John Franklin wrote:

Hi Micheal, I guess after doing the real thing a .1 watt
transmitter doesn't do much for me. I will say however that QRP is fun for
me on HF thru 70CM. I remember once using a signal generator, modulating it
and feeding a longwire. I heard it for about a 5 block radius. I called it
KVOM (K voice of Milpitas) Calif. I picked a clear freq and went for it.
Hmmmmmmm talk about coverage............I live in Nashville and WSM covers
real well. That big Blaw-Knox tower dominates the area along I-65. I can
listen to WSM when in Birmingham AL during the day quite well on a car
radio.


I played around with part 15 AM transmitters when I while I was in
high school and helped start the school's ham radio club. The call was
WDSC, for my girlfriend's initials. I was always more interested in
receiver design and construction than getting on the air. I'm the kind
of guy who loses interest in a project after its working properly so i
was always looking for the next project. I started in broadcast while
in the US Army in the early '70s at Ft Greely AK. We had a Gates BC250
on 980 KHz at 250 Watts and a 500 Watt Ch 8 Gates TV transmitter.

Lucky you! WSM is my favorite station and I've always wanted to go to
the Opry but I'm disabled now and I don't know if I'll ever get the
chance. I saw the WLW tower and 500 KW transmitter in the late '60s,
along with the old VOA plant at Bethany (Mason) Ohio. I got to look
inside the beast and talk to an engineer who was a young man when they
were still using the transmitter.


I can pick up WSM her near Ocala, with a Sony walkman, (SRF-49) that
runs on a single AA cell. It doesn't have any speakers so I plugged in
a set of non amplified computer speakers and use it on my night stand to
listen to WSM while I'm laying in bed. I have broadband so I can listen
to their stream, when it works.

I have had several local hams try to get me to get my ticket to play
with ATV but I'm kind of burnt out on TV these days.

--
?

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida