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Thunderbird Club

#128,801
Miles_ONeal said:
At WREK we fought the Diode Wars over Christmas break in 1974. Various crew members would hack the station hardware every night. One of the mods was a big red button at the operator's desk with a sign: "DO NOT PRESS". When they did, something random would happen, initially through one of the sets of speakers in the main room- the sound of toilets flushing overhead (we were on the top floor of the EE building), a girl screaming from behind the equipment racks, etc. Other buttons and switches appeared (or if non-essential, were modded) as well. It eventually got more elaborate, until one day a newbie operator pushed the Big Red Button (as he had done every day for a week). IIRC, nothing happened for maybe 30 seconds. Then all heck broke loose. The speakers attached to the receiver quit playing (dead air!!!) Every light or meter on the racks or desk went dark, red, maxed or zeroed, depending on what looked scariest. Scope displays flatlined or went berserk. It was a masterpiece of jury-rigged engineering.
Except for that pesky newbie. The thing that had been pounded the most into his skull by his trainer was the cost of the transmitter output tubes (the antenna tower was atop the EE building). He fumbled with his keys, fought his way into the transmitter room, and killed the power to save the tubes. He then went back to the desk and collapsed, heart racing.
Within a minute or two the Asst GM called demanding to know why the station was off the air. As the operator started to explain, something timed out, and everything went back to normal... except that there was only a faint hiss from the receiver as we were OFF THE AIR. The next day we were all called in. The Asst GM had ripped out all of the special circuitry (there was quite a lot by then), and made it clear that if he found out who had done this, or if anything else was modded without permission from him or the GM (at the moment in the Bahamas or something), someone was in Big Trouble.
I think the operator eventually recovered.
We never found the THUNDERBIRD after that. Probably flew back to NM or something.
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TL;DR - Got into trouble for playing pranks that got out of hand. RF power tubes are expensive. Thunderbird. :D

Dude, double CR for paragraphs would have made that much easier. :thumbsup: I know, limitations of the phone...
 
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#128,802
PillO said:
TL;DR - Got into trouble for playing pranks that got out of hand. RF power tubes are expensive. Thunderbird. :D

Dude, double CR for paragraphs would have made that much easier. :thumbsup: I know, limitations of the phone...
Click to expand...
upload_2019-9-25_9-40-6.png
 
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#128,803
Gaolee said:
That is a fantastic story! I have bee smiling like a lunatic for hours.
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I saw/participated in a large number of pranks while in the Army. At one point, I had a section of clerks working for me, and at the back of my office was a freight elevator down to the warehouse. I don't know why, but very few people knew about the elevator and those who did know assumed it didn't work (I and one other knew that it did because of compulsive button pushing).

The unit administration officer (AO) had a safe in his office in which he kept "material that had to be secured" but would never say what was in it. It couldn't be used for classified material or currency because it wasn't really secure - it had wheels and only weighed perhaps 150lbs (if that). During lunch one day, a couple of conspirators (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty), took the safe. Initially, it was hidden in my elevator. But later, as the AO entered a high speed wobble, it appeared "hidden" in a secure part of the warehouse ("hidden" behind a chain linked fenced off area). The keypress had no log entry of the secured area having been opened that day so it is a mystery how it got in.

The AO could never figure out how it got moved from the second floor to the warehouse nor any evidence of who had done it, but for some reason he always suspected me.
 
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#128,805
JIO said:
:laugh: Hah! So you did! In fact, I didn't look closely enough to see who was posting and thought it was Mark showing off a new Subie and bass! The power of a familiarly framed pic to lead my mind astray!
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I was scrolling through fast and and also thought I’d was a pic from the Queen’s garage. My brain didn’t register the car and bass are blue:roflmao:
 
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#128,807
Latest project in process: the folding box of noise for my brother's synth modules. There will be three rows of modules in each half, and a hinge that will let him open it and use it like a desk. There will be bass drum spurs on the sides of one of the halves that will work to prop that half up at whatever angle he decides he wants. Basement of Bad Ideas engineering at it's ad hoc finest. The whole thing was made out of plywood and lumber scraps I had lying around, with laminate he picked and bought.
20190925_071129[1].jpg
 
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#128,808
Gaolee said:
Latest project in process: the folding box of noise for my brother's synth modules. There will be three rows of modules in each half, and a hinge that will let him open it and use it like a desk. There will be bass drum spurs on the sides of one of the halves that will work to prop that half up at whatever angle he decides he wants. Basement of Bad Ideas engineering at it's ad hoc finest. The whole thing was made out of plywood and lumber scraps I had lying around, with laminate he picked and bought.
View attachment 3548176
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Looks good! The bass drum spurs hack sounds like an innovative use of drum hardware (which I also have lying around)- gonna file that one in my brain’s “unorthodox solutions” folder.
 
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#128,810
PillO said:
So, I am a huge Rush fan. But the catalogue is so big, it isn't possible to pick and choose bits and pieces to point at as specific best or worst. Perhaps the only way to do that is to separate by era. But because the band evolved over time it can be controversial to draw those lines. About the closest you get is the live albums, but that was disrupted as later on they developed a routine of studio album, tour, live album of the tour, tour, repeat. And that was driven by demand to hear live that big catalogue.

I understand that there are people that don't like Geddy's singing. I understand that there are people that don't like how complicated the songs are. I understand that there are people that don't like some of the difficult emotional material of the songs.

But even if you don't like the music for any reason, there is much to redeem Rush. They are genuinely nice people with a real sense of humour (especially about themselves). They might be famous, but certainly don't act it. They are extraordinarily charitable. And Geddy was (eventually) chosen by Thunderbirds.

Having said all that, 2112 and Clockwork Angels are two outstanding albums. Caress of Steel is a rarely discussed album, perhaps in part because (even Rush say so) it is rather pretentious, but it has some real gems on it (I Think I'm Going Bald is a great song about Alex's fear of losing his hair - there is that sense of humour). The radio friendly era that started around Farewell to Kings and Moving Pictures has many stand outs as well. That era produced the Fear Trilogy (that ended up being 4 songs) a concept spread across albums. But not everything can be great; Tai Shan ('nuff said).

All things considered, who wouldn't want to just hang out with these guys.
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really liked their originality and chops on the early stuff...then it got a little bubble gum for me....then i noticed GL's change in playing style on Moving Pics (which he attributed to Berlin on the link) and i went in that direction...the single right hand finger thing (before he started plucking in both directions) was getting a bit stale...
 
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