Alas, poor Yorick!

Rennie Heuer

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Well, another icon of my younger years has fallen by the wayside to choke out its last moments of life in the drainage ditch of time.

The LOML and I try to get out at least twice per year to a forest service cabin or fire tower for a few nights of total relaxation. (the fire towers are the most fun!:)) Most do not have any electricity, gas, or running water. We like to take along some of our classical music to play in the background while we read, rest, or just look out at the scenery.

For some weeks now I've been scouring the Walmarts, Shopkos, Costcos, KMarts, et.al. in vain for something that was once ubiquitous - a portable radio.

It seems that these little gems have fallen prey to the millions of iPods and their offshoots that now reek permanent damage on the eardrums of the 'civilized' world. In a way this is good. Few things were more annoying than going to the beach and having to listen to what someone else 10 'towels' away though was good music. Never-the-less, finding a "boom box" small enough to pack for camping, with decent tone for under $80, seems impossible. :( I may have to break down and get an iPod as there seems to be lots of devices around for them to plug into for more 'public' listening.
 
Rennie,

Visit you neighborhood Radio Shack. I needed a battery power radio to test the RF integrity of an MR scan room. I bought one at Radio Shack for about $40. It's pretty good and it also had SSB IIRC. They had a several models to select from. They had them cheaper and more expensive. They were small ...hand held and operated on 9 v batteries.
 
Rennie,

Visit you neighborhood Radio Shack. I needed a battery power radio to test the RF integrity of an MR scan room. I bought one at Radio Shack for about $40. It's pretty good and it also had SSB IIRC. They had a several models to select from. They had them cheaper and more expensive. They were small ...hand held and operated on 9 v batteries.
Hmmmm. just got back from there - only two models left on the shelf. Neither one worth getting excited over. :dunno: I'll check their web site.
 
If you wish I can buy one here and send it to you but most problably with postage and everything will be prohibitive.

What about getting one of those so called in my youth a "getto blaster":D:D

Depending on the music you played on it you could frighten away any wild life 2 miles around your tower, but the it would be the same as staying in the city:(
 
If you wish I can buy one here and send it to you but most problably with postage and everything will be prohibitive.

What about getting one of those so called in my youth a "getto blaster":D:D

Depending on the music you played on it you could frighten away any wild life 2 miles around your tower, but the it would be the same as staying in the city:(
Thanks for the offer Toni, but I'm afraid you're right - it would be cost prohibitive. BTW - Boom Box and Ghetto Blaster are synomonous.:D

I checked out the Radio Shack site - bigger selection - I'm just hesitant to buy without first hearing what it sounds like.
 
Check out C Crane company.

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/am-fm-radios/index.aspx

They might be a little spendy, but most of the radios you would buy at radio shack or wally world do not have very good reception.

C Crane models supposedly have good reception and sound.

I bought a multi band radio from Radio shack several years ago and am just waiting for it to break so I can get a CC Radio...:rolleyes:

It has ok recpetion, but it's not that great.
 
right - BTW - Boom Box and Ghetto Blaster are synomonous.:D
.

Thanks Rennie, you see this is why I like this forum, I learn new things every day.
No matter wether they are woodworking related or language related!
Now I Know how to spell correctly "ghetto" and the meaning of Boom Box.
Thanks again:thumb:

Just a question if I may. Do you have to look for fires when you're up there? I mean is this some sort of voluntary service in exchange for letting you stay there? If so shoudn't you have a walkie-talkie or a radio to commnicate at least to warn the firebrigade.?
We do have those towers here but we are not allowed to use them, not even in winter when the risk of fires is low and they are empty.
 
Just a question if I may. Do you have to look for fires when you're up there? I mean is this some sort of voluntary service in exchange for letting you stay there? If so shoudn't you have a walkie-talkie or a radio to commnicate at least to warn the firebrigade.?
We do have those towers here but we are not allowed to use them, not even in winter when the risk of fires is low and they are empty.
Hi again Toni,

I think most of the fire spotting duties around here are now handled by sattelite - though we do still have some manned towers. The US forest service has renovated many of the towers and now rents them out by the night. They usually run about $30 a night. this is one we stayed in 2 years ago (sorry about the quality of the pictures - they're not mine) The little building is the out house. Even that has a view!:rofl:
nrso_73806_1.jpg nrso_73806_2.jpg nrso_73806_3.jpg
This one is about 40 miles outside of Boise.
The one we're staying in late this month looks like this - again, not my pictures. nrso_74144_1.jpg nrso_74144_2.jpg It's in eastern Oregon.

The first night we stayed in the last tower we had about 6 thunderstorms roll through. What a light show!!!:eek:

Maybe later this year, or next spring, we'll get up to northern Idaho in Ken's neck of the woods - they have more towers up there!

Anyone who's interested, go here -> http://www.recreation.gov/

If you're interested, I can upload some pictures we took last time out to my picture hosting site and send you a link.
 
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shame on you rennie

boy you sure brought back some good memories,, we had a couple here in michigan and one was in an area where i hunted we would climb to the top and veiw all over.. then they tore it down. what part of eastern oregon are you headed for anywhere near the umatilla forrest? was in the middle of that big fire they had in 96 i think it was.. your veiw there in idaho is breath takin would love to be there with ya:)
 
boy you sure brought back some good memories,, we had a couple here in michigan and one was in an area where i hunted we would climb to the top and veiw all over.. then they tore it down. what part of eastern oregon are you headed for anywhere near the umatilla forrest? was in the middle of that big fire they had in 96 i think it was.. your veiw there in idaho is breath takin would love to be there with ya:)
The tower we're going to this month is near John Day - it's in the Malheur National Forest. And you're right. The views are breathtaking!:thumb:
 
where is that in relation ship to the umatilla forrest? where we were it was just across the border from idaho
r6nf.gif
 
rennie, there are just some things you dont dump from your childhood, or teen years, and Ive tried to find reasons to throw this one away, but the more sawdust it eats, the more times it falls off the shelf, the more times its left outdoors in bad weather, the better it seems to sound.
Ofcourse, all my cassettes are in pretty bad shape, some of the eagles tapes have disentegrated, but the radio still works perfect.()
 

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Rennie,
Amazon has a number of small Sony units in the $20 range - usually good quality. Something else to consider - though it is "modern";) is a Sandisk Sansa Shaker. It's a little MP3 player with a built in speaker (and two jacks for headphones). Runs on one AAA battery. Not high fidelity, but a nice small all-in-one package. I use it in the shop when I don't want headphones on.

All of our portable radios are of the tube variety.:rolleyes::D
FWIW,
Wes
 
If you wish I can buy one here and send it to you but most problably with postage and everything will be prohibitive.

What about getting one of those so called in my youth a "getto blaster":D:D

Depending on the music you played on it you could frighten away any wild life 2 miles around your tower, but the it would be the same as staying in the city:(

Toni,

One of the hardest things for a non-native speaker is learning the connotations of idioms. For example: when I was learning french, I would walk into a cafe. Some of the young ladies who knew me would greet me with "cou-cou, Biiilll..." They did it all the time, so I just figured it was the cool french familiar greeting. So, one day, I ran into a forty-five year old gruff englishman. Wishing to demonstrate my newly acquired idomatic french, I greeted him with "cou-cou, Graham." He durn near decked me. Then he explained what I'd just said. Fortunately, he knew me well enough to not directly associate me with his preconceived stereotypes of california... ;)

Another time, a different englishman (they're thick on the ground on the cote d'azur - sorry, Ian) got a pretty good laugh when we were discussing, for some odd reason, dogs, in french, and I mentioned someone who had a "terrier du renard". It turns out that in french they don't translate the name, and they just go ahead and say "fox terrier", but that the breed name has a very different connotation in french than it does in english. Kind of like the french calling something an 'english cap' and the english calling the same object a 'french letter'. Both of those are cultural markers, which is the whole point of using them, and tell much about a speaker in a given context, just as Rennie's apt reference to Act V, scene 1 marks him as a literate 'fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.' So, too, is the term you used a cultural marker, which is likely not translated into spanish (I've heard the same term innocently in french from non-anglophones), but it might, if used in the wrong circles, get you decked, or marked, like my cou-cou slip almost got me! ;)

That said, those fire watch-towers are very cool. Gary Snyder wrote some of his earliest (and some say his best) poems while serving as a fire lookout, perhaps from some of the same places Rennie's talking about, including one about things to do while on a lookout tower. Also of interest, Synder was, at least for a time, a carpenter and woodworker. Here's what he said to a journalist when he was talking about changing poetic direction:

""Now I gotta clean up the workshop," he says simply. "Sweep the sawdust off the floor, pick up the wood chips, finish this project up, and then I'll look around and see what I want to do next."

All that to say that Rennie's in pretty good poetic company... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
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