[ARC5] Missing meter in Phantom Antenna A-61-A (#7777)

[J Mcvey]

Sounds like a great idea!  ...for a bodge...   It has the potential added benefit of allowing some degree of calibration of the anonymous 10 division antenna current meter in situ if you have an accurate standard to compare it with.
I wouldn't consider it a "bodge" since it is more like a home-brew test tool that is NOT part of the overall setup. Isn't a only a bodge when someone "boogers up" the radio itself? Mine are all pretty much as they were designed ( except where a prior owner may have drilled a hole), so no "bodging" on that score...
Yes, since the dummy load is a known quantity, it could  be used to calibrate the ammeter, but if one was to do that, wouldn't that be a bodge? The thermocouple nor the transformer are NOT adjustable as far as I know.
 

    On Saturday, April 9, 2016 10:33 AM, Michael Hanz <aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org> wrote:
 

  On 4/9/2016 9:27 AM, J Mcvey wrote:
 
  Everyone has their own objective on how they want to set these up.    
 
 This is undeniably true, and thank goodness we have the flexibility to exercise it and to receive such great help from people on this list.
 
 
  It seems to me that you are making this more difficult than it needs to be, if you just want to have a dummy load test jig.  
 
 You might be interested in taking a tour of Ray's excellent restoration website at http://www.tuberadio.com/robinson/museum/  It's a good way to better understand where he is usually coming from.  As an example, take a look at his outstanding article on the ARB.  While we certainly understand that some folks enjoy whipping up quick substitutes - and most of us here believe there is significant value in that branch of the hobby - not everyone wants to bodge things simply to get them working.  (I have recently become fond of that distinctly British word of late...it being a practice in which I have quite a bit of experience.  It ranks with that wonderful word swarf, from swerf, also of Old English origin, describing the endless piles of machining scrap peeling off of the lathe and other machining operations...)
 
 
   Why not attach a dummy load to the BC-442 antenna relay which already has the thermocouple and ammeter? I made one that fit in a small aluminum box with a variable series cap which I marked optimal positions for 40 and 80 meters. Two leads from the binding posts connect to the BC-442 and the system can be verified in its native state.  
 
 Sounds like a great idea!  ...for a bodge...   It has the potential added benefit of allowing some degree of calibration of the anonymous 10 division antenna current meter in situ if you have an accurate standard to compare it with.
 
 
  If you are looking to have an original testbed, then I guess the hunt is on for all of the obscure parts and pieces. Good luck!
   
 
 Indeed!  Sometimes the chase for the obscure part is half the fun.  Some of my longest searches for something on my wish list have been satisfied by someone from down under.  It goes both ways.
 
 73,
 Mike  KC4TOS
 
 
       On Saturday, April 9, 2016 8:00 AM, Michael Hanz <aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org> wrote:
  
 
    On 4/9/2016 3:37 AM, robinson at tuberadio.com wrote:
 
Thank you for the information. 
 What type of capacitor is inside? 
 It is a vacuum capacitor? 
 
 
 Yes.  It is the same diameter as the one in the BC-442 antenna relay, but longer, as one would expect.
 
 
My meter is what Mike said, 
 0-4 (non linear scale) internal thermocouple 
 has a white scale labeled AMPERES R.F. 
 WESTON 507 (metal case) ARC #7781 
 
 Whereas the ANTENNA RELAY UNIT type BC-442-AM or RE-2/ARC-5 
 0-10 (linear scale) external thermocouple 
 has a black scale labeled ANTENNA CURRENT INDICATOR 
 
 
 Yup.  The external thermocouple was required in the ATA antenna relay, in the early BC-442 (for a time), and finally in the RE-2/ARC-5, for a very specific purpose.  If you look closely at the test setup in the first diagram at http://aafradio.org/docs/ARC_Test_sets.html , which is from a 1941 version of the SCR-274N manual, you will notice a curious meter labeled I-71-B, which is a remote RF ammeter that could be selected by a switch on the antenna relay.  You might be interested in reading "the rest of the story" at http://aafradio.org/flightdeck/I-71A.html
   
      
 
 

  
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