Category: 2020 SPARC Trivia

The Eddystone s640 Transceiver was built by the Stratton & Co.Ltd.in Birmingham England… Yes or No
Answer is No, the Eddystone s640 was a shortwave receiver only built between 1947 – 1949 with an optional external speaker. More on the Eddystone s640 at the Radio Museum UK

A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube that amplifies low frequencies for communications
A. Yes
B. No
Answer B… A klystron is used as an amplifier for high radio frequencies, from UHF up into the microwave range. Low-power klystrons are used as oscillators in terrestrial microwave relay communications links, while high-power klystrons are used as output tubes in UHF television transmitters, satellite communication, radar transmitters, and to generate the drive power for modern particle accelerators.

Links about Klystron’s… Wikipedia, EverythingRF, All About Circuits 

Alfred J Gross W8PAL and Fred M Link formed Citizens Mobile Radio Company which was the first recipient of FCC approval for producing handheld transceivers
A. Yes
B.No
Answer is B… Both are known as Pioneers in communications Alfred J Gross (aka. Ivan Gross) is the one known for wireless handheld communications. His company was the first to receive approval for HandHeld radios. This new service was set up and available to all Citizens operating on a frequency 460 – 470 megaherz….

Below is his License from 1935 and below that is an Article about Al Gross, more about Alfred J Gross… Wikipedia

CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100056-1

Fred M Link of the Fred M. Link Co. 1931 – 1950 is known as the pioneer of VHF FM police communications
Yes
No
Answer is Yes… Link received the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984. An IEEE milestone plaque at the entrance of the Connecticut Department of Public Safety headquarters in Middletown, Conn., commemorates the installation of the first FM police radio communications system, which was built by Link Radio. It was the success of this system that led to adopting FM radio for communications by the Mechanized Cavalry (tanks) based in Fort Monmouth, N.J., used in World War II.

Here are a few more links of images Ham Gallery has the most and below the links is the PDF tribute associated with the Ham Gallery link

Ham Gallery Tribute to Fred Link 3BVA

LINK RADIO CORPORATION VHF PACKSET

3bva

The G76 made by the Gonset Division, Burbank California in the 60’s was a 6 band all mode mobile or base radio that sold for 375 dollars in 1961; Was the Parent Company of Gonset Division, Young Spring and Wire Company of Michigan?
A. No
B. Yes
Answer B… Incorporated in 1918 as L A Young Industries then in 1957 they changed their name to Young Spring and Wire Company. In 1956 they acquired Gonset Company and one more radio related company was acquired in 1958 which was Link Radio of New York. Below is a picture from RigPix.com and below that is the G76 Manual

g76_manual

KC4USV station call sign is for A) McMurdo B) Amundsen Scott … Both located in the Antarctic and both are research stations operated by the US….
A. McMurdo
B. Amundsen Scott
Answer A… McMurdo, located on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. Amundsen Scott (known as Scott) call sign is KC4AAA and KC4USN is located at the southernmost end of the Earth, the Geographic South Pole.

More info McMurdo … National Science Foundation … Station Website … Wikipedia… Station Video from 2015 is below

More info Amundsen Scott… DX News.com … Wikipedia … Station Video from 2013 below

Going back to the Schooner Bowdoin, the ARRL supplied the radio operators and equipment for both the 1923 and also the 1925 expeditions, which call sign did they use
A. WNP
B. WN1M
Answer is A… WNP stands for “Wireless North Pole”… The other call sign is Michael Marinaro’s, WN1M who wrote the QST article in 2014 on the expeditions communications, The article is below…..

Also a write up by ARRL in 2016 Click Here

Marinaro

SpaceX’s Star Link is a network of satellites to bring down the cost and improve broadband world wide eventually. The satellites use a fuel called Krypton: Is Krypton (A) a natural gas or is it (B) man made
A. Natural
B. Man Made
Answer A…. Krypton is known as a noble gas which is chemically inert. Krypton, like the other noble gases, is used in lighting and photography. Krypton light has many spectral lines, and krypton plasma is useful in bright, high-powered gas lasers. Krypton was discovered in 1898 in Great Britain by William Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, and Morris Travers, an English chemist, in residue left from evaporating nearly all components of liquid air.  More about Krypton can be found here at Wikipedia

Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (aka SuperDARN) which is a network of 32 radars operating on frequencies between 8 and 20 MHz and looking into the polar regions of the Earth is operated by NATO, The US Government or a University
A. NATO
B. US Government
C. University
Answer C… SuperDARN is operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. When a rocket is shot off such as the recent SpaceX’s, you can track them in real time

SuperDarn website at Johns Hopkins

In 2015 Roastbeef Productions produced a war/documentary film called The Russian Woodpecker
A. True
B. False
Answer A… The film written, produced and directed by Chad Gracia began as a 5 minute film about the Duga Radar Antenna (aka The Russian woodpecker) for his friends and family and this led him to following Fedor Alexandrovich’s investigation into the Chernobyl disaster and how the 2 may be connected
Links 

Wikipedia

IMBD