Posts published in “Lagniappe”

This serving of Lagniappe features some poetry of Olde.

Silent Key

By Howard O. McCall

From The Sparks Journal, Vol. 3 #2

A shaft of sunlight,

Pierces the gloom,

Of the shadowy quiet,

In the radio room,

The equipment sits idle,

Because, you see,

The one who used them,

Joined SILENT KEY.

 

The once shiny microphone,

Now dusty and dull,

A coaxial switch,

Angles off from the wall,

The chrome plated bug,

A beauty to see,

The one who made use of these,

Joined SILENT KEY.

 

Gone is the good cheer,

When talking to a friend,

The signal is stilled,

SK, or the end,

No more will the call sign,

Used, ever be,

The one who signed them,

Joined SILENT KEY.

 

Some time as your listening,

And tuning around,

Do not be startled,

If you hear a strange sound,

Like a quavering, ghostly,

S e v e n t y – T h r e e,

From the departed friend

Who Joined SILENT KEY.

 

 

Power Supply

by Eileen V. Corridan

Published in September, 1942 QST

The how and why of a power supply
Is something very quaint.
It takes the a.c. current
And makes it what it ain’t.
You start with good ole a.c.
But you need some pure d.c.
How the PS finally makes it
Is now quite clear to me.

First, gimme a primary winding;
A secondary, too.
Now I’ve got a transformer­
Let’s see what it will do.

The primary takes the line juice;
Inductance does the rest.
But you gotta split the secondary
To do its job the best.

“Less turns in the coil for the heater,
More turns for the plate supply.”
We’ve still got only a.c.
Which the tube will rectify.

Now we come to the moment
When tube and a.c. meet.
Just keep in mind a rectifier
Acts like a one-way street.

A.c. travels in wave form
From plus to minus, and then
It simply changes direction
And does it over again.

But the tube says, “Nothing doing­
This is no swinging door.
I’ll take one-half of your wavelengths,
One-half – and nothing more!”

At least a half-wave rectifier
Would act about that way.
We’ll use another plate in there
And thus save wave and day.

So now one plate says, “Come ahead.”
It takes its half-waves through
The other plate is minus, then;
It has no job to do.

Then comes along the other half.
The second plate starts working.
So half and half are now a whole
While number one plate’s shirking.

From filament to filtering
The current that is flowing
Is now d.c. – pulsating kind ­
That toward the filter’s going.

It isn’t pure by any means.
Its ripples need some smoothing.
Chokes and condensers serve for this;
The waves find these quite soothing.

The filter circuit works like this:
In a condenser-input filter,
Inductance and capacitance
Keep pure d.c. in kilter.

Pulsating d.c. also has
Some a.c. current flowing.
Condensers short the a.c. out,
And chokes keep d.c. going.

And so at last like Ivory Soap
Our current’s pure d.c.
I must confess this whole darn thing
Has made a wreck of me, see?

 

*Lagniappe: (LAN-yap) “A little something extra.”

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Welcome to the new look of the SPARC website. This is the same WordPress site underneath but a new format. The new site uses a three column design so one does not have to scroll down the page to see current topics. You can also see the 10 most recent posts on the right under the current weather conditions at the SPARC station.

Take it for a spin and let us know what you think… Feel free to comment on Facebook or to webmaster@sparc-club.org

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Free General Interest Ham Radio Newsletter

Want to learn more about the people and things that make up our hobby? The K9YA Telegraph is an amateur radio publication that is written by its subscribers for its subscribers. Downloadable once a month in pdf format, the publication’s motto is “Good News about Amateur Radio.” Articles range from human interest to history, nostalgia, old gear and just plain fun.

For sample issues and a free subscription to the K9YA Telegraph, visit http://www.K9YA.org

 

Unique Call Sign Gift

According to Zazzle, this item has been discontinued.

Looking for a really neat unique gift for a fellow ham? Try personalized (call sign) US Postage stamps. See the URL below.

http://www.zazzle.com/ham_radio_mobile_rig_postage_stamp-172964595935616295

Scroll down the page for other ham stamps.

 

*Lagniappe: (LAN-yap) “A little something extra.”

Related Images:

Wireless (radio) has a long tradition at sea. If you’re an avid reader, you might enjoy some of these books about maritime radio and radio officers.

• One Hundred Years of Maritime Radio by W D Goodwin
• Blackwater by Harold Lawrence Tredree (set aboard the SS NORMANDIER)
• Deep Sea Sparks – a Canadian Girl in the Norwegian Merchant Navy by Olive J Carroll
• Dots, Dashes and Spindrift by Dan Williams
• Fated by Charlie Gregory (ex R/O GKR, O/C GNF, Radio Surveyor Cardiff SRIO)
• Ferry Destiny by Dan Williams
• Life Aboard a Wartime Liberty Ship by Ian M Malcolm
• Memories of a Sea Gipsy by Derek Peters
• QTC – I Have a Message for You by “Sparks” (Ray Redwood)
• SOS TO THE RESCUE by Karl Baarslag [title subsequently changed to “Famous Sea Rescues”]
• Sparks at Sea by R W Chandler
• Sparks in the Parks: by W Hutcherson
• Through Salt Sprayed Eyes by Robert Welsh
• To Catch a Shadow by Leon Wortman
• The Wireless Officer by Percy Westerman
• Watchers of the Waves: a history of British Coast Radio Stations
• Wireless at Sea, The First Fifty Years
• History of The Radio Officer in the British Merchant Navy And on Deep-Sea Trawlers;
• CQ-GTZM – Diary of a Maritime Radio Officer

*Lagniappe: (LAN-yap) “A little something extra.”

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