Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Transmissions
    Transmissions
    Transmissions
    Ebook126 pages4 hours

    Transmissions

    By H. S. Stone

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Using an old radio that he inherited from his grandfather, Charlie picks up unusual transmissions on a shortwave frequency. Every morning and every evening, a woman’s deep, monotonous voice recites a series of seemingly random numbers. The numbers change every day, and Charlie can’t figure out what they mean.

    Enlisting the help of his best friend, Jenny, Charlie tries to unravel the mystery behind the messages. However, the more that he and Jenny dig into the significance of the transmissions, the more that Charlie realizes he has a bigger problem on his hands.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherH. S. Stone
    Release dateMay 10, 2015
    ISBN9781311743411
    Transmissions
    Author

    H. S. Stone

    Even before he could read, H.S. Stone wanted to write a book. Fascinated by the stories that seemed to leap from his kindergarten teacher's books, he went home and wrote his own book, with illustrations and bound by staples. Of course, since he didn't know how to read or write yet, the book was full of gibberish. Undaunted, H.S. eventually mastered the ABC's and continued to write throughout his grade school years, adolescence, and into adulthood. His publications include novels aimed at Young Adult and Middle Grade readers as well as several short stories. He currently lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Read more from H. S. Stone

    Related to Transmissions

    Related ebooks

    YA Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Antennas

      Oct 1, 2019

      Antennas
      3 min read

    • Article

      HDMI ARC And HDMI EARC: Everything You Need To Know

      Sep 18, 2019

      HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) is a clever protocol that sits within the HDMI standard and, in theory, it can help simplify a complicated AV set-up and reduce the number of cables you need. But what’s the point of it? Should you be concerned about t

      4 min read

    • Article

      Arduino Nano Every

      Jan 27, 2020

      Arduino Nano Every
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Ham Notebook

      Sep 1, 2019

      The Ham Notebook
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ham Radio News

      Aug 1, 2022

      If you’ve been licensed for more than six years, you will probably want to update your FCC CORES (COmmission REgistration System) file to move it to the commission’s updated system. The ARRL Letter reports that use of the new system is now mandatory

      3 min read

    • Article

      Gordo’s Short Circuits

      Oct 1, 2022

      Gordo’s Short Circuits
      4 min read

    • Article

      Propagation

      Jul 1, 2021

      Propagation
      11 min read

    • Article

      Jump to LineageOS

      Feb 7, 2023

      Jump to LineageOS
      5 min read

    • Article

      Raspberry Pi 400

      Nov 17, 2020

      Raspberry Pi 400
      4 min read

    • Article

      My Dipole Has Gain!

      Aug 1, 2021

      My Dipole Has Gain!
      8 min read

    • Article

      Kit-building

      May 1, 2020

      Kit-building
      3 min read

    • Article

      QRP: Low-Power Communications

      Apr 1, 2020

      QRP: Low-Power Communications
      7 min read

    • Article

      Build An FM Radio Receiver From A PC

      Apr 7, 2020

      The fun this issue is all about configuring a computer as a radio receiver. An introduction to GNU Radio concepts and its basic set up was provided in LXF261. This tutorial will expand on that knowledge to construct an FM radio receiver circuit with

      9 min read

    • Article

      Math’s Notes

      Aug 1, 2020

      Math’s Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      How to Tune a Yagi Antenna

      Dec 1, 2020

      How to Tune a Yagi Antenna
      6 min read

    • Article

      Arduino And Pi Together

      Feb 11, 2020

      The Arduino and Raspberry Pi are two very different products, but they both cater for eager hackers and makers. What if we could connect an Arduino to our Pi and use it as a slave device? One that reacts to input and sends the output to our Raspberry

      3 min read

    • Article

      SDR Superiority

      Feb 8, 2022

      SDR Superiority
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Ultimate Raw Quiz

      Aug 10, 2017

      The Ultimate Raw Quiz
      16 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Transmissions

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Transmissions - H. S. Stone

      Transmissions

      by

      H.S. Stone

      Published by H.S. Stone

      Copyright © 2015 H.S. Stone

      * * * * *

      License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Chapter 1

      I turned the radio on, and a burst of static assaulted my ears. Fiddling with the large knob at the top right corner of the radio, the static turned to silence. Then more static took its place as I continued rotating the tuner.

      Finally, I landed on a signal that made sense. Well, it would’ve made sense if I spoke Spanish. I could make out only a few words that I recognized within the rapid-fire speech: quiero, ocho, miercoles. The speaker wanted something at eight o’clock on Wednesday? I took a semester of Spanish class last year, but half a year of seventh grade Spanish was hardly enough to prepare me for understanding a real conversation.

      I continued to traverse the frequencies along the band. Nothing came in clearly, unlike what I was used to when Mom or Dad played the radio in the car.

      This radio was a hand-me-down from Grandpa. He passed away two weeks ago, which was a week after school ended. Grandpa had cancer, and we all knew it was a matter of time until the disease got the best of him. Still, it hit us hard when the doctor gave us the news. Dad cried. I hadn’t seen him cry in years – maybe never – until the day that Grandpa died.

      Fortunately, because we had time to prepare ourselves for the inevitable, the formalities after his passing progressed smoothly. The funeral was well attended by his surviving friends and family, and his belongings were distributed among his heirs without any trouble.

      Shortly thereafter, I learned that, along with a small college trust fund, Grandpa had left me his multi-band world radio receiver. Honestly, I wasn’t that thrilled to get it at first. I could listen to music on the computer or on one of my parents’ phones. Yet when Dad handed me the radio, I saw a flicker of nostalgia cross his face, as if he wished he had inherited the radio instead. I considered letting him have it, but I also knew that Dad wanted to honor Grandpa’s wishes. In the end, I accepted the radio because that’s what Dad and Grandpa wanted.

      The old device was in the shape of a rectangular block with ten buttons across the top and a tuning knob at the end. The buttons allowed me to switch bands. I had only heard of two of them, AM and FM. The button labeled LW1 was currently in the depressed position. This must’ve been the band that Grandpa last listened to, but I wasn’t sure which station had caught his interest. I doubted that it was the Spanish broadcast.

      Aside from the word Zenith in the lower corner, a sliding indicator took up most of the front face of the radio. There was a row of numbers for each band. A vertical red indicator bar crossed the row of numbers at the frequency to which the radio currently tuned in. On the LW1 band, the bar rested between 190 and 200 KHz.

      I slowly turned the knob again, moving the bar to the right toward the higher frequencies. The sound of music greeted my efforts. It sounded like an orchestra, but I didn’t recognize the music they played. It wasn’t classical, like Beethoven or Mozart. It might have been big band music, as Mom called it. I hadn’t heard enough big band to tell for sure. Regardless, it wasn’t for me. I kept turning the knob.

      Charlie! Dad’s voice called from downstairs. When I didn’t reply right away, he called again. Charlie! Mom’s home! It’s dinner time!

      I turned off the radio and left my bedroom to join the rest of the family for dinner. The smell of fried chicken made me salivate as soon as I entered the dining room. A bucket of drumsticks and thighs sat in the center of the table, surrounded by mashed potatoes and coleslaw in smaller containers. Mom must’ve picked up the meal on the way home from work. She was still dressed in her business attire, pouring herself a glass of wine while Dad passed out the plates and silverware.

      Robby was already at the table.

      That’s my seat, I said to my six-year-old brother. Robby just smiled and picked up the napkin in front of him. Don’t you dare use my napkin!

      Hush, both of you, Dad warned. To Robby, he said, I thought we agreed that you were going to sit in your new special chair from now on. Dad pointed to the blue chair we bought for Robby that was high enough for him to reach the food on the dining table.

      I don’t like that chair.

      But you were the one who picked it out, Robby.

      I don’t like it.

      At the store, you said it was the best chair you’d ever seen.

      Not anymore. I want to sit here.

      Mom, who had already downed half her glass of wine, offered, What if we move your special chair to this side of the table? Then will you sit in it?

      Robby scrunched his face to show how much thought he was putting into this important decision. He glanced at both of our parents, then at his special blue chair. All right.

      My parents faced me. They didn’t have to say the words. I already knew their expressions meant, Can you please switch places with Robby so that we can finally eat dinner?

      With a sigh, I moved Robby’s chair to my side of the table and my chair to the opposite side where he was supposed to sit. My little brother happily climbed into his special chair. When he stuffed the napkin into the collar of his shirt, I didn’t complain. I took my seat across from him, glad to have a clean napkin all to myself.

      We each picked a piece of chicken, surprisingly without conflict, scooped mashed potatoes and coleslaw onto our plates, and dug into our meals. Robby must have been as hungry as I was because we both ate silently until our plates emptied.

      Have you tried out Grandpa’s radio yet? Dad asked after the bucket of chicken had turned into a pile of bones.

      Only for a little while. I’m still looking for something good to listen to.

      I remember Grandpa and I spending our evenings with that radio when I was Robby’s age.

      The first comment that came to mind was, The radio is that old? However, I kept my mouth shut.

      Dad continued, We picked up stations from all around the world. I even heard broadcasts from China and Africa!

      He told us one story after another of the transmissions he listened to from the old Zenith receiver. From the excitement in his voice, I could tell that he and Grandpa shared some great times. Again, I considered giving him the radio instead of keeping it. Maybe in a few days, I could tell Dad that I was bored with it, and then he wouldn’t feel guilty about accepting what Grandpa had left for me.

      Robby interrupted him. I want to play with the radio.

      Before I could protest, Dad said, You’ll be able to one day, Robby, when you’re older.

      I want to play with it now!

      The radio isn’t a toy.

      But Charlie gets to play with it.

      Charlie’s thirteen years old. He knows how to use a radio.

      Robby shoved his plate, bumping it against his cup and spilling milk onto the dining table. So do I!

      Mom stood up. Robby!

      My brother froze. We both knew that if Mom got mad, that was the end of the conversation. She was the type of person who put up with a certain amount of misbehavior, but if you ever crossed that line, it was game over. For Robby, his outburst most likely cost him the rest of his dinner as well as any playtime he planned on having tonight.

      He hastily wiped up the spilled milk with his napkin and moved his plate and cup back into place. Mom glared at him while he cleaned up. Once Robby was done, he sat up with a straight back in his chair, hoping that his good behavior now was enough to make up for his prior wrongdoings. Mom was still standing, her eyes fixed on him. Robby’s lips trembled, and I thought he might cry, which would just make Mom angrier. For a brief instant, I felt sorry for him.

      Dad reached a hand across the table to pat Robby’s arm. How about later this week, when Charlie’s not using the radio, I teach you how to operate it?

      Robby nodded quietly, biting his lip.

      Mom sat back down.

      I finished the rest of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1