RADIOACTIVITIES Newsletter of the Argonne Amateur Radio Club
Volume XLIII, Number 2	February, 2002

Here are the directions on how to get to the meeting:

Wilson, who lives near Niagara Falls, Ontario, built a low-power rotary spark transmitter and secured permission from Industry Canada (that country's FCC equivalent) to use it briefly on 80 meters.

He transmitted "MARCONI S" twice a minute and said he got more than 450 reports but estimated that only about 60 of them were valid. "The best distance was Kansas City," he said — some 850 miles away.

He noted that the majority of the reports were in the 200 to 400-mile range. Additional information, photos and audio of what his transmitter sounds like are available on the "Spark Gap Transmitter Signals for Marconi Centennial" Web site http://www.qsl.net/g4rfr/marconi.htm.

The six meter yagi at my qth did well when one Sunday before church I had a little time before I had to go and I decided to turn on the rig for a bit. I busied myself filling out some qsl cards, not bothering to look carefully at the rig. I listened to what I thought was 20 meter chatter. It took my puzzlement over the pileup on a VE5 to take a look at the rig and realize that it was on 6 meters and not 20. I was almost late to church but succeeded in working several WL7s, a VY1 (N.W. Territories) a VO1 and a OX3 (Greenland). Busy and satisfying hour you bet!

Let's get those membership app's in to Dale as soon as possible if you have not already. Swamp him with work! His wife will love it!

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Appointment of Directors for 2002: Per the newest constitution, Jim Specht and Dick Konecny are automatically on the board due to their positions as club license custodian and repeater chairman.

The officers unanimously elected Dennis Kelly and Loren Thompson as the two directors for 2002 appointed by the officers.

Donation: Bruce reported that Jim Klick donated a number of amateur radio books to the club. We decided to list the books in the next newsletter with availability to members on a first-come, first-serve basis. We thank Jim for his contribution.

Membership Survey: Joe distributed copies of his latest proposed survey based on comments received to the first draft. We decided to list the bands and modes on the third question so they could be readily checked off by the respondents. Otherwise it looked fine to everyone. There is an additional question for former members asking why they left the club. We decided that besides e-mailing the survey to current and former full members at Argonne, we would also mail it with the

March newsletter to the retired and auxiliary members to solicit their opinions as well.

Field Day Incentive: As an incentive for Field Day participation by club members, we authorized Bruce to purchase ten ARRL official Field Day T-shirts. They will be given to the first ten club members who attend and participate in Field Day. Further details will be announced later.

Meeting Dates: The February meeting will be the annual SkyWarn meeting to be held on February 26 at 7:00 in the Fieldhouse. The deadline for February newsletter items being forwarded to Bruce is January 25.

"It was beautiful to watch," ARISS Board Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said. "It went like clockwork, everything deploying just as it was supposed to."

While crewmate Dan Bursch, KD5PNU, operated the robotic arm and monitored and videotaped the spacewalk — or EVA — from inside the ISS,

Onufrienko and Walz first relocated a Russian Strela cargo crane used to maneuver equipment and spacewalkers. Then, they installed the flexible-tape VHF-UHF Amateur Radio antenna on a handrail at the end of the Zvezda Service Module — the crew's living quarters. The new VHF-UHF antenna is the first one designed for and dedicated specifically to support ARISS operations.

Installation of the new antenna on Zvezda paves the way for two separate ham stations aboard Space Station Alpha. The ARISS initial ham station gear — single-band hand-held transceivers for 2 meters and 70 cm — now is installed in the Zarya Functional Cargo Block.

Tentative plans call for a 2-meter station to remain in Zarya, while a second 70-cm station will be set up in Zvezda using the newly installed antenna.

ARISS ARRL representative Rosalie White, K1STO, said she, too, was pleased to see this phase of the project coming together. "We started all this in 1998 — and now we have a permanent antenna on the outside of the station," she said. "Pretty cool."

Bauer congratulated the ARISS international team for their assistance in the antenna project. "We have taken our ideas, concepts and vision and transformed them into reality," he said.

ARISS is a collaboration of ARRL, AMSAT and NASA. For more information, visit the ARISS Web site, http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov.

I started working for my Dad in eighth grade and continued for the next fourteen years. During my time at the shop I learned a great deal about repairing consumer electronics. In those day (1969) although transistor radios had been around since the late 50's, transistors had just begun to be used in TV's so I was able to gain valuable experience on tube equipment.

Every once in a while we would get an old radio from the 20's or 30's in for repair. One of my Dad's employees was delegated to the "old stuff" because he had been repairing radios since the 20's. I was always intrigued by the way old radios were designed, they were so different than the radios of my time. So when Mr. Queen would be working on one of these old radios I always stuck my nose in to see what I could learn.

At that time I never thought about collecting old radios, I had other things to keep me busy; girls, cars, and motorcycles.

Time went on and I began my employment at Argonne. In my spare time I worked on a few VCR's and TV's for friends but didn't do much more than that in the way of electronics. Then one day in August of 1995 a friend of mine at Argonne said "There's a big antique radio swap meet out at Elgin this week. Do you want to check it out?"

I said "sure sounds like fun."

This swap meet I was later to learn, was the Antique Radio Club of Illinois annual "Radiofest" one of the big three meets in the USA. The next day I got up at 6:00 AM and met my friend at the Elgin Holiday Inn at 7:00 AM. When I got there and started looking around I couldn't believe it. There were hundreds of people selling thousands of radios and radio related paraphernalia. Many of the sets I had remembered seeing or working on at my Dad's shop, but many more were sets I had never seen or heard of before. I was just amazed. The day before I had no intentions of buying anything, but once I saw all the great radios I just had to have at least one. I ended up buying a 1929 Atwater Kent model 46 ($25) and a model F-4A ($40) speaker. This is an AC powered TRF (Tuned Radio Frequency) set. I was always interested in TRF's when I was young so I thought it would be fun to see how the model 46 would perform. The AK 46 tube compliment consisted of 1 UX-280 rectifier, 3 UX-226 RF amplifiers, 1 UX-227 detector, 1 UX- 226 audio driver, and 2 UX-171 push-pull audio outputs. The set I bought was very clean but it was missing a few tubes, so after looking around for a while I found a man with all the tubes I needed for around $3 each.

Atwater Kent model 46

I went home that afternoon and couldn't wait to dig into the set and get it going. This was the beginning of a kind of addiction because now I have a basement full of antique radios and parts and for some reason this stuff just keeps following me home. I originally concentrated on 1920's battery operated and TRF radios, then progressed to 1930's cathedral and tombstone models. I then acquired some ham radio boatanchor receivers, which then "sparked" the impetus to get my amateur radio license.

Some people might ask why collect that old junk? Well for me I just plain like the old wooden tube radios. I enjoy bringing them back to life and being the temporary custodian of these relics of a by gone era. Hopefully when I'm gone someone else will take over the custodianship and preserve them for generations to come.

In up coming articles I will briefly outline the history of early radio, describe in detail some of the popular broadcast receivers from the 20's and 30's, and then share some of my experiences with a few boatanchor transmitters and receivers from the 50's 60's and 70's. I will also have links to some of the wonderful antique radio websites.

10		N9QGU		Bob		Willowbrook, IL
10		K9GF		George		Berwyn, IL
25		K9AGY		Charles		Chicago Ridge, IL
26		W9MVP		John		Park Ridge, IL
27		K9ZE		Ron		Elburn, IL

A man goes to his doctor for a complete checkup. He hasn't been feeling well and wants to find out if he's ill. After the checkup, the doctor comes out with the results of the examination.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news. You're dying and you don't have much time," the doctor says.

"Oh no, that's terrible! How long have I got?" the man asks.

"10..." says the doctor.

"10? 10 what? 10 months? 10 weeks? 10 what?!" he asks desperately.

"... 9... 8... 7..."

"They'd probably think I married you for your money," she replied.