[Hammarlund] Andy Moorer's SP-600 web page - IS UP!

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James A. (Andy) Moorer" <jamminpower at earthlink.net>
To: <hammarlund at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2015 2:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Hammarlund] Andy Moorer's SP-600 web page - IS 
UP!


> jamminpower is back! Bubba got his truck running and all 
> is working now.
> Keep on jammin'!
> -A
>
> -- 
> James A. (Andy) Moorer
> www.jamminpower.com
>
     Congratulations to you and to Bubba. Did you bait the 
job with a couple of six-packs?
     I can't be sure but think your site loads a bit faster 
than it used to.
     A couple of notes about stuff there:  Granny the 
riveter is actually Rosie the Riveter, do a google search 
for the posters and much more. What the lady is holding 
might be a pneumatic drill.
     The PL-172 was a Penta Labs tube. I have tried without 
success to find historical information on Penta Labs. My old 
friend and mentor David Atkins W6VX knew the people who 
started it, they were alumnai of Eimac but I don't know 
names.  Penta worked out some designs for beam _pentode_ 
tubes where the Eimac ones were beam tetrodes.  The claim 
was that the pentodes had less distortion.  Penta was 
eventually acquired by Machlett (I don't know how that is 
pronounced) and Machlett eventually was acquired by Varian. 
The story is that Penta had problems sealing their tubes. 
The getters would keep the vacuum when the tubes were in use 
but they tend to be very gassy if stored for long periods. 
A number of commercial transmitters used the PL-172, 
Hallicrafters and TMC among them and my friend designed and 
built a linear using one. This was orignally driven by a 
Collins 310B feeding a Barker & Williamson phasing type SSB 
generator. Dave went to something else later but I don't 
remember what. I have the B&W generator and used it on the 
air for a long time.
     Dave knew all the people from Eimac and Penta and from 
Heintz & Kauffman for that matter. Both Bill Eitel and Jack 
McCullough came from H&K so Penta was a sort of third 
generation of folks who wanted to have their own businesses. 
If anyone knows a good source of historical information 
about Penta I would be glad to have the citations.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com