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Dave Heil[_2_] · March 16th 08, 08:50 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:
On Mar 9, 4:10ï¿½ pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 5, 3:20ï¿½ pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 3, 2:40ï¿½pm, Michael Coslo wrote:

Gotcha, Jug!
Marcellus? Is that you?
Complete with insignia!

Almost time to put the blue sweaters away.

Right you are.

There's no one who can reduce a waste stream
like West Africans. ï¿½ The
seams in Coke cans are opened after the tops
and bottoms are removed and
the cans are rolled flat. ï¿½ The become roofing material
or house siding.
Black trash bags are washed and recycled. ï¿½ Pop bottles
become water
bottles and used 55-gallon drums (previous contents
unknown) are used
for making palm or cashew wine.

Except for the reuse of possibly-contaminated 55-gal drums it all
sounds good.

Yeah, I've thought about it a great deal. Some of those drums may have
had petroleum products or pesticides or such. You might want to think
about getting your beef in a black trash bag which was previously used
for garbage. I once bought a loaf of French bread on the street which
came wrapped in a letter I'd discarded in the trash. It didn't bother
me too much since I'd already gotten used to picking the baked weevils
out of the bread.

The dial drum of the Southgate Type 7 was made from a piece of 6"
diameter plexiglass pipe. It was thoroughly cleaned and about a 2"
long section cut off. A disk 6" in diameter was then cut and the pipe
solvent-welded to the disk using Duco.

The neutralizing-adjustment disk from a BC-375 tuning unit was then
bolted to the bottom so that the dial drum could be mounted on an
extension of the tuning capacitor shaft.

The dial drum is viewed through a Plexiglas window. A piece of paper
wrapped around the drum was calibrated using an LM frequency meter,
then a good copy drawn using a CAD program. The good copy was printed
on translucent Mylar and put on the drum.

That's a pretty inventive way to handle a homebrew dial.

A lampholder/reflector assembly is mounted inside the dial drum, with
two pilot lights so the whole thing is illuminated.

It sounds remarkably like the way Hammarlund handled the
dial/illumination in the HQ-215.

You want a Southgate type number for it?
I think that'd be appropriate.

Indeed! I will speak with Engineering Documentation about it.

I received the data from Engineering.

The upright case has a full metal cover, space for a cooling fan and a
shelf which can hold the rectifier board and electrolytic caps. ï¿½ The
bottles aren't U.S. types, they're Phillips equivalents with graphite
plates. ï¿½ They should hold up for a long time. ï¿½ I'll use Chinese
Coleman-type lantern chimneys.

There's a good discussion over on eham about high power tubes,
gettering and other issues. Unlike receiving tubes with their shiny
flashed getters, high power tubes often use the anode or a coating as
the getter, and need to operate at high temperature to work.

I've read the eham thread and have even participated.

Lots of good info out there free for the download. W5JGV's site has
info from Eimac, RCA, Taylor and other tube makers. Not just the usual
number and data but application notes, recommended practices, etc.

I'm forced to admit that I've got many of the original transmitting and
receiving guides. When I sold industrial electronics for Hughes-Peters,
I rescued an old Eimac three-ring binder from the trash. It contains
the specs for most early and late Eimac bottles along with applications
notes and design info for amateur amplifiers. Quite a number of those
notes and articles were done by Bill Orr W6SAI (SK). I consider Bill's
articles to be excellent.

Yes, but they want you to *buy* the stuff! My adapters
were made from
scraps.
Some of us would have to buy stuff in order to have scraps.

Bwaahaahaa

I can't tell you how many leftovers I have from buying material for a
project. When I lived in Cincy, I used to hit the scrap bins of a
plastics distributor so I have quite a bit of scrap teflon, nylon and
lucite rod, sheet and tube. Finding it when I want it is the hard part.

ï¿½ I've found
that the hobby shop stuff is not terribly expensive. ï¿½ They also have
round, square and sheet plastic stock. ï¿½ Some is clear and some is
translucent--ideal for making dial scales.

See description, above. I gotta take more pics...

Exactly. Wood prices have changed, though; today
a tabletop might be
AC plywood.

Depends what's on the cull cart.

I don't have a place with a cull cart. ï¿½ I've sometimes bought
ugly-looking plywood and topped a desk with vinyl floor tile. ï¿½ If you

want to fancy one up, hardwood veneer isn't too pricey.

Don't want fancy. Want functional.

Keeping the XYL happy, serves a function. Keeping visiting hams from
laughing, serves a function.

Thursday there was the remains of a packing box for some new furniture
by a dumpster near here. The box was corrugated but the base was nice
2x4 and 1x6, nailed together. Cut off the corrugated and saved the
wood.

I'm not above that. My last crank up tower from Tashjian/Tri-Ex had a
crate built from 22-foot-long California 2x4's and some long, narrow
strips of plywood. I kept it all. I'd never even seen 22' pieces of
2x4 stock prior to getting these. They're reddish in color and are of
some sort of pine not often found here in the East.

The former belongs in a museum, the latter in a home.
Not everyone lives like us, Jim. ï¿½ Some folks have houses
large enough to
be homes *and* museums and the wherewithal to populate
the place with
both types of antiques.

Yep, you're right. Particularly around here!

Well, these 3,000 to 5000 square foot mega-homes have been cropping up
everywhere in the past decade. They're much cheaper to heat and cool
than some of the earlier built homes.

ï¿½ I can appreciate antiques as art but we don't
have enough room for antiques we can't put to use unless
they happen to
be art for the wall or items which can sit on a table for
the most part.

Same here. All about multiple uses.

....and the conservation of space.

You're a lightweight! ï¿½ My main operating position is representative
of
overkill. ï¿½ The frame is 2x4's; the legs are 4x4's and the top is a
hollow core door. ï¿½ There's a two shelf console with two angled
wings,
with enough roof under the first shelf for solid-state brick
VHF/UHF
amps, keyers, paddles, DVK and the like.

For me that frame is overkill but the hollow-core door is underkill -
not strong enough.

The console is the key to strength.

Did I mention the six foot rack to my right?

I've had table racks but always wanted a six or seven foot floor rack.
My old Handbook has plans for a wooden one...

I remember seeing the plans.

I did one table with a hollow core door many years ago (it was
free)
but they are too flimsy and too expensive for TSS approval now.
They hold up well with the 2x4 frame and 2x4 bracing.

Yes but that's not the issue. You can punch right through the surface
with something sharp and heavy enough.

That's why I mentioned the console. Everything heavy sits on it. The
four supports for it distribute the weight so that nothing can break
through the door. There's one large HF rig, one HF/VHF/UHF rig, four
rotor control boxes, an HF amp, three remote coaxial switches, three
watt meters, two speakers, an antenna tune, a RTTY/digital modem, spare
receiver and a monitor scope on the console. Assorted accessory boxes
sit under the console and there's an LCD computer monitor and a keyboard
on the desk too.

Dave K8MN

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