www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsYYfGJJYg0

Check it out, and follow us over to You Tube for more.

Later, Zenlogic.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB8SjrccfWg

Well, I got the radio from my dads – It was in surprisingly good shape. Just real dirty and dusty. We plugged it in and it fired right up, Not a problem. All the tubes are good, Just no battery. I saw a site that sells  the  batteries for this model with the right connections and a charger. I will be getting one, I will let ya’know how that goes.

Okay so I cleaned it all up with Murphys Oil Soap, then took the guts out to tighten up the string on the tuning wheel. I did that by cutting about half the stretched out spring off and then reattaching the string. Adjusted the tuning for “0” and then put it all back together again. The out side is covered in some kind of cloth and then was shellacked. Like I said it was in real good shape still, so all I did was get some good shoe polish, black, and did every part that was black – black and used clear polish on the red leather parts and a kiwi quick shine sponge on the rest, then took my shoe brush to it and got it to a high shine. As you see in the pic’s, it looks good, real good.

For a radio that is 60 some years old – well, lets say this – They sure don’t make them like that anymore! This is great, while I was cleaning it and listing to it afterwords, I got a real jolt of nostalgia, wow, I felt like I was a kid again sneaking into dads room and listing to the radio. Cool as hell.

If you go over to my you tube channel :     http://www.youtube.com/user/edwyrd

I have a vid about it and you can hear it working. So enjoy.

Here are the schematics for the radio, in bmp format:

zenith_H503Y_1.bmp

zenith_H503Y_2.bmp

Later, Zenlogic.

My Life as Wife and Accountant

Quoted from the spira site. (May 18, 2010 -- All rights reserved)

“The Glousterman was designed as a very light, car toppable rowing craft that would pull well and be safe to row in rougher water. The traditional dory hull shape is derived from the sturdy Grand Banks fishing dorys. The Glousterman is built from two sheets of 1/4 inch thick marine or exterior plywood by the “stitch and glue” construction method. This method requires no forms or jigs. It is ideal for the beginner or experienced boat builder. No special tools or equipment are required. Builders claim this is the fastest boat they’ve ever rowed.”

Below is the first of many vids we will be doing to cover the whole build, it should be great fun, this will be a great father and sons project. Stay tuned for more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUnUNVL-U88

For Part Two -

Click here …………….. Part two.

Zenith H503 Schematics

Note, I can not retrace my route to where I got them from, sorry who ever you are – However I don’t think you would be to upset if I post them here – on the other had If I am mistaken, let me know and I will figure something else out. Thank you.

Other news: Yep, as I suspected,  my  dad still has the radio and he said it was mine if wanted it! Woot!

I will post about it when I get my hands on it and the restore process – I saw somewhere on the interwebs a place that can make a replacement battery for it and another place for the tubes – Nice, I will keep you guys informed.

And still other news, I still haven’t got a Transceiver yet, so many choices – not enough info kind of thing, still looking and figuring. Any suggestions for a brand new Ham? Okay, Later – Zenlogic

I found some pics on the web of a similar one:

So there ya go. Now he also wondered about my statement on adjusting the coil, so after the call I thunk way back to that time and tried to remember how I did it, I vaguely remembered sometimes  messing with the antenna, moving the core in the antenna coil and sometimes  taking a small screwdriver and turning a screw on top of the tuning coil ( this was sometimes painful), which made it go out of band.  While I was looking for pictures, I ran across the schematics for the radio and a picture of the insides. Yep, just as soon as I saw the insides, it all came back ( remember, this was at least 30 years ago.), there was the screw I turned  and the other two I would play with. Turns out they are  the oscillator trimmer, the detector trimmer and antenna trimmer.  That’s how I made it go out of band, weird but it worked.

Now as to when I used radio, my dad worked 8 to 16 hours a day for all of my young life, my mom wasn’t much of a kid watcher, she mostly just kicked us out in morning and made sure we had three meals a day and were in by 8 o’clock everyday, there wasn’t much of anything around the house that I wasn’t able to get to and play around with, while dad was away to work. So dad, if you are wondering, that is when I got to your stuff, that’s how I got to most everything and I got real good at putting back stuff exactly where it was. Except………….well we won’t discuss that here ( but it involves a glove compartment). I am not being a butt here, I was always curious as to how stuff worked and you had all the cool stuff, what was I to do? By the way, I am sorry…………

So, after that conversation I decided to update with this post and I will correct the post below, have a great day!

later, zenlogic.

P.S. Zombies is just a metaphor for any kind of godlike shit hitting the fan or a huge society changing disaster.

To get my Ham License.

Way back once upon a time ago, my dad ( I think he still has it ) had an old zenith  tube radio of his he got from his dad, It looked like an old leather valise, black and well worn. Once in a while I would play with it, it was only AM, but I found it was a very wide AM and if you moved the  rod in the antenna coil it could tune in some way out of band stations, I could get China and some Spanish( South America) stations, and some, depending on the time of day or night and which way I moved the rod, England and Canada. That radio is what started it all. I wanted to hook up and talk to people all over the world on shortwave and  listen to faraway places that I would never ever get to see, but I could have a piece of them if I could talk and listen to them, Yea, ham radio was the way to go.

Great stuff, I knew about ham radio and the FCC License, and I tried to learn Morse Code, just couldn’t do it – so the want died down, But every once in a while I would get ambitious and get a study book from the library and try to learn code. Hell I have had the regulations and electronic knowledge down pat for about 20 years, it was just the dam code requirements. Killed me every time. To this day I can’t figure out why I can’t get the code. A few years ago I found out that the FCC dropped the code requirement, Cool – but I just didn’t have time to do it and soon placed it on the back burner.

Till just recently, and the dam zombie books are responsible……….. I started thinking how the hell could I get a hold of faraway friends and family members, all though I don’t think anyone in my family will ever get their ticket or spend the the money required to get them up and swinging. But I do have some net and face friends that will or probably will.

Just think, if the there is a Natural ( earth quake, tornado, you know mother nature on the rag type of stuff) or Un-natural disaster ( EMP, war, massive hack attack, zombies, mutant purple rabid lemmings), and the electrical infrastructure falls, how are you gonna communicate? Cell phone, nope dead, especially in the case of an EMP attack. Land line, nope the telephone companies battery banks only last for so long. The mail? What if you need help RIGHT NOW? Or just need to know the lay of the land or some bit of knowledge? Or coordinate a group for some reason, rescue or what have you? Radio is the answer, those of us who are a bit paranoid and have the resources, such as a generator and crap, can run a radio, 2 meter for line of sight and the shortwave for those long distance calls. According to the ARRL site there are several hundred thousand of us out their maybe millions in the world, And it is just not voice either, you can send text and graphic files over a packet network, send slow scan tv or graphics. Talk to the astronauts in the space station. The uses are endless. Radio – it’s the way to go.

So for many reasons, not just zombies, but mostly for the fun of it, I studied a few days and went on march fourth and passed the Technician class FCC license for ham radio.

Yep, even though I haven’t got the paper license yet, my name shows in the FCC ULS Database.

Here is my call sign,

KD0KRW

Wow – I finely did it and it only took 30 years. God, I am pathetic.

Oh and one more problem, I have no radio at all. Oh hell – do you know how much they cost, the license is good for 10 years, if I start saving now, in two years I should have enough for a good rig. Till then I will just have to join a ham club and hope some one will let my use his/her gear once in a while……………….

And now I have convinced my two oldest boys to study for the tech class license and I am going over the question pool for the general and extra classes and we will go down to Austin and take the exams on April 21. Wish us luck, Oh yea, anybody got any good ideas on a good rig to save up for?

Later, Zenlogic.

Maybe the ones that are hurting will take away a little lesson from all this (I doubt it), get ready for it, have food and water (At least three months) – a generator and light handy. It does not cost much and when the snow hits the fan again or some other natural disaster or whatever else there is – lost jobs, giant rabid infected mutant rabbits, zombies, what have you, they can take care of themselves.

Yep, we live in a small city, last snowfall we had, just last week, we got 15 inches, measured in my lot with a yardstick, between me and the snowblower and the kids and their shovels, we had it all moved in an hour. The roads where never closed and people made it to work and went on with their everyday life. Nice, but again Minnesota is set up for winter, the east isn’t. I feel sorry for them. Here it ain’t cold till it hits freezing, then if the sun is out we call it brisk.

My god, I’ve seen people go swimming in the lake and sunbath at the beach in December around here. Nuff said, here are some pics of the snow around our place, just for fun.

Here are two views of the front, this is the west face.

This is a view out the back, east, at my Blacksmith Shop.

Now to the dog part of my post.

When we moved here, we had to leave our dog behind, this broke our hearts and we had to pay a deposit for Joyces  cat. Our landlord was very adamant about no dogs, so we went on with life without  the the joy of having a mutt around. It has been almost two years and the landlord has seen we take good care of the place and we are good tenants,  so he finely relented and let us have a dog. Yeehaw!

Now I really respect the No Kill Humane Societies other rescue groups and encourage every one who wants a dog to get mans best friend from them. No sense in getting a new untrained puppy when you can get a really nice older trained dog for way less then a puppy from a mill. So thats what we did, I took the wife and our youngest son over and we played with the dogs till we found one we agreed on, turned out to be a nice boxer /lab mix by the name of brandy. She is a really good looking dog, a year and a half old, in great health and nice. But it turns out she is an attention whore, she just has to have attention all the time, which is okay, We have 13 people in this circus and there is always some one to play with her. I think we made a good choice, have had her for about two weeks now, she is quiet and lets us know when she has go out, shes big and gentle and loves to play, she is not afraid of people or other dogs and gets along with the cat and most important of all she gets along with my three year old and all the other kids here. So have a look and remember if you want a dog, try the humane society before you go out and put down huge money on a puppy.

Later, Zenlogic.

Lost track of some people, heard form others, that is life,  I wish you all a happy new year and a good life.

As I look back, I give thanks to god for the peace and ease of the last year, and I give thanks for the unknown future, for surly he will watch over us and guide and protect us. I know that I don’t always get what I want, But I always get what I need, if I just have faith. Time and time again this has proved true. Lord help me to remember this and please look after all of mine and I and all the ones here and gone. Thank you.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine^† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS