Saturday, March 31, 2012
SHOP TIPS
A whole lot of handy and interesting machine-shop tricks -- from a fellow in the luthier's trade! Well worth a look.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
BUSMAN'S HOLIDAY
Reading a 1922 article about RCA's "Radio Central" setup for global communications online, I encountered the following:
Some things never change. Did steam engineers build little tabletop engines in their free time, I wonder, or is this monomania a quirk of the RF trade? --If not, remind me never to live next door to a demolitions engineer!
Diversion of a Radio Engineer.--In nearly all lines of business, when business hours are over, the individual seeks something totally different as a means of relaxation. While wandering around the radio station at Rocky Point, the author noticed a small aerial running from the Community House, where the engineers are quartered, to a small mast, some 150 feet away. On inquiring what this was, he was told that after watches, the engineers listen in on their own radio apparatus to the broadcasting stations and other types of radio traffic. One would think that after many hours spent on duty in the most powerful radio station of the world, the engineers would be glad to forget, at least for the time being, that such a business as radio existed.
At the receiving station at Riverhead, they go to an even greater extreme. About 200 yards from the receiving house, Mr. Tyrell and his associates have installed a complete amateur continuous wave station. All spare moments of the various operators of the receiving station are spent at their own amateur apparatus.
Some things never change. Did steam engineers build little tabletop engines in their free time, I wonder, or is this monomania a quirk of the RF trade? --If not, remind me never to live next door to a demolitions engineer!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
WOBBLY MORSE CODE
Good for me, I actually used my ham rig and had a nice (but short) CW conversation.
...Oh, it was short. My semiautomatic telegraph key, a Vibroplex Blue Racer 2000 (their "Millenium Bug") was really uncooperative. I didn't realize why until after the QSO was over: the speed is set by a weight; the weight is held by a little thumbscrew...and I had not tightened it. Therefore, it had fallen out. So as I sent, the weight wobbled. This made forming the letters and numbers very tricky!
Better luck next time. I really should make up an extension jack panel for the transmitters -- there's half a dozen keys on my operating desk and if the jack was easily reached, changing from one to another would be easy.
...Oh, it was short. My semiautomatic telegraph key, a Vibroplex Blue Racer 2000 (their "Millenium Bug") was really uncooperative. I didn't realize why until after the QSO was over: the speed is set by a weight; the weight is held by a little thumbscrew...and I had not tightened it. Therefore, it had fallen out. So as I sent, the weight wobbled. This made forming the letters and numbers very tricky!
Better luck next time. I really should make up an extension jack panel for the transmitters -- there's half a dozen keys on my operating desk and if the jack was easily reached, changing from one to another would be easy.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
MY QSL-40, FOUND!
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.
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!
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 having 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.
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 having 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.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
NORMAN CORWIN: 1910 - 2011
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).
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).
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