[Boatanchors] FT-101

[George Morton]

Without giving away the station call sign, I designed a 12 KW dummy load for 
a coastal station who didn't want to go off air and lose ad revenue.  They 
were having the tower painted and the painter didn't want to work on a hot 
tower.  We used two Beacon bulbs each 1KW and a small length of coax to the 
bulbs who were afixed to a 2x4 cross on top of the radio shack.  Worked 
fine.  Covered  the whole town and  no advertisers complained about reduced 
coverage.  Brgds, Geo
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard W. Solomon" <w1ksz at earthlink.net>
To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2008 4:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] FT-101


> One time I forgot I had left the antenna switch on the dummy load.
> I wondered why the band was so quiet. The only station I could hear
> and work (57 both ways) was a chap in EI land.
> Heath Cantennas were great loads and passable radiators.
>
> 73, Dick, W1KSZ
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Glen Zook <gzook at yahoo.com>
>>Sent: Sep 3, 2008 11:35 AM
>>To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net, Barrie Smith <barrie at centric.net>
>>Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] FT-101
>>
>>Unfortunately, a light bulb usually will not present any where near a 50 
>>ohm load.  Now when transmitters could load a "wet noodle" they worked OK. 
>>But, when the transmitters started going to a fixed output impedance light 
>>bulbs just did not work very well.
>>
>>Also, a light bulb does not make for a non-radiating load.  Frankly, they 
>>can make a fair antenna.  Back around 1960 there was a group of us who got 
>>on 7290 kHz every afternoon after school.  One day the group decided to 
>>see just who could work the farthest on the worst antenna.  The "prize" 
>>went to a fellow who loaded up a light bulb in his basement (he lived on 
>>the north side of Detroit) who got a "57" from another of the group who 
>>was located in St. Louis, Missouri.  There also was a fellow in the mid 
>>west who worked DXCC using a light bulb!
>>
>>When I was in high school (this was like in 1961) I built a homebrew 
>>2-meter AM transmitter using a 2E26 in the final.  Frankly, I didn't have 
>>a whole lot of money at the time so I omitted the plate meter and to tune 
>>up I used a pilot lamp soldered into a PL-259.  I just tuned for maximum 
>>brilliance and then unscrewed the dummy load and attached the coax to my 
>>10 element yagi.  My shack was in the basement of my parent's house in 
>>northwestern Indiana.  Whenever I tuned up amateur radio operators for 
>>several miles around knew that I was getting ready to transmit because 
>>they could copy my signal radiating from the pilot lamp.
>>
>>Nowadays I have a Bird 6154 dummy load / wattmeter that is rated for 150 
>>watts continuous as well as a Heath Cantenna with transformer oil.
>>
>>Glen, K9STH
>>
>>Website:  http://k9sth.com
>>
>>
>>--- On Wed, 9/3/08, Barrie Smith <barrie at centric.net> wrote:
>>
>>From: Barrie Smith <barrie at centric.net>
>>
>>I do have a good dummy load, but it's just 60 watts.
>>Use it mostly for setting-up 432 and 1296 transverters, and such.
>>
>>What's wrong with a light bulb?  That's what most of us used back in the 
>>1950s.
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>
> _______________________________________________