[JMS] South Milwaukee Swapfest & 90881 Amp

Tue Jul 12 23:30:15 EDT 2005

Don,

Sounds like a great hamfest, and congrats on picking up the coils! I'm 
also glad you picked up that amp from Bob. I hope to hear you on soon 
with the big Millen station. I'm good to go coil-wise here with a set 
for 80, 40, 20 and 10 meters (all full Millen coil sets except for 80).

I meant to get started on my amp setup this past winter, but between 
work and dozens of other projects I just didn't get to it. Unfortunately 
it's going to have to take a back seat a little longer as another 
project is occupying the bench. I wasn't planning on putting my 1930s 
station together for another year or two but I've had to move the 
schedule up. This December the Forsyth Amateur Radio Club in 
Winston-Salem, NC is celebrating their 75th anniversary with a special 
event station. There will be a mod rig for sideband and one of the club 
members is bringing in his Viking II transmitter and Hammarlund receiver 
for the '50s AM station. I'm planning on providing the '30s CW station 
with that National NC-101X receiver I got last year at the AWA 
conference and I'm planning on building a 50 watt transmitter out of the 
November 1938 issue of QST that uses a pair of 6L6s driving a single 
809. I'm starting on the NC-101X this week and have already received 
valueble email support on it from Bill Fizette, Jim Hanlon and Greg Gore.

When I do finally get around to getting my Millen 90881 amp up and 
running I plan on following your line of thinking and have the 90801 
drive the amp. Like you, I want to be able to switch it in and out when 
I like.

Looks like we may have another Millen station on AM in the near future 
since John, K5MO finally managed to acquire a 90801 transmitter and is 
now looking for one of the Millen HV power supplies to go with it (way 
to go John!!). Heck, at this rate there may be almost as many Millen 
stations listed as there will be Johnson transmitters in next year's AWA 
AM QSO Party!

I'm still fairly active here on 40 meter AM with my 90801. Over the past 
week or so I've been running it crystal controlled to give the Millen 
90711 VFO a break and also avoid introducing any more heat than 
necessary into the basement shack, hi hi. There's nothing like running a 
boatanchor station during the summer in hot, muggy North Carolina.

73 to all, Gary - WA4IAM

Don Buska wrote:

>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."
> 
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