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Loose Connection Norm Improvises…Again by Bill Price, N3AVY <chrodoc@earthlink.net> |
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I have finally found Norm again after over a year’s absence. He’s never been much of a fan of television, but the new reality shows have gotten to him, particularly the ones about self-sufficiency in an environment of few modern conveniences.
He dropped in for a long overdue visit and
allowed me to put him up on the couch, feed him a few square meals (“and
don’t put any of that awful mayonnaise on my sandwich—you know how I hate
that!”) and we swapped things from our respective junk-boxes (he keeps one
in the trunk of his car). First was his water wheel. Norm was fortunate enough to find a property with a small hydro-electric power plant attached—and smart enough not to try to get the thing running after years of idleness (that’s the dam that was idle, not Norm). The remains of this thing lent themselves to a pretty decent waterwheel, so Norm built one. Never got it connected to his DC generator in time for last year’s Amateur Radio Field Day, but has been heating one room of his house with a big piece of nichrome wire. If he had a lever on the outside wall, his den would be like a pop-up toaster. So the idea came to him to build a radio without going to the store for parts. He knew that anyone could get a 1N34 diode, some wire, an earphone, and make a modern version of a crystal radio. But could he do it using ONLY those things available to a true pioneer? Norm spent some time getting the dates right and learning what was and was not available to the radio pioneers of those days. The main thing he needed was a Galena crystal. Galena crystals are lead sulfide, the symbol of which is PbS. This made Norm wonder if his local PBS station might have any, but only for a moment. When he found that it was most common near Joplin, Missouri, he knew he was in trouble. He couldn’t use mail order, phone, fax, or the Internet to buy some. Return to January 2003 Highlights Page
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