"t.hoehler" wrote:

I have to agree with the sentiments here about collectables,
but one reason I don't bother collecting many AM radios is their
poor sound, and to improve them, you have to modify them,
and I do just that if there is no other way to repair them,
and if an owner is happy about it.
Hopefully they'll run well for another 50 years, and the next repairist
will have to make similar decisions I have.

Which leads me to the question, will there be any AM stations to listen to
in fifty years?

Yes, unless the Got of Triodes changes the laws of physics,
and dissallows RF propagation at the BCB.


And, after reading and looking over Randy's excellent story
about the 5 KW AM transmitter, I wonder, will all postings like his just be
a memory in fifty years?

In 50 years going back to recent postings about AM radios will be difficult.

If so, the future generation will be missing out on
a great deal of old, but really cool technology.

Someone somewhere will be working from first principles, and designing and
building
AM radios without any assistance from our postings, or RDH4.

What they miss out on is their worry, not mine.
The 4 year old now will have potentially a lot to look forward to,
cures for cancer, maybe a longer lifespan, slimming pills that
work without side effects to allow huge supersize macs to be
eaten without getting fat, or guilty about it, cars that use hydrogen,
perhaps cheaper energy, and lower winter heating bills.
He'll still have to deal with BS and face death and taxes.

But in 10,054, thing will be *very* different, and we humans might have
genetically
engineered themselves into a vastly different form indeed, and complete with
AM radio implants at birth from a test tube, or a cloning dish,
and the ability to eat rubbish from the vast landfill deposits which will have
nearly covered the planet entirely.
But infinite development is impossible with finite resources.
Methinks it might be just dusty in 100,054.
So if we will be gone by then, why are we here now?

Cool might be rare word to describe the world in 2054,
when temperatures will have climbed alarmingly,
and mainly because desperate western nation people have bought
even larger air-conditioning units.

The future may occur and be able to be considered, if we don't
poison ourselves and all the other species first. The current rate of species
extinctions
is much faster than at any other time in the history of life on
our bloomin dear little blue planet.
Is life making the same mistakes as us on the millions of other
bloomin little blue planets in the universe?
Do they listen to rock and roll and talkback shows to cool the soul too?

Patrick Turner.



Regards to all,
Tom