Ken passed along this important point-- "Richard Factor (named in the excerpt as Eventide founder) is WA2IKL, who won this year's Lifetime Technical Achievement Grammy!" Also, I did a partial restoration of Ken's pic. Here it is--
Nice thread! I remember being a 13 year old and going to radio shack to get a little wireless transmitter that clipped on your lapel. I took it out of the case and mounted it in my pawn shop guitar, replacing the microphone with a connection to the pickup. Horrible fidelity but no cord! Played that thing for hours until my neighbor came over and said there was some strange music coming in over their FM radio.
Additional FYI, as mentioned in the articles, the REM song was not the only hit inspired by the Ken N2KS pure Ham Radio spirit derived sat DX setup. After The Police, on his debut solo album Sting has a track titled "Russians" He said this about its source, "In 2010, Sting explained that the song was inspired by watching Soviet TV via inventor Ken Schaffer's (N2KS) satellite receiver at Columbia University:[1][2] "I had a friend at university who invented a way to steal the satellite signal from Russian TV. We'd have a few beers and climb this tiny staircase to watch Russian television... At that time of night we'd only get children's Russian television, like their 'Sesame Street'. I was impressed with the care and attention they gave to their children's programmes. I regret our current enemies haven't got the same ethics." Sting performed the song at the 1986 Grammy Awards. His performance of the song was released on the 1994 album Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume I.[3]"
I had forgotten this song until now. Very moving. Proud its inspiration has connection with Amateur Radio. Despite Sting's lament about adversarial ethics, I am surprised no one has attempted an updated cover of it. Here is my five minute version of lyric tweeks, Across the globe there's a growing feeling of hysteria Conditioned to respond to all the threats In the rhetorical speeches of the terrorists The Strongman said, "We will bury you" I don't subscribe to this point of view It'd be such an ignorant thing to do If the terrorists loved children too How can I save my little boy from the Internets deadly toys? There is no monopoly on common sense On either side of the political fence We share the same biology, regardless of ideology Believe me when I say to you I hope the terrorists love children too There is no historical precedent To put the words in the mouth of the president? There's no such thing as a winnable war It's a lie we don't believe anymore Mister President says, "We will protect you" I don't subscribe to this point of view Believe me when I say to you I wish the terrorists could love all children too We share the same biology, regardless of ideology But what might save us, me and you Is if the terrorists would love all children too
There was Shaeffer-Vega, and also Cerwin-Vega! I worked for Gene Czerwinski, another inventor who built audio power amps using RCA's 1B05 transistors that powered his E-horn as what is remembered as the Universal Studio's Earthquake effect for movie houses. Marshall Buck was his researcher, and his great and innovative engineering staff did much much more. Then Cerwin-Vega! was sold, and sold, and split and sold. Gene's gone, and wasn't a ham so far as I can remember, or his head of engineering (at the time) Kirk Armstrong. Vega Associates.... has a place in history, but I'm not sure if it's declassified.
Its important to tell these stories, when possible, so folks know the provenance of much that we take for granted today. Otherwise they will think that DeForest ,and Les Paul, invented everything ;-) Cerwin Vega was one of those brand-relics that Gibson bought up and had no idea what to do with--in the HENRY era. Geez...Baldwin, Oberheim, over a dozen more. Bought. Killed.By Gibson. Which eventually killed itself. The NEW Gibson is back to doing guitars. Just guitars. Wish them well.
Here's what the NEW Gibson did with Oberheim...man, I like the new Gibson management(!): https://www.musicradar.com/news/gib...iving-the-oberheim-brand-back-to-tom-oberheim
The music business brought out folks like Bob Heil, who goes strong today. Cerwin-Vega! had strong speakers and well-tuned cabinets, but their arc-welder power amps ruled. In turn, they connect to another great inventor (or copycat, depending on your view-- let's agree on improver) Pete Traynor. Pete made killer Fender Twin improvements, then went on to develop much with Yorkville Sound in Toronto/Scarsborough ON. When Pete was good, he was amazing. I worked at their subsidiary, Long and McQuade.... Later, when I was a manufacturer's rep, Gene found out I knew about electronics and acoustics and yes, woodworking, and so I became Cerwin-Vega!'s first QC Director, this long before Gene slowed down. The engineering talent in the San Fernando Valley of CA was immense. Add in access to materials, and great things were built there. I worked for JBL and Hitachi while there. Then I was tempted in to the evils of small CPUs and TTL circuitry.... and became lost in computing for nearly forty years. Inside computing were Wayne Green, 73 and Byte Magazines.... and solder jockeys with a clue had a great time, as did I. Much of tech today has been birthed as an amateur radio idea, and the engineers and technicians of yesterday paved the way. Although much noise is made about software engineers, the hardware people had Moore's Law on their side-- and also the resin-core wave soldering machines.
I first met Wayne Green on 2M AM when we both lived in Brooklyn, he was the RTTY Editor for CQ iffn I remember and later Editor. He offered me a job at 73 in Peterborough NH when I left the USN but he was too cheap National Radio offered me a much better job. We kept in touch all thru the decades and I last saw him a few weeks before he passed. I still have the first 3-4 issues of BYTE somewhere. Carl