Friday, March 4, 2011

USEFUL LINKS

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.

2 comments:

  1. Just try to explain to kids today about "A" and "B" batteries...

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  2. Even a lot of older people who understand tube circuits fail to make the connection between "B+" and "B Batteries"!

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