Mystery Transmitter

[KD6VXI]

Back in the late 50's through the 60's, diathermy machines used frequencies around 27.255 MHz. If you were within range, you heard tones and occasional howls.

OK, so all those "good buddies" may not have been crazy! Thanks for sharing.

You also had all the super cheap remote controlled planes, trains and automobiles......  Well, maybe not trains???  In the 70s and 80s.

The best ones for amusing yourself at the neighbor kids expense where the ones with a simple button.  Push the button, it backs up and makes a left.  A carrier anywhere in the 11 meter band would send the car into reverse.  Modulating said carrier and it would start, stop, stutter, etc.  Usually you could get the kid to yell, scream and curse.  Great amusement.

The better ones had modulated tones that would signify forward, backwards and direction change in the early days. Various whistling was fun.

Also, a carrier on 12 or 14 would usually wipe anything out anyway, since they usually bootlegged on the CB freq instead of the actual RC designated channels.  Some of the cheapest units didn't even have a crusted, just an lc oscillator.

I can still remember a blonde hired neighbor kid throwing his remote and stomping off into his house!  Lol

--Shane
KD6VXI

[Opcom]

The size and turns of the tank coil reminds me of a mobile low VHF transmitter I saw decades ago belonging to the civil air patrol. It was at a TV shop, the owner was a member and also repaired the radios. Robinson, Texas. It had a 2E26 or 2E24 final IIRC. He was giving me all kinds of 'junk' but said those are government property and so forth.. but I was allowed to examine them in great detail. Ahh the summers of youth. 1 month each year with the grandparents.. I worked for my grandfather on the farm M-F, and was at the TV shop on Saturdays where I cleaned up, tested tubes, and did any menial task possible just to be welcome there. That was where I discovered Carl and Jerry stories. Of course none of that work on the farm or at the TV shop was paid. Back in those days children didn't expect pay for helping with family work regardless of what it was. I really enjoyed the farm work and considered it fun. stacking hay bales on the trailer behind a tractor; they had been left in the field as the baler moved along the days before, and Grandpa's hired men would toss them up onto the trailer and my brother and I would stack them until it got too high to keep up, then one of the grown men would take over.. only so much one can do at 12-13. End of the long day my brother and I were allowed to split a can of beer, did a mans job, got a mans drink. Pop and his workers shared considerably more and told old stories and jokes. Those days we would come back exhausted and covered in the dust of cotton, grains, sorghum, wheat, etc, and the dirt of chopping sunflowers in the fields of corn. We loved it. Sorry to go off topic, it reminded me of that transmitter and the simple joys of youth.