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Rush Limbaugh and the Remco Caravelle
Broadcasters of note started out with this unit... David Limbaugh,
syndicated columnist and lawyer Tells us about his brother Rush Limbaugh:
"When we
were very young Rush persuaded our parents to buy him a Remco Caravelle, a
little toy that served as a mini-broadcast studio. That little device
enabled Rush to simulate his own radio broadcasts and actually transmit
them over the AM radio waves within the confines of our home. Our parents
dutifully and indulgently listened downstairs as Rush held forth from our
bedroom on the second floor."
Click this page on Rush's site and you can hear him talk
about this radio and how it got him into broadcasting!
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/weekend_sites/christmas1/content/eib_way_back_machine.guest.html
| Rush
Reunited With Boyhood Radio |
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| May
16, 2003 |
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People ask me all the time when did I first discover I wanted to
go into radio and why. I can honestly trace it back to when I was
about ten years old, and it's real simple to explain why, which
you can hear me do in the audio link below.
Part of my discovery came in the form of a toy radio called a
Remco Caravelle. I was certain there wasn’t a soul in my
audience who knew what a Remco
Caravelle was, unless you remembered the one or two times I
talked about it over the course of 14 years. My mother gave it to me
for Christmas in 1962 when I was eleven.
Turns out there was a soul out there, Jim Patrick of Florida,
who not only knew what a Remco Caravelle was, but had one in his
possession and sent it to me. I couldn’t believe it! He also sent
along the cover
of the Sears catalog from which it was ordered, and the
page advertising the toy.
Now you can imagine what happened to a young Maha Rushie getting his
hands on a toy like this. The thing allowed me to broadcast on any
frequency I chose over AM radio. It didn’t really have much range
and only worked in my house, but it had a little microphone and I
could play records and such. I had an audience of one, my mother,
who would dutifully listen to me playing disc jockey with this
thing. It was great, and the best way to describe how I felt
receiving this incredible gift from Jim Patrick was instant
nostalgia. The care and precision this man he took to package and
ship this piece of precious memory to me is touching. It's a
tremendous thing that he's done and I can't thank him enough. |
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This used to be the link and it went dead so we
put the top
page here incase the other link goes dead.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/weekend_sites/051203_
051603/content/eib_way_back_machine.guest.html
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| History of K1JN
XXXXXX 
It was the very early sixties, my 8th or
9th birthday. My father came home from work and said there was something
in the car he wanted me to bring in the house for him. In the car was my
birthday present, a Remco Caravelle. It was an AM/CW broadcast band
transciever. With it you could broadcast over the household AM set. That
was my first exposure to the magic of radio. I recently came across one on
eBay and purchased it. I cleaned it up and it works fine. Click here
for a photo of it.
Fast forward to the mid '70s. All of my
friends and I had CBs in our cars (you know you did too). The fad didn't
last long for most people, but I ended up putting a CB in the house. Late
at night when the band was quiet and sometimes during the day when the
band opened, I could hear distant stations. I was hooked and started
studying for my ticket!
Joe Dupre, K1GOW helped me get my
novice license in June 1979. I was living in Warwick, RI at the time. My
novice call was KA1DLL. My first station was a used Heathkit SB-102. I put
up a dipole for 15/40 meters and it didn't take long before I was hooked!
I can still feel the thrill of working my first DX with that simple set
up. A short time later, I moved to Danielson, CT and graduated to a trap
vertical. I soon upgraded to General and then Advanced class in 1980 and
received the call KA1MH. Ah, the good old days of driving to the Customs
House in Boston to take the tests at the FCC office there. While living in
Danielson I was a member of the Eastern Connecticut Amateur Radio
Association, K1MUJ. I then moved to Groton, CT. While in Groton, I got my
first ever new HF rig, a Kenwood TS-530S and I became the trustee for one
of the Pioneer Valley Repeater Association machines located in Groton. I
remeber painting a house so I could raise the money to buy an Azden
PCS-2000 synthisized 2M rig and retire the Regency crystal controlled
mobile I was using. I continued operating until 1983 when I sold my
equipment and pursued other interests.
In 1994 the radio bug bit again and
I became active from my present location in Mystic, CT. I completed DXCC
and WAS. I became interested in contesting and joined the CTRI Contest
Group, taking part in their mult-single efforts. I learned a lot there and
made some wonderful friendships. I upgraded to Extra class in June of '96
and also became a Volunteer Examiner. I applied for and received the
vanity callsign of K1JN in November of 1996. I worked my first 200
countries using simple wire and vertical antennas. In August of 1998 I was
fortunate to be able to put up my first tower, a 72' freestanding aluminum
one. What a difference that made!
Today I am active on all HF bands
from 160 through 10 meters, plus 6 meters, 2 meters and 440. My main
interests are chasing DX, contesting, and awards. To date I have 318 out
of the 335 current DXCC entities confirmed. I have completed DXCC on 7
bands and I'm working on 30 and 160 meters for 9 band DXCC. I'm also
chasing countries on the digital modes for RTTY DXCC. I have 247 contacts
confirmed out of the 250 required for 5 band WAS and I've earned the WAZ
and WPX awards. I conduct volunteer exam sessions for and serve as Vice
President of the CTRI Contest Group and also served as the CT area manager
for the Yankee Clipper Contest Club. In July 2000, I won the CT section
phone only in the IARU contest and in November 2001 I took 1st place USA
Zone 5 in the Japan International DX Contest. My best contest score so far
is 3.1 million points in the 2001 CQWW SSB contest operating as single op
assisted from the home station. I placed 15th in the U.S. in that one. For
the 2002 CQWW SSB I plan to be at J3A in Grenada for an all YCCC
Multi-Multi operation.
See you in the pileups…
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