Subject: glowbugs V1 #144
glowbugs Monday, October 27 1997 Volume 01 : Number 144
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 07:19:49 +0000
From: Dave Heil <k8mn@clinet.fi>
Subject: More Hartleys
I've built two Hartleys over the past few years. My Elmer, Andy
Timberlake W8MN, passed away a few years back. His widow gave me (in
addition to all of his logs) drawers full of parts which he'd used for
various rigs in the late twenties and early thirties. These had been
stored in a rented space at the Hinton, WV ice plant along the New
River. Flooding in the mid-30s covered the plant so all of the parts
were covered in a dried muddy sediment. There were brown beehive
insulators, Cardwell and King variables, large black Fleron standoffs,
ceramic sockets and some of Andy's original copper tubing coils.
The first Hartley built was a small one for 80m using a single '45
mounted on a hunk of stained pine. It's prettier big brother was the
1930 QST type 210 design. I built it on a large piece of African
mahogany (I was lucky enough to have been living in Botswana at the
time). The only '10 I had was a dud so I'm using a NOS Taylor T-55.
I've never had 'em on the air but you fellows are driving me to finish
the power supplies and get 'em on the air.
Thanks and 73,
Dave Heil OH2/K8MN
downtown Helsinki
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 13:00:24 +0100
From: Jan Axing <janax@algonet.se>
Subject: A regenny in operation
Hello, all.
My October project is working now. I still have a few things to do on it
but I have had some success with it. Mine is a 6SN7GT design based
on the design in the 1950 ARRL handbook. That design used plate
voltage regen control but I quickly learned that the throttle
condenser is the way to go. Instead of the interstage transformer
I used a small 10H PSU choke and since I don't have a pair of
tin cans I added a small output transformer to a pair of light weight
hifi phones. At 40 volts on both plates I found a volume control handy.
It's still not as smooth as I wish, it has a tendency to jump into
oscillation with a barely audible thump.
The schematics is available on my glowbugs page together with the
original article at http://www.algonet.se/~janax/glowbug.htm
This is also a test to see if my latest email settings work.
Jan, SM5GNN
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 20:31:26 +0000
From: Sandy W5TVW <ebjr@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Choke needed!
The swinging choke for my old Viking 500 blew up a couple of
nights ago! I am in need of a swinging choke with the following
specifications:
5-25 Henrys @ 450 ma.
Insulated for at least 2500 volts working.
Physical dimensions:
5-1/2" high (Might be able to tolerate 6")
4-1/2-5" wide
5-1/4 to 5-1/2" deep
Can be the standard "clamshell" upright mount (which is what is
originally installed) or the "MIL" type sealed case with standoffs/
terminals on one end. Anybody with something like this out there?
My old "5005" is QRT until I get a replacement. (Peter Dahl will be
my last
resort)
73,
E. V. Sandy Blaize, W5TVW
"Boat Anchors collected, restored, repaired, traded and used!"
417 Ridgewood Drive
Metairie, LA., 70001
**860 Hartley 'ECO' under construction****
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 16:48:36 -0500 (EST)
From: rdkeys@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu
Subject: Re: Wednesday Night Activity
> Bob I tried to talk with you friday night. I am surprised that you
> couldn't here my 800 watts. Yer heartly sounded pretty guud here.
I heard you fairly well, but sad to report, Ol' Grandma Hartley had
her first heart attack. She was sounding more squirrelly than one of
those classic Cuban 25 cycle sets.
> I have an inverted VEE at 60 feet feed with 450 ohm line that in the SSB
> portion of the band has a boming signal. I have not had much luck wit it
> on the BA qrg.
The bands were somewhat funky, again. It must be the weather and the
sunspot activity, from what I can tell.
> The HT-37 has got something in the VFO that is not too stable. I need to
> find the problem. Yer heartly was pretty gud but was jumping frequency a
> bit.
Yes, the HT-37 seemed to have a sticky dial mechanism mebbie. There were
some others that had had wierd vfo's on HT-37's. Someone will have some
tips on how to get it back in shape. Check with the BA list crowd or
mebbie Nick England/KD4CPL ``Mr. Heathkit''. He would know if anyone would.
Ol' Grandma Hartley needed a big case of open heart surgery. As squirrelly
as she was, I was thinking it might be the mg set brushes going out. But,
after some load testing, it turned out to be Grandma's grid leak and grid
capacitor --- blown cap. I delved into the parts bilges and managed to come
up with a 25 watt rather than a 5 watt grid leak, and a large tub mica for
the grid cap rather than a small VFO ceramic thing that is more suited to
a 1 watt vfo. Now she is purring along again, like her old self.
I was on Saturday night, all night, but could not scare up anyone other
than a local down on the coast. I will try again later tonight and see
if the band is open. I heard lots of stations, but noone came back to me.
Sandy/W5TVW and the middle cow country folks were much weaker than normal.
Oh, well, that's 80 meters......
73/ZUT DE NA4G/Bob UP
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 19:00:26 EST
From: kb9iua@juno.com (Kevin L Anderson)
Subject: HW-16 fixed (?) -- now anyone QRG 40m (7030-7060)?
Hollow-state followers:
Well, I think I have my HW-16 fixed. I had also earlier
bought the Phoenix/CW group buy on 40M
General-class xtals (7030-7060 on the fives).
Is the QRG for 7050 still on? Evenings, weekends,
on the hour, etc.? Or are folks now down on 80m with
the colorburst 3579.+ frequency?
I made three QSOs Saturday afternoon, all on
my 7137 xtal (I have also 7112, 7117, and 7132
I had bought earlier from the previous CW Crystals),
with only one op suggesting a chirp still in the
signal (plus a 588 report). Either the other two didn't
notice or were used to it, or in fact my electrolytic
substitutions (an 80-80 can, with a 47 and a pair
of parallel 22 mfd radials under the chassis) did
the trick.
I do BTW have the HG-10B VFO, but the xtals
are more fun in a backward way :-). In case one
is interested, I discovered today that the size box
that new blank checks come in from Deluxe,
Current, et al., holds nicely, using makeshift cardboard
dividers, twelve (12) xtals side-by-side, which is the
number I have for 40m.
Cheers/73, watching for you tube-wise on 40m when
I'm not QRPing. Kevin, KB9IUA
E E
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kevin Anderson, KB9IUA, Rock Island IL USA
kb9iua@juno.com or Kevin.L.Anderson@usace.army.mil
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 16:46:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Ken Gordon <keng@uidaho.edu>
Subject: Re: Wednesday Night Activity
> The bands were somewhat funky, again.
"Somewhat"??? More than a little. I worked W7HOR in Spokane, Washington
who is 75 miles north of me. Although we were both 599, he sounded like
DX from Iceland or Greenland...VERY fluttery. Sounded nice.
> It must be the weather and the
> sunspot activity, from what I can tell.
Something sure is screwy.
> I was on Saturday night, all night, but could not scare up anyone other
> than a local down on the coast. I will try again later tonight and see
> if the band is open. I heard lots of stations, but noone came back to me.
> Sandy/W5TVW and the middle cow country folks were much weaker than normal.
I was on from 0300 to 0700: didn't hear anything on the 3579R545 QRG. My
darned buzzing is gone since the temperature outside went down below 50
degrees. I still think it is the darned street lighting system.
Discovered another source of noise: whenever my children walk across the
floor above me, something goes "skritch" in the cans at each step.
Did work TG7APQ last night on 40. BOY, is his fist hard to copy!!!! Weird
spacing, rythm, and too many dots in all the wrong places. Anyone else
know this op? I THINK he told me his name was Morales.
Bobbi and others:
On the VR tubes in the HW-16: Pair of OD3s in series. Both RCAs. Both
check nearly identically on both the Hickock 3444 and the TV-2. Using a
10K 37 watt wire wound to drop the 677 VDC to 300 VDC. Drawing exactly 39
ma. through the VR circuit, key up.
The 300 vdc feeds the plate circuit of the TX oscillator tube, and those
places in the receiver which need 300 vdc. The 150 vdc reg. feeds the
oscillator screen circuit, and those places in the receiver which use 150
vdc.
When using either 80 meter or 40 meter crystals on 40 meters, both VR
tubes dim a bit, key down, but stay lit. Measured voltage drop is about .7
volts.
On 80, neither tube appears to dim at all, and measured voltage drop is
about .2 volts.
However, when using an external VFO (HG-10B), on ANY band, keying the
transmitter causes ONE of the VR tubes to extinguish (but not
immediately), whereas the other one stays lit, but dims appreciably.
Sounds to me as though when the oscillator tube is operating as a crystal
oscillator, it draws considerably less current than when it is being used
as a buffer/amp.
In any case, something is still not right in the component area since it
still chirps on any band when using crystals. Personally, I think crystal
current is too high, although I have not yet measured it.
Hope to hear SOMEONE on SOMEDAY.
Ken W7EKB
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 17:40:42 -0800
From: "Frank A. West" <ke6vhm@earthlink.net>
Subject: Which one?
Well I am back. Been a little under for a while. In getting all my parts
together for the regen I am a little behind. I have started looking for
parts for the Hartley and was wondering. I have the following available.
24A, 45, 6v6, 6au6, 6bk7 and others. Will any of these work in a Hartley
circuit. If so and you might know of a circuit please help.
Oh by the way I did find some neat sockets for the 30's in the Sonora. I
found 2 of the CRV-49311A's and one CMH-49311A. Fascinating looking, these
are made of a fiber insulator suspended between two brackets lined with
felt.
TTFN 73 Frank KE6VHM
Grid Square DM13
CW Forever
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 20:29:12 -0600 (CST)
From: Bob Roehrig <broehrig@admin.aurora.edu>
Subject: Hartleys again - about done
Well, yesterday I threw together a "real" power supply. Found a 900VCT
250ma xfmr (with fil windings) and a UTC 6HY choke. So made the classic
pi filter job using a pair of 20uf 600V Aerovox caps. I put the choke in
the negative lead. Worked fine except after a half hour, Pssssssssss.....
One of the caps let go. Well, key-up, the voltage hovered around 580V
so no surprise I guess. Replaced both of them with a pair of 16uF at 700V
and all is well.
What I ended up doing was putting a voltage divider across the output
consisting of 20K and 15K in series (20W each). The tap between them
is ground. So, the negative lead goes to the grid resistor of the Hartley.
I have a mercury relay that shorts the 15K resistor out on key-down.
In this way, I have grid-block keying (-270V key-up). The supply sits
at 640V total output key up and drops to about 540 key down.
The Hartley itself stayed pretty much the same. I tried various coil taps
and various grid resistors and wound up with the tap at 3 1/2 turns from
the grid end, and a grid resistor of about 4K. With the pair of 3C24's
I get roughly 41 watts input, 18 watts out = 43% efficiency. Grid current
is 22ma, grid voltage is -100V (developed by the RF). Tuning range is
3525 to 3600KC. Observation on the spec analyzer showed the 2nd harmonic
to be -38dB. Key clicks looked like at least -50. (I'll have to get an
off-the-air report from a friend across town).
One thing I noticed is that backing off the link coupling resulted in a
bit less drift with the key down. One problem with backing off the
coupling is that the grid current increases noticeably, which is normal.
So I urge any of you building a Hartley to monitor your grid current.
It's as important as the plate current (maybe more if you don't want to
blow the tube).
Hope to have it on the air for a trial this week. I am sure using the
copper tubing tank and good caps really pays off. I have had a worse time
trying to make a stable VFO using FET's!
UFO's are real! (It's the Air Force that does not exist)
E-mail broehrig@admin.aurora.edu 73 de Bob, K9EUI
CIS: Data / Telecom Aurora University, Aurora, IL
630-844-4898 Fax 630-844-5530
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 19:51:03 -0600 (CST)
From: Kevin Pease <hamradio@mm1001.theporch.com>
Subject: Re: Wednesday Night Activity
Sorry to Hear about old Grandma Hartly. Even though the frequency was
jumping around it si the best sounding power oscilator I have ever heard.
Also I know that people are runing a little low in freq which really is a
problem for my rig. My home breq Glowbug rig uses a sharp collins
mechanical filter and I use the rx to monitor my sending so that If I tune
folks low in frequency I can't hear my own sending. Guess I need a side
tone monitor for it. I fired up the 6BM8 rig and it is putting out over 10
watts however with the QRN I am not haveing much luck I did manage to
work WB9HFK with the 10 watts. I put a computer style 3.58 in an old
bliley xtal holder for a period looking xtal.
I really like the 6BM8 xmitter but fear that I need more power.
Well I hear and am trying to work W5FRS and I don't think that he hears me
verry well so should get back to the RX.
Kevin Pease
WB0JZG
Mount Juliet, TN.
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 21:03:17 -0800 (PST)
From: Ken Gordon <keng@uidaho.edu>
Subject: QRG and Hartley's...
Jack, W7QQQ and I chatted for over 30 minutes this evening from 0310 to
0344 on 7050. His one tube xtal rig sounded simply beautiful here. Very
pretty, somewhat bell-like tone, and perfect keying with NO chirp. His
signal level varied from down in the mud (sometimes) to over S-9 (most of
the time).
He suggested, and I agreed, that a Hartley-to-Hartley contact would be
pleasant, so we are starting to plan that way.
I have Grammer's article (modified by Bob), and a choice of 812A, 805, or
304TL, triode connected 6L6 (is there such a thing?), triode connected
6AG7, a 6N7 (dual triode with both sections connected in parallel).
I wonder how hard it would be to wind a plate coil out of 3" copper
tubing?
For a good, stiff, HV supply I could use series connected lead-acid
cells...
Le'mesee now...150 car batteries ought to give me about 1800 volts at 600
amps.
Hee hee! Shazam!
Seriously, thanks, all (mostly Bob) for the recent Hartley info.
Also, in October, although I kept all of the info which was passed around
on the regenny receivers, I still didn't really understand what one had to
do to get such superb selectivity that the pass band was too narrow to
receive SSB signals clearly.
Was this rx using two #30 tubes, or was it fancier than that?
Ken W7EKB
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 05:17:05 -0700 (MST)
From: Jack Meadows <jackmead@getnet.com>
Subject: Re: HW-16 fixed (?) -- now anyone QRG 40m (7030-7060)?
Hi Kevin,
Ken, W7EKB and Jack, W7QQQ hooked up on 7050 for a fine BA qso
Sunday night. Ken was usin his trusty HW-16 and Jack was usin
is one-tube 35 watter glowbug. Strong signals and solid copy
both ways. Come join in.
Rumour has it that that Ken and Jack may be gatherin some parts
to build some Hartleys. How sweet it is!
Best regards,
Jack W7QQQ
On Sun,
26
Oct 1997, Kevin L Anderson wrote:
> Hollow-state followers:
> Well, I think I have my HW-16 fixed. I had also earlier
> bought the Phoenix/CW group buy on 40M
> General-class xtals (7030-7060 on the fives).
>
> Is the QRG for 7050 still on? Evenings, weekends,
> on the hour, etc.? Or are folks now down on 80m with
> the colorburst 3579.+ frequency?
>
> Cheers/73, watching for you tube-wise on 40m when
> I'm not QRPing. Kevin, KB9IUA
> E E
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> Kevin Anderson, KB9IUA, Rock Island IL USA
> kb9iua@juno.com or Kevin.L.Anderson@usace.army.mil
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
End of glowbugs V1 #144
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