RadioBanter - View Single Post

Dave Heil[_2_] · March 20th 08, 06:54 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
On Mar 19, 6:10� pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 18, 11:51� pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 16, 6:53 pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:

They did, however, do things like bombing the embassy....

Right. � That happened in Dar es Salaam in 1998. � I was here, bet
ween
assignments and arrived three weeks after the bombing. � The only
shooting which went on at the site of the temporary embassy site was
when a drunken Tanzanian soldier fired three or four rounds from an
AK-47 into the ground. � The Tanzanian army was detailed to protect th
e
temporary embassy after the company of U.S. Marines departed. � I neve
r
did get very comfortable coming up the drive with a sleeping Tanzanian
soldier manning the tripod-mounted machine gun in the front yard of the
place.

You were there a couple of years, as I recall.

Yes--1998-2000.

Sadly, it says G2FIX is now a Silent Key.
I ran across the web site and e-mailed the fellow who put it up. � I t
old
him that I'd met Bert in the 70's while vacationing in Salisbury and
that I had more photos of him. � He asked if I would be willing to sen
d
the scans to him and allow him to post them on his site. � Bert was a
fine fellow and heavily involved in the Royal Signals club, mobile
rallies, FOC and, as you've seen, in homebrewing.

There's a certain British approach to engineering and craftsmanship
that is underappreciated on this side of the pond IMHO.

For example, the BBC was doing regular scheduled electronic TV
broadcasting in 1936-37, and only shut down when WW2 broke out.

They invented things like the re-entrant multiple cavity magnetron,
practical jet engines, the dambuster bomb and delivery system (fly a
Lancaster 50 feet off the water at night? No problem!) and much more.

Somewhere here in the shack, I have a little green hardbound book on
Baird's work.

I have an RSGB handbook from the 1960s. It's quite different from the
ARRL Handbooks of the time - more technical, more projects, more
advanced and varied stuff. But nothing on operating, history,
licensing, or the RSGB.

You can make up for that lack of info if you can find a wonderful book
from the 70's called, "The World at Their Fingertips".

For example, the phenomenal G2DAF receivers, particularly the last
version. Incredible sophistication and performance.

Really great designs. He kept at it for a long time. He provided many
mods for commercial rigs like the Yaesu FT-101 series.

Of course part of that was the different economics of homebrewing in
Europe at the time.

....and that went on through the 70's too. Taxes on imported equipment
were very high throughout most of Europe.

I like the pot idea better - just like the BC-348...

Yeah! � I have a Q model of that one. I have it paired with a
Lafayette
Preselector/converter so it'll hit 15 and 10m.

For years I had a BC-348R, and the book. Took it many places, acquired
two parts units. Sold 'em when I moved from the house on
RadioTelegraph Hill.

I kept the BC-342-N that I bought for two dollars at a hamfest in
Wrightstown many years ago.

That's another worthy receiver. My old pal K8IP had the '348Q. It's a
real keeper. Over the years I've had a number of the 342's, 312's and
348's.

Tom Rauch W8JI has presented quite a bit of excellent data. �
Agreed. Not only that, but in easily-understood form, with data to
back it up.
He's been
designing linear amps for several companies for quite a number of years
.

I did not know that! He's not one to brag, though.

Dentron, Ameritron and perhaps a couple of others.

Good stuff!

....and affordable--sort of the everyman's amp series from both companies.

He's also a very skilled operator, to grossly understate the case.

...assisted by an antenna farm to die for.

Yes but even the best rig and antenna will not make up for a lack of
operator skill.

....not by themselves, but they'll surely put a dent in it. It's not
easy to establish a run if you can't be heard.

There's another site--something about technical books online--where I
was able to download pdf's of old GE, Sylvania and RCA tube manuals
(including a '38 RCA transmitting tube manual) along with early editions
of the Radio Handbook and the ARRL Handbook.

Pete Millett's site. All kinds of stuff. There's also Frank's Tube
Data Pages.

I'll check that one out.

� I have a 24 hour clock atop
the amp, one in the computer and one of those "atomic clock" things
hanging on the shack wall.

I have a classic Numechron Tymeter 24 hour digital clock for the
shack. It was made from parts of three junkers back in the 1980s and
runs perfectly today. I might have three dollars invested in it.

I used to have one of those and would love to find another. They're
getting rather pricey these days. I'm happy to report that I have less
in my atomic clock than you have in your tymeter. My neighbor bought it
new and gave it to me when the outside temperature transmitter quit
working. I found a web site where I can order the transmitter for ten
bucks postpaid.

They liked the Compactron-based tubes like the 6KD6 because they had
the suppressor/BF plates
brought out to a pin, so they could run grounded-grid without doing
the kind of surgery needed by
1625s and such. Those sweep tubes *were* also plentiful, inexpensive,
and worked well with
low voltage/high current B+. The article I remember used a link-
coupled output tank (!) instead of
a pi-net because the output impedance was so low.
Yep. � Quite a number of manufacturers were making sweep tube amps dur
ing
the period when tube-type televisions abounded. � P&H, WRL/Galaxy, SBE

and Yaesu come to mind. �

What did P&H make? The only product of theirs I remember was the
LA-400, which used four surplus 1625s doctored so the BF plates had
their own base pin and could be grounded. Not all brands of 1625 could
be converted like that, but some could.

That's right. P&H's later offering was a low profile, chrome plated
until called the P&H Spitfire--the LA-500M. It used six 12JB6's at 500w
input and was introduced in the early 60's.

A couple of others (Dentron and Ameritron)
continued well past the time when those tubes were being used in TV
sets. � It is hard to find finals for those amps these days and the
current "cheapy" amps are using Russian or Chinese copies of 811A's or
572B's.

Yup. There are also conversions of those old amps to use other tubes,
mostly Soviet types. Some amps like the Heath SB-230 can often be had
for a song because the tube they use is so expensive and hard to find.

One of the most modified is the old Dentron MLA-2500 which used
expensive and hard to find metal ceramics. Svetlana published a mod
using a pair of their modestly priced metal ceramics.

Back in the 1960s the ARRL Handbook had a single 3-1000Z amp that
still looks good today. In inflation-adjusted dollars it probably
costs less now than it did then.

Those bottles are hard to come buy these days. I think it is hard to
beat a pair of 3-500's for legal limit or near legal limit power.
They're relatively inexpensive, can be used with or without the air
system chimneys and sockets and the graphite anode variants are quite
rugged.

Some will argue such points anyway.

There's arguing and there is successfully arguing.

True!

Heh.

At one point I had stuff in the attic, the garage, the shack, the
shack ceiling,
under the deck, and in three different remote storage sites (only one
of which
charged me rent). That's been greatly simplified in the past few
years.
I had everything in the basement when I lived in Cincy. � Prior to tha
t,
I'd generally have a corner of a room as a shack or a part of a
basement, with parts stuffed into a closet. � My current shack consist
s
of two rooms in the old part of the house. � I have a separate stairca
se
and the main shack (about 16x16') and an adjacent room (about 16x12').

NICE!

In the house on RadioTelegraph Hill, everything was in the basement.
But it was a big basement. (sigh) Less room here.

It is a sad state of affairs when it won't all fit in two rooms.

You have to remember that before WW2 lumber was quite a different
commodity; it
was inexpensive and plentiful compared to today. A "2x4" was a lot
closer to 2" by 4" then,
too.
That's right. � There's a lot of the full dimensional lumber used in t
his
place. � Some of it is even oak. � Our main staircase is an open d
esign
using full dimensional oak 4x4 stock with oak planks.

My house in Palmyra NY was built in 1900. It's still there, looking
good.

We have a goodly number of those in this area, on both sides of the
river and into Greene County, Pennsylvania. Many of them have been
updated, insulated and look good. Many others haven't.

In this area there are still many homes in the $150-170k range being
built. � One can find many existing homes in the 50-90k range. � O
ut here
near Cameron, it is possible to buy a perfectly good house for under 30k.

Boy do I want to move! But one has to go where the jobs are.

....right up until retirement time rolls around. Then you're free to
live where you like.

They are no longer limited to cities. Acquaintance of mine went
looking for the dream-retirement location, found a developer building
custom homes in Colorado. Perfect setup for ham radio, lots of three
acres and up. And a ton of CC&Rs, including no antennas.
That's not *my idea* of a dream. � I'm sure there are plenty of spots
within that state where it is possible to buy some land and built a
house, not that I'd want to.

He looked elsewhere. Point is, you'd have thought places like that
would not be CC&R'd but they were.

I've been going through realtors listings for the southern part of this
state, getting an idea of what's available and what prices are
like--this for our eventual sale of this place to the approaching
longwall coal mine. I'm not bookmarking any homes which are in
subdivisions.

I used to live just north of the Finger Lakes region of New York
State. (That's why
I have a 2-land call). I owned 46 feet of
the original Erie Canal at one point. I know what you mean.
"I've got a mule and her name is Saaaal..."

"Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal."

Centerport - Port Byron - Lock Berlin - Port Gibson - Wayneport -
guess where those place names came from?

Gee, Jim, I don't know--the Eric Canal?

That has to be pretty territory.

The best. Plus to the south are the drumlins and the lakes. Winters
are tough but the folks there are used to them.

I think you mean that they've learned to put up with them.

My guess is that not many folks have the opportunity to do terribly much
about choosing a home based upon amateur radio until they retire.

If then!

Most but "stay putters" have the option. You needn't sell the XYL on an
antenna farm. Practice saying things like, "plenty of room for a
garden" and "park-like setting".

� It'd
be tough to find yourself interersted in becoming a radio amateur after
you'd already bought a place in one of those developments under
covenants and restrictions.

That is one of the major challenges facing amateur radio today. If
someone is already a ham, they should know enough to avoid buying a
restricted place. But how many people will move just to have an
outdoor antenna?

There are always guys like me. *grin*

I think the things typically run about $10k or so additional over the
cost of a new house with conventional heat.
Depends on how deep they have to drill to get the needed groundwater,
and what they have to drill through.
But such is the future, for those who will look.
I may be mistaken, but I don't think any groundwater is used at W8RHM's
place. � His is a horizontal system and I believe it uses air. � I
'll have
to ask. � It surely doesn't cost much to heat air fifteen or sixteen
degrees higher or cool it up to thirty or forty degrees lower than
ambient Earth temperature.

I did some research and found there are several types of system.
Groundwater is only one type, popular on small lots where there's no
room horizontally.

Where there is enough land, what is done is to bury a field of pipes
and run water through them.

Okay.

I prefer varnish.
Ahhh! � Well if you have crappy-looking stock to begin with, you can f
ill
the blems, sand it smooth and, after painting, you'll have an attractive
piece. � If you just cover the blems with varnish, you'll be able to l
ook
right through it and see the blemishes.

I don't use crappy-looking stock where it will show....

The first table I built, way back in the early 1970s, was made from
the wood in old shipping pallets. These were *old* pallets, and the
wood in them was incredible. I had access to a radial arm saw and a
planer, and made my own stock.

There's an idea for a guy who needs a sturdy but inexpensive table for
the shack. A couple of local outfits near here have so many pallets
that they are constantly running ads in the local paper for "free wooden
pallets".

Dave K8MN