[JMS] South Milwaukee Swapfest & 90881 Amp

[Don Buska]

Hey all,

If your on the glowbugs reflector you might have seen Bob's (W9RAN)
report on the South Milwaukee swapfest this past Saturday.  I borrow a
bit of the text from Bob's email (forgive me Bob):

"If you're in the mood for one more vicarious hamfest, let me tell you
about the South Milwaukee 'fest at Oak Creek WI.  It's a Saturday
affair, which mandates the traditional Wisconsin fish fry the night
before, as those like me who don't live in town learned long ago if you
aren't there at the crack of dawn (this year about 5:15AM) you'll miss
the bargains.  (Like the small Johnson Matchbox (missing SWR pickup
unit) for $15)."

"On the other hand I'm sure there would have been many takers for the
Millen 90902 o'scope I found for $25, these are seldom seen and well,
anything Millen goes quickly."  <End of quote's from Bob>

It's always great to see fellow JMS'ers grab the Millen finds.  Having
just recently purchased a 90881 amplifier from another JMS Bob (W0YVA) I
was in need of some of the required items to complete the unit.  On my
list were two 812A tubes and the high power plugin coils.  I was able to
obtain probably the only two 812A's at the fest.  From two different
sources.  However by 11AM and I had pretty much given up finding the
500W coils for the 90881.  As I was also selling, I wasn't able to
travel the rows-and-rows of cars as many times as I'd normally do.  So
after packing up my unsold items, actually sold most of the stuff I'd
brought, I made my last round.  I came across a nice looking Ten-Tec
Argonaut 509 transceiver  with original box.  That was interesting, but
since I already had two 509's at home I didn't ask the price (probably
should have).  However, in another Ten-Tec box was a Argonaut matching
210 power supply and a pretty rare Ten-Tec Signalizer S-30 (Audio CW
Filter/AMP/Speaker).  I bought those as I had no matching accessories
for my current 509's.  I probably should have asked how much the 509 was
too, considering the great price I got on the other items.  The
following day the wife and I went to an antique fleamarket at Graylake
IL and I found one of those neat little Electro-Voice mics that were
identical to the Ten-Tec 214's.  Cost me $5 and it was the only piece of
radio equipment worth buying at Grayslake.  If you've been following the
ham news lately you'd have seen that one of the Ten-Tec founders Albert
R. Kahn recently past away.  Al was also a co-founder of Electro-Voice.
Thus the relabeled EV mics were found on early Ten-Tec stuff.

Anyhoot, back to Millen!  After taking the Ten-Tec stuff back to the van
and continuing on my last swipe of the fest I came across a box of B&W
high power coils in a box under a table.  The strange thing is this
seller was in the row of cars right behind me all day.  The high power
B&W coils are direct replacements for the Millen 500W jobs.  The box had
an 80M, 40M and 20M coil each with matching swing links.  Just what I
was looking for!  The seller had $5 each on the box, but considering
people were already packing up, the fest is going strong at 6AM, my
offer of $5 for the box was accepted.  So now I have all the inside
parts needed to get the 90881 running.  I have enough HV parts in the
basement to build the required power supply.

A question to those of you who have 90881 amps.  Are you going to run it
as class B or AB driven by the Millen transmitter (modulated) or will
you be modulating it under class C?  W0YVA provided me with a manual for
the 90881 and I see they have a page dedicated to using the 90831
modulator to directly modulate the 90881 to around 40-50% modulation.
My initial plan was to use the amp driven by the 90801 in class AB or B.
The 90831 would modulate the transmitter as in my current setup.  I
figure this way I'd easily be able to remove or insert the amp
on-the-fly.  Your suggestions and ideas are greatly appreciated.

73

Don N9OO

P.S.  I had the wife (W9MSC), father inlaw (N4GQQ) and mother inlaw
along at the swapfest.  So it was a little easier getting away from my
table than if I was alone.  The wife loves this fest and the inlaws were
very happy to find a nice laptop computer for their camper journeys and
a digital camera.  Funny note on the camera.  My wife's dad had
misplaced the USB cable that connected their existing camera to the
computer.  He figured he'd find one at the fest for much less than  the
$30+ at the local stores.  Well he ended up getting the exact same
camera, with a docking station, which he didn't have before, and all
needed cables for $50.  So all my team went away happy from this fest.

P.S.S.  Another bit of W9RAN orignal message that I agree with 100%
after attending this fest for the past 30 years: "Oak Creek has a pretty
high ratio of actual radio stuff to other stuff, but always seems to
have a lot of variety, with everything from truckloads of military gear
to complete broadcast studios turning up in years past.  This years
theme seems to have been "test equipment" with a wide range of service
grade stuff and some nicer pro gear as well."