Subject: GLOWBUGS digest 400

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 07:51:59 -0600 (CST)

GLOWBUGS Digest 400

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Happy New Year
	by Murray Kelly <[email-masked]>
  2) List traffic
	by [email-masked] (Jeff Duntemann)
  3) Re: SKN
	by "R. Eric Sluder" <[email-masked]>
  4) FWD: (Re:Ampex PR-10)
	by [email-masked] (Brian Carling)
  5) 6L6 Project
	by Bob Roach <[email-masked]>
  6) Re:  Starting up the club
	by [email-masked] (J. Douglas Hensley)
  7) Re: 6L6 Project
	by Bob Roach <[email-masked]>
  8) 90th Aniversary of Triode
	by [email-masked] (Joseph Cooper)
  9) Microwave X-former
	by Bob Roach <[email-masked]>
 10) Re: Microwave X-former
	by "Brian Carling" <[email-masked]>
 11) Need 3518 Crystal
	by [email-masked] (Adam J McLaughlin)
 12) Re: Microwave X-former
	by "R. Eric Sluder" <[email-masked]>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 01 Jan 1997 00:34:07 +1100
From: Murray Kelly <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Happy New Year
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Here's wishing all the Glowbuggers a Happy New Year from Down Under
******************************************************************
*      Murray Kelly vk4aok      [email-masked]     *
*      29 Molonga Ter. / Graceville/ QLD. 4075/ Australia        *
*      ph/fax Intl+ 61 7 3379 3307  mobile 018 071 355           *
******************************************************************

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 09:06:33 -0700
From: [email-masked] (Jeff Duntemann)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: List traffic
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Hi gang--

One significant reason for the recent dearth of list traffic may be holiday
travel.  I was out of town for a whole week, and know of one additional list
member who was away for longer than that.  I haven't been able to get out in
the garage and do stuff for almost two weeks now, so there hasn't been much
to report.

Just as seasonal thing, like this headcold I've been lugging around in my
sinuses...

--73--

--Jeff Duntemann KG7JF
  Scottsdale, Arizona

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 11:07:56 -0800
From: "R. Eric Sluder" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: SKN
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

> BTW - does anyone know what time the activity officially starts?
> I would like to mostly do it in the daytime when QRP contacts are
> easiest on 40m !!

According to my QST (Dec. issue) it starts at 7:00 PM EST New Year eve
and last until 7:00 PM EST New Years day.

Now, I just got to get that 40 meter antenna up....

73 and Happy New Year to all!

Eric

-- 
##############################
R. Eric Sluder, KB9BGS
Carmel, IN
E-mail: [email-masked]
##############################

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 14:47:39 GMT
From: [email-masked] (Brian Carling)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: FWD: (Re:Ampex PR-10)
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Here you go: This is for the gentleman who was looking for an Ampex PR-10
schematic or part, whatever it was. Maybe this fellow can help you.
Just drop him an e-mail anyway. Perhaps he can at least point you in the
right direction.

(We cover it ALL here on GLOWBUGS!!)

On Tue, 31 Dec 1996 15:25:37 GMT, [email-masked] (bugtussle)
inscribed eloquently in rec.radio.antiques.radio+phono

|>x-no-archive: yes

|>Reasonable offers considered.

|>Ampex 350 AG 1/4" 2-track 7.5/15 ips in roll-around. SS. Prefer 
|>Boston-area interest. Includes manual, spare motors. $250
|>Telefunken V376 vintage mic pre's. Discrete elecs, 70 db gain w/fine 
|>tune, 3 band selectable high pass. W/connectors. MAKE OFFERS! 
|>RCA integrated tube amp. (2) 6L6. $100
|>Ampex MX10 stereo tube mixer $850/offers
|>Altec tube mic pre's: (4) 1561A mic, (1) 1563A line, PS, manual, 
|>connectors. These are raw modules w/no plug ins- thus they are
|>currently hi-imp.$250
|>Ampex PR10 tube pre/front ends. $375
|>Ampex 350 tube electronics. A pair. Offers
|>Ampex tube Paging Panels. 8" speaker. A pair. Offers.

|>Looking for late 50's tweed Deluxe and empty/mangled Vibrolux Reverb for 
|>cabinet, as well as Altec 4277 plug-ins and some Ampex transformers for 
|>the PR10.

|>-- 

|>

73 from Bry  (((Amateur Radio G3XLQ / AF4K)))
http://www.mnsinc.com/bry
E-mail:  [email-masked]
Home of MEGALIST ham radio files, SWL info. etc. etc.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 18:19:17 +0000
From: Bob Roach <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: 6L6 Project
Message-ID: <19961231181909.AAB6173@LOCALNAME>

Hello Everyone,

I'm happy to say that I am finally "under construction" here on a 6L6 TX
project.  Most of the effort so far has gone into a power supply that will,
hopefully, serve to feed numerous future projects.  

Hope to pick up the rest of the things I need at the Richmond  "Frostfest"
in January.

I'll update the progress as time goes along.

                                                       (o    o)
____________________oOO_(  )_OOo_________
73 es TNX             		
KE4QOK 			Real radios glow in the dark.
Bob			Power is no substitute for skill.
			If it stayed up last winter, it was too small.
136 Hermitage Rd.			
Newport News, Va. 23606	[email-masked]   [try here first]
(757)930-0348		[email-masked] 	

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 13:24:53 EST
From: [email-masked] (J. Douglas Hensley)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re:  Starting up the club
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Good luck with your efforts Joe,

Having been involved with efforts down here over the years and having
worked in several professional communications settings, I can't resist a
comment.  As I look back on the output and results of the different
efforts to reach and then start off young folks in radio, those that
taught construction skills (either component or facility) produced the
long lasting hams.  Back then, this was not so easy to do because with
tube equipment, the high voltages required posed such safety problems
that both the students and instructor worked at risk and the program host
's liability was a big concern.  

Today, you can work circuits using common AA, C, D cells and do quite
well.  Avoid using 9 volt cells because the kids will put them in their
pocket and coins or pocket knives will short them out potentially causing
serious burns.  Hi-Power NiCad cells will also explode.  This is very
difficult to do with in line batteries.  If you avoid carbon cells and
hardware store brands and stick to quality alkalines such as the Rabbit,
your unlikely to damage equipment.  As you know, several brands also
repair or replace equipment used using their brand.  I use these and have
had everything from light meters to a Simpson 260 serviced when a problem
developed.

In sum, if you teach a young man how to build a small radio station that
he can take home and set up and use, you will have captured a heart
forever.  If you remember the little sheet metal station that was on the
cover of "How To Become A Radio Amateur" ?  This was, IMHO, the most
influential ham station of all time.  Good luck and God Speed.

Doug, W5JV

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 21:02:32 +0000
From: Bob Roach <[email-masked]>
To: "Bowes, Fr. Bruce" <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: 6L6 Project
Message-ID: <19961231210225.AAB12674@LOCALNAME>

At 08:12 PM 12/31/96 +0000, you wrote:

>I too hope to get started with  6L6 tx soon.  What design did you
>settle with.  I have been looking at two in the 1948 Handbook, one
>for a 1 tube tx and the other 2 tube tx.  Think I will work on the 2
>tuber.

Hi Bruce,

I have settled on a two tube (6AG7/6L6) rig from a schematic that Jeff
Duntemann, KG7JF, put on the N6EV website (6L635W.TIF).  This is my first
venture into glowbug construction and also my first "major" scratch built
project.  One of the deciding factors was the fact that Jeff has a working
model of this one so I have a place to go and ask "stupid" questions.<GG>

Good luck, and keep us posted, I will be looking forward hearing how it goes.

                                                       (o   o)
____________________oOO_(  )_OOo_________
73 es TNX             		
KE4QOK 			Real radios glow in the dark.
Bob			Power is no substitute for skill.
			If it stayed up last winter, it was too small.
136 Hermitage Rd.			
Newport News, Va. 23606	[email-masked]  
(757)930-0348		

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 96 20:31 EST
From: [email-masked] (Joseph Cooper)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: 90th Aniversary of Triode
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

This New Years eve marks the 90th aniversary of the first test of the triode
vacume tube by Lee de Forest. It worked, and the beginning of the electronic
age began. 

Interestingly enough, de Forest was not interested in using the triode in
the way that it has come to be used for amplification. Rather what he though
he had developed was a more efficient detector. The grid, in his mind, acted
to ionize gas that was left in the tube. The ionized gas, he believed,
created the medium in which the rectification of radio waves took place.

The reason for this idea was that the practice of the time was to use
various mediums to perform the rectification. We are all familiar with the
crystal diode, where the crystal acts as a barrier to one half of the cycle
of the AC current (radio frequencies in this case). A wide variety of other
materials were used at that time, including acid, metalic paste and iron
fileings. 

One of the mediums that de Forest had been experimenting with was an open
gas flame with two electrodes placed into the fame itself. This proved to be
too cumbersome to use in a comercial setting, so the substitute for the
flame was to be the ionized gas held in the bulb which contained an anode
and cathode plate. In order to increase the efficiency of the ionization.

Interestingly, the person who suggested the "grid" that we know today had no
relationship to de Forest, but was an assistant of the manufacturer of the
actual device, and who's name was John Grogan. Originally de Forest simply
wanted to place a single wire between the filament and plate in order to act
as an ionizer, but Grogan felt that by bending the wire into a zig zag for
it would provide more surface area for better ionization of the gas. It was
then due to this desired ionization effect that de Forest called the device
an "Audion".

The reason why de Forest had put over the testing of the new tube until Dec.
31, 1906 was that he felt that he had already made his main achiement
earlier in November with the diode version. The actual test that he
performed was to see if there were any manufacturing defects as the tube had
been created to order by Henry W. McCandless, who made automobile headlights
for Westinghouse and General Electric. The important point here is that when
de Forest heard stronger signals, he felt that it was due to the improved
efficency of the diode due to the ionization, rather than by the placement
of a bias voltage on the grid. 

It would only be later in 1912 when Edwin Armstrong began to experiment with
the tube that its true function and operation would be understood. Having
grasped the real "purpose" of the grid, Armstrong was able to discover the
principal of regeneration, and from that developed the first regenerative
receiver in the summer of that year. (Interestingly, the only company to
licence the curcuit and use it in production was Telefunken, a relationship
that lasted up until the U.S. entered into WWI in 1917).

For de Forest, the use of the "Audion" as commercial product was at first a
failure, as most radio operators found that it was too fragile for practical
use, and burned out too often. As a result many returned to either crystal
diodes or other detection methods available at that time. He later lost his
ownership of the patent to the Audion through a bad business deal with AT&T.
This lead de Forest to come to resent Armstrong's sucess with the
regenerative receiver, and for what ever reasons caused him to publicly
claim that he had infact been the first to make the discovery. This lead to
a long and protracted litigation that wasted years of potential work and
discovery for both inventors.
---------------------
As were the end of the 19th and the beginning of 20th Century exciting
times, so are our own. But please take a moment tonight and reflect on how
many people from the past still touch our live today(and tommorow)through
their work and efforts. Being human, many times they were wrong in their
ideas, and in their actions as well. At other times they were brilliant, and
showed what we can all be capable of if we apply ourselves. No matter what
our situations, we all have a true connection to de Forest and Armstrong
through our work with radios, particularly with our efforts to continue to
use vacume tube technology. In this way it is through our work that we help
preserve their early efforts and help keep part of their spirit alive in the
glow of our tubes.  

On that note I wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year !  

===================================================================
* Joseph Cooper-VE3FMQ  QTH-East York-near Toronto Ontario Canada *
* Interests are:-Lowfer/VLF/BCB Radio-Woodworking-Steam Railroads *
* Blacksmithing-Antique Radios-Crystal Radios-Travel-Burmese Cats *
* Answering Machine(416)423-7333  FAX(416)423-7782 by arrangement *
===================================================================

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 03:15:07 +0000
From: Bob Roach <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Microwave X-former
Message-ID: <19970101031505.AAA2615@LOCALNAME>

Hello guys,

Has anyone ever used a micowave oven transformer for a high voltage power
supply.  I have one that puts out about 1800 VAC and sense it was able to
pump about 700W into somebody lunch it should have sufficient current
capacity to be useful.  Anybody tried this or know of a reason it won't work.

                                                       (o   o)
____________________oOO_(  )_OOo_________
73 es TNX             		
KE4QOK 			Real radios glow in the dark.
Bob			Power is no substitute for skill.
			If it stayed up last winter, it was too small.
136 Hermitage Rd.			
Newport News, Va. 23606	[email-masked]  
(757)930-0348		

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 19:44:49 +0000
From: "Brian Carling" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Microwave X-former
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Bob - it looks to me like a microwave oven xfmr would make a GREAT 
power transformer for a medium power amateur power amplifier!
Looks like it would work nicely with a 4-250 or two - or something like that!

On 31 Dec 96 at 21:16, Bob Roach chatted merrily:

> Hello guys,
> 
> Has anyone ever used a micowave oven transformer for a high voltage
> power supply.  I have one that puts out about 1800 VAC and sense it
> was able to pump about 700W into somebody lunch it should have
> sufficient current capacity to be useful.  Anybody tried this or
> know of a reason it won't work.
> 
>                                                        (o   o)
> ____________________oOO_(  )_OOo_________
> 73 es TNX             		
> KE4QOK 			Real radios glow in the dark.
> Bob			Power is no substitute for skill.
>    If it stayed up last winter, it was too small.
> 136 Hermitage Rd.			
> Newport News, Va. 23606	[email-masked]  
> (757)930-0348		
> 
> 
*************************************************
* Brian Carling in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA  *
* E-mail: [email-masked]                        *
* http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/                    *
*************************************************
Thought for the day:
    Capitalist: One who has given up all hope of
                paying their bills on time.
                or having adequate healthcare.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 23:15:36 EST
From: [email-masked] (Adam J McLaughlin)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Need 3518 Crystal
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Hi fellow Tube Homebrewers out there!

I would like to trade for or buy a 3518 crystal in an FT-243 case. I have
many 40 meter rocks but very few for 80. One down here in the CW band
would be very nice for my rig.

Adam McLaughlin KD6POC
[email-masked]
KD6POC@KD6KWM.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 01 Jan 1997 00:21:53 -0800
From: "R. Eric Sluder" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Microwave X-former
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

I've been wondering that myself.  I just recently salvage one out of an
old Amana that lost's its magnatron.  Thought that transformer was good
something besides a door stop -- I'd be interested in knowing if any has
used one or not...

73,

Eric

Brian Carling wrote:
> 
> Bob - it looks to me like a microwave oven xfmr would make a GREAT
> power transformer for a medium power amateur power amplifier!
> Looks like it would work nicely with a 4-250 or two - or something like that!
> 
> On 31 Dec 96 at 21:16, Bob Roach chatted merrily:
> 
> > Hello guys,
> >
> > Has anyone ever used a micowave oven transformer for a high voltage
> > power supply.  I have one that puts out about 1800 VAC and sense it
> > was able to pump about 700W into somebody lunch it should have
> > sufficient current capacity to be useful.  Anybody tried this or
> > know of a reason it won't work.
> >
> >                                                        (o   o)
> > ____________________oOO_(  )_OOo_________
> > 73 es TNX
> > KE4QOK                        Real radios glow in the dark.
> > Bob                   Power is no substitute for skill.
> >    If it stayed up last winter, it was too small.
> > 136 Hermitage Rd.
> > Newport News, Va. 23606       [email-masked]
> > (757)930-0348
> >
> >
> *************************************************
> * Brian Carling in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA  *
> * E-mail: [email-masked]                        *
> * http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/                    *
> *************************************************
> Thought for the day:
>     Capitalist: One who has given up all hope of
>                 paying their bills on time.
>                 or having adequate healthcare.

-- 
##############################
R. Eric Sluder, KB9BGS
Carmel, IN
E-mail: [email-masked]
##############################

------------------------------

End of GLOWBUGS Digest 400
**************************