.


More often than not Artie Windjammer (take gas, take the pipe, take the GAS pipe dayh dayh da daya) locked beams with a guy in Keansburg, NJ whose handle I don't recall and with the Val-yen-tay blazing away my scratchy Apache was the only one that got their attention. Artie was such a joker with his moll and dell, the hammer and ring among other weird things we had some really great times.

Artie was a riot. He was quite a charachter. When he was on freq he would drive the Palisades Interstate Parkway club up in Pearl River crazy because his signal was quite potent up this way. he used to step on some of my locals in Yonkers and Mt. Vernon.


Then there was Bob Base, at first he made sense then as the evening progressed he got more and more drunk babbling away until he finally passed out.

I remember him.

Some years later we had Budweiser Bob on 2M pretty much the same. Those were the days of the CB Superstations, mostly happiness is a big Johnson including a desk kilowatt run at half power because flat out the power supply couldn't handle modulation peaks, one demonstration sounded like mud.



Around that time not part of that crowd was Jimmy on Static Island, another one with a Valiant transmitter and Browning receiver, it wasn't the Valiant that pinged. (;->) He was the local CB god (Mister Know It All) with worshipers bowing at his feet so one day Jack WA2V (SK) and I decided to play a dirty trick on him. Backing up a few years when he was new with his Browning Eagle pair Jack switched on his recorder when Jimmy asked for a radio check, the first dirty trick in mind. Jack told him electrons on the cathodes become dislodged from vibration in shipment and settle to the bottom of the tubes so to bring the signal up he had to get them back on the cathodes. Turn the rig over and tap on the bottom while whistling into the microphone for a minute or two. (whistle tap tap whistle tap tap...) How do I sound now? Up about an S unit and the audio is a little louder but you're only halfway there, the electrons are now at the top of the tubes. Turn the rig over and repeat the process. (whistle tap tap whistle...) How about now? You're 20 over and the audio sounds great, you did it! <to be continued> Flash forward to the CB god with his worshipers gathered round; Hey Jim, would you like to hear what you sounded like when you first got on the air? Sure! Jack played the tape and the channel erupted with a mix of laughter and mass heterodynes, over it all god roared "JACK, I'LL KILL YOU!!!"


hah... Brings back a lot of old time radio memories. I love the thing about the electrons getting dislodged and falling to the bottom of the tube. Reminds me of some of the jokes that a local friend used to play on a rather naive kid who was a local in my area. First he told the kid, "Forget about skip, if you really want to get out around the world shoot for GRIP". Grip was where instead of taking advantage of skywaves you take advantage of underground propagation. And how to do it ? Simply dig a ditch and bury that antenna as far down as you can get it. The signal will go through the earth and come up in China, or something like that. When he got a linear we warned him about "exploding capacitors". Due to the high voltages in tube linear s it causes a chemical reaction in the capacitors which gradually turns the electrolyte into nitroglycerin which will eventually detonate and kill the operator. We had a million similar stories and pseudo-warnings. Some he bought others he didn't.



Those were the days CB was our sand box, then the cats pooped in it and everybody became a Texan speaking a language heretofore never heard in Texas.
yeah, what was with that ? it started in the mid 70's. By the late 80's it was dying out but so were a lot of the old timers. These days there are pockets of activity but its largely a wasteland.

[kb2vxa]

Last things first, C.W. McCall, Burt Reynolds Wrap and some copycats put the kibosh on it when everybody and his half-wit brother "gotta git me one of THESE!"

OK, channel 15 was a mish mosh over my way so the Brooklyn Bandits got buried. One thing though, Artie was an alligator, all mouth and no ears. His transmit antenna was atop a fairly high building while tyhe receive was just above the courtyard below. Maybe he never heard of Dow Key?

Yeah, between antenna grease, stretching the coax and burying the antenna we had a lot of fun. Then there was the kid I told about the mic and battery company conspiracy, he hooked his +2 up yo the AC mains. I didn't hear the exploding capacitor thing but I had a few pop and make quite a mess. Transistors explode too if there's a bubble in the epoxy, wear safety glasses when experimenting.

Real radios glow in the dark but 12V is for wimps, real radios can KILL you.

[n2ize]

Last things first, C.W. McCall, Burt Reynolds Wrap and some copycats put the kibosh on it when everybody and his half-wit brother "gotta git me one of THESE!"

OK, channel 15 was a mish mosh over my way so the Brooklyn Bandits got buried. One thing though, Artie was an alligator, all mouth and no ears. His transmit antenna was atop a fairly high building while tyhe receive was just above the courtyard below. Maybe he never heard of Dow Key?

Artie used to talk about the Dow Key relay. Surprised he didn't use one... Yeah, I do remember hearing him refered to as "the little man with the big voice but small ears". Years ago I bumped into one of the Brooklyn Gangstas (or at least an acquaintence of the Brookyl Gangstas) on 75 meter AM. He had his license and was living somewhere in upstate NY.


Yeah, between antenna grease, stretching the coax and burying the antenna we had a lot of fun. Then there was the kid I told about the mic and battery company conspiracy, he hooked his +2 up yo the AC mains. I didn't hear the exploding capacitor thing but I had a few pop and make quite a mess. Transistors explode too if there's a bubble in the epoxy, wear safety glasses when experimenting.


I have indeed hasd components explode. Electrolytic condensers mostly,


Real radios glow in the dark but 12V is for wimps, real radios can KILL you.
Tell me about it. My hand slipped and I got a few thousand volts blasted through my heart one evening as I was fine tuning one of my larger boatanchors. I saw flashes in my eyes , could taste metal in my mouth and smelled burned skin where my hand contacted the plate voltage. Since then I have never adjusted a live circuit. I make sure its shut down, disconnected, and fully discharged before my hands go near it. It was a very painful shock. When I think about it I can still feel it. I was alone when it happened. I am fortunate to still be alive. The power supply was fully capable of delivering enough current to kill me.

[kb2vxa]

That's one way to describe such a station, more commonly in the vernacular of the day they were alligators, all mouth and no ears.

"Since then I have never adjusted a live circuit."

I never have and never will (intentionally), broadcasting being another field of interest taught me early on why transmitters have mains disconnects, cabinet interlocks, HV bleeders and Jesus sticks inside. What's a Jesus stick? An insulated stick like a lineman's hot stick only it has a metal tip and ground strap used to short HV components just in case. In other words a Jesus stick is your savior.

Early on I made two mistakes that could have been very costly. The first was I designed and built a transmitter but forgot an important safety issue, an interlock between the modulator and RF deck. The second was trying to replace the modulator tubes without removing it from the rack. I reached around behind and while feeling for the tubes my hand contacted the terminals on the mod transformer mounted upside down facilitating connection to the plate caps. The RF deck was still feeding 600VDC to the transformer, DC causes a continuous muscle spasm making it impossible to get free and the current grounded through my elbow. Thankfully my screams alerted a friend in the kitchen, he rushed in and hit the mains kill switch, a relay in the attic that controlled everything but the ceiling light. The room smelled like a BBQ gone berserk, my arm cherry red and burns on my hand, hurt like hell and hanging limp unable to move. The redness subsided and the burns healed quickly but it was a month before full use of my hand and arm returned. Needless to say I soon installed an interlock and will never, NEVER again stick my hand where I can't see where it's going!

Oh and BTW it only takes >10mA through the heart to cause cardiac arrest so I'm sure you're thankful the current took another route around it. I never figured out why a nasty shock causes a metallic taste in the mouth and had sense enough not to taste test anything higher than a 9V battery, those things bite!

[n2ize]

That's one way to describe such a station, more commonly in the vernacular of the day they were alligators, all mouth and no ears.

"Since then I have never adjusted a live circuit."

I never have and never will (intentionally), broadcasting being another field of interest taught me early on why transmitters have mains disconnects, cabinet interlocks, HV bleeders and Jesus sticks inside. What's a Jesus stick? An insulated stick like a lineman's hot stick only it has a metal tip and ground strap used to short HV components just in case. In other words a Jesus stick is your savior.

Yeah, I had a good look inside a 50 Kw Continental AM transmitter when I used to hang out at the WNEW AM transmitter site The engineer was also a ham and he would invite us to come over. It an a pair of 4CX35,000's as finals. Think it ran 2 or 3 4-400's as drivers. Forget what it ran as modulators. By then (mid 80's) it was being used as a backup for the Nautel solid state transmitter. From what I last heard the Continental no longer exists at that site. I believe it was dissassembled and scrapped, although i heard a rumour that some AM Gangstas came by and vultured whatever parts they could get their talons on. Sad to hear that such a piece of history was scrapped in such an abrupt manner. At least parts of it may still live in a few AM Gangsta ham shacks throughout the northeast.



Early on I made two mistakes that could have been very costly. The first was I designed and built a transmitter but forgot an important safety issue, an interlock between the modulator and RF deck. The second was trying to replace the modulator tubes without removing it from the rack. I reached around behind and while feeling for the tubes my hand contacted the terminals on the mod transformer mounted upside down facilitating connection to the plate caps. The RF deck was still feeding 600VDC to the transformer, DC causes a continuous muscle spasm making it impossible to get free and the current grounded through my elbow. Thankfully my screams alerted a friend in the kitchen, he rushed in and hit the mains kill switch, a relay in the attic that controlled everything but the ceiling light. The room smelled like a BBQ gone berserk, my arm cherry red and burns on my hand, hurt like hell and hanging limp unable to move. The redness subsided and the burns healed quickly but it was a month before full use of my hand and arm returned. Needless to say I soon installed an interlock and will never, NEVER again stick my hand where I can't see where it's going!


Ouch !! I guess I was lucky. When I got shocked I managed to bust free of the circuit in a fraction of a second. Still it was still extremely painful Had I become "glued" to the circuit we most definately would not be having this conversation now. I would have been found hours later on the floor with the plate supply still fully energized.. There was nobody home when it happened.



Oh and BTW it only takes >10mA through the heart to cause cardiac arrest so I'm sure you're thankful the current took another route around it. I never figured out why a nasty shock causes a metallic taste in the mouth and had sense enough not to taste test anything higher than a 9V battery, those things bite!
Probably most of the current traveled the outer skin of my arms, chest, etc. Guess I was lucky. Not enough of it reached the heart. Pretty scary shit. I won't work on any HV circuit anymore unless it is de-energized, disconnected from the mains, and fully discharged. Even if it is easier to tweak something with the power on. No, these days I shut it off, discoonect, discharge, make the adjustment and then reconnect, power up and test. Rinse...lather...repeat...until the desired result is achieved. :)

[K7SGJ]

I never did get into using 11 meter radios very much. I've had them in my vehicles from time to time when traveling, but not much these days. I did make a shit load of $$ fixing them back in the day. Of course, that was prior to everyone wanting to get them "peaked and tweaked". I just fixed them back to spec, and I still have my old B&K 1020 and 2040. Nice pieces of gear that I always thought I'd modify for use on other than 27 MHz. But, since I ran across a couple of nice service monitors, it just sits on a shelf in one of the trains. Maybe someday.

[kb2vxa]

"Yeah, I had a good look inside a 50 Kw Continental AM transmitter when I used to hang out at the WNEW AM transmitter site."
You must mean the 317-C1 at the original site on Patterson Plank Road across from WMCA. Funny thing, they had to install filters to stop rebroadcasting NEW. I don't know the tube lineup but the drivers would have been 2 4-400s to deliver the needed ~1KW drive to the finals.

"From what I last heard the Continental no longer exists at that site."
From the looks of things today I can see why.

"At least parts of it may still live in a few AM Gangsta ham shacks throughout the northeast."
No, last I heard it's a backup to the Nautel AMPFET-50 at the new WBBR ex WNEW site a few miles east and deeper into the swamp.

"I would have been found hours later on the floor with the plate supply still fully energized."
Not to mention what you would have looked like, a crispy critter with smoke and steam rising. I could illustrate with a picture of a couple of stupid copper thieves but I'd surely get in trouble for making the Islanders sick.

"Probably most of the current traveled the outer skin of my arms, chest, etc."
You're thinking of RF and the skin effect which is why high power RF circuits use hollow conductors. The DC took a different path, the exact reason I don't know.

----------------------------------

"I did make a shit load of $$ fixing them back in the day. Of course, that was prior to everyone wanting to get them "peaked and tweaked".
So did I and they got aligned as a matter of course, short of what they call P&T today which only louses things up. I had one famous trick up my sleeve, Browning owners hated the trademark ping so I de-pinged a lot of them for $20 a ping. What I didn't tell them was 5 minutes work removing a 20uF 450V cap from the receiver mute terminal strip. A repair to a Halicrafters CB5A was particularly memorable. A YL brought it to me and it was quite dead, lit up but that was all. I asked her what happened and she told me she dusted out inside the cabinet and tightened down all the loose screws. I spent about half an hour re-aligning it and gave her a courteously underplayed warning about leaving the loose screws alone while thinking about what could be done about the loose screws in her head. Oh yeah, she was a blonde. (;->)

[n2ize]

"Yeah, I had a good look inside a 50 Kw Continental AM transmitter when I used to hang out at the WNEW AM transmitter site."
You must mean the 317-C1 at the original site on Patterson Plank Road across from WMCA. Funny thing, they had to install filters to stop rebroadcasting NEW. I don't know the tube lineup but the drivers would have been 2 4-400s to deliver the needed ~1KW drive to the finals.

Yeah, it was 2 4-400's. I remember the plates glowing cherry red. happiness is a warm radio.


"From what I last heard the Continental no longer exists at that site."
From the looks of things today I can see why.


Okay, I have been out of the loop for a while. So clue me in. That site of the old WNEW AM station no longer exists ? If I remember it was right near the natural gas pipeline, I think the road was called "pipeline road" or something like that. Patterson Plank however is extremely familiar. I think it was called "Little Ferry, NJ". I can still smell the natural gas and taste the rubberized lemon meringue pie from the local diner..((Sorry, I borrowed that description from Jean Shepherd)..Not that I would be surprised. It was in the middle of a bloody swamp. But for the last 15-20+ years I have been clueless as to whats been happening in that part of Jersey. The only other Jersey AM station I ever hanged out in was WADO (Spanish). And some Ethnic Black station that had a backup transmitter with a blown transformer and we were looking at the schematic trying to figure out why it blew out.


"At least parts of it may still live in a few AM Gangsta ham shacks throughout the northeast."
No, last I heard it's a backup to the Nautel AMPFET-50 at the new WBBR ex WNEW site a few miles east and deeper into the swamp.


Reallly. You mean the beast still lives ??
"I would have been found hours later on the floor with the plate supply still fully energized."


Not to mention what you would have looked like, a crispy critter with smoke and steam rising. I could illustrate with a picture of a couple of stupid copper thieves but I'd surely get in trouble for making the Islanders sick.

I've seen a few pictures of what that looks like. Steal the copper for drug money = no drugs + no money. yeah, it is not a pretty site to put it mildly.


"Probably most of the current traveled the outer skin of my arms, chest, etc."
You're thinking of RF and the skin effect which is why high power RF circuits use hollow conductors. The DC took a different path, the exact reason I don't know.



True, it was DC. I guess at that moment God decided it just wasn't my time. But he did send me a message. "Next time you stick your hand across the high voltage I won't save your sorry ass" :lol:.

[kb2vxa]

Happiness is a warm tube
Happiness is a warm tube, mama
When I hold you in my arms (Oo-oo oh yeah)
And I feel my finger on your plate cap (Oo-oo oh yeah)
I know no you're the one who can charge me up (Oo-oo oh yeah)
Because happiness is a warm tube, mama

"Yeah, it was 2 4-400's. I remember the plates glowing cherry red."
I wonder if Bob Balfour CE of the now dark WERA in Plainfield, NJ realized they had to glow because the anode coating is the getter, if it doesn't glow eventually the tube will go gassy. Each month he'd alternate the RCA BTA-1R 1KW unit operated at half power with the BTA-500R 500W standby. The 1R's modulators glowed but the finals didn't so every other month when they were on the main he should have swapped them. No problem with the 500R, all 4 4-250s glowed.

"That site of the old WNEW AM station no longer exists?"
You saw the picture. (;->) I never heard of a Pipeline Road but here's an interesting historical note. Patterson Plank road being built over a swamp was originally a plank road, wooden planks laid down like railroad ties only together so wagons wouldn't sink in the mud. Even the modern road today is a little wavy like the Garden State Parkway was until it finally settled, where it passes over the marsh and Morgan Creek in Morgan it was built on quicksand.

Rubberized lemon meringue pie, gotta love Jean for his fantastic sense of humor. The natural gas you smelled was the proverbial swamp gas. Mostly odorless methane it contains several aromatic hydrocarbons including hydrogen sulfide (egg fart gas) so the smell can easily be mistaken for natural gas from the mains. That smell comes from added mercaptans that smell like rotten eggs. Heh, egg yolks contain sulfur making egg farts smell like a gas leak while cabbage and the notorious beans each having different components make various farts identifiable but I digress......

Ah, the famous Radio Wado. If I remember right it was in Lodi before it moved, I passed that short but recognizable Blaw-Knox tower several times while looking for another transmitter site along Jersey's Radio Row. I don't remember the highway but right outside of town it's lined with NY AM transmitters. I don't remember the callsign of the Black ethnic station but I do remember the famous Don Imus ID; "This is wN...bc, the White station." The way he emphasized the N and paused before the BC was unique in the anals... oops, annals of broadcasting. Now it's WFAN and spoiled the whole thing. (;->)

"Steal the copper for drug money = no drugs + no money."
You forgot no life. That's the whole idea behind the Darwin Award, chlorine in the gene pool hopefully before they reproduce. We escape judgement because we're smart but make stupid mistakes and it's called tough love. That's God's way of combining punishment with a warning that reminds me of the farmer, the 2X4 and the mule. The windup is the farmer saying "Sometimes you got to give him a whack just to get his attention." A kick in the ass gets your attention when God says "That'll learn ya!" Thanks dad, you don't have to tell me twice.

Back to the original subject more or less, I remember back in the late 60s or early 70s listening to the AM Gangstas on 3885 and hearing talk about WA1HLR Timtron's 10KW frequency agile transmitter. Easy enough to believe since when he was in Porkrot (Rockport, MA) he was king of the hill. CBers were often the topic of conversation and "allegedly" he used it to bust their chops... c'mawn. That QTH has a long and colorful history, among other things the birthplace of the Slimeatron. The prototype was unveiled at a shack party New Years Eve 1970 and there I was stoned to the max listening to the funniest old buzzard transmission I ever heard, Howard Blowsmell (he did a great Cosell imitation) blow by blow description of it in operation. More to come if you're interested in the night that went down in infamy.

[n2ize]

Happiness is a warm tubeHappiness is a warm tube, mamaWhen I hold you in my arms (Oo-oo oh yeah)And I feel my finger on your plate cap (Oo-oo oh yeah)I know no you're the one who can charge me up (Oo-oo oh yeah)Because happiness is a warm tube, mamaWith this I can concur.
"Yeah, it was 2 4-400's. I remember the plates glowing cherry red."I wonder if Bob Balfour CE of the now dark WERA in Plainfield, NJ realized they had to glow because the anode coating is the getter, if it doesn't glow eventually the tube will go gassy. Each month he'd alternate the RCA BTA-1R 1KW unit operated at half power with the BTA-500R 500W standby. The 1R's modulators glowed but the finals didn't so every other month when they were on the main he should have swapped them. No problem with the 500R, all 4 4-250s glowed.I always knew it was normal for the plates of a 4-400 to glow a dull cherry red during normal operation. Indeed the 4-400 in my Globe King 500 runs as such loaded to normal operating parameters. However, i was unaware that the getter was integral to the plates and thus requires the high temperatures to do its job.
"That site of the old WNEW AM station no longer exists?"You saw the picture. (;->) I never heard of a Pipeline Road but here's an interesting historical note. Patterson Plank road being built over a swamp was originally a plank road, wooden planks laid down like railroad ties only together so wagons wouldn't sink in the mud. Even the modern road today is a little wavy like the Garden State Parkway was until it finally settled, where it passes over the marsh and Morgan Creek in Morgan it was built on quicksand.Wow, I guess the whole thing, buildings, towers and all sank to the bottom of the bloody swamp. That was quite an impressive facility at one time. I remember going into the tuning sheds just below the towers and taking base current readings. It was funny because although I didn't work there the engineer used to let us do all this fun stuff. Guess he could have been liable if I got zorched. Then we used to swap tubes in the 50 kW Continental xmtr... when it was shut down of course ;). They also had a very impressive stock area with tons of parts. I got hold of a really nice UTC mod xfmr atill packed in its original crate. Also got spare 807's, 811's, 6146's, wire and cable, heavy duty capacitors, and A radiation survey meter. Hard to imagine that whats left of that stuff is now laying in the bottom of the swamp.One time we brought an old 4CX35,000 that was on it's last legs to ha hamfest. We put it on the selling table sort of as a conversation piece (it's a rather large ceramic tube with handles). Some attendee with his girl friend came buy and the guy was admiring it. he came by several times to look at the tube and his girlfriend thought he was nuts. Finally, just before closing time, he came by for the fifth time and he bought the tube. At that point his girlfriend KNEW he was nuts. He ended up walking out of the place carrying a heavy 4CX35000. Wonder if he ever used it in anything. Or el;se perhaps it is serving as a nice door stop somewhere.
Rubberized lemon meringue pie, gotta love Jean for his fantastic sense of humor. The natural gas you smelled was the proverbial swamp gas. Mostly odorless methane it contains several aromatic hydrocarbons including hydrogen sulfide (egg fart gas) so the smell can easily be mistaken for natural gas from the mains. That smell comes from added mercaptans that smell like rotten eggs. Heh, egg yolks contain sulfur making egg farts smell like a gas leak while cabbage and the notorious beans each having different components make various farts identifiable but I digress......I distinctly remember there was a natural gas pipeline right next to the former WNEW Transmitter site. We used to go right past it just as we were pulling into the radio station. It was clearly marked, clearly visible and there were signs that said, "Natural gas Pipeline". I think it was run by the National Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp. qhich supposedly still has a field office on Patterson Plank Road. As we would drive past it we could clearly smell the strong odor of ethyl mercaptan which is assed to natural gas to make it smell bad. And yes, it does somewhat resemble typical swamp odours.
Ah, the famous Radio Wado. If I remember right it was in Lodi before it moved, I passed that short but recognizable Blaw-Knox tower several times while looking for another transmitter site along Jersey's Radio Row. I don't remember the highway but right outside of town it's lined with NY AM transmitters. I don't remember the callsign of the Black ethnic station but I do remember the famous Don Imus ID; "This is wN...bc, the White station." The way he emphasized the N and paused before the BC was unique in the anals... oops, annals of broadcasting. Now it's WFAN and spoiled the whole thing. (;->)Yes, I remember that well... wN...bc. :)
"Steal the copper for drug money = no drugs + no money."You forgot no life. That's the whole idea behind the Darwin Award, chlorine in the gene pool hopefully before they reproduce. We escape judgement because we're smart but make stupid mistakes and it's called tough love. That's God's way of combining punishment with a warning that reminds me of the farmer, the 2X4 and the mule. The windup is the farmer saying "Sometimes you got to give him a whack just to get his attention." A kick in the ass gets your attention when God says "That'll learn ya!" Thanks dad, you don't have to tell me twice.It's amazing how far a junkie will go to avoid falling into that abysmal pit of cold turkey withdrawal. I knew a few rather intelligent people who fell to addiction and took some chances to avoid falling that pit. But none I knew were ever so foolish enough as to try and cut down live copper wires. I guess today's junkie doesn;t have the luxuries that Thomas deQuincy had back in his day in which he could go to the nearist Chemists shop, purchase a legal fix of laudanum for two pence and carry it about in his waistcoat pocket.
Back to the original subject more or less, I remember back in the late 60s or early 70s listening to the AM Gangstas on 3885 and hearing talk about WA1HLR Timtron's 10KW frequency agile transmitter. Easy enough to believe since when he was in Porkrot (Rockport, MA) he was king of the hill. CBers were often the topic of conversation and "allegedly" he used it to bust their chops... c'mawn. That QTH has a long and colorful history, among other things the birthplace of the Slimeatron. The prototype was unveiled at a shack party New Years Eve 1970 and there I was stoned to the max listening to the funniest old buzzard transmission I ever heard, Howard Blowsmell (he did a great Cosell imitation) blow by blow description of it in operation. More to come if you're interested in the night that went down in infamy.I have heard many stories of that famous night so yes, I am all ears... So this was before Tim went to Skowtown ? Ah yes, the Slimeatron.... a truly remarkable piece of engineeering ;).. In those days I was juast becoming acquainted with listening to the New England AM GANGSTA'S and yeah, I remember some pretty funny stuff going on, particularly around certain holidays... I spent many a night upstairs listening and laughing and my folks downstairs probably wondering if I was either stoned or just nuts...or both. By all means share any particular highlights, I always find it interesting.

[kb2vxa]

Engineers are such pack rats (especially hams) so you'll find everything from soup to nuts in the stock room. The bigger the plant the bigger the stock room, the more junk you'll find. I'm sure the stuff found good homes, NOBODY tosses radio stuff into the swamp.

TETCO changed its name to TRANSCO so same pipeline, different name. I never smelled gas at the Linden compressor station but I heard the eerie scream of gas flowing through the manifold valves. In 1994 a backhoe ruptured it in Edison and the resulting fire looked like an upside down Atlas rocket. It was so bright and flames so high I saw the glow at night in Elizabeth 15 miles away. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison,_New_Jersey_natural_gas_explosion

It's not just junkies who steal copper, they're more likely to be purse snatchers, pickpockets and the occasional stickup artist. Since the price rose sharply theft has attracted opportunists stealing it from buildings, old air conditioners (they're disappointed when the find aluminium) plumbing, water heaters and the occasional power station. That's where the surprise comes in.

Here we go with the night that will live in infamy. Pissolene has been described as something unclassifiable somewhere between a toxic chemical and high level nuclear waste, yellow to a dark orange in color, when it turns black run like hell, the Slimatron is about to explode. The Slimatron Tim displays today bears no resemblance to the original either physically or operationally, actually it does nothing practical. The original had a wooden frame holding the metal shell of an old picture tube as a big funnel with a big glass jar under it with two carbon rods from old dry cells in it, they were connected to the 40A 230V mains coming into the shack. The "proper" names are pissolene collector, and pissolene reduction generator respectively. Used beer collected at the party provided the pissolene. The broadcash (as Tim calls broadcast) began as the pissolene reduction generator was near full, it sounded like Howard Cosmell Speaking of Farts, a good imitation of Howard's commentary on one of Mohammad Ali's boxing matches. When power was applied it hummed and hissed reducing pissolene to concentrated form, sort of like inedible condensed milk of a different color. On it went humming and hissing at a fast boil and then it happened, someone bumped it and the carbons touched, a loud indescribable noise punctuated with screams suddenly silenced when Tim's carrier dropped. Stations called but there was no answer, we held our breath in anticipation. When he finally returned after restoring power in the background was heard coughing and cursing as the pissolene soaked guests left and Tim was left to clean up the mess and air out the shack.

As an aside I said I was stoned, beer and bud with a special added attraction. One of the AM Gangstas had two versions of his QSL card, I don't remember the call but it had an I in it. The normal one had a capital I, the special one a lower case with the iota (the dot) having a drop of acid on it nice and fresh having been sent a few days before. I don't have to tell you what I did that night with the iota.

Some years later I finally met up with the infamous Timtron staggering around (too much of "the red shtuff") the now defunct Gaithersburg, MD hamfest with an early bulbous 866 in his hand. His jaw dropped when I mentioned The Night Of The Slimatron and an interesting if not slurred conversation ensued. His eyes lit up when I mentioned I had tape rolling but sadness overcame him when I told him I lost it some years later in a flood. WAY too bad, it was one of those you just had to be there things to fully appreciate what became the apex of 3885 tomfoolery.

[n2ize]

Engineers are such pack rats (especially hams) so you'll find everything from soup to nuts in the stock room. The bigger the plant the bigger the stock room, the more junk you'll find. I'm sure the stuff found good homes, NOBODY tosses radio stuff into the swamp.

I suspect that most of the engineers at that station were hams over the many decades as Martin Block and the Make Beleive Ballroom modulated the transmitter and radiated from the old towers. They had quite a stock room in that place, all kinds of tubes, transformers, condensers, and even a PCB filled condenser with the top removed. The story of that was that many years before the chief engineer found one of his bcast engineers opening the condenser to "see what PCB's looked and smelled like" There were also three Viking 2 transmitters laying in a deep dark corner, one tuned for 1130 kc. I always used to joke that it is the backup transmitter for WNEW should the regular backup transmitter fail.



TETCO changed its name to TRANSCO so same pipeline, different name. I never smelled gas at the Linden compressor station but I heard the eerie scream of gas flowing through the manifold valves. In 1994 a backhoe ruptured it in Edison and the resulting fire looked like an upside down Atlas rocket. It was so bright and flames so high I saw the glow at night in Elizabeth 15 miles away. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison,_New_Jersey_natural_gas_explosion


I remember the morning that it happened.It was a cloudy cold grey morning twixt Christmas and the New Year. One of my FDNY friends said they couldn;t get near it because the heat radiating from it was so intense... Oooh wait !! I thought you were talking about the Con Edison gas explosion in Hells Gate when pretty much the same thing happened. A backhoe ruptured a major Con Edison gas main resulting in a severe and intense gas fire. I didn;t know about the pipeline blast in Edison NJ. Well, now I know.


It's not just junkies who steal copper, they're more likely to be purse snatchers, pickpockets and the occasional stickup artist. Since the price rose sharply theft has attracted opportunists stealing it from buildings, old air conditioners (they're disappointed when the find aluminium) plumbing, water heaters and the occasional power station. That's where the surprise comes in.

True. And these days with the economy in bad shape and people unemployed you might find more and more people stealing copper for food and rent as opposed to dope. The funniest thing was when I was working as a network maintenance in the 1990's there was a section of our network that went dead. The network was operational but an entire wing of the building was out. Hubs and routers checked okay and then I noticed something. There was a 100 foot stretch of Cat 5 network cable that ran through a stairwell and was tacked alonf the wall and ceiling. Someone apparently cut it and stole the cable. I could never figure out why. was it some trickster being a wise guy ? or someone needed network cable and didn't feel like buying their own ? The amount of copper in a 100' length of network cable is simply not worth it. Go figure. We replaced it with a wireless link.



Here we go with the night that will live in infamy. Pissolene has been described as something unclassifiable somewhere between a toxic chemical and high level nuclear waste, yellow to a dark orange in color, when it turns black run like hell, the Slimatron is about to explode. The Slimatron Tim displays today bears no resemblance to the original either physically or operationally, actually it does nothing practical. The original had a wooden frame holding the metal shell of an old picture tube as a big funnel with a big glass jar under it with two carbon rods from old dry cells in it, they were connected to the 40A 230V mains coming into the shack. The "proper" names are pissolene collector, and pissolene reduction generator respectively. Used beer collected at the party provided the pissolene. The broadcash (as Tim calls broadcast) began as the pissolene reduction generator was near full, it sounded like Howard Cosmell Speaking of Farts, a good imitation of Howard's commentary on one of Mohammad Ali's boxing matches. When power was applied it hummed and hissed reducing pissolene to concentrated form, sort of like inedible condensed milk of a different color. On it went humming and hissing at a fast boil and then it happened, someone bumped it and the carbons touched, a loud indescribable noise punctuated with screams suddenly silenced when Tim's carrier dropped. Stations called but there was no answer, we held our breath in anticipation. When he finally returned after restoring power in the background was heard coughing and cursing as the pissolene soaked guests left and Tim was left to clean up the mess and air out the shack.

As an aside I said I was stoned, beer and bud with a special added attraction. One of the AM Gangstas had two versions of his QSL card, I don't remember the call but it had an I in it. The normal one had a capital I, the special one a lower case with the iota (the dot) having a drop of acid on it nice and fresh having been sent a few days before. I don't have to tell you what I did that night with the iota.

Some years later I finally met up with the infamous Timtron staggering around (too much of "the red shtuff") the now defunct Gaithersburg, MD hamfest with an early bulbous 866 in his hand. His jaw dropped when I mentioned The Night Of The Slimatron and an interesting if not slurred conversation ensued. His eyes lit up when I mentioned I had tape rolling but sadness overcame him when I told him I lost it some years later in a flood. WAY too bad, it was one of those you just had to be there things to fully appreciate what became the apex of 3885 tomfoolery.

I am speechless. There are some things that only Timtron can do. I could imagine the Slimatron emitting some "fine subtle odours" as it boiled away shortly before its demise. Like I said, there are some things only Timtron can create. The Slimatron is definiately a timeless Timatron classic. I definitely have to jump on the air and say Hyayellow !! to him one of these days on my Viking 2 or my HYYYYYELLLOWY Valiant. Too bad you lost the tape. That would be a classic in high demand had it lived. And yeah, I love the iota. Why can't more hams do cool stuff like that ?? It would make ham radio much more fun.

[kb2vxa]

I just have to laugh about that engineer who wanted to find out what PCB smelled like. The funny thing is high temperature oil is pretty much the same being it cutting/grinding oil, capacitor oil or transformer oil, PCBs were miniscule and not enough to make it smell any different. Disposal is the problem so any remaining caps must be marked so the oil may be incinerated at high temperature to destroy the PCBs. I wonder what they did with that cap.

You're probably right about the modified Viking 2, the backup of last resort. (;->) Along with several other old 160M transmitters they're easy, just pad down the grid and plate variables. I de-hyellofied them in an unusual way, I fed line level audio through a variable attenuator for fine adjustment into the audio driver grid, fed the plate through a 10K 5W resistor, coupled audio to the driver transformer through a 2uf cap and grounded what was the B+ end. The weak link is the transformer BUT removing DC from the primary raises the inductance which lowers the frequency response. Trouble with driving the modulator grids directly is it's not quite enough to reach 100% modulation, cranking the limiter output high enough only resulted in sloping, an odd distortion of positive peaks. I'm the best you can get, have you guessed me yet? I was the pirate oozin' out of your radio set.

Not much copper in 100' Cat 5 to burn and sell for clean scrap, cheap enough so the inside guy didn't have to steal it. My guess is the Fire Marshall who thought of a better way to handle the violation than writing you up, going through paperwork and ordering removal. Is that thinking outside the box or am I thinking outside my mind? (;->)

Speechless isn't the word, Timtron is living proof that genius borders on insanity, a modern day Tesla. A Slimatron is essential for building the anti-tailgating device he outfitted his 1973 Cadaverlac hearse with, having a 1973 Chevy with the same 350 engine I can relate to it. The beast had a compressor and manifold that injected air into the exhaust ports lending itself perfectly to his nefarious scheme. Use the compressor to pressurize a tank containing concentrated pissolene and feed that to the compressor manifold through a solenoid actuated valve operated from the dashboard. I don't have to tell you what the cloud coming from the tailpipe smelled like if you've ever pissed on a campfire, just multiply that a thousand times.

Yeah, the tape would have been a classic in high demand... had it survived long enough to be re-recorded in mp3 format as a recording master of disaster. While Tim's performance of Piss Weak Mobile Blues is a web site hit (even though he can't sing) I have the original by Steve "HUZ Man" WB3HUZ that actually sounds professional. Then there's his practically unknown Piss Weak Hotel that sounds like Elvis in one of his down moods. Then there's another I recorded from 3885 back when they were more pirates than hams, Tim has no idea who recorded it or what to call it so I just titled it Logbook. Yup, the AM Gangstas had great stuff but that leaves me wondering if WNEW ever played CQ Serenade being it's their style. Then there's the Monster of 3840, Art Bell W6OBB snoring...

Ah yes, that magic iota. Of course it would make ham radio more fun but the days of Owsley are over, Woodstock but a memory, Haight-Ashbury a terrible illusion and the Summer of Love turned into the Summer of Hate, nationwide riots. Life was a roller coaster, it had some nice ups but also some scary downs, Play Alice's Restaurant for details on the Group W bench. Maybe he was referring to life at a Westinghouse (Group W) station? (;->)

[n2ize]

Speaking of the AM Gangsta's I was browsing on the "AM Window" BBS and I heard some sad news. We lost 3 of the AM Gangsta's over the past month.... Most recent Dana WA1HUM has become a SK. Bill / KD0HG and KE3SX have also become SK.