Quote:
Originally posted by Sandy G
Jeff- Know what you mean. With my interest in Boatanchors, I sometimes feel like a stranger in a strange land. Most of the hams 'round here are 440 mHz guys, & know little if anything about Tooobs. Hammarcrafters ? Oh, yeah. My uncle's wife's brother had one o'them things. Never could get it to work right. Television? Fergit it. Why do you want an old crummy teeveeset ?!? You ain't right, boy. You must be nutz spendin' money on them old things-why, you can go right down here to the Wally-World & gitchoo a bran-spankin' new one fer a lot less than you gonna have in that ole thaing....But sometimes, it is fun to talk to an older ham & see his eyes light up-& then get misty-when I tell him about my R-390s, SP-600s etc.-Sandy G.
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Sandy,
Thanks for the prompt reply. You are so right--many radio amateurs these days (and most of the newly licensed ones, especially young kids) know only solid state and very little about tube technology, so when you try and talk tubes to these folks they have little or no idea what you're talking about. I am a member of an amateur radio club in this area, but it's the same kind of thing--most of the members know very little about vacuum tubes, although there are a few fellows who remember the tube era and have been very helpful when I have asked for help with my old radios.
Do you have an amateur radio license? If so, what is your callsign, and on what bands/modes do you operate? Judging from your mentioning amateurs in your area who are active on 440 MHz (a very popular band for amateur television or ATV), I would guess you are involved in the hobby to some degree.
I have been a ham myself since the age of 16 in 1972, and been interested in electronics since the age of eight in 1964. Started out in ham radio with a Heathkit DX40 transmitter and Hallicrafters SX101A receiver, with a loaded vertical antenna. Have had several rigs and antennas since then; my present installation consists of an Icom IC-725 all-band SSB/CW transceiver feeding a Barker & Williamson AP-10 apartment portable antenna (I live on the first floor of a two-story apartment building, so cannot erect outside antennas as I had at my previous residence). The rig is in my bedroom on an old computer desk, with the data processing equipment (computer, printer, etc.) in the main part of my apartment.
Also, I would be interested in knowing where your town is. I know roughly where large cities like Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, etc. are located in Tennessee, but have never heard of your area until now.
BTW, I have two television sets in my apartment, both on cable. (One of them, my CTC185 XL-100, is shown in my avatar.) TV reception is terrible here, 45 miles from the nearest stations in Cleveland (the transmitters are located in a suburb southwest of town), without it--in fact, most folks here don't even bother with outdoor antennas anymore; the apartment building in which I live is wired for cable, and as for folks here in private homes, when their old TV antenna blows down or is destroyed by high wind, etc., they just get cable or a satellite dish.
I grant you, the programming on the major networks leaves a lot to be desired, but the classic TV networks on cable (TV Land, Nick at Nite, etc.), IMO, make up for that. Practically all the shows I grew up watching as a kid in the '60s/70s are on these networks (for example, I like watching those great old detective series like Columbo, McMillan and Wife, et al. as much now as I did when they were new on NBC-TV in the '70s. I also like the reruns of other '70s detective shows such as The Rockford Files, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, etc.; they are all somewhere on cable, especially on the weekends--if I can't or do not for any reason want to watch them live, I just tape them on my VCR and watch them at my convenience).
Do you have cable TV where you live, and if so, what shows do you like watching? Are any of them on the major networks?
One more thing (as Peter Falk's Lt. Columbo used to say on the '70s detective series of the same name). You mentioned a store (I think) in your post named Wallyworld. I never heard of that one before. Is that a part of a chain of stores mainly located in the South, or were you thinking of Wal-Mart?
73 (best of regards),