Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who has once again spotted a classic radio in film:
This shot of some Heathkit radios came up in the first episode of “Stranger Things”.
The teacher mentions the brand by name, having sourced them for some enthusiastic school friends who then proceed to talk straight into the mike without any kind of call sign. I’m guessing none of the gear was turned on at that stage.
Thanks Mark! There’s no mistaking the classic styling of Heathkit!
I’ll put Stranger Things on my Netflix watch list. If it has a Heathkit in the first episode, it must be worthy entertainment! 🙂
Untrained operators getting their hands on some equipment and using it haphazardly with no regard for license or protocol? That sounds pretty plausible to me.
My first transmitter was a DX-60B, back in 1962. Brought back memories.
I watched this a few months back here in the UK on Netflix and it was ‘OK’, I also noticed the Heathkit radios when the teacher was showing the lads the ham radio setup who were all very enthusiastic (I think it was set in the 80’s).
Hard to get folk nowadays to appreciate the technical aspect of radios as everything is so ubiquitous nowadays in mobile phones/tablets etc. and the buzz of hearing a faraway signal has been very much diminished by the internet.
I remember my father showing me his newly acquired Codar CR70A and the array of international broadcasters you could tune into and I was hooked, my brothers did not seem bothered with it and considered it a just a radio and not a magic box that could harvest signals from far away lands. My brothers were more interested in motorbikes and went into the construction industry and I ended up with a career in Electronics.
Tuning into a station with perfect clarify on your computer via the internet does not cut it for me, but building an antenna and a receiver to tune into international broadcasters is much more fun (or winding an inductor and finding out you have wound too many times and end up on the wrong band!).
Thanks for the article Thomas.