[K3PZN-List] I'm curious...

[Frank K3MTT]

Bill
I assume you are talking primarily about
transmitters and receivers vs. other homebrew
projects.

I have several older commercial transmitters and
receivers but no "homebrew" anymore with the
exception of a kilowatt amplifier using four
811's. I didn't build it, but acquired it to keep
it from a landfill by a person who didn't know
what it was and just wanted to get that heavy
thing out of the garage. The only other sort of
homebrew is a  two meter amplifier built from a
kludge of parts from an old Motorola Base like our
original repeater that I put together with some
additional power supplies and a control shelf
which can be run as class C or AB1.

Well the homebrew  amplifier is now in my garage,
and sometimes getting in the way. It is in a
standard rack cabinet about 3 feet high and must
weigh 300 to 400 pounds. It took three guys to
pull it up on some boards to get it into the
pickup. I haven't yet messed with it, but it
appears to be a mono band  amplifier built in the
late 50's to early 60's. The craftsmanship is
excellent. Other than dirty, it appears to be in
great shape and probably would fire right up as it
looks like oil filled capacitors in the power
supply. Its complete and consists of the
amplifier, a power supply, a metering panel with a
Variac to adjust the transformer voltage.  

I have seen a write up on a homebrew such as this
back in the 60's, but haven't been able to locate
an article with the same amplifier. When I get
time I will draw up a schematic and maybe fire it
up sometime.  I don't think it would be difficult
to make it a multiple band amplifier. A band
switch, and a new coil may be mostly what would be
a large part of what would be needed as much would
remain the same.  

I intend to put a vintage radio station on the air
and it would be nice to include the amplifier.  I
was hoping that at some time I could convince the
Club to do the same and/or eventually donate my
vintage station to the Club. The art of tuning and
using equipment like this is becoming scarce among
the HAM community. It reminds me a little of the
TV program I saw the other night "Digging for the
Truth" on the Science or Discovery channel.
Having been to Egypt and seen  the pyramids and
other ancient attractions, I always try to catch
these programs. At the end of the program as the
narrator Josh  Bernstein  and the Egyptian
Director of Antiquities were wrapping up the
program, they were commenting on the end of the
Pharaohs rule and the Egyptian structure of
religious beliefs as they were interpreting the
hieroglyphic carvings by the last priest. The art
and language was already lost to the point that
incorrect symbols etc. were used and the
information he was trying to record was
incomplete. It was shortly thereafter that the art
became dead and extinct.  The point here is that
maybe its good to remember our roots and be
familiar enough to keep the history alive for
posterity. That's why I also collect vintage AM
radios.

Now I'm curious why your curious.  I probably have
all the parts (or close to it) to scratch build a
vintage tube CW/AM transmitter including the power
supply with the exception of a transformer to
plate modulate it. But then there is controlled
carrier or screen modulation that can be used. 

So much for this. I am way behind in my work for
today.

73,
Frank K3MTT

-----Original Message-----
From: k3pzn-list-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:k3pzn-list-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Neeriemer, Bill (NIH/NLM/LHC) [C]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 10:48 AM
To: Carroll County Amateur Radio Club
Subject: [K3PZN-List] I'm curious...

Does anyone have homebrewed equipment that isn't
QRP?

If so, would you care to describe it?

73 Bill

 

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