MARCONI WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY c1919 LIFEBOAT SPARK TRANSMITTER Type 241C

[lstoskopf at cox.net]

No guts there.  1952 I used my Lionel train transformer to drive a model T coil hooked to a 300 ft wire out the window.  Really got sparks.  Could easily be heard on code over two miles.  Learned to burnish the key contacts regularly.  Until a Ham in town figured out who I was and helped me get a Novice ticket.  Plan right out of a Tom Swift novel.

Maybe using the spark that late wasn't a stretch.  Kansas had more horses than tractors until sometime in the 1950s.

N0UU

---- Richard O'Neill <richardoneill at earthlink.net> wrote: 
> On 11/3/2014 3:22 PM, Nan and Sandy Sanders wrote:
> > These were in use much longer than you might think. A ham I knew in 
> > Baltimore said he signed an inspection on a spark transmitter in a 
> > life boat on the mid 1950s.
> >      Sandy
> >     WB5MMB 
> 
>   That's about the time a friend and I were  building and operating 
> spark transmitters in our neighborhood. The spark was struck between two 
> carbon electrodes from D cell batteries held in wood cloths pins. Parts 
> were mounted on a cardboard cigar box, our favorite chassis material 
> back then. For power we connected to the mains with a 100 watt light 
> bulb as a resistive load. It was crude and difficult to operate but 
> worked well enough to be heard for several blocks when connected to a 
> long wire antenna. Ah, the good old days. It's a wonder we didn't fry 
> ourselves. O:-)
> 
> Anon
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