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Sunday, January 17, 2021

STOP. LISTEN. Shep on Building a Shortwave Receiver


Oh man, how could I have possibly missed this one?  Perhaps I didn't, but even if this one has been on the blog before, it is so good that it is worth repeating.  

Shep really captures the frustrations and joys of a teenage radio builder.  I could really identify with this.  It all reminded me of my heartbreaking effort to build the Herring Aid 5 receiver. 

So much cool stuff in this 1963 recording: 

-- The wonderful smell of radio service shops. 
-- The terrible shirt and tie choices of radio service guys. 
-- The truly dire consequences of mistakes in published schematic diagrams. 
-- The AGONY of not being able to get a homebrew radio to work. 
-- The JOY when you finally do get it to work. Shep's "whole life changed" when that happened. 
-- Hugo Gernsback, Lee DeForest and "unscientific scientists."

As the YouTube video plays, they show several covers of old Short Wave Craft magazines. At one point they show some homebrew phone rigs.  I think they look like my wooden box BITX rigs.  And the front panels are clearly Juliano Blue.  TRGHS. 

Here is the 1933 Oscillodyne article that launched Shep's effort: 


EXCELSIOR! 

5 comments:

  1. Great posting , Shep is the greatest , maybe i will look for some aluminum and wood ! Looks like a great project from Hugo G. Been looking at all the early mags with him ! Thanks , Jerry K9UT

    ReplyDelete
  2. I played the part where Shep described the appearance and dress of a radio repairman to my partner. She pointed at me and fell from her chair laughing!

    ReplyDelete

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