The first video below is my
favorite. It is a one-minute clip from a 1960s episode of "The Twilight Zone" television
show. It is an outrageous slam on amateur radio operators by a family whose radio
and TV shows are being interrupted by interference. Dad (a young Denver Pyle, aka
Uncle Jesse from "The Dukes of Hazzard")
looks out the window and sees what are actually television antennas on the guy's
roof and when Mom asks if there is anything they can do about the neighbor, he walks
toward the telephone saying he can at least check to find out whether neighbor man
has a license to operate. Mom then says, "Do you think you should, Stu? Those men
seem kind of...threatening somehow." Those d**n evil Hams! As you might expect if
your are familiar with the series, it turned out to be aliens making contact with
Earthlings. In "Nancy
Drew Detective," Ted (Ned in the book series) is a Ham radio operator. He tells
his fellow Ham that he has experienced "local QRM," which is Nancy Drew's sudden
entry into the shack. Later in the movie, he uses an old spark gap x-ray machine
to signal an SOS and the location where they're being held captive.
There are lots of videos in addition to those embedded below that include Amateur
Radio either as a primary theme or in bit parts. Try not to lose track of time as
you indulge ;-)
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail"
when a new message arrived...
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This archive links to the many video and audio
files that have been featured on RF Cafe.