I've been lucky enough to receive and invitation to GeekCon 2007 to be held the first weekend of September. GeekCon is "an invitation-only creative gathering happening the third year in a row." Its goal is "to form a critical mass of technically oriented creative talented people that will think up, create and deploy ideas".
Actually, the invitation doesn't get me into the event. To get in, I need to come up with a creative project that I can actually execute during the event.
If my suggested project isn't up to scratch, I don't get to attend :). Here's a link to GeekCon 2006's website for you to see some of last year's projects.
I do actually have a good idea for a project and I'd like to pitch it here. I call my project "Radio Ga-Ga" and just like Queen's song, it's all about radio's past glory and how it should be restored.
I have an old 1940's style "Airline" radio that belonged to my grandfather. Sadly, as the pictures show, it has fallen into a state of neglect and is no longer in working condition.
My project is to restore the radio both externally and internally, possibly combining its old technology with new computer based radio technology!
Externally, I plan on making the radio look exactly as it did when it was originally bought - cleaning and refinishing the wooden box, upholstering the speaker and restoring the knobs dials on its front.
Internally there are two options for restoration:
- Option 1 - To repair the old - vacuum tube based! - circuitry, replacing specific parts that cannot be repaired. This will give the radio AM and shortwave reception capabilities.
- Option 2 - To replace the radio's innards with a PC motherboard and peripherals, enabling it to serve as an AM/FM tuner with standard RCA output.
So what do you think? Is this a project worthy of GeekCon 2007? Can it be done over the event's single weekend, intense as it maybe?
Have you had experience restoring old devices or integrating them with new technology?
As for the status of my project's application to GeekCon 2007 - Updates are coming so "Stay Tuned!" LOL