[R-390] Re: Ballast Tube Thread

Bob Camp ham at cq.nu
Mon Jul 5 09:48:08 EDT 2004


Hi

The sand kept running down hill the whole time we did the ballast tubes.

Now the wood was a lot easier to use once we figured out you had to cut 
down the tree *before* you carved the ballast tube from those top 
limbs. (The lower part of the tree dosen't regulate very well).

	Enjoy!

		Bob Camp
		KB8TQ


On Jul 4, 2004, at 8:25 PM, Tom Norris wrote:

> Well, you were lucky to have sand! Back in my day
> we carved our ballast tubes out of wood. We used
> them and were proud of them, because that's all
> we had!
>
> Was it uphill both ways to get the sand?
>
> T
>
>> Well, I can remember when we couldn't get any ballast tubes so
>> we would go down to the beach and collect the finest sand we
>> could find and mix it with ground up 50 ohm carbon composition
>> resistors and some epoxy.
>>
>> We would then pour this slurry mixture into these small glass
>> tubes we'd get from the medics, stick a lead from the ground up
>> resistors in to each end, and bake them in an oven for 6 hours.
>>
>>
>> When we got done with that we had 48 ohm resistors that we
>> would use to replace the unavailable ballasts. I don't know why
>> we didn't just use 48ohm resistors because we had them in
>> stock.
>>
>> But then I wouldn't have thought up this BS story to kick over
>> some bees hives and start some crap........ HEH, HEH, HEH!!!
>>
>> I mean and tired after a long hot 4th of July Parade that's my
>> story and I'm sticking to it..........
>> RICH  WA6KNW
>> _______________________________________________
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