Daily GLOWBUGS
Digest: V1 #95
via AB4EL Web Digests @ SunSITE
Purpose: building and operating vacuum tube-based QRP rigs
Subject: glowbugs V1 #95
glowbugs Monday, August 25 1997 Volume 01 : Number 095
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 10:09:23 -0400
From: "Brian Carling" <bry@mnsinc.com>
Subject: Re: HV Windings
ADAM! Hi tere! This is amazing that this message appeared!
This is the FIRST message I have received from GLOWBUGS in over three
weeks!
Great to see that it MAY be working properly again!
I have sure missed everyone's messages here!
I have the Valiant working here (kind of anyway!)
How have you been?
Anyone else reading this???
73 to all - Bry, AF4K in Maryland
On 23 Aug 97 at 19:42, Adam McLaughlin wrote:
> Dear fellow Glowbuggers,
>
> Does anybody out there have a suggestion for estimating the current carying
> capacity of the HV winding of a power transformer?
>
> Thanks and 73,
>
> Adam
> Adam McLaughlin KD6POC
> QRG: 7037 Kcs & 7014 Kcs (DX Only)
> kd6poc@jps.net
> www.jps.net/jmclaugh
>
>
>
****************************************************
*** 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: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:38:12 +0200
From: Jan Axing <janax@li.icl.se>
Subject: Things are rolling and Re: Glowbugs
Brian Carling wrote:
> Does anyone have any idea what has happened to GLOWBUGS??
Well, the last message I got from the Glowbugs list is dated
Aug 14... I've CC:ed to the Glowbugs just for test.
Vacations, new jobs, whatever. Perhaps we can hitch-hike on
this list for a while?
Anyway, after some repairs on my Heath SB-301/SB-401 line I
went on air with them yesterday and they are working FB.
A hint for owners of unsteady Heath LMO's: clean the area
where the ground contact spring makes contact with the rotor
on the variable capacitor. I used kerosene...
Another hint for owners of dead or intermittent Heath meters:
Check all solder joints on the movement.
Time has come to work on my GEC BRT400 receiver now, an RX
noone seem to know much about...
Jan, SM5GNN
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:40:38 +0200
From: Jan Axing <janax@li.icl.se>
Subject: Re: HV Windings
Brian Carling wrote:
> Anyone else reading this???
Yes!!! Glad to see it in operation!
Jan, SM5GNN
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:24:09 -0500
From: Conard Murray <ws4s@InfoAve.Net>
Subject: List is alive and well
Hello All,
Contrary to some rumors that have heard, the glowbugs list is alive and
well.
I can be reached at ws4s@infoave.net or cfm5723@tntech.edu if anyone has
any questions.
I would like to see some activity on the list soon ... why don't all of you
post a short personal introduction?
Thanks,
Conard, WS4S
Glowbugs listowner
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 20:19:49 -0500
From: "R. Eric Sluder" <kb9bgs@sprintmail.com>
Subject: My intro!
> I would like to see some activity on the list soon ... why don't all of you
> post a short personal introduction?
> Thanks,
> Conard, WS4S
> Glowbugs listowner
I can do that! I'm Eric, KB9BGS and have been on the list for almost a
year now with my old email address of, sludere@gte.net. I'm an advance
class ticket holder who's just now getting active again after a short (4
year) stint of getting a degree at a local university. I'm married and
have one child (a girl) whom is 7 months old today! So I guess I've got
a pretty good excuse for not being on the list as much... :^)
Occupation is Telecommunications Engineer and work primarily in SONET
fiber networks and data networks (frame relay, TCP/IP, etc...) I've had
an interest in the glow type stuff since I was a teenage when I used to
listen to W8AHB and WA3PUN on 75 mtr AM phone with my used but newly
aquired HR-10B receiver that my mom bought me for $15 bucks. I didn't
know a thing about BFO's and wondered why I heard all these stations
talking something like Japanese and sounding like Donald Duck, and then
low and behold I came across the gents mentioned above and thought wow
this Ham Radio stuff sounds good, and neat too!
Later, W8AHB explained to me in a letter that those Japanese stations I
heard could be tuned in better if I turned my BFO on and slowed down my
tuning rate :-) amazing what you learn at a ripe age of 13!!!! A few
tickets later and a whole lot of smoke, blown fuses and thrown breakers
and I'm here! Got a lot more to learn about this glowing stuff and look
forward to my quest. It's a lot more romantic than trying to organize
your 1000+ memories in that new gee whiz bang box you can get these
days...
Hope this was short enough Conard?
73,
Eric
- --
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
R. Eric Sluder, KB9BGS KB9
3339 Eden Way Believing
Carmel, IN 46033 USA God's
kb9bgs@sprintmail.com Son
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 97 19:41:41 PDT
From: "Phoenix Crystals" <phxtal@nava-link.net>
Subject: [none]
- --MimeMultipartBoundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; X-MAPIextension=".TXT"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Hi gang,
I just wanted to remind everyone that there is only 7 days left in which to
send in your order if you want to get in on the 80 meter crystal group
offer's which I'm running till the end of August.
73 John
John Morris
C-W CRYSTALS (Formerly Phoenix Crystals)
1714 NORTH ASH ST.
NEVADA, MO 64772
Phone: (417) 667-6179
FAX: (417) 667-6169
E-mail: phxtal@nava-link.net
Supplying custom crystals for Vintage Equipment, QRP'ers, Amateurs, and
Experimenters since 1933.
- --MimeMultipartBoundary--
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 21:11:50 -0500
From: Bob Liesenfeld <wb0poq@visi.com>
Subject: My intro
Hi gang,
A short bio:
I am an extra class cw nut. First licensed in 1969 as novice. Ran a Knight T-50
and Spanmaster for years. Collect Hammarlunds.
Currently a QRPer building rigs, tuners, et al into a bunch of old 35mm movie
film cans. (I said I was nuts).
Favorite tube: 807
Favorite band: 40
Favorite antenna: Windom
:-)
72
- --
Genuine E-mail From the Land of the Everlasting Icicle...
Bob Liesenfeld
wb0poq@visi.com
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 22:19:44 -0400
From: "Brian Carling" <bry@mnsinc.com>
Subject: Re: Valve Adventures in England etc.
Brian Carling - How It All Started!
PART 1
Well, it all started with my Uncle Jack's TAPE RECORDER!
Actually it had started long before that with the family crystal set,
the table-top radio with SW bands, reading Practic Wireless and
Wireless World magazines etc.
As a small lad in the 1950s, I was surprised and delighted when after
eating dinner at Uncle Jack's house, he invited us all to sit down and
listen to what we had been saying BEFORE dinner. He had HIDDEN a
microphone behind a chair in the living room and taped us all. Me, my
brother, may parents and my grandmother! None of us had seen such a
machine before, but within a couple of years, my brother and I both
got one. His a 4-speed Philips, mine a BSR single speed cheaper one.
We had great fun with those, but I soon went on to make homemade
intercoms, amplifiers, switchboxes etc. I even built a LIGHT BULB
TESTER when I was about 11 years old and offered to test the
neighbours' light bulbs for them (for a fee) - RIGHT!
My brother played in rock/pop bands professionally from a young age so
I was always around amplifers and other electrical things and helped
set the things up for them, as well as helping to build and wire
up/test their speaker cabinets etc.
It wasn't long before I learned about tubes and transistors and what
fun things you could do with each of them. I once bought some
CAPACITORS from a parts shop because I thought they would AMPLIFY a
signal! Nah! They were the old tubular WAX coated paper variety as I
remember they smelled funny. About 0.1 uF for the design to feed
headphones off a speaker output of a radio I think. You live and learn
eh?
Later, I found that a school chum lived a few streets over from a TV
repair place and we used to sift through their garbage after school.
Often there were complete "TELLYS" laying around by the dustbin, and
we would take tools and open them up, extracting ALL of the resistors,
tubes, caps, even transformers, and of course the speaker!
Later I used some of these parts to make intercoms and radios. What
fun, and all FREE! Kids at school used to make things, like.... Well,
I remember the elctric shock thing. They got an old matchbox (the
large wooden kind) and mounted a small transformer in it, nad had an
exernal 4.5 volt bicycle lamp battery underneath, and two tinfoil
contacts on top.
You persuaded some numbskull kid to put his fingers across the
contacts and then you flipped a wire together and apart on the
primary side of the transformer which of course unduced a huge
transient voltage in the secondary ond zapped the mug!
Another gadget someone built, that impressed me, was a 1 kHz
multivibrator that produced huge squarewaves using two transistors,
and the harmonics from it would jam ANY radio receiver within a few
feet. Great for annoying your school chums in the playground at
lunchtime. These things were all of course, entirely clandestine. If
the lads had been caught with such at school they would have been
punished I am sure!
Later on, G3WUW used to bring a single transistor phase shift osc. and
some headphones to school , and would teach me the morse code on the
steps during lunchtime. We later did some tube building together and I
did most of the work to make a 6AG7 - 5B254M transmitter. We also
fired up a WS19 set with 10 watts of awful sounding AM!!
PART 2
SOME of my valve activities (that's tubes for you colonial types!)
from those old days of my teenage years in England.
I saved a copy because I had promised some of the GLOWBUGS chaps here
that I would eventually let you all read about the history too!
So here it is. Not much detail yet. Maybe I will edit it later and
fill in the blanks as my memory gets jogged and I recall other bits
and pieces, such as the 6J6 5 watt oscillator on 27 MHz RC band that I
built, and the 38 sets that we put on the air on 7 Mhz talking between
"James One" and "James Two" - and the paranoia upon seeing a GPO
"Radio-detector van" prowling the neighbourhood after school one day
(grin!) but that is another episode to come later...
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
My earliest memories include:
Around 1962 (at the age of about 11 or 12) I was living in the suburbs
of Cambridge, and went to a boy scout "jumble sale" - just like a Flea
Market in the USA. There I found for sale on one of the tables, a
curious pair of valves. They were big, brand new RCA tubes in boxes
with the number "805" on them. These things were big "bright emitter"
bottles with huge, thick, carbon plate anodes. Now if I had known just
what I had I would have guarded them with my life and put them to good
use later! I have no idea where those valves wound up in the end. I
probably traded them or sold them, but I DID have great fun lighting
them up at home! I connected an old car battery to the filament
connections and BINGO! Instant lighting for the room! I later found
out that these were transmitting triodes good for about 300 watts
each! I saw one the other day at a hamfest and ALMOST took it home!
In about 1964 we moved to the small, peaceful village of Cottenham,
near Cambridge, and I remember going to visit the station of G3RFP,
Fred who at that time worked in Technical Publications at Marshalls
(where my dad was a draughtsman/design engineer) in Cambridge,
England.
I lived in this small village, population 2400, about 8 miles N.E. of
Cambridge.
I spent several Saturday mornings at Fred's house watching him run 10
watts of AM on Top Band with the local roundtable group. His
transmitter had a large coupling coil to the end-fed half-wave
antenna. It was about four inches in diameter with lots of turns. I
became curious about all of the strange ham lingo! "QRM" - "QSB" -
"73" - "5 and 9" etc. Fred's receiver was a Heathkit HR-10. Those old
UK AM operators were very polite. They all acted like nobility on the
air. It was grand. There were no such thing in those days as 2 meter
repeaters, and SSB was just coming into its own on the HF bands.
I got to know the voices and callsigns of a number of local amateurs
that way; the hams in Waterbeach, Cambridge, Newmarket and others in
the villages around Cambridge. G5BQ, G3UUR, G2PU etc. etc.
My friend Allan at school later became G3WUW. He taught me the morse
code with a one transistor phase shift oscillator on the steps of our
school at the "County High School for Boys" as it was then, during
lunch breaks etc.! He lived in OVER, and I lived in Cottenham. I made
trips to his house in OVER on my bike, and also to Willingham to the
SWL shack of my friend David Gyp.
Allan and I also built some equipment for the 6 MHz CCF Net in those
days, (Combined Cadet Force) in conjunction with some pals at the Lys
School in Cambridge, using things like 6AG7s and 807s. Our callsign
was WHISKEY LIMA. Or was that the "CALLUP signal" used like a CQ to
contact other stations? I forget!I can remember hearing him BELLOW
"WHISKEY LIMA, SIGNALS!!" into a carbon microphone on the old 19 set
at the County High School after school one day. With HT+ of about 800
volts on the anode of the poor old ceramic base 807 valve glowing red
hot! Oh and the power was from a dynamotor! The homebrew 807 rig came
later. I did most of the construction on the darn thing, and the best
I remember it DID actually work.
I went numerous times to the Cambridge and District Amateur Radio Club
in those days also, and learned a great deal from the lectures there.
That's where I met G5BQ and many other local hams. It was a LOT of
fun. Also, the club had a nice Eddystone receiver that was ham bands
only.
= = = = = = = = = =
Additional notes:
MANY British amateur built their own equipment in those days or used
military surplus. There was a LOT of that around in the 1960s still!
And it was VERY cheap indeed.
A lot of the guys used SCR-522 rigs on 2 meter AM, or if they were
wealthy, had a PYE business band radio converted to 2m AM. There was
no commercial/public service FM on VHF in Britain in the 1960s that I
am aware of - it was all AM, a wonderful mode if you like the sound of
warm, hi-fi, audio!
Later around 1985 or so I got interested in AM again. Thanks to Roger
Frith, N4IBF, who showed me his wonderful station consisting of a
BC-610 / R-390A and 75A-4/ 32V-3 I was shown what AM could do! I soon
acquired a Ranger, a Valiant and a Globe King 400. I never got the
GK400 to settle down and stop self-oscillating in the V-70D triode
finals so I never got it on the air! Wish I still had all three of
those transmitters though! They sound great on the air.
When we moved from Tennessee to Maryland in 1987 I had to let go of a
lot of my ham gear to move into a townhouse as I prepared to go to
Bible College and change to a ministry career - something that never
finally happened, but as they say: "That's a whole NUTHER story!"
(1997) An UPDATE! I have now acquired a LABGEAR 160 TWIN transmitter.
It uses an EL84 (6BQ5) modulated by an EL84 to produce 10 watts of AM
on "Top Band." A great little Gem with built in VFO and it came with a
12V DC power supply for mobile use! This was built by Labgear BEFORE I
even went to work for them (circa 1971)
Thanks to G3UUR who brought it from England and his friend
Peter who sold it to me!
More recollections soon.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
73 from Radio AF4K / G3XLQ in Gaithersburg, MD USA
bry@mnsinc.com
*** See the great ham radio resources at:
http://www.mnsinc.com/bry/
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 21:13:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ken Gordon <keng@uidaho.edu>
Subject: Stuff...
First licensed as WN7EKB in 1956 at age 13. Got Extra (and 1st Class
'Phone and 2nd Class Telegraph) in about 1963. Prefer HF CW. Did traffic
handling for a number of years. Was eventually in TCC (TransContinental
Corps) and NCS on RN7 and PAN. MARS. First Army then AF. Did much 'phone
patching for Vietnam troops. Really like military gear and BA of any
type.
First station was DX-35/AR-3. AR-3 BFO didn't work. Made ONE contact as a
novice. Was given a Hallicrafters "Sky Buddy" which a sub-contractor of my
father's found in his basement. Replaced filter caps and used it for over
a year after I got my Conditional. Crappy receiver (the whole 20 meter
band covered all of 1/4 inch on the tuning dial) but made many contacts.
Then borrowed an S-38C and made my first DX contact, a G5, on New Years
evening 1958. My mother finally bought me an excellent BC-348, which I
traded a year later for an RAL-7 so I could work 15 meters.
Etc.
Now own an FT-101EE, an AN/GRC-109, an HW-16, an R-390, an HQ-129X, and
enough parts to build a half-dozen kilowatt amps, but the antenna farm is
sadly lacking and any way it is more fun and a challenge to use the
AN/GRC-109.
Should have the HW-16 and a DX-60/HG-10 or two on the air soon.
Still need a place to put up a decent antenna. I am going to try to put
up an helically-wound vertical for 160 which will support a G5RV inverted
- -vee to supplement the end-fed longwire and the too low tri-bander (25
feet) which doesn't work any better than the LW anyway.
Tubes on the shelf for the amps include 1/2 dozen NIB 304TLs, 4 ea NIB
8000, 4 ea NIB 805s, 1 ea NIB 4-400, 3 NIB 813, 1 ea 812, some sweep
tubes, and enough sockets for them all.
As one other member of the various lists says, "So many projects...so
little time."
Speaking of projects, the following are in line here:
Gunge out the garage/shop for a decent shack/shop.
Repair the FT-101EE and modify it for WARC bands so my children can use it
Finish modification of HW-16 for true transceive operation.
Build antenna.
Build 15 watt 12AX7 push-pull oscillator/amp for 40.
Resurrect HQ-129X and modify for product detector.
Etc. Well, I would have lots more to tell anyone who would care to hear
it, but this is probably enough for now.
Ken W7EKB
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 11:24:52 +0200
From: Jan Axing <janax@li.icl.se>
Subject: Intro
Hi all.
I have been on this list since last winter and I am probably the
only SM here :-)
Anyway, my first radio experience dates back to 1968 when I as
a 13 year old phart built a Pierce oscillator using a tube pulled
from an old TV set and a 6800 kHz rock I had. I fed audio into
its grid without knowing what kind of modulation I got but it
was detectable on a SW receiver... My buddy had built a single
transistor FM transmitter and we had a lot of cross band QSO's.
Why the Pierce? No coils to wind :-)
I got my Technician ticket 1974, built a SB-303, homebrewed
a 2 meter SSB/CW transmitter and a converter (solid state).
In 1975 I built a SB-401 with the intention to upgrade and
get on HF but enjoyed weak signal VHF/UHF work so much so I
never did.
Finally, I upgraded a couple of months ago to the highest
ticket we have, inspired by the participation in this list.
(thanks, Bry!)
I still have the 401 and had acquired a 301 companion to it
which seems more... well, appropiate and IMHO a better RX
than the 303. The 301/401 is working UFB now.
I have maintained my tube knowledge all these years by
homebrewing lots of tube audio gear. Now is the time to
apply them on glowbugs. First out will be an ECL82.
I prefer CW on the bands, mostly 40M. Antennas are a G5RV,
a couple of inverted vee's for 17M and 12M and a fractal
vertical for 20M (controversial thing, those of you reading
the r.r.a.a NG knows what I mean). My web page is at:
http://www.algonet.se/~janax
73 to all of you
Jan, SM5GNN
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 08:33:31 -0700
From: "James R. Binkley" <w4aos@his.com>
Subject: Re: Intro
Hi everyone, my name is Bob Binkley. I have been a ham since I was in
High School (1952), thats correct, 45 years. I started as a novice
(WN4AOS), and less than a year later graduated to general and W4AOS. My
first rig was the little one tuber 6L6, or was it 6V6 built on two
pieces of wood which was in How To Become A Radio Amateur. After a
while I changed to an 807 in this circuit, and to get more power I put
two power supplies in series to get about 1000 volts. Every so often
the 807 would arc inside and destroy itself, but heck they were still
cheap as surplus. There weren't many TV's around then so TVI wasn't a
problem. I saw a picture in this months QST where someone about my age
built one, and I was really glad to see it. Maybe I'll build one
myself.
I continued to ham through the final two years of High School, and I
built a decent transmitter from the December, 1952 QST, a 5763 driving a
6146, all shielded and TVI proof, really a beautiful lil rig, that is
until I added the 813 amplifier at 500 watts input.
I found when I entered engineering school at Vanderbilt University that
I didn't have any time for Ham Radio. Then, after I graduated and was
working as an electronic engineer, (communication systems), the last
thing I wanted to see after I struggled home for work was anything
electronic, so I was not active for about 30 years.
Five or six years ago after becoming a consultant, (a consultant is
someone who borrows your watch and then charges to tell you the time),
I found that I missed lab work and so started hamming again. Since then
I have gotten my extra class license and filled up my entire basement
with ham stuff. I have: a Viking Valiant, Wilcox 99 tx, Drake twins,
Ten-Tech Omni V, Meissner signal drifter, Homebrew pair 4-400 amp, 35
watt rig built from Dec 1936 QST, two HRO receivers, SX-28, SP-600,
S-76, homebrew 5 watt qrp xcvr, and a complete lab setup with Hewlett
Packard test equipment (bought cheap at hamfests).
I enjoy rebuilding old tube receivers and building small rigs as it
gives me a chance to be a "real" engineer again. I prefer the tube
equipment, because when I first started work I actually designed some
tube equipment before transistors took over, and those were the most
exciting days of my life as I was learning lots of new stuff every day,
having lots of fun, and getting paid for it!
Right now I'm not on the air because lightning took my wire down, but as
soon as the leaves are off the trees I'll put up another antenna, (125
foot dipole fed with ladder line and tuned with Johnson KW Matchbox),
and I'll be on the air again, primarily 40 cw and 20 SSB. Hope to meet
some of you on the air then.
73 Bob w4aos@his.com
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:04:56 -0400
From: Roy Morgan <morgan@speckle.ncsl.nist.gov>
Subject: Re: HV Windings
At 04:40 PM 8/24/97 +0200, you wrote:
>Brian Carling wrote:
>
>> Anyone else reading this???
>
>Yes!!! Glad to see it in operation!
>
>Jan, SM5GNN
Yes! Mee, to, Brian!
Hehehe...
Jan, hello to Sweden!
Are you any where near Malmo?
My Grandmother grew up near Malmo (late 1800's).
- -- Roy Morgan/Building 820, Room 517/Gaithersburg MD 20899
(National Institute of Standards and Technology)
301-975-3254 Fax: 301-948-6213 morgan@speckle.ncsl.nist.gov --
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:11:00 -0400
From: Roy Morgan <morgan@speckle.ncsl.nist.gov>
Subject: Re: HV Windings
At 07:42 PM 8/23/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear fellow Glowbuggers,
>
>Does anybody out there have a suggestion for estimating the current carying
>capacity of the HV winding of a power transformer?
For a amateur intermittent service 600 to 800 circular mills per ampere.
For continuous service: 1000 to 1200 circular mills per ampere.
If you can't measure the guage of the wire, and CAN measure the cross
section of the core, there's a chart and a formula to figure the total
power handling of the transformer: you calculate and subtract the power
drewn by filament and other windings if any, then figure the power left.
- -- Roy Morgan/Building 820, Room 517/Gaithersburg MD 20899
(National Institute of Standards and Technology)
301-975-3254 Fax: 301-948-6213 morgan@speckle.ncsl.nist.gov --
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 08:14:03 -0500
From: Conard Murray <ws4s@InfoAve.Net>
Subject: Re: My intro!
>Hope this was short enough Conard?
>
Hi Eric!
That was perfect ... now how about the other 264 of you? Speak up!
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:20:25 -0400
From: Roy Morgan <morgan@speckle.ncsl.nist.gov>
Subject: Re: List is alive and well - INTRODUCTION
At 07:24 PM 8/13/97 -0500, Conard Murray wrote:
>Hello All,
> ... why don't all of you post a short personal introduction?
>
Ok:
Roy Morgan
K1LKY since 1959
Interests are:
Comm receivers, CW, test equipment, (and TTY if I ever get to it)
The station is:
Viking Valiant, and R-390A and RAL receivers, inverted L antenna for
160/80/40,
located near Washington, DC.
Other receivers include:
R-390 and R-389, NC-183, RAL/RAK regenerative receivers from 1937, HRO-60,
TMC GPR-90.
Other interests:
Tube hifi, large format fine art photography, antique clocks and watches.
Keep em Glowing!
Roy, K1LKY since 1959
- -- Roy Morgan/Building 820, Room 562/Gaithersburg MD 20899
(National Institute of Standards and Technology, formerly NBS)
301-975-3254 Fax: 301-948-6213 morgan@speckle.ncsl.nist.gov --
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 08:28:15 -0500 (CDT)
From: Bob Roehrig <broehrig@admin.aurora.edu>
Subject: intro
May as well add my $.02 to this. Good to see all the backgrounds on
everyone here.
I started as a novice in 1955 at age 15 (KN9EUI) with a brand new
S-38C bought from Allied Radio and a home brew 6L6 rock crusher
(similar to the QSL-40) feeding an untuned end fed wire.
That rig went into the trash can after I got a QSL from the FCC for
2nd harmonic radiation. It was replaced with a Globe Chief. Later,
after I got the General, I added a home brew push-pull/parallel
6L6 plate modulator. Later, I picked up a Ranger and a home brew
amp that had a pair of 4-125A's modulated by a pair of 211's.
Great fun on 75 and 15 fone using folded dipoles with it.
After high school, went to Vaplaraiso Tech (now defunct) and then went
into broadcasting (with 1st fone license). Worked at quite a few AM/FM
stations. About that time, I traded the Ranger in on a Pacemaker and
was using a SX-110 receiver with C.E. SSB adapter.
Uncle Sam wanted me for a few years, during the Vietnam thing, but I
was fortunate to stay state-side at a missle site in Maine and played
with radar.
Later went back to broadcasting for a couple of years, then started a 19
year career designing test equipment at Western Electric (AT&T) in the
plant where we mainly built modems. Later we got into some RF stuff like
cellphones and wireless alarms - great fun. Then the downsizing hit in
1986.
Since then, I have been at A.U. handling all the computer hardware and
phone system.
Hobby-wise, while I operate a 2 meter repeater that's been on the air
since 1970, my main fun is HF and RTTY is the favorite mode. Still
have fully operational Model 28 TTY gear. I do more building/restoring
than operating, however. Main rig is TS-930 with a Johnson Desk KW feeding
a Mosley tribander and some half slopers. Shack is full of HRO's, SP-600,
BC-348, S-38, SW-54, RBL-5, and a just acquired RCH, plus various Philco,
Zenith, and Atwater-Kent BC radios. Also have about a dozen ARC-5 type
receivers. Still looking for a SX-28. Transmitter-wise, I will soon have
the old C.E. 20-A on the air, then the new BC-459, then the home-brew job
using a pair of 2E26's in a push-push doubler circuit.
E-mail broehrig@admin.aurora.edu 73 de Bob, K9EUI
CIS: Data / Telecom Aurora University, Aurora, IL
630-844-4898 Fax 630-844-5530
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 11:06:56 +0000 (GMT)
From: Jim Glover <psykey@okcforum.org>
Subject: (Not so) short personal introduction
> I would like to see some activity on the list soon ... why don't all of you
> post a short personal introduction?
> Thanks,
> Conard, WS4S
> Glowbugs listowner
My interest in electronics goes back to when I was about 8 years old,
and discovered that it was a lot of fun to take apart things like
flashlights, and confirm that they behaved the way the book I was
reading (a basic intro to electricity for kids) seemed to suggest
they would.
When I was 10 years old, I asked for a "many projects in one" kit
for my birthday. Building the projects in that kit turned out to be
pretty thrilling, and of course I soon found myself using the kit's
basic building block (an audio amplifier) in other ways, too. All
this really whetted my appetite for more, so, I asked my parents
for walkie-talkies for Christmas. (They were in the CB band, back
then, and limited to 100 mw of output power.) They didn't get them
for me that year, but the next year, when I still wanted them, they
did.
Meanwhile, I had bought a couple of broadcast receivers at garage
sales. One of them turned out to be very disappointing. It was
an early transistor unit, and barely functioned at all. I managed
to couple an antenna to it by wrapping a few turns of wire around
the loop on its back panel, which tremendously improved its
performance. (...my first antenna experimentation!) The next
one I got my hands on was a very nice one (AM and FM bands), and
my newly-acquired skill at providing an antenna helped it do a
good job of pulling in AM broadcast signals from all over the
country. I stayed awake late many nights listening to radio
stations from all over. ...I was hooked!
I guess I was about 14 years old when I found an old shortwave
receiver (Zenith Trans-Oceanic Portable--I'm sure some of you
are familiar!) at yet another garage sale. With this one, I got
my first introduction to the fickle finger of propogation,
puzzling at length over why the bands that were dead at one
time, had the best signals around, at other times.
And then there was the time when my girlfriend was going to be
going on vacation with her parents, at the same time my family
was going to visit my grandparents. My girlfriend's destination
was Nashville, and they planned to attend the Grand Ole Opry one
evening while there. I knew that the Grand Ole Opry was
broadcast live, so I was eager to take my trusty old Zenith
Trans-Oceanic Portable along, and listen to that particular
broadcast. The night before we were to leave, I was about to
give it one final test before packing it to leave, and
discovered that it wasn't working! Undaunted by lack of a
circuit diagram, I got out my VOM and screwdrivers, and
proceeded to have a look. The problem turned out to be easy
enough to spot; a 10-watt resistor in the power supply had
bitten the dust. One lead had separated from the resistor,
leaving behind a charred, discolored area. I knew that for the
resistor to eventually burn itself out that way, it probably
was handling enough current that it needed to have that full
10-W capacity. And of course, I had no spare 10-watt
resistors in the house! The largest I had, was a 2-watter (and
that wasn't the correct value, anyway). So, after puzzling
over it a bit, I got out my book of electronics formulae, and
started calculating the resistance and power-handling capabilities
of various configurations of the resistors that I had in my
junk-box. A few hours later, I was making the finishing touches
with my soldering gun, and had a huge network of between 1 and
2 dozen resitors, which meandered all across the (thankfully!)
spacious interior of the chassis, in a huge oval, and back to
the other end where the original 10-watter had been soldered
into the circuit. And hey...it worked beautifully!
(Note: To fully appreciate this feat, note that I not only
had to come up with a configuration that would supply the
required resistance across its endpoints, but, each time I
did that, I had to calculate the power dissipated by each
resistor in the network, and keep making adjustments in
the network design until everything worked out. Not bad for
a 15-yr old kid!)
I continued the SWL activities, and when I was 17 (in 1976),
met a classmate who was a ham. He gave me the pointers I
needed to get licensed. Meanwhile, I spent many nights at
his house, learning the ropes on his HW-101. When I went
to get my license, I managed to pass the 5-wpm code only.
(This was the old days, when you had to appear at an FCC
office, which in my case, meant waiting for one of the
quarterly visits they paid to field offices...a 2-hour
drive from where I lived...and then taking the test under
the solemn, almost scornful watching eye of an FCC official.)
So...after a few weeks of waiting, I got my technician license
in the mail, and began trying to get some equipment. I ended
up with a nice Navy-surplus regenerative receiver from the
WW II era, but never managed to get my hands on a good
transmitter.
After I went to Louisiana Tech University the next year, my
friend loaned me his HW-101, which I used in the apartment
I was living in, with a hidden random-length wire under the
eaves. Not very optimal...but I did manage to get my code
speed up to 13 wpm, and go for my advanced class license.
About that time, my friend moved away, and took his HW-101
with him.
I used the Louisiana Tech University club station (W5HGT
...and I suppose that anyone on the list who used to hang
out on 80M in the norther Louisiana/southern Arkansas
region, is probably chanting "Home Grown Tomatoes" now!)
when I could find time to make the 15-20 minute trek over
to the dormitory where it was housed, and back, for a few
years after that.
Since then, I've been mostly inactive except for an
occassional sprint on VHF. It just always seemed that life
had too many competing demands for resources like time and
money, for me to be able to be much of a ham.
Well, lately, I've managed to turn that around. I found
an HW-101 at a hamfest a few weeks ago, and now that I have
an HF station on the air, and have made some contacts, I'm
beginning to think about building some home-built gear for
the 30M band. But first, I'll have to re-gain my skills
with basic cicuit-building.
I'm having as much fun with this stuff this time around,
as I did when I was a kid!
Well, Conrad said "short" introduction... oops! :)
73,
Jim WB5UDE
End of glowbugs V1 #95
**********************
Created by Steve Modena, AB4EL
Comments and suggestions to modena@SunSITE.unc.edu