Greetings! I seem to remember Giligan riding a bicycle to generate power for
something; maybe the radio. All those years with neither Ginger or Mary Ann
getting pregnant? Maybe the only nuts there were the ones that the professor
tried to make power from. By the way; where did the bicycle come from?

"lsmyer" wrote in message
...
Since the mid-1960s, I have searched far and wide to find a radio that had
such good reception as the one on Gilligan's Island.

There were at least three radios on Gilligan's Island. The Packard Bell
tabletop (with the add on handle and telescopic antenna), the Hallicrafters
S-40B the Skipper converted into a transmitter and Gilligan's filling, which
somehow turned into a radio receiver.

There were a few radios which came with the several visitors to the island.



That incredible DX powerhouse of a radio could regularly pick up US
mainland
broadcasters -- KDKA comes to mind -- from its location on a tiny island
located thousands of miles from the US mainland deep in the South Pacific.
Not just at night, mind you, but right in the middle of the day.

I'm sure we have all figured out the real reason the castaways never got off
the island. It's because they didn't really want to. They were already in
paradise. And good DX is one of the more obscure, yet important, parts of
paradise.



Also, this radio contained some amazing self-generating batteries. They
never ran low, despite the fact that there was no AC plug available for
charging purposes, nor did it have any type of crank-based charging
mechanism. It's possible that the batteries might have been the product of
a
secret military cold-war era attempt at attaining a self-sustaining,
zero-point energy equilibrium.

Ah, that's the easy part. Those 60s transistor radios didn't use much
current. I've got an old Silvertone from that era, and it draws less than
15 mils at low volume settings. It's powered with six D cells, and alkaline
cells would run the radio for two to four hours a day for over a year. Half
an hour a week for a couple of years? Piece o' cake.


I would like to get one of these radios and hopefully some of those
batteries as well. If anybody finds one on ebay, be sure to post it here.
Thanks.



Frank Dresser

Frank Dresser wrote:

"lsmyer" wrote in message
...

Since the mid-1960s, I have searched far and wide to find a radio that had
such good reception as the one on Gilligan's Island.


There were at least three radios on Gilligan's Island. The Packard Bell
tabletop (with the add on handle and telescopic antenna), the Hallicrafters
S-40B the Skipper converted into a transmitter and Gilligan's filling, which
somehow turned into a radio receiver.

There were a few radios which came with the several visitors to the island.



That incredible DX powerhouse of a radio could regularly pick up US

mainland

broadcasters -- KDKA comes to mind -- from its location on a tiny island
located thousands of miles from the US mainland deep in the South Pacific.
Not just at night, mind you, but right in the middle of the day.


I'm sure we have all figured out the real reason the castaways never got off
the island. It's because they didn't really want to. They were already in
paradise. And good DX is one of the more obscure, yet important, parts of
paradise.



Also, this radio contained some amazing self-generating batteries. They
never ran low, despite the fact that there was no AC plug available for
charging purposes, nor did it have any type of crank-based charging
mechanism. It's possible that the batteries might have been the product of

a

secret military cold-war era attempt at attaining a self-sustaining,
zero-point energy equilibrium.


Ah, that's the easy part. Those 60s transistor radios didn't use much
current. I've got an old Silvertone from that era, and it draws less than
15 mils at low volume settings. It's powered with six D cells, and alkaline
cells would run the radio for two to four hours a day for over a year. Half
an hour a week for a couple of years? Piece o' cake.

Wonder how they powered that S40B with all the tubes?

I seem to remember the castaways doing something to recharge the batteries.
Didn't the professor have something where they used coconuts or something?



I remember that episode.
To recharge the batteries the professor soaked them in some sort of citrus or
sal****er solution. I remember asking my father (an electrical engineer) if
this would really work.
I tried it, and it did nothing.
So much for expert fatherly advice.

The reception was pretty amazing...that is some groundwave!

You may recall that there was a later episode where the professor had
the entire cast sit at a table and stir liquid in coconut shells in
order to "recharge" the batteries that had finally gone dead...

Perhaps they employed this method often between episodes to make it
SEEM like the batteries lasted forever?

Your thoughts???

Dan

PS Mary Ann is the hotter of the two in my book. Dawn Wells was
actually a beauty pageant winner in real life. Hubba Hubba!

"lsmyer" wrote in message ...
Since the mid-1960s, I have searched far and wide to find a radio that had
such good reception as the one on Gilligan's Island.

That incredible DX powerhouse of a radio could regularly pick up US mainland
broadcasters -- KDKA comes to mind -- from its location on a tiny island
located thousands of miles from the US mainland deep in the South Pacific.
Not just at night, mind you, but right in the middle of the day.

Also, this radio contained some amazing self-generating batteries. They
never ran low, despite the fact that there was no AC plug available for
charging purposes, nor did it have any type of crank-based charging
mechanism. It's possible that the batteries might have been the product of a
secret military cold-war era attempt at attaining a self-sustaining,
zero-point energy equilibrium.

I would like to get one of these radios and hopefully some of those
batteries as well. If anybody finds one on ebay, be sure to post it here.
Thanks.

On 6 Nov 2004 23:42:53 -0800, (Dan Gett) wrote:

PS Mary Ann is the hotter of the two in my book. Dawn Wells was
actually a beauty pageant winner in real life. Hubba Hubba!

Ya know, for a 66 year old, she's not too bad either...
(from imdb)

Dawn Wells
Date of birth (location)
18 October 1938
Reno, Nevada, USA

http://www.dawn-wells.com/

OK .... so I'll grant you that Mary Ann has held up well over the years and
many of my friends sure liked the look of her, but she was always just a
little too "girl next door" for me.

Ginger on the other hand looked super-hot and used to send me into
alternating hot and cold flashes.

This debate has been timeless and is the subject of a website where you can
cast your vote. I was aghast to find myself in the minority!! No
accounting for some people's taste in women I guess ... LOL. No ... I've
got it, the vote was rigged!

Lee

Here's the link: http://tbs.com/general/story/0,,36370,00.html

Lee Smith wrote:

OK .... so I'll grant you that Mary Ann has held up well over the years and
many of my friends sure liked the look of her, but she was always just a
little too "girl next door" for me.

Ginger on the other hand looked super-hot and used to send me into
alternating hot and cold flashes.

This debate has been timeless and is the subject of a website where you can
cast your vote. I was aghast to find myself in the minority!! No
accounting for some people's taste in women I guess ... LOL. No ... I've
got it, the vote was rigged!

It must have been the exit polling after leaving her hut...

dxAce
Michigan
USA

"Sir Cumference" wrote in message
...

Wonder how they powered that S40B with all the tubes?


I don't exactly remember, but it was an early episode, so I suppose there
was enough juice left in the Minnow's batteries to run a dynamotor.

I also don't know who sabotaged the plan. Might it have been the Professor,
who was enjoyed studying the flora and fauna of the island, and certainly
enjoyed the brand new experience of being the most eligible male on a
paradise island with two beautiful women? Mr. and Mrs. Howell, who were
finally able to enjoy their marriage after Mr. Howell's forced "retirement"
from the grueling 24 hour responsibilities of running Howell Industries?
Ginger, whose Hollywood career was going nowhere fast, and now had to
compete with a younger generation of shapely airheads for B-movie and
C-movie roles? The Skipper might have been faking his sleepwalking in that
episode in order to avoid the ugly mainland questions about his competence
as a Sea Captain. Even Gilligan might have had a dim glimmer of perception
that his uncanny ability to screw up at exactly the critical moment was
useful only to his friends on the island.

I say they were all in on it.

The tragedy of Gilligan's Island, one that we rrs can fully appreciate, is
that Mary Ann was too naive to see that she was surrounded by selfish
dead-enders who were abusing her trust and stealing her chance to have a
normal life.

The children laughed while watching Gilligan's Island because the shows had
a facile sort of comedy. The critics hated it because they're idiots. But
the discerning conspiratorialist can see the show for a metaphor of life as
it really is.

Sherwood Schwartz was a genius.

Frank Dresser

Yes Ace, that had to be it. Mary Ann must have used her feminine wiles to
gain unwarranted votes. Who knows went on in the privacy of the hayloft
when she was wearing those plaid shirts and cut-off jeans.

Ginger on the other hand must have been too shy to conduct herself in that
way for something as tawdry as getting a vote.

73 de Lee