Classic CQ GAS Article

[AC1O at delphi.com]

     Back in the late 50's or early 60's (during my impressionable youth), CQ 
Magazine ran a classic April article entitled "A 150 Watt Contest Special".
(In those days, virtually all Sweepstakes entrants claimed the under-150 watt 
power multiplier, 1.5, although many ran MUCH higher power than that.)
 
     As the article described it, the Contest Special -- a truly massive rig 
-- ran 3000 volts to some tube or other, so the trick to getting the output 
under "150 watts" (and thus qualifying for the multiplier) was to keep the 
plate current under 50 mils.  Trouble was, the meter kept reading much higher 
than that ("due to all the RF leakage", according to the author). 
 
     After various bypass resistors across the ammeter failed to eliminate 
the problem, a solution was finally found that compensated for all the RF 
leakage and yielded the desired "150 watt" reading for the Contest Special:
a 1/2 inch copper strap soldered across the meter's terminals. 
 
     (This was all done tongue-in-cheek.  But it's still a classic article;
I know, for example, it's been widely translated into Italian and Russian...) 
 
  73 de Walt, AC1O/4     "ac1o at delphi.com"     "Multipliers Are"

>From McCarty, DK 'Dav" <DKMC at chevron.com  Sun Jul 17 00:53:44 1994
From: McCarty, DK 'Dav" <DKMC at chevron.com (McCarty, DK 'Dav)
Date: 16 Jul 94 16:53:44 PDT
Subject: Terminology
Message-ID: <199407162351.AA04760 at portal.chevron.com>


From: McCarty, DK 'David'
To:  OPEN ADDRESSING SERVI-OPENADDR
Subject:  Terminology
Date: 1994-07-16 18:41
Priority:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


West Coasters use GAS,
East Coasters use SOUP,
Midwesterners adjust the SIZE OF THE WATTS*

Around here, we call it SMASH which has a certain resonance
with the terminology of the clandestine whisky still...

And is just as illegal.

73,
Dave

*(remember the Godzilla Products Amp video by the KCDXC, vintage
ca. 1982? By far the best spoof I've ever seen in ham radio.  Wish I
could get my hands on a copy of it.)

David K. McCarty, K5GN
dkmc at chevron.com