[ARC5] W2EWL BC-458 based SSB rig redone in Nov 2013 ER

[Robert Nickels]

On 11/16/2013 4:21 PM, Geoff wrote:
> Originally in March 56 QST, I built one in late 56 with the help of 
> published corrections and the authors help.

Carl and Mac (and any other W2EWL builders in the audience) -

I also admire Mikes design and the improvements he made, but I've been 
on a quest to try to make my original "dual band" W2EWL Special work as 
I think it should.   It's great on 75 meters, plenty of drive and 70+ 
watts out.   The problem is on 20, where the 12BY7 combination 
mixer/driver just doesn't produce enough drive to get more than 25 watts 
max.    Of course having the 3rd harmonic of the VFO right nearby 
doesn't help either.   Mike added a Pullen dual-triode mixer to get 
around the compromise Tony Vitale had to make, as he'd run out of room 
on the ARC-5 chassis.   That may be where I end up, but I'd like to at 
least understand why Tony's mixer works so much better on "9-5" than on 
"9+5".   I know that most of these rigs would have been used to drive 
amplifiers, so maybe no one was really concerned that the 20 meter 
output was so low in comparison.

I've been going back and forth with Mike, but haven't found any other 
owners, builders, or guys with good memories who might have "been there 
done that".    So any ideas, theories, wild @ssed guesses, etc would be 
welcome.

I'm also looking for any information about Tony Vitale if anyone has 
anything in their files.   As Carl said, he helped a lot of guys get 
started with SSB.

73, Bob W9RAN