Schenectady Writers Service 12/1/1957
Ideas: Odd Radio Signals. Radios, and other devices can pick up and even transmit radio waves in unexpected ways.
- It is a common occurrence for people with silver fillings in their teeth to pick up strong radio signals. What information would change a person who suddenly hears news? Would a person go crazy if listening to a radio commentator? Would a person dance all the time if his personal tooth radio was tuned to dance music. Would a person who hears radio programs in another language while he slept suddenly speak Italian?
- A radio speaker can also act as a microphone. Some radios will transmit sounds that the speaker picks up so a radio nearby can pick it up. What if someone overheard something he should not have?
- An electric spark can be heard as a zap sound by radios nearby. If a person is trapped and can create an electrical spark to ask for help, how would he do it. If he does not know Morse code, what pattern could he transmit?
- If a person hears a repetitive zapping sound on his radio, how does he figure out that it is someone calling for help?
- Strong stations can easily overwhelm weaker stations, but the weak station sometimes breaks through. What happens when the words of a weak station bleed through the transmission of a strong station? If people do not know that this is happening what messages could they hear when the news of one station is mixed with different news stories from another one?
- A directional antenna can be used to pick up radio stations in the direction that it is pointed. What does a person hear when it is pointed to a strange person, the north pole, out to sea, or pointed at the moon?
- There are plans for radio transmitters in many publications. What happens when someone builds one and starts answering rhetorical questions by a pompous radio personality? What happens when someone starts answering quiz show questions. Perhaps somebody might try adding sound effects to radio shows.
- Some motors can pick up radio signals. What would a person think if their washing machine started to play commercials for laundry soap? What would happen when a writer’s electric typewriter started to tell a story.
- There are points on earth where the positions of mountains or clouds can bend radio waves so that radios can receive broadcasts from far away cities or even countries. What if there was such a place and people went there with their radios in order to hear news from far away? What if it was news that the government or some other group did not want people to hear?
Newsletters:
These are so wonderful. I am trying to build a halfway decent resource site for writers, and it is quite a challenge. So much information, ect. These ideas are really something; I feel inspired to create a section of my site devoted to something just like these newsletters. Perhaps I will try using such ideas to inhabit part of the sites newsletters once I achieve lift off. I don’t care about a profit, I just want to help others (and myself) to learn how to write well, and to master the craft and the skillsets necessary to writing good creative fiction. My site is still under construction and if you should ever like to visit I would enjoy your presence there. Please keep my email address should you decide to drop by…I don’t want to list a URL on your site (I think that’s quite rude).