Jack.Winslade@uunet.uu.net> (05/24/91)
In a recent message, Mike Riddle (mikee@ivgate) writes: > Historic interlude. If I remember correctly, Marconi's original > station on Cape Cod was a VLF installation.) I believe that Marconi's original transmitter would have blanketed the spectrum from VLF to VHF, so I guess you're correct. ;-) From what I can remember, Marconi's rig was something like a huge mechanical spark-gap interrupter driving a tuned circuit (LC tank) that was supposed to be resonant at a couple of hundred kHz. In actuality, it would put out pulses of energy more or less at the resonant frequency of the tank, with harmonics extending up in the direction of blue light. ;-) On a spectrum analyzer, it probably would look like 'grass' over much of the lf-hf spectrum. If I remember correctly, yes, it was Cape Caaawd, right outside the town of Truro on the Lower Cape. I used to vacation in that area in the 70's. Old Strowger types would have had a field day playing with some of the funky dial systems that were out there at that time. One bit of trivia that will interest some readers is what I remember out in Provincetown, at the very tip of the cape. Provincetown had the only 5-crossbar installation in the area, but what was stranger was that many (I do not remember if all) pay phones out there were on the 3xxx level. I remember checking quite a few of them and most that I remember were 3xxx. Now, imagine this, try to explain to your friends why in the heck at every pay phone you stare at it, swing the handset to read the number, but do not do anything else, like make a call. (That was considered a bit strange, even for P'town. <big grin>) For those of you who think that spark-gap RF generators are all gone, they are very much alive and well in one field, although decreasing in number. Spark-gap RF electrosurgery generators are preferred over tube or solid-state units by some physicians. There are many Birtcher and Burdick units still in service. The surgeons say they get a better coagulating (hemostasis) action with the 'real' spark RF generators than with the newer ones, even those that simulate the spark waveform with added harmonics. Well, gang, I'm afraid that's all of the trivia for today. ;-) We now return you to the Tale of Randy, COCOTs and 900 sleaze. Good Day! JSW