[Boatanchors] Prewar Creativity

[Michael Tauson]

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 3:17 AM, Carl<km1h at jeremy.mv.com> wrote:
> A good source of parts was the town dump, or roadside trash days, plus the
> automotive junk yard and scrap metal dealer.

Trash day was a favorite of mine for years.  Once I can get a sweet
young innocent - or maybe not so innocent - partner in crime, I'll go
back out again.  (And since I'm 63, "young" has a rather broad
definition too.)  The definition of trash has changed some with the
changed venue but there are still goodies to be had.

> For my first receiver and transmitter in the mid 50's the only cash outlay
> was about .50 each for a few WW2 surplus crystals and sheet aluminum from
> the scrap dealer to make chassis and panels.

I started making breadboard receivers during the 50s from some 1930s
Gernsback publications then using whatever I could find for parts and
pine 1x12 for the chassis.  When I was getting ready to get my ticket
(which happened in 1961), crystals were ultra cheap for me - out of
band and both crystal blanks & empty holders, the latter two from
contract terminations, and a lot of grinding which became a passion
and a source of income for me.  Chasses were from command sets and a
few other donor sources as they were for a good number of parts along
with TVs et al.

> Prewar crystals were expensive so it was either save up the cash for a new
> one or find another ham who had upgraded to an ECO.

In reading the catalog section of the 1936 ARRL Handbook, the prices
of Bliley's fixed crystals struck me.  They were $5 for crystals
within a few KCs of desired or $8 for ones on frequency.  (With the
somewhat more exensive VF-1 variable crystals, this was the minimum
frequency.)  That was in 1936 currency so was quite an amount.  The
reason I asked about crystal blanks & homemade holders reflected back
to my own experience with grinding as needed and I would like to know
how far hams then took homebrew.

> With the wide range of tubes used in consumer products it was easy enough to
> build a 40-80W input TX for CW. It should be even easier now than the 50's
> as TVI as of last week is pretty much a non issue.

Well, yeah.  In the 50s there were many, many sources of trash ... er,
spare parts horses.  I'm going 20 years earlier to duplicate as much
as I possibly can what a "frugal or desperate ham" (to quote myself -
generally bad form, I know) would do to get on the air.

Ex: Some of the "tube sockets" in my early receivers were nothing more
than holes drilled into the pine with wire wrapped around the pins
before I dropped them (with a little pressure due to a slightly tight
fit) into the holes.  For receivers this wasn't a problem but
transmitters involve higher voltages and currents and I don't know how
far I can push that concept before it bites back ... or is this one of
those times surface mount sockets would be a really good idea.

I guess, in the end, the question is how much MacGyvering might that
ham have do to get on the air.

Best regards,

Michael, WH7HG
-- 
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com
Hiki Nô!