"Jay in the Mojave" wrote in message
...
Hello All:

Who remembers the Sonic Cushion, a 47 light bulb wired in series with a
speaker, and a low ohm pot. Mounted in a small square plastic box.

This circuit used the 47 light bulbs variable element resistance vs
variable current, as a sound cushion for SSB. Works prett good.

I have one wired in and think I have it right!?!?!?!?

Any web sites on this?

Jay in the Mojave

Hi Jay , yeah I remeber those as an automatic volume control. Boy that was
back in the 60's. I know I can date it back to between probably 67 and 69
when I first heard of it because I used one on my old Hallicrafter. The
Halicrafter had AVC but this worked better for keeping you from getting
blastedd by a strong signal that suddenly appeared when you had everything
cranked up to hear a weak signal. Bulb would have to be in series and
resistor in paralell because the bulbs resistance goes up whenever more
current flows through it. If it works it must be right.. That is to say I
dont remember either but I do remember it using two bulbs and the model I
built was to be used with headphones. You had to crank the volume on the
radio way up and then use a control on the box to adjust it to listenng
level.

Ok I found something that is just opposite what you wanted, I dont do ascii
drawings so I will have to discribe it to you.
Imagine a bridge circuit made of two #47 bulbs and two 5 ohms resistors.
They are wired so the resistors dont connet to each other and the bulbs dont
connect to each other but the bulbs do connect to the resistors. Input is
through a pair of opposite corners of the bridge and output is through the
other pair of opposite corners. At first I thought that you could reverse
the position of the resistors and diodes to get what you wanted but after
describing it I realized you would still have exactly the same circuit.
Cicuit is in CBers Handybook

Hello Jimmie D:

Ok good deal, yeah thats what I was talking about.

My Sonic Cushion only used one light bulb, but that was for a old
Johnson 350, 2 channel SSB only transistorized radio I used back in the
60's and 70's.

Yes you needed to turn up the volume, then turn up the pot, and it
worked quit well.

I will have to try the two GE 47 bulbs and 5 ohm resistors and see what
happens.

Another thing we use to do was install two diodes cross polarized across
the speaker terminals to soften the blast from a old high voltage tube
rig that, sent a blast of voltage when the radio was unkeyed. Like a
General Radiotelephone Super MC-11A.

Thanks for the reply, Ah the memeories.

Jay in the Mojave

Charlie Alpha 5

Jimmie D wrote:

Hi Jay , yeah I remeber those as an automatic volume control. Boy that was
back in the 60's. I know I can date it back to between probably 67 and 69
when I first heard of it because I used one on my old Hallicrafter. The
Halicrafter had AVC but this worked better for keeping you from getting
blastedd by a strong signal that suddenly appeared when you had everything
cranked up to hear a weak signal. Bulb would have to be in series and
resistor in paralell because the bulbs resistance goes up whenever more
current flows through it. If it works it must be right.. That is to say I
dont remember either but I do remember it using two bulbs and the model I
built was to be used with headphones. You had to crank the volume on the
radio way up and then use a control on the box to adjust it to listenng
level.

Ok I found something that is just opposite what you wanted, I dont do ascii
drawings so I will have to discribe it to you.
Imagine a bridge circuit made of two #47 bulbs and two 5 ohms resistors.
They are wired so the resistors dont connet to each other and the bulbs dont
connect to each other but the bulbs do connect to the resistors. Input is
through a pair of opposite corners of the bridge and output is through the
other pair of opposite corners. At first I thought that you could reverse
the position of the resistors and diodes to get what you wanted but after
describing it I realized you would still have exactly the same circuit.
Cicuit is in CBers Handybook

"Jay in the Mojave" wrote in message
...
Hello Jimmie D:

Ok good deal, yeah thats what I was talking about.

My Sonic Cushion only used one light bulb, but that was for a old Johnson
350, 2 channel SSB only transistorized radio I used back in the 60's and
70's.

Yes you needed to turn up the volume, then turn up the pot, and it worked
quit well.

I will have to try the two GE 47 bulbs and 5 ohm resistors and see what
happens.

Another thing we use to do was install two diodes cross polarized across
the speaker terminals to soften the blast from a old high voltage tube rig
that, sent a blast of voltage when the radio was unkeyed. Like a General
Radiotelephone Super MC-11A.

Thanks for the reply, Ah the memeories.

Jay in the Mojave

Charlie Alpha 5

Jimmie D wrote:

Hi Jay , yeah I remeber those as an automatic volume control. Boy that
was back in the 60's. I know I can date it back to between probably 67
and 69 when I first heard of it because I used one on my old
Hallicrafter. The Halicrafter had AVC but this worked better for keeping
you from getting blastedd by a strong signal that suddenly appeared when
you had everything cranked up to hear a weak signal. Bulb would have to
be in series and resistor in paralell because the bulbs resistance goes
up whenever more current flows through it. If it works it must be right..
That is to say I dont remember either but I do remember it using two
bulbs and the model I built was to be used with headphones. You had to
crank the volume on the radio way up and then use a control on the box to
adjust it to listenng level.

Ok I found something that is just opposite what you wanted, I dont do
ascii drawings so I will have to discribe it to you.
Imagine a bridge circuit made of two #47 bulbs and two 5 ohms resistors.
They are wired so the resistors dont connet to each other and the bulbs
dont connect to each other but the bulbs do connect to the resistors.
Input is through a pair of opposite corners of the bridge and output is
through the other pair of opposite corners. At first I thought that you
could reverse the position of the resistors and diodes to get what you
wanted but after describing it I realized you would still have exactly
the same circuit. Cicuit is in CBers Handybook

Have you thought about putting a photo resistor in paralell with or
replacing your resistor, light from the bulb wuold casue the resistance to
decrease this should make the circuit more responsive. Its been a long time
since I played with photoressitors so I dont remember what kind of
resistance range they have. If they get low enough this could work pretty
decent.

I never thought that trying to do this on an 8 ohm circuit was such a great
idea. Doing it at sayy 100 ohms might be better using a lower wattage bulb
than the #47. Even at 8 ohms I thought a 3 volt flashlight bulb may do
better.

I never tried these ideas though because I took another route building my
own select-o-ject and incorporating an AVC circuit into it.

Hello Jimmie D:

No I didn't think of that! Maybe worth a try.

I have a good friend on 40 that is going to send me a custom circuit
that is supposed to do all this, and has a smart squelch to. We will see.

Jay in the Mojave

Jimmie D wrote:

Have you thought about putting a photo resistor in paralell with or
replacing your resistor, light from the bulb wuold casue the resistance to
decrease this should make the circuit more responsive. Its been a long time
since I played with photoressitors so I dont remember what kind of
resistance range they have. If they get low enough this could work pretty
decent.

I never thought that trying to do this on an 8 ohm circuit was such a great
idea. Doing it at sayy 100 ohms might be better using a lower wattage bulb
than the #47. Even at 8 ohms I thought a 3 volt flashlight bulb may do
better.

I never tried these ideas though because I took another route building my
own select-o-ject and incorporating an AVC circuit into it.

Jay in the Mojave wrote:
I have a good friend on 40 that is going to send me a custom circuit
that is supposed to do all this, and has a smart squelch to. We will see.

Smart squelch? Please explain...

www.telstar-electronics.com

Hello Brian:

The Smart Squelch is supposed to be smart, just as its said! That is the
squelch will open or turn on the receiver audio when a signal is
received in the receivers IF. A separate pick off of the IF RF is
sampled and then its supposed to only open the Squelch when there is a
real signal, and is not supposed to work on noise, bleed over, static
and such. The Smart Squelch is supposed to be able to discern between
noises and a real RF signal. And its advertised as having a very high
percentage of success, being able to only open the receiver with a rf
signal and not noise.

I built a Analog Smart Squelch back in the 80's for my Motorola System
500 Mobile SSB/AM CB Radio. (which all ready had a active Motorola noise
canceling circuit in the IF Section) It worked real well. It was great
driving down the freeway and not hearing motor noise, like setting at
home. The Smart Squelch came from a article in a magazine, and I bought
the kit and put it together.

But this new circuit is supposed to be digital. I haven't seen it yet.

But I know a lot of guys are using the Heil, Alpha Delta, and others
External Speakers with DSP for extra noise cancelling. I have a Heil DSP
External Speaker, and it works great, just need a smart squelch to go
with it.

Jay in the Mojave

Telstar Electronics wrote:
Jay in the Mojave wrote:

I have a good friend on 40 that is going to send me a custom circuit
that is supposed to do all this, and has a smart squelch to. We will see.


Smart squelch? Please explain...

www.telstar-electronics.com

You may have to show off those kredentials again, Jay. I know I always
enjoy seeing them.

Jay in the Mojave wrote:
But this new circuit is supposed to be digital. I haven't seen it yet.

"Jay in the Mojave" wrote in message
...
Hello Brian:

The Smart Squelch is supposed to be smart, just as its said! That is the
squelch will open or turn on the receiver audio when a signal is
received in the receivers IF. A separate pick off of the IF RF is
sampled and then its supposed to only open the Squelch when there is a
real signal, and is not supposed to work on noise, bleed over, static
and such. The Smart Squelch is supposed to be able to discern between
noises and a real RF signal. And its advertised as having a very high
percentage of success, being able to only open the receiver with a rf
signal and not noise.

I built a Analog Smart Squelch back in the 80's for my Motorola System
500 Mobile SSB/AM CB Radio. (which all ready had a active Motorola noise
canceling circuit in the IF Section) It worked real well. It was great
driving down the freeway and not hearing motor noise, like setting at
home. The Smart Squelch came from a article in a magazine, and I bought
the kit and put it together.

But this new circuit is supposed to be digital. I haven't seen it yet.

But I know a lot of guys are using the Heil, Alpha Delta, and others
External Speakers with DSP for extra noise cancelling. I have a Heil DSP
External Speaker, and it works great, just need a smart squelch to go
with it.

Jay in the Mojave

Telstar Electronics wrote:
Jay in the Mojave wrote:

I have a good friend on 40 that is going to send me a custom circuit
that is supposed to do all this, and has a smart squelch to. We will see.


Smart squelch? Please explain...

www.telstar-electronics.com


I remember something that use a "bucket brigrade" audio delay line in a
sqeich circuit in late 70s or early 80s. The audio was delayed a few
milliseconds so the hardware would have time to analyse the signal to see if
it should be squelched or not. Is this what yu are talking about. Probably a
piece of cake for DSP.

My first experience with DSP was in the Air Force. I was sent to school on
this new modem and endured a month of theory on how modems worked all built
around analog devices. In reality this thing was just a RISC computer
attached to D/A and A/D converters. The only thing analog about it was a
couple of op amps used on the input and output.. The modem itself was tiny
but the cabinet it was in was huge. I guess it had to be this way for all
the human interface that was needed.

Jay in the Mojave wrote:
The Smart Squelch is supposed to be able to discern between
noises and a real RF signal.

This is the key. I would certainly like to know how this is
accomplished. Seems to me this would be a complicated problem.

www.telstar-electronics.com