Posted on 07/04/2016 9:24:15 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
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I don’t think I’ve listened to WPGC since Harv Moore left.
-JT
Ah yes, I fondly remember WPGC AM and FM Morningside.
I remember Harv Moore the guy next door.
I remember how WPGC AM had to sign off at sunset. Then you would have to switch to FM if you wanted to continue listening. The two stations were simulcast as you know.
Back in those days, our car radios only had an AM radio. So if we were in the car at sundown, we would have to change the station when WPGC went off the air for the night.
yes, I remember the WWV time signals. The reason that the town’s ended about 20 seconds before the top of the minute was so the stion could put in their time announcements. WWV had their time announcement at 53 and a half seconds before the top of the minute. But their sister station in Hawaii, WWVH, did theirs first at 46 seconds to the minute. on days and nights when you get really good short wave propagation, you can hear both stations make their time announcements. WWVH uses a female voice and WWV uses a male voice. That’s how you tell them apart. Also at the minute before the top of the hour, WWVH does their station identification, and at the top of the hour WWV does theirs.
Then there was CHU in Canada, that would alternate the announcements between English and French.
Radio Tirane was omnipresent. As I said before, I've never picked up North Korea.
When I first started listening, Mao was still alive. Their station was called "Radio Peking" back then (none of this "Beijing" nonsense; that came later). I don't remember a great deal of the programming, but I do recall a segment on some sort of operation that could restore sight to the blind. They quoted one patient as saying "to Chairman Mao and socialism, we owe our thanks."
I also remember a "revolutionary folk song" entitled Joy of Emancipation.
I was fortunate to have as a kid the two best hobbies for learning about the world: Stamp Collecting and Shortwave Radio.
Yes...and a couple of times, I even got JJY,
the Japanese time signal.
“...”folk songs” about Fidel and Che . . . the lousy Commies!”
The English Radio Havana music 1/2 hour always featured “so-and-so and his typical Cuban orchestra”.
I didn’t know until recently that “La Bayamesa” the Cuban national anthem was written in 1867. When they began the broadcast with it I assumed that in typical commie fashion the old one had been thrown out & a new one substituted.
One night Fidel ranted on for five full hours and that wasn’t his longest, either. And he still hasn’t croaked yet.....
I remember it well. On my old ten band, when WWV migrated off my dial, I could always get it.
They're still on, but ironically now they're the one who are hard to find.
I provided a sample of Radio Peking in #98. They even made the point of repeating Chairman Mao’s quote, twice!
After enlisting in the Navy in 1968, I found that I enjoyed communication, and especially cryptology. This dated back to my earlier interest in puzzle solving, especially anything where one letter or symbol was used to represent another ...kinda the basis for the Enigma Machine in WWII.
I opted not to go to cryptology school (in Pensecola, FL) and settled for radioman (San Diego, CA). Served on two aircraft carriers (USS Oriskany, USS Ranger) and did three tours off the coast of Viet Nam. Yes, I was part of the "Tonken Gulf Yacht Club," along with Jim Robinson.
When I got out of the service in 1971 I lost all interest in communication and radio (other than the AM radio in my 1968 Dodge Coronet) and moved on with my life. Then an engineer friend of mine at work in around 1975 introduced me to a 1 watt tuna can radio he had built. From Northern California we were able to listen to ham radio operators in Portland, Oregon. Remember, this was 1 watt! (the typical light bulb is 60 or 75 watts). That was a distance of about 550-600 miles. I was hooked!!
I built my own tuna can receiver, and from that humble beginning I soon owned a Kenwood TS520 transceiver. Borrowing from my Navy days, I always preferred CW (continuous wave, or better known as morse code). Few people realize that Morse Code in transmitted mostly in English, so I was able to read messages from all over the world. At one time I could send and receive about 35 words per minute, so most messages were within my ability to copy and communicate.
I listened to stations from everywhere, especially 10 meter, 15 meter, and 20 meter. I collected hundreds of QSL cards from all over the world. I always preferred seeking out the weakest, often barely audible, stations, and avoided the 50,000 watt monstronsities that bled over in both directions!!
I eventually had to sell my radio when my business failed. It broke my heart to sell it, and I actually kicked one guy out of my house when he bad-mouthed Kenwood brand in order to get me to lower the price! Ha! Talk about brand loyalty!
Anyway, its all a memory now, except when I go to the Phoenix Science museum where they have a full-blown operational ham radio station. I love to impress them with my "keying" skills, as few of them actively use morse code (evidently, no longer required for ham radio license).
Well, that's my story. Nice to share on a 4th of July holiday.
Yes, I did some stamp collecting and coin collecting too.
Two other hobbies which young people today just don’t seem to have much interest in.
I remember back in my day, you could still find Buffalo nickels and Mercury dimes in circulation, and you could find them in pocket change. It was possible to assemble a nice collection of the coins then. Not sure you could do the same today, in terms of collecting many years past of old coins today.
They didn't change the Cuban flag either.
One night Fidel ranted on for five full hours and that wasn’t his longest, either. And he still hasn’t croaked yet.....
Ah yes . . . I remember hearing some of those speeches.
That's funny, I also collected stamps and coins as a kid. I had a 6th grade teacher who owned vending machines on the side. He had us help him go through the change from the vending machines to find buffalo nickles and mercury dimes (which, he kept for himself!). But that gave me the bug. As you suggest, he made a LOT of money collecting coins. He gave up teaching and opened a stamp/coin store and then two minature golf courses, one in Hawaii!
We stayed friends for almost ten years, well in to my teen years. He finally sold everything and moved to Hawaii. And to think, I helped sort the coins that made his move possible. Ha!!
“The first was station HCJB, the Voice of the Andes in Quito, Ecuador (a Protestant missionary station). Then came the Voice of America . . . Radio Canada International . . . BBC World Service . . . and then I discovered the really exotic stuff—Radio Moscow . . . Radio Havana Cuba . . . Swiss Radio International . . . Deutsche Welle . . . Radio Nederland Wereldemroep . . . Swiss Radio International . . . “
Built my first Heathkit shortwave in 66’. When I got a QSL card from Radio Moscow my father had a serious talk with me, I believed he thought I’d become a commie. When I got the one from Radio Havana................
Yep. I can't do hobbies right now, but I have one. I won't have antenna-stringing opportunities after I move, so I'll have to come up with something inventive.
Radio Cairo was interesting, the first day of the war they had wiped out the IAF and were on the outskirts to Tel Aviv. The following days all they played was martial music.
Sounds like the Germans, as the end neared.
That's a beautiful story. Unfortunately I have no such skills (or skills of any kind, unfortunately). To actually make one's own radio and use it to get QSL cards is quite an accomplishment. (One college buddy had a private radio station in his dorm room.)
I've always been in love with international broadcasting, but I have no technical knowledge of radio. However, it's always fascinating to read people who do.
I don't know if you've ever heard this, but the reason Freeman Fisher Gosden ("Amos" on the original radio version of "Amos 'n' Andy") got into broadcasting was because he had been involved in radio in the army during World War I.
Is Morse code even used at all these days?
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