[ARC5] [Fwd: Re: [vmars] german radio]

[J. Forster]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: [vmars] german radio
From:    "Richard Hankins" <g7rvi at richard-hankins.org.uk>
Date:    Fri, January 6, 2012 1:52 pm
To:      vmars at yahoogroups.com
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Folks,

there are quite a lot of good sites on German radios.   A couple I
particularly like are:

http://www.desyatnik.com/radio_coll.php

and

Arthur Bauer's "Foundation for German Communication and related
technologies" at http://www.cdvandt.org/

The latter is particularly impressive, and we have nothing like it for
British technology as yet.   Good as Louis Meulstee's site and books are
- they don't approach Arthur's work.

Anyone thinking of working on German gear should bear in mind that its
tough going.   I know because Alan asked me a good while ago to work on
one of his E52 receivers.   German technology was far more advanced than
Allied technology of the WWII era, and there is a steep learning curve
involved.   I'm afraid to say its one of the few restorations that I did
not manage to complete, though I did sort out quite a few bugs that had
been put in it by some previous owner.

One of the first problems is that there is very little written material
on the equipment in English.   Even understanding the schematics is a
challenge - unless you are fluent in technical German.   Getting even
partial translations take a lot of effort too.    You can't just cut and
paste bits of the manual into Babelfish and expect anything meaningful
to come back........

Some of the circuitry is extremely clever and hard to understand too.
I defy anyone to come up with a quick explanation of the how the
detector (using a pentode) in the E52 works.   And the variable
selectivity IF filter is another marvel of ingenuity.

The mechanics is advanced too and can be very tricky to fix.   The
optical tuning system in the E52 is astonishing......


regards


Richard
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