homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folkls,

Fittop:

I think you got the spelling correct. Grundig Intermedia's roots lie in the traditional German company, Grundig, which was founded in 1945 and achieved world fame with its radios and televisions. Grundig is one of the world’s leading providers of products in the areas of entertainment electronics, small electrical appliances and major home appliances.

These days, you can find many vacuum tubes online. It used to be so easy to find and test radio tubes/ valves. As I have mentioned before, I fully restored a set of vintage military receivers back in the late 70's. I had it all, including two complete manuals with schematics marked "Classified". There was an OD green rectangular metal box with a hinged metal top full of crystals for the sets crystal calibrators. It all came sealed in a large and very heavy metal box that was dogged down with large bolts and also painted "OD" green.The radios were black.

When I turned on the radios, the dial faces remained "Black". Uh ow! This couldn't be good. I eventually figured out several tubes were likely the cause of the trouble. These sets were built to take punishment and had been sitting in an attic since being decommissioned at the end of WW2. They were both robust and well cared for. Hopefully, that might be the only problem.

Back then, before everything went solid state due to the invention of the transistor, all I had to do was run down to the nearest drugstore where they had a free tube tester and a large selection of tubes for sale. Thankfully, there was also a large card with tube substitutions listed. That really helped. I easily tested replaced all the faulty tubes. Imagine how delighted (and frankly surprised) I was when I turned the radios on and the tubes began to glow.

Once attached to a long wire antenna, I found them powerful and very sensitive on all bands including the ameteur radio bands. I soon had them humming softly installed in my shop.

They gave me no trouble for several years. I used those sets until I got a solid state radio with a nifty digital frequency readout. It had no crystal calibrator so I built one myself. This so I could use all those crystals to fine tune a specific frequency and pull a weak and distant signal out of the weeds. I pulled in McMurdo once in the early hours of the morning.

It has been quiet here most of the week. Glad you popped in Fittop.

In other local news of interest mainly to me:

You know I am from a Barbecue family. Recently, two of the best local barbecue restaurants have close or been closed. Bills Barbecue in Wilson was shut down by the wife of the recently deceased owner. Too much work involved for a millionaire perhaps. Since the untimely sidelining of the owner by Alzheimer's the restaurant was poorly run and had gone downhill. Maybe it was losing money?

Yesterday Wilbur's Barbecue in Goldsboro was closed by the state for failing to pay taxes. Shame on you Wilbur Shirley. That was one of the last restaurants nearby that served genuine "Pit Cooked" eastern NC BBQ. Trust me, there is a difference in taste. AFAIK McCall's in Goldsboro (30 miles away from here) and maybe Smith's near Greenville (a tad closer) are the only two restaurants serving "pit cooked" near here. Smith's is unique in that they cook BBQ all morning. When they sell what was cooked they close for the day.

Texas has been known to have a "few" BBQ restaurants, as well. Do these cook BBQ over gas or open pit? Or some other way I am mercifully not familiar with? It can be very good either way you cook it, of course, but, IMHO, open pit is best.

My Uncle Bob, who built the first "sit down" BBQ restaurant in NC (it's in the BBQ books), must be rolling if not vertably spinning in his grave.