Disclaimer: The following post has nothing to do with cycling, skiing, climbing, or any other outdoor pursuit, and has everything to do with the poster being an incurable, 7075-alloy, four-star geek.
This is a 1947 model General Electric clock-radio, poached from the House ofWoe in suburban Denver (a.k.a. my late and not especially lamented grandfather’s house). The clock is completely functional, including the annoying buzz alarm, but the radio hadn’t worked for years. I took it upon myself a few weeks ago to see if I could get the radio working, took the back off the thing, and lo and behold, there resided no less than four (count ‘em) glass vacuum tubes. I felt like I’d just walked through a time machine. I removed the tubes and took them down to the local electronics supply store, which, for some reason, had a tube-testing machine. One of the tubes proved faulty, and to my unending surprise, the shop had a replacement for sale. $12.95 later, I reinstalled the tubes and powered up. The tubes glowed a faint, warm red-orange, and a moment later, the soft, nostalgic background hum of 60-Hz AC power issued from the speaker. A flip of the tuner, and — shazam– KCOL, broadcasting at 610 kilocycles, was heard through faint static.
There is no reason save geekiness to have fixed this thing–there’s absolutely nothing on AM radio that’s worth listening to, unless the Broncos ever make the playoffs again. But–ya gotta admit, having a vacuum tube AM radio that works is pretty damn cool.
SphincterBoy
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now to supergeek out and build an AM transmitter for your mp3 transponder. then, you can rock some real music in a real old sound… williams, cash, cline, waits, fayhee.
Japhy rider
ps- don’t you guys have some snow worth bragging about?
That will be great! It’ll wake you up to Rush and you can stumble into the lulliloo and use your Enshrined Elvis Toilet seat.
Oh yeah, and I’d have expected you’d be able to find the only tubetester in town…
-M
Elvis has NOT left the building. He will remain on the Throne throughout the bathroom remodeling epic, which began the weekend before last cause it was too damn cold to ski.
We do have some mildly-braggable snow at the moment. Went up to Allenspark on Sunday to sample the 6-12″ of new fluffies. It was a little uneven (tracked-up crust underneath) but it had its moments.
Only problem with Allenspark is that it’s a long (>1 hr) approach. This is compensated by the convenient proximity of the Oskar Blues Brewery (makers of Dale’s Pale) in Lyons.