[Milsurplus] most Dangerous Transmitters

[Mike Feher]

Hi Ray -

 

Interesting that you would say that. I have had a 368 for over 40 years
without ever an issue of the sort you described. Indeed I did place wheels
on the bottom, yet II never had an issue with it attempting to tilt over. I
also repainted the whole unit and replaced all the internal wiring without
issues. I feel pretty good about my TRW T-368F and it has performed
admirably for me. 73 - Mike 

 

Mike B. Feher, N4FS

89 Arnold Blvd.

Howell NJ 07731

848-245-9115

 

From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
<milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Ray Fantini
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019 1:33 PM
To: MMRCG at groups.io; milsurplus at mailman <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] most Dangerous Transmitters

 

My vote would be the T-368 transmitter. The first thing most Hams do is
bypass all the interlocks. The stupid thing about that is in order for the
HV distribution to work the drawers have to be all the way that sets the
interlocks. Have had people tell me the interlocks become internment, so why
not just fix them. 

I cannot think of any reason why you need to operate it outside the case,
for it to work removed from the case you would also have to build up HV
jumpers. The overload adjustments are all located on the front of the power
supply, any diagnostics of the power supply can be done at low level or by
isolation along with pushing the drawers back in but imagine most people
don't want to do the additional work sliding the drawers in and out when
trying to diagnose an overload issue.

Second thing would be the Hot PA tank, the plate current meter and the band
selector switch for the output tank are all at HV potential. Later series
have an isolated PA current meter but the first generation had only a small
amount of isolation and doing things while the transmitter is on like
washing off the front of the transmitter including the plate meter with a
wet rag have interesting results. The tube that is used as a shunt across
the screen of the PA tube as part of the keying system can be fun also and
although I am not certain of this would suspect that when the transmitter is
in HV on standby and the shunt is full on it may produce X-Rays. Fortunately
there are tons of shielding when the drawer is in place.

And last but not least my favorite thing about the 368, unless the
transmitter is secured to a wall or the floor it needs to be on a special
dolly that has outriggers attached. Most Hams remove this first thing
because they keep stubbing their toes on the outriggers. What's worse and I
have seen this twice is that they will install wheels or casters under the
four corners of the transmitter and when you do this if you pull out the top
drawer to far or fast the transmitter will tip over and do its best to kill
you!

The manual states that never attempt to pull out more than one drawer at a
time. If it starts to fall forward you will not be able to catch it.

The T-368 is a great transmitter when used by the book, unfortunately most
out there have been Ham Hacked in a great number of ways. There are volumes
written about how to hack up the modulator. Maybe the only thing that's been
Ham Hacked more would be the ARC-5 radios and the BC-348

Well that's my rant, what's yours?

Ray F/KA3EKH

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