[ARC5] Vibrator Power Supplies

[J Mcvey]

I have found that most of the long dormant vibrators have fouled contacts. The prevailing wisdom is that this the result of "outgassing" from the deteriorating rubber which reacts with the tungsten contacts.
I cut these open with a pipe cutter and either try to clean the contacts or replace the innards with a solid state replacement.
Spraying and standard burnishing tools won't cut the oxide. The only way I could get back to a conductive surface was with brute force emery cloth.Believe or not, after a bit of elbow grease, the vibrator with actually work reliably with all that abuse!

 

    On Tuesday, November 21, 2017 10:56 PM, kn7sfz <kn7sfz at gmail.com> wrote:
 

  Question for the group.
 
 If one has a piece of equipment with vibrator supply that hasn't run for decades, what precautions should be made to protect the radio from any damage when applying power after sitting dormant for so long.  Can't just bring this one up on a variac.  Car radios, Gonsets, etc.
 
 Thanks for your input.
 
 Richard kn7sfz in Orygun
 
 
 
 On 11/21/2017 7:41 PM, Robert Nickels wrote:
  
On 11/21/2017 7:31 PM, Peter Gottlieb wrote: 
 
I bet a vibrator driven supply would do a pretty decent job running a modern computer! 
 
 I have a little contraption out in the garage which would make that test pretty easy, Peter.   It's mil but I can't recall the model number, but it's a vibrator type 110V inverter that runs from 24 volts.    I'll dig it out next time I have a chance, never really thought of a use for it. 
 
 The Mallory company made a line of vibrator power supply modules that were sold to OEMs to save them the trouble of having to design and build their own.   One of the 2Mhz marine radios I converted had one inside, and it was a pretty nice compact module (about 3 by 5" and maybe 4" tall) that put out 300VDC at maybe  100MA.    They were called "Vibrapacks" and evidently were used by police radios, according to this ad: 
 
 http://members.iinet.net.au/~cool386/elkonode/rsz_vibrapack_ad.jpg 
 
 The boat radio Vibrapack used a synchronous vibrator to perform rectification at the same time, which is really a slick electromechanical solution.   But the 0Z4 cold cathode rectifier tube was also used. 
 
 Lots of mobile ham transmitters were sold in the 50s which could run 10-30 watts input using a vibrator supply or as much as 50 or 60 watts if you used a dynamotor.    The Gonset twins and a universal mobile supply made by James used heavy-duty vibrators for higher power,  perhaps others did also. 
 
 73, Bob W9RAN 
 
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