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On 2025-01-18 14:09, Frank Barnes via groups.io wrote:
> The demons have been released from Pandora's box, I see.

*** Oh, yeah. "Do it again in iambic pentameter" :).
..as an epic poem in Russian.
.. in the style of the "Art of War" by Sun Tzu.
.. in the style of Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book".

This is fun.

- Jerry, KF6VB


> ?
>
> On Sat, Jan 18, 2025 at 4:36?PM Tony Sokol via groups.io [1]
> <tony.sokol@...> wrote:
>
>> OMG! This will become a literary classic for sure.
>>
>> Tony - W9JXN
>>> On Jan 18, 2025, at 3:16?PM, jerry-KF6VB via groups.io [1]
>> <jerry@...> wrote:
>>>
>>> ?Write about fixing a Drake TR4 in the style of a Raymond
>> Chandler detective novel:
>>>
>>> --------------- snip --------------------
>>> It was one of those nights when the air’s so thick you could
>> slice it with a knife, and I was nursing a glass of bourbon that’d
>> gone flat with the sorrow of too many repairs. The city hummed
>> outside like a broken circuit, but I wasn’t listening. I was
>> looking at the old Drake TR4 sitting on the bench in front of
>> me—its knobs shiny but its heart hollow. She had problems, all
>> right, and I wasn’t sure if I had the patience for her lies.
>>>
>>> The TR4 had a voice once, a smooth, steady hum, sending out
>> signals like a well-dressed man at a party. But now it was
>> sputtering, skipping like a broken record. It was the kind of
>> problem only a desperate man would tackle—tangled wires, faulty
>> resistors, a power supply that couldn’t keep up with its promises.
>> She was a dame who had seen too many miles and wanted too many
>> fixes, but she was mine for the night.
>>>
>>> I reached for the schematic—those crumpled blueprints always
>> looked like something out of a pulp novel, scribbled on paper that
>> was more coffee stains than diagram. I needed to find the problem,
>> and fast. The Drake had a nasty habit of throwing a tantrum when it
>> wasn’t happy. And lately, she’d been spitting out signals like a
>> jealous lover, overdriving the AGC and messing with the detector
>> like it was a dirty secret.
>>>
>>> I knew this rig better than I knew my own skin. I’d taken the
>> back off her before, stared into her guts, felt the burn of her
>> circuits as they shorted out. But tonight? Tonight was different. I
>> could feel it in my bones. Something was off—something deep inside
>> her. The audio was off, too. No low-end warmth, just a harsh,
>> clipped sound that gnawed at your nerves like a cat on a tin roof.
>>>
>>> I rolled up my sleeves and dove in. The first thing that caught my
>> eye was R19, the resistor on the AGC/Detector board. She was
>> supposed to be regulating the signal, keeping everything in check.
>> But her resistance was out of whack, and that was making the whole
>> rig run hot. The signals came in too strong, pushing Q6, the poor
>> transistor, to its breaking point. I’ve seen radios burn out from
>> less. This was no different.
>>>
>>> I cracked open my toolbox and pulled out the right resistor—one
>> with a little more resistance, a bit more subtlety. Nothing too
>> flashy, just the kind of part that would keep Q6 from popping its
>> top. I unsoldered the old R19, careful not to disturb any other
>> connections, like a gentleman lifting a dame’s veil for the first
>> time. The new one slid in smooth, just like it belonged. I put
>> everything back together, not giving her a second thought.
>>>
>>> I powered her up. The lights blinked on, the tubes warmed up, and
>> the receiver hummed. But it wasn’t the same hum. It was richer,
>> deeper, like she’d found her voice again. The signals were steady
>> now, no more distortion, no more hiss. She was singing like a
>> soprano in a smoky bar, smooth and clear.
>>>
>>> The job was done. But fixing this radio wasn’t just about
>> resistors and wiring. It was about something deeper—maybe
>> something even I didn’t understand. She was alive again, and for
>> tonight, that was enough. I could hear her whispering through the
>> speakers, telling me everything was going to be all right.
>>>
>>> But I knew better. In this town, things were never all right. You
>> could fix a radio, but you couldn’t fix the world. Not for long,
>> anyway.
>>> --------------- endsnip -----------------
>>>
>>> - Jerry, KF6VB
>>>
>>> p.s. "R19" and "Q6" apparently crept in from an earlier question
>> about my Signal/One...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
> --
>
> Frank Barnes
> W4NPN
> Chapel Hill, NC
> Grid Square FM05
> Cell 919.260.7955
>
>
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://groups.io
> [2] /g/DRAKE-RADIO/message/82054
> [3] /mt/110689660/243852
> [4] /g/DRAKE-RADIO/post
> [5] /g/DRAKE-RADIO/editsub/243852
> [6]
> /g/DRAKE-RADIO/leave/12260778/243852/767576506/xyzzy