[AMRadio] Re: AMRadio Digest, Vol 38, Issue 24

[D. Chester]

>
> Hello all,
> I'm a new guy to the AM Radio list, my Name is Scott, my friends call me 
> Bow
> (like bow and arrow).
> I am located on the northwest side Houston, TX and I like to homebrew.
>
> I have built quite a few tube guitar amps and such from scratch, and now I
> am interested in cooking up an AM transmitter to get on the air... Tubes, 
> of
> course. :)
>
> I recently acquired some 815s and 807W tubes (2 each) that I would like to
> put to use.
>
> Until I get my homebrew project started, I will be putting my Knight T60 
> on
> the air, just to try it out. I am currently waiting for the DDS VFO kit 
> that
> I ordered to come in, as that will be the VFO I use for the T60, as will 
> as
> other transmitter projects.
> I have a EF Johnson Messenger Two 11 meter rig that I will be putting on 
> the
> 10 Meter AM band as well, when 10 meters opens up again.
> I also have a Icom IC-718 that is on the air now.
>
> I hope to catch you on the bands.
>
> Bow
>
> W5EFR


Bow,

I think I used to live not too far from your QTH back in the late 70's.  I 
lived in the Heights area of Houston, near the intersection of W 24th Street 
and Rutland (Ave?}.

The 815 is a pair of 807's in one envelope.  If yours is good, you could run 
about 100 watts plate modulated with it, or use it as a modulator tube and 
get enough audio power to modulate a 100 watt carrier.  I had never heard 
that about the 815, but many of those tubes with multiple seals in the 
envelope are notorious for taking in air as they remain on the shelf for 
many years.

What kind of DDS VFO kit did you order?  Several years ago I picked up a DDS 
vfo at Dayton.  It was made by S&S Engineering (if I recall the name 
correctly).  It tunes up to 16 mHz, but I used it @ 7 mHz and multiplied up 
with an old Eico 720 to work 10m, and it seemed to have near perfect 
stability.
I used it with the recent ARRL frequency measuring test, and managed to 
measure one of the frequencies (80m) within 0.5 Hz.  So if yours has clean 
output, free of spurs, it would make an excellent vfo for AM or any other 
mode, for that matter.

You ought to try to get in touch with John, WA5BXO and Otis, K5SWK.  They 
now live somewhere north of Houston, near Conroe I believe.  They have been 
tall ships on AM from the Houston area for decades, and could probably help 
you.

BTW, does anyone in the Houston area know what ever happened to the museum 
and collection of pre-WW2 radio publications that used to be in the building 
that housed the Houston amateur radio club in the late 70's?  They had a 
their own building and meetings were held on Friday nights, once a month as 
I recall.  Part of the meeting was an auction that alternated between "good 
equipment" and junk parts.  Some of the museum stuff was extremely 
interesting, and would be highly sought after to-day, and the publications, 
mostly broadcast related technical magazines from the  late 20's throughout 
the 30's contained a lot of hard to find technical data and history of 
radio.  They had some framed photographs of club meetings before WW2, and I 
recall one picture listed the members, and one of the members present in the 
photograph was Howard Hughes in his younger years.

I understand that the part of Houston where that building was located 
flooded out during a hurricane a few years after I left.  I would hope that 
all that history didn't get destroyed in the flood.  Someone told me that 
the Houston amateur radio club disbanded in the 80's.

Don k4kyv