You know Olroy, you really struck a chord about staying connected to the outside world while driving through Texas. As a kid in the early 40's, the radio was my link to the world, but it was the world of the Lone Ranger and the Shadow Man and the Green Hornet. As the air raid sirens were going off and the window shades were drawn, I found comfort in the make believe world where the good guys always win. Even though I lived in Pittsburgh, it was still a scary time for a 5 year old boy.

Here is another goodie. I have seen them work astoundingly well:

http://www.selectatenna.com/

Pricey, & I bet the guts of the original model are not a whole lot different from the DIY gizmo I described.

I wish I couild remember the name of the commercial product that was advertised in Trailer Life back in the '60s. Someone dissected one, & found it was little more than a coil of wire as I described, surrounded by a plastic case.

High tech can get you there better in more situations than just AM reception, but it usually comes at a price. I'm old enough to enjoy the simple stuff I can do myself.

Off the subject, I had a friend many years ago who was an Air force machinist assigned to Holloman AFB in NM, doing nothing except building special purpose cameras.

A big-time manufacturer came out one day to demonstrate a highly-engineered, highly-priced, high-speed camera. My friend recognized the principal involved, and hand-rigged some kind of a DIY shutter & film transport to an old-fashioned bellows-type amateur camera. Took better pictures than the expensive one. He made some high-priced enemies when the AF didn't buy the fancy one.

[This message has been edited by olroy (edited December 14, 2005).]

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
Pricey, & I bet the guts of the original model are not a whole lot different from the DIY gizmo I described.

I wish I couild remember the name of the commercial product that was advertised in Trailer Life back in the '60s. Someone dissected one, & found it was little more than a coil of wire as I described, surrounded by a plastic case.

I think you are talking about the Radio Shack radio booster.

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1991 Barth Regal
460 EFI C6 Transmission
33' Oshkosh/John Deere Chassis

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