Jerry Sims's vacuum tube

With the recent technical talk, I thought y'all might be interested in a look at this tube from the old transmitter. I was given the tube by Felix McDonald, Chief Engineer, on a visit to the transmitter several years ago. I had previously sent a picture of a cart machine that A.J. put on his blog, that I got in the same trip. In taking the picture we tried to make the RCA numbers visible. The old transmitter, which takes up several rooms, was (is?) right there with the new one, which only took up part of one wall. Felix was proud of the fact that the old one was still kept in working condition, and could take back over with the flip of a switch. He always amazed me.

It seems, many of us did not know much about the technical side of broadcasting. I certainly did not. A brief story about our lack of that kind of knowledge: A young man continued to bug us about the business until we agreed to let him come and cut an audition tape. When he got there he was more fascinated with the technical end of the business. He continued to try to impress us with his technical know how...."Wow, is that an RCA (whatever)...look you use the Gates (whatever)...and the Ampex......." on and on. Finally one of us (surely not me) said..."Yep, and there's a three legged stool. Do you think you might want to sit on it and do the tape?" OK, maybe it might have been me.

-- Jerry Sims (aka Sonny Martin, a long time ago)