[Boatanchors] Globe KIng Panel Meters

[Glen Zook]

Leo Meyerson definitely was not one to waste anything!


I have a Globe Champion 350A that was one of the last built.  The cabinet does not have the "overhang" and the "A", in "350A", has obviously been added after the panel was originally silk screened.  The circuitry, of the transmitter, is considerably different from a couple of "plain" Globe Champion 350 transmitters that I had previous serviced before acquiring the transmitter.  I asked Leo, several years before he died, about this.  He said that I definitely had a 350A version.  It seems that, when the very last 350A transmitters came down the line, WRL ran out of of the overhang cabinets and the proper front panels.  Since he was not one to "waste" anything, there were still a few of the older cabinets and front panels around from the much older models, those were used on the last of the newer model transmitters.

 Glen, K9STH 
Website: http://k9sth.net

      From: "w5jo at brightok.net" <w5jo at brightok.net>
 To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net 
 Sent: Sunday, May 1, 2016 8:48 PM
 Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Globe KIng Panel Meters
   
I have a 500A that I know is original because the first owner gave it to me 
back in 1994.  The modulator deck has 811A modulator tubes although the 
stencil on the deck says 5514.  The Filament transformer, original and 
unmolested, is a 6 volt unit not the 7 volt one required for the 5514.  I 
worked on one with a 7 volt transformer that had 811A  stencils  but had the 
5514 tubes.  Mine has 4-400 stenciled on the RF deck but came with a 4-250 
in the socket.

WRL was not one to waste anything and would make engineering changes on the 
line as they came down.  If you look at the B model diagram it employed a 
6AL5 audio compressor but the tube pins on some of the diagrams are 
mislabeled.  The A model had the same switch but in inserted a transformer 
with some capacitors in the audio section between the last audio and the 
driver.  Funny thing, the manual that came with the radio does not have the 
circuit on the diagram.  The bandswitch wafer used to select coil taps in 
the final section was a single sided phenolic wafer whereas the DX 100 had a 
ceramic wafer and used both sides of the wafer for contacts.

The weak link of the 500 series was the modulation transformer and a lot of 
them shorted.  But, overall, it was good buy for the power and reliability 
of the day.  The Champion was the size and weight of a DX 100 but had more 
output and the Johnson 500 was the only transmitter I recall that compared 
to the King in terms of power.  The King was much less expensive too.