Roger Halstead wrote:

I built my first "homebrew" transmitter using the parts from a TV
chassis. Not the chassis of today, but back when TVs were all tubes
and used a chassis about 2 foot square and 3 to 4 inches deep.
The power transformer was quite a bit bigger than the ones used in
any of today's 100 watt output rigs.

I built the old standard 6AG7 Oscillator with a pair of 6L6s in the
final. I've forgotten if it used a separate driver. At any rate it
was built in one corner of a stripped chassis. Looked kinda lonesome
in there.

Did you keep the high voltage cage box and built as much as possible
inside it? I really miss those things... very handy for homebrew
construction and well-shielded.

It worked, easily ran the 75 watts permitted to a Novice back then and
it was *big* albeit with a center of gravity a bit off center.

Later on after moving up to a Viking Ranger, I stripped all the parts
out and used a 12AT7 as an electronic TR switch. Just one little tube
and that big transformer in one corner of that big steel chassis. I
was able to set the transmitter on the TR switch with lots of room to
spare.

The hacksaw is your friend!

What I liked were those aluminum BUD chassis boxes. Much easier to work
with than a steel TV set chassis, but by the time I got them at hamfests,
they usually had quite a few holes in them already.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."