[NJARC] Weird homebrew from tonight's NJARC auction

[John Dilks K2TQN]

Conelrad?  Back in 1957 QST had a project of two pilot lights wired 
in series, hooked to a DPDT switch inside a box, wired to speaker 
leads in a table radios.  I built mine in an old band-aid box and 
hooked it to an old Zenith radio my dad picked up in the 
trash.  Switch one way = radio, the other way = watch the lights 
blink.  No lights = Air Raid! = Shut down.

It worked for me.

Now in my stash I have a couple true Conelrad receivers, one by 
Morrow and another by RCA built for a radio station.

Cool stuff.

73, John

At 05:10 AM 9/15/2007, you wrote:
>Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
>_______________________________________________
>Hello John,
>                I too, thought the strange homebrew receiver was 
> interesting, and was glad to see it get into the proper hands that 
> would appreciate it. The construction technique looked very good, 
> and a lot of thought went into the receiver before it was made.
>
>I'm curious if you know what the total bandcoverage is?
>
>Conlerad equipment was made mandatory sometime during the 1950's in 
>case of civil emergency or in case the "mushrooms strating sprouting".
>
>I'm jealous. You'll be the only one I know of with a true "Conelrad 
>equipped" Hamshack!
>
>In case you need a 2D21, let me know. I have a few in my "stash" I 
>can let you have.
>
>The very best of luck with it. I think it's a kewl addition to 
>anyone's Hamshack or Listening Post.
>
>Best Regards,
>                     Joe Cro N3IBX
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "john ruccolo" <jr6v6gt at yahoo.com>
>To: "New Jersey Antique Radio Club" <njarc at mailman.qth.net>
>Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 2:04 AM
>Subject: [NJARC] Weird homebrew from tonight's NJARC auction
>
>
>>Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
>>_______________________________________________
>>Hi Folks,
>>
>>I test fired that weird homebrew receiver that I got
>>at the auction tonight. Actually, it's a pretty basic
>>5-tube AA -- well, mostly AA -- 12BE6/BA6/AV6 plus
>>12A6 output and 5Y3 rectifer. It is exceptionally well
>>made, however.
>>
>>Here's where it gets really interesting -- at the
>>other end of the chassis is another miniature tube --
>>a 2D21 thyratron (kinda like a tube SCR). I thought
>>"hmmmm...." With that BIG red light and a threshold
>>control that fires the 2D21 (and the light) I can only
>>think of one thing: CONELRAD.
>>
>>For those of you who don't know, CONELRAD stands for
>>CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation, a Cold-War era
>>US Govt. thing. Those Civil Defense marks at 640 and
>>1240 on so many 1950's and early 60's radios were for
>>CONELRAD. The idea was that if the Russians decided to
>>drop some H-bombs on us, people would tune to one of
>>those two frequncies for news and information, and
>>maybe the latest Elvis record. Seriously, the idea was
>>that other stations would go off the air, so the
>>Russians couldn't use broadcast stations for homing in
>>on targets.
>>
>>I don't remember the details, but I believe it was a
>>requirement during some part of the 1950's for Ham
>>radio operators to have a CONELRAD alarm. Basically, a
>>receiver that was tuned to 640 or 1240, and lit up a
>>warning light to alert the ham operator that something
>>was happening. In fact, Heathkit sold a CONELRAD alarm
>>kit (which is *very* rare today). I think this
>>receiver was built for that purpose.
>>
>>It also has a signal tracer function. The guy got a
>>little carried away -- he's got two headphone jacks
>>wired in parallel (so more than one person could
>>listen in?), and he's got both 1/4-inch and RCA jacks
>>in parallel for audio input for the tracer. I think
>>one or the other would have sufficed. ;-)
>>
>>Still, a very well-made and unusual homebrew.
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>JR
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>____________________________________________________________________________________
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>
>
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