Vintage Audio Activities...

[CitroJim]

Jim - a nice little restoration job for you and Peter.......

I'd absolutely love to Bobins and would be more than happy to offer some consultancy And I'd love to see it all in real life too

Maybe once Covid-19 is under control and given I'm now retired and a lot more mobile than I was a while back...

[bobins]

Noted.

[CitroJim]

Noted.

Excellent

[bobins]

Two generations of speakers to go with the PA system(s). There were also the occasional proper big old 'Tannoy' style horns laying around.

Old speakers - own work

Speaker horn - own work

[Paul-R]

Here's the four speed gramophone player that would have entertained the masses. You can choose from 16, 33, 45, 78 rpm speeds.

Has anyone ever seen, or better still heard, a 16 rpm record?

[white exec]

There were some 16rpm records (actually 16²/3, half of 33¹/3), for speech/dictation only. Quite rare.

[Peter.N.]

16 rpm records were in my day used for language courses.

Peter

[CitroJim]

16 rpm records were in my day used for language courses.

Peter

They made you speak very slowly!

Were they ever used for morse training Peter? I remember when I was a newly licenced amateur with a G8 call and keen to learn morse that RadCom contained adverts for morse courses on a set of discs...

In the end I was taught by an ex-Merchant Navy radio operator...

[bobins]

I've just remembered that the grey pipes you see on the left are the tubes for part of the Lamson system

[Peter.N.]

16 rpm records were in my day used for language courses.

Peter

They made you speak very slowly!

Were they ever used for morse training Peter? I remember when I was a newly licenced amateur with a G8 call and keen to learn morse that RadCom contained adverts for morse courses on a set of discs...

In the end I was taught by an ex-Merchant Navy radio operator...

Yes quite! I don't know Jim, I wasn't into amateur radio in those days. I learnt mine from a very early Sinclair computer, can't remember what it was, but it only had about 5k of processing ZX81? That had a brilliant programme, loaded from tape of course. You could set it to send you random letters or numbers in groups of five and when finished displayed them on the screen so you could check. I still have it somewhere.

It got me through my test - just, I struggled to read 12 wpm and yet I could send it as fast as you like, different part of the brain I suppose.

Peter

[Hell Razor5543]

The ZX81 had 1KB RAM built in, but could, I believe, have a 16KB RAM module plugged into the back.

[Peter.N.]

Yep, that was the one, with the expander unit.

Peter

[Paul-R]

I had a class B licence for a few years. I had originally taken the RAE as a sort of intellectual exercise in that I was pretty sure (false modesty - I knew!) I could do the technical exam without doing a night-school course. It was the regs exam that I worried about and had to knuckle down to learn them as best I could.

I learned morse so that I could participate better in our club's contests. We had some practice sessions at the club and I remember buying a morse code generator from the RSGB. Still got it somewhere. That, and the practice sessions, got me up to 20wpm which I found easier to keep up as it had a cadence I could follow. It was actually difficult to slow down to 12wpm for the test!

I kept up with my morse for a few years until the contest group folded and then - nothing. I'm ashamed to say that my use has been zero for the last 15 years or so and so, of course, it has withered away. I can barely put a couple of letters together nowadays.

[Peter.N.]

I was licensed in the '80s, as I was a TV engineer the RAE wasn't to difficult and I took it as an external candidate, but the morse I had to learn like everybody else, that was hard work, I could send it as fast as you like but reading it was a different matter, must be a different part of the brain I suppose.

I had an aerial farm and 400w HF when I was first licensed but as time went by I lost interest but did come back with 2m a few years ago. I've got a good spot for it here, 500' asl with a clear view for 15+ miles to the east and a 7 el beam at about 50'. I can hear most stations within 50 or 60 miles of me to the east but there as hardly anyone on, with a but of a lift I can work along to East Sussex but never know I can until I hear a call.

I can just read about enough morse to identify a repeater - but not always first time.

Peter

[CitroJim]

The ZX81 had 1KB RAM built in, but could, I believe, have a 16KB RAM module plugged into the back.

I had one back in the day James Wish I still did as they fetch silly money these days!

I learned morse so that I could participate better in our club's contests. We had some practice sessions at the club and I remember buying a morse code generator from the RSGB. Still got it somewhere. That, and the practice sessions, got me up to 20wpm which I found easier to keep up as it had a cadence I could follow. It was actually difficult to slow down to 12wpm for the test!

I kept up with my morse for a few years until the contest group folded and then - nothing. I'm ashamed to say that my use has been zero for the last 15 years or so and so, of course, it has withered away. I can barely put a couple of letters together nowadays.

I took my RAE in 1977 and smuggled it in amongst my City and Guilds professional exams! The RAE and C and G Course 271 - Telecomms Technicians - were similar enough the college did not notice... Some 5 of us pulled the same trick

I was deeply into contests back in early 80s Paul, used to love them... One of our number could send and receive morse on a paddle at silly speeds.. We were all envious of him!

You're right about it being easier to take fast morse... You begin to recognise full words rather than the individual letters... It's more natural as we read complete words rather than their individual letters... Which is why we can make sense of mis-spelt words and words where the letters are all jumbled up!

I'm all set up on HF but I'm not active very often. And when I am I only work CW... I find, and you would too that you never forget morse, you just get a bit rusty. I find I can leave it for months on end without using it and a few days of practice soon brings it back.

as time went by I lost interest but did come back with 2m a few years ago.

I never lost interest Peter and keep a watching brief... My problem is time, just not enough hours in the day for me to devote the required time to it... Maybe if it wasn't for the cars, vintage electronics, cooking, baking, running and cycling I might have time!

All my amateur kit is well vintage too... I just can't be doing with the high-tech stuff modern amateurs use! To computer and software orientated for my liking... I don't do computers except for using them as a tool for email and Internet...

Speaking of vintage, today I received this spare valve for my workshop wireless

UCL82

I find it magical that something that's not been made since the early 70s at latest is still available NOS in 2021... Long may it continue...

This example is definitely in as-new condition