[AK-VHF] Radio Projects

[Brandon Clark]

Hello group,

Tom's and Ed's projects are now up on the FaceBook site.


On 4/21/20 1:50 PM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> Almost all radio's from the 1920-40's were housed in wooden cabinets. 
> Lots of test equipment, too!
>
> The old saying "building a bread board" came from mounting components 
> on real wood bread boards!
> Shielding of radio stuff did not start until post WWII when hams began 
> to get complaints of TVI with the new TV sets that became popular in 
> 1950's.  Most of them had copper chassis and wooden cabinets so poorly 
> shielded.
>
> My early ham friends (1950's) worked in TV shops so I got see a few on 
> the workbench.
>
> I made a huge loading coil from No. 12 house wire (stripped) and used 
> a while plastic cutting board to make my form (photos attached)
>
> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>
> At 12:43 PM 4/21/2020, Brandon Clark wrote:
>> That's a very cool project. And you're right, you don't see a lot of 
>> tuners
>> with a wooden box. It's interesting though how little the 
>> fundamentals have
>> changed: if you have a coil and a capacitor then you can tune antennas,
>> whether you're in 1920 or 2020, lol.
>>
>> What are your plans for the tuner?
>> Brandon
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 11:58 Tom Elmore <tom at telmore.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Brandon, Since you were sharing.
>> >
>> > I Picked up this antenna tuner from ebay recently because I thought it
>> > looked interesting but who makes a tuner out of wood. I’m 
>> guessing the
>> > thing
>> > is from the 40’s or 50’s judging by the antenna current meter. 
>> The plugin
>> > coil assembly fell apart during shipping but to be fair the little 
>> plastic
>> > strips that hold the coils in place have all shrunk and the glue 
>> dried up I
>> > see this a lot on these types of air coil forms. I decided to 
>> rewind them
>> > so
>> > I turned a piece of Teflon 2 ½” in diameter to re-wrap the wires 
>> around to
>> > act as a master form on the lathe. I also wanted to remake the little
>> > strips
>> > that go inside the coils to keep the coils spaced. What I did was take
>> > another piece of 2 ½” diameter x 2 “ long Teflon solid round 
>> stock and
>> > threaded it at 11 threads per inch. I figured out with a thread gauge
>> > holding it over a slightly still intact coil that it was about 
>> 11tpi. I
>> > then
>> > bored out the entire Teflon piece until I add about .100 of 
>> material left.
>> > I
>> > then took that whole form and cut ¼” strips the length of the 
>> form that
>> > were
>> > threaded and help keep the wire in place. I placed 3 strips around the
>> > outside of the master form and then wrapped the wire over the 
>> strips in the
>> > grooves I cut while threading. I then used clear JB weld to hold 
>> the little
>> > strips in place against the wire . When the epoxy cured I slipped 
>> the coil
>> > assembly off the master form. What I ended up with looked like the 
>> original
>> > did and I suspect this is probably how they did it in the factory 
>> more or
>> > less.
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: ak-vhf-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:
>> > ak-vhf-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
>> > On Behalf Of Brandon Clark
>> > Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 9:15 AM
>> > To: AK VHF+ Group
>> > Subject: [AK-VHF] Radio Projects
>> >
>> > Hello group,
>> >
>> > I've been tied up with moving, but am now getting back to working 
>> on radio.
>> > If you're on FaceBook, search for me and you can see the photos of 
>> a J38
>> > key
>> > that I just finished restoring. The metal work is better than new, 
>> and I
>> > replaced the bakelite base with a stone one made from a floor tile. 
>> (Now I
>> > just have to finish learning the code <sigh>)
>> >
>> > I have also shared a few photos on the club FaceBook site as well. 
>> If you
>> > have been working on any projects lately and would like to share 
>> then with
>> > the group I'm happy to post them online. Things like that are great 
>> for
>> > outreach. More importantly, being able to see how experienced hams 
>> set up
>> > equipment is really useful for new hams that are looking for guidance.
>> >
>> > So if you've been working on something fun, take a few photos and 
>> send them
>> > to me off-list. I'll get them posted up online.
>> >
>> > 73,
>> >
>> > Brandon
>> >
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>
> 73, Ed - KL7UW
>   http://www.kl7uw.com
> Dubus-NA Business mail:
>   dubususa at gmail.com