[ARC5] My First Experience Using a Dynamotor

[Lee]

I'm on the list and have a few ARC-5s acquired many years ago.  That 
said,  I am not a big time follower or worshiper of ARC-5s and have 
pretty much been a lurker here as I don't have much to add.  You guys 
know more then I know about them.  Anyway to add something,  I had a 
Viking Mobile rig back in 1956 powered by a PE-101C dynamotor.  I was a 
teen age kid with the call W9DRC with little money.  (A PE-103 dynamotor 
was much preferred as it gave more current and a more appropriate 
voltage for an 807 rig.)  Anyway, this PE-101C was all I could afford 
and was my first experience using a dynamotor with a transmitter.  This 
was much larger then the small ones used on ARC-5 receivers.  I first 
mounted the transmitter and receiver converter in my stick shift Nash 
Rambler, then I mounted my 8 foot loaded whip with a spring mount and 
then it came time to install the alternator in the trunk.  This 
particular PE-101C  dynamotor had no substantial base to it.  All it had 
was a light metal flat plate mounted on the bottom.  All I did was hook 
it up and let it just sit on my trunk floor.  Now it was time to fire 
the rig up and see how well I did.  So I turned on the filaments and 
warmed everything up and now it was time to "Push the carbon mic 
button!"  I pushed it and  immediately experienced a great mechanical 
noise or THUMP within the trunk.  I opened the trunk to see what 
happened and found the dynamotor had flipped over 180 degrees.  This was 
my first experience with the phenomena called TORQUE!  That's when I 
learned these things need to be bolted down.

Then after using the rig this way I found the 6 volt generator in my 
Nash Rambler could not keep up with the power demand of the dynamotor.  
I found out when the battery finally got drained, the ignition in my car 
would stop and the car would stall.  But not to worry, this was a stick 
shift car.  If I would let up on the mic push to talk switch the motion 
of the car through the standard transmission would start my car engine 
as the ignition would again work as the generator had begun to re-charge 
the battery. The bottom line was, the QSO had to end when my engine 
quit!  As I recall a dynamotor is around 33% efficient.  These were my 
first experiences using a dynamotor.

Happy New Year everyone.

Lee, w0vt