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VK6BE > CARS 28.06.08 16:56l 57 Lines 3035 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 702316VK6BE
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: VE3WBZ > car radio
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DF0ANN<DB0ZDF<DB0LJ<DB0RES<ON0AR<HS1LMV<7M3TJZ<SV1CMG<
ZL2BAU<GB7LDI<VK2TV
Sent: 080628/1434Z @:VK2TV.#MNC.NSW.AUS.OC #:40180 [Kempsey, QF68JX] $:702316VK
From: VK6BE@VK2TV.#MNC.NSW.AUS.OC
To : CARS@WW
My earliest recollection of a broadcast radio was a marvellous contraption
owned by one of my father's associates in around 1927. There was no
speaker. The owner sat with a huge pair of headphones on his ears.Noone
else could listen.
My earliest listening was in 1932 or thereabouts when the Australian
Cricket Test team went to England for a cricket test series. There were
not many radios in the country town where I lived. We didn't have one, but
I remember us gathering at a neighbour's house till after midnight
listening to the cricket description on his radio.There were plenty of
crackles and pops from the horn speaker, but as the station was about 100
miles away that is not surprising.It was on the BC band of course.
In 1935 my father bought a dual wave radio - an AWA Hotpoint Bandmaster.
This was very good, and I used to get onto the shortwave bands and listen
to music on there. These radios were pretty expensive. I remember my
father paid 20 pounds for this one, which was the equivalent of about a
month's wages for him.
There was amateur activity on the broadcast band at this time - 200
metres, I think, and I heard VK6WP and others broadcasting music and talk.
The band was not returned for amateur use after WW2. 160 metres was not
returned either for some years - about 1962 I think from memory we got it
back.
Some of the those little radios had poor selectivity and after I got a ham
ticket, I was sitting in my shack one night listening to Yanks on 14 megs
and my father came in and told me I was interfering with his news service
on 500 and something metres. I said, "Not me! I am not transmitting." to
which he replied, "It's not you it's those fellers you are listening to."
I went and checked and sure enough, right on top of the ABC news service
was a Yank calling CQ Darg Xray. Back in my shack on 14 was the same call.
I was using a Q5er, a Command receiver which covered LF and MF and which
had an 85kc if which meant that by feeding 455 kHz in from the station
receiver to the Command I could use the selectivity of the the Command to
sharpen the response. I had hitched a piece of hookup from the IF amp of
the receiver to the antenna socket of the Command and the radiation was
strong enough to reach the receiver in the kitchen. Changing the lead for
coax did the trick and removed the problem.
Selectivity problems still exist. I bought recently a TEAC set up - one
unit with turntable and AM/FM capability and which also had a CD burner so
that music could be burnt on a CD from AM/FM or Disc. When I turned on the
FM band I found one losal station could be heard over the whole FM band. I
took it to the agent whoc could do nothing with it. He checked with the
local firms selling the same units and found every one had the same
problem. The FM station in question was Community Radio which had a mast
on top of Mt Clarence, kine of sight to nearly all the town, and it was
swamping the whole lot of these receivers.
Cheers,
Bob VK6BE.
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