Sunday, January 16, 2011

What should I do with this thing?

Pretty cool, don't you think? I found this among the stuff that arrived from storage. I must have bought it at a hamfest sometime in the distant past. Note the miniature TUBES. Note the place of manufacture: BEAVERTON, OREGON. The internal construction is beautiful, with good shielding between each stage. It has a nice AC power supply. I have no real need for a 2 meter converter... So, what should I do with this? It seems to have the potential to become a QRP transmitter. Or maybe a DC receiver? Or maybe I should just turn it over to AA1TJ for conversion into something really surprising and marvelous.
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2011 at 2:02 PM

    Hi Bill,

    I think the "miniature Tubes" in the 2 meter converter are what were called Nuvistors or something like that. They were metal cased vacuum tubes. It has been a long time since I have seen them.

    73,
    Doug Gibbs - W8NFT

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  2. Steve "Snort Rosin" Smith WB6TNLJanuary 16, 2011 at 3:40 PM

    Before you tear it up, there are probably guys out there who collect these as there are collectors for Ameco VHF, Tech Craft, etc..

    Yes, those are 6CW4 Nuvistors; high gain and low noise triodes (although there were pentode Nuvistors. They are considerably larger than the 6CW4).

    Parks is still around:

    http://www.parksmed.com/about.php

    73.......Steve Smith WB6TNL
    "Snort Rosin"

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  3. Jim MillerJanuary 16, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    How about a downconverter for weather satellite transmissions?

    Might not need many mods at all.

    Good way to impress the kids!

    good luck

    jim ab3cv

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  4. WA6ARAJanuary 16, 2011 at 8:35 PM

    Bill,
    Don't forget about VO52! Use it to listen to the downlink. Next you will need a 435 xmtr

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  5. PA1DSPJanuary 17, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    Sell it?

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  6. KA9OOI Mark Z near Lowell IndianaJanuary 17, 2011 at 9:06 PM

    Love the nuvistors Bill...those were about the best devices for low noise and dynamic range. They were quite popular in the early 70's for TV front ends and mixers.I still like NE602's better though! I still have a few ameco down converters that have those. BTW, thanks for your great podcasts!

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  7. UnknownJanuary 18, 2011 at 12:46 PM

    I believe this 2M converter was based on a QST article from Oct 1961 by the great Ed Tilton, W1HDQ. I recognized it because I built one from the article that year while a sophomore in high school. It was superb on 2M with 2 stacked 3 element beams and my HQ129X receiver. To go with it, I had also built a 2M xtal controlled xmtr with a 6360 final running 10 Watts AM on 145.35. The pair replaced my military surplus SCR-522.

    It took effort to get on 2M back then. In those days, I was K7LUQ.

    Thanks for the memories.
    Paul
    W7PA

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