[MRCA] Torn Fu.d2

Fri May 29 23:05:12 EDT 2020

I do have a reprint of the operators manual for the Torn Fu.d2, in German of course, if anybody needs reference material.  What are you guys using for batteries?  Also, I was lucky enough to find an original power plug for the radio in decent enough condition ( I think) to use. Anybody find anybody to make repops?
Just in case anybody is tempted to use the cast resin version of the mast antenna base, don't.  The resin simply isn't strong enough, and has a tendency to snap after little field use.

Finally, it sounds like if we ever got together as a group within radio range of one another, it could be a very interesting  field exercise.
Mark D.WW2RDO
In a message dated 5/29/2020 9:11:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu writes:

you may want to exchange pictures.
RF
From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2020 9:09 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Cc: Mkdorney <mkdorney at aol.com>; Tom B <tbryan at nova.org>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Salisbury University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender's address and know the content is safe.

Thanks Ray!  Nice to meet you gentlemen.  I found a guy on eBay that makes AM transmitters that work with a 3.5mm jack, so you can play old radio broadcast on your phone or MP3 player, and then broadcast it on the frequencies for the Torn.  He's building one for me now so I haven't  had the chance to test it yet, still listening to soothing static, haha.  At least it's something!
Ray helped get me where I am with this thing.  I was lucky to find him!

Kevin

On Fri, May 29, 2020, 9:04 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:
figured as the two of you are both working in the same direction I would put you in touch with each other, also included Tom B. as he has a Torn Fu.d2 along with just about everything else.
Still think the TBY is the solution for netting with these things, or maybe a TBS being they were low band VHF AM  but they are not portable and if your going to operate on those dusty old frequencies you want to be low power piss poor antennas.
Ray Fantini
From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2020 4:34 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Salisbury University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender's address and know the content is safe.

Afternoon Ray!  Sorry about the delay, was up in the mountains with the wife.
Yes, I would be definitely interested in a TBY for that price.  Think it's pretty easy to power up as well?  I would hate to have to bother you with questions any more than I already have...
Kevin

On Sat, May 16, 2020, 10:13 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

If you want a TBY may be able to get you one for a lot less, I am on a bunch of Email reflector and user groups for Military Surplus radios. I would not want to into a TBY for anymore then $100 or $200 being it’s a terrible radio. Most of the time they were in the field hand signals worked better.

From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2020 5:33 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Salisbury University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender's address and know the content is safe.

Thanks so much Ray!  So you think my little workaround did the trick?  No need to ground anything extra I presume?  I'll look into the 70 volt transformer.  Thanks again!
Also, looks like there's a TBY on eBay, link here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/193468263191
Are these fairly easy to get running?  I've heard that if anyone wants to know why Germany lost the war, all they need to do is crack open their radios.  They simply spent too much time over-engineering everything.
I've heard American stuff is not usually up to the same standards, but this one looks to be in pretty good shape, no?
Kevin

On Sat, May 16, 2020, 4:47 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

Bias is important for the radio to have proper gain. The original design saw the radio working with two sets of batteries. One for the filament bus at 2 volts and the negative side of the battery connected to the ground of the radio. The B+ side batter had the + connected to the B+ input on the plug and the B- connected to the bias side of the power connector so it developed bias that way. So what you had was a HV supply that was not grounded but returned on the bias input. That’s a common trick on most of the old vacuum tube radios.

Don’t think you will need an external amplifier but have to remember that radio has a small audio amplifier and was intended just to drive a pair of headphones or two and has to work to drive a speaker. You can drive a speaker but would want to use something like a transformer to convert the high impedance audio output to the low impedance of the speaker. They make little audio transformers for multiple speaker systems like ceiling speakers that convert the high impedance 70 volt lines down to 4 ohms and they work well. Just look for a 70 volt audio transformer, it wont have to be big and that may solve the problem. 

Next thing you want to find is a Navy TBY set, it will operate in the same band and the two will talk to each other. The TBY is AM and the pre war- early WW2 field radio the Marines were stuck with before useable radios like the BC-1000/SCR-300 was deployed to replace it.

From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2020 3:15 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Salisbury University. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender's address and know the content is safe.

Ray,
Great news!!  I figured out what was going on with the meter!  There was no negative bias hooked in, so I took two C batteries and wired them in series, connected them between the -B and -G wires and the power supply and voila!  The button now "chunks" the needle to the 135v!  I have no idea how or why this little modification did this, but oh man, I've never been more happy to hear static in all my life!  Hahaha!
I will say that I am not getting much volume, but static is there for sure!  I see you made a handy dandy amplifier to your headphones, not sure how you did that but I think that's my next hurdle which seems a lot easier than this one!  Also, found a guy that makes an MP3 converter to local AM broadcast, and he's custom building me one to specifically fit the 33-38 MHz frequency range per your suggestion.
Really appreciate those morsels of information.  Also, I don't have an antenna, but you somehow managed to make one, looking into that as well.
Woo-hoo!!
Kevin

On Wed, May 13, 2020, 12:46 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

The voltmeter on the radio has two modes. Normally it’s reading the filament voltage and it should be on the mark, never above but a little below is no big deal. That was intended to tell you the condition of your 2.0 volt battery. When you push the button on the meter it changes its function so that it is reading the B+ or plate supply voltage, once again you want it somewhere near the mark, never above but the radio should work with it below. 

Would think you should hear some white noise from the receiver when in receive, let me look at the schematic and get back with you.

RF

From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2020 11:31 AM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2
Hi Ray.  Got an update for you.  I purchased a power supply from a guy in Michigan.  He makes them for old fashioned radios and they offer a lot of voltage options.  
Anyway, I got it yesterday and hooked it up to the Torn.  See attached for the photos of the setup.  The needle looks like it's in the right place, but when I push the test button on the gauge, the voltage drops.
I saw you did the same on your video but it didn't do this.  I think you said it "chunks" the filament and the B+ voltage.  Any suggestions?  Do I have a bad tube?  Would a bad tube cause this?  Or is it something different?
Am not picking up any feedback on the headphones when I switch to receiver/radio mode.
Any help is much appreciated sir!!
Kevin
On Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 12:59 PM Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ray.  Hope you're doing well.  I bought an original power cable from Germany and it arrived, however I made a mistake.  It's for the Torn Fu. b1 I believe.  Pic attached.
So back to square one.  Do you need it?  I can send it to you.  Any thoughts on the power supply build?
Thanks,
Kevin
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 7:17 PM Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com> wrote:
Whew!  Glad I asked first.  Thank you!!
Love the story about the radium girls.  Picked up a German WWII duty clock with traces of radium still on the dials, also bought a Geiger meter and it went off the scale!
Kevin
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020, 6:08 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:
That's FM, you want AM.
The American equal is the TBY although it never got to the ETO, it was used by Marines widely in the beginning of the war in the Pacific and was a difficult to use or keep working.  Watch the move "Windtalkers" and you will see lots of TBY sets but being a movie then they work. The TBY also had all the dial markings painted in radium so its radioactive too.

RF
From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 3:24 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2
Good afternoon Ray!
I was browsing eBay and came upon this low frequency radio.  Given your advice on the MHz range, do you think this would work for sending radio transmissions to the Torn?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/223892314870
Also, any more thought on building a couple of power supplies, 1 for 90v, the other for the 2v? 

Thank you!!
Kevin
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 2:15 PM Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you Ray!  Great information.  I've actually been to both of those sites, and while I took electricity in high school, I'm not very accomplished when it comes to building power supplies.  Had this been a one off radio, I would normally just leave it on my desk and just look at it, but given that it's in such good shape, I wanted to give it a go to see if I can bring it to life.  Good point on the frequency.  Not much use if it doesn't have anything to communicate with.  Just hearing the static and the frequency range feedback would be cool enough for me!
Appreciate you considering the request for building me a power supply.  The cable I sent you a picture of is due to arrive Monday.
If easier, could you perhaps recommend a power supply on Amazon or eBay? Just want to make sure I can get the right one.  My only thing would be to next figure out how to wire it up to the terminals.
I think I found a place that sells 2volt batteries.  Could I reach out to you and you guide me on how to proceed when it comes to connecting the wires?
Thanks again!!
Kevin Assari
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 1:49 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

You may want to look at:

https://www.kriegsfunker.com/radios/Torn_Fu_d2_1936.html

or

http://www.la6nca.net/tysk/tornfud2/index.htm

Lots of background on your radio. Think the biggest issue is going to be finding other radios to talk to on the 33 to 38 MHz band. That was considered VHF back in the day but today is regarded as Low Band VHF and use to be populated by lots of public service radios, especially things like State Police and Fire Departments. But in the last ten or so years all that stuff migrated up to the 800 MHz public service band so imagine its real quiet there today. Also all that stuff was FM and that’s a AM transceiver. There is a bunch of Russian stuff that was produced that covers that band  and the old stuff from back in WW2 up to the fifties was AM along with all the US tactical radios that still cover that range but they were FM from the beginning. 

Will give the power supply some thought and get back to you on that, although it’s a transceiver and not just a receiver it still appears just a matter of two volts for the filaments and the plate voltage that depending on where you look can be ninety or one hundred and thirty volts DC.

The god thing is you have that little meter on the front that lets you see the two voltages so we know we wont exceed the limits and damage the radio.

Ray Fantini

From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 9:27 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Re: Torn Fu.d2

Ray,

Thanks so much for getting back with me!  I just purchased the attached power plug from Germany.  Unfortunately the original battery box which powers the radio is practically non-existent.  I was thinking I could use this cable to then connect it to a bench power supply, just not sure how exactly, and I don't want to fry anything.  The torn radio I have was purchased from a museum and is practically in MINT condition.  I attached a few photos as well.  I'm utterly amazed at the attention to detail here!!

Would it be possible for me to purchase a power supply or use something like you made for the torn eb?  Would rather do so than buy one off Amazon and then cause damage.

Can you and I work together on this remotely?  I know that's asking a lot, I just don't trust anyone else, and was very impressed with your website and the many "boat anchors" you've had your hands on!!

Thanks again!!  

Kevin Assari

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 8:55 PM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

Do you have the power plug that connects to the radio? Nothing exotic just needs 2 volts for the filaments and 80 volts for the plates. 

The only thing that’s important is not to exceed 2.2 volts on the filament because you don’t want to risk damaging the tubes. The good thing is that’s about the easiest tube for WW2 German radios to come by but they can be expensive if damaged.  

Ray Fantini

From: Kevin Assari <kalipsis at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 12:35 PM
To: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
Subject: Torn Fu.d2 

Ray! 

Good afternoon!  Please forgive me for emailing you unannounced, I am desperately trying to get a power supply for my Torn FU. D2 radio, and loved your video on the Torn EB!  Please help!

Call, email, or text, whichever is easier.

I'm indebted to you sir!

494.641.9886

Kevin

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