Sunday, August 22, 2010

Antique Radio

This last Thursday as part of my vacation I went up to Ann Arbor with my brother and one of our mutual friends. While wandering the town we stopped by a hole-in-the-wall antique store, where I found this gem...
This is a General Electric model 410 tabletop radio in very good condition (as you can see even the cloth speaker guard is intact!) After doing a little research I determined that this radio is about 59 years old. It was sold as working, and work it does with only one slight flaw, there is very little in the way of music on the MW (commonly called AM) band!!!
I had been looking for a low-cost, working or repairable vacuum tube radio for some time, and when I saw this unit marked "Works! $35" I decided to buy it. As I said the only problem is the overall lack of music on the MW band; though the dial is slightly off the reception quality and selectivity is better than some much newer transistor radios. The sound quality is good; with no undesirable distortion . Now all I need is a zero-range AM transmitter so I can supply my own music...

Home Ag: Sunflowers

In addition to field corn I also planted about 120 sunflowers, which I have neglected to post pictures of until now. Sadly they are well past the "pretty" phase, but that's not why I'm growing them...
These plants are all over 10 feet tall, with most having a head measuring over a foot across. Fortunately they are "droopy," which deters wild birds from stealing my crop.








And here's a picture with me holding a soda can next to one of the lowest heads... Yes they really are that big!
I believe that I lost maybe a fifth of these plants to rabbits that ran under the electric fence, however there are still PLENTY of flowers left over!