[Hallicrafters] Soild state vs Tubes

Sun Sep 9 10:43:55 EDT 2007

Hi Pete,

Well, truthfully, "watching tubes glow" does not do anything for me either. 
(LOL!) The only way I can partake of this sensory state is by putting a 
finger on the glowing tube. No big smile or rush of glory from my past, just 
a nasty burn on my Braille finger, pain, suffering and now and then the 
utterance of a bad word! The only thrill I ever really experience brings me 
no joy, as it is the 'if you've ever smelled it once, you won't ever forget 
it' scent of a capacitor being cremated! That stench stays in the sinus 
cavities for weeks, depending on the size of your sinus cavities, even 
months!!

There is one thing even worse, now that I am thinking deeply on this 
nostalgic topic. The absolute olfactory destruction wrought by a Selenium 
Rectifier going up in smoke. I swear you can even taste it for several days 
afterwards. Have any of you ever had the misfortune of getting a snout full 
of one burning up? If so, you will know in one ten thousandth of a 
millisecond what the smell is if you ever experience it again for the rest 
of your life!

I agree with my long time friend Peter, that the true thrill, and warm inner 
sense of accomplishment, comes from making what was considered by most as 
dead and should be housed in a landfill, come back to life again. However, 
one can also get the same rush of pleasure and pride from building even the 
most simple item, such as a crystal radio, designing and constructing your 
own antenna or assembling a kit for a small solid state amplified speaker. 
If one is really daring, finding an old Boy Scout handbook circa 1948-1953 
and building the one tube, two tube and super regenerative AM radios they 
have the diagrams and "how to" plans for.

You do NOT have to have decades of experience - as many of those on these 
lists do, you do NOT have to be professionally trained or educated as an 
Engineer or whatever, nor do you need to have an in depth grasp of circuits. 
It is not difficult to learn to read a schematic, easy charts that show the 
symbols and explain them, are easily found. Most who fail, do so because 
they started half way up the ladder of learning, rather then starting at the 
bottom and moving up one slow, steady, safe step at a time! We all have 
these great ideas about some marvelous gadget that we want to construct, and 
that is wonderful. If we start small, take out time, learn from the mistakes 
we "all" make, have patience ... Who knows what wonders we may bring from 
the neuron chalkboards of our minds to the shelves of the local hardware - 
toy - speciality store shelves?

Have fun! That is the number one goal.

Duane W8DBF

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Markavage" <manualman at juno.com>
To: <Hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Soild state vs Tubes

> Maybe for some, but for me, restoring is the challenge of bringing
> something back to life to all its glory. Warm glow or no glow, it makes
> no difference to me.  I'd rather just put my ear up to the speaker or put
> on a set of cans. Just watching tubes glow, doesn't do it for me.
>
> Pete, wa2cwa
>
> On Sat, 8 Sep 2007 21:58:53 EDT HallicrafterSX28 at aol.com writes:
>> The whole purpose of  restoring a 60 or 70 year old radio is to
>> experience
>> the glow and warmth of a thermionic vacuum tube  !! If you want  to
>> use solid
>> state replacements then you might as well remove all of the tubes
>> and insert
>> transistors in all the sockets(of course with the proper voltage
>> dropping
>> resistors !) that would defintely reduce ALL heating and load on the
>>  power
>> transformer !!
>> I like  to open the top lid on my SX-28 or SX-17 to  enjoy the warm
>> orange
>> glow to comes of all the tubes including the rectifier  tube when
>> it's pulling
>> signals from a distant station.
>> My 2  cents
>> Nick
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