Somewhat off Topic

[Glen Zook]

I posted the following on the Glowbugs reflector
yesterday about the Nancy Drew movie.

The 1938 movie entitled "Nancy Drew Detective" is on
Turner Classic Movies right now (started at 0000Z). 
This is the one where her boyfriend is an amateur
radio operator and his station is featured in a couple
of scenes.  The receiver appears to be a National
NC-101X (I didn't see an "S" meter like on the HRO). 
There is a VFO with a large National "Velvet Vernier"
dial.  The transmitter itself is a large open rack
mount.  His call, W8YZR, is on a large sign on the
transmitter and he uses the call to identify in the
movie.

Also, he uses "local QRM" to describe Nancy's
interruption of his QSO and "QRT" when he "throws the
big switch" (also one of his "lines" in the movie).

I have seen this movie before and the "boyfriend"
saves the day when they are locked in the basement of
a private "mental" hospital.  He "modifies" an old
diathermy machine and sends Morse code to notify the
authorities of "crooks" running the hospital.  Of
course only wideband noise is received on broadcast
radios but one of the radio station technicians
finally recognizes the signal and tells the
authorities.


As for other movies showing amateur radio there have
been several including the fairly "modern" movie
Frequency.  Going back to the late 1930s there was a
movie "short" which was exclusively about amateur
radio.  It is sometimes shown on the Turner Classic
Movie channel as a "one reel wonder".

Glen, K9STH


--- "Alan W. Fremmer" <AWFremmer at AOL.COM> wrote:

The  first in the series is called Nancy Drew -
Detective. Turns out that Nancy's boyfriend, Ted
Nikkerson (sp?), is an amateur radio operator, W8YZR. 
He's  shown for about two minutes operating his
station and being advised by his  contact that he may
be over modulating.  The rig appears to be  homebrew. 
During the course of the communication, there are no
howls or squeals coming from the speaker, just clean
audio.  There's lots of ham jargon in an attempt to
sound authentic but it winds up just sounding  forced.
Still, it was an interesting couple of minutes
watching a rather  dated but still fun movie.
  
I wonder how many other movies have shown ham
equipment and their  operation.









Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


       
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