wa4dou@juno.com wrote:
Tom,
I think we can forgive civilians for not knowing they're not experts
in radio. Lots of hams make the same mistake. 73 de Roy WA4DOU
Ouch! Touche! I quite foolishly assumed that all of the civilians still
running AC/DC radios have long since eliminated themselves from the gene
pool. Sounds like advice which once applied to those deathtraps has been
incorrectly generalized to the point that it is no longer relevant to
today's safer power supply designs. Obtaining AC power through an
isolation transformer could be a better idea for running these relics,
as it might both cure the 60Hz AVC pumping (?) and make it more likely
that the antique owner would be around long enough to reproduce. LOL!
Tom's good-natured treatment of radio-electronics myths is always a
pleasure to behold. I have learned a lot as he works towards debunking
popular nonsense about radios and antennas. Unfortunately, it seems to
take a bit longer for natural selection to eliminate genes for mean-
spiritedness. I have never personally encountered the AVC problem Tom
refers to, but then the last AC/DC radio I ever used was my grand-
mother's old Clarion AM table radio complete with wood veneer cabinet,
probably around 1960. This enabled me to hear my first ham radio
transmissions on 160m AM phone somewhere above 1600KHz on the dial,
when I was just a 10-11 year old kid. It didn't occur to me at the time
to play with external antennas or grounding of the radio's chassis.
Although I was only receiving the strong local operator's end of the
conversation, I was nonetheless most intrigued by what I heard, and
that one event played a major role in my happy discovery of ham radio.
I eventually got my Novice class license in 1963, and I found most
hams operating in the 40m Novice band to be friendly and supportive
folks. It has been a fun ride! I will always try to keep that friendly
ham spirit alive- the spirit which once made topband the 'gentleman's
band'. 73, David K3KY
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