[Boatanchors] A military boatanchor resistor question.

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:54:24 -0500

I haven't followed this thread carefully but here is the scoop:

M comes from the Latin 'mille' meaning 1000. The Greek form 'kilo'
eventually won out. Things aren't consistent. 'Milli' as in 'milli-ohm' is
still used to mean 1/1000 th. This comes from the Latin 'millensimus'
meaning (suprise) 1/1000th.

My thanks to Mrs. Merril and her first year Latin class at Burbank HS in
1956.

73,

Paul, W9MEH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Schmitz" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 21:59 PM
Subject: RE: [Boatanchors] A military boatanchor resistor question.

> Phil,
> I've noticed this on some schematics as well. I have a schematic of an
SX-28
> that had the resistors labeled with M and when I compared it to another
> schematic of and SX-28, sure enough, every where they had an M should have
> been a K. I always thought that it was some type of typo, but now you got
me
> wondering if there was actually something behind it.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Philip Atchley
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 9:01 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Boatanchors] A military boatanchor resistor question.
>
> Hi,
> In anticipation of a BC-342 arriving here in the not too distant future,
> I've downloaded and printed the military manual on this set (1946).  This
is
> apparently an "early" version of the set, making it circa 1944.
>
> Today I printed an extra copy of the parts list and am going through the
> schematic, hand writing in the values of the capacitors and resistors into
> the parts list as it only shows military part numbers.  I expect that I
have
> most of the capacitors and plan on putting together a "kit" of capacitors
> before I dig into the set.  The capacitors haven't proven to be a problem
as
> I "know" that 100 mmF is actually 100pF (yes, my experience goes back to
> "pre-puff" days).
>
> Where I am having a slight problem is in resistors.  There are a lot of
them
> labeled on the schematic as 50M, 40M, 25M etc.  I am CERTAIN that in this
> case "M" DOESN'T stand for MegOhms.  Looking at the locations of these
> resistors (grids, screen grids etc) I'd guess that MAYBE a 50M resistor
> might actually be a 50K (50,000 Ohms)  resistor, but it could also
> conceivably be 500K (500,000 Ohms).
>
> I checked the page in the manual that shows how to read the resistor color
> code (something I know by heart) but it said NOTHING about what 40M would
> actually mean.  I presume that this is a term that any radio tech of
around
> 1944 would learn in tech-school or Elmers, by the time I came on the scene
> in the 50's resistors were already measured in K for K-Ohms or M for
> MegOhms.
>
> HELP!
> 73 from the "Beaconeers Lair".
> Phil, KO6BB
>
> DX begins at the noise floor!
> Merced, Central California
> 37.18N  120.29W  CM97sh
>
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