15 March 2025
Happy Birthday to my friend Jim who is 8 months older than I. I try not to let him forget it – his age, that is.
I was planning on kicking back today but forgot John was brining over BOGO from Honey Baked Ham and Nothing Bundt Cakes. He also brought over some Bun candy and some gooey brownies. Add that to my chocolate chip cookies and I have enough chocolate stash to last hurricane season starting in June. However, I doubt it will last that long.
We spent the day catching up and trying to get my new tv to work with Directv Stream app with no luck. We probably spent an hour on that.
We got into a discussion about how you used to have to change tubes in old tv sets. He came around during the age of transistors and didn’t realize old radio were tubes as well until the advent of transistors. I’m dating myself.
I’ve regaled you with the story of my brother building a home made crystal radio and having fun at my expense. I think I’ve also mentioned the tube transmitter we had in the Coast Guard aboard the CGC Reliance. It took forever to tune. You knew you were close when a window into a huge tube glowed cherry red.
When we asked for an upgrade to a transistor transmitter, the Eighth Coast Guard District laughed and said we had more up time with our transmitter than any ship in the fleet. It was far more reliable than transistor transmitters.
When our transmitter came on line, it could really put out the watts of power. We were stationed in Corpus Christi and they could hear us in Florida, the west coast of the U.S. and one time, due to atmospheric bounce, in the Indian Ocean.
High school physics in 1966 taught me a little about electronics. We studied Ohms law, series and parallel circuits. I think I remember the physics teacher passing around a tube one day and that was it. Somewhere in my high school years, transistor radios made it big because of their small size and ability to receive AM and FM.
There are a lot of things where old is better. Morse Code is an example. You can send and receive code messages much better with clearer atmospherics than any other form of communication. It’s still the most reliable form of long distance communication.
My big accomplishment today was trimming my finger nails and toe nails. I’ll add to that by taking a shower tonight and call it a day and head to bed and read a little.
Stay tuned!