[Kzyxtalk] Kzyxtalk Digest, Vol 31, Issue 10

John john at cypresshouse.com
Wed Aug 17 17:23:34 PDT 2016 

Marco, lightning struck the pillar beside which I was sitting in a Malaysian
restaurant where I'd sought respite from a harrowing storm in the mid '70s.
The bolt crackled down the pillar and knocked me ten or so feet away but I
was not otherwise injured, thanks to Quan Yin.
-----Original Message-----
From: kzyxtalk-bounces at lists.mcn.org [mailto:kzyxtalk-bounces at lists.mcn.org]
On Behalf Of kzyxtalk-request at lists.mcn.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 12:00 PM
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Subject: Kzyxtalk Digest, Vol 31, Issue 10

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Today's Topics:

   1. Toying with the ether. An equipment check. (Marco McClean)
   2. Re: Toying with the ether. An equipment check. (nsi at mcn.org)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2016 05:56:41 -0700
From: Marco McClean <memo at mcn.org>
Subject: [Kzyxtalk] Toying with the ether. An equipment check.
To: kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org
Message-ID: <66ec300e-780c-123a-62c5-190298026e3b at mcn.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

KNYO is set up in such a way that I can just check the schedule so I 
don't screw anyone else up, and get on the air and play with the 
transmitter and test things in the middle of the night, and I did that a 
little earlier tonight (3 to 3:30am).

This sort of thing always reminds me of the middle 1980s when I was 
building transmitters in the kitchen, in Caspar. I'd turn on a 
transmitter that was a pile of parts a few hours before and put a stack 
of records on the changer and wander up the street in the fog with a 
pocket radio to see how far it went. We were close to the sea cliffs, 
across the cow field. Salt spray in the air. When the air was right the 
power wires would arc over the insulators to the wood of the telephone 
poles and gently snap and flash. Caspar is the only place I ever noticed 
that happening... Wait, no, that?s not right; I remember seeing that in 
San Francisco this last winter. Ward and Amy took us to a Thai 
restaurant, and it was raining like crazy off and on, and wires were 
arcing on several poles in the quiet between downpours.

In the middle-late 1980s I was teaching at the Whale School in Albion, 
among other things, doing radio drama over the phone from the Whale 
School live on KKUP in Cupertino, making little Tesla coils with the 
kids. I remember how magical it felt when Juanita and I would sit on the 
floor in the kitchen in our first place together, with the lamp off, 
playing with long streams of sparks from one of these homemade toys and, 
when our eyes had adjusted, admiring the little clouds of blue corona 
discharge around the corners of the woodstove and on everything else 
metal nearby. I still associate that calm, numinous, comforting 
/scientific/ feeling with the smell of ozone. And it's still a kind of 
magical experience turning something on that you?ve made with your 
hands, even though it's just familiar computers and the web anymore (on 
this end, anyway). And I got email from people who were listening, so, good.

Here's the recording of the short impromptu set of test music, ready to 
download. There's a little triumphant-sounding swearing in it; I'm just 
saying, in case that bugs you.

http://tinyurl.com/KNYO-aircheck-2016-08-17

(If your email program doesn't show that as a clickable link, you can 
copy and paste it into your browser.)


--
Marco McClean
memo at mcn.org
http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com




------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2016 06:41:27 -0700
From: <nsi at mcn.org>
Subject: Re: [Kzyxtalk] Toying with the ether. An equipment check.
To: <kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org>
Message-ID: <9ca47fdfa6411663007cbd75a9c5ac0a at 127.0.0.1>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8



Love you pieces of memoir, Marco. Whoever is in charge of programming
these days right now needs to put this voice on KZYX.  Or are you so
terrified of talent. --beth bosk

On Wed, 17 Aug 2016 05:56:41 -0700, Marco McClean <memo at mcn.org> wrote:
> KNYO is set up in such a way that I can just check the schedule so I 
> don't screw anyone else up, and get on the air and play with the 
> transmitter and test things in the middle of the night, and I did that a

> little earlier tonight (3 to 3:30am).
> 
> This sort of thing always reminds me of the middle 1980s when I was 
> building transmitters in the kitchen, in Caspar. I'd turn on a 
> transmitter that was a pile of parts a few hours before and put a stack 
> of records on the changer and wander up the street in the fog with a 
> pocket radio to see how far it went. We were close to the sea cliffs, 
> across the cow field. Salt spray in the air. When the air was right the 
> power wires would arc over the insulators to the wood of the telephone 
> poles and gently snap and flash. Caspar is the only place I ever noticed

> that happening... Wait, no, that?s not right; I remember seeing that in 
> San Francisco this last winter. Ward and Amy took us to a Thai 
> restaurant, and it was raining like crazy off and on, and wires were 
> arcing on several poles in the quiet between downpours.
> 
> In the middle-late 1980s I was teaching at the Whale School in Albion, 
> among other things, doing radio drama over the phone from the Whale 
> School live on KKUP in Cupertino, making little Tesla coils with the 
> kids. I remember how magical it felt when Juanita and I would sit on the

> floor in the kitchen in our first place together, with the lamp off, 
> playing with long streams of sparks from one of these homemade toys and,

> when our eyes had adjusted, admiring the little clouds of blue corona 
> discharge around the corners of the woodstove and on everything else 
> metal nearby. I still associate that calm, numinous, comforting 
> /scientific/ feeling with the smell of ozone. And it's still a kind of 
> magical experience turning something on that you?ve made with your 
> hands, even though it's just familiar computers and the web anymore (on 
> this end, anyway). And I got email from people who were listening, so,
> good.
> 
> Here's the recording of the short impromptu set of test music, ready to 
> download. There's a little triumphant-sounding swearing in it; I'm just 
> saying, in case that bugs you.
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/KNYO-aircheck-2016-08-17
> 
> (If your email program doesn't show that as a clickable link, you can 
> copy and paste it into your browser.)
> 
> 
> --
> Marco McClean
> memo at mcn.org
> http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Kzyxtalk mailing list
> Kzyxtalk at lists.mcn.org
> http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/kzyxtalk



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