julian814 wrote:
Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
julian814 wrote:
All right, I'm hoping someone here can clue me into finding the one(s)
I want. What I need is a handbook that has schematics for tube
equipment circa the 1960's. I have a boxful of tubes from television
sets from that era, and I was hoping I could put together a receiver
from some of them. I do have the first volume of Impoverished Radio
Experimenter, which talks about using "newer" tubes in older
schematics, but the scant few Lindsay talks about aren't among the
tubes in my box.
How complex of a receiver are you looking to build?

Nothing too complex, two tubes or so. What I want to build is something
that looks like it's from a 1950's Cold War era post apocalyptic story.
I definitely want to use tubes, and I have some headphones from that
era as well. The receiver has to be able to drive the headphones. They
are NOT crystal headphones.

There are a PILE of simple tube circuits on
http://www.intio.or.jp/jf10zl/index.html .

Most of them use Japanese tubes (the site is in Japan, after allg) but
I would suggest in many cases you can figure out what U.S. tubes are
similar.

Fascinating, but I didn't see anything close to what I'm looking for.
Thanks anyway.


Ralph

I don't recall the url but I remember a 2-3 tube receiver from the 40's
that might be what you want. It was a simple superhet with a
regenerative detector. Used a 6k8 as the converter and a 6c8g as the
detector / audio. It drove a pair of magnetic phones. The set used two
plugin coils, one for the antenna circuit and one for the oscillator.
Each antenna coil served double duty as the oscillator coil on the next
higher band (moved the antenna coil from the antenna coil socket to the
oscillator coil socket and put a new coil in the antenna coil socket to
change bands). There is a variation that added a 6sj7 as the detector
and the other half of the 6c8 became a bfo.

This first appeared in Feb 1941 QST. The details are on the web
someplace, google for it.

ken scharf ) writes:
julian814 wrote:
Doug Smith W9WI wrote:
julian814 wrote:
All right, I'm hoping someone here can clue me into finding the one(s)
I want. What I need is a handbook that has schematics for tube
equipment circa the 1960's. I have a boxful of tubes from television
sets from that era, and I was hoping I could put together a receiver
from some of them. I do have the first volume of Impoverished Radio
Experimenter, which talks about using "newer" tubes in older
schematics, but the scant few Lindsay talks about aren't among the
tubes in my box.
How complex of a receiver are you looking to build?

Nothing too complex, two tubes or so. What I want to build is something
that looks like it's from a 1950's Cold War era post apocalyptic story.
I definitely want to use tubes, and I have some headphones from that
era as well. The receiver has to be able to drive the headphones. They
are NOT crystal headphones.

There are a PILE of simple tube circuits on
http://www.intio.or.jp/jf10zl/index.html .

Most of them use Japanese tubes (the site is in Japan, after allg) but
I would suggest in many cases you can figure out what U.S. tubes are
similar.

Fascinating, but I didn't see anything close to what I'm looking for.
Thanks anyway.


Ralph

I don't recall the url but I remember a 2-3 tube receiver from the 40's
that might be what you want. It was a simple superhet with a
regenerative detector. Used a 6k8 as the converter and a 6c8g as the
detector / audio.

They were called "supergainers" and apparently Frank Jones, of later
VHF fame, was a big proponent of them in the thirties.

The earlier Radio Handbook on that webpage someone posted about would
have them, the 1936 version or whatever. I didn't suggest downloading
that one since I had the impression the tubes available to the original
poster were miniature, and the book predates those.

Michael VE2BVW
k

Michael Black wrote:
ken scharf ) writes:
I don't recall the url but I remember a 2-3 tube receiver from the 40's
that might be what you want. It was a simple superhet with a
regenerative detector. Used a 6k8 as the converter and a 6c8g as the
detector / audio.

They were called "supergainers" and apparently Frank Jones, of later
VHF fame, was a big proponent of them in the thirties.

The earlier Radio Handbook on that webpage someone posted about would
have them, the 1936 version or whatever. I didn't suggest downloading
that one since I had the impression the tubes available to the original
poster were miniature, and the book predates those.

Thanks, Mike, Ken. I'll have to take a look. I did manage to download
some of the files on designing circuits with tubes, and with the online
tube manuals I might be able to figure out something on my own. Still,
if anyone can think of where I can find something already made up that
I can use, I'd appreciate it.


Ralph

julian814 wrote:
Michael Black wrote:
ken scharf ) writes:
I don't recall the url but I remember a 2-3 tube receiver from the 40's
that might be what you want. It was a simple superhet with a
regenerative detector. Used a 6k8 as the converter and a 6c8g as the
detector / audio.
They were called "supergainers" and apparently Frank Jones, of later
VHF fame, was a big proponent of them in the thirties.

The earlier Radio Handbook on that webpage someone posted about would
have them, the 1936 version or whatever. I didn't suggest downloading
that one since I had the impression the tubes available to the original
poster were miniature, and the book predates those.

Thanks, Mike, Ken. I'll have to take a look. I did manage to download
some of the files on designing circuits with tubes, and with the online
tube manuals I might be able to figure out something on my own. Still,
if anyone can think of where I can find something already made up that
I can use, I'd appreciate it.


Ralph

HERE'S the link http://www.io.com/~nielw/3tubrcvr/3tubrcvr.htm

ken scharf wrote:
julian814 wrote:
Michael Black wrote:
ken scharf ) writes:
I don't recall the url but I remember a 2-3 tube receiver from the 40's
that might be what you want. It was a simple superhet with a
regenerative detector. Used a 6k8 as the converter and a 6c8g as the
detector / audio.
They were called "supergainers" and apparently Frank Jones, of later
VHF fame, was a big proponent of them in the thirties.

The earlier Radio Handbook on that webpage someone posted about would
have them, the 1936 version or whatever. I didn't suggest downloading
that one since I had the impression the tubes available to the original
poster were miniature, and the book predates those.
Thanks, Mike, Ken. I'll have to take a look. I did manage to download
some of the files on designing circuits with tubes, and with the online
tube manuals I might be able to figure out something on my own. Still,
if anyone can think of where I can find something already made up that
I can use, I'd appreciate it.


Ralph

HERE'S the link http://www.io.com/~nielw/3tubrcvr/3tubrcvr.htm
Oh, nearly forgot....
With a little head scratching, you can replace the 6K8 with a 6u8, 6ea8,
6x8 (etc) triode/pentode. Use the pentode as the mixer and the triode
as the oscillator. In many cases the inter-electrode capacitance inside
the tube will provide enough coupling from the oscillator to the mixer,
but you might need to use a gimick capacitor (twisted wires) from the
pentode grid to the oscillator plate. Other tricks are to connect the
pentode screen to the oscillator plate, or in the case of the 6x8, the
pentode grid 3 to the oscillator grid.

The 6c8 may be replaced by ANY dual triode (such as 12au7, 12at7, 12ax7,
6sn7,6sl7, etc....)

ken scharf wrote:
HERE'S the link http://www.io.com/~nielw/3tubrcvr/3tubrcvr.htm
Oh, nearly forgot....
With a little head scratching, you can replace the 6K8 with a 6u8, 6ea8,
6x8 (etc) triode/pentode. Use the pentode as the mixer and the triode
as the oscillator. In many cases the inter-electrode capacitance inside
the tube will provide enough coupling from the oscillator to the mixer,
but you might need to use a gimick capacitor (twisted wires) from the
pentode grid to the oscillator plate. Other tricks are to connect the
pentode screen to the oscillator plate, or in the case of the 6x8, the
pentode grid 3 to the oscillator grid.

The 6c8 may be replaced by ANY dual triode (such as 12au7, 12at7, 12ax7,
6sn7,6sl7, etc....)

I think we may be in business, here. Went through my selection of
tubes, and there's a 6X8 and a 12AX7A among them. Three other tubes
looked like they had promise - two 12AV6 and a 6BU6.

After I'm done with this post, I'm going to Google Images to see if I
do indeed have 2000 ohm headphones. I want to make sure, because
elsewhere I found a crystal shortwave radio that uses them as well.
That might serve my needs better, although it won't have those cool
glow in the dark tubes.


Ralph

After using Google images to track down pictures of 2000 ohm
headphones, I am satisfied that those are what I have. (Eight sets, in
fact.) Found out the one tube is a 6BJ6, not a 6BU6, but it does still
seem usable. Going to ask if I can make some trades with tubesandmore,
so I can find a good home for some of the headphones and possibly get
the tube sockets and transformers I need for my project.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped. Time for me to go do some
math. (Ugh!)


Ralph

ken scharf wrote:
julian814 wrote:
Michael Black wrote:
ken scharf ) writes:
I don't recall the url but I remember a 2-3 tube receiver from the 40's
that might be what you want. It was a simple superhet with a
regenerative detector. Used a 6k8 as the converter and a 6c8g as the
detector / audio.
They were called "supergainers" and apparently Frank Jones, of later
VHF fame, was a big proponent of them in the thirties.

The earlier Radio Handbook on that webpage someone posted about would
have them, the 1936 version or whatever. I didn't suggest downloading
that one since I had the impression the tubes available to the original
poster were miniature, and the book predates those.
Thanks, Mike, Ken. I'll have to take a look. I did manage to download
some of the files on designing circuits with tubes, and with the online
tube manuals I might be able to figure out something on my own. Still,
if anyone can think of where I can find something already made up that
I can use, I'd appreciate it.


Ralph

HERE'S the link http://www.io.com/~nielw/3tubrcvr/3tubrcvr.htm
Link to follow up... http://www.io.com/~nielw/3tube_xtal/3tube_xtal.htm