[BC] Our wild, TECH youth (WAS:...old TVs go.)

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 07/07/2005 10:23:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
RandyShaffer at ClearChannel.com writes:

>  I'd take the system out after Halloween when I'd use the system to scare 
> kids by playing sound effects.

Ok, now you've done it... 
MEMORY LANE MODE-ON

One year, I put a big speaker up on the roof of the apartment building I 
lived in. (the one where my Dad was Supt, so I had access!) I hooked it up to my 
60 watt amp, and blased "spooky" sound effects all over the neighborhood. You 
could hear the thing all around the entire block, and even a little beyond! I 
burned-out one of the IC power amps in my stereo doing that, though, but I 
replaced it and it worked again. I never repeated that stunt, tho, but I did other 
things...

I occaisionally ran a radio station from that same building... must have had 
about 4 watts going into the wire that I had stretched across the open area of 
the "L" shape of the bldg. It was quite audible for several miles, on 1160AM. 
(I called it WQDX. Completely homebrew transmitter & mixer.) I'll never 
forget the night a friend and I went driving around listening to "Heart of Glass" 
by Blondie, as it repeated over and over on my little record player! What a 
hoot! He was totally blown away by the range of that station! (I was quite 
amazed, too, because prior to that, they were all in the milliwatt range, and I 
measured their coverage on foot! Usually only a block or two.)

By the time we got back that night, the needle had practically cut its way 
through to the other side of the 45! It was in pretty bad shape! ;)

Then there was the night we played a practical joke on his wife! When he went 
to pick her up at work, he wedged his CB mic between the seat & trans hump, 
so it would lock in transmit, allowing me to listen to what was going on in the 
car. He had his radio tuned to my station, and I talkd to him through it. (I 
plugged my headphones into the CB) We talked "full duplex" for a few minutes, 
until she got close to the car. We had prearranged a code word, so that when 
she would get into the car, they would chat for a minute, then when I heard my 
cue, I said "Hi, Sue!" and she just about jumped out of her skin! He laughed 
hysterically, and I explained to her what we were doing via the radio. We all 
had a good laugh. (I wonder how many, if any, other people heard those 
broadcasts!)

That was back in the late 70's, early 80's, so thankfully, the Statute of 
Limitations has long ago expired on that stuff! Heh heh!

Willie...