Retrotechnologist

MY QSL-40, FOUND!

2012-01-29T22:58:00.004-05:00

My QSL-40 has been found for awhile but I've only recently had time -- and light -- enough to photograph it:Front view (tomcat left in for scale). The 40m coil is installed.

Under chassis view (tomcat as per above) -- the chewed-up resistor is a 100 mA shunt across the (actually) 1 mA/1V/1k meter. You didn't really think it was a 4-Ampere meter, did you? It's salvaged from an old commercial rig. If you look carefully, you can see the insulator the 140 pF variable is mounted on.
Close-up of the front. The crystal is one of a batch I purchased from Phoenix Crystals, which was one of the very last of the small crystal grinders. Sadly, the owner passed away about ten years ago and no buyer could be found for the business.

Changes from the original Fred Sutter transmitter are few:

1. I used a male chassis connector for the power supply. --These days, I'd use an octal, as the "tube base" pattern 4, 5, 6 and 7-prong plugs (though not tube sockets) are no longer made.

2. The crystal is an FT-243 rather than a "doorknob" type and the socket is according different. You could use a 2-prong socket for the crystal if you had one, but they'll fit an octal tube socket okay. (There's a no-wrong-way-to-plug-in wiring pattern for FT-243's in an octal socket. I didn't use it but I'll look it up and post it if any reader is curious.)

3. I should have used enameled wire for the coils. What I did use is #14 house-wire, stripped. This increases the hazard, since the coil is at B+ potential. (Now that I own a drill press, I can redo them properly.) The material holding them is clear plastic rather than black Bakelite. --But that is real Duco glue holding it all together!

4. The meter is different, a square one instead of the round version he used (probably a Triplett and a bit nicer than the Readrite typical of low-end designs at the time). It was the right size and I had several.

VIBROPLEX, OUCH!

2012-01-29T00:55:00.001-05:00

It appears that the Vibroplex Co., under new ownership in Knoxville, TN (and with, last I checked, a lot of repair parts and accessories back in production), has made a radical change to the nameplate.

I think it is an unfortunate change. Given the cost of replacing the dies that stamped the old nameplates, going to a printed or silkscreened label may have been inevitable, but the design is terribly plain and a bit jarring to my eye.

It is, however, a lot better than not havng Vibroplex around any more.

Remember, the earliest Vibroplex keys had very plain serial-number plates instead of the ornate stamped ones we've become used to -- and, in some cases, a water-slide decal of the "bug" logo.

NORMAN CORWIN: 1910 - 2011

2011-10-22T21:55:00.004-04:00

One of the best writers for radio, a man famous for, among other things, radio documentaries, passed away 18 October. Norman Corwin was 101, a man whose career hit at about the peak of radio broadcasting as family entertainment.

Although he later wrote for film and TV, as well as several plays, radio was medium in which he most excelled. The spoken word can be the slipperiest of instruments; unsupported by images, with no turning-back of pages, the listener's attention must be gripped and held -- and Corwin was unmatched at doing just that.

Much of his work survives. He will be missed.

(A tip of the hat to alert reader Noel, who brought it to my attention; I knew who Mr. Corwin was but had lost track of him, assuming his passing to have been long ago).

COINCIDENCE

2011-10-17T00:55:00.002-04:00

Radio hams may be a little surprised to learn the paddlewheel steamer USS C. W. Morse, used by the Navy as a receiving ship in WW I, did not specialize in radiomen. Who was C. W. Morse? I don't know. A cursory websearch finds only the ship.

SET IN TYPE

2011-10-16T09:27:00.004-04:00

Set in wooden type, in fact: the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin keeps the obscure skill of wooden poster type and printing therefrom alive. (So can you, if you join: they offer studio access as a benefit of membership.)

Wooden poster type? It was the standard; most old posters (and even some new ones), especially the ones run off in huge numbers to promote events, were made with wooden type, offering huge flexibility in font and form.* It was cheaper than cast type, too. How good is it? Have a look at a nice topical example, and you tell me. (Plenty more in their store).

More about wood type can be found at the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. It appears the very last commercial manufacturer held on until 2001.
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* Windows users will find a parallel in Word: if regular typesetting is like normal typing in that program, wooden type is the Word Art utility.

A NEW SOURCE

2011-10-08T13:21:00.003-04:00

Have a gander at Hand-Eye Supply. With a primary client base in the art/handicraft printing community, they carry a number of interesting and useful items, including a nice selection of sturdy work clothing and very fine-looking safety glasses.

Not a huge stock but a number of items I've not seen elsewhere.

SHOP TRICK

2011-10-07T21:28:00.004-04:00

It's like the old carpenter said, as he hammered the screws into place: "Every trade has its tricks but mine."

Here's one. It's not much of a trick, but it helps keep me out of trouble with a router. You usually need to know the distance between the edges of the routed groove and the edge of the baseplate of the router, so you can clamp a guide down at the proper spot. You can calculate it but it's easy to get tripped up -- and why do it on paper when you can create an example and measure it directly? There you go! It's a lot easier to get everything in the right place with an actual example you can plop down on the work and use to mark it. A real pro might even use it to set dividers and eschew the numbers altogether. Me, I'm an amateur and this makes it easier to visualize how things will turn out.

As you might suppose, I'm building more bookshelves. As ever, I find a ratio of at least 4:1 between the measuring/setting-up and doing the cutting.

(The greenish tint to the freshly-exposed wood? It's a scrap piece of poplar, which often looks a bit green. Very nice to work with, harder than most soft woods. Smoothed and linseed-oiled, it will usually retain the hue.)

DREAM CAR

2011-10-03T07:14:00.005-04:00

Proud of your new minivan, are you? The one with a flexible interior: repositionable seats, maybe a table? The nice flat-floor unibody automobile, all streamlined and with excellent visibility?

Yes, a heck of a vehicle -- as good an idea now as it was in 1935, when the Stout Scarab first rolled out. What, you've never heard of it? Most people haven't, despite contemporary articles describing it as the coming thing. They were very expensive and only a few were built.

But, allowing for stylistic differences and engine placement, you'll see plenty of its distant descendants on the road today.

(Stumbled over the Scarab looking up the Dymaxion car. Did you know a new one was finished just last year? And they're still tricky to drive).

HAROLD STARK, MASTER STEAM ENGINEER

2011-09-30T07:53:00.005-04:00

At the Indiana State Fair this year, Tam and I saw an amazing -- and, I suppose, twee -- miniature steam traction engine, about half-scale, plenty big enough to ride aboard. It was steaming gently, clearly functional.

It turns out to be the work of Harold Stark, Master Steam Engineer, who's been a major part of the working antique farm machinery exhibit at the fair for the past 31 years. He's quite a guy. You'll find the short video and a little biography at Artisan Ancestors.

IT'S THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES

2011-09-11T18:32:00.005-04:00

Having stumbled into DecoPix, I found a few peeks at the old Coca-Cola plant in Indianapolis (or what purports to be -- the caption says "Indianapolis" but some of the links say "Cincinnati." Heads, race cars; tails, unique chili. Call it!).

We did have a nifty Deco soft-drink building and at least part of it is still around. The city had its very own architectural terra-cotta company, so it's no surprise a lot of the Art Deco and Moderne facades left here are of that type. (The old Stokely-Van Camp building is a particular gem).

...But there are some interiors to reckon with, as well. I've got to go see this barber shop in Circle Tower. (Which is itself a stunning Deco wedding cake on Monument Circle).

RADIO BOOK WISHLIST

2011-08-13T23:48:00.004-04:00

Just the one item -- it seems the late Howard S. Pyle, W7OE, wrote Troubleshooting Amateur Radio Equipment, published by the not late company founded by and named for Howard W. Sams. It's out of print and my first tries at the Usual Sources have turned up nothing. It looks to me as if it would be a very handy book for any ham who likes older radio gear -- but anything Mr. Pyle wrote is worth reading.

Every so often, something he built shows up at the Dayton Hamvention. Yes, you could tell, even without his callsign on the front or back panel. (It usually is) His construction style is distinctive, with well thought-out layouts, neat wiring and sharp, concise photometal labels on everything. His writing is a bit that way too, carefully engineered and logical, though friendly in tone.

His is a name and callsign to watch for at hamfests and used-book stores.

CHAIR REPAIR

2011-07-24T22:59:00.008-04:00

My desk chair here at Roseholme Cottage's ground floor Retrotechnologist HQ (as opposed to the basement ham shack and workbench) is a fair match to my big old oak desk: it's an old-fashioned wooden desk chair, assembled from a kit over a decade ago.

As the years have passed, it has picked up both "character" and damage, the latter being a broken screw holding a stabilizing metal piece to one of the legs of the "truck," and subsequent damage to the 3/8" hanger bolt that fastens that leg to the hollow central post. The result was a rolling chair that tended to go caterwampus without constant attention.

Last week, the lagscrew half of the hanger bolt chewed up the last of the wood it was screwed into -- which meant that tightening the nut and bolt half just pulled the thing loose.

It was time to take action. The stabilizing piece problem, which I had long attributed to the screw bottoming out against the hanger bolt, turned out to be a broken-off part of the original screw. Since it was at 90 degrees to the hanger bolt, that meant there was a fairly simple fix. Here's what it looks like:The fix is hidden: I drilled out the broken screw and glued in a section of dowel, right under the tab on the circled portion; it was more than long enough to intersect and replace the wood worn away where the hanger bolt had been chewing at it, and since I used a 3/4 dowel, wide enough for that job too.

You can see where I scratched up the wood finish on the underside of the leg, trimming the dowel with a flush-cutting saw.

Since there was a little bit of chewed-out hanger-bolt hole left, I drilled it out, too, just enough to have a flat-bottomed hole in which to glue in another short dowel to fill it.

(There's a trick to getting a better bond with smooth dowels: take a pair of slip-joint pliers with nice teeth and notch up the dowel so it will have a rougher surface. Of course, always clamp it it in place while the glue dries).

Twelve hours later, once the glue had dried, I trimmed the dowels flush, held the leg in place and marked it for the stabilizing screw, drilled and installed that screw and then used a pencil stub to mark the bigger hole for the hanger bolt. Drilled that square (by eye), screwed the hanger bolt in, reassembled and hooray, I had a chair again.

But there's one trick here that I didn't tell you. Did you notice? Hint: it just about requires one of these: Remember that broken-off screw? How'd I drill that out of much softer wood -- making a 3/4" hole, yet -- without some kind of damage to the drill "bit,"* the wood or myself, hey?

I cheated. I dodged it. If you have a drill press, you can clamp the work to the table, take the centering drill out of a hole saw of the proper size, and zzipp! drill around the offending bit of metal. The plug broke off at the level of the worn-out hole for the hanger bolt and a sharp 1/2" wood chisel made short work of the remainder.

The little centering drill is there on a hole saw for a reason. Unless you have amazing upper body strength, you can't hold the thing steady while it cuts without it. But a drill press and a good clamp will do the job and make it seem easy.

One the subject of hole saws, shop tricks and "making it look easy," Starrett makes a hole saw arbor (that's the part that holds the cylindrical saw) that replaces the centering drill and allows the assembly to hold two hole saws concentrically. It's an "oops" arbor, for when you holesawed too small a hole; it centers the new size on the mistaken size. They're inexpensive, too -- I figure mine paid for itself the first time I needed it and had it.

(For the observant: yes, my tabletop press has some surface rust. It was a little that way when I bought it. I'm working it over with oil and brass brushes but I haven't got it all yet. I got the table, the base, the chuck and made a start on the column -- need a bigger brush, I was using a worn-out bore brush).
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* If it has a square or hex cross-section shank and goes in a brace, you call it a bit. Otherwise, those hole-making spun-around thingies you chuck up in press or a hand drill are themselves drills. "Drill bit" is a horrid neologism.

ENTER THE LINEDRAGON

2011-07-18T22:33:00.006-04:00

(I couldn't resist the title).

What's a "LineDragon?" It's a way of supporting vertical feeders for a balanced transmission line and getting them around the roof overhang and gutters. Sunday, I designed and installed the Mk. III:Mark I was a simple section of unpainted 1/2" plywood screwed to one of the joists (or are they rafters?). It worked but it was off-center to the natural drape of the line. A season's worth of weather left it with a permanent skew and wanting to delaminate. Mark II was the center section of the present edition and a 2x4 spacer, but even it wasn't close enough to where it needed to be, so I got out the good miter saw and a drawing pad and ended up with what you see. Short 2x4s screwed to the joists support transverse pieces that in turn hold two more short sections that support the upright, this time in line with the straight-line path between the feedpoint of my G5RV double-Zepp antenna and the feed-through insulators that bring it into my basement ham shack.

The vertical portion, with its "mouth" holding one of the spreader insulators,* bears a resemblance to the prow of a Viking ship and thus, the LineDragon!

More details: You can clearly see the insulator being "chomped." It is held in place by the tension on the feedline leading on up to the center of my antenna (there's another little cheat up the way, a kind of X-brace that carries it clear of the peak of the roof).

Here's the view from below. I installed the 2x4s on the joists first, tacked the transverse pieces in place, then found the proper position for the support assembly by trial and error, clamped it to the transverse pieces and removed it as an assembly to install the fasteners holing that subassembly together. The way, I did the bare minimum of trying to hold parts in place overhead with one hand while driving screws with the other. Even cheating with a battery drill, that's way too much effort!

All done in a mad rush to get it installed before my house-painter returns on Tuesday. I'm probably going to be shooing birds out of it next Spring.

Feel free to borrow and adapt the idea behind this gadget, if it's something you could use.
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* Simply short lengths of semi-rigid irrigation tubing, with holes drilled to clear the wire and narrow "V" cuts so you can snap it in. This clever idea -- and the all-one-wire antenna and feedline -- was invented, developed and sold by the late Gary Gomph, W7FG; his antennas and line live on at True Ladder Line, as does his callsign at the Gomph Memorial Radio Club. (Another memorial page at this link). W7FG also founded Vintage Manuals, Inc. He'd sold it a few years before his untimely passing and it's still around.

STANCOR 10P TRANSMITTER

2011-07-17T22:04:00.005-04:00

Only a few hams owned them, but there were quite a few different commercially-built and kit amateur radio transmitters available between WW I and WW II, especially in the 1930s.

Transformer companies were a particularly fertile source, especially for the smaller, simpler rigs. Thordarson offered a few, Meissner sold the "Signal Shifter" VFO/low-power transmitter; Utah had a cute little 6L6 job (and I think one or two larger ones) and a couple of other firms got in on the multi-company (and higher-power) "All Star" transmitter kit. Stancor was right there, too, with a whole range of transmitters from flea power through at least several hundred Watts, both CW (Morse) and AM (Voice).

The Stancor 10P was either the smallest or the next-smallest, with a 6J5 crystal oscillator driving a 6L6 final, modulated by another 6L6. An '80 did the power supply honors and the whole thing was so cute as to be very nearly twee:Only 10-¾" wide, 6-½" tall and 6-¼" deep, it weighs in at a remarkable 14 pounds. This one came my way at a reasonable price thanks to good luck (and recognizing what it was) at one of the large auction sites. It arrived with fairly complete provenance, tracing it back to the original owner through the late W2WHW, who was the last boatanchor-fan ham to own it before me.

At some point before it graced his hamshack, it was heavily modified with the intent of curing interference to analog television; this was a big problem in the 1950s but was mooted by improvements in TV sets and, ultimately, by digital TV. So I can do what it appears from his notes that '2WHW had planned, and gently return the little transmitter to as close to original condition as possible.It is always handy to have a schematic; this one has had the original white-on-black scheme inverted for more cost-effective print-out. Even more information, including a full parts list, may be found from K7JRL. (Who has a very results-oriented website, an excellent resource!)

I have most of the passive components on order from Antique Electronic Supply and will be posting updates as the project proceeds.

RETROTECHNOLOGIST VISITS NATIONAL MOTO+CYCLE

2011-07-16T15:24:00.007-04:00

After a thoroughly satisfactory breakfast at a local diner, Tam K and I set out to visit National Moto+Cycle, whose storefront may be found in the same 1920s building as Luna Music and Indie Bike (around the corner). They already had eye-candy waiting out front: It's even prettier up close, though the guys were quick to point out that this is a prototype, lacking the custom paint and trim the production models will have. (Notice the helmets in the window, of which I should have taken a closer photo).

Inside, Chief Designer Matty Bennett and his partner-in-vehicularity were waiting and filled with enthusiasm.

National's basic product is a bicycle, but one that hearkens back to the first two decades of the 20th Century, as the "safety bicycle" was at its peak and the first production motorized versions were appearing. But they use modern materials with far better strength-to-weight properties, to produce a bicycle of reasonable weight and retro looks. The race-style turned-down handlebars can be flipped, resulting in a classic recreational/practical bike, or replaced with even more upright "beach cruiser" style handlebars. The bike has a multi-speed kickback hub and optional disc brake system.

...Or you can add a motor! Matty describes it as "like an early production motorized cycle. They're not intended to go superfast," running at the same speeds as city traffic. He plans to add an electric version as well. (More info at this link). The internal-combustion version has a standard twist throttle, kill switch and hand brake.

Sidecars will be available for all versions -- they'll be kept lightweight, in keeping with National's goal of attractive, retro, useful vehicles. As you can see, even the showroom is something of a design engineer's dream.

Both the name and the logo are not a new invention but the return of a very old Indianapolis automaker: between 1900 and 1924, the National Motor Vehicle Company built a successful line of internal-combustion and electric vehicles in their plant at 22nd and the Monon (rather a lot of photos here); the building still stands and is presently The Project School.

Matty himself is the eye and hand behind the look of a number of Broad Ripple institutions, not the least of which is Taste. Between that talent, his background in bicycling, enthusiasm for these bikes and the history of National, I think we're looking at a winner.

I've more photos, from National Moto+Cycle's secret basement proving grounds, but they must wait for another day.

RETRO WHEELS

2011-07-15T20:57:00.004-04:00

I have recently found a couple of builders of classic bicycles, one British (Pashley Cycles) and one American (Worksman Cycles, who even make pennyfarthings). Each one offers wonderful bikes, delightfully characteristic of their national traditions. I was thinking it couldn't get any better.

It got better.

Just down the road from my 1924 bungalow -- well, just down the road, around several corners and a few blocks over, which is still quite close -- is a brand-new business, gearing up to offer a product right out of time: National Moto+Cycle builds motorized cycles of the sort that haven't been made in nearly a hundred years. Just click through their "wall photos." You'll see.

My lodger says I stared at the screen, stunned, when I first saw them.

We're got an invitation to stop by tomorrow. I can't make any promises but I will be bringing my camera.

HAMFEST FIND

2011-07-13T07:28:00.008-04:00

I like this -- and for a dollar, how could I go wrong?United Television Laboratories was, it turns out, a tech school in Lousiville, KY; searching for them turns up a fascinating blog post, with a promotional audio clip and a lot of memories from graduates. "UTL" gave way to "United Electronics Institute" some time in the 1950s; eventually, UEI declined but in their heyday, the school (supposedly, I can't confirm it) even ran its own UHF TV station! (At one time, FCC handed out UHF TV licenses practically for the asking -- and even at that, not all of them made a go of it.)

A version of the meter even showed up in some of their magazine ads. It looks a lot like a Triplett prewar 666-H VOM, both inside and out; if I can find mine, I'll post a photo for comparison~~, later~~: (Similar one here). The specific arrangement, with the "OHMS" zero-adjust and pin jacks above the meter, was only used in a few models of Triplett's 666 and it is very likely the United Televison Labs meter is a clone. Update: Or, on reflection, maybe not; at least not of mine, which, Triplett-like, has but a single mode-changing switch. Some earlier versions of the 666 did have an AC/DC selector, though.(Later versions of Triplett's compact meter retained the test-lead lacks at top, in a case otherwise similar to their top of the line VOM, which is still in production).

Though the front panel is a bit bent and some of the hardware is loose, the meter movement seems to have some life in it and if it's intact and the meter rectifier (copper-oxide, a bit difficult to replace) is okay, the VOM can probably be brought back with a little bench time and elbow grease.

CLOCK LINKS

2011-07-03T23:38:00.005-04:00

Some interesting finds this evening.

Older readers may remember the self-winding, centrally-synchronized Western Union clocks, big clocks (face 14" or so in diameter), often with a square wooden case, bearing the company name and proud assurance, "NAVAL OBSERVATORY TIME," often over a red lighting bolt just so you wouldn't miss the point. Radio stations used them, if they could afford the service, (sometimes leading to surprised announcers if the clock was a little off when Western Union sent the synchronizing impulse and the thing skipped ahead during a station break!) and they weren't too uncommon in offices and shops.

They're still around -- they were built to last -- and Ken's Clock Clinic specializes in fixing them. The clocks typically used a couple of big old #6 dry cell "batteries"* and he offers both straight-up replacements for the dry cells and nifty versions that use modern electronics to provide the synchronizing signal, too. (Alas, his repair bench is very busy -- but he does have a waiting list).

Those #6 dry cell replacements are of interest to old-radio folks, too (and even antique telephone hobbyists, since the older types used a local battery to run the carbon microphone; that's what the lower compartment of a wooden wall phone is for). There are other sources, some very authentic with a little effort but the more, the better.

Another old clock you might remember is the Telechron. These wall clocks, in 10" and larger sizes, usually have a small dot about midway between the center and 12 that goes red for 12 hours and white the next, to mark p.m. and a.m. The little 60-cycle synchronous motor uses a sealed rotor and it takes serious skill to open one up and get it running again. And, yes, there's a fellow who does just that, at TelechronClock.com. (I wonder if he would tackle the noisy motor unit from my Numechron Tymeter mechanical digital clock?)
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* A misnomer, since they consist of a single, large dry Leclanché cell. A battery would be more than one. The irony is, modern #6 "cells" contain 2 or more F or D cells in parallel: they really are batteries.

JOHN LEARY HAMMARLUND RECEIVER

2011-06-27T22:19:00.007-04:00

They've started announcing employment anniversaries at work, with little e-mail blurbs. Mine rolled by recently and my department head described me as "...an accomplished radio amateur...." High praise and while I wish those accomplishments included more QSOs, one takes what one can get.

In this case, it was a note from a co-worker" "You're a ham? Did you ever hear of John Leary? He worked for my Dad; we've had this heavy radio he gave us for years. Dad was the only one who listened to it and now it needs to go to someone who will use it." John Leary, W9WHM (SK) was the Andy Warhol of radio restorations -- no, more like the Mad Potter of Biloxi. Just as George Ohr managed astonishing technical feats in pottery, often in stunningly bright colors, W9WHM did with radios -- mostly, Hammarlund SP-600s. They're already very good tube-era receivers, but by the time he was done with them, they were outstanding, boasting stability as good as or better than solid-state, low noise, excellent selectivity and good sensitivity. They were quite often done up in unexpected colors -- electric blue, acid green, hot orange. This example (which may contain an ex-mouse) is quite sedate, in gray, black and a muted red. (More info here, in a big PDF). It almost violates my "No radios I can't lift unaided" rule, though.

An unexpected and delightful gift, accompanied by personal recollections: "He was a good guy. Kind of politically incorrect and he made terrible coffee, but a very good man." Not such a bad way to be remembered.

RADIO DOES IT ALL: 1930S

2011-06-25T20:09:00.002-04:00

This photo won't be up forever but the article's title, from Short Wave Craft for June, 1930, is too wonderful not to share:

Short Waves Outwit the Oyster.

How about that!

LIGHT AS A FEATHER

2011-06-07T23:23:00.006-04:00

All retrotechnologists know that Interesting Things are found in leatherette cases:This one's layered:Finally! Looks a little crowded......But it unfolds! It's a Singer Featherweight, a remarkably small, full-function sewing machine, still very popular today despite not having been in production for a generation.Here's a look at the other side:This is a fairly recent auction-site purchase; initial checks showed it functioning, which is a good thing, as I've some mending to get to.

Ever since Mrs. Shoames showed up at a BlogMeet with one of these, I've wanted one. My old machine (a thrift-shop 1960s Kenmore, which is to say a rebadged Singer) works well but weighs so much as to be off-putting and is in need of a new speed control. The little Featherweight is very highly spoken of and is a lot easier to carry.

That green plastic box is a buttonhole attachment. --And the next time y'all are inclined to think the distaff set is lacking in mechanical aptitude, you try setting up one of those gadgets, same as your grandmother or mother did, and see how it goes.

I was delighted to find it at an only mildly painful price. Best of all, it's got the same wonderful looks as the (nearly full-size) Singer 99 I learned on -- Mom had one, old when it came to her. Between that and Vibroplex telegraph keys, I think I was left with a lasting impression that all really good technology was enamelled black, with gold striping.

TREE SWING

2011-06-06T08:00:00.006-04:00

Retrotech is fun for me and folks similarly inclined, but this, I think, has a wider appeal: a tree swing!
A good, old-fashioned tree swing. The seat is red oak, assembled with carpenter's glue and wood screws (with predrilled holes: it's very hard even as oak goes!). Since it goes outdoors, I cheated on the finish, multiple coats of polyurethane.It has battens at each end and a lengthwise "rib," which makes it very sturdy. The 5/16" U-bolts (with fender washers and spring lockwashers) probably should be 3/8" or even 1/2" instead, but they'll do for now. They are the better grade, at least: check carefully and you'll discover some U-bolts are marked with a warning to not use them to support weight!

Most of the smoothing was done with planes and a scraper. It looks great but the seat is almost too smooth.

The knots are not as awful as they look; hidden in there are bowlines-on-a-bight at each side, with a series of clumsy hitches around them to take up the free end of each rope.

This project required a ~~25"~~ 25-foot ladder (not 2' 1", much as I enjoy scale models I'm not one)* to reach the limb -- Jim the Tree Guy installed the ropes but I had to relocate my ham antenna: It ended up higher and farther away from the trunk of the tree, which is an improvement. The swing ropes clear the wire by a comfortable margin; the photo, shot from ground level, is a little misleading.
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* And a nod to Charles for catching my typo.

THE DAYTON HAMVENTION

2011-05-20T22:15:00.002-04:00

...I have returned from it completely wiped out. Gone. I picked up some first-rate geekery, which will show up here and there.

Huge live-as-it happened photoblogging is ready for your viewing pleasure at Turk's place! I'll have more -- after I have slept. Today started around 0100. In the morning.

WHAT IZZIT?

2011-05-01T19:28:00.003-04:00

Do you recognize it? Still not totally uncommon, though this sort is a little bit special:(No, it's not a UFO!)
Post your answer in comments. Be specific.

3-D MOVIES: OLDER THAN YOU KNEW

2011-04-24T21:29:00.003-04:00

Three-dimensional moving pictures -- a big deal in the 1950s, a big deal again recently and a big deal in 1861.

Meet the kinematoscope: a series of stereopticon slides displaying chronologically successive images, viewed by peering into an eyepiece. In many way, it presages Mr. Edison's (2-D!) kinetoscope by thirty years, though with much shorter playing times and less-smooth motion.

And for the fellow proud of his high-definition 3DTV, I'll point out the 19th-centry sterograph camera is a good match to 1080p for resolution, perhaps better. But take heart, you've got color!

WE'RE ALL NOVICES NOW

2011-04-20T19:31:00.003-04:00

Ever since the FCC dropped the higher-speed code requirements, some of the nicer touches of operating procedures for CW have become a bit more difficult to pick up.

Of course, they were never that simple to come by. Bad habits tend to sprawl. Back when John Huntoon edited QST, he printed an article by W6DTY* that summarizes good operating without being stuffy or too preachy. It went over well enough that ARRL reprinted it as a handout and sent it to new hams; and now, YOUR NOVICE ACCENT And What To Do About It is available as a PDF, thanks to N4MW.

If you're still working on learning the code, Mr. Huntoon addressed that himself, in 1941: This Business Of Code is still excellent advice.

(Interestingly, I find 4 hams of that name current at QRZ.com, one of them in East Hartford, CT. The former QST editor was a teenager in the late 1930s.)

A side note, there's a website devoted to radio work on the Great Lakes and major rivers -- fascinating! Yes, even paddlewheel steamers had their "Sparks" once radio came along.
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* Keith Williams, then. The callsign is presently held by, as FCC puts it, "a close relative of the former holder." This mode of remembrance is one of the Commission's more graceful accommodations.

T21 TRANSMITTER

2011-04-11T23:42:00.005-04:00

Promised a week ago, here at last, a fine example of breadboard construction:The tube in the center is the T21, a 6L6 offspring. A plain 6L6G should work fine.

WHAT'S MORE RETRO THAN MODEL TRAINS?

2011-04-06T22:59:00.004-04:00

Just about nothing could be more of a harkening-back, especially the classic, three-rail "O" gauge. And yet something seems just a little...different about this fellow's layouts:

And not just the everything's-moving endless loop in the foreground -- have a gander at the classic Christmas tree in the background! (Just the thing for a South Pole Christmas). There are a few more views at Trainfacts, too. --And even more.

I stumbled onto this delightful invention (and the pleasant, highly-talented fellow responsible for it) researching a high-end component for work.* For years, I've claimed the only thing that kept me from having a model train layout was the lack of space; I've looked with interest at some of the very small-scale setups, especially the "mountainside" ones that are more vertical than horizontal (much too tricky for a beginner, I'm told, as it's a delicate balancing act between grade and traction) . Well, those excuses have been shot right down if I could be running my own rail line on the living room ceiling.

(It just occurred to me that some fan of The Fifth Element is probably planning a vertical building-side passenger express already. Can't find an example online but it would be very fine).

I'm going to add this to the "Live Steam" category; sure, the models are (mostly) electric but many of the originals were not.

P.S.: Speaking of train layouts in interesting places...! Wow.
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* A Penny + Giles conductive plastic rotary fader, a "volume control" to us mere mortals, but a well-nigh indestructible one. There's one operating position on the ol' ~~Starship Lupine~~ local Skunk-Workings where the guys keep wearing out a speaker-volume control and it would be nice to only have to replace it once. Now, to convince the boss. And the boss's accountants.

ANOTHER 6L6 RIG

2011-04-01T08:17:00.004-04:00

This transmitter was designed around the Taylor T21...which is a 6L6 with a six-pin base. Another, similar bit of 6L6 cloning was the Raytheon RK49. (There's a top-view photo of the little transmitter in the "Radio" handbook for 1940 -- I'll see about scanning it this evening.)

There is a reason for this: the 6-pin base has wider spacing between pins and will run higher voltages with less chance of an arc-over. Especially important at radio frequencies. The Raytheon appears to have a ceramic base. I'm not sure what Taylor used.

In most HF applications that aren't pushing the tube too hard, you can substitute a 6L6G/GA/GB for these tubes without much trouble.

BTW, these things can become quite valuable -- there's a Utah "Junior" single-6L6 transmitter, albeit a very fancy one, about to change hands for over $500 on an auction site.

Update: Bruce, W1UJR, points out in comments that it's more fun to restore a Utah Junior than buy one bandbox-new. He's right -- and has done a first-class renewal on his.

A TRANSMITTER POWER SUPPLY

2011-03-27T19:49:00.008-04:00

It's surprising how quickly you get into trouble, fiddling with power supply designs. Duncan's PSU2 software does help keep the worst mistakes inside the computer instead of on the test bench, but there's no substitute for the real thing.

Fred Sutter's original "QST-40" power supply is a nice study in empirical design. He used a choke-input supply for stability under varying loads and a fairly low-resistance bleeder resistor to keep the B+ from soaring between Morse elements. The power transformer is one a contemporary ham could have readily salvaged and the rest of the parts were pretty stock -- in 1938.

Today, we have fewer choices. Specs are more stringent, too; there's usually more safety margin for a given current rating and modern measurements of choke values are less optimistic. Hammond transformer has probably got the widest range and availability of any outfit still making tube-suitable iron, so I've worked from their catalog. It's good news and bad news; the plate transformer will run $80 to $100 and the filter choke is another $46 to $50, but you can get them;* the rest of the parts are quite reasonable.

Here's the untested, not-yet-built power supply so far:(Click on it for a large version) There are a couple of options for the transformer and different filter circuits for each one -- either a 279X (850VCT at 170 mA) using a choke-input filter (leave out the 8 uF filter condenser!) or a 273BX (700 VCT, 175 mA), with a pi-section filter. As I have noted on the drawing, you really don't want to try the pi-section filter with the higher-voltage transformer.

5U4 or 5Z3 is your choice; the former is an octal tube, the latter 4-pin but they're otherwise the same. 83V is another possibility.

I also detail two options for the bleeder resistor, which additionally supplies lower B+ voltage to the screen of the 6L6.

The biggest change is in how the B+ is turned on and off; the five and dime no longer sells nice ceramic-based knife switches (more's the pity) and even if they did, it's not a very user-friendly means to that end. So instead, I added separate filament transformers for the 5u4/5Z3 rectifier and 6L6. This results in two good things and one "gotcha:"

1. Now you can turn the B+ on and off by switching the primary voltage; you can even do fancy pilot lights for filament and plate voltage, just like the big rigs!

2. With no heater voltage being drawn, the plate transformer's got a little oomph to spare. (If it has too much, Hammond provides primary taps for 115 and 125V mains).

3. Mind that heater transformer for the rectifier! It's only providing 5V to the tube but it's got the full B+ voltage on the secondary. Hammond hi-pots them at 2kV and it uses "two-bobbin" construction, with primary and secondary on their own plastic spools, but ~~fabricat emptor~~ caveat fabor, or however Cicero would've said it.

The output connector is notional at best; you can still find the old Amphenol plugs and sockets at places like Radio Daze and hamfests. A terminal strip would work as well -- just keep your pets and extremities clear!

I'll close by repeating that this circuit has not been built and tested. While I have done my best to predict how it might behave, I cannot verify its safety or suitability; proceed at your own risk. (On first power-up, I'd want a big old 100W or 60W incandescent in series with the hot side of the incoming power, and I'd use a GFI-switched outlet strip to turn it off and on. I'm not much for excitement.)
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* Angela Instruments, listed under "Sources" in the sidebar, seems to have the best prices at this writing. Antique Electronic Supply, Radio Daze and Parts Express all stock Hammond transformers.

TYPEWRITER DOCTOR

2011-03-27T11:58:00.003-04:00

There are fewer typewriter shops today than there were last week. There will probably be fewer tomorrow.

--But the ones that are left are generally run by men (and women) who wouldn't choose anything else. For instance, Cambridge Typewriter in Boston, recently visited by Marko of The Munchkin Wrangler. It looks like a wonderful place! (And the owner has a blog, too).

When you find a typewriter shop, don't keep it a secret; we need to make sure they've got plenty of work, so they'll still be around when our machines need attention.

ABOUT THE QSL TRANSMITTERS

2011-03-25T23:09:00.004-04:00

First, a quick note about safety. Fred Sutter, W8QBW, was of retirement age in 1938. His designs suggest a fellow who had been working with radio for many years and like most of his peers, Mr. Sutter was more casual about high voltage than most hams are today; he assumed his readers know the risks.

He got away with it because he was very aware of the dangers. You probably haven't spent your ham career being "tickled" by the occasional contact with B+ batteries; you are unlikely to have ever used a #2 pencil to draw a hissing arc from the tank coil of a transmitter and it is almost certain you have never keyed a spark transmitter operating from wall-socket juice. So you and I don't have quite the same learned reflexes the old-timers had.

One of the less obvious "gotchas" in the QSL-40 is the DC power connection; it's a 5 or 6-pin socket on the back of the transmitter and the output from the power supply is connected to a plug. That's dangerous; there's all manner of juice on those pins. You could still buy that kind of plug and socket new through last year -- it looks as if Cooper Interconnect has discontinued them -- but they work just as well with the plug mounted to the transmitter side and the socket on the power supply.

The big RF coil's connections are "live," too; you must keep your fingers clear of them when tuning the transmitter. For that matter, the tuning knob provides the only isolation from HV DC on the shaft of the tuning condenser. He picked the right knob for the job, an Ohmite rheostat knob* made of real Bakelite with a deeply-recessed setscrew, but you probably haven't got one of those handy. So that may need to be designed around. The power supply design is simply unsafe; he used a ceramic-base knife switch to turn the B+ off and on, at a point 600 VAC above ground. He took precautions, but he had experience and parts that cannot be obtained today. I'm working on a "modernized" redesign of the power supply and hope to have a tentative version posted some time this weekend.

There's a little about safety. Now, about history--

There was a whole series of "QSL" rigs, from a 5W transformerless "portable" you could hold in one hand (though not when it was plugged in!) to a 100W push-pull design, with side ventures into a tiny receiver, making "air-wound" RF coils and the use of pilot lights as current indicators.

It had to start somewhere. It didn't start where you'd think or even with the goal you might expect:"Radio" was, in some ways, the West Coast competition to the ARRL's "QST." Formed by the merger of "R/9," a smaller ham magazine with very high production values and the original "Radio," a large-format pulp that evolved from a general-radio magazine to one intended for ham radio operators, it had its own style and tone, a little slicker than that of "QST" and focused on building equipment and operating -- mostly, chasing DX. ("Radio" eventually gave rise to today's "CQ" magazine.)

In his letter to the editor of "Radio," W8QBW is thinking about a 6L6 power oscillator merely as a driver for some big tubes, operating at several hundred Watts.

Instead, once he'd got his prototype working, he put it on the air -- and found himself on a very different path.
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* Many models of rheostats had "live" shafts by design. So the knobs were designed to provide a level of protection the 1930s found adequate. Ohmite's design was ubiquitous and worked well; it's pretty much the default choice for hams and experimenters from the late 20s through WW II.

THE QSL-40

2011-03-25T08:13:00.006-04:00

This is an experiment. It is for amateur use only and I may have to take it down, the copyright holder being very much with us (and well worth your time, attention and memberhip).

But for now, a quick look at the project article that launched Fred Sutter's "QSL" transmitters:Readers with an eye to history -- or who notice the cut-and-paste -- should be aware the original schematic left out the cathode bypass condenser, replacing it with a direct connection. That meant the telegraph key wouldn't have worked, the transmitter would have been on all the time. QST published a corrected schematic the following month and I pasted that over the erroneous one.

For the record, this transmitter has a lot of exposed high voltage. It is inherently dangerous. Before building and operating such equipment, be certain you understand the risks.

THE 6L6 JOB

2011-03-23T21:42:00.005-04:00

Not a spy movie but a family of homebrew ham transmitters. The 6L6 is a beam power pentode vacuum tube introduced by RCA in 1936 that kind of caught on -- and caught on big: they're still making them. You'll find them in guitar amplifiers and some esoteric hi-fi amps, too (though purists there are now into triodes and are keeping the WeCo 300B in production for the rest of us).

Hams quickly latched onto the new tube -- it was relatively inexpensive for the power level -- and even though it was marketed as an audio amplifier, the lost no time in seeing if the 6L6 was happy with RF.

It was. Eventually, even RCA had to admit it and someone in the transmitting tube managed to sneak the 807 into production -- essentially, a souped-up, RF-ready 6L6.* But the cheaper receiving tube had won a place in the amateur pantheon and went on the become the heart of thousands of little transmitter designs. (There were plenty of 807 ham rigs built, too).

Fred Sutter's "QSL" series of transmitters -- so named because the little rigs had a footprint no larger than a 4" x 5" postcard (hams exchange QSL cards to confirm two-way contact: talk to enough people, far enough away, and you can get a fancy award!) -- were justly famous; mine is safely (I hope) stashed away Somewhere Around here. Frank Jones (of Radio magazine ham handbook fame) offered his own versions (schematic and a nice example at this link) and I have built a couple of those: The first one is a sort-of breadboard: the DC and heater wiring is all underneath. The empty socket at the left is for the frequency-determining crystal, the first variable condenser is plate tank tuning and the second one is output loading. But its a 1930s design, with relatively low-C (50 pF) and the output circuit is not a pi-network: the "loading" condenser is fed from a center-tap on the tank coil. This means harmonics do get out; at my former location, the first time I fired it up on 80 meters, the ham down the alley was knocking on my hamshack window in minutes, having copied my callsign via his TV receiver. (It did okay on 40 meters). This little rig worked all over the continental U.S. The frames of both tuning condensers are "hot" with plate voltage, by the way, but stubby insulating couplings and nice big knobs reduce the odds of getting bit. (Key jack, lower left, is in the cathode-ground circuit -- touch the cathode side when the key is open and you'll get a nasty tingle).

Another 6L6 rig, I built in a candy tin. Shown here sitting atop my RME-45 receiver to show how small it is (and to show off the receiver; I was copying W1AW and trying to keep up with some QRS guys earlier tonight, with a 6' hank of wire for an antenna since there was a storm outside: RME built good receivers). There should be a coil plugged in the socket at the right -- my box of transmitting coils is also Around Here Somewhere. This one does have a newer-type pi-net output, though a little more C on the output side wouldn't hurt. The crystal socket is out of sight behind the tube. And here's the mysterious inner workings -- a couple of RF chokes (plus the tinned-busbar VHF choke just left of center -- the breadboard rig has one, too), a voltage divider for the screen, grid resistor, feedback condenser, cathode resistor and a whole lot of bypass condensers. The BNC connector was for a VFO but I never wired it up. there are a couple of little braces soldered in place, too -- the sheet metal candy tins are made of isn't as sturdy as a real chassis. Oh, don't be fooled by the meter scale (0 to 5 Amps); that's one of a batch of meters surplussed from a 1950s RCA commercial transmitter, all 1 Ma/1 V/1kOhm. Very easy to shunt for the range desired, in this case 0-100 mA).
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*All-glass, with a low-loss base; 6L6s were made in both metal and glass-envelope variants. Much later, the 807 begat the TV receiver sweep tube 6BG6, little more than an 807 with an octal base. The 6L6 was scaled down (6V6), scaled up (6550) and made in industrial versions, too.

A REMARKABLE GIFT

2011-03-15T22:53:00.004-04:00

I suppose you could argue it's not a gift, as it replaces most of the content in the Spring number of The Indiana Historical Radio Society Bulletin. It was nevertheless wholly unexpected and quite delightful:It's a crystal set, sent out to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of this fine organization.

Like (I suspect) most members, I took mine to the radio room immediately and hooked it up. It works just fine; one tunes it by fanning out the hank of wire into a section of a torus; a full half-donut hits near the upper end of the broadcast band and a few degrees in from there finds WNDE (1260 kc/s), clear as a bell and plenty loud.

This nicely-framed xtal set is a variation on the "postcard crystal radio" of days gone by, a little bit of the past brought forward.

CRAZY ABOUT CODE?

2011-03-14T22:23:00.002-04:00

A fascinating collection of keys (and links to more) may be found at MorseMad.

CLEAN SIGNALS FOR 1929

2011-03-13T15:07:00.004-04:00

It was the (international!) law, but it would have been a good idea even if it hadn't been required: beginning in 1929, radio amateurs had to build their transmitter to meet nominal requirements for stability and spectral purity.

The rules weren't especially stringent; existing designs could be adapted and a beginner's transmitter wouldn't cost any more, though it might take more time to adjust. The benefit was that sharp, stable signals get through where wobbly, "squeggy" ones would prove too hard to read.

...It happens that for radiotelegraphy, a "1929 type" transmitter still makes signals stable enough and clean enough for amateur use. Even if the other ham is running a software-based radio on a plug-in computer card, he (or she) can tune it in.

And you can build one! Canadian ham VE7SL shows how, complete with original schematic, recent photos, modern schematic and ways to couple it into your coax-fed antenna, and then ends with a photographic round-up of 1929-style breadboard rigs by a dozen-odd builders. (And if you'd rather build Ross Hull's wonderful 1929 Hartley, why, he'll show you that one, too!)

I'm going to have dust mine off. H'mm, I need to find me a type '45 or '10 transmitting tube.*
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* The ' in place of a first digit replaces the manufacture's ID number -- "2" for RCA, for example.

THE FIRST AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

2011-03-05T17:50:00.005-05:00

They not be quite what you're picturing; nowadays, "aircraft carrier" summons up an image of a floating airfield nearly the size of a Georgia county.*

But you have to start somewhere; the British started before the 20th Century was two decades old, with the Thorneycroft Seaplane Lighter: a ship. That carried aircraft. An aircraft, in fact: singular. And it was on its own for the taking off and landing.

It might sound a little mad but the concept worked so well for the Royal Navy that they built 46 of them. There was one "survivor" known, but it was stuck in the mud and corroded away.

And then a maritime journalist spotted one in the Thames -- stuck, rusting, but remarkably intact!

It is presently being restored and will be displayed at the Fleet Air Arm Musem: an aircraft carrier not much larger than a modest modern houseboat; but an aircraft carrier all the same.
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* Originally required to have no border farther than a half-day's horseback ride from the county seat. Not a bad idea, especially in light of modern-day fuel prices.

USEFUL LINKS

2011-03-04T23:48:00.003-05:00

Clock parts -- for instance, the easily-breakable glass over the dial -- gears, hands and a staggering lot more: Timesavers. I may be able to put my vintage hamshack clock back in service!

Battery eliminators for very old radios: delightful versions housed in cases styled like classic radio batteries can be found at Antique Radios, Inc. Or you can get them with a plain case, if you'd rather. Since the older battery sets usually have you juggling a high-current 6V "A" battery (lead-acid, originally, and who wouldn't want that in the parlor?), several "B" batteries of up to 180 Volts (if you'd gone all out and bought a big loudspeaker) and "C" batteries for tube bias in the 4.5 to 45 Volt range, you can see that a nice battery eliminator would be a thing of beauty. Back in the days when wall-socket juice was the most modern of modern conveniences, a little company called Raytheon turned exactly that product into a lasting legacy; they're still building high-end electronic widgetry today.

The source or inspiration of these links would be FB ham operator W1UJR. If you like classic ham gear, you'll want to see what's in his hamshack.

IT'S THE ULTIMATE

2011-03-03T10:51:00.009-05:00

At first glance, you might well ask, "Ultimate what?"[click for a much larger version]The "73" Ultimate Telegraph Transmitter, is what; more familiarly, a telegraph key. This company built a dizzying array of versions and sizes, from fancy all-chr ome versions with a high degree of fit and finish to lower-priced amateur editions with exactly enough hand finishing to function. The majority of them were squarish (like mine) and came with a nice metal cover (missing from mine). They used at least two different operating mechanisms, with the one shown above being a little more common. They are very small -- 2-1/8" by 3-3/8" is typical, though at least one was much smaller. And it is the amateur version, solid but a little rough.

Mine has two levers; not all of these keys do. The right-hand one is moved to the left and makes a simple contact closure. The left-hand, moved to the left, does the exact same thing. So why's the other one there? I don't know.

The fun begins when you move the left-hand lever to the right. That's where the semiautomatic action starts to make the "dits" (usually written as "dots") for you. Like most other bug keys, it uses a weighted pendulum and a flat spring or reed to bounce back and forth; but the way this key shoves the pendulum into motion is madly complex, a square ascending spiral involving three levers, two pivots and a roller! I've tried to trace it:[click for a larger version]Start by finding the pendulum; it runs left to right across the center of the key. Got it? That's where we'll end up. Now, move your attention to the black fingerpiece at the very bottom; the pink arrow shows what direction you'd move it. From there on up and around, the fuzzy yellow line follows the mechanism and the punk arrows show direction of movement, The lever attached to the fingerpiece moves a second lever (which it pivots away from if you moved the fingerpiece the other way but they move together in this direction); the second lever is pivoted and at its far upper end, it pushes a roller to the left. The roller is in one end of another lever shaped like a squared-off "C" and the bottom of it holds the reed and pendulum. The C-shaped lever is pivoted at its bottom left corner and thus, when the upper end is moved, the bottom end moves away from you, bumps into a stop screw and -- at last! -- the pendulum begins to vibrate. There's a little electrical contact on the pendulum arm, on its own flat, U-shaped spring, which is what actually makes the dit. Whew! When you let go, a little spring next to the stop screw pushes everything back to the at rest position.
And if you weren't confused enough, here's a back view that shows the around-two-corners lever a little more clearly.

I first saw one of these keys in 1996 at a railroad museum in French Lick, Indiana; it was in a display case and I was unable to get a clear enough look at it to figure out how it worked. I've wanted one ever since.

Photo links are from this page at Tom Perera's online museum, where a key-fancier can easily spend hours. I was able to find a few more examples via a websearch as well.

MCELROY "JUNIOR," AGAIN

2011-03-01T09:47:00.004-05:00

I have written of them in the past and a reader recently pointed out another one: the McElroy "Junior," a semi-automatic telegraph key built for the ham or telegrapher of limited means.

The base and frame were made of stamped and welded sheet metal and they were the least-expensive bug ever made. They're also vanishingly rare, which leads to an interesting quirk: while you can find a nice Mac "T-bar" bug for about $500 and his high-end models for up to a couple hundred more, the humble little "Junior" sells for as much as -- see for yourself:Yes, that's $1026.01. I did not bid on it; bidding rises early on these and keeps on going up.

I do note, very typical of McElroy, that the inner construction appears to be quite robust and seems to include some kind of additional pivot support; mechanically it is a better key than first glance might suggest.

NEW? OLD? USEFUL!

2011-02-27T11:39:00.005-05:00

What fits in a mint tin and lets the 19th Century communicate with the 21st?

It's not a real riddle, it's the Morse key USB keyboard! A nifty little interface that connects to a telegraph key on one end and on the other, tells your computer it's a USB keyboard.

While first at glance you might see only hobbyist fun (and big fun indeed for some of us), there's a serious side to this kind of interface, too: persons with limited mobility or strength who are unable to use a conventional keyboard can use a telegraph key. It has been done before, usually in the form of software running on a dedicated machine with a specialized interface; this is plug'n'play, portable. USB connection, Dr. Hawking?

Downside, you'll need the hardware/software to flash an Arduino-compatible microcontroller. Or know someone who can.

Update: If you'd like to match this to a landline telegraph sounder, Jake von Slatt's sounders are a scratch-built solution; the morse2led software he uses to drive them (from a keyboard led) would also work a commercial sounder, piezo buzzer or electromagnetic buzzer, though you might have to fiddle with the drive ciruits a little.

If you were wondering, yes, there is Morse telegraphy on the Internet. The software is free. The linked page, at the wonderful Morse Telegraph Club website, will guide you to sites and software, some using landline (or American) Morse and others using radio (or International) telegraph codes

GET YOUR POLAROID BACK OUT

2011-02-08T06:51:00.002-05:00

Yes, even the SX-70: The Impossible Project is making film for them! And for a number of other classic Polaroid cameras.

Polaroid themselves got out of the instant film business in 2008; a group of enthusiasts bought up the machinery from the last few plants, leased space from Polaroid and...started from scratch on the chemistry: Polaroid had made their own dyes, etc. and it was information they couldn't share. It seemed impossible -- but it wasn't.

A couple of years ago, I packed away my Dad's old SX-70, thinking it was long odds it would ever take another photograph. Looks like I was wrong.

It's not that "retro," but it was a lost technology and now it's back. It will probably never again be the preferred choice for vacation snapshots but it is certainly nice to have the option.

(First found here, thanks to her).

TOY STEAM

2011-02-07T21:39:00.003-05:00

I only know what I have seen on their website, but MiniSteam has me totally enthralled: more tabletop steam (and everything from Stirling to internal combustion) engines than I have ever seen in one storefront, from a huge variety of makers. Even steam robots -- see for yourself.

There and elsewhere, my dream toy for the summer, a Stirling-engine fan.

Prices on many of them are not for the faint of heart -- but it's wonderful stuff to see.

WE302

2011-01-11T22:51:00.003-05:00

WE302? The standard desk phone. The 500-series phone that followed was just the same thing slicked-up for the sixties.

I've got one. If you call Roseholme Cottage (CLifford 3-....), that's what gets picked up. Blogger Keads has one, too -- with the original number card!

Treated well, a Western Electric 302 is nearly indestructible. Most phone systems will still accept pulse-dialing, too, and for the ones that don't, you can get magic pulse-to-touchtone widgets. The cloth cords can fray over time; Phoneco will sell you new ones, with all the proper lugs and anchors.

MORE BOOKSHELVES

2010-11-29T07:50:00.005-05:00

I replaced a too-wide set of shelves between the doorways to the kitchen and the attic, then added an over-door shelf: Dinner dishes hadn't made it to the dishwasher yet, oh dear.
I had to leave room for the light switch, which made room for some other items:Cordless phone on a quickly-built angled stand, notepad, CO detector, the spot where I routed a shelf support, thinking the switch was a foot higher on the wall.... Oops! That gray thing is not a firearm; it's a solid-plastic training aid. But it couldn't stay there, as even it was too much temptation during junk phone calls. The other gadget is a tiny, French-made telegraph key. Quite a nice little key, in fact. Here, perhaps it will be handy if we receive any telegrams.

I put the short shelf, the vertical that supports it and the two shelves it is connected to together as a unit before proceeding with the rest of the assembly. This simplified the process considerably, though I am starting to think I need two more 4' long pipe clamps. (You can never own too many clamps).

There are two more doorways to bridge and I will have encircled the room. (And two boxes of books to be shelved). However, the shelves on the opposite wall are only temporary; it has an archway into the living room and my plan is to build new shelves on each side and at least one shelf along the wall above the archway. At least one of the temporary shelves will be moved to the living room: with the science fiction all shelved, there will still be science, technology, biography and history books in boxes, plus some mysteries (Sherlock Holmes, Travis McGee, Amelia Peabody) and a few others.

I'm considering a frieze of toy soldiers along the molding over the kitchen door; or is that too quirky?

BOOKSHELVES

2010-11-10T22:31:00.003-05:00

I'm slowly working on covering every wall of the dining room here at Roseholme* Cottage with bookshelves. The corner between the recently-built window seat and the doorway to the kitchen was next up. Here's what I started with: A sad old set of butt-jointed Luan shelves, slapped together from stock lengths in an excess of enthusiasm and lack of funds over 15 years ago. They don't even have stabilizing pieces (we'll get to that); side stress could fold them up. All that wasted space! (And those newspapers have gotta go). Step One: Measurements and a worksheet. This one's fancied up with colored ink but the basic notion is to set down the essential dimensions. I already know 8' lumber will clear the ceiling, so a plan view (top left) and a simple reminder of the shelf spacing (bottom left) plus a detail of the routed joints and some scratch calculations are all it takes. (I left woodscrews off the bill of materials. 1- ¼" flathead wood or drywall screws, #8 or #6 will do. They mostly hold it together while the glue dries).

The shelves are easy to run off with a power saw. Stabilizing pieces are just additional shelves, one mounted vertically at the top back, the other at the bottom, set in 1-½" from the front edge as a kind of kick plate (a refinement is possible here, which I'll get to later). They help the shelves resist side stress. It works pretty well -- here they are, assembled and stacked on their sides in the garage:The verticals are another story. The actual measurement is 95-¾" to allow cutting the bottom square and it's not uncommon to end up with an eighth of an inch or so left over at the top. Leave it be 'til the shelves are all together; it's easy enough to trim away with a sharp saw. Establish a consistent measurement point for the spacing (my worksheet reminds "bot. to bot.") and lay with out with a tape and square. Mark it right on the wood. The router will cut the marks away.

Next step is to cheat: take a scrap of wood with one good edge and clamp another scrap to it as a guide, square with the edge. Make a mark along it, then take your router (you'll want a ¾" cutter for nominal 1" lumber) and plow a groove, bearing the router base against the guide. Once you're done, measure from the guide to the nearest and farthest edges of the groove and make two spacers from scraps of the shelf material, one each of those widths. You use those with your marked locations to set up a guide for the router! Rout a notch for each shelf -- don't forget to do them for the stabilizing pieces, too. The one at top, back will have to be longer than the lumber is wide by half the diameter of the router bit, unless you are willing to do some chisel work to make a nice square corner. (I had to do so by accident, with a pocket knife: I didn't catch that I'd done one of them too short until I was assembling the shelves and glue was setting! White pine is soft enough it wasn't difficult to make a few quick slices and get everything to fit). I do rough sanding as I rout, a quick scrub to round the corners next to the groove and another to slightly chamfer the edges of the groove itself.

When you've got all the pieces cut and routed, it's assembly time. A flat and level floor is a great help in this, as is a wooden mallet and some wood blocks to buffer the shelves from the mallet. A couple of pipe clamps longer than the shelves are wide are a great help; you can do without if you must. Or if you've several, the assembly can be glued, clamped and pinned together with finishing nails or even dowels. I usually start with one side, with the shelves laying on their back, tapping the shelves in place from the top to the bottom and securing them with screws as I go, then move to the other side. One or two screws per shelf per side hold it together. The routed grooves will tend to pull everything square. I use ordinary, inexpensive dimensional lumber, and sort out the worst warped ones, but they're never perfect. Check to make sure it is square as you go!

Once it's done, if there's any need to clear baseboards, those cuts will have to be made. If it won't show, a simple rectangle (7" by 1-½" for the old-fashioned ones at Roseholme) will do. I used a semi-coped one for the quarter-round and baseboard on the side next to the kitchen door: (A little blurry, sorry). All the trim cuts were done with a Japanese backsaw, which cuts fast and leaves a smooth edge. The shelves are only 5-½" wide, so I end up with a 1-½" gap at the bottom; I could have used a wider board, or I can cover that with another piece. At present, it's handy for retrieving cat toys.

A quick sanding/scraping to remove any rough spots and slightly round the edges, and it's ready for the finish (if any; I leave them raw and let the pine pick up some color. Plus I don't have to worry about the finish affecting the books).These are very tall, narrow shelves. I secure them to the walls when possible. The photo has arrows pointing to the (ugly) angle brackets presently holding the shelves to the door and window frame, and to the screws that hold the shelves to hidden blocks at the corner where they meet. A wedge under one upright takes care of a slight irregularity in the floor; careful pocketknife work makes it less obvious.

And there you are: bookshelves! The design started with one from Nomadic Furniture, meant to be cut from a single 4' x 8' sheet of plywood; I've always built them from dimensional lumber instead. The routed joints for the shelves are a later refinement that really helps stability and speeds assembly. The book is a very handy source for homemade furniture ideas; it's a bit hippieish but the stuff works, so who cares? It's got a lot of basic measurements for furniture design, too. My "copy" is just that, handwritten notes and a few photocopied drawings. I was happy to discover it and its sequel have been reprinted in one volume! (Buy it via the Amazon link at Tam's and do a blogger a favor).
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* The name is actually a reference to a grant of arms to the family name, a "naturally-colored" rose on a silver background. Does that mean the rose is white, or red? I don't know.

PENS!

2010-10-28T05:54:00.006-04:00

Somehow, I stumbled across Jet Pens -- then Strikethu reviewed a pair of their pens, which put them squarely in the "probably good" category.

I'd set a bit of funding aside and last weekend, ordered a few nifty items. They arrived yesterday (free shipping, at my door in three business days, from California), well packed, and all at least as nice as promised. Jet Pens is good![click for larger image]Left to right, top to bottom to bottom:
Kaweco (warning: music) "Classic Sport," a full-size (when posted) fountain pen that, thanks to clever design, is about half-size when capped. Designed as a pocket pen, even the clip is an (inexpensive) accessory. It feels good in my hand and the nib is very smooth. It is a classic-looking pen, even with the unusual oversize cap (not only does that make the short length work, it offers a little more protection than the usual size). Ink for it at right. Despite the name sounding a bit Japanese to American ears (due to syllabic structure, I think), it's made in Germany. Love those graphics! At $15.00, this is an inexpensive pen, excellent value for the money.
Next, the brown pen is a Noodler's aerometric fill, handmade made of genuine ebonite. I said the Kaweco had a smooth nib? This is a step or two more smooth. A very plain-looking pen at first sight, but don't be fooled! Those timeless, 1920-or-this-year looks are no illusion: this pen is as good as any golden age Parker Duofold or Conklin at a third the price (or less).
To the right, three tiny Pilot "Petit1" pens in jewel-bright colors. The ink is well-behaved, doesn't run at color crossings and the nibs are outstanding, especially for a $4.50 pen. They're so small that you just about have to post the cap in order to write with them. I'll be saving up for the full set of 12. One drawback, the ink cartridge appears to be proprietary; they're available at the source, though, and inexpensive.
Back on the left, another Pilot, a "Plumix" with a music nib. I had thought it might be good for handwriting, as they can be run backwards, unlike most "Italic" calligraphy nibs. Yes and no -- my sloppy Spencerian cursive doesn't work well with the nib angle, but it is very good for printing and genuine Italic writing. (I'm trying to remember the style of printing, rapid and fairly legible, I adopted some years ago, can't bring it to mind. Aargh!) (29 October: Got it! Chancery cursive, which is not all that cursive as we know the term. For very pretty examples, look here.
Finally, underneath it all, a Maruman Mnemosyne "Inspiration" note pad, grid-ruled and about 8.5" by 6". I'm evaluating it to possibly replace my current Moleskines field-type notebook (same size, staple bound) once it is filled with notes. (At a page per day, they last three or four months.) The paper is wonderful! It takes ink well, with no bleed-through or running and feels smooth and neutral. I'm not sure how well the ring-binding will hold up in my purse -- I may need to keep a pencil in there to protect the rings from being crushed. (Gotta like the neckless-people cartoons showing the note pad in use, too).

HOME IMPROVEMENT

2010-10-18T07:29:00.006-04:00

I think it was an improvement:I've added a shelf over the window seat. It helps define the space and it will serve as a place to store some of my typewriter collection. (Tools used are on the seat, along with a pile of books. Still working on the bookshelves).Brackets are a Victorian repro from Lee Valley, sprayed with black lacquer and a quick swipe of cream enamel (I had to paint them: they are re-used and had rusted a little). Edge detail on the wood (a bit difficult to see in the photos) was done using a very simple tool: a flathead, slotted woodscrew in a bit of scrap 1-by-2. You screw it in to the desired width of the edge bead, then file the head of the screw flatter, creating a sharp edge at the slot. Worked along the edge of the wood, it cuts a groove while smoothing and slightly rounding the corner. I picked the most interesting side of the glued-up board for the bottom. It's just pine, planed flat and smoothed with a scraper. I think this shows the depth of the grain better than sanding.
The finish is just boiled linseed oil and wax. I like the scent, once it's crosslinked enough to not be overpowering.

Will it hold typewriters? It should. The upper screws found a good, solid bite into the window frame. I'll find out gradually.

A REALLY BIG RIG

2010-10-09T23:01:00.002-04:00

I don't know how I missed it! A friend posted photos several weeks back of a 1917 IHC "Titan," in as-new condition, and I've just now found them. Have a look. And if you're into the numbers, try these on for size: two cylinders, 9 3/4" bores, 14" strokes. Now that's big iron indeed.

WINDOW SEAT

2010-09-07T06:55:00.007-04:00

I've been wanting to add some seating and storage to the dining room/library at my house (Roseholme Cottage) and when an extra sheet of oak-veneer plywood turned up, the chance seemed too good to miss. After only a month or six weeks of as-you-find-it spare time, it was ready to put in place yesterday:Here it is as installed. The sides are "coped" to fit the window; available materials worked out to slightly less than full width of the window frame; this is actually a good thing, as you'll see. (That's a Device on it, a partially-restored 5-meter radiotelephone transceiver, a sort of 1930s cellphone). The tall bookshelves are what the room will eventually be lined with. The shorter ones are temporary and about twenty years old.The reverse angle shows the stenciling (all hand-cut by yours truly. Yes, it does say "Airship Parts, and why not?) and "decal," which is an iron-on inkjet printer transfer for cloth, a trick that worked better than I expected. If it seems a little familiar, that's because it's the old Railway Express (the FedEx and UPS of their day) logo.

In that photo and the next, you can see how it just fits in the inside width of the window frame.

With the cushion in place -- a folded comforter -- it has enormous cat-magnetism. The width works out just right for a Full size comforter.Construction detals: It's pretty much a box sitting on another box; the base is just (nominal) 2" x 8" pine from the scrap-wood pile, butt-jointed; glue and big deck screws hold it together. It clears the baseboard at the back.

More scrap, 2" x 6", extends the base horizontally at front and back, trimmed flush with the base on the inside after assembly. This provides a toe-kick overhang at the front and baseboard clearance at the back.

The upper part is a three-sided box, open at the back, held to the 2" x 6"s with more deck screws (hidden behind the oak trim) and held to the sides by shallow "Kreg" screws. The open back is framed with 2" x 4" wood for strength, with vertical posts and a front-to-back 2" x 4" at the center and another 2" x 4" centered under the hinges to support the seat (you don't rely on the hinges!).

It is heavy, but not as heavy as you'd think. The hinged seat feels solid when you sit or relax on it. Worked out pretty well for something I mostly made up as I went along. I had dimensions in mind but that was about all.

A CLASSIC PENCIL RETURNS

2010-08-29T21:37:00.002-04:00

Boing Boing has the details. Eberhard Faber's quirky Blackwing 602 went the way of the Ford Model T back in 1998, leaving a fan base nearly as devoted -- and now it has come back, the design licensed to another pencil maker (no word on the balky machinery that got it dropped in the first place).

What's so special? High-quality lead, for one thing; but the feature I suspect won it the most fans is the eraser, a nice, wide slab with a tiny slider to lift up more when it gets worn down. Maybe it's just the way I write, but I run out of eraser long before the pencil's too short to use (without a holder, that is).

It even gets passing mention in Henry Petroski's marvelous The Pencil: "...the steel-black hexagonal Faber Blackwing, a dignified-looking fifty-cent pencil with distinctive flat ferrule (The Blackwing's extra soft lead makes it so smooth and easy to write with that the pencil has been imprinted with the slogan, 'half the pressure, twice the speed.')" [page 354]

There's a particular pleasure in using a really good pencil; if you liked the old Blackwing, be on the lookout for the new ones.

(For The Pencil and other Petroski books, try the Amazon.com link at Tam's)

RCA HAM TIPS

2010-08-16T07:47:00.002-04:00

Scanned in and available online thanks to a kindly ham (N4TRB), a nice collection of "RCA Ham Tips" from the 1930s onwards. These were little flyers featuring a single project using RCA tubes (or later, transistors), nicely built and written up by genuine RCA engineers, usually amateur radio operators themselves. Most are as buildable now as they were when new, and every bit as much fun.

FOR THE GENTLEMEN

2010-08-13T20:48:00.004-04:00

I was browsing the Field Notes site (very nice classic pocket notebooks, and none of this famous-authors guff, either, they're like the ones you used to get down at the Farm Bureau Co-Op), and in their map of local dealers, I see there's a dot on Indianapolis.

So I scrolled down, and it's a...barber shop?

Yes, that it is, and not just any barbershop, either: Red's Barber Shop, as classic a place for you gents to get your hair cut as could be imagined. Reminds me of the ones I used to have to wait in, mornings Dad was looking after the kids and he and my baby brother were due to get the hair trimmed off the back of their neck and tops of their ears. (Dad was a Vitalis guy, thick black hair combed up and back just like a movie hero).

If you're local, or passin' through town on The Cardinal train or down from Chicago on The Hoosier State run, you might want to check Red's out.

HAMMERS

2010-08-10T11:21:00.006-04:00

TOOLS MATTER
It is said -- and rightly so -- that a poor workman blames his tools. Elsewhere, the hobby woodworker with a collection of expensive tools but no skill is a familiar stereotype and we've all heard the story of a fellow who, with nothing more than a rock, a pocketknife and scrap lumber, produces wonders.

You can find real-life examples of all of this; they're all points on a graph. Most of us are well inside those limits.

Me, for years I owned one hammer. It was my Dad's, then it was his second-best hammer, then it migrated into my toolbox and when I moved out, well, it came along. It's a fine, smooth-face, medium-sized general-purpose claw hammer, probably made some time in the first half of the last century, and it did all the little craft-type projects I wanted or needed to do. When my library reached the point of either learning how to build bookcases or start selling books (the horror!), it did that, too.

Then I got a little better at it and a wooden mallet to tap things together looked like a good idea; learned leatherwork and needed a different mallet for that. Started paying a little more attention to fit & finish of my bookshelves and... H'mm, no tack hammer.

As a child, I didn't so much get along with the classic tack hammer Mom used when reupholstering; somehow the long skinny head always found my tender fingers. And there were these other hammers....
What you see there is my Old Dependable hammer at the bottom (you don't get wood and metal those hues without using them for a long, long time) and above it, a couple of cross pein* or Warrington-pattern hammers. Handiest small hammers I own. I've been using the larger of the two when fastening trim pieces to the window seat I'm working on; the smaller one (especially good for wire brads) is known to British woodworkers as a "telephone hammer" to this very day, supposedly because they were used to nail together the old wooden-type wall telephones, which were usually sent out as a kind of a kit, in order to take up less space on the installers wagon or bicycle.

Could I use different hammer (I use glue, too. Perhaps that's overkill but it seems to work) to tack oak trim to oak plywood? Sure. But this one fits the job. And that's the real secret: knowing which tool to pick up for a particular task. The right one can make your work a pleasure.
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* Or "peen" or even "pane." One story even claims the name comes from nailing together frames for multi-pane windows, in which the narrow "pane" end is used to minimize the risk of breaking glass. --In which case, was the ball-peen hammer for breaking the glass?

OLD & ADVANCED

2010-07-04T13:11:00.008-04:00

There are some features not often found in a full-sized drill press that'd be nice to have -- continuously-variable speed, for instance, and maybe a torque-limited drive. And don't you just hate the ones where the heavy table is just clamped to the column, ready to take out a toe if you slip while adjusting the height?

It turns out those concerns were already addressed -- in the 19th Century. Meet the W.B. & J. Barnes No. 0 Drill, a smallish, elegant camelback drill that uses an unusual ninety-degree friction drive:Yes, it's an eBay listing; the photos and first link should take you right to the page for as long as it lasts. I don't think the seller or auction site will mind and if they do -- editing's easy.True, it's set up for line-shaft drive; not too big a challenge for anyone with the skills to restore it and the desire to do so. The simplest item to fix would be the missing lever(s) from the quill control; it may also have a broken quill spring or counterweight, it appears the friction disc and wheel are going to need new leather and all the bearings are condition unknown; expect babbitt, not ball- or roller-bearings.

Despite all those things, the price is good; camelback drill presses generally command excellent prices on the used market and offer a number of advantages. High on the list is one of my pet peeves: most modern drill presses are set up way too fast; every time I have to use one at work, I find myself resetting it to the slowest set of pulleys (or, rarely, one step up). "Faster" is not "better;" it's how you overheat and/or break your drills (sigh, drill "bits," for the language-impaired). Camelbacks were set up for a slower range of speeds. The present example is a little different; instead of the usual three or four-step belt-drive pulley, the setting of the friction-drive wheel determines the speed -- there's a rod behind the main shaft that carries its bearing and a handscrew, barely visible at the upper right in the photo above, that secures it at the selected height along the radius of the friction disc.

Table-height adjustment is not visible in my screencaps. It's an Acme-thread leadscrew with a crank at about the same height as the quill knob, plus the usual clamping arrangement to secure the table at the selected height.

Looks like the press was set up for Morse (or similar....) taper arbors; there's a characteristic slot in the spindle where one would tap in a wedge to remove the chuck. You might not much want to -- it already has a modern-looking three-jaw chuck installed.

The whole thing looks as if it stayed in service well into the 20th Century. Not a lot of rust and no signs of overt abuse past the usual line of spots where the table's been drilled into.

Patent dates, per the seller, are all 1880s - 1890s.

There are some hints of various bits and bobs from the original drive -- a fitting on the column and a cast-in saddle at the base. If I was in Columbus, Ohio, I'd be tempted to have a look; if I knew how to rebabbitt bearings, I might do more than look.

HOW TO TEST HEADPHONES

2010-06-20T11:15:00.002-04:00

To check or test old-fashioned magnetic headphones use a very small battery, a 1.5V AAA cell is fine -- or just use an adaptor and plug them into your iPod. Important Note, if it says "Brush" or "Clevite" on your headphones, they are crystal headphones and will be ruined by any DC-type test. Check the label. Most Brush headphones have octagonal instead of cylindrical backs and a cast-in label.

Really old ones with tip plugs on the ends of the leads will often "click" just from touching the tips together in a damp palm. (The tip plating was porous -- so, brass, nickel, a little salt water, you get a current flow).

The adapter/iPod trick may be okay for even Brush-Clevite crystal headphones, I don't know and would not advise it. If you're an electronics type, a series condenser, say .01 or .05 mF, would make it safer. A 1:1 transformer might be even better -- 600:600 ohms, like a coupling transformer from an old modem, would do. (I've ruined a Brush earpiece plugging into the headphone jack on a reel-to-reel, so trust me and be careful).

Someone, malicious or ill-informed, is going around on eBay, asking headphone sellers to use a nine volt battery to "test" them. Please don't do this. It can do damage to some types. The wire used for the windings is tiny and can be melted by excessive current. Use a 1.5 Volt cell at most. Or use an ohmmeter; the current will be limited. Anything other than open or dead short indicates some degree of function.

Another thing -- if you're selling headphones on an auction site, why oh why would you unscrew the caps and take the diaphragms out? There's a permanent magnet in there, one with some oomph, and it will grab any little ferrous particles around. They'll get between the pole pieces and the diaphragm and make for trouble. The diaphragms themselves are a bit fragile; bend 'em and they are ruined. Last of all, the caps -- and often but not always the backs or "cups" -- are brittle Bakelite or hard rubber. They can chip, jam and break when unscrewed or dropped.

Be nice to old-style headphones. They will never make balanced-armature, mica-diaphraghm Baldwins (very complex inside) ever again. You will not find new Brush-Clevite cans (with their high-fidelity sound -- hams even used them as microphones) and the last stocks of Trimm "Commercial,*" "Professional*" and even the ubiquitous "Dependable" model ran out decades ago. What we have is all we'll have. Every set you break is gone. (But save the parts! Sometimes three broken sets add up to one working pair).

Related, Modern Radio Labs sells the definitive handbook on maintenance and repair of old headphones. It's worth owning.
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* Highly recommended. My fave set of radio "cans" for years have been Commercials. Trimm's little "Featherweights" are nice, too.

RETROTECH MEETS MODERN

2010-06-16T07:59:00.005-04:00

I was taken with it at first sight; then I wondered if it was sacrilige. The USB Typewriter, though it is mildly invasive, doesn't ruin the function of the typewriter and should be reversible -- though I do wish he'd pad the platen:

I would not do this to a rare machine but as typewriter mods go, it is among the better. There are ways to slick it up (Pogo[tm] pins for the keybar contacts, for instance) but it's not bad.

GERSTNER TOOLBOX RESTORATION

2010-06-13T18:31:00.003-04:00

Someone hit this blog, looking for "Gerstner toolbox restoration." Interestingly, Gerstner is your best source for this; sure, their professional toolboxes are expensive, but they are selling quality and durability for that money -- and they stand behind their products. They offer an extensive array of replacement parts including felt lining, pulls, hinges, handles, locks, replacement keys and labels. This level of support is unusual for any product other than an automobile, industrial machinery or a major appliance and I think it's plain wonderful.

So, if you're out to restore your Gerstner toolchest, go the source!

TOOL ABUSE 101

2010-06-12T14:12:00.002-04:00

The author (?) calls it "The Pennsylvania Dutch Handbook" but you find examples anywhere you find old tools for sale.

TELEGRAPHY: ONE CITY, TWO COMPANIES, SEVERAL THOUSAND JOBS

2010-06-12T10:10:00.004-04:00

There must be something about Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

I've known for years that modern-as-tomorrow RF switching manufacturer Dow-Key started U.S. operations there, building interesting and unusual semi-automatic telegraph keys, then branched out into coaxial relays, which eventually became the entire business. In 1966, they left Minnesota for California -- but that wasn't the end of the telegraphy connection for Thief River Falls.

In the early 1970s, then college student and amateur radio operator Ron Stordahl began selling an electronic speed-key kit, which he called a "Digi-Keyer." In the process, he found that a lot of hams and others were looking for a source of modern electronic components; in 1972, his home-town smaller-than-garage kit company became a fledgling parts house called Digi-Key and today, Dr. Ronald A. Stordahl is CEO of the fifth-largest electronic distributor in North America, the biggest employer in Thief River Falls.

In my career, I've seen their print catalog grow from a skinny magazine into something the size and heft of a big-city telephone book, small print, thin paper. No tubes but Digi-Key is Retrotechnologist-approved: like the famous mail-order outfits of yore, they carry a huge variety of items and are happy to sell to anyone. Orders go out the door the same day, too.

Both companies have sold parts in use from Kansas City to geosynchronous orbit. And it all started with telegraph keys. Twice!

HAMSHACK AND HAMMING

2010-05-31T23:35:00.003-04:00

One of the more interesting parts of a 1920s Arts & Crafts cottage like Roseholme is that you find unusual angles -- for instance, my ham shack as seen from the stairs:The white glare is not dust but the camera flash, bouncing back from the white stairway walls. Desk's getting a little crowded; I'm working on some ideas.

At the front edge of the desk near my chair, an early, nickel-plated Les Logan (of Speed-X fame) bug. On the far side of it and the pencil-sharpener is my very first and homebrew bug, a kind of Vibroplex "Lightning Bug"-inspired gadget built from whatever I could lay hands on. There's another Speed-X bug on the next-to top shelf, above the National speaker; called a "T-Bar" because the yoke has a nifty T-shape, which makes a nice carrying handle. It is in serious need of replating, though it may be zinc-alloy "white metal" and therefore not exactly long-lasting. My present plan is to hand the yoke over to a local machine shop and have them clone it in brass, which won't be cheap but gets me a working bug and lets me save the fragile part. Both of them have a Logan-unique feature, the yoke supports the lower pivot point as well as the upper one! (I should take photos, shouldn't I?) Also on the desktop, my Begali bug and Vibroplex Blue Racer and Zephyr.

The blue wires at the left are feeder from my G5RV (a sort of double Zepp) antenna; normally, they hang on the overhead part of the ground wire, but I was preparing to get on the air. I managed to work Florida and Quebec on 40 meters -- the band was active, though plenty noisy. Some real speed demons out there, though my Canadian contact had a very clean, 10 or 12 wpm fist. I slid the weights back on the Begali bug but ended up switching to a straight key to match him as much as possible. (This, for the high-speed fellows out there, some of whom either forgot it or were never told, is the polite thing to do: QRS, OM!) OTOH, there's a good chance he's a French speaker, so he may have been sending slowly so I didn't get lost! No harm in that.

(The initial parts of a CW contact are in a kind of Radio Latin -- or "QST English:" "R R R TNX FER CALL ES GE -- UR RST 599 ? 5NN -- QTH INDIANAPOLIS, IN ? INDIANPOLIS, IN -- NAME RJ ? RJ -- HW CPY? VE4XXX DE K9YYY KN" is a greeting, introduction and signal report that most hams understand no matter what language they use. ("Received you okay, thanks for responding & good evening. Your signals are very readable and strong at my location in Indianapolis. Call me RJ. How'd you receive that? [callsigns, him from me] Go ahead, just you and nobody else." [That's the "KN;" plain "K" is kind of a general-whoever go ahead prosign]) To a CW-minded person, the short-long-short pattern of an R says "I got it" and the long-short-long of a K says "go a-head," clear as any spoken word. N -- dah-dit -- becomes "onnn-ly" and there you go. In another context, it's given a long dash and used as shorthand for "9." Use of "?" to signal a repeated word is not universal; some hams just send twice and others, especially if they got a good signal report, don't bother. Hey, if it's "armchair copy," they got it first time).

(Update: My use of "yoke" may be misleading, as it is variously used to describe different parts of a bug! I meant the pivot frame, often a more or less inverted-U shape that holds the upper pivot bearing and usually adjustment screws).

PEN TESTING

2010-05-09T12:14:00.006-04:00

Filled it this morning, after cleaning even more cruft from inside the barrel. Section is in place in the barrel and holding without glue, which is preferred.Fairly bold nib, somewhat flexible. So far, so good. But I am storing it vertically, nib up, just in case.

(Still working to get my Palmer Method cursive up to spec -- and then it's on to Spencerian! BTW, the radiogram form is a reproduction).

OF PENS AND SUCH

2010-05-09T02:31:00.008-04:00

What you see is evidence of an experiment in progress; come the morrow, I'll be finding out. First: the instrument, as found, after cleaning, soaking, disassembly and removal of nasty-crunchy bits of old internals, shown along with some parts and supplies. Yes, the ink reservoir -- the sac, as 'tis known to the trade - had perished. Thanks to a pair of dedicated and loopy-in-a-good-way enthusiasts, this isn't a total disaster. You can still get the parts.

Section and sac assembled, waiting for the Secret Mystery Glue (clear shellac or nail polish) to dry: This was an inexpensive pen when it was new; I picked it up with another pen (an Eversharp "Zenith" with a mixmaster cap, in fair working shape) at $14 and change for the pair. For having even an inkling of how to go about fixing the non-working one, all thanks to Da Book!

This is one of those rare, hands-on, essential texts, like W. R. Smith's How To Restore Telegraph Keys, Horowitz and Hill's The Art Of Electronics or anything by Frank C. Jones or Patrick S. Finnegan. If you're going to do much with fountain pens -- or stylographic pens* -- you need a copy.

Of course, it helps to have a backup, in this case a shiny-new pen. I don't know why I'd never purchased a Lamy. They make a full line and their inexpensive pens are an especially good value; this one has a nice feel in the hand and on the paper. The clip's distinctive and should hold up. (I'm running a converter filled with Noodler's black ink, the latter having been highly recommended by Marko and received good mention elsewhere).It's a clear "demonstrator." I have a real fondness for them.
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* Don't know what they are? See, that's why you need Da Book.

I WENT TO THE RADIO SWAPMEET AND I GOT A BOOK ABOUT STEAM

2010-05-01T22:30:00.011-04:00

I got radio parts too; but this kind of thing happens to me a lot -- it helps to be eclectic.

That book is pretty fascinating stuff (updated, it remains in print!) and Babcock and Wilcox is not just another rustbelt industry vanished in the mists of a previous time; they are very much still around and about as modern as next week. At the time this book was published, their little Boiler Division plant in Mt. Vernon, IN had not yet been completed; now it's rather vast and in another division altogether.

Nevertheless, a pressure vessel is a pressure vessel and steam power is the same, no matter how it's generated and they've been good at both for a very long time -- which is probably why they got tapped for this project:Yes, it says "World's first nuclear-powered merchant ship" and no, it's not some artist's-conception dream, either. It sailed, er, steamed. Intended more as proof-of-concept and designed to look good in the doing, it never turned the profit a conventionally-driven freighter of like size would have. Withal, the power plant ran without trouble, unless you count the time it shut down, automatically and safely, in heavy seas -- exactly as it was designed to.

There have been four reactor-driven freighters, only one of which remains in service; in addition to the U.S., Japan, Germany and the former Soviet Union built them. The biggest issue appears to be the need for additional crew training and a few more specialists, along with some dedicated service vessels. Reactor waste was a particular challenge early on. NS Savannah -- named after the first steamship to cross the Atlantic -- came to the end of her working days in 1972 and spent a few years as a floating museum exhibit. Presently in the process of having her reactor decommissioned, with a bit of luck she will emerge from the process as a museum ship again.

You may wonder, "is this retrotechnology?" I believe it is. To a very great extent, modern civilization continues to run on steam. Much of it is still produced by burning coal in boilers that, other than scale, would not be terribly unfamiliar to men who designed and built the SS Savannah's boilers around 1818. Even NS Savannah's reactor has become, at the age of 50, "retro."

Will we see her like again soon? Possibly not. Between real fears of proliferation or piracy and irrational ones about the power plant itself, probably not. On the other hand, the Russians are still running a handful of atomic icebreakers; so don't write it off just yet.

BIG STEAM

2010-04-30T07:46:00.003-04:00

It looks like a cross between a castle and a mechanical spider; if I had been shown an uncaptioned picture, I would have been convinced it was a movie prop.

But it's real: Cruquius, the largest single-cylinder steam engine ever built, a Cornish Engine far from Cornwall. And it's big: the primary piston is 144" in diameter. On the official site, there's a page with a video that follows a reporter inside the main cylinder.

Restored but not under steam (the boilers are long gone), nowadays, the engine is moved by hydraulics; but move it does and it's an image you're not likely to forget.

What did it do for a living? Why, it helped drain the Netherlands!

INDIANA HISTORICAL RADIO SOCIETY SPRING MEET

2010-04-23T23:37:00.005-04:00

It's next weekend! The IHRS Spring Meet: April 30 - May 1, 2010 at the Kokomo Event Center, located at 1500 North Reed Road (US 31) in (where else) Kokomo, IN. Friday April 30 - 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm; Saturday May 1 - 7:00 am to 2:00 pm. Plenty of indoor Radio Swap and Sell space. Vintage radio contests. Radio operation and repair seminars.

Fees -- General admission is free. One Swap N Sell space for the sale and trade of vintage radio equipment is $15.00 for IHRS members, $20.00 for non-members, good for both days (the space includes one eight foot table.)

I have missed the last couple of IHRS meetings. The Winter one was cancelled by a snowstorm! So I'm really hoping to get to this one.

WORTHINGTON TRIPLES

2010-04-20T22:05:00.005-04:00

It's not a baseball report. It's something that staggers the imagination. Let's say you needed a prime mover for a waterworks -- a really large waterworks, 19 million gallons a day -- and let's say it's 1926 and you live in a country with a lot of coal and a strong engineering tradition. And let's say you wanted it utterly reliable.

Of course you'd build a matched pair of 62-foot tall, 1000-bhp, triple-expansion steam engines atop directly-driven piston pumps, wouldn't you? The Brits did -- and at the time, the mammoth installation really was the best choice.*

But it is stunning. Staggering. All the more when you consider the pair of engines remained in service until 1980! And why not; they worked.

Best of all, after the engines were honorably retired, steam enthusiasts adopted them! It took a new boiler and an enormous effort, but one of the engines runs again, under steam -- and yes, they have public demonstrations.

I have been a big admirer of steam enthusiasts ever since I met the crew who rescued the old locomotive from Broad Ripple Park; but this effort is on a truly heroic scale.

...And in a few days, I'll link to another engine, earlier but just as ambitious and built, in its unique way, in a similar scale.
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*This was to change, soon after -- and they followed the technology, as you'll see.

MR. TOWER'S SPHERICAL STEAM ENGINE

2010-04-17T23:18:00.005-04:00

No, it's not the title of a fanciful novel; it's a real thing, a sort of 3-D Wankel engine and if the site describing it didn't have a cutaway animation, I would still be puzzling over the drawings. How about 2.5 bhp at 500 RPM from a four-inch sphere? Inside, two quarter-spheres and a disc, assembled in a sort of universal joint and driven by steam -- we should not be surprised that the same man who conceived it was the first to puzzle out hydrodynamic lubrication (and not the hard way like most of us did, on bad tires in the rain).

Long ago, these little engines were used (per my sources, especially on British merchant ships) to spin dynamos, since they didn't need gearing. Turbines eventually took over that job, leaving Beauchamp Tower's fascinating engine an historical footnote. But what a footnote!

Another link, good in August, 2010: External view and description.

THE PROPER WIRE

2010-03-27T13:32:00.005-04:00

One of the frustrating parts of repairing older appliances is finding the right wire, especially power cord. Old ones very rarely survive in safe shape; most new ones look plain wrong.

For power cords, Sundial Wire has the answer. You've seen their work and haven't noticed it, in films and TV shows. They have very old-fashioned twisted-pair power cord...that just happens to be hiding modern insulation under the cloth.

Wiring up a classic radio or a telephone? Building retrotech from scratch? Check out the "Wire" listings under "Components" at Radio Daze; they have solid and stranded cloth-covered hookup wire in several sizes and many colors, including "pushback" solid, plus multiconductor cable and tinsel cord for telephone handsets, headphones and old-fashioned speakers. They have their own line of parallel-wire cloth-covered power cord and matching plugs, too.

Antique Electronics Supply has cloth-covered magnet wire in #24 and #26 size, plus Litz wire and cloth-covered hookup wire assortments, some power cord, cloth-type "spaghetti" insulating sleeving and #12 square tinned busbar.

Not Esoteric enough? Try the all-cotton-insulated wire at Jupiter Condenser Co. --And if you just have to have waxed-paper condensers, why, Jupiter's your only source of new ones, as far as I know. (The latter are not inexpensive but feature manufacturing techniques far superior to the old type; they've a line of modern Mylar fixed condensers as well). I have not done business with this company -- but they look interesting.

(Also stumbled over general-line/audiophile supplier Parts Connection, worth adding to your do-they-have-it? resources).

WONDERFUL YANKEE

2010-03-24T22:41:00.004-04:00

Sometimes, if you're looking in the right place, there are wondrous things to be found; some are very large, like the 1920s-designed city park in a quarry in Huntington, Indiana. Others are much smaller. My eagle-eyed friend Og found this and thought of me:It's the smallest "professional" sized Yankee screwdriver, the smaller ones generally being sold as "handyman" versions and marketed more to homeowners and casual users. It's in very nice shape, with the original box and bit envelope, though no bits. --I make a habit of picking up Yankee bits when I find them (and the hex-bit adapters), so this is no hardship. This one does not have a return spring; it is intended for work where control matters more than speed. A splendid gift indeed, and one that I'll use.

EYEGLASSES REPAIR

2010-03-24T00:03:00.004-04:00

My favorite pair of glasses -- and the only ones with a current prescription -- broke awhile ago and I have been tacking them back together with Tix, a low-melting hard solder. Alas, the break was in a high-stress point, where the temple begins to curve around one's ear, and it wasn't holding.

There's a fix for that:It helps to have the toys to do the job but the real key is that stick of what looks like brass rod at the center of the image. It's hollow tubing from world-famous Hedlund's Hardware (Motto: "We have it. Somewhere." It's true, too) A little flux, a little Tix heated by the big iron and taa-daa:It's not beautiful but it doesn't show that much, either. And I'll be seeing the optometrist next week.

OLD, NEW, USEFUL

2010-03-20T18:06:00.007-04:00

In the 1930s, engineers at the Radio Corporation of America[1] introduced what they called "six-wire transmission line," a neat dodge that used U-shaped supports and a handful of insulators to turn ordinary wire into a good approximation of high-power coaxial cable (scroll down for drawings and photos) without all the trouble and expense of using large-diameter copper tubing: in cross-section, four wires apart occupied the corners of a square about twelve inches on a side while two more, very close together, were set in the center. The outer wires were all grounded (just like the outer shield of coax) and the center two, connected together, made up the center conductor. (Here's an example of genuine American six-wire line at WGY).

It got a little attention; the technology of the day used what's known as a "balanced two-wire line" between transmitter and antenna, both wires "live" and rather sensitive to weather and temperature, or even dodgier methods. But about then, a little war broke out and the engineers suddenly had different priorities.

The WW II development of fancy plastics, smaller concentric line and the boom economy of the 1950s left that Depression-era trick in the dust -- real coax made out of big copper tubing was just the ticket for the 250W to 5kW stations that made up the bulk of broadcasting in the U.S. and they could afford it.

...Other places don't do things the same way; in the rest of the world, fewer stations and higher power were more usually the case and in cases where one country sought to, ahem, get to know the neighbors better, very high power was the norm. Nobody makes coax for that and even if they did, most outfits -- many governments! -- couldn't afford it. But some wire, insulators and few custom castings? That's well within the budget and it leads to images like these.

The young gentlemen in the lower photograph are standing in (or nearly in) a ring that supports the outer wires of a scaled-up version of RCA's penny-pinching 1930s six-wire line. Call it five and a half feet in diameter, at least. Once completed, it carried a 1.2 million Watt signal from the transmitter to the antenna. Not bad for something an RCA guy dreamed up to avoid the cost and trouble of turning two sizes of water pipe[2] into coax, hey?

This is why it pays to remember old tricks.
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1. At the time, not the "RCA Corporation," a name-change that was the knee of a long curve down for the former technology giant.

2. Honest. Early on, the commonest size of "rigid line" with copper-pipe inner and outer had a non-standard impedance (determined by the ratio of the diameters of the inner and outer conductors, times a fudge factor) because that's what you got with the off-the shelf pipe sizes. To this day, the outer conductors connect using standard large size high-pressure water-pipe flanges. But the inner conductor's now a size that, oh, gosh, a size that works out to a more slide-rule friendly number.

TOOLBOX REPAIR

2010-03-18T19:55:00.007-04:00

A long time ago, back when I was shopping (the used market) for my Gerstner machinist's toolbox, I stumbled across an interesting no-name one that had a few...problems. Like somebody had carved big squarish openings in one of the drawers, and the outer case -- metal -- was in terrible shape, covered with flaking paint in a livid shade of green.

But it had this: I couldn't resist it. After all -- Hammarlund!

As you can see, the paint was fixable. The openings in the drawer front took a little more finagling:The small holes, I just drilled out to a consistent diameter (1/8") and filled with dowels. To fix the big ones, the drawer fronts were oak and I found some similar red oak, cut it oversize and did a lot of scraping and sanding. ...A whole lot of scraping and sanding. To hold the patches in place, I drilled from the top and bottom of the drawer front and glued in more 1/8" doweling.
At some time in the past, black ink or paint has spilled down drawer fronts, too; the only fix for that was sanding and refinishing, though I didn't want it piano-glossy like a new one. What's on it is mostly dark boiled linseed oil and multiple coats of wax. You can still see where the stain was but it's not too bad.

Trivia: The edge detail at the top of the drawers is a bead -- that's the rounded bit -- and a quirk, which is the little square-bottomed groove between the bead and the rest of the drawer front. This example's only a little quirky. Traditionally made with a custom plane, a scratch stock or (cheater!) router bit of the proper profile. The look can be faked with nothing more than a large flathead woodscrew, a bit of scrap wood and some sanding, but that's a story for another time.

WORKBENCH

2010-03-14T00:40:00.013-05:00

At long last, I have cleared my workbench! Taa-daa:Some interesting stuff on it, too. Across the top, my fancy extending light on a custom (see below) support hides a pair of hand drills, while the far end is occupied by a bench supply (450 VDC/100 mA plus lower B+ and heater supplies) and breadboarded tube utility amplifier ('76 triode driving '42s in push-pull!), both based on Modern Radio Labs plans. Lookie:Power Supply -- that's a real type '80! The shiny front panel is what happens if you have a buffing wheel and a lot of time; it's aluminum, which can be...interesting to buff: you have to do it all in one go, especially the final stages.Amplifier, with salvaged knobs from an old Thordarson product, found all alone at a hamfest or surplus dealer. The finish on the plywood cabinet is brown shoe polish(!!) followed up with a little wax.

Next shelf has a commercial bench supply for tubes -- regulated 0-400 VDC (with current limiting!), ditto 0-100 negative for bias, and heater voltage. Simpson 260 next to it, the Meter You Should Own -- the Triplett 630 has its adherents, too -- one or the other, if you fiddle much with electronics, you'll want a real VOM and they're the definitive ones this side of the water. Both show up used at reasonable prices. Next to the Simpson, an RF signal generator, a hamfest find a couple of years old.

Various toys on the bench top -- an anvil, a Hakko high/low soldering iron at the far left, small hand drill, some drivers, a 4" square, an awl and my nice, big American Beauty 100W iron, plus a recently-modified small-tools holder.

Recently-modified? Glad you asked!
Here's the mod in progress; I was cheating by planing off the pencil marks, using a beat-up miter box as a vise-replacement (you clamp it to the bench and clamp the workpiece to the miter box). The wooden "Gent's Plane" was bought on sale, I think from Lee Valley, and is outstandingly good. (They don't seem to have that brand right now). It's true what they say about wooden planes. I cheated on drilling the holes vertically, too. I'm very fond of this tiny Plexiglas square for that purpose. But you're wondering what the thing does? Why, this: It's the driver-holder across the back, holding a couple of awls, a ratcheting multi-driver and two sizes of tweakers -- yes, that's the genuine tech-identifying Green Tweaker at the right.

The bracket for the accordion light? Built of scraps, old wood found here and there, but it's got wedged tenons at each end and all manner of done-by-hand chamfering. Did it several years ago, just to see if I could. I can.
It's not a thing of exceeding great beauty but it works. You can just see a bit of the chunky triangular block that's supporting it off the left side of the shelves.

Still to come: some diagonal bracing for the legs and perhaps installing my smaller carpenter's vise. (The bigger one, I'm saving for a sturdy woodwork-specific bench, probably out in the garage). And perhaps a project or two!
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* Need tube data? Frank's the guy! Duncan's TDSL is nice, too.

WHATIZZIT?

2010-02-14T23:34:00.003-05:00

A possible project in the works: It needs another coat of lacquer and some very careful sanding. Plus the Other Stuff, about which maybe more later.

BENCH GRINDER

2010-02-06T23:06:00.006-05:00

I found my grinder! It's not much, but it's been missing since I moved. Opened an unlikely box in the basement workshop this evening, and there it was:It needs to be disassembled (again) and repainted. When I bought it, it was Winter and I needed a grinder; so I took it apart, cleaned it up, oiled the bearings, gave the gears a dab of grease and put it back together. There's the "business end" view above. Not a fancy toolrest but good enough to touch up a screwdriver tip. With a hand crank, you can keep it slow and not have to fret so much about taking the metal's temper.I'd like to find a new wheel for it; that one's glazed, a little out of round and mildly concave. But hey, it works. --Maybe I should look for a small buffing wheel for it, too. That'd be kind of fun and perhaps a little better -- and safer -- than my old trick of chucking the buffing wheel in its arbor in a (borrowed) drill press.

YANKEE!

2010-01-10T21:56:00.013-05:00

Readers may have noticed that I am fond of "Yankee"-type semiautomatic screwdrivers (which turn a push into rotation) and ratchet drivers. Here is most of my collection of the former and a couple of the latter:Click on any image for the large version. (Looking for history links, I found a nifty Instructable on detail-stripping and cleaning a classic Stanley/North Brothers driver).

The black-handled one at the bottom is a Shroeder, a spare for the one I keep in my toolbox at work -- the knurled ring that retains the (hex!) bits was "borrowed" to replace one lost from the work driver some years ago. A lot of the paint is missing from the daily-use driver and it's getting a little wobbly; but it still works after a decade of hard use. Far right is the larger model from the same maker. By the way, if you ever succumb to the urge to detail-strip a Schroeder, please note the tubular cover over the ratchet control is retained by a spring-loaded pin, which will fly away, spring and all, if you remove the cover and don't have it under control. There is, barely, enough room to tap the cavity 10-32 and use a short grubscrew to retain the cover once you have lost the pin and spring, but it looks kludgey. Um, don't ask me how I know this, please.

There are three bought-new Stanley Yankees with the classic purple handles near the top, some of the very last production, as they're not made any more. The two largest must be stored "open," with the telescoping spiral section extended: the return spring is quite powerful and if opened while pointed toward yourself or others, results can be...gory.

Conversely, the pair at the very top are "cabinetmaker" versions, which do not have a return spring: the fellow doing fine woodwork would vexed if his driver were to slip from the screw with the spiral fully telescoped. The third from the bottom, with a "knobby" handle is the same.

The boxed set at the left is a North Brothers set, in not-quite-new condition, with a Yankee driver, a nice set of bits including a drill adaptor and drills, and two ratchet drivers. A little gummy when I bought them, they cleaned up well. The decal on the lid of the box is intact, too.A closer look at the accessories, including straight drills and a countersink:But why list them when I can let the original label speak for itself?Yankee screwdrivers have a learning curve; careless use can make a mess. But the batteries are never flat and they're hardly ever too loud. And they're another one of the good old tools that is starting to slip away. Shroeder still makes them, as do the Japanese screwdriver wizards at Vessel. There are some plastic versions as well; Schroeder appears to make the ones Sears stores sell but as for the rest, caveat emptor. (Links are to known retail sources).

Many modern versions use hex bits (and hex-shank drills!) instead of the classic D-and-notch of the original. This is a handy thing; there was little standardization between brands and models with the older system. If you happen to have an older Yankee driver, several retailers offer hex adaptors for them. Match the diameter to the bits for your driver; you may have to file another notch to get it to lock in but the results are worth it.

MCELROY "JUNIOR" SEMIAUTOMATIC KEY

2010-01-05T18:21:00.005-05:00

On eBay, a very rare Mac "bug," (original listing is, naturally, gone) an inexpensive (at the time) semiautomatic key for the beginning -- or impoverished -- amateur.

Discontinued soon after it was introduced, the key was made mostly of stamped sheet metal, like a heavy toy. Though it was built to sell at a low price (thank you, Ted McElroy!), scarcity means they're now sought-after collector's items. The present example? "Reserve not met," at over US$500.00 bid. Have a look, it's an interesting artifact.

WORKSHOP TELEPHONE

2009-12-27T12:51:00.001-05:00

Not wired yet. Details later!

SAFETY REMINDER/PHONE UPDATE

2009-12-21T07:46:00.006-05:00

Goggles: more than a fashion accessory.What reminded me was drilling into a concrete-block pillar in my basement to set anchors so I could mount the board that holds my steel "hotel" telephone. The chips do fly!

Look for an update soon as I have something more photogenic than a couple of 1x2 pine battens installed.

WHAT'S YOUR EXCHANGE?

2009-11-20T07:46:00.004-05:00

In the early days of direct dialing, as 7-digit telephone numbers were adopted, Ma Bell decided people would never get used to remembering or dialing such a long string of numbers.

The solution was adopt exchange names for the first two digits; indeed, telephone exchanges were actual physical structures and they were generally referred to by that name. Even now, when the building (probably) houses an all-electronic digital switch instead of banks of electromechanical relays and crossbars, is not limited to a single pair of leading digits in the numbers it serves and may serve ten times as many subscribers, telephone company employees tend to call the locations the old prefix-names.

I knew a few -- Broad Ripple's exchange is CLifford and in WW II, Homeplace/Carmel numbers were VIctory, though I don't know if the exchange on 106th St. had been built at that time. I figured any master list(s) from the telephone companies were long gone.

"Long gone" is not so gone as you might think -- here's the 1955 list of Official Exchange names from AT&T! The Web's enabling of of information packrattery never ceases to amaze me.

UPDATE: Old Grouch points out the use of exchange names-as-numbers dates back at least to six-digit telephone numbers. See Comments

DIALTONE, DC AND RINGING: TELEPHONY

2009-11-18T23:38:00.009-05:00

I have dialtone and DC on the hotel phone! Not only that, it rings, too, with a nice, distinctive note.

UPDATE: Wired the dial Thursday night. It works but has a little "dial tapping," meaning the bell jangles when the dial is in motion. I suspect this can be solved. It's a telephone!

Started out tonight (Wednesday) polishing the Bakelite front part of transmitter with Flitz (they didn't pay me, I'm just a happy customer) and proceeded to reassemble the entire transmitter: the "cup" or back is held to a nifty pivoting section by two screws through a washer, the "bulldog" style element is held to the cup by four tiny screws around its circumference; that subassembly is fastened to a socket on the front of the telephone with a hollow bolt, flat spring, bendy lockwasher and nut and at each step, you've got to thread the two wires from the element though the next part. It takes about as long to do as to describe and I had time left. H'mm, it's almost a (non-dial) telephone at this point. All it needs is the receiver.
(Note the fine old genuine Spintite nutdriver at the right. They don't make them like that any more, though a nice Klein set comes close*). The inside-the-phone part of the transmitter is at the left side of the upper section. The large silvery thing is the flat spring.

I wired up the receiver (tinsel cord, soft as a shoelace, very nice), connected Tip and Ring of the phone line cord to L1 and L2 terminals in the phone, plugged it in and there was dialtone, loud as life. Clicked the switchook (same as dialing "1") and I was left with DC talk voltage. Reached over to close the phone and it was obvious the transmitter worked, too. Wow! What's next?Talking to yourself, of course. I called my landline number from my celphone and the bell rang! The delay in a modern digital cell connection meant I could get a pretty good idea how the hotel phone sounds, too. It sounds just fine.

Next step is installing and connecting the dial. I have it in place now but I need to get the card in the center properly aligned. The dial is the tricky bit -- I can likely get it to dial but making it properly silence the receiver when it's off the rest position could be interesting.

So, for everyone who was wondering: yes. It definitely is a working telephone.
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* My Spintites are the best from a couple of sets. They used thinner steel than modern ones, which is nice for tight spots but wears out more quickly. Can't buy that kind new so you've got to find them used and evaluate them ruthlessly. This is an absolute affection; Xcelite, Vaco, Craftsman and Klein all make excellent nutdrivers and if the end result is what counts, you should buy a set by one of them. Worn drivers are nothing but trouble.

TELEPHONY, CONTINUED

2009-11-16T23:36:00.007-05:00

Disassembled, cleaned, painted (lacquer!) and have begun, slowly, to reassemble the hotel phone. First, a collection of chassis parts -- the things in the center are the back of the transmitter (microphone) and the receiver (earpiece) hook: Basic assembly -- the front of the case is hinged to the back and I have test-fit the network, bell and hookswitch (less hook; it goes in later). Shown with a few of the tools used, including pen-type oiler at far left, used to put one drop of light oil on the hookswitch pivot (funny shading is the lighting, mild orange-peel texture is deliberate):No dial, receiver or transmitter yet. The latter is a whole collection of small parts, most of which I still have to clean and polish. Dial, hookswitch and receiver will be the very last parts fitted.

I did manage to remove and photocopy the schematic. Here's a black & white scan: Click for larger -- I have it larger still and in color for more detail, if anyone else is working on a Kellogg 1155-A or 1157-A telephone.

TELEPHONY IN THE HOME: A BEGINNING

2009-10-23T06:18:00.006-04:00

It starts with this: I have new cloth-covered cordage for the incoming line and the receiver, a new receiver and a nicely-rebuilt dial. There's a network, bell, hookswitch and condenser inside the phone, condition unknown. Dirt appears to be the biggest issue. (That's a genuine Bell System screwdriver next to it, which fits the front panel screw that holds the phone closed like it was...made for it? Hey, how about that!) Step One, careful removal of the Inner Workings (with photos), followed by a little paint & body work.

Does anyone out there have any tips for removing the old schematic intact? Still glued in two spots. Distilled water on a cotton swab didn't help.

THIS MACHINE STOPS EVIL

2009-10-20T20:08:00.002-04:00

A sticker for your "beater" typewriter?
The pen: mightier than the sword. The typewriter: more powerful than the pen. Q.E.D.
(Image links to a larger version which you may use it at will).

CABLE LACING

2009-10-19T22:28:00.003-04:00

Another old skill, a good one: cable lacing. Before there were Velcro strips, before there was split-loom tubing or even zip-ties, 'way, 'way back -- and on fiber-optic bundles, even now -- there was cable lacing, the art of turning a jumble of wire into a neat bundle* using flat, waxed string or similar, in the proper knots.

There's an art to it and a learning curve; you can still learn it, thanks to a tip from a clever lurker, who pointed out Make: Lost Knowledge: Cable Lacing! And now I've linked it for you. Enjoy!

Older ARRL Handbooks also cover this skill.

If you can't find lacing twine, look for waxed saddler's (or leatherworking) thread, a heavy thread (almost string) which will work as well. Might as well pick up a cake of beeswax at the same time, it's handy stuff.
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* It kinda has to be neat to start with. This holds true for any other cable-bundling method, too. If you start with a rat's nest and mash it together with whatever, it'll just be a worse mess. Neatness counts when you're trying to figure it out later!

TUBE REBUILDERS

2009-10-19T22:01:00.005-04:00

Ever see a power tube getting rebuilt? Didja know it could be done? One of my favorite tube rebuilders, Kennetron, has a bit of a virtual tour of their plant!

Sure, there are other rebuilders; many years ago, I used Econco for big Class C power tubes in FM service (now a wholly-owned division of CPI, which also owns Eimac, it looks like they have dropped their old, irreverent "use a transistor, go to jail" tagline) and I've always heard good things about Freeland Products. Still, I have a soft spot for Kennetron, who have so far been the only outfit willing to take on rebuilding small (1000 Watt!) ceramic external-anode power tetrodes used at ultra high frequencies in Class AB1 -- and their rebuilds work! This is a fussy task, combining the skills of jeweler, machinist, welder and more for devices that operate in about the same power range as chainsaws.

It's a heck of a thing to send in old, worn-out, even shorted "empties" and get 'em back at half the price or less of new tubes, ready to go.

Power tube rebuilders are a scarce breed. The collection of skills and equipment to do the job, from vacuum engineering to glass building to fabricating the intricate internal assemblies, is rare and unlikely -- we're lucky there are at least three left!

DELIBERATE RETRO

2009-10-03T18:59:00.002-04:00

The Edison, an amazing-looking bar in Los Angeles, has a website. It's in what was an early private electrical generating plant. (And it has a dress code requiring customers to, at least, dress up a bit -- T-shirts, sandals and athletic shoes being Right Out). It's something of a steampunk speakeasy.

ZEPHYR -- VIBROPLEX STYLE

2009-09-14T22:50:00.009-04:00

Not this Zephyr, this one:All photos, click for bigger.The mechanism is John A. LaHiff's clever redesign of the Original Vibroplex, in which he replaced all the castings with standard rod and flat elements. First seen as the No. 6, his first version is better known as the Lightning Bug. The Zephyr bears the same relationship to the Lightning Bug as the Blue Racer does to the Original: it has a smaller, sleeker footprint, though it is a little bigger than a Blue Racer. Produced from 1940 through 1958, it is relatively uncommon, though not actually rare.

I don't own an actual Lightning Bug* but I do have a very nice clone made by Lionel (yes, the model train company) as the military "J-36" during the Second World War, and so, for scale purposes, here they are lined up with my Begali Intrepid:The Lionel was my first commercially-made semiautomatic key and has a little lump of bar solder added to the weight to slow it down.

The Zephyr arrived partially disassembled, lever freed from the pivots and fingerpieces removed, with each subassembly carefully bubblewrapped. This is an excellent way to ship a key, if the person taking it apart knows what he is doing. The guy I bought it from did, and the fragile fingerpieces and the easy-to-deform steel reed that is the heart of the key all arrived intact, Reassembly took a few minutes and I was once again glad to own an inexpensive multi-tip gunsmith's screwdriver set. I have roughly adjusted it and it runs nicely, though fairly fast.

UPDATE: If you look at the large version of the photo above, you may notice something that sent me scurrying to my basement hamshack this morning: I had not installed the "paddle" portion of the fingerpiece properly! It and the lever are tapped and there's a trick to snug assembly. I had not used it and as a result, the paddle was under some stress. All better now. Whew!

A bug key that shows up a bit more frequently than the Zephr is Vibroplex's Champion, with the same parts but on a full-sized base. (Or it's a Lightning Bug with a Zephyr-style damper, if you'd rather). The Champion generally sells for less than the other LaHiff-type bugs but it's a perfectly good key._____________________
*I was a little surprised to realize that.

ITS OWN SOUND TRACK

2009-09-11T22:55:00.002-04:00

Sure, the size of this Cooper Bessemer engine is impressive, but once it is up to speed, it has another and very pleasant quality. Can you spot it?
All kinds of cool. And probably an interesting afternoon trimming the exhausts to accomplish it!

THE SCOUT

2009-09-10T22:36:00.006-04:00

Remie Scout, that is. I had pretty well made up my mind to not acquire any more typewriters; I have a small collection now, plenty of fun stuff, and there's a time to stop.

I had my fingers crossed on three items. This is one of them: When it showed up on eBay, I put in a bid and hey, nobody else wanted it more.

It's a fascinating and uncommon machine, Remington's "Scout" model, and that's scout as in fast and light, not as in the organizations for young men and women. It was an inexpensive machine, intended for students and other highly-mobile types.

You'll notice some missing bits -- yes, there is no front frame and yes, there are no shift keys and darn-all special characters. In this, it is very similar to a radio operator's "mill," an all upper-case typewriter used to copy radiotelegraph messages.

It's a folding Remington, similar to their early portables. There's a little lever on the right side to raise the typebars. Here it is, ready for action:

It still need more cleaning, lubrication and degreasing, not to mention a new ribbon. The side plates were originally a darker blue and are now nearly innocent of paint. But it does type, in a surprisingly modern-looking font:I'm looking forward to using this one with my radio gear. I have been looking for a "mill" for years; passed up some nice ones (nice, big and heavy) in the flea market at the Dayton Hamvention this Spring, wondering if I'd see another. Answered that! Or close enough.

You're probably wondering about the identity of the other two machines I'd consider buying if I happened on them. ...I'll tell you if ever I find them!

TRAIN-CHASING

2009-08-24T21:24:00.003-04:00

Chase a steam locomotive with a Ford Model A and catch it? It doesn't get better than that! My heart was in my throat a couple times.

'Scuse the small image, we're saving up for a bigger Philco.

1938 SYNTHESIZER

2009-08-21T22:01:00.003-04:00

The Hammond Novachord. You've heard them, you just never knew what they were. It's a genuine polyphonic synth, with a bank of oscillators feeding serried ranks of dividers and clever wave-shaping/note-shaping circuitry and every active component is a great big ol' vacuum tube. "Ahead of its time" doesn't even come close.

...Amazing as it is, now consider the kind of dedication and talent it takes to restore one from "found in a garage" to "like new" and then play it!

COSMONAUT MORSE CODE

2009-08-20T23:39:00.003-04:00

The Russian space program used CW (some of it shortwave!) for at least some communications for a long time; for all I know, they still do. It's a sensibly simple backup.

And the cosmonauts were no slouches at the key, either. Here's audio from 1964's Voskhod-1, demonstrating the kind of skill more folks should have. Man's got a darned fine "fist!" I'm tickled by the slight "swing," especially the stretched out final DAH in "K" ("Go Ahead," or "Over") at the end, a touch which is not unknown in amateur radio.

Audio found at this interesting site. Want to learn how high school students tracked space missions in the 1960s?

NEW IN MY HAMSHACK

2009-08-09T06:46:00.004-04:00

The item on the right, that is:What is it? It's a National SW-3 receiver. Not entirely working at present but it is all there. A classic bit of ham radio technology.

On the left, my Ten-Tec Scout transceiver, which is becoming an antique, too. Ten-Tec stopped making them awhile back. Like the SW-3 (and the upscale HRO), it uses plug-in coils to change bands, perhaps the last use of this very old technique in commercial radio equipment.

WHICH PORTABLE

2009-07-29T08:18:00.003-04:00

My heart's answer, as any reader could easily guess, is "why pick just one?" but on an e-mail reflector to which I subscribe, a member was asking after the best, most basic and most portable typewriter.

If size is an issue and simplicity the key, the three-row Underwood that graces this blog's heading would be my choice. It's built like a tank, is remarkably free of extras and has the smallest footprint of any practical typewriter.

If weight is more an issue than size, one of Remington's more basic portables from the 1930s and '40s would be my desert-island choice.

Past pen or pencil and paper, what would you take? Typewriter through laptop through whatever....

AH, CANADA

2009-07-26T23:54:00.007-04:00

...How I depend on thy hams! It's funny, even when 40 meters is just about dead, I will usually find one or two VE calls soldiering along.

Tonight's QSO was interesting but frustrating on two counts -- he was just a bit faster than I can accurately copy and my bug keys were not cooperating with my sleepy[1] fingers. I used the Begali bug, which I am getting better with, and switched to my "Millennium Bug" (Vibroplex's Y2K Blue Racer) for something a bit quicker. That proved to be a mistake, as the dit contact started out unhappy and became less so.

What I have learned:
1. I should not hesitate to ask the other ham to QRS.
2. I need to add some non-slippy material under the bugs (the blobby-net kind of shelf paper is great for this. Morse Express used to include a piece of it with every bug and keyer-paddle they sold and probably still do).
3. I want to wire the key jacks of my transmitters out to a panel of 1/4" jacks and start sticking cables with standard PJ-055 plugs (mil-spec 1/4" mono headphone-type plugs, of which I have several) on my keys. Reaching over and fumbling a 1/8" plug into the back of the rig is no fun, especially with an improvised power connection.[2]
4. Likewise, simply grabbing a bug that I had all set up four or five years ago? Not such a good idea. There are more than few adjustments on them. (Plus, I need to unearth my code-practice oscillator so I can set them up properly).

The last item reminds me -- my ham readers all know about the VOM trick, right? Once you have your bug running the way you want it, set an analog volt ohmmeter to Ohms, zero it, and connect the leads to your bug's terminals. Send a string of dits and adjust the dit contact screw so the meter reads center scale and you've got perfect 50-percent duty-cycle dits!
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1. I got up at 0400, went to the Skunk Works North Campus for eight hours, came home and tried to microwave a meal but promptly forgot it. After Tam reminded me, I ate and napped 'til late. Went down to the shack, hammed a bit and I am headed back to bed shortly. So much for my prospective membership in the Order Of The Boiled Owl. (Seems there is a ham club by that name, which originally referred to a radio amateur so enthusiastic, he stayed awake all night hamming. Please note that the well-dressed amateur of 1923 wore a tie while so doing, too).

2. The Molex-like power connector Ten-Tec used has a very different plastic shell but Molex pins and sockets fit well enough. Add a few wraps of self-amalgamating tape and voila! A kludge that will fry your power supply unless treated with care. (I prefer that kind of tape to the linerless variants; experience has shown the silicone tape fuses better. Transparent versions are available, too).

WHY IS IT?

2009-07-26T09:38:00.004-04:00

Why is it, at least for me, that 20 words per minute code with each letter sent at that speed is slightly smoother to copy than 15 wpm code with each letter sent at the 20 wpm speed?

...On a related note, I can still copy 20 wpm (but not solid; I have the occasional alphabet crash and have to abandon a word to catch up). This would explain why bug keys seemed to be getting more "tame." They're not; I was a little faster than I thought I was -- and the "real fast" CW QSOs* I hear on the bands are blazin'!

(Also? Blogger's delayed-posting feature is fun!)
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* Translation for non-hams: "..the 'real fast' radiotelegraph conversations I hear on the amateur bands are blazin'!"

FREE BOOK

2009-07-22T13:14:00.006-04:00

"The Art And Skill Of Radio-Telegraphy," by William G. Pierpont, N0HFF, is available as a free download. It is the definitive handbook on learning Continental Morse Code as used in radiotelegraphy. Yes, you missed out on the heyday of The Candler System; what N0HFF is giving away is better.

(Printed, bound copies of the Fourth Edition with a nifty new cover were available at the same site for $11.50 American until they sold them all. Fifth Edition is promised soon).

I recommend this book, which starts out with the profoundly fundamental advice to learn the code by the sound of the letters, not as "dots and dashes," and further to begin picking up word-elements as early as you can. I did neither when I originally learned. Beginning wrong made getting past about ten words per minute a real struggle until I started over, concentrating on code as an aural language, a patterned series of sounds.