This is a '50-50' payout postNormally I would go for a walk every day. In the early evening, walking for about an hour, at least. Some days enjoying the good company of two of my close friends. One of them is an impressive autodidact. And once a week I can do my best to grasp some of the knowledge that is shared.
Last time we came to talk about Nicola Tesla. My good friend that walks with me on tuesdays is an electrician and inventor, self taught. People from all over the north of Nederland come to him for repair jobs. CB repairs, called 27MC overhere, amplifiers, tuners and so on. Modern stuff with chips, older things with transistors and his passion: valves.
Some of the photographes are taken by me from a part of his collection. He designes his own valve powered amplifiers and builds them. Always explaining how it is far from perfect. And it makes me laugh every time, we go way back, I would be surprised if he did not say it. Telling me what could be improved if he had the right material.
Free radio, at fourteen
That was how we began our long lasting friendship. Free radio, home build, for the fun of it. He could build them for the FM and AM bands. Using valves, creating simple oscillators that just worked. My parents disliked it, but had no clue about electronics, so that came in handy.
Made my first cash at fourteen, broadcasting, when my parents went away for a weekend. Made our livingroom the studio. My dad had a nice audio set that I used and I hooked up our phone-line to it. Had to do some hardware hacking but if did it carefully, nobody would notice, afterwards.
Faith, it would all go well
Before one can become old and wise, one first has to act young and stupid. Well, something like that, I guess. Had my studio set up, long play records and singles ready to rock the airwaves!
And it was a thrill, a blast and I got response. Because I did call out our home phone number. My friends, from the village I lived, back then, started to phone in. Awesome, it worked, live on air! This was so exciting. Playing music on request. And I started to promote local entrepreneurs. That seemed to be a sweet spot that I had managed to hit. And I was having the time of my life!
Over selfconfidence equals blindness
When I got that first envelope with cash in it for my radio advertising services I was like: "That much, are you sure...?" And the one that handed it out to me smiled and said: "You've earned it, great show and good job advertising our company. Enjoy..." This was awesome, but then there was a downside also.
Word on the street was that I had my own radio station. Mom and dad were well known in our village community. My father was a public figure and well, people talk. So a few days after my first real broadcast my dad came to me and said: "You know, the weirdest thing happened to me today. Someone came up to me, telling me my oldest son runs a radiostation. And had a great show last saturday, so it seems. Even had people call in live on air...?"
Well, my free radio career ended as fast as it took off. He explained it to me and I understood why. What I believed to be free radio was supposed to be illegal according to 'the law'. And the other thing he did not like was that I advertized our secret phone number... He actually was really cool about, but he wanted that illegal valve thing out off our house, ASAP!
My dad was a good guy, he went way too soon.
There is enough material for a book
The transmitter was build by my good friend. And the 'free' radio virus kept being part of my life. But we moved on to the lifes adults tend to live. He became a wonder maker in electronics and I went into the world of graphical (de)sign and advertising. And a few years ago we started to walk once a week together. Talking about many things, laughing about all the stunts we managed to pull off together in yesteryear.
And while I wanted to write about a talk we had about Tesla, why he was a true visionary and Edison was not, my mind wandered off. I guess there is still a lot to tell. And he is probably one of the last who's choice it is to only have a radio. No TV, no internet? Yes, and he is one of the smartest people I know.
Sometimes we wonder how it is possible that while we walk almost nobody else is outside. Sometimes it looks like the world is empty. Where have all the others gone?
Ah well, I will pick up on some of the other stories another time.
pixlrd photos cc-by-sa @oaldamster