- 2024
- Apr
- 13
This 1986 Ford Radio.
One of the things that caught my eye at the Cuyahoga Falls hamfest this past Saturday was a car radio sitting on the table by the door - the one that’s “Take what you want, pay what you want.” It’s nothing special, just an old Ford AM radio. I put some buxx in the bucket for it.
Why? I want a radio that I can put in a panel and mount in my rack, and a car radio is quite noise immune. I want to listen to a station for emergency alerts, and a car radio is a good choice, being designed for harsh service.
This one has some oddities about it, however:
It’s a radio! Yay! This one doesn’t say Philco on it. You’ll notice it doesn’t seem to have a lot of wear on the knobs and the buttons. In fact, there’s none, and even the face is nice and bright (save the dirt from storage.)
The mount doesn’t show any evidence of ever having been bolted up, either.
Even the lamp, which is in a shielded tube mounted away from the faceplate to prevent plastic burning - a well thought out thing - shows no tungsten burn off. The picture doesn’t really show it, but the brass body is just-out-of-the-box shiny.
I don’t think this was ever mounted in a vehicle. Even the socket pins look new, there’s no marks that I can see on them, and installing it even once would leave some sort of evidence. Inside is similarly clean, there’s not even any evidence of wear on the tuning assembly.
I wonder what it was for? Dealer stock from back when you could get a car without a radio if you wanted it, or perhaps a repair device that was never used?
The inside is a thing of beauty. 4 cans, 3 trimmers, and nothing other than discrete transistors.
Even the label is cool. Ford Aerospace.
So the next thing is to hook it up and try it…and I don’t have any 4 ohm speakers these days. That’s easy enough to get, I can probably pick up something at the next show, which is in a couple of weeks.
This radio seems to fit the bill for what I want to do with it, and the fact that it looks like it’s still new is quite the bonus. I’ll post results when I get it hooked up.
- 2024
- Apr
- 8
Imagine taking this 29-cent LED bulb back to 1955…
I bet there’d be a lot of questions, and who knows if you’d ever be seen again. Even if something like this had been possible at the time, how much would it have cost? Would the government blush at the amount of money necessary to buy it?
This is a cheap replacement for a not really but getting more expensive incandescent #44/#47 style bulb. Originally made for pinball machines and other amusement vending devices, these seem to work fine in other equipment. The ratio of metal to “glass” is a bit different, so the glass portion doesn’t really line up as well with the jewel in my application. However, it works well enough and hopefully takes just a bit of load off the old transformer. Maybe it will last a bit longer that way.
- 2024
- Apr
- 8
Just some minor equipment repairs - cord replacements
One of the things that I do not leave on a device, no matter the age or style, is an old line cord - curtain burners notwithstanding, those are a special case.
This is the cord for my small variac.
While it’s not totally crispy, it’s showing it’s age - and since it just goes in the hole it’s probably a replacement anyway.
It’s just soldered to the switch, so the new one goes in easily. The other connections? Eh…I’ll clean those up at some point, but I need the device working now.
A grommet, an underwriter’s knot, and a blurry photo of the actual business end of the unit and we’re ready to go back together. The cord has some slack, and the knot should keep it from pulling out - unlike the older cord which just laid there.
Back together, and we’re back in business!
- 2024
- Apr
- 7
Remember these things?
The Radio Shack crystal radio kit - a tuning capacitor, ferrite antenna bar, and a 1N34A diode on a little breadboard device that was reused for many different things - including an AM transmitter kit. These generally ran $10 for years, and this appears to be a later unit made in China.
I had one of these when I was a kid, but didn’t really appreciate it. Now I do, so I found one on an auction site and plan on building it. I’ll scan and post the manual as well, so stay tuned!
I would like to find out what the bar antenna is, and if they’re still available. They seem to have a million uses.
If you’d like a manual scan, you can download it here. It’s about 1MB, and is a 600DPI PDF: https://privateemail … 8376/1/8/NDY/NDYvMTY
- 2024
- Apr
- 7
Tip Plugs for older test equipment are still purchasable.
They seem to be available from just about any one of the major electronics dealers, and run between $1.50 and $2.00 or so, depending on color and type. These are what you’d find on old test equipment like signal tracers and other devices where you’re inputting audio or other low frequency signals.
A current data sheet usually available from the vendors if you need one.
I usually get parts from Mouser.com, just because I’ve had good experiences purchasing parts from them over the years, and you can get small quantities with no minimum order penalties.
Solderless
105-0301-001 White
105-0302-001 Red
105-0303-001 Black
105-0304-001 Green
105-0310-001 Blue
Solder
105-0771-001 White
105-0772-001 Red
105-0773-001 Black
105-0774-001 Green <— This one is hard to get.
105-0780-001 Blue
- 2024
- Apr
- 7
An Eico 145 Signal Tracer - Part 2
It’s not really important to operation, but having clean knobs and lenses on indicators is always nice. Since I have an ultrasonic bath, I’m going to use it.
The knobs on this guy are pretty cruddy, and the power indicator has a spritz of bronze paint across it.
While I’m removing the knobs from the volume and function selector, they get a shot of deoxit to clean and lube them.
Everything goes in the bath for 20 minutes.
In the end, they all come out nice and clean and ready to re-install!
Parts have been ordered, we’ll go through those next.
Next part of this series: https://wereboar.com … ignal-tracer-part-3/
Previous part of this series: https://wereboar.com … ignal-tracer-part-1/
- 2024
- Mar
- 29
No amount of whining will get you that information.
I may be alone here, but I’ve always found being asked for my “last three manager’s names, phone numbers, and email addresses” to be kind of odd. They don’t have time to be pestered by your questions, and what are you going to ask them? I can show you a W-2 to prove I worked there.
Beyond that, I don’t have contact with any of those people. It’s been too long for most of them, some of us parted ways long before places like LinkedIn were even a thing. That answer would usually satisfy most callers, especially when I pointed out they were asking for information from 1995. Do you remember your manager from 1995? Sure, I remember the guy’s name, but where is he - I have no idea.
One caller decided to be a little b**** and snippily asked me “Why don’t you want to give me these names?” Well, I just told you that I don’t have contact with them. “Well, I still need their contact information to proceed.”
Ok, sure. If you want to go nuclear, I have some nukes as well.
“You recently moved to a new job…”
“Yes, company was bought out. Technically, I still work there.”
“Uhhhhhhh, ok…how about the job before that?”
“My last manager was Bobby Blankspace.”
“Ok, well how do I get hold of him?”
“He’s dead. Heart attack after his wife left him.”
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawkward.
“Well…how about at this job?”
“That was 20 years ago. That company doesn’t exist now. It was old and tired when I was there and most of the people were retirement age. If they’re still alive, I doubt they would do more than tell you where to go and quit bothering them because if I were retired and 85 that’s what I’d tell you. I used to have contact with one of my former supervisors, but he was fired for cocaine use and I lost track of him.”
Double Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawkward.
“And before you go on to the next one, that was even farther back. I lost track of that person in 1995 when I left. The division closed and he followed what was left to Tennessee. He’s probably long since retired by now, and would be in his 80s if he’s still alive.”
…
“In fact, the only job I can reliably give you a contact for is the one where I was a freelancer, and my boss was me.”
…
…
…
The person was still snippy but shuffled me off the phone as quick as they could when it became apparent I couldn’t play their game.
I don’t want to be impolite, but when I tell you I don’t have any contact information for these people, and they probably won’t talk to you anyway - I’m not being nasty. It’s just the way it is when you’ve been doing this for 30 years.
The age of some of the callers made me think that, as they had grown up in a world where social media always existed, it’s completely alien to them that you wouldn’t have all of these people in various contact circles - not quite realizing that some of us were working before your parents graduated high school.
More likely?
Contacts of potential hiring managers mean more people you can market to.
That’s all. You’ll get names when we’re moving forward, not on a cold call where you just want to chat.
- 2024
- Mar
- 28
April Hamfests
There are two shows I have on my list for April.
The first is the Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Radio Club Hamfest. This indoor show usually attracts a good amount of vendors and lots of reasonably priced items. It’s well worth the drive and admission.
Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
Emidio & Sons Party Center
48 E. Bath Road
Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
April 13 2024
8A - 1PM
https://sites.google.com/cfarc.org/cfarc/hamfest
The second is a small show at the Tuscarawas County Fairgrounds in Dover / New Philadelphia. This was a very small show - only about an hour to see it all a couple of times, but again - a good mix of things to see and some good deals to be had. If you’re in the area, this is one to attend.
TUSCO ARC Hamfest
Commercial Building at the Tuscarawas County Fairgrounds
295 South Tuscarawas Ave
Dover, OH 44622
April 27 2024
8A - 1PM
https://www.w8zx.net/hamfest
See you there!
April 27th - these have both passed, next is the Dayton Hamvention!
My complete hamfest list, by no means exhaustive! https://wereboar.com … 1/2024-hamfest-list/
- 2024
- Mar
- 28
Dayton Hamvention is only about 6 weeks away.
It may be close to April Fool’s Day, but it’s not a joke - the Dayton Hamvention is only about 6 weeks away! Break open the piggy bank so you can bring home those treasures, and order your tickets now so they arrive in time, and so you’ll get the discounted rate. They’re good for all three days, and I’ll see you there!
Order your tickets here: https://hamvention.org/purchase-tickets/
- 2024
- Mar
- 28
By the power of the sun!
Remember these things? One of these kits (the 160-in-1 to be exact, which I still have) got me into electronics.
This one is a kit that I always wanted to get, but it never seemed to be available when I had the money. This particular example came from a popular auction site, new in box - even the crappy earphone is there! And yes, I plan on sitting down with it and building a few of the things in it.
It’s kind of a shame that stuff like this isn’t as easily accessible as it once was. Certainly, parts, microcontrollers, and other electronics are far easier to find - but this guided, all the parts are there all the time, no extra stuff save some wire needed kits don’t seem to be around these days. Perhaps the limited use doesn’t appeal to people like it did then?
Regardless, I didn’t necessarily know what the parts were doing, or why, but I knew I wanted to know more.
I salute you, humble kit of parts. You were (and still are) a wonder in a small box.