We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden period of TV dx.
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
On 22/07/2022 21:33, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright
<wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast
quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits
any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
+1
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright <wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits
any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
Even fm radio is now so jammed with legal and illegal stations as to be impossible to get much.
On 23/07/2022 08:40, Jeff Layman wrote:
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big cities had shops of that sort too.
That's your excuse for being in Lisle Street :-)
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
Was that tongue in cheek? If not, it was reputed to be an area of loose morals and even looser underwear! I never noticed these things as I was
more interested in the junk.
what other reason could there be?
It was after all in Soho I seem to remember.
In article <tbdm9l$304mo$1@dont-email.me>, Brian Gaff
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
Even fm radio is now so jammed with legal and illegal stations as to be
impossible to get much.
FM/VHF in London was jammed decades ago when I lived there - plus all
kinds
of interference!. However where I live now the band is still in a decent state. So it matters a lot where you are.
Jim
--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me. Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright <wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast quantity
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short
golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
of components that you could work with. And you could also really
understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits any more,
or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
--
Ian
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 22/07/2022 21:33, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright
<wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short >>>>> golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast
quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits
any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
+1
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
That's just nostalgia. There's now a semi infinite range of electronic
bits
and bobs you can get from China via the likes of eBay. As to bemoaning modules, presumably you'd also dislike ICs because they hide all those hundreds of thousands of transistors. You can buy a Raspberry Pi Pico for
£6 and get right into the nuts and bolts of bare metal programming, drive
the i/o lines with I2C, SPI etc and hook up all sorts of external
peripheral chips. CAD packages have never been more accessible, with very competent suites being free. PCBs can be manufactured for next to nothing
and returned within a week or two. You can buy a USB software radio stick
for peanuts and get into software defined radio.
On 22/07/2022 21:33, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright
<wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short >>>> golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast
quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits
any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
+1
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big cities
had shops of that sort too.
--
Jeff
On 23/07/2022 08:40, Jeff Layman wrote:
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
That's your excuse for being in Lisle Street :-)
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 09:47:15 +0100, charles wrote:
what other reason could there be?
Was that tongue in cheek? If not, it was reputed to be an area of loose morals and even looser underwear! I never noticed these things as I was
more interested in the junk.
--
TOJ
On 23/07/2022 10:35, The Other John wrote:
Was that tongue in cheek? If not, it was reputed to be an area of loose
morals and even looser underwear! I never noticed these things as I was
more interested in the junk.
It was after all in Soho I seem to remember.
In article <tbgamv$3ogo2$1@dont-email.me>,
MB <MB@nospam.net> wrote:
On 23/07/2022 08:40, Jeff Layman wrote:
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
That's your excuse for being in Lisle Street :-)
what other reason could there be?
--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4té
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 10:45:50 +0100, MB wrote:
It was after all in Soho I seem to remember.
I thought Soho ended at Shaftesbury Avenue and Lisle Street is south of
that.
--
TOJ
On 23/07/2022 09:11, Tweed wrote:
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 22/07/2022 21:33, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright
<wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast
quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits >>>> any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
+1
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
That’s just nostalgia. There’s now a semi infinite range of electronic bits
and bobs you can get from China via the likes of eBay. As to bemoaning
modules, presumably you’d also dislike ICs because they hide all those
hundreds of thousands of transistors. You can buy a Raspberry Pi Pico for
£6 and get right into the nuts and bolts of bare metal programming, drive >> the i/o lines with I2C, SPI etc and hook up all sorts of external
peripheral chips. CAD packages have never been more accessible, with very
competent suites being free. PCBs can be manufactured for next to nothing
and returned within a week or two. You can buy a USB software radio stick
for peanuts and get into software defined radio.
Remember that at the time (early 60s) transistor devices were in their infancy, so may things were still made with valves. There was still a
lot of ex-WW2 electronic equipment around, and much of it was available
for very little money. It was fun to try to get old equipment working,
but I failed miserably with a USAF VHF radio - a BC-624 (this would have helped at the time: <http://www.radiomanual.info/schemi/Surplus_NATO/SCR-522A_SCR-542A_user_AN16-40SCR522-2_1944.pdf>.
But even that doesn't have the circuit diagram.). I also tried to get an
old Cossor 3339 oscilloscope working, but could not get it to scan.
Today, you'd get a module, often with unmarked or anonymised ICs, or
buried under a blob of epoxy resin. What fun is there buying from eBay,
other than you not knowing exactly what you might be getting from a
Chinglish description?
In the Electronics Surplus shops you could look at and pick up all sorts
of equipment that you had no idea of what it was or what it did, and
often the shop owner didn't either. It was a journey of discovery, and
/you/ did the thinking, not someone else doing it for you with a
ready-made kit.
Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
On 22/07/2022 21:33, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright
<wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast
quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits
any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
+1
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
That’s just nostalgia. There’s now a semi infinite range of electronic bits
and bobs you can get from China via the likes of eBay. As to bemoaning modules, presumably you’d also dislike ICs because they hide all those hundreds of thousands of transistors. You can buy a Raspberry Pi Pico for
£6 and get right into the nuts and bolts of bare metal programming, drive the i/o lines with I2C, SPI etc and hook up all sorts of external
peripheral chips. CAD packages have never been more accessible, with very competent suites being free. PCBs can be manufactured for next to nothing
and returned within a week or two. You can buy a USB software radio stick
for peanuts and get into software defined radio.
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 09:47:15 +0100, charles wrote:
what other reason could there be?
Was that tongue in cheek? If not, it was reputed to be an area of loose morals and even looser underwear! I never noticed these things as I was
more interested in the junk.
Just around the corner of course was Denmark Street
But even that doesn't have the circuit diagram.). I also tried to get an
old Cossor 3339 oscilloscope working, but could not get it to scan.
Today, you'd get a module, often with unmarked or anonymised ICs, or
buried under a blob of epoxy resin. What fun is there buying from eBay,
other than you not knowing exactly what you might be getting from a
Chinglish description?
In the Electronics Surplus shops you could look at and pick up all sorts
of equipment that you had no idea of what it was or what it did, and
often the shop owner didn't either. It was a journey of discovery, and
/you/ did the thinking, not someone else doing it for you with a
ready-made kit.
There a lot of room for thinking, there’s endless small developer kits with >microcontrollers and even FPGAs if you really want to exercise the brain >cells. The world has moved on.
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 12:51:51 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
But even that doesn't have the circuit diagram.). I also tried to get an >>> old Cossor 3339 oscilloscope working, but could not get it to scan.
Today, you'd get a module, often with unmarked or anonymised ICs, or
buried under a blob of epoxy resin. What fun is there buying from eBay,
other than you not knowing exactly what you might be getting from a
Chinglish description?
In the Electronics Surplus shops you could look at and pick up all sorts >>> of equipment that you had no idea of what it was or what it did, and
often the shop owner didn't either. It was a journey of discovery, and
/you/ did the thinking, not someone else doing it for you with a
ready-made kit.
There a lot of room for thinking, thereÂ’s endless small developer kits with >> microcontrollers and even FPGAs if you really want to exercise the brain
cells. The world has moved on.
Not quite all of it. Somebody must be designing those blob circuits,
so there's probably about a dozen people in the entire world somewhere
who still know how stuff actually works. Goodness knows how the next generation of youngsters are going to learn it though.
Rod.
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
In message <tbj1nq$gm4k$1@dont-email.me>, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> writes
It is reputed that no one person knows in fine detail how a modern Intel
microprocessor works. However, there’s lots of fields where no one person >> knows how something works in detail.
I recall having to contact my works parent company about problems I
having getting one of their products to work. The reply was "The guy who designed it is dead, and the guy who might possibly have some idea has
left town".
It is reputed that no one person knows in fine detail how a modern Intel >microprocessor works. However, there’s lots of fields where no one person >knows how something works in detail.
On Sun, 24 Jul 2022 09:00:42 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
The problem with getting old is that you know how difficult everything is, >> so it is very hard to get motivated to learn new stuff. Happily the
youngsters arenÂ’t weighed down with this knowledge and thus take easily to >> new things.
The trouble is that although most modern electronics is very
complicated it's still based on fundamental principles. Much of my own knowledge of these pronciples was gained by practical experience, but
the knowledge that today's kids will be able to gain by practical
experience will mostly be from things that are already built, so how
will they cope when it becomes necessary to design and build new
things from scratch?
Rod.
The problem with getting old is that you know how difficult everything is,
so it is very hard to get motivated to learn new stuff. Happily the >youngsters aren’t weighed down with this knowledge and thus take easily to >new things.
Maybe it does, but the problem for me now is that there is a transmitter for >the local independent station on top of the Tolworth Tower block, so this >shoots intermediation spurii all over the bands. Its less than a mile away.
Likewise, Medium wave has one of the God stations for Premier very close
to here, completely dispensing the band.
Brian
On 22/07/2022 21:33, Ian Jackson wrote:
In message <jk00q9FqtroU1@mid.individual.net>, williamwright
<wrightsaerials@f2s.com> writes
On 22/07/2022 09:14, Brian Gaff wrote:I think that the period from around 1950 to 1980 was a golden age for
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short >golden
period of TV dx.
Indeed.
all sorts of electronic hobbies. Loads of war surplus gear and a vast
quantity of components that you could work with. And you could also
really understand how things worked. These days, you can't get the bits
any more, or it's all done for you (or at least just modules that you
can connect together), or you simply can't do it any more.
+1
As a teenager I was often browsing around the electronic surplus shops
in Tottenham Court Road and Lisle Street in London. I guess other big
cities had shops of that sort too.
Gw Smith, Laskys, yes the original, and in other streets Proops of course
for all their novelties.
We used to have in Kingston a shop called Southern Surplus, and the floor
was rotting but it was piled high with gear from the forces, redundant stock >and returns etc, much fun to be had.
Brian
In article <tbgmn8$3rhq4$1@dont-email.me>, Brian Gaff
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> scribeth thus
Gw Smith, Laskys, yes the original, and in other streets Proops of course
for all their novelties.
We used to have in Kingston a shop called Southern Surplus, and the floor
was rotting but it was piled high with gear from the forces, redundant stock >> and returns etc, much fun to be had.
Brian
Up in Lincolnshire Birketts of the street is still there after all those years!
https://goo.gl/maps/g8Vvdrh8qGdjMuWh8
Roderick Stewart <rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
On Sun, 24 Jul 2022 09:00:42 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
The problem with getting old is that you know how difficult everything is, >>> so it is very hard to get motivated to learn new stuff. Happily the
youngsters aren?t weighed down with this knowledge and thus take easily to >>> new things.
The trouble is that although most modern electronics is very
complicated it's still based on fundamental principles. Much of my own
knowledge of these pronciples was gained by practical experience, but
the knowledge that today's kids will be able to gain by practical
experience will mostly be from things that are already built, so how
will they cope when it becomes necessary to design and build new
things from scratch?
Rod.
Has the maker movement that involves the Arduino and Raspberry Pi passed
you by?
On Sun, 24 Jul 2022 13:39:24 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
Roderick Stewart <rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
On Sun, 24 Jul 2022 09:00:42 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
The problem with getting old is that you know how difficult everything is, >>>> so it is very hard to get motivated to learn new stuff. Happily the
youngsters aren?t weighed down with this knowledge and thus take easily to >>>> new things.
The trouble is that although most modern electronics is very
complicated it's still based on fundamental principles. Much of my own
knowledge of these pronciples was gained by practical experience, but
the knowledge that today's kids will be able to gain by practical
experience will mostly be from things that are already built, so how
will they cope when it becomes necessary to design and build new
things from scratch?
Rod.
Has the maker movement that involves the Arduino and Raspberry Pi passed
you by?
Arduinos and the like are full of ready made electronics. I'm sure
they can teach a lot about digital logic, but possibly not so much
about the behaviour of electrical signals in cables or through the
air. You just plug one ready made circuit module to another using
ready made cables with the plugs already attached, and assume that the signals will just arrive where they should, unharmed. No need to worry
about impedances or balancing or matching. No need to calculate things
like component values or power dissipations. Just rely on the makers' specifications and assume everything will work.
Rod.
Not quite all of it. Somebody must be designing those blob circuits, so there's probably about a dozen people in the entire world somewhere who
still know how stuff actually works. Goodness knows how the next
generation of youngsters are going to learn it though.
In message <tbj1nq$gm4k$1@dont-email.me>, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> writes
It is reputed that no one person knows in fine detail how a modern Intel
microprocessor works. However, there’s lots of fields where no one person >> knows how something works in detail.
I recall having to contact my works parent company about problems I
having getting one of their products to work. The reply was "The guy who designed it is dead, and the guy who might possibly have some idea has
left town".
In them old days when we were all analogue and all that, and I could see, I used to enjoy getting distant tv transmitters. I think the first time an old TV fitted with a vhf tuner that worked even in 625 mode I saw Sveridge's Radio test card with that nice young lady on it was amazing. Of course back then you could pick up the itv 405 regions on a modest rotatable aerial.
Now we are all digital, no longer use vhf for TV and multiplex loads of channels into one on uhf, I have never found much to look for. I guess if
you lived on the downs and had a clear path to parts of Europe you might get something, but co channel is now very bad and digital is now you see it now you don't, Even fm radio is now so jammed with legal and illegal stations as to be impossible to get much.
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short golden period of TV dx.
Brian
--
--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
The problem with getting old is that you know how difficult everything
is, so it is very hard to get motivated to learn new stuff.
Happily the youngsters aren't weighed down with this knowledge and thus
take easily to new things.
Is it was it Johns radio in Leeds?, still around?...
In message <tbj1nq$gm4k$1@dont-email.me>, Tweed <usenet.tweed@gmail.com> writes
It is reputed that no one person knows in fine detail how a modern Intel
microprocessor works. However, there’s lots of fields where no one person >> knows how something works in detail.
I recall having to contact my works parent company about problems I
having getting one of their products to work. The reply was "The guy who designed it is dead, and the guy who might possibly have some idea has
left town".
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 12:51:51 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
But even that doesn't have the circuit diagram.). I also tried to get an >>> old Cossor 3339 oscilloscope working, but could not get it to scan.
Today, you'd get a module, often with unmarked or anonymised ICs, or
buried under a blob of epoxy resin. What fun is there buying from eBay,
other than you not knowing exactly what you might be getting from a
Chinglish description?
In the Electronics Surplus shops you could look at and pick up all sorts >>> of equipment that you had no idea of what it was or what it did, and
often the shop owner didn't either. It was a journey of discovery, and
/you/ did the thinking, not someone else doing it for you with a
ready-made kit.
There a lot of room for thinking, there’s endless small developer kits with
microcontrollers and even FPGAs if you really want to exercise the brain
cells. The world has moved on.
Not quite all of it. Somebody must be designing those blob circuits,
so there's probably about a dozen people in the entire world somewhere
who still know how stuff actually works. Goodness knows how the next generation of youngsters are going to learn it though.
On 24/07/2022 09:24, Roderick Stewart wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 12:51:51 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet...@gmail.com> wrote:
But even that doesn't have the circuit diagram.). I also tried to get an >>> old Cossor 3339 oscilloscope working, but could not get it to scan.
Today, you'd get a module, often with unmarked or anonymised ICs, or
buried under a blob of epoxy resin. What fun is there buying from eBay, >>> other than you not knowing exactly what you might be getting from a
Chinglish description?
In the Electronics Surplus shops you could look at and pick up all sorts >>> of equipment that you had no idea of what it was or what it did, and
often the shop owner didn't either. It was a journey of discovery, and >>> /you/ did the thinking, not someone else doing it for you with a
ready-made kit.
There a lot of room for thinking, there’s endless small developer kits with
microcontrollers and even FPGAs if you really want to exercise the brain >> cells. The world has moved on.
Not quite all of it. Somebody must be designing those blob circuits,It's a matter of degree. Enthusiasts never had to make their own valves
so there's probably about a dozen people in the entire world somewhere
who still know how stuff actually works. Goodness knows how the next generation of youngsters are going to learn it though.
or transistors.
--
Max Demian
I made my own diode, from a small lump of galena I found in the Ochils and literally created my own crystal set. Wound the coil too, but the capacitor was bought. It worked, but OTOH a factory made diode was a lot better.
When my dad was in the RAMC and was in Italy in the war home-made crystal sets were common. They used blue razor blades as detectors.
On 28/07/2022 20:23, R. Mark Clayton wrote:
I made my own diode, from a small lump of galena I found in the Ochils and literally created my own crystal set. Wound the coil too, but the capacitor was bought. It worked, but OTOH a factory made diode was a lot better.
When my dad was in the RAMC and was in Italy in the war home-made
crystal sets were common. They used blue razor blades as detectors.
Bill
On Friday, 22 July 2022 at 09:14:47 UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
In them old days when we were all analogue and all that, and I could see,
I
used to enjoy getting distant tv transmitters. I think the first time an
old
TV fitted with a vhf tuner that worked even in 625 mode I saw Sveridge's
Radio test card with that nice young lady on it was amazing. Of course
back
then you could pick up the itv 405 regions on a modest rotatable aerial.
Now we are all digital, no longer use vhf for TV and multiplex loads of
channels into one on uhf, I have never found much to look for. I guess if
you lived on the downs and had a clear path to parts of Europe you might
get
something, but co channel is now very bad and digital is now you see it
now
you don't, Even fm radio is now so jammed with legal and illegal stations
as
to be impossible to get much.
We never knew back then that we were living through an all too short
golden
period of TV dx.
Brian
Probably true. Certainly FM radio, where the capture effect means that despite a very well positioned dipole (following Bill's advice) I can
receive stations on almost every channel, I can't receive anything distant because nearer stations stamp over it.
As for TV, with a steerable dish you can receive tens of thousands of channels from about a quarter of the globe.
--
--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"williamwright" <wrightsaerials@f2s.com> wrote in message news:jkguf6Fig7pU1@mid.individual.net...
When my dad was in the RAMC and was in Italy in the war home-made
crystal sets were common. They used blue razor blades as detectors.
What is special about the razor blades being blue? Were there different types, colour-coded, with the blue ones found to be best as detectors (diodes)? A quick google doesn't bring up any references to the phrase,
other that showing photos of razors with blue handles and references to Gillette's "Silver Blue" blades which seem to be a brand name.
On 29/07/2022 09:17, NY wrote:
"williamwright" <wrightsaerials@f2s.com> wrote in message
news:jkguf6Fig7pU1@mid.individual.net...
When my dad was in the RAMC and was in Italy in the war home-made
crystal sets were common. They used blue razor blades as detectors.
What is special about the razor blades being blue? Were there different
types, colour-coded, with the blue ones found to be best as detectors
(diodes)? A quick google doesn't bring up any references to the phrase,
other that showing photos of razors with blue handles and references to
Gillette's "Silver Blue" blades which seem to be a brand name.
Google "World War II" + "crystal sets"
I've found various references to "blue razor blades" but none that
explain the significance of the colour blue. Were razor blades
colour-coded in the past, in a way that used to signify something - like modern green-top plastic milk bottles are semi-skimmed and blue ones are full-fat (or is it totally skimmed?). Or green hoses are unleaded petrol
and black ones are diesel? Were there other colours of razor blade at
the time which didn't work as well as detectors?
I've found various references to "blue razor blades" but none that
explain the significance of the colour blue.
"williamwright" <wrights...@f2s.com> wrote in message news:jki3in...@mid.individual.net...
On 29/07/2022 09:17, NY wrote:
"williamwright" <wrights...@f2s.com> wrote in message
news:jkguf6...@mid.individual.net...
When my dad was in the RAMC and was in Italy in the war home-made
crystal sets were common. They used blue razor blades as detectors.
What is special about the razor blades being blue? Were there different
types, colour-coded, with the blue ones found to be best as detectors
(diodes)? A quick google doesn't bring up any references to the phrase,
other that showing photos of razors with blue handles and references to
Gillette's "Silver Blue" blades which seem to be a brand name.
Google "World War II" + "crystal sets"I've found various references to "blue razor blades" but none that explain the significance of the colour blue. Were razor blades colour-coded in the past, in a way that used to signify something - like modern green-top
plastic milk bottles are semi-skimmed and blue ones are full-fat (or is it totally skimmed?). Or green hoses are unleaded petrol and black ones are diesel? Were there other colours of razor blade at the time which didn't
work as well as detectors?
The blades would probably be steel, and blue is the colour steel goes when partly tempered. I doubt that this was significant other than these were what were available.
IIRC I used regular wire, but given the low band gap in lead sulphide as a semiconductor maybe it was something else.
On 24/07/2022 09:24, Roderick Stewart wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 12:51:51 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
<usenet.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
But even that doesn't have the circuit diagram.). I also tried to get an >>>> old Cossor 3339 oscilloscope working, but could not get it to scan.
Today, you'd get a module, often with unmarked or anonymised ICs, or
buried under a blob of epoxy resin. What fun is there buying from eBay, >>>> other than you not knowing exactly what you might be getting from a
Chinglish description?
In the Electronics Surplus shops you could look at and pick up all sorts >>>> of equipment that you had no idea of what it was or what it did, and
often the shop owner didn't either. It was a journey of discovery, and >>>> /you/ did the thinking, not someone else doing it for you with a
ready-made kit.
There a lot of room for thinking, there’s endless small developer kits with
microcontrollers and even FPGAs if you really want to exercise the brain >>> cells. The world has moved on.
Not quite all of it. Somebody must be designing those blob circuits,
so there's probably about a dozen people in the entire world somewhere
who still know how stuff actually works. Goodness knows how the next
generation of youngsters are going to learn it though.
It's a matter of degree. Enthusiasts never had to make their own valves
or transistors.
In article <6P-dnStVPqKmE0P_nZ2dnUU7-fWdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, Max
It's a matter of degree. Enthusiasts never had to make their own valves
or transistors.
Made a valve once, many years ago and it worked albeit a simple
triode!...
On 31/07/2022 21:39, tony sayer wrote:
Made a valve once, many years ago and it worked albeit a simple
triode!...
How did you evacuate it?
On 01/08/2022 11:24, Max Demian wrote:
On 31/07/2022 21:39, tony sayer wrote:
Made a valve once, many years ago and it worked albeit a simple
triode!...
How did you evacuate it?
That's ambiguous, and reminds me of the old joke:
Q:Â How do you know when you've passed an elephant?
A:Â You get a burning sensation and tears in yer eyes!
When they test the fire alarms in the local supermarket the announcement says, "Do not evacuate the store." I like to add, "...or your bowels."
Maybe it does, but the problem for me now is that there is a transmitter for the local independent station on top of the Tolworth Tower block, so this shoots intermediation spurii all over the bands. Its less than a mile away.
Likewise, Medium wave has one of the God stations for Premier very close to here, completely dispensing the band.
Brian
On 31/07/2022 21:39, tony sayer wrote:
In article <6P-dnStVPqKmE0P_nZ2dnUU7-fWdnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, Max
It's a matter of degree. Enthusiasts never had to make their own valves
or transistors.
Made a valve once, many years ago and it worked albeit a simple
triode!...
How did you evacuate it?
On 24/07/2022 21:40, tony sayer wrote:
In article <tbgmn8$3rhq4$1@dont-email.me>, Brian Gaff
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> scribeth thus
Gw Smith, Laskys, yes the original, and in other streets Proops of course >>> for all their novelties.
We used to have in Kingston a shop called Southern Surplus, and the floor >>> was rotting but it was piled high with gear from the forces, redundant stock
and returns etc, much fun to be had.
Brian
Up in Lincolnshire Birketts of the street is still there after all those
years!
https://goo.gl/maps/g8Vvdrh8qGdjMuWh8
That's 3 years old.
John Birkett died three months ago. Anyone know if the shop is still open?
Just around the corner of course was Denmark Street where Dick James Music used to have his office where all the aspiring young stars sent their acetates. Loads were found when they cleared it out some years ago.
Cilla, the Beatles, seems such a short time ago, and the quality was crap, now demos are either sent via email or sold off as very polished tracks directly by the artists.
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