New Directions Radio
(Page 3 of 4)
July/August 1974
By Copthorne Macdonald
Off in Baudette, Minnesota, Frank Thompson (WOOD)—who installed 18 of the famous Jacobs windplants one summer back in the 30's—is rewinding an automobile alternator for 110 volts as part of his wind generator project. Ken Chaffee (WA10XR, Ashaway, Rhode Island) recently came up with news of a turbine-style wind device being developed in his state, and Jim Stamper (WA4HUB, Roanoke, Virginia) tracked down some info on NASA—Langley's "eggbeater style" vertical axis unit.
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THE HAWAII HEALTH NET
Jim Stamper and I attended the Black Hills Values Conference in May. While the results were somewhat disappointing in terms of hard programs coming out of the session, some good things happened. One of them was meeting Jim and Marge Craig, who are coordinating the mainland end of the Hawaii Health Net . . . a group started by Dr. Walter Strode of the Straub Clinic in Honolulu and concerned with rethinking the subject of health care.
As the Craigs describe the net in their book, Synergic Power, "Net people are seeking to transform present disease-oriented medical services to services based on the concept of health as a way of life. They are also seeking to better meet specific health needs by shifting the focus of responsibility from a physician-centered system to a patient-centered system. This means that patients become more involved as partners in maintaining and restoring their own health." (If you're into changing the world through cooperation rather than force or confrontation, you'll want to read the Craigs' book. Order it from P.O. Box 9096, Berkeley, California 94709, $2.70 postpaid.)
Communication within the net has so far been mostly by mail. Now, however, we're setting up Hawaii-mainland ham radio links and other connections between individuals and groups in the continental U.S. Contact me if you'd like to get involved.
THE RTTY TECHNICAL GROUP
Teletype transmission by radio (RTTY for short) has the potential of combining many of the advantages of the printed media with the high delivery speed and low delivery cost of ham radio. While teleprinters are intricate mechanical beasts similar to electric typewriters, they're also rugged long-life instruments (akin to metal sewing machines in this respect). They're relatively inexpensive too, and with the right adapter unit can be used to send typed material over the dial telephone network as well as over the air. They can also serve as remote computer terminals to tie in with systems such as the one mentioned in my column in MOTHER NO. 27.
The big problem is that such machines aren't available in a nice, neat, packaged form with all the other bits and pieces needed to make an operating system. If you're a real technofreak, deeply into mechanical and electronic gadgetry, you can refurbish a surplus teleprinter, build the electronic circuitry to go with it and get on the air with RTTY at fairly low cost. If you're not into this technical stuff, you're out of luck.
