[Boatanchors] Prewar Creativity

[Carl]

"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."

Say WHAT?

The 2A5, 59, 41, 42, 6K6, 6F6, 6L6, 6V6 were all prewar tubes an in just 
about anything that had an audio stage. There are several other less common 
choices.

A simple rig for at least 160-20M would be a 41 (6K6) xtal oscillator, a 42 
(6F6) buffer multiplier, and pair of 6L6's in the final. You also have 30 
and 17M which are great low power CW bands and a chance to investigate the 
surplus xtal availability. The audiophools havent hurt the metal version 6F6 
and 6L6 price yet; I just bought 4 NIB metal RCA 6L6's for $20 to retube one 
of the HT-9 modulators sections here.

A regular 30M rig here is a 1934 FB-7XA that I wound coils for and a 1938 
Meissner Signal Shifter that I found a coil set on Ebay. Runs around 6W out.

There are many junked prewar console radios showing up and the ones that 
used PP audio are good transformer material. Others are often free on 
Craigslist, especially the Postwar ones with phonographs and PP audio. Very 
little collectability.

You can get really carried away restuffing paper and electrolytic can caps 
if really going for the authentic look.

Carl
KM1H

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Tauson" <wh7hg.hi at gmail.com>
To: "boatanchors" <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 4:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Prewar Creativity


> 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!
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