Sandy aftermath resurrects ancient communication forms...

[n2ize]

I was playing around with an old 1920's-30's style regenerative receiver while the power was out here. It was amazing how great and noise free was the reception with none of the computers, networking, and consumer electronic junk running. I was picking up all sorts of stations on the MW and HF freqs. Now that the power is back the noise floor is back to normal and the reception is loaded with the usual birdies and noise.

[WØTKX]

I'd like to play with a regen receiver at the new QTH. Noise floor on 75 without thunderstorms is less than 1 S unit.

[kb2vxa]

Twice and a half I had plenty of noise free DX when the power went out, the twice were the two New York blackouts when all FM and TV went out and most of the AM stations except for a few transmitters on the Jersey side that lost studio feed and transmitter control. No big deal, only a few dead carriers blocking DX but no splatter on adjacent frequencies. I lived in a dead quiet area because light dimmers and electronic noisemakers weren't invented yet. By the time of the great northeast blackout I was a ham and with such a wide area gone radio dark as well as literally all I had to contend with was that infernal in house buzzing I never figured out, the radio landscape sure looked different. BTW what saved us from that massive cascade failure were the engineers at Oyster Creek Nuclear who had enough sense to take us off the grid before the plant went down. Yup, this is KB2VXA, station powered by atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas. (Oldies tend to fart a lot.)

[KC2UGV]

Twice and a half I had plenty of noise free DX when the power went out, the twice were the two New York blackouts when all FM and TV went out and most of the AM stations except for a few transmitters on the Jersey side that lost studio feed and transmitter control. No big deal, only a few dead carriers blocking DX but no splatter on adjacent frequencies. I lived in a dead quiet area because light dimmers and electronic noisemakers weren't invented yet. By the time of the great northeast blackout I was a ham and with such a wide area gone radio dark as well as literally all I had to contend with was that infernal in house buzzing I never figured out, the radio landscape sure looked different. BTW what saved us from that massive cascade failure were the engineers at Oyster Creek Nuclear who had enough sense to take us off the grid before the plant went down. Yup, this is KB2VXA, station powered by atomic energy, operator powered by natural gas. (Oldies tend to fart a lot.)

Glad to hear you're ok.

[N2NH]

This makes me want to go out and buy a QRP rig, a key and a gel cell.

[ki4itv]

Good to see ya' Warren!
Heard from our "Sodium Free Ham" ???