Youtube hearted comments of Helium Road (@RCAvhstape).

  1. Rick Beato discussing "The Gilmour Effect" with...David Gilmour. These are the moments we live for, folks, savor this!
    3300
  2. "Their skipper having lit the fuze, they rowed with considerable enthusiasm." Now that's an understatement.
    938
  3. Drach: mentions "fly-over states" in a slightly negative way Me: watches to see how good Drach's damage control is
    880
  4. The cool thing about the Starliner launch is that this will be the first manned Atlas launch since the days of Mercury and John Glenn 60 years ago. Another feather in the cap of the Atlas program before it finally sunsets.
    601
  5. That Energia II looks really cool. NASA had messed with the idea of flyback boosters before, too. There was a plan for a flyback F1 booster stage and also plan to replace the shuttle's SRBs with Liquid Rocket Boosters (LRBs) that would have wings and fly back to a runway using jets. Ultimately we had to wait for the Falcon 9 to see anything that cool.
    418
  6. I was playing with my shortwave radio a couple of years ago, randomly spinning the tuner, when sure enough I found a numbers station with a female voice speaking numbers in Spanish. I did not immediately burn my radio as per Simon, but I was pretty geeked out to have found something spooky I had heard about for years but never actually heard for myself until then.
    400
  7. These Rick Beato interviews are the gold standard for musician interviews. More good information in a one hour video than whole stacks of music magazines or knucklehead youtuber vids.
    361
  8. My vote for Drachism of the Day: "...which very quickly would leave you with no hull, which is generally held to be a disadvantage in the whole Staying Afloat Department."
    343
  9. Rick is the most honest interviewer out there, and that honesty has earned him the trust of people like Sting and Maynard. Very cool.
    239
  10. Nothing like sleeping in on a Saturday morning and eating breakfast to a good nuclear accident video!
    218
  11. L'Orient burning near HMS Orion..."Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion"
    192
  12. I know this project sounds difficult to pull off, but this is Rockwell, they created the Turboencabulator. They could do anything.
    188
  13. "Bass player and drummer are nailing it by the third take..." That's one take too many for Two-Take Beato!
    182
  14. Shocked by transmitted power from a mile away. Nicola Tesla smiles upon us.
    134
  15. It's not just British signals; I have yet to fully comprehend any signaling system. In the US it varies by railroad company and time period so you can really go down a rabbit hole with it.
    100
  16. "You're under arrest for burning a cell tower." "Wait, let me call my lawyer." Call doesn't get through.
    100
  17. I hope AM radio never dies here in the US. I love using old tube and transistor radios and keeping them running. There's something cool about using a machine that's well over half a century old to listen to modern news broadcasts.
    96
  18. I would guess that a nuclear-tipped Sidewinder would be intended for continental defense against bombers, in which case using small nukes on aircraft is totally NOT overkill, since those bombers are on their way to flatten your cities and you are already in a full scale nuclear war by that point.
    84
  19. Great video, love this spooky stuff! There is a well-known "hidden message" (not hidden well at all) in the Rush instrumental "YYZ", where the opening riff is the morse code for the Toronto airport radio navigation beacon, YYZ, of course. Story is that guitarist Alex Lifeson has a pilot's license and was flying the band into Toronto, and had his comnav radio tuned to the beacon. Drummer Neil Peart thought the morse code was a cool rhythm, and since Toronto was the band's home town, they built a whole track around it.
    65
  20. That was awesome. I wonder if anyone has ever tracked down the lady whose voice was sampled for that station. She's a legend. Someone should make a gritty spy thriller film set in the 1970s based on the Poacher. Or maybe a miniseries.
    61
  21. How do they change the bulb? Simple, disconnect all the cables, unbolt the tower from the pedestal, tip it over with a crane, unscrew the bulb, then reverse the process. Easy peasy. I should add that this only works on older towers. Newer towers, when the light burns out you just throw the tower away and buy a new one.
    48
  22. You're doing a great job with this channel, RM, keep up the good work!
    47
  23. Excellent rundown of the subject! I always thought that as technology and operational experience advanced they could build a Space Shuttle 2.0 that would correct for many of the deficiencies in the 1970s design someday, and heat shield tech would be a major part of that.
    44
  24. I don't know how relevant this is, but maybe someday you could do a video or a series on the radio noises coming from Saturn and other celestial objects. NASA's Cassini probe sent back the creepiest signals I've ever heard, picked up by its sensors inside Saturn's magnetosphere. NASA slowed them down to audio rate and posted them on the web back in the 2000s and I made the mistake of listening to it in a dark room alone late at night. 1950s Forbidden Planet type sound effects. Also, at least one Apollo crew picked up weird signals on their radio while orbiting the Moon, thought to be a heterodyne whistle perhaps. A video about the radio systems used for Apollo comms might be cool, too.
    37
  25. Not really related to any of these radios, but when I was growing up I got a build-it-yourself radio kit from Radio Shack that received, among other things, air band. It wasn't fancy and it used one of those weird clear plastic earphones every Radio Shack kit came with, but for a 10 year old it was awesome. It was a blue plastic console with a smoked glass plastic dust cover that you could see the electronic innards through. I had no idea what I was listening to, but the fact that I built a working radio and was listening to jetliners was so cool. I really miss Radio Shack.
    32
  26. I'm an American but because of this channel I've caught myself using "balls!" as an expletive lately.
    32
  27. Good to see you finally covering this one, and in more detail than I've seen before, great job. When I was very little I remember seeing this on the news.
    28
  28. Slight tangent: does anyone else miss those older websites with their crazy colors and designs from the days before social media funneled everyone into a small number of tech giant sites? I remember things like "web rings" and so on, when surfing the internet was fun and a little crazy.
    25
  29. 6:27 I hope UFO guy had that facial hair setup registered with the Ministry of Silly Beards.
    24
  30. This reminds me of a 1986 movie called Riders of the Storm starring Dennis Hopper. It's a comedy about a bunch of psy op Vietnam vets who operated a station out of an old B-29 Superfortress in Vietnam, and after the war kept the aircraft and use it to broadcast pirate radio and TV in the 1980s. They decide their last mission is to prevent the election of a war-mongering woman. It's not the best movie ever made but it's very much of its time and the concept of a flying pirate broadcast operation is a fun one to contemplate. I remember my dad renting the VHS tape back in the day.
    23
  31. Cold War equipment like this is fascinating.
    20
  32. Driving off a downed bridge in the dark or fog is some pretty good nightmare fuel.
    18
  33. That story about the cops stumbling onto it, asking for a shoutout, and then leaving it alone is pretty cool. I wish we had a pirate radio scene like that where I grew up, sounds like a blast.
    17
  34. 4:57 I think you meant to say C-141's. aka the Lockheed Starlifter.
    16
  35. I was lucky, I didn't see this film when it first came out and my friends told me it was worth a look, but nobody spoiled it for me. That reveal when we see Amy is actually alive and batshit crazy was so awesome.
    15
  36.  @jwr2904  The "Pin of Shame" love it! :face-green-smiling:
    11
  37. A partial list of crazy fission-powered stuff from the 1950s: Nuclear ramjet cruise missiles (Project Pluto) Nuclear turbine jet aircraft Nuclear powered car (Ford Nucleon concept car) Nuclear powered locomotives Nuclear electric generator stations (these actually exist in large numbers) Nuclear powered ships and submarines (these actually exist in large numbers) Nuclear thermal rockets (NERVA) Nuclear pulse propulsion spacecraft (Project Orion) I know I must be missing a few. Also, when I was growing up in the 1980s, Popular Mechanics magazine (or was it Popular Science?) had an article about backyard nuclear reactors that you'd have installed on your property underground which would power your home off the grid and be designed to be inherently safe. Still waiting for mine...
    11
  38. Sounds like a sound effect from a Dr. Who episode.
    10
  39. Love those old photographs. I'm fascinated by antique electronic equipment, especially WWII era. I have a 5-tube AM radio that I need to get repaired, worked fine until recently, probably a dead tube. I almost bought a 1920s radio set that was in superb condition, complete with vintage horn speaker, but the antique dealer moved on before I got back to her. I went to a museum near Baltimore once that had lots of military electronic equipment, including a bunch of radio and radar gear from WWII.
    10
  40. My local NDB is the only thing I can hear on my radio's LW band, but it's cool to listen to. Back when I took flying lessons my instructor showed me how to tune the comnav radio in to NDB's and listen to the morse code over the headphones. From up in the air they come in pretty loud and clear. Also, he showed me that the radio would tune up into the MW band so you could listen to the local sports radio station while flying lol.
    8
  41. When I was growing up one of those long line towers was clearly visible about a mile away from my bedroom window. My mom still lives there, but trees have grown to obstruct the view. If you drive over, though, the tower is still there with all the feedhorns on it, and other stuff as well, now, mostly cell tower antennae.
    7
  42. Reporters don't know anything about any subject other than being a reporter, so when they write stupid stories like these about "radio hams" or whatever, they get their information from various sources, including officials who hate amateur radio. The kind of jerks who write laws making it illegal to listen to ATC on a scanner.
    7
  43. In the US, many years before the current New Jersey Drone phenomenon, we had stories of "black helicopters" flying around at night without markings. After 9/11 it is believed that terrorists were being flown into certain airfields by small business jets stopping on their way to or from Guantanamo Bay. It's all very X-Files-ish, but also kind of creepy.
    6
  44.  @RingwayManchester  Now you're criming the photography fans lol.
    5
  45. 4:59 Look at that beautiful art deco window trim. It's so high up you would never see it without binoculars and yet they spent good money to do that back in the 1920s. No modern buildings are built with that kind of love or made to be that beautiful today. Art deco forever.
    5
  46. Man, Mark's been killing it lately!
    5
  47. That crack about Jimmy Carter was funny, but it might get you canceled soon. We censor political speech in the West these days. Even though I think Carter is a decent guy for the most part.
    5
  48. I love these historical subject videos, Lewis. You do a great job digging up all this historical information, the kind of Cold War history most people forget about. And the photos of vintage 1970s East Block radio equipment are wonderful. Would love to get our hands on some of that gear today!
    4
  49. Okay, now this video was satisfyingly spooky.
    4
  50. Running out of nuclear accidents to talk about would be good for the world in general, but oddly sad for your subscribers ;-)
    4
  51. If I'm going to listen to wackiness on the radio, I prefer Art Bell and UFO/X-Files type stuff. Getting harder to find these days.
    4
  52. Loving this channel so far. Solid work.
    4
  53. Cool to learn about this, I will now be on the lookout for this every time I am in a tunnel somewhere. I often wonder how things like this work, like how do they feed WiFi to passengers on Amtrak trains running through the countryside.
    4
  54. No matter how much you idiot-proof things, there will always be at least one idiot who is just smart enough to get around your safeguards and hurt himself.
    4
  55. Cool video. I knew rail fanning was a big thing but I never thought about chasing ships. Not too far from where I used to live there is a canal that connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay and there is frequent barge traffic there, and a bike path that runs alongside the canal. There is also a gigantic railroad lift bridge over it, which only closes for trains infrequently, but it's amazing to see up close when it does. Might be interesting to get a radio and check that out.
    3
  56. Radios installed in homes that can't be turned off. SMDH some people read 1984 and instead of seeing it as a horror story they think it's an instruction manual.
    3
  57. Saturday morning doesn't really start until the Plainly Difficult horrible disaster video drops.
    3
  58. Some years before the 9/11 attacks my cousin took me to the top of the WTC Twin Towers, all the way up to the observation deck on top. I remember looking across at that mast shown in this video at 0:20 and being surprised at how huge it was. Prior to that I had only seen it and these buildings from far away driving up the New Jersey side. I had assumed that mast was just a big light pole thing. What did I know? I was a teenager. When I got up top everything was so much bigger, that giant mast, the buildings themselves, even the deck I was standing on. Between the edge of the deck and the edge of the roof was a fairly long distance, and it was covered in razor wire to discourage anyone from hopping the railing and thrill-seeking or suiciding. All this time later still hard to believe all of that is gone.
    3
  59. IIRC Perimeter wasn't a thing until the 80s and The Buzzer predates that by a fair amount, right? If so the timeline doesn't check out, either.
    3
  60. Back in the 90s I was listening to the radio with my dad when the jackass living a few hundred yards in front of our porch with a giant antenna hanging from his tree keyed his mic and started blasting over the station we were listening to. I recognized his voice. Don't know what he was doing on the FM band but it only lasted a few seconds.
    3
  61. Balloon flying may be risky, but you're already doing tourism in Egypt, so what's a bit more risk?
    3
  62. I always liked this airplane. It looks a lot like a miniature version of the RB-45 bomber, which had a similar wing shape, tail, and 4-engine layout.
    3
  63. I think Technology Connections did a video on this a few years ago explaining why the sodium lamps were replaced. I have mixed feelings about them. I agree the modern LED lamps can be pretty harsh, but back in the 80s I remember thinking the sodium lamps were kind of a sickly yellow. The streetlamps where I grew up were a softer whitish light of some sort, bright enough for us to play street hockey under but not yellowish. I wish I knew what those were, but they were probably installed in the 60s or 70s.
    2
  64. 33 Thomas St totally looks like it belongs in a Blade Runner film.
    2
  65. 9:20 If you want us to read it, give us time, please.
    2
  66. When you said it was the worst fashion disaster I wanted to make a joke about Lady Gaga's meat dress or something but it's just so horrible. 1134 people in one go, wow.
    2
  67. The North Korean one is creepy, the voice sounds like a cute girl but it's probably some ominous stuff.
    2
  68. Bet they had a hard time explaining this later: "Hey, look, our brand new ultrathin dam is cracking and water is leaking through. Shouldn't we worry about that?" "Nah."
    2
  69. Does blowing up a radio tower constitute "criming the radio fans"?
    2
  70. On the subject of small arms used in air-to-air combat, I have read the tale of a kill scored by a CIA-operated helicopter in Southeast Asia on an AN-2 biplane. IIRC it was a CIA employee shooting out the side door of the civilian Huey with an AK-47 rifle that did the deed.
    2
  71. If it didn't come from Mark Felton, I'd never believe that crazy story about landing a fighter plane on top of a balloon.
    2
  72. Well done as usual RM.
    2
  73. I think in the US if the Buffalo Bills ever win the Super Bowl that means it's the end of the world and US submarines will launch their missiles. We had a string of close calls in the 90s when they reached the Superbowl 4 times in a row, but fortunately they never pulled it off.
    2
  74. This is actually a really neat idea to put up cell towers that people don't think are eyesores. Wouldn't work everywhere, but in a lots of urban or suburban places. Make the art works temporary, so they get replaced every few years when the antennae need to be replaced or upgraded, maybe.
    2
  75. Not London, but DC suggestion: the 2009 Metro train collision, which was pretty horrific.
    2
  76. Imagine turning on your radio and hearing Darth Vader calling. Screw up the conversation and get force-choked through the radio.
    2
  77. Speaking of lighthouses, videos explaining how radio nav aids work would be a topic idea. Even though those are slowly going away thanks to GPS.
    2
  78. I was waiting to hear of a connection between railroad signals and radio, but if this is also a railfan channel that's cool. Maybe you could talk about the radio systems and frequencies used by railroads. Railfans in the US often use scanners to keep track of trains. Been thinking of getting one myself.
    2
  79. "But I was a child, and thus, an idiot." LMAO
    2
  80. 9:18 great Michael Caine reference!
    2
  81. It looks worse than just leaving the antennae bare.
    1
  82. "Perilune" Technically not incorrect, but I believe NASA used the terms "pericynthion" and "apocynthion" to label the apses in a lunar orbit. Also not incorrect would be "periselene" and "aposelene". To be consistent with the usual naming system of Solar System objects, the proper name of the planet or moon is the Roman form, in this case "Luna" (the actual name of our moon, even though we get lazy and just call it "mun"), and the aspects of the body are in Greek form, "Selene" or sometimes "Cynthia". I have heard people say "lunar geologist", which is a contradiction in terms; "geo" refers to the earth (aka "Terra"). The proper name for such a person would be "selenologist". On Mars he would be an "areologist", and so on. This language and naming stuff is kind of a pet peeve for me. We want to live out there some day, we may as well learn the names. Just don't call your colony "Hadley's Hope" if you know what's good for you.
    1
  83. 👍 1686 8146 91734 6248 1645!!!!
    1
  84. At first it looks like Dr. Felton is in the custody of two Stormtroopers. But a closer look indicates the Stormtroopers are under his command. You ARE the droids he's looking for, no weak-minded fool Jedi mind tricks work this time.
    1
  85. This is quality stuff here, good work.
    1
  86. I like the look of it, from a distance. Those shots you got up close with the corrugated metal cladding could use an upgrade, in addition to repairing all the windows and certain water damage inside. I bet it smells like mold city in there.
    1
  87. Apparently I missed all the fun, wasn't into SW during this time. But it also gives me major Dr. Demento vibes, and I grew up listening to that on rock radio stations. Was where I first heard Weird Al Yankovic back in the 80s.
    1
  88. The 2-lighthouse setup is interesting. I wonder if it works like the lighting system I've seen on the Delaware River, where a system of light towers is set up such that if a ship keeps them lined up with each other at certain parts of the river than you know you're in the channel.
    1
  89. Old school long nose Peterbilts are just beautiful machines to look at. Cabovers not so much. Newer aerodynamic long noses are also lacking in looks.
    1
  90. Fascinating stuff. My guess about blotting their own radio broadcasts is that in a giant collection of bureaucracies like the Soviet government, the left hand (ministry that runs radio broadcasts) doesn't know what the right hand (the military) is doing, and the right hand feels no need to explain itself since it's got carte blanche to run air defense however it wants.
    1
  91. 8:02 That is not the Walt Whitman Bridge, it's the Commodore Barry Bridge. 8:19 looks like Walt Whitman.
    1
  92. Sounds like an Imperial code.
    1
  93. Whenever I see a nuclear-hardened structure like that surrounded by ordinary buildings or bucolic scenery it always creeps me out a little, knowing what that structure is supposed to withstand and that nothing else in the vicinity is protected in the event it is ever put to the test.
    1
  94. XP was one of, if not the, best versions of Windows. Too bad MS stopped supporting it and gave us all these junk versions.
    1
  95. Reminds me of the funicular at the Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania. It takes you from the parking area up to the middle of the Curve where you can watch heavy freight trains screaming up the grade.
    1
  96. Saw your testimony, Rick. You clean up nice!
    1
  97. I dig the 1970s sitcom intro! Also the changeup in outro music.
    1