Daily GLOWBUGS
Digest: V1 #98
via AB4EL Web Digests @ SunSITE
Purpose: building and operating vacuum tube-based QRP rigs
Subject: glowbugs V1 #98
glowbugs Thursday, August 28 1997 Volume 01 : Number 098
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 22:46:40 -0500
From: "John Kemker" <kemkerj@xyzzy.net>
Subject: Intro
Sometime back in 1975-1976, I became interested in ham radio through
a friend of my dad's, Mike Blair (currently N4MB). Mike had a
beautiful hamshack in Houston, complete with RTTY, CW, SSB and all
sorts of other stuff. I remember Mike taking me for a drive in his
car so he could show me his 2-meter mobile and had a blast as he
accessed a repeater's autopatch and called my house from his radio.
I started to hang around an electronics store that carried quite a
bit of ham radio and discrete parts for the experimenter in Bellaire,
TX. I'd ride my bike to downtown Bellaire and hang around the music
store, the used record store and the electronics store, all right
next to each other on the square in Bellaire.
I bought a 1976 ARRL handbook and I remember reading it over and over
and over again, dreaming of building these neat projects inside.
Mike started teaching a ham radio class and I remember going to one
class, but not being able to finish for some reason or another.
As the years went by, I got involved in a few other things, including
model rockets, computers, girls, etc. In 1979 I moved with my
parents to Atlanta, GA. I got into high-end audio, becoming enamored
with the warm sound of tubes.
After becoming a BAR (Born-Again Rocketeer) in 1989 and getting into
high-power rocketry, I became quite involved in rocketry. As Prefect
of Tripoli Atlanta Rocketry Association, one of our members suggested
to me that we hold a ham radio class so we could do ATV on the rockets.
Tad, K3TD, taught the class and I went to every single one. In
November, I earned my Technician class license. My first purchase as
a new ham was a World Radio Labs TomCat 6a transceiver. Here was a
glowbug rig that was as old as I am.
The TomCat needs a little work, but it should be fixed within a few
months. Last month, I picked up a beautiful Heathkit HW-29 Sixer.
This is the original HW-29, not the HW-29a model. A final tank coil
is on its way to me and I should be able to start working some 6m AM
pretty soon. I've already tested the RX and it works great, having
copied some QSOs on 50.400 after the Monday night Southeast 6m
Sideband net.
Last month, I finished up earning my SMIRK number and am now working
towards earning my SMIRK 100 and VUCC on 6m.
73!
==========================
73 de KF4MZD (John Kemker)
kemkerj@xyzzy.net
Grid Square: EM73vt
QRP-L Number: 974
SMIRK Number: 6185
TRA #2499, TARA #002
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 02:22:46
From: kc5gxl@pnx.com
Subject: Re: Intro
Hello all;
My name is Dan and the qth is Orange, Texas. I have been interested in
amateur radio ever since listening to Sputnik as a kid. I used to wonder
about the funny sounding code that was around the band as I tried to find
another shortwave station. Finally found out it was the Morse code. Only
been a ham since 1994 when I got a tech + license. In less than 1 year, I
made extra. I am a VE tester with ARRL, and have been president of the
local ham club for the last 2 years. I have always liked tube type radios
but presently have no projects in the fire. I have been a member of this
list for about a year or so and enjoy all the construction tips and advice.
Keep up the good work and I will keep listening to what you all have to
say.
Just my 1/3 cent's worth. Ah, the unmistakable smell of tubes warming up!
73, de kc5gxl aka Dan
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 23:34:11 +0000
From: "Robert Nickels" <ranickel@mwci.net>
Subject: Intro
Hi All,
I'm Bob Nickels - W9RAN - ex KE0T, WA0OHO -and I'm an engineering
manager for Honeywell's Micro Switch division here in Freeport
IL. My story is mainly one of any number of "trigger events" that
led me down the path I find myself on...
Like the two 1963 issues of Popular Electronics a family friend gave
me at age 12. You know, the ones with the "How To Become a Ham"
articles. The "Fox Hole Radio" my Dad and I made from the Popular
Science "Boys Fun Book". All the 1.5 volt telephone batteries a
neighbor provided for my many attempts to one-up Alex G. Bell. The
Webster wire recorder that ended up jamming on one big mass of
"square-knot" wire splices. All the attempts to replicate the
cool-looking articles in the electronics magazines using "substitute
parts" from old TVs and my erector set. Or the Spacephone
walkie-talkies hooked to a 60" whip on my bike...
Suffice it to say that I became nuts about radio - an affliction I've
grown comfortable with. I'm not fussy - if it concerns radio, I like
it! Things started to get serious by about age 14, after a
frustrating attempt to learn the code from the blinking light bulb on
a Knight Kit code practice set in our Boy Scout troop. I sought out a
local ham - Jack WA0BOK of Benedict Nebraska, who sadly became SK
early this year. He showed me his homebrewed 6 meter 2 watt rig that
worked Puerto Rico. He showed me that my SX-110 and HT-40 could work
the world and he showed me the Blue Valley Radio Club in Seward,
NE, where I got my license a few months later...
Reading your stories has made me stop and think how lucky I was to
find good "Elmers", and to have a Pop (WA0OHP) who would haul me to
radio club classes, help me build a Span Master kit on Christmas Day,
and let me abuse his tools on my latest project. And always
encouraged me.
Through the years...
Those nail-biting trips to Omaha for the General, Advanced, and 3rd
and 1st Phone. Convincing an otherwise sane-looking businessman to
allow me to take over the controls of his 500 watt radio station.
Row after row of radios in the WRL showroom. Running the Nebraska
Storm Net on my "new" NCX-3. Phone patches to my folks from college.
Getting wrapped up in new jobs, marriage, moving, job promotions,
divorce. Getting bored with ham radio, then rediscovering that "real
radio" is just as much fun as it ever was!
Collecting and restoring vintage gear isn't new for me, but it's
definitely taken an uptick over the past 6-7 years. The "collection"
reflects all the same old interests - old magazines and paper,
broadcasting, recording, homebrewing, and of course Boatanchors. I
like the Glowbug group because there's still nothing like tweaking up
the old Span Master or homebrew regen on a cold winter night, or
working cross country on 50.4 AM. For me "voices from the ether"
will always be magic!
73, Bob W9RAN
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 01:02:44 -0400
From: benb27@juno.com (Ben C Bradley)
Subject: Intro/Query: permeability tuned receiver
My name is Ben Bradley, an electronic/software engineer for close to
two decades, and this is my new, non-work-related email address. I've
been lurking on the Glowbugs and Boatanchors lists for over a year,
and have posted every once in a while.
I've been interested in electronics and ham radio since my dad was
an active ham when I was growing up in the '60's. I've yet to really
learn the code and get a license, but barring my other hobbies and
interests taking all my time, I hope to rectify those within a year
or so. I plan to run my second half-marathon this Thanksgiving - maybe
I can listen to some code tapes while on training runs, or even during
the actual race - last year's time was a snail-blazing 2:55.
A somewhat BA/GB-related hobby is book collecting - in my collection
are (among other things) hundreds of technical books. Recently in an
antique/flea market I saw a book with the ARRL logo, and was
disappointed to find it was only an old (early '60's) ARRL license manual
- - it was mildly interesting from a historical perspective, but it seemed
useless to have a book full of out-of-date regulations. Until I paged
towards the back - advertisements for boatanchors! It has pages of
ads in the back, just like the old ARRL handbooks, so I decided it
was well worth the 50 cents or a dollar flea-market price.
I've collected a few glowbug supplies from hamfests in the last
year, and maybe this winter I'll find the time to put something
together. I got a couple of IBM AT computers from a surplus sale at
work, and I think one's case would make a good receiver cabinet/chassis.
I've got a 'three-gang' variable tuning coil, moved by a three-turn
helical drive that a CD could be mounted on for a dial. I've got
this CD that says 'Windows 95' that I could use...
Does anyone have any ideas for, or especially any info on,
permeability-tuned receivers? The only one I've ever seen or heard
of was a Heath FM-only tube broadcast radio. A schematic of an actual
working one would be great. I don't know how well such a receiver
would work, but I plan to build one regardless.
For BA/GB related equipment, I've got HQ-100 working, SX-42
mostly working, an S-38 that I've taken apart and looked into but
haven't spent the time to get it working, a few Tek scopes in
various conditions, and several pieces of 'small' test equipment
from Heath (sig gen), Eico (cap checker) and others of that ilk. And
whenever I need a scope probe and a direct wire isn't good enough,
I get a connector, coax, resistors and a trimmer cap and make my
own, as I described recently on Boatanchors.
Other interests - I've mentioned running - I've just done my fourth
sprint triathlon, and I'm training for my first olympic-distance tri
that's only a few weeks away. There's playing music - a few years ago I
made a nylon-string acoustic guitar. The sound isn't outstanding, but
it does play in tune - I knew just where to put the frets and bridge.
I do want to do more guitarmaking (the actual word is lutherie).
I suppose all these other hobbies explain why I don't post often,
haven't learned the code and don't have a ham license. And these
interests would be in real trouble if I were married...
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 23:51:38 -0700
From: "Scott Alfter" <salfter@ibm.net>
Subject: Re: HV Windings
> This is the FIRST message I have received from GLOWBUGS in over three
> weeks!
For me, the list was dead for more than just three weeks...until a week or
so ago, I hadn't received anything in about two months! Since I had
switched ISPs at about that time, I began to wonder if my subscription
requests had ended up in the bit-bucket.
_/_
/ v \
(IIGS( Scott Alfter (salfter@ibm.net)
\_^_/ http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/6595
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 01:06:21 -0700
From: "Scott Alfter" <salfter@ibm.net>
Subject: Re: intro
"Lawrence R. Ware" <lrware@pipeline.com> wrote:
>no ham ticket, although I have been sorta trying to pick up morse...
I was beginning to wonder if I was the only non-ham on this list. :-)
I think the "bug" for tube stuff first bit me when I was browsing through
the Radio RT on GEnie a few years back (got an idea that packet radio might
be better than landline comms through modems). I acquired a non-working
RCA X-551 AM receiver and a Precision 920 tube tester from one of the
participants there and brought that back to life. From another GEnie user,
I acquired a Hallicrafters S-120. Didn't need to do anything to get it
working about as well as they're said to ever work (that is, it's deaf
above about 11 MHz or so).
Current projects, as time permits, are to fix up a Zenith H723 AM/FM
receiver (mostly cosmetic this time, but it'd be a good idea to get rid of
the "wax firecrackers") and a homebrew 14F7 regenerative receiver (tried a
1S4/3S4 design once, but didn't get it to work...I think I had screwed up
some filament connections). I've also fired up a Morse-code practice
program on the trusty old Apple IIGS on and off...have gotten through about
a third of the lessons so far, covering 18 letters. With two jobs and
school, though, I don't know if I'll ever get to finish. I also wrote a
program for the II to practice for the Novice and Technician exams. I
could probably get a Technician license tomorrow if I wanted, but I'm
shooting for Technician Plus as a "starter" license.
Other interests are old computers...especially Apple IIs (have a IIGS that
I upgraded from the IIe my parents bought new in '85 and a IIe that I
picked up really cheap at a garage sale a while back), but I've also picked
up a Tandy Color Computer 2, a Commodore VIC-20, and an IBM PC/XT that
various people either had sitting in their closets or that they were going
to throw out. Maybe I'll make a museum out of them 50 years down the road.
:-) I think what'd be really neat, though, would be to homebrew some kind
of computer equipment out of discrete components. A "tube computer" would
probably be unfeasible because you'd need your own electrical substation to
operate it :-) , but something built out of those three-legged bits of sand
called "transistors" might be doable.
As for education, I'm working toward a BSCS at UNLV, one course at a time
(have just a statistics course and a handful of 400-level CS courses before
I'm done). In the meantime, I sell computers at Best Buy and books at one
of the local college bookstores to pay the bills.
(I should probably be practicing Morse with QSO Kid instead of writing this
missive, but it's been eons since I've seen any considerable amount of
traffic on this list. :-) )
_/_
/ v \
(IIGS( Scott Alfter (salfter@ibm.net)
\_^_/ http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/6595
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 08:44:48 -0400
From: "Forrest B. Snyder, Jr." <fbsnyder@mitre.org>
Subject: Introduction
Greetings!
I first got bit by the radio bug as a kid in high-school in the early =
'60s. Read every copy of Pop-tronics I could get my hand on, =
practically memorized "How to Become a Radio Amateur, and drooled over =
the neat rigs I read about in the Allied, BA, and Lafayette catalogs." =
I was, unfortunately, blessed with large plans and a very small pocket =
book -- after saving for about a year I ordered and assembled a =
Lafayette KT-200 (aka "nine-tube Trio") general coverage receiver from a =
kit. (I still have it and it still works!)=20
I spent a lot of time listening before radio took a back seat to =
college, marriage, and twelve-years in the US Army (Field Artillery and =
Army Aviation). =20
My interest in radio was re-awakened when one of my friends offered a =
licensing class in 1987. My first call, issued in Sep 87, was KC4HMQ. =
However, by the time I got on the air in Feb 88, I had upgraded from =
novice to technician and issued present call of N4UTY. Have since =
upgraded to Extra. My first QSO and 90% of the rest of them are CW, =
usually with a straight key. =20
First rig was a Yaesu FT-101E -- lots of fun, but somehow not quite what =
I had dreamed of. Traded the Yaesu for and ICOM 728 that I use for both =
QRP at 4 1/2 watts and QRO at up to 100. I have worked SSB, but mostly =
keep the mike stored in a drawer and pound away with a straight key or =
(mechanical) bug. My favorite on-the-air activity is probably CW =
rag-chewing at slow speed with the lowest power. =20
Since I got licensed, I have rehabilitated a Viking II (had to replace =
an open screen dropping resistor) which I sold. Used the proceeds to buy =
a Johnson Adventurer -- a really sweet little rig that I currently pair =
up with a borrowed BC-348-R. I also play around some with a borrowed =
HW-9. My antenna is a center-fed 40M Zepp between two trees. I'm still =
amazed at how little you need to communicate effectively.
Maybe one day I'll write a book entitled "Around the World on Fifty =
Watts and a Wire".
Forrest B. Snyder, Jr.
MITRE -- W118
fbsnyder@mitre.org
Voice: 703-695-9999
Voice Mail: 703-883-7665
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 06:33:19 -0700 (MST)
From: Chris Trask <ctrask@primenet.com>
Subject: Re: Permeability Tuned Receiver
On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, Ben C Bradley wrote:
<EL SNIPPERINO>>
> Does anyone have any ideas for, or especially any info on,
> permeability-tuned receivers? The only one I've ever seen or heard
> of was a Heath FM-only tube broadcast radio. A schematic of an actual
> working one would be great. I don't know how well such a receiver
> would work, but I plan to build one regardless.
>
Ben,
You may be interested in an upcoming article in Applied Micro-
wave and Wireless that I've written, entitled "Transductors: The Forgot-
ten Variable" which is about incremental permeability tuning.
Regards,
Chris
,----------------------. Circuit Design for the
/ If you understand it, \ RF Impaired
/ then it's obsolete! /
\ _______,--------------' Chris Trask / N7ZWY
_ |/ Principal Engineer
oo\ ATG Design Services
(__)\ _ P.O. Box 25240
\ \ .' `. Tempe, Arizona 85285-5240
\ \ / \
\ '" \ Technical Editor,
. ( ) \ QRP Quarterly
'-| )__| :. \ QRP ARCI 9464
| | | | \ '.
c__; c__; '-..'>.__ Email: ctrask@primenet.com
Graphics by Loek Frederiks
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 09:42:02 -0500 (CDT)
From: linscot@is.rice.edu (Steve Linscott)
Subject: Re: Permeability Tuned Receiver
>On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, Ben C Bradley wrote:
>
>
>> Does anyone have any ideas for, or especially any info on,
>> permeability-tuned receivers? The only one I've ever seen or heard
>> of was a Heath FM-only tube broadcast radio. A schematic of an actual
>> working one would be great. I don't know how well such a receiver
>> would work, but I plan to build one regardless.
I didn't see your original post, but the Collins R-390 family have to be
the classic examples of permeability-tuned receivers.
73 de W5EGP
- Steve -
******************************************************************************
* Steve Linscott Divisional Consultant Natural Sciences *
* Rice University 6100 South Main Street Houston, Texas 77005-1892 *
* Phone: (713) 527-4985 FAX: (713) 527-6099 Email: linscot@rice.edu *
******************************************************************************
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 11:00:14 -0400
From: "Brian Carling" <bry@mnsinc.com>
Subject: Re: Junk Box Challenge!
We'll all pitch in and donate some of the parts you don't have!
For some possible GB projects, take a look at my web page:
http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/hamfiles.htm
I've added a few good new ones!
Bry, AF4K
On 26 Aug 97 at 9:14, Claton Cadmus wrote:
> I've got an idea to boost the list activity a bit.
>
> This Friday I will inventory and post a list of the glowbuggy odds and
> ends I have around the shack here. These will be items I have in surplus
> to any other projects I have been contemplating. From that list we, as a
> group, will design a glowbug rig of some sort. There will of course be the
> need for a few parts not available from the list. The limit on outside
> purchases will be 20 bucks.
>
> Now I'm sure there will be multiple suggestions as we get started,
> decisions on the direction to go, which project to pursue, will be mine.
>
> I hope there is enough of you interested that this can be a fun exercise.
>
> Keep an eye on the list Friday.
> ----
> 73 de KA0GKC Claton Cadmus
> E-mail cla@spacestar.net
> If you live in Minnesota check out this webpage!
> http://www.spacestar.net/users/aplitech/mnqrp/
>
>
****************************************************
*** 73 from Radio AF4K/G3XLQ Gaithersburg, MD USA *
** E-mail to: bry@mnsinc.com *
*** See the interesting ham radio resources at: *
** http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/ *
****************************************************
AM International #1024, TENTEN #13582. GRID FM19
Rigs: Valiant, DX-60/HG-10, Eldico TR-75, Millen 90810
FT-840, TM-261, Ameco TX-62, Gonset Communicator III
HTX-202...TEN-TEN #13582, DXCC #17,763 Bicentennial WAS
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 09:02:44 -0600
From: Dexter Francis <cwest@xmission.com>
Subject: Address change
I have changed e-mail providers.
Please update the list-server with my new address.
tnx
- -df
- -----------------------Visit our Web site at-------------------------
http://www.xmission.com/~cwest/
or e-mail to: tubes@usa.net
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 10:02:53 -0500
From: bill@skeeter.frco.com (William Hawkins)
Subject: Re: Permeability Tuned Receiver
You could also learn about the ultimate permeability tuned receivers -
the military R-390 family (R-388 to 392, some with A's) designed by
Collins.
Permeability tuning was also used for car radios, probably for small
space and vibration considerations.
Regards,
Bill Hawkins
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 10:43:51 -0700
From: Ron Thomas <rthomas@gulf.net>
Subject: Intro (long)
Hi gang,
I'm Ron Thomas, N4RT, and I am an electrical engineer for Boeing. I am
currently working in Fort Walton Beach, FL on the USAF AC-130U gunship
program (Special Ops).
My interest in amateur radio began at about the age of eight when I used
to watch my Uncle and one of his friends operate his Viking II and SX-99
from my Granfather's house in Jasper, Alabama (my home town). I was
fascinated with all the dials, knobs, and switches, and especially fond
of the red and green jewel lights on the front of the old Viking II. I
frequently got into trouble with my Uncle when I would sneak into his
shack and twist all the knobs... naturally, it took a while to retune
that old Viking when they wanted to get back on the air!
About the age of 12, I was in the Boy Scouts studying for my "First
Class" badge and part of the requirement was to know Morse code. Not
having an audio oscillator to practice with, my Uncle helped me learn
the code by whistling the alphabet and numbers to me when we would go
somewhere in his car. At one point, he remarked that I probably knew
the code well enough to get my "ham ticket". Of course, I knew what ham
radio was all about from watching him and his friend... but I never
thought that I could actually become a ham myself!
He got his friend, "Sandy" Sanders (W4GMU), to give me the Novice test
and I was thrilled when I passed. I still remember how he sent me
some"warm up" text from his daughter's science book. He used an old
Ameco code oscillator and the text he sent was "A candle doesn't look as
though..." then he stopped. I had copied it solid at 5 wpm so there was
no need to do the "real" test. He had tricked me, but I would have been
so much more nervous if I had thought I was taking the "real" test and
he knew this. This was one of my first encounters with a good elmer...
and I have been a dedicated CW operator ever since. Interestingly,
although my Uncle bought a station and had Sandy come over and operate
it for him... he never got his ticket! He was always very proud of me
for getting mine. Before he died, he did see one of his sons also get
his ham license. My novice call was KN4TRJ.
I moved quickly from novice to general. The test was given every six
months at the Post Office in Birmingham, AL. There was usually a crowd
and a kind of "hamfest" atmosphere at these tests... and a lot of
fellows failed but never gave up and kept coming back again and again
until they passed. I was only about 14 when I took the general class
exam and flunked the theory the first time around. I had no problem
with the code. Most of the older fellows had the opposite problem... no
trouble with the theory but problems with the code. On the second try,
I passed and became K4TRJ. After two years I took the Extra Class exam
and at the same time I took the First Class Radio Telephone and Second
Class Radio Telegraph commercial licenses. I was sixteen when I got my
first job at one of the local broadcast stations (taking meter readings
every half hour at the transmitter) because I had a First Phone ticket.
When incentive licensing rolled around I already had an Extra ticket, so
I was able to apply for a two letter call and got my initials. I wasn't
real happy with the "N" prefix at first, but it was great on CW so I
kept it.
At age 17 I graduated from high school and enlisted in the Navy. After
boot camp I was sent to the Naval Air Technical Training Center in
Memphis, TN and went through the Aviation Electronics Technician "N"
(Navigation and Communications) course.
At my first duty station (NAS Jacksonville, FL) my leading chief found
out I could copy CW and asked me if I wanted to fly since our squadron
was short of radio operators. I was thrilled to qualify as a radio op
on Navy SP-2E "Neptune" anti-submarine patrol aircraft and spent the
next year tracking submarines in the Caribbean. In 1966, Vietnam had
become a full blown war and I got transferred from Jacksonville to fly
with a transport squadron out of Barber's Point, Hawaii. The planes we
flew were old Air Force C-118s the Navy inherited... and we flew
primarily low priority cargo like mops, brooms, radar parts, etc. across
the Pacific into Danang. When we weren't hauling cargo we were hauling
passengers. The trip to Danang and back to Hawaii took us about two
weeks with many interesting overnight stops on islands all across the
Pacific including the Philippines and Japan.
Tiring of the long, boring hours of mostly listening to static crashes
on HF freqs for 13-14 hours at a time, I decided to get out of the Navy
at the end of my enlistment. My leading Chief talked me into applying
for a Navy college program since going to college was what I intended to
do when I got out. "Let the Navy send you to school" he said, and in
1968 I was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program
(NESEP). Four years later, I graduated from Auburn University with a BEE
and received a commission as an Ensign.
After completing flight trainng at NAS Pensacola, FL and earning my
wings in 1972, I found myself again off the coast of Vietnam this time
aboard the aircraft carrier USS MIDWAY (CV-41). I was flying as an air
intercept controller in the Grumman E-2B "Hawkeye" airborne early
warning aircraft. My ground job was Avionics maintenance officer which
I really enjoyed and all the "tweets" in the squadron worked for me...
several of which were hams! We had lots of fun in spite of being a long
way from home and our families. Ham radio activity while deployed in a
combat zone was strictly verbotten. However, there were some occasional
early morning ops checks of the E-2 HF gear from the flight deck which
"might" have strayed onto 20 meters (grin). Purely accidental, of
course!
I retired from the Navy in 1985 and began my "second" career as an
engineer. I've worked as a systems engineer in a shipyard, RF engineer
in Germany, and as a design engineer integrating avionics systems into
various military aircraft. I even found myself in Saudi Arabia during
"Desert Storm" doing avionics mods on USAF Special Ops helos. I even
have a piece of a SCUD missile as a souvenier from that adventure.
I owe every success I've had to the firm foundation I was provided by
the many "elmers" who helped this young kid of 13 in those early novice
days of amateur radio! I can only hope that I can give back to the
fraternity some of the joy and pleasure that has come my way via this
fascinating hobby.
Now, I'm forever smitten by glowbugs and the boatanchor bug. In
addition to several modern "sand state" rigs, I have acquired the
following:
Collins S-Line (WE)
National HRO-60 & all coils
Hallicrafters HT-37, SX-111, SX-99
Johnson Viking II, Valiant, Ranger II, 122 VFO
Globe Chief and Scout (680A)
RME-4300
Gonset G-76
Hammarlund HQ-110
GRC-109 and a couple of ARC-5s
Central Electronics 20A & VFO
Swan 240, 350C, & power supplies
Various Heathkit, homebrew, and other misc. treasures
I continue to gather "bargains" at hamfests and am stocking up on all
the spare tubes I need to keep these rigs on the air for years to come.
I don't have them all "restored" yet and some are not fully
"operational", but they will all be on the air one day. I appreciate
this list and all the fellows who share their experience with repairs,
restorations, and simply making things "work" when lesser men would
probably give up! Thank you all!!!
Warmest regards,
Ron Thomas N4RT
(ex K4TRJ, KA2RT, JR1ZWO, DJ0MAW)
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 11:56:17 -0400
From: "Brian Carling" <bry@mnsinc.com>
Subject: Carbon mics & modulators
Want to try using a carbon mike?
Here is an example of how to use a carbon mike:
http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/ham/m60.gif
You can find many enjoyable old articles like this at:
http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/hamfiles.htm
Way down at the bottom of the page!
Enjoy - AF4K, Bry
****************************************************
*** 73 from Radio AF4K/G3XLQ Gaithersburg, MD USA *
** E-mail to: bry@mnsinc.com *
*** See the interesting ham radio resources at: *
** http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/ *
****************************************************
AM International #1024, TENTEN #13582. GRID FM19
Rigs: Valiant, DX-60/HG-10, Eldico TR-75, Millen 90810
FT-840, TM-261, Ameco TX-62, Gonset Communicator III
HTX-202...TEN-TEN #13582, DXCC #17,763 Bicentennial WAS
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 15:01:59 -0500
From: launerb@crl.com (William H. Launer)
Subject: Re: Permeability Tuned Receiver
On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, Ben C Bradley wrote:
>> Does anyone have any ideas for, or especially any info on,
>> permeability-tuned receivers? The only one I've ever seen or heard
The typical solid-state auto radio is permeability tuned. Doesn't glow,
but you might be able to get some ideas (maybe adapt the mechanical
hardware, as well).
73, Bill wb0cld
Bill Launer
St. Charles, MO
launerb@crl.com
wb0cld@wb0cld.ampr.org [44.46.66.25]
qrp-l #279 qrp arci #3551
Grid Square EM48RT
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 18:01:18 -0700 (MST)
From: Jeff Duntemann <jeffd@coriolis.com>
Subject: Secret origins
QST glowbugs...
Unless I misrecall I did this once before, so I won't go on at my customary
length. (I type at 110 wpm, so that can be a long length...)
Why me? Maybe it's genetic; my father was in AACS in Atar, Mauritania
during the War, working a mill on receive and a Vibroplex bug on send. I
bought a bug early on but never mastered it like my dad; I guess I'm just a
straight key guy. We were going to get our licenses together, but he was a
two pack a day man and got oral cancer while I was in high school just when
I needed him the most and that was the end of that.
Like a lot of kids growing up in the late fifties, early sixties, I built
things. Electronics and radios nabbed me when my best friend Art got an
old radio from his Uncle George. It had no case, just a working chassis,
with a dial pointer that moved back and forth, but no dial for it to point
to. It had two shortwave bands (over and above AM BCB) and Art and I
hooked it to thirty feet of wire strung out to a screw eye on the garage
and spun the dial. We had no idea what frequencies we were listening to,
and so the radio became a weird sort of telescope to a strange land, one
inhabited by clumps of intelligence (SW broadcasts) amidst long stretches
of wilderness haboring inexplicable creatures that made all kinds of weird
noises. I'm still not sure what many were, but some were TTY, others
beacons, and so on. I don't know why that experience took such a hold on
me, but it did. We calibrated the radio with help from Uncle George, and
then began building radios of our own.
Art never became a ham but I did, nabbing WN9MQY in May 1973 after several
years of setting electronics aside to build telescopes. (The astronomy
club at my high school sucked me in; my passions were many and fickle back
then.) My first transmitter was homebrew, and while it wasn't very good
(see the Mini-Mitter in a 1966 issue of Electronics Illustrated) it got me
18 states before people complained about the T4 signal. I still have my
novice receiver, a Hammarlund HQ145X that I got cheap from a local guy.
The high band is still squirrelly, but the others are rock solid.
I moved to a Knight T-60 and worked most of the rest of the states before
getting my general in early 1975 and my advanced in early 1976. I've built
a lot of stuff over the years, mostly transmitters.
I've used a lot of boatanchor gear in my time. First SSB rig was a Central
Electronics 10B and 455 VFO. I built a famously bad linear with sweep
tubes for it that put out 500 watts on all frequencies at once. (Had a
horrible problem with parasitics; I still curse the 6HF5 every night before
bed.)
When I moved out of Channel 2 land I worked some 6 meters on a mint Sixer
that I still have, and some other oddball gear that has mostly been sold
off. I re-gathered a 6M station once I got a good shack here in
Scottsdale. I use a Clegg 99er as a receiver, in a transceive lashup with
an Ameco TX-62 for transmit, PTT with a home-made crystal handheld mike. I
have a Gonset Comm II for 6 but its audio is intermittent.
For those in Arizona, listen to 50.4 AM every Sunday night at 7PM local
time. We try to hold the 6M Junkbox Radio Net, but it's been a challenge
through the summer. Things will doubtless perk up after Labor Day.
I have a handful of working 2M AM rigs including a Twoer, a Gonset Comm II,
a Clegg 22er and a Poly Comm 2, but I prefer 6M for AM and have a better
antenna for it.
I have a beautiful 75A4 for lowband receive, and a cosmetically perfect
Central Electronics 100V that doesn't work, and I'm trying to figure out
how to make it live again. That's a SCARY rig, gang. I got a pair of
beat-to-hell 75M Heath Single Banders for $10 and will fiddle with them at
some point. Other rigs awaiting work are a Seneca, a Gonset 2M linear, and
some solid state stuff.
I also work in solid state, and am currently co-designing a 6M NBFM
receiver using Motorola PLL chips and a PIC microcontroller.
I am fascinated by the low-voltage 12V B+ tubes used briefly in car radios
in the late 50s. Have an IF strip built with them followed by a transistor
power audio stage, the whole thing waiting for a front end. I've built an
audio power amp that'll drive a small speaker (or any headphones) with 12V
tubes.
I guess I went on at length anyway. Time to lay this to rest. Summer's
quiet time on the radio front, always has been. After the kids go back to
school and the weather breaks some it should be better.
- --73--
- --Jeff Duntemann KG7JF
Scottsdale, Arizona
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 19:32:13 -0400
From: benb27@juno.com (Ben C Bradley)
Subject: Re: Permeability Tuned Receiver
On Wed, 27 Aug 1997 10:02:53 -0500 bill@skeeter.frco.com (William
Hawkins) writes:
>You could also learn about the ultimate permeability tuned receivers -
>the military R-390 family (R-388 to 392, some with A's) designed by
>Collins.
I've certainly seen that model number in the BA list often enough,
and have seen at least one picture of one on the web, so I'm at least
vaguely familiar with it.
>
>Permeability tuning was also used for car radios, probably for small
>space and vibration considerations.
Now I remember! I took one apart when I was a teenager. The
five-button
AM radios had that mechanical tuning action 'memory' for the tuning
buttons, and were indeed permeability tuned. It looks like permeability
tuning isn't quite as rare as I thought it was.
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 00:02:41 -0500 (CDT)
From: Stefan A Schulz <sas1757@tntech.edu>
Subject: Hi, my name is Stefan.
Hello to all glowbuggers out there. I was born and raised in Tullahoma,
TN. I am currently a student of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at
Tennessee Tech University. My professional goals are to be able to design
gene specific drugs to help eliminate genetic or hereditarial disease.
My original plan was to become an electrical engineer. I was in the
engineering program for about three semesters. I decided that my idea of
electronics fun was tinkering and restoring not design and theory. I keep
my understanding to a need to know basis.
My begining in radio started in 1990. I was interested in Tesla coils and
wanted to find anybody who knew how to build a tube driven coil using four
811A tubes! Tullahoma in the site for the "largest wind tunnel testing
site in the free world". The facility is contained on an airforce base and
therefore draws a lot of people from around the world. So finding an toob
electronics elmer was not hard. I found a ham who lived right down the
same street from me. We talked about coils and he invited me to his house.
This guys house was a monument to military test and commo gear. Being a
research engineer on an AFB and being in MARS in it's heyday meant gear
heaven. This where the bug bit. It chomped hard!! I completely forgot
about coils and wanted to see radios that glowed. He fired up a BC-348,
an R-390, and a mil DC to daylight spectrum analyzer. I got to see the
signals I was hearing :) I knew then I in the right hobby. I've played
with sandstate gear and found it did what it said it would, but nothing
quite seems to feel and sound as good as the hollow state. I have a R-390A
and a AN/GRC 109. I want to homebrew toob stuff but right now metabolic
pathways and enzyme actions seem to pull me from my desire to play. School
will provide a path to great glowbugging projects and BA's.
Hope I was not too windy,
BABABABABABABABABBABABABABABABABABABABABABABA
BA BA
BA Stefan Schulz BA
BA Tennessee Technological University BA
BA Cookeville TN 38505-001 BA
BA SAS1757@tntech.edu BA
BA Biochemistry BA
BA Astrophysics BA
BA BA
BABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABABAB
Interests:
regens, military radio, photography,
and all that other related expensive stuff!
End of glowbugs V1 #98
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Created by Steve Modena, AB4EL
Comments and suggestions to modena@SunSITE.unc.edu