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Very cool video. We have visited VE7ZWZ's amazing shack before. This time he takes us inside a BIG commercial AM transmitter that he has modified for use on the amateur bands. I know that he had the plate voltage turned off, but I still felt myself cringing when he reached up to touch the plate connectors on those enormous thermatrons. The filaments were on, adding to my unease. Dude, don't do that! And if you are standing INSIDE the transmitter, keeping one hand behind your back might not be as beneficial as it normally would be. His comments on his VFO were interesting. I was kind of disappointed that he went with a varactor circuit. A varactor? Amidst all those bread slicer variable caps? It just doesn't seem right. (And BTW they are bread slicers, NOT "potato slicers.") But I kind of liked the heater--thermistor--insulation set up that keeps the VFO at constant temperature. I thought it was interesting that these transmitters were kept on, with the tubes glowing for years at a time. Thanks Mr. Carlson, for another great video!
Nothing spectacular for this old duffer - except SCALE!. One gotcha though: referring to 6L6s as triodes. Sorry, they're (beam-power) pentodes. The series went like this: 6F6 signal pentode (may even have been a tetrode, I forget...) > 6V6 (beam-power, ~5W) pentode > 6L6, ~30W ... all intended for audio but serviceable to HF. UK names EF3? for the 6F6, EL3? for the pentodes (30-series Octal, there were equivalents in the 80-series B9G envelopes, including a double-6V6!). An early version of the 6V6 was the 'side-pin' socketed EL3N (Mullard). Gads, history! :) I had a side-pin superhet set that I rescued in High School: ECH3 triode-heptode converter, EF3 (?) IF, EBF2 detector/AGC+audio, EL3N output, AZ1 rectifier. Broadcast and short-wave 6-18mc/s (yep, that early!). That helped me immensely in my French studies - I could find Radio France each end of the dial. :)
In response to popular demand, "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle.
Here's the site:
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For the print version:
For shipping from a printer in the U.S. (probably better for N. American buyers) Click here: SolderSmoke USA Version
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The two versions are identical, except for a minor difference in the paper used. That's why the prices are a bit different.
The KY6R 4020 UrbanWireBeam
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The SteppIR UrbanBeam re-purposed as a 2 element 40 and 20 Meter yagi Since
the lions share of my DXCC Honor Roll DX was achieved on 40 and 20M: More
than ...
End fed half wave antennas
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The problem with end fed half waves is they are a high impedance at the
ends. This is often outside the range that can be tuned with auto-ATUs in
many mode...
FTIOM & UBMP, August 25-September 7
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From the Isle of Music, August 25-September 7: August 25-31, our special
guest Ethiel Failde presents Siempre tu voz, his tribute to Benny More that
won a ...
Weak Signal Volume Levels
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*The following blogspot was originally published in July, 2016. Hopefully
some will find this of interest as the topic is still very relevant.*
********...
Dabbling in tool restoration…
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I’ve been watching too many YouTube views lately about tool restoration,
and as part of my ongoing efforts to equip my home workshop with more tools
it mea...
A Homebrew Stereo for the Shack
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There are times when it's nice to listen to a little music while working at
the bench. For years, I've used a number of different vintage radios for
thi...
Cutting the Cord
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A few days ago my wife noticed that our local CBS station was missing from
Direct TV. It seems that Nexstar, the troll that owns distribution rights
to CBS...
Another new toy Update 8/8/19
-
After FDIM and spending some time visiting my daughter, I came back and
thought about some of the on-going projects. At FDIM I had a chance to
spend some ...
A New Look for your uBitx!
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Adding a "Cool Blue" Display to your uBitx!
The standard "green background" with black lettering frequently reminds me
that I suffer from Chronic seasicknes...
Posts
Nothing spectacular for this old duffer - except SCALE!. One gotcha though: referring to 6L6s as triodes. Sorry, they're (beam-power) pentodes. The series went like this: 6F6 signal pentode (may even have been a tetrode, I forget...) > 6V6 (beam-power, ~5W) pentode > 6L6, ~30W ... all intended for audio but serviceable to HF. UK names EF3? for the 6F6, EL3? for the pentodes (30-series Octal, there were equivalents in the 80-series B9G envelopes, including a double-6V6!). An early version of the 6V6 was the 'side-pin' socketed EL3N (Mullard). Gads, history! :) I had a side-pin superhet set that I rescued in High School: ECH3 triode-heptode converter, EF3 (?) IF, EBF2 detector/AGC+audio, EL3N output, AZ1 rectifier. Broadcast and short-wave 6-18mc/s (yep, that early!). That helped me immensely in my French studies - I could find Radio France each end of the dial. :)
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