|
The Perfect Radio, a contemplation. 13 Apr 2000
My youngest memories of "radio" date back to what must have been about 1950 or '51. I was about 7-8 years old then and my mother always listened to the noon news. The news was apparently about Korea as I remember asking her "who's winning". I never forgot her reply of "nobody". That was a medium size dark brown Bakelite table model sitting on the "breakfast bar". It had an open back and I could see all the marvelous tubes lit up (and burnt my fingers touching one). I believe it was an RCA with the speaker grill and dial in the middle, and tuning/volume on either side, lower down. I don't know what ever happened to that old set, it probably died and went to radio heaven. About 1953 (10 years old) I was given an old console radio which at first didn't work. But with time and messing with it I actually got it to play. To this day I don't know how as I knew absolutely nothing about them. This was also the first set I ever heard "Shortwave" on. I didn't know anything about it but knew those stations had to be "awful far away" if they said things like "BBC London", "Quito Ecuador" etc. This was just the first of many (probably hundreds if the truth be known) radios that have passed through my hands over the years. The search for "THE PERFECT RADIO" continues to this day. WHAT WOULD A PERFECT RADIO BE? Here are my thoughts on the matter. 1. It would have sensitivity that would allow it to receive absolutely any station that was on the air regardless of atmospheric or distance attenuation. If I wanted to hear CAAMA Radio, Alice Springs Australia on 2310kHz, at high noon my local time, it would receive it. 2. The
selectivity would be such that it would eliminate all interference from
all undesired stations, whether they were 5kHz off frequency or on the
same frequency as the station I want to hear. If there were 4
stations
on the same frequency at the same time it would select the one I want
to hear and reject all others.
3. It would be
immune from all sources of interference, static, computer hash or
atmospheric fading.
4. If a
station has "muddy" audio it will clean it up and make it CD quality.
5. The
radio would translate upon demand. If a station was broadcasting in
Arabic and I wanted English it would do the translation, accurately and
clearly.
6. It would
sense your desires. If you wanted to hear Voice of Russia in English it
would sense your desire and automatically tune itself, adjusting
volume, tone and language to suit you.
7. The radio
would automatically log the station, prepare the reception report and
do follow-up reports as needed.
8. It would do
all this with just a 2 foot whip antenna to preclude having to set up
large, bulky, unreliable antenna systems.
The perfect radio? NOT! Just think how boring SWLing would be if our equipment met all the above criteria. If we didn't have to put up with the challenges and vagaries of the Ionosphere, the interference from other stations, the noise of thunderstorms, the uncertainties of unknown (to the listener) languages, the limitations of sensitivity and selectivity, the unexpected tube or transistor blowing out, the antenna being blown down and all the other little surprises our hobby holds for us. NO, the perfect radio is the one I have on the table, or the one I will acquire next week or next year in "THE SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT RADIO". 73 de Phil KO6BB If it's more than 1dB above the Noise Floor "IT AIN"T DX"!  To
Index of Articles Copyright notice: All material on this page is copyrighted 2000-2007 by Philip Atchley, KO6BB. Permission is granted to use it for non-commercial purposes so long as proper credits are given and the owner is notified via Email at. . . beaconeer-at-sbcglobal-dot-net |