RadioBanter - View Single Post

July 19th 04, 11:56 AM

In article ,
(Len Over 21) writes:

In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

Looking at the Lenover21 vs N2EY debate on the first voice
transmission, maybe we could make some headway by the following:

Mike, this is all old ground that was ground under the anguished
trodding feet of the exacting headmasters months ago. :-)

You brought it up, Len ;-)

A century in the past. An oddity insofar as technology is concerned.

A pioneering effort/

Anyone (other than the one in my ancestral land) using alternators
or spark transmitters now?

There's an alternator in almost every car on the road ;-) ;-)

This is all in the historical record.

Jim accepts it, and Len appears not to.

Len, what is your rationale for that?

Doesn't matter what I write in here. Headmaster and Deacon,
the "right" Rev. Jim, will say I am "flat-out wrong," "incorrect"
and so forth, no matter what the subject. :-)

Who is this "Rev. Jim" you keep talking about, Len?

The only thing I'm sure about is that I was helping to keep HF
communications alive and well across the Pacific a half century
ago...24/7 service...never once having to use morse code then
or in the next half century.

That's the *only* thing you're sure of? ;-) ;-) ;-)

If you guys want only to natter about ancient history and argue
the whichness of the what on technologies long ago kissed bye-
bye by everyone, fine.

*You* brought it up, Len. Not anybody else. You were simply wrong about the
date.

Had anyone else made such an error, you;d be all over them like a cheap suit.

If Jeopardy ever has questions on ancient
radio days' technologies, I really doubt if any of you PCTA are
going to pull off a Ken Jennings. :-)

Just can't say you're wrong, can you? ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

By the way, consider what became of ol' Reggie after the 20s.

Why?

Not much left of his "technology" in the world of radio.

So?

Some
consider him a "genius."

He was. You're not.

Those folks NEED hero worship
objects for some reason. Bottom line was that Reggie just
couldn't hack it in trying to be a part of Big Radio Business not
long after that famous Christmas Eve broadcast.

I see. Commercial success is your only measure.

You might say ol' Reg just fired up, tuned out, and went QRT.

He did invent the first heterodyne receiver (of a most crude sort).
Ed Armstrong came along and invented a great improvement,
the superheterodyne. Tubes proved superior to lil bitty spark
RF generators. Reg just didn't work much with tubes.

And you're point is?

You too can make a "heterodyne receiver" much like Fessenden's.
Just get a crystal set and add a little RF generator tuned to close
to the signal frequency. Sort of a "detector and BFO" without the
rest of the receiver. [a direct-conversion receiver is much easier
and more sensitive, but let's not quibble among the ancient radio
re-enactors... :-) ]

What you describe *is* a direct conversion receiver.

I think most hams will know what a "superhet" receiver is. How
many know what a "het" receiver is? :-)

I do.

Nice try avoiding the main point. But you're still wrong about the date of the
first voice radio transmission. It was 1900, not 1906. You brought it up.