[Milsurplus] Stragglers Using Spark

[KD7JYK DM09]

> I tried it out with a lamp antenna load years ago, back then, using a 
> 24 VDC brute-force,
>
> can't-bust-em power supply. I think it's around the 100 watts input 
> level. It's quite a display.
>

You'd absolutely shit yourself at the sight of my 40kW CW unit with 42kW 
dead shorted into the rotor, and phase adjusted for maximum "Run for 
your life".  Original application was the RF oscillator in a carbon 
dating machine from one of the large aerospace companies several decades 
ago.  The fellow I got it from had several, all damaged, but this one 
rotary spark-gap was still good.  Although not used in Amateur radio any 
more, they were far better, and more robust for oscillators in 
industrial applications, due to their brute force, and forgiving 
nature.  I believe the newest machine he had was from the 1980's.  I 
haven't run it since 1993, or '94, and don't have the power here, but I 
do have a 6.5kW generator I thought about connecting to it to run the 
rotor, and a bank of series connected magnetron supplies.

Kurt