[Milsurplus] most Dangerous Transmitters

[Thekan, Paul]

I have the base mounting frame on my T3E with HD casters and I could maybe see it toppling forward without the extensions if you have the power supply and one or both of the other drawers also pulled out .
This is the only xmtr I have that I need a floor jack to work on when removing the power supply.

Paul
N6FEG

From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Ray Fantini
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019 6:04 AM
To: Mike Feher; MMRCG at groups.io; 'milsurplus at mailman'
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] most Dangerous Transmitters

How big were the wheels you put under it? With small heavy duty wheels it may be stable but I have seen people install furniture casters that have swivel bases and that makes the smallest push on the top drawer down with it extended tipsy! The outriggers are the only way to guarantee stability, that along with bolting the transmitter down. But that's just me, your results may vary.
Dose the TRW have the isolated plate current meter?

Ray F/KA3EKH


From: Mike Feher <n4fs at eozinc.com>
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019 7:37 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>; MMRCG at groups.io; 'milsurplus at mailman' <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: RE: [Milsurplus] most Dangerous Transmitters

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<mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net> <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net<mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net>> On Behalf Of Ray Fantini
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019 1:33 PM
To: MMRCG at groups.io<mailto:MMRCG at groups.io>; milsurplus at mailman <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net<mailto: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

_____________________________

This message, including any attachments, may include privileged,
confidential and/or inside information. Any distribution or use of this
communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly
prohibited and may be unlawful.  If you are not the intended recipient,
please notify the sender by replying to this message and then delete it from your system.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20191119/3651b070/attachment-0001.html>