Ditto, Joe and misophist.

I had my Dad's old Sky Buddy shortwave receiver. It had five bands, so I could pick up up foreign signals, a lot of code, planes and ships at sea. It was way cool. I was mesmerized by the "official time" "This is WWV, at the sound of the tone, the time will be ... " It ticked off the seconds and at one point there was a sort of stutter "tock, tock, t-tock, tock..."

When my dad (a ham operator [W5AAJ]) helped me build a small crystal set, he told me the cat's whisker was so-called because real cat whiskers had been used instead of the tiny wire. I tried that. Our cat was not amused. But, by the way, it worked.

Mary