On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 10:41 AM, Guy Olinger K2AV <[email protected]>wrote:
> ...In the old days...a reason those guys always sounded so loud, and for > how heavy that rig > was. > Ah yes. The guy who got me into ham radio, Mel W0AJU, had a fantastic home-brew rig that made a kid's eyes pop out. A pair of huge WW2 surplus triodes in push-pull, modulated by a pair of 4-250a tetrodes. The whole thing was in a 7-foot rack, because every part was surplus from the military or broadcast or (in the case of the power transformer) the local power company. Altogether, that rack must have weighed 400 pounds. The final plates glowed a nice yellow-red, and when he talked, the plates in the modulator amp glowed a bright cherry red in time with the audio. His home-made 20M yagi (coupled to the final by a swinging link) was turned by a prop-pitch motor from a B-29 and the direction indicator was a string that wrapped around the mast and ran into the basement shack via a bunch of pulleys; it had a stick knotted to it that went up and down as the antenna turned, and there was a piece of paper stuck to a support column that had NEWSN written on it in pencil. He was on the DX honor roll as were my other teen idols, the DX gurus of the local club. In those days it took about 225 or so, I think. > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
