commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (11/04/87)
From POPULAR ELECTRONICS magazine, Nov. 1966 p. 12:
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Little old lady with defunct AM radio in repair shop: "There's
nothing too much wrong with it-- If you plug it in, you'll see that
the motor is still humming loudly but the set won't work."
Overheard in radio store: "Don't waste money on 5 amp fuses-- buy 15
or 20 amp fuses-- they cost the same and you get more fuse for your
money!"
CB radio conversation: "Okay, your meter is probably right-- a 3-inch
meter is always better than a 2-inch meter because the needle is
longer."
Prospective ham upon hearing his first SSB signal: "How in the world
do they learn to talk like that?"
PE December '66 p. 72:
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Secretary, asked over the phone if a box of capacitors has arrived:
"No, but there's a fox full of farads."
"Don't use 300 ohm twin-lead because it flattens out the picture."
PE March '67, p. 92:
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Serviceman: "Your record player has a frozen motor shaft."
Housewife: "That isn't true; it's never been that cold in this room."
TV repairman found one wire of 300-ohm twinlead hanging 1" from back
of TV set. When this fact was pointed out, housewife indignantly
stated that she couldn't see "how come the TV signal had traveled 25
miles through the air to get to the antenna and then couldn't jump
this last remaining little gap."
Vacuum-cleaner repairman told housewife that the motor needed new
brushes, showed her one of the old ones. She exclaimed, "Well I'll
be! There's not a hair left on it!"
1967 Lafayette Electronics catalog has a device described as
"combination 7 and 9 pin miniature tube straightener and tube puller."
Must be specially made for bent tubes.
A group of Californians that reconditions old cathode-ray tubes
supported Ronald Re'gun for governor.
Alfred E. Neumann upon seeing his new ham license: "What, me W0RRY?"
Woman with new color TV had the repairman come over to "delouse the
picture tube."
"My soldering gun developed a short and my wife can't understand why I
don't lengthen it."
"You've got to watch those store clerks; the last one didn't know
anything at all about collapsible cable."
_..._
The above are from a contest run by the magazine, asking people
to send in their favorite such stories. The best were published. One
of the winners of sequel 2 was Steve Wozniak.
I am missing the original article and first sequel; the above are
sequels 2, 3 and 4. Some of he best I remember from the earlier
episodes are:
CB'er in radio store: "I bought this 50-ohm coax here yesterday, and
I took it home and measured it with my ohmmeter and it's an open
circuit. Take it back and give me some good stuff!"
Woman in radio store: "I need a 6-by-5 radio tube." (6X5)
Clerk: "Inches or feet?"
Woman in radio store: "Which is better, a superhet or an RCA?"
TV repairman to housewife, while making pictures roll with vertical-
hold control: "Stop me when you see one you like."
Yes, this was all before the Women's Lib movement. :-)
--
Frank Reid W9MKV
reid@gold.bacs.indiana.edu