[bars] Fwd: Radio Book

Mon Dec 30 23:41:54 CST 2024

" Two years out of boot with no degree and I was hired as a Member of the
Engineering Staff."

Correction, two years out of the end of my tour in 1982. I was hired in
1984, at the end of Reagan's term.

73,
K1CPR
Juan

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 11:15 PM Juan Jiménez <k1cpr at bd5.com> wrote:

> Small world. I arrived at Millington just after New Year's 1979. Probably
> missed you as you were packing up. I finished Marine boot in December 78,
> went home to Puerto Rico for a couple of weeks, totally confused at all the
> women now hitting on me whom I thought just three months earlier would not
> have cared if I existed. That was weird, but fun. 😜
>
> Remember the bar.... err... dive just to the road from the base entrance
> run by that tall, blonde, leggy woman who looked like she'd been around the
> planet a few times, let alone the block? I was told that a few weeks after
> I left the joint was subjected to the "blue jean liberty" treatment after
> some sailors got beat up by some bikers. Darn near razed to the ground. I
> would have loved to see that. Most people I know think blue jean liberty is
> a myth.
>
> I have an Iranian brother in law who came here as a kid after the Shah was
> deposed. Amazing engineer, graduated from Cornell, great husband and
> father. I told him the story, and he confirmed those kids at Millington
> were the children of rich or influential people who were given the
> privilege of coming to the US to learn how to maintain the F-14A's we sold
> them. I would be willing to wager some of them are now running the shops
> somehow keeping them airworthy with the help of the Russians and other
> friendly countries.
>
> Ironically, my first defense contractor job was with Hughes Aircraft CO's
> radar systems group, working on the 2nd generation radar upgrade for the
> F-14. Two years out of boot with no degree and I was hired as a Member of
> the Engineering Staff.
>
> One of my colleagues at Raytheon turns out to have also worked on that
> program at the same time. He stayed there, I bounced all over the planet.
>
> The world is tiny. Smaller than most people imagine. 😄
>
> 73,
> Juan
> K1CPR
>
> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024, 20:12 Richard Heckbert <richard.heckbert at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Juan,
>>
>>
>>
>> I also spent time learning soldering in lovely Millington.  I was a
>> little before you (Feb 78 – Dec 78).  I can attest to the quality of
>> soldering taught there.  I ended up working repairing black boxes
>> (actually, mostly gray!) in the fleet and we only had 1 tech
>> qualified/permitted to solder aircraft equipment in the whole workcenter so
>> I got tagged to go to soldering school and become his backup.  I ended up
>> teaching electronics at a local trade school for a few years after getting
>> out of the Navy and for some reason I had the least dropout rate (and trade
>> schools are all about fannies in seats) so I taught the intro to
>> electronics module most classes (lather, rinse, repeat).  One of the skills
>> taught in intro was soldering.  Best way to learn a skill is to teach it!
>>
>>
>>
>> I remember the Iranian students well – they would do anything to extend
>> their stay and most if not all of them had way more money than brains (or
>> so they tried to appear).
>>
>>
>>
>> NAS Memphis was actually great duty.  I had just turned 19 and had a
>> motorcycle that I went all over that corner of Tennessee (as well as
>> Mississippi and over the bridge to Arkansas) on.
>>
>>
>>
>> Andy,
>>
>>
>>
>> You mention hams were prohibited from using what is now the AM broadcast
>> band.  Weren’t hams thrown completely off the air shortly after 1938?  I
>> thought I read WW II put a complete kibosh on ham radio.  Everything prewar
>> was different including call letter format.  From what I’ve read, ham radio
>> really took off post-war with a lot of surplus radio equipment and a lot of
>> ex-military trained on radio equipment.  I’m amazed they were able to work
>> the old equipment as well as they did.
>>
>>
>>
>> Rick
>>
>> W1OLU
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *bars <bars-bounces at w1hh.org> on behalf of Juan Jiménez <
>> k1cpr at bd5.com>
>> *Date: *Monday, December 30, 2024 at 6:48 PM
>> *To: *w1hh <bars at w1hh.org>
>> *Subject: *[bars] Fwd: Radio Book
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>> From: *Juan Jiménez* <k1cpr at bd5.com>
>> Date: Mon, Dec 30, 2024, 16:36
>> Subject: Re: [bars] Radio Book
>> To: Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Sometimes I feel like I am one of the few club members left who knows
>> how to solder."
>>
>>
>>
>> You're not. I graduated from the Naval Air Technical Training Center in
>> Millington TN in 1979. We were taught how to solder, with lots of practice.
>> I finished quickly near the top of my class. Not the Iranian officer
>> candidates. Those kids took a minimum of two weeks to get through the
>> initial one day Basic Aviation  Introduction. One of them crashed an RV on
>> a clear sunny day with no traffic. Told the officers the autopilot didn't
>> work. There's your sign... 😜
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024, 13:48 Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Juan, bravo for finding this great book. And cheap, too.
>>
>>
>>
>> Folks, you can read the entire PDF at the link below. My favorite
>> sections are the receiver and transmitter construction.
>>
>>
>>
>> See the 1938 Frank C. Jones Radio Handbook here:
>>
>>
>>
>> *ENGINEERING HANDBOOKS MISCELLANEOUS: Radio engineering reference books
>> <https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf-Handbooks.htm>*
>>
>> *worldradiohistory.com
>> <https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf-Handbooks.htm>*
>>
>> *Error! Filename not specified.*
>> <https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf-Handbooks.htm>
>>
>>
>>
>> Main site:
>>
>>
>>
>> *Radio Music Electronics Publications ALL FREE
>> <https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm>*
>>
>> *worldradiohistory.com <https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm>*
>>
>> *Error! Filename not specified.*
>> <https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm>
>>
>>
>>
>> (The person behind World Radio History deserves an award for scanning in
>> thousands of radio books and magazines. You can spend days exploring here.)
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m a BARS member who enjoys using and fixing old gear. What Juan has
>> discovered is the appeal of what came before. Before FT8. Before FM and
>> repeaters. Even before single sideband.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sometimes I feel like I am one of the few club members left who knows how
>> to solder.
>>
>>
>>
>> Does 468/f(MHz) mean anything to you? Regardless of when you got your
>> license, it should! And it’s in the 1938 Jones handbook. It’s the length of
>> a half wave dipole. So you should know if you’re going out to operate Parks
>> on the Air you might need supports 66 feet apart to operate 40m….so maybe
>> 33’ on 20m might be wiser.
>>
>>
>>
>> In 1938 it had been about a decade since hams were thrown off what’s now
>> the AM broadcast band to operate “200 meters and down” - HF. People didn’t
>> realize they gave us the bands which would allow easy worldwide
>> communication by skywave and the ionosphere.
>>
>>
>>
>> Things were still being discovered and invented in radio in 1938. Look at
>> that Handbook and you’ll see construction articles where a handful of parts
>> got you on the air. Simple receivers. Simple transmitters. It’s like making
>> an iPhone in your basement in 2005. High tech.
>>
>>
>>
>> We learn by what came before. That’s important. Even in a day when Venmo
>> buys you a carton full of electronics to do FT8.
>>
>>
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> KA1GTT
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Dec 29, 2024, at 4:03 PM, Juan Jiménez <k1cpr at bd5.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>
>> Picked up a copy of The Radio Handbook, 1938 edition, for a couple of
>> bucks several weeks ago. I started reading it today and realized it beats
>> the ARRL handbooks by a long mile. Easy to read, concepts well-explained.
>> $1.50 in 1938 would be $31.95 today.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Error! Filename not specified.*
>>
>>
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> K1CPR
>>
>> Juan
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> bars mailing list
>> bars at w1hh.org
>> http://mail.w1hh.org/mailman/listinfo/bars_w1hh.org
>>
>>
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