Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 9:34 am
First of all, the website, bbceng.info is full of incredible information about the history of BBC Engineering. One can literally spend hours just poking around, but if you want a quick glimpse, they shared a few videos on YouTube:
- Aiming at the Future Part 1 and Part 2 is a great glimpse behind the technical scenes at the Beeb and the World Service in 1990.
- An all too brief and rare look into the Equipment Department in 1984 is a great treat.
- This amazing program about the history of transmitting stations at Glencairn and Divis in Northern Ireland was first broadcast in 1954.
- In 1992, almost forty years after that special, the huge antenna at Divis was replaced.
- Of course, to the locals, it wasn't the most famous tower called Divis.
Second, for everyone who felt teased by reports in late 2006, it is now official, the long anticipated Solar Cycle 24 has arrived! Looks like this spring is as good as any to dust off the old Heathkits and Hallicrafters, make a good ground and put a longwire in the pines. Or, less romantically, buy new batteries for the Sangean.
Third, to go along with the triode video I posted earlier, thanks to the Discovery Channel, Zildjan, D'Addario and Seagull, here is how folks make a number of things we sometimes take for granted when the rock and roll is playing:
Fourth, if you have never seen it before, The Secret Life of Radio from Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod is a fantastic little program. Here are the links for part one, part two and part three.
Finally, this is risque and stupid, so send the children away, shoo the boss to a fresh pot of coffee and check your suspenders. This new guitar amplifier is definitely not in the backline of your local gospel outfit. In fact, it is quite possibly the rudest piece of gear in history. So what does this overpriced joke have to with broadcasting? Well, the same geniuses also etched, "BILL O'REILLY IS A PUTZ" into the PCB. The irony is that the design is definitely his kind of humor.
