I found it on Amazon Prime. The workshop scenes remind me of ham workshops. The movie character Harry Caul was based on real-life Marty Kaiser. Was Marty a ham?
POSTSCRIPT (August 23, 2024): Yes, he is a ham! W3VCG! FB. Here is his web site:
Here we have a really cool video from Mr. Carlson. In it he reveals (admits!) to what we already know: HE IS A HAM RADIO OPERATOR. FB Mr. C!
You can see that he is a true ham, with a true case of THE KNACK, when you see his reaction to the inside view of the ART-13. He seems to gasp as he notes that there is a lot of "RF goodness" in that box. There is a vacuum relay, a bread-slicer capacitor, there is even a variometer. And lots of good, big THERMATRONS. Only a true ham, a true Knack victim can recognize this RF goodness.
The Dynamotor that goes with this transmitter is really interesting to me. I have been hearing these things whining in the background (audible noise, not a signal defect) on many early morning (Saturday 3885 kHz) of the Old Military Radio Net. I can often hear the dynamotor of Buzz W3EMD as he transmits from Rhinebeck, New York. It was great to see the inside of this device.
Back in 2017, Hack-A-Day took a look at Dynamotors:
I was especially taken by the handwritten frequency chart on the front panel of the ART-13. This reminded me a lot of the handwritten readout that I have been using on various rigs, including (most recently) the 15-10 SSB transceiver. I hope Paul focuses on this paper-and-pencil frequency chart; it is nice to step away a bit from the glowing numerals of San Jian.
Mr. C points out that the ART-13 was the transmitter that was paired up with the BC-348 receiver. He will be working on both in the weeks ahead.
This week's Ham Radio Workbench podcast features an interview with Homebrew Hero Rex Harper, W1REX of QRPMe fame. (The bulk of Rex's portion starts at about 1:26:30.)
I really liked this talk with Rex. His enthusiasm for homebrewing is really inspiring -- it is very reassuring to know that there are others like us. Rex clearly has The Knack.
I got a kick out of Rex's story about the outhouse at Dayton. FB OM.
Here is the video of the mojo transfer ceremony in which shared some of the Tuna Tin 2's mojo with my BITX 17. Thanks again Rex!
And thanks to George and the gang out at Ham Radio Workbench.
Oh man, this book is so good. You really just need to buy it now. I put it in the Amazon link to the right.
OVER HERE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Imsai guy reminded me of this book, and pointed out that earlier editions are more reasonably priced, so I got the second edition (looks like 1980, reprinted many times through 1988). Dean KK4DAS got one too (I think he also got the second edition).
Lest there be any doubt that this book is for us, first let me point to the pictures of Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill. https://artofelectronics.net/about/
Winfield Hill
Just from the pictures, you can tell that these guys have THE KNACK. And -- get this -- THEY ARE BOTH PROFESSORS AT HARVARD. Wow.
Dean KK4DAS and I have already started sharing quotes from the book:
Referring to other books, H and H write: "Much of the favorite pedagogy of beginning textbooks is quite unnecessary, and, in fact, is not used by practicing engineers, while useful circuitry and analysis lies hidden in application notes, engineering journals, and hard-to-get data books."
"Thus, the treatment of this book reflect our philosophy that electronics, as currently practiced, is basically a simple art, a combination of some basic laws, rules of thumb, and a large bag of tricks. For these reasons we have omitted entirely the usual discussion of solid state physics, the h-parameter model of transistors, and complicated network theory, and reduced to the bare minimum the mention of load lines and the s-plane. The treatment is largely non-mathematical, with strong encouragement of circuit brainstorming, with mental (or, at most, back-of-the-envelope) calculation of circuit values and performance."
Stay tuned. There is a lot more coming about this wonderful book.
Don't be deterred by the annoying test patterns at the start of this video. Just skip past them. The rest of the video is quite good. Or you could just click on this link and avoid the first 83 seconds of test pattern: https://youtu.be/Y8w6iwaAGJ4?t=83
Gerald Wells has been mentioned on this blog before, but I don't think we've ever presented the full documentary on this fellow. Here it is. Gerry is clearly one of us: a radio fiend, obsessed (as he admitted!) with wireless, a victim of THE KNACK.
George WB5OYP of the Vienna Wireless Society got to meet Gerald Wells and visit his museum. George alerted me to this video. Tony G4WIF also was able to visit Gerry and his museum.
The documentary is full of interesting stuff, and is, in itself, a Knack Story. Wells mentions the Crippens murder so well described by Eric Larson in "Thunderstruck." It was this crime that brought radio to the center of public attention.
