Probably should have started with an 8 track.

Imagine explaining to a kid how you would clean a record with D3 before playing. I also had the de-stat. gun, not a snap, crackle or pop on my records.

Not only do I remember, but I still have my c 1965 Norelco Carry-Corder 150. The first personal portable music machine, not only because it ran on batteries, but it came with a carrying and shoulder strap. Mono only; stereo cassette heads were still a year or two away.

About $120 in 1966 dollars, as I recall. Included a microphone and a line out jack... sounded startling good through the hi-fi. I hooked up an input jack for the car radio in my yellow-and-black 1967 Pontiac Firebird convertable. Man, those were the days...

Wow Ted,
I did similar with a Bell and Howell? cassette player through my 1971 rusty Chevelle. Heck with that 8 track technology!

The B&H cassette portable, as I recall, was the first to have “piano keyboard” control keys...? Stop, Play, FF & RW? The Norelco had sort of a joystick thingie. Other than that I'll bet they both came out of the same factory.

I was surprised to discover that my factory mono AM/FM car radio had an aux-in jack in back, along with a jumper connection to switch it on or off remotely. I can't imagine what it was supposed to connect with. Somebody was looking ahead.

As I recall “FM” was an extra cost option. Stereo existed in home receivers, but I don't think it was available at all in cars. Maybe Caddies.

Our Firebird was a convertible. Shortly after we got it Popular Mechanics or some similar DIY mag published plans for a closer that would automatically raise the top when it rained. The sensor was an aspirin tablet that would dissolve when it rained, thus allowing a spring-loaded switch to close that would, in turn, power the electric motor. Every time it worked you'd have to replace the the aspirin. Talk about high-tech! I almost built it.

Gotta go listen to the Anita Kerr Quartet sing a few WLS jingles now... —Ted E.

quote:

Originally posted by GE Fan:
Bio:

I have a '69 Chevelle that should be back in action next year.

I love Chevelles....and tape players.

What engine? I only had the old 250 straight six which was at least indestructible. At least it was the coupe. I had a friend with a '70 w/ the 396. One scary car.

Yes, the B&H had the keyboard. It was well constructed and I used it for many years as a portable and through car speakers I installed with a little Lafayette Electronics (defunct store) amplifier to drive them (modified for vehicle use).

My father had a home B&H stereo cassette deck with "stackable" cassettes. You could stack about 6 in a plastic case and when one was done a little lever pushed it into a holding box and the next dropped onto the deck.

I don't believe your hilarious aspirin story though- just joking- that was the era of DIY before home improvement. The name escapes me but there was a now defunct company (Heath Kit?) that sold kits to build everything electronic- musical organs, radios, stereos, Ham stuff (big back then). Couldn't afford them though. It would be hard to find the time to build something like that nowadays.

Well, think I'll use my AARP card for a discount coffee now LOL!

Lafayette and Heathkit are still around! (But mere shadows of their former selves.) And let us not forget Allied Radio and its beloved Knight Kits... Eico... Hallicrafters... Radio Shack in its golden Boston-based days... *sigh*

Ramsey Electronics and Carl's Electronics still capture the spirit — I love their catalogs — but as you say, who has the time?

My last great homebrew project was in the mid-80's when I built a 5w FM transmitter and connected it to the audio output of our backyard satellite dish. I could then listen to the BBC and several other network feeds and radio stations from across the country and around the world while mowing the lawn... pure magic in the pre-internet day. Better than shortwave, “cause there was no static and it worked when the sun was up!

I wonder how large an iPod would have to be if used tubes?
—Ted E.

American Basic Science Club

Wah! I bow down to you're superior electronic DIY!

The link- American Basic Science Club (defunct)- is another great memory. They sent a box every month with different science experiments to build- tube amps, weather stations, etc. Even sent some Radium on a pinhead for seeing radioactive decay on film. Waiting for the kit to arrive in the mail is probably all that got me through those awkward Junior High years.

I do covet one of the modern high end tube stereos though. There was a place in a converted house on Maple Ave (DG) by the tollway that sold them. Each room had a different set-up. The sound and look blew me away. Big bucks though.

BTW- my last great homebrew was Speakerlab DAS-4's in about 1990. Including building cabinets from plans.

Sadly, I missed the joys of the American Basic Science Club. I would have loved it!

I wasn’t familiar with the Speakerlab name either, so I did a Google search... wow! Good stuff!

I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to audio consumer brands after the early 70’s, ‘cause my cousin went to work for Pioneer and kept me supplied with their top-of-the-line goodies at super employee store prices... demos and scratch-and-dent specials that nonetheless sounded as good as new. (Some day I must tell you how I came to own Elton John’s open-reel four-track tape deck.)

But the real curse was — because my audiovisual work took me into so many professional recording studios — nothing you could buy at Polk Bros. sounded half as good as The Big Boys Toys. It was during the era when in-studio technical advances and miniaturization meant replacing elevator shafts with 4'x8' steel plates as echo chambers.

And someday I must tell you about when a young Gotham Audio Recording Engineer named Walt Carlos I was working with showed me the world’s first and one-and-only Moog synthesizer. (The ultimate audio homebrew project.) I got to tap out a few notes. Great fun.

Yes, Walt Carlos... as in (later) Walter Carlos, “Switched on Bach” and, later still, Wendy Carlos.

She has a great website at WendyCarlos.com which details professional gear of The Day from both her engineering and musician’s perspective. We still correspond every so often. —Ted E.

Wah! Moog- shades of Rick Wakeman.
Love to hear the stories you have.

Pioneer was excellent value in the 70's- I had the bottom of the line Pioneer integrated amp in the 70's- maybe 15 watts per channel but excellent sound quality and components for its time.

My working stuff now is old Yamaha ZDR (zero distortion, well a few thousand THD), from the 80's. Medium quality discrete component integrated amps that were way over designed. Recently got an A1020 like new off ebay for next to nothing plus I have my original A500 from 1984. As good or better than you can buy now for mucho bucks more.

Tube amps, I have a David Bogen with tubes the size of light bulbs and a Bell Labs mono FM tuner, and a roll top Philco wooden cabinet portable battery operated FM radio- uses 1 or 2 volt tubes, but I can't find a technician to trouble shoot it. Know any?

I covet your toys! I had a Yamaha... but it was a YG-1 motorcycle, the first the company ever sold in the U.S. 80cc, 125 mpg. I bought it used for $100 on an impulse in 1973... one week before the great gasoline shortage. I hand offers of as much as $1000 for it a few weeks later, but my momma didn't raise no dummy.

I have no suggestions for a tube-wise tech (although I still have a copy of the 1970 RCA Receiving Tube Manual).

A Google search for “antique radio repair chicago” offers plenty to choose from, including The Antique Radio Club of Illinois. I suspect they all worship tube anythings, not just radios. —Ted E.

Thanks for the link Ted.

Yes, waiting in lines for gas in the 70's was an eye opener.

Speaking of motorcycles, Anyone ever had one of the original Hondas? Believe it or not I found a 1964 Honda 305 in the woods in college in 1976- left by a baser from KI Sawyer AFB who probably exceeded his moving allotment and dumped it. Not a "Dream" which are worth much $ now. Cool though with opposite forward kick start.
Couldn't get a title though- cops said it wasn't stolen but that I would have to buy it back in a public auction to get clear title. LOL- if you've ever been to the UP, not likely to run into local law enforcement. Used to drive by the "cop shop" just for fun on it.

The UP?! Like, how's it goin', eh? I went to Michigan Tech. Worked for WMPL for a couple of summers. Don't recall ever seeing a cop.

Talked to Morning Man Norm Koski earlier this same day! Eric Peterson of GlenEllynLife.com is also a Tech alum.

Your '64 Honda was built the same year as my Yamaha YG-1! And my Father-in-Law had the same 15w Pioneer receiver... also courtesy of my cousin. Fine machine. My bigger one — I forget the specs — got fried by a lightning blast that also took out the satellite receiver, the TV and one of two garage door openers. How the latter ever thought it was part of my A/V system I'll never know. —Ted E.

Now its gettin' strange. You Betcha! - Yes I am a Tech alumni. went there in the mid 70's. Back in the era when the EE majors used to build their own little "carrier current" radio stations that they would plug into the neutral side of the dorm wiring. FCC shut them down if I remember correctly as the signal would carry a bit down the powerlines outside of the dorms.

In '75 it snowed every day of January- we walked to class looking down at the roofs of cars!

Lawdy, small world. I started out to be an EE at Tech and because of it got involved with the “real” carrier current station in Wadsworth Hall, WRS. (Wadsworth Radio Service... just pure luck that it sounded sorta like WLS, of course.) That was from '62-'64. It became quickly obvious to me that the guys on the air were having much more fun than those of us maintaining the transmitter, so I pulled an air shift which led to the part-time and summer work at the real station in Hancock... which motivated me to head to New York and switch majors to Communication Arts.

WMPL was pretty far down on the music publishers' record distribution lists, so I used to tape new releases off of WLS after the sun went down and the signal came in loud-and-clear. I forgot to turn off the transmitter one night after sign-off and thought for sure that the FCC would arrest me the next day.

The original love for all things EE and my knowledge of geekspeak pulled me into the world of corporate and industrial audiovisuals, and to techie clients such as RCA, GTE, Control Data, NORAD and the like. (I was the only guy in my Nation Guard Signal Corps outfit who actually knew anything about radio technology... everybody else seemed to be a bank teller or chemical sales rep.)

Eric also worked for the school station, but it was after it got a real honest-to-goodness FM license and transmitter. Sissy!

And don't try to talk to me about winters in the UP... I'm still trying to forget them!
—Ted E.

Hey Ted, any idea who is the voice on the Voice of GE? (1620 AM).

Dunno... I live 'way up north near Forest Glen School, and the 1620 tower is 'way down south on the Reno public works property just off Roosevelt Road, two miles away, so I can't pick it up it at home.

The last time I was in the car and tuned in was many months ago and it was still David Cox, former beloved Assistant Village Manager and now Manager of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. It's a job with much greater responsibilities than a VM has here, because up there the municipality is also in charge of the parks, library, court house, fire department etc.

He's been gone for years. Hope he's being paid residuals! —Ted E.

edit I stand corrected. I just dug out an old AM radio with the sort of reception they just don't make any more, and tuned in 1620. That weren't no David Cox, nowhow. —Ted E.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ted E.,

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about

Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6 . Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels, if you were fortunate)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!



I'm 1 shy of being older than dirt!