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ain!

oes I

emmunca or
or

mcs!

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Here is no micro-power peanut whi stle ! An input

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with great potential '" "one-and- a- quartermeters" ... 220-225 megacyc les.
This new model featu r es a t riple-conversi on
receiver whi ch is con tinuously tun able ove r the
frequency range of 219.7 to 225.3 meso In order

to comply with DeOM re quirements. add it ional pr ovision is made for spot fr equency reception on on e

crystal con trolled freq uency. Receiver sensitivity


is 1 microvolt for 10 db signal-pl us-noise to noi se
ratio. Noi se figure of 35 db is excepti onal for
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Transmitter is crystal controlled, offers choice of


six frequencie s. (Required crystals are within the
range of 8.148 to 8.333 mcs.l Power input to PA
is 20 watts (power outp ut approximate ly 10 watts),
amplitude modu lated by p.p 6805's opera ting in
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All the many convenient features for fi xed and
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73 MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 1961

MOD. SX140
HALUKIT
RECEIVER

MOD. HT40
HALUKIT
TRANSMITTER

Features: Covers all


bands, 80 th rough 6

meters ; tuni ng ratio,

Band Coverage: 80, 40, 20, 15, 10 a nd 6 meters


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799 5
HT-40 wired and. tested 99 95

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SXl40 Kit complete with tubes

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VersatUe MinIature Transformer


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Amateur net

MAIL ORDERS PROMPTLY PROCESSED


SAME DAY SHIPM~NT FRQM STOCK

73

Magazine

February, 1961
Vol. I, No. 5

1379 East 15th Street


Brooklyn 30, N. Y.

Table of Contents
Rolling Your Own

Jim Kyle K5JKX/6

1I

We're determ ine d that yo u' re going to b u il d somethi ng.

Amplifier for Varicap Modulator

Robert Baird W7CSD

16

J. Kyle K5JKXj6

17

Ray Fulton K6BP

18

20

Kyle K5JKXj6

22

Allie C. Peed K2DHA

24

26

Mo r!:' gain (or the m od u la to r in our Oc t ob e r issue.

World's Simplest Phone Patch


A ve r a g e const r-uct fo n ti me: five m in u t es.

Two Meter Pip-Squeak

Comp lete phone rig u sing onl y t hree IlCX 8 ' s .

Squawk

Ken Cole W71DF

Guaranteed Houser . W e s ho u ld n eedle Ken in t o wr-iting- m ore lik e th is.

Six Meter Converler .. .


F o r the car . . . operates with o nly 12 volts on t h e plat(,!I.

Heath Phone Patch

H ea t h d oes it ng-ai n , W orks fin e fo r SSB a lso . H ey H ea t h, whe r e'w th e alb?

Life Insurance for Transistors

,"

Roy McCarthy K6EAW

T h ese little rascals a r e d e li c a t e , s o w a tc h yo ur s t ep.

Beat Generation

. . . . . . . . . .. '" .. Staff

. ... .. .. ..

28

Bhe t echnica l ar tic le o n SSB a nd C W det ectors .

Updating the Absorption Wavemeter

Edward Noll W3FQJ

34

K5JKXj6

35

36

38

R eal hand y p iece o f test gear, and easy to knock roaether.

Interference Chas er

E a s y w ay of !tetting aud io b r ea k-rhru out o r TV sets a nd t h i ngs.

Gettinq the Most Out of Your Mobile Whip


H ow to make t he best o f a rnlsernh!e s it u a t io n:

Charles Spitz W4API


It

How Modern is the VF07

shor-t ve r ti cil I a n t e n n a .

Howard Pyle W70E

N ot very.

EICO Grid Dip Oscillator

Don Smith W3UZN .

42

O ur A s socia t e Jo::'li t o r is stif l builtlinll up k its and liking ' em .

Power for the Pro

James Kyle K5JKXj6

44

Roy Pafenb erg

46

56

Super-Pro owners. take n ot e .

Differential Switching

U Sillll polar r e lays fo r s e nstt t ve awitc hin g- n t d ifferent c u rre nt leve! a .

Propaqation Charls
Wha t time to whe re on w hat b an d s

Dave Brown K21GY


prohab ly .

Stall:

Misc.:
Feble c f C onte nts
_
Editori al: W 2NSO
Keeping pe oels fr om bei ng scretc hed
Mount ing feet
H a m She eks . . ,
'"
" ..,
'
Nibbling t ool
_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
letters t o the Editor
Flying H e ms
,
'"
AF MARS Tech Net Sched ule s
C ryst al Grind ing Powder
C oil D<'It<'l for December Cec ectt v Mete r
List of Maritime Mo b i!e Statio ns
Acc urat e Crystalliza ti on
Subscripti o n Deoortm e nt
Other H e m Publi cat ion s

3
6
33
40
43
51
53
54
57
57
59
59
59
58
61

ed it or-publisher
publ ication s mane qe r

Wayn e Gre en W 2N SD
David

Fish

essocle te editor

Jim Kyle K5JKX /6

assoc iat e editor

Don Smith W3UZN

a ssoci ate edit or

Ma rvin Lipton VE3DQX

sales re p resen t a tive

J im Morrissett W A6EXU

sales repre sentative

.Jee k Gu+t:eit W 2 l ZX

subsc ript io ns . . Importa nt Ann oun cem ent C oming Soon


Tran sportati on

Pcrsche

COVER: C irc uit d ia gra m o f the Ce ntral 200V tr"nsmitter. We fi na lly got <'I n "dvert ise d prod uct on the co... er!

FEBRUAR Y 1961

13 MAGAZINE

"H,

NfJW
AVAIIA8IE/

0"

..------

MOBILETTE 61, International 's new improved a ll transisto r , crystal controlled con verter provides a "quick and easy" way to convert yo u r car
radio for shor t wave r eception. MOBILETTE 61 units cover a specifi c band
of frequencies providing a ONE MEGACYCLE tuning r ange. Mobilette
units are miniature size and quickly interchangeable.

Check t hese all New fea tu res .. . New and improved circu it for increased
gain ... New internal jumper for po sitive and negative gro u nds . . . New
RF a mplifier , mixer/oscillator . . . New separate input for broadcast and
sho r t wave antennas .. . Mounting bracket for under dash installati on.
MOBILETTE 61 is available in a wide choice of frequencies covering t he
Amateur bands 75 through 6 m eters, Citizens band. Civ il Air P at rol low
band frequencies, WWV time and frequency standar ds . Any frequency in
the range 2 MC to 50 MC available on special order.':'
4

73 M AGAZINE

FEBRUARY 1961

. . with improved circuit

for mobile short wave reception

Designed for 12 vdc , MOBILETTE 61 will operate on 6 vdc a t r educed


ou tpu t. P ower connector plugs into cigarette lighter socket. .
Mobilette 61 units cover these short wave frequencie s.
Frequency

Cata log No .

630 - 110
630- 111
630 - 112
630 - 11 3
630 - 11 4
630 - 115
630 - 116
630-117
630 - 118
630 - 119

6 mete rs (Amat eur) 50 - 51 MC


10 mete rs (Amateur) 28.5 - 29.5 MC
11 meters (Citizens) 26.9 - 27.3 MC
15 meters (Amateur) 21 - 21.6 MC
20 meters (Amateur) 14 - 14.4 MC
15 MC
(WWV)
40 mete rs (Amate ur) 7 - 7.4 MC
75 meters (Amateu r) 3.8 - 4.0 MC
10 MC
(WWV)
CAP
(Low Band)
Spec ial Frequ encies 2 MC - 50 MC

: MOBILETTE 61 VHF
:
VHF fr equencies for Aircraft , 1081 35 me ;
Ama teu r and Civil Air Patrol, 144148 me:
:

Two- Way Commu nic ations , 150170 me.


Specia l VHF tra nsistors in both RF amplifi er and mixer circ uits.

$49 .50

Complete

Cat. No.
630 - 120
630 12 1

__

VHF Special 100 to 170 me


VHF Special 54 t o 100 me

See the Mobilette 61 at your d ealer today !

Complete, ready to plug in and operate . . . . only $22.95


*Speci,t! [requencies 2 Me -50 i\ IC
OIl/y $25 .9 5
FEBRUARY 196 1

73 MAGAZINE

... d e W2NSD
Bootlegging
Cheating is a tried and proven method of
getting things that you don't want to bother
to work for, so why should I make a big fu ss
because a few of the guys "fix up" a Technician test for someone? \ Vh a t 's t he ha rm? \Vho
does it a ct uall y hur t ? Isn't it bet te r to forget
about it and not wash our dirty linen in public?
Nuts! If you'd give it a little thought you'd
see what a terrible long range effect thi s creeping prostitution of our hobby will have.
H a ve you ever stopped to think what it is
that makes ham radio so different from every
other hobby ? After you get through with a
lot of hemming a nd hawing you will recognize
that it is the frater na l spirit that makes it
so enjoyable. And where does this spirit come
from? I believe that it ste rn s from a common
love of radio . Perhaps "love" is a bit strong
for you, but how e lse can you describe the
driving force that makes you s pend a good
po rtion of your li fe in such a highly techn ical
pu r suit ?
I t takes "love" to keep you up all night
working DX or to get you to brave high winds
and freezing snow to operate from a mountaintop during a V HF contest. It takes "love" to
send 2000 messages a month over the nets.
H ow else do you explai n the thousands of unbelievable feats that make up am a teur h istor y
every month ?
\Vhen you meet someone el se who sh a r es
your love you feel a rapport . . . we call it
"fraternity:' After experiencing this a few
hundred times we get conditioned to accepting all amateurs a s members of our fraternity.
\ Ve acce pt them immediately as friends .
But what about the chap who doesn't h a ve
this love? H ow do we f eel when we meet someone who ha s never cared enough about our
hobby to learn the basics? We try to experi ence the u sual rapport and we meet a cold
rebuff. I wa s so shocked the first time that I
ran into this in quantity that I didn't know
what had happened . I felt shattered. \ Vh a t ha d
ha ppen ed to ha m radio ? I was among st rangers.
As you know, I get to almost every la r ge
ham fest and convention that is put on. [ go
to sell subscri pt ions, to talk with as many
people a s possible and thu s get ideas for the
magazine, to promote more good art icles, etc.
After seve r a l years of thi s I ha ve a pretty
good idea what it feel s like to talk and be with
fellow hams.
T he n recently I went to a VH F picnic. T her e
I was r udely introduced to a new breed of
"ham," the sm ir king Technician who arrogantly admits that he doesn't know anything about
6

73 MAGAZINE

radio and doesn't want to know anything. H e


doesn't read the ham magazines because they
are all too technical for him .
Somehow or other we have gotte n a few
am a teurs int o our hobby who have been g iving these cha ps t heir lice nses . I mean g i v 1'n g,
not adm instering. E very time this happe ns we
t urn loose a monster in our hobby who will
permanently break for many amateurs the
delicate rapport that makes our hobby so different.
\ Vh a t 's to be done? For one thi ng you can
tak e t he bull by t he h orns when you run into
a n obvious bootlegge r who has cheated t o get
a t icket. A note to t he local F CC office suggesting that t his joker be called in for a supervised test will probably bring a letter requesting him to come in in thirty days for retesting.
Then he will have to buckle down a nd learn
the necessaries or be exposed.
I'd like t o see some cha nges in our r egul a tions w hich woul d make thi s situation more
u nlikely. F or insta nce, if it were required t hat
t hree licensed amateurs be pre se nt for the
exam there would be only a small fraction of
the present difficulty. This would, in general,
encourage clubs to give license exams a nd
would help build u p club act ivity. Bootleg
T ech ni cia ns don't go in much fo r clubs, it's too
easy to get fou nd out t hat way.
A not her big step forward would be a drastic
cut in that 30 day grace period that t he FCC
allows s uspected cheaters, plus revocation of
the license of the amateur who signed the test.
Lest there be a genera l rustl ing among t he
Technician r anks, let me point out that all
this is a bout bootleg T ech s, n ot honest ones.
I have the g reatest ad m ir ation f or t he job of
develop ing the VH F and U HF frequencies
that is being done by our Tech licensees.

Survey
W ell , the F ea r less S urvey is now fou r
mo nths old and we ha ven 't lost a sc r image yet .
Every month since t he inception of 73 we have
had more pages of t echnical and consruetion
articles than eit he r of th e other two ham magaz ines. Let's review th e box score.
73 Jlagaz;n e Brand X
October 1960... .,16 pages 37 pages
November 1960. 38 pag-es
331)a~eS
December 1960. 33 pa ge s
28 pages
January 1961.. . 39 page"
35 pag-es

Brand Y
26 pages
35 pages
23 pages
30 pages

We 've proven our point, so we'll sh ut up


about the whole thing for a while.
FEBRUARY 1961

ANNOUNCES

THE NEW

200"V"
BROAD-BAND
Exci te r-fro n sm itter
Amateur net . . .. $ 7

NEW FEATURES IN THE 200V

95

NEW! Silicon rectifier power supply. Better r-egulation. Less heat.


Higher voltage. 200 watts PEP input on SSB.
NEW! Frame grid (6EH7-6EJ7) mixers. Extremely high gainLess
heat. Unwanted mixer products down in excess of 50 DB.
NEW! Temperature compensated cry sta l oscillator circuits for extrem e, long term stability.
NEW! Increased mike pre-amplifier gain. Compensates (or weak
voices or low output microphones.
NEW! Smooth as silk two speed tuning knob with 5 KC per turn
vernier tuning ratio.

PLUS
THESE
ORIGINAL
FEATURES

THERE IS
NOTRING
FINER THAN
THE

200V

COMPLETELY BROAD-BANDED. You tune only the VFO . Inherently matches output impedances of 50-72 ohms.
COMPLETE BAND COVERAGE. ALL of the 80-40-20-15-10 meter
bands , plus generous overlap and position for extr a band.
INPUT 175 watts on CW

FSK and PM . 100 watts on AM .

"TAILORED " audio filter-Audio limiter.


ADJUSTABLE POWER OUTPUT c ont rol. 2" MONITORING SCOPE.
CALIBRATION ACCURACY better than I KC.
UNWANTED SIDEBAND SUPPRESSION 50 DB.
CARRIER SUPPRESSION at least 50 DB.
HARMONICS down in excess of 50 DB .
Third order DISTORTION PRODUCTS down in excess of
40 DB.
EASIER TO OPERATE THAN EVER I Choice of USB-LSB-AM-PM
CW-FSK at the flip of a switch. Perfected VOX. PTT, CW breakin
4 ways to key.

Available soon - write for literature.

FEBRUARY 1961

73 MAGAZINE

Phoenix in May
The P hoeni xia ns are hosti ng a major gathering of the clan th is Ma y. The event will be
held under the formal name of the Southwestern Division ARRL Convention. No wag-on
wheel (see photo) will be left unturned to
make this an outsta nd ing weeken d. Of course
all will not be joy and sunshine .. . the a ng r y
editor of 73 will be there just in case any nonsubscribers dare to s how their faces.

SHORTWAVE PROPAGATION b y Stanley L ein woll


(Radio Fref/uency & P ropaga t w n Mgr.-Radw Free

Europe) . .Or special interest. to these concerned w it.h


radiocommunlcaUons.Thisreview in QSTt May 1960)
sums up the book's vital Interest to all amateurs:
" written at jut the right kvel [or the amateur
interested in ionospheric propagation
.
There ia background material-neceasary tor an
understanding oj the subject-<ln th e ionollphere, on
radio 1vavell, on lIunllpot8 and th e sunspot cllde,'all
treated in language t hat is easy to jollow. 'Phe section on ionosphere measurements introduces t he
idea./f that are important to the detailed 1>lnderstand~
ing oj ionospheric propagation, leading to the U3e
of ionospheric chart. and prediction. for the determination oj maximum lUIable [requenciee and optifilum working jrequencies. T he calculation procedure for dis tances shorter than the maximum oneIwp , generally neglected in amateur litera ture, is
also included.
OJ . pecial intered to QST reader. are chGptn. ox
amateur contribution. to knowleage of teal'e propagation and a forecast-advanced with admitted caution!-.of probable amateur-band t"onditions during
the coming sunspot cycle. Throughout the boo k t he
reader is introduced to various interesting aspects
of propagation: one-way skip, for example, scatter, meteors, auroral effects - all t he thin g. t hat
ham. continually encounter in everyday operation.
It WQuld be Iulrd to find a qve.tiox about propagatiox in the 3 -jQ !ole. regWx - at lead the t Jl pe oj
question that an amateur would a.k-that isx't co","
ered !Iolllell'here in this book, even i j only (oj neee..ity) by the stat em ent that the .ans wer hasn 't vee
been diBcovered." #231, $3.90.

..-.....
U

o
.--

--.-.
-o

-.-
..
.....
.-.
-..
..

Mrs. S idne y Peebl es K7NO J of Phoenix, Arlzon a , on her way t o th e fabul ous Convention
in Ph o enix on Ma y 26, 1961 . N ote C ommunicator in t he Eng lish G o v e ~ n eS5 C a rt wit h he r

HOW 10 USE GRID-DIP OSCILLATORS by R ufu.


P . Turner K6A l . T he fint book ever d evoted entirely to &rid-dip oscillators telia you how to eonI!truct and use this ver, versatile I n strum~nt wit.b
best posaible results. It. I S applicable to a ll kinds of
radio receivers a nd tra nsmitters, a lso to t elevision
recei vers. The griddi p oscillator Is a tzcubleshootInlt device -an adjusting device-a freq u ~nc Y m~aa
u ring devic~ - applicable to circuits and componen ts
in circuila - to enten nes: also a .ia-nal sou ree of
variable f requency, #245, $2.50

December Feedback

T he votes are in for December and the big


o
winner is a stranger to our pages: Jim Kyle
K5JKX /6. Jim al so made third place with
his second article. Quite a performance! ' Vhen
GET YOUR COMMERCIAL
you consider t hat he won first place in the
TICKET EASIER WITH. ..
October 73, second pl ace in November (he later
,Kaufman'8
pulled into first place, but the votes had been
RADIO OPERATOR'S LICENSE
tallied and the results printed) and is doing
_
Q AND A MANUAL
g No w a voilab le 6th edi tion
very well in the January issue with his "Lost
c
u p t o th e m inute
in a Tunnel" article, you can s e e that he is rid~ l~c~~~~~e~~t~~~ FCC
ing high. Second place in December, by only
.I:
Covers element. 1 thru 8.
one vote, was the ZLI AAX L ow N oi se Two
6
The onltf book with eemplete
Meter Converter. All articles in the issue r-e..
discussio n o f .n, wen to every
teeh nleal questio n i n t he FCC Study Guide.
ceived votes in the fir st five places! K8ERV's
h
Ma kes it very eaty to a nswer multiple e hoiee
Capacity Meter came in fourth and 'V3H IX's
.I:
questions. #ISO,cloth. S7 .10
..
Th el . books are o W'o iJoble a t yo ur e l.ctro nia porlJ d idr ib.
220 me Transistorized Converter right be-=
utor, o r o rd.r d ir.c' by ul in g co upon.
h ind it in fifth place. All were very close to30day guarantee - - - - - - - - - - gether though a nd a few votes wou ld h a ve
:(. '
John F, Rider Publisher, Inc.
B-2 : changed th ings completely. How about your
116 West 14th Street
: vote for this issue? See page 51.

.:3----r.-:
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Enclosed Is S

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#231, $3.90. 0 #245 , $2.50. 0 .#'130, $7.10.
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I b~k!. If you or. no' fully l olilfied, r. ' urn Ih.~ 10 UI

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T hose of you whose literary hor izons extend a shade beyond the ham magazines may
Ih
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.
I ave notice ads In many popular magazines
I by the Hallicrafter's Company offering a rec: ord about short wave listening for 25.

C"
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73 MAGAZI NE

Short Wave Listening

tc o n rm ue d o n pa ge 491

FEBRUARY 1961

"

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FE8RUARY I ~b'

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73 MAGAZIN E

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10

73 MAGAZINE

FEBRUA RY 1961

A ha nd y g uide to ha ppy home brewing

Rolling Your Own


O YO U'D like to bu ild all you r own eq u ip ment,
bu t you can 't find anythi ng in the book s or
magazines which fit s your need s.
Ever think of designing your ow n ?
Ma ybe you've entertained the id ea, a nd deci de d it t ook a f ew engineer ing degrees as w ell
a s a com plete tec hnical libr a r y a nd wellequ ipped test laboratory.
If that's the sit ua t ion , hitch up a chair,
you've got a s u r p r- ise co mi ng.

wh ile !" a nd you know every bi t of your gear


came right out of your brain.
If thi s feeling isn't enough, t her e's always a
chance of making a buck. w a yn e and the editors of the other radio magazines a re always
in need of good , origi na l cons t ruction articles.
So let's take a look at t his bu si ne ss of rolling- your own. T o s tar t with , w hat do you
need?
You can g et a s ma ny answers to that qu es-

Jim Kyle K5JKX/6


1851 Stanford Ave .
Santa Susana , Ce tll.

T he p eo ple who design rigs fe atured her eand elsewhere-aren 't h igh-pa id engineers.
Mos t of them are hams just like you . Design ing any piece of radio equipment fr om a cr ys tal set to a kilowatt sideba nd r ig, is a sim ple
p r ocess whe n you break it dow n to f undamental s.
And by doing it yourself, all the way, you 'll
get more out of hamming. There's a s pecia l
feeling you g et when the fellow at the other
end tells you , " Best sig na l I' ve heard for a
FEBRUA RY 196 1

tion a s there a re amateur des igne r s , but m y


a nswer is th is : a ream of scr atch paper, a
dozen long, sh a r p pencils, a set of tu be charts,
and an inventor)' of your junk box.
Sure, there are other th ings which will make
it a little ea sier. If you ha ve a good-sized t ech n ica l library, or draftin g eq ui pme nt , or a slide
ru le, and know how to u se them, bring th em
a lo ng. But you don't really have to have them .
The first step is to take pencil an d paper a nd
li st the five bas ic th ings about the piece of
73 MAGAZINE

II

gear you're g oing to design. You ca n unplu g


the solder ing g un , in cidentally, f or t his is a
leng t hy pr ocess-b ut it's the most important
step of all.
These five basics are : Purpose, power, cost,
size and features. They determine everythi ng
which follows.
Under purp ose list exactly what you want
t he fi n ished item t o do. At this poin t, never
mind if it sounds impractical. You never know
what's practical and what isn't, and at th is
stage you're drawing up the exact specifications you're going to work toward.
The purpose will hel p determine th e power ,
and so will the cost. Th is is f r equently a di ffi cul t item to decide on-it may hel p to remember that in case of transmitters, a kilowatt is
only 10 decibels more powerful t han a 100watter, and only 20 db above a l O-wat t rig.
In S-u nits this fi gu r es out to less than 4 Spoints- a nd band cond itions in oper a t ion can
eas ily ma ke t hat d ifference sma ller.

Rear view of th e rig shows contr ol circ uit connection s a nd litt le -used co ntrols. Knobs protruding through shie lding a re, fr om left. b-mete r
fina l t uning. e-meter pi-net loadi ng cepe eiter,
and at right, MARS fi na l tuning. MAR S pi-net
cap acitor is trimmer set fr om under ch assis.
Plug et left conn ects t o mcduletcr and p ower
supp ly. Phono ja d s at bottom are to rec eivers.
Coa x connectors a re for a ntennas . Three AC
sockets a t right are receiver muting . t o p ; control li ne (for accessories) a nd control switch,
b ottom. Ben e ath fus e plug is auxili ary 115volt outlet for receiv er, et c. Shie ld cover is
norm al ly button ed d own as at right; left was
loosen ed for internal photos.

Power sources also fall into this head ing.


There are three basic types : ae li ne, storage
battery, and dry cells. Obviously no one wiII
t ry to r un a kilowa tt f rom dry cells, but caref ul cons ide rat ion of ava ilable power In rela tion
to the power output you want is necessary in
every case. After all, kilowatt-hours cost
12

7J MAGAZIN E

money, too , even if you're strictly in fixed oper ati on.


Cost is virtually self-expla natory. The j unk
box can help here, as can scrounging f rom fellow hams. But it's well to put down on paper
exactly how much you're will ing to spend on
t hi s piece of equ ipment. This h elps in case you
have to bu y some special p art to get the perf ormance you want. And at thi s stage, not h ing
is de finite yet.
Size is something to think about, too. You
can pick a cabinet and try to stuff everything
ins ide, or you can figure out the circuit and
then discover you've built a " Mack truck portable." A nd in case of mobile gear, somet imes
the space ava ilable deter mines all the rest of
the circu it.
Most difficult of the basics to decide on is
"features." T h is includes consideration of VF O
or crystal control, VOX operation, d iffer ential
k eying, all t he li ttle " extras" which someti mes
add t o con ven ien ce of opera tion a nd sometimes
are nothing but a nu isan ce. The sky's the
limit, but it helps to take a few days and be
certain you want what you want before )'OU
waste time go ing a head.
About he re is a good pla ce t o g ive you an
exa mp le f ro m my own ex pe ri ence, showing how
to list the basic items.
I wa nted a six-meter rig which would also
operate on air force l\IARS frequencies, and
since at t he time I held a T echn ician license
I had no special use f or the lower ham bands.
Purpose of the unit was defin ed as : operat ion f rom 50-54 me. a nd on spot freque ncy of
4.4175 me. with enough power to g ive reliable
communication at all times.
Power was a question. Since I had a good
supply of 6146 tubes, t hey were certai n choice.
At thi s stage, I chose to use two in the fi nal
stage for a no minal 100 ~ w a t t power.
Cost was simple. " As small as possible."
However , I was prepared to spend up to $100
on the rig if necessary.
Size, also, was to be as small as poss ible
within r eason. I had a seven- inch openi ng on
my relay p anel, and t ook a seven-inch relay
panel as the t arget to shoot for.
F eat ur es was the point where I went to town .
I chose first simplified controls with broadba nd t uned circu its. Ba ndswit ch ing between
MARS an d VHF. Self-conta ined crystal bank.
P ower selection. Operation on phon e only.
\Vit h these poin t s li sted, I mulled the idea
over for several weeks, taking every opportunity to doodle out new ways of achieving the
alms.
T he fir st ma jor change was to recognize t hat
100 watts was on ly 3 db bette r than 50 watts,
and cut down t o a single tube fina l. This was
for purposes of easier operation, by eliminating poss ible unbalance problems and high
FEBR UARY 191> 1

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capacities in the VHF stage, and for Iower cost


due to the reduction in power supply requ irements.
A not h er feature added was a trick bandswitching circuit, but we're getting ahead of
ourselves
.
Aft er yo u 've thought over yo ur s pecificat ions for a while, making whatever cha nges
you want to (it's a lot easier now than it is
when you get to the metal-worki ng stage) it's
t ime to start d r awi ng diag r a ms.
Any of the recognized ham radio h a ndb ooks
has enough material on basic circuits to get
you started, so I won't repeat that here. A
point I've fou nd h elpful in sectionalizing th e
design and making it easy in all respects is
to draw a "box diagram" of the unit at this
stage.
The box dia g r am is sim ply a dra wing w ith
a "box" for each stage of the u nit, and each
box labeled with what that stage is supposed
to do.
In d r a wing t he box, it's h elpful to sta rt back
from the output stage to determine requirements as you go.
H er e's where the tube charts come in ha ndy.
P ick you r ou tput t ubes to fit you r p ower requirements, then check to find out how much
power they take to drive them properly. Most
charts give t his information d ir ectly in watts.
R emember, t hough, th at these wa tt s have t o
get to the grid. To allow for inevit able losses,
it's a good idea to have at least five times that
much power available from the d river stage at
low f requencies, an d at lea st 10 times as m uch
at V H F,

FOBRUARY 196 I

This requirement tells you what tubes are


suitable for drivers. You keep u p the process
fo r two or three stages u nt il yo u're back to the
osc ill ator, a nd t hat's a d iffer en t proble m.
Now, with your box diagram and your tube
charts, is t he right time to design the power
sup ply. Be sure not to exceed t ube ratings u nless you 're a milliona ire a nd ca n a ffor d to replace the bottles every five seconds. I once
knew a fellow who got 500 watts out of a 6L6,
he clai med, but the tube d idn 't last through
the "C" of a short "CQ."
At this stage, you have a collection of boxes
drawn with labels r-a nging' from "oscillator"
to " fina l", but no circu it s fo r a ny of t hem.
Blendi ng t he handbook basic circu its is easy.
now, much more so than the customary method
of taki ng "this" from one publ ished r ig and
"that" fr om a nother , then hop ing they'll wo rk
together.
All you have to do is work from the antenna
back, picking the circuit you want for each
stage. Pi-network or li nk coupli ng ; ca pacity
coupled drivers or u ntuned links ; all of t hese
choices are up to you, based on the information
in the handbooks a nd the purposes you have
in m in d.
T he important t hing is t hat with power r equirements and tube ratings in mind, you've
al ready g uaranteed the thi ng ha s an even
chance of work ing right t he fi r st t ime arou nd.
And, barring wiri ng mistakes, you know you're
not going to blow anything up.
Getting back to my example, the box di agram of this r ig is shown in Fig . 3. Th is shows
the trick bandswitching I me ntioned a while

73 MAGAZINE

13

-----

51

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back-usi ng two se pa r a te rf sect ions w it h a ll


swi tchi ng bein g done in power leads , with on ly
one power s upply a nd modulator.
T his box diagram led to the detailed sch ematic, F ig. 4. Act ua ll y, in the control circuit
wiri ng the box is easier to follow.
W it h 61 46'5 decid ed upon f or t h e output
st ages, as determ in ed ea r lier , t ube choi ces
boiled down to dri ver s . T he tube books showed
sever a l would work, but 5763'5 were chosen
since they had good characteristics throughout
t he freq uency r ange a nd cou ld pr ovide a good
sa fety factor of dri ve.
The mod ula tor a nd power su pply were left
in box form, since a sea r ch of my library
turned up already-published circuits for them
wh ich exactly fitted my needs.
The modulat or is f rom the 1957 ARRL handbook, whil e the power su pply is f r om Edit ors
a nd En g in ee rs Radio H and book . 14th edition
(l ater published in GE H a m News, vol. 12,
no. 5.)

A cou ple of ti ps may hel p out in the bu sin ess


of put ting all the com ponent st ag es toget her
on paper.
T he fi r st is the fam ou s Fudge Factor , so
ably di ssected by anoth er 73 author , J ohn
Cam pbell J r. , \V2ZGU, in the pages of h is ow n
m agazi ne. It basically consists of maki ng a llowa nces f r om t heor et ical da ta to fit the know n
sit ua t ion, or in other word s, make the closest
thing you have available do to st a r t with .
The secon d is this : mathematics formulas
do n't ha ve to be d ifficult. Some of t he handbooks fa irl y br istle wi t h com plic a t ed-look ing
a lgebrai c equations , a pparently de signed to
sca r e a way everyone except graduate eng ineer s.
Bu t if you take a close look , )'O U ca n u su all y
find a t able somewhere nearby in wh ich all t he
values h a ve been wor ked out closely enough
that the Fudge Factor ca n take over .
A nd a s a la st resort, you can always check
published circuits until you find one sim ila r ,

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PC-3 tu rns #20 ti nned on 47n lw. Re sistor
L1- 1 8turn s # 20 on Nati on al XR-50 fo rm, wou nd t o
fil l fo rm
l2-IO turns # 20. 16 T.P.! , Va" di am eter (AIR DUX)
L3-b turns # 4 bare wound a ro und 6F6. spa ced wi re
di am eter
l 4-Srug-tuned coil from SCR522 Re ceiver

L5-A;,d" #2007A ( 18 uh)

14

73 MAGAZINE

FEBRUA RY 1961

and take the values shown there as sta r t ing


points for cut and try work.
If you've been following direct ions closely
to t his point, t he ream of paper you st a r ted
with s hou ld be gon e by n ow, a n d the dozen
long, sha r p pen cil s s ho uld no w be worn and
nubby stubs. All your acquaintances will be
referr ing to you a s " t hat fe llow who 's mumbling all the time," a s well.
B ut cheer up. You're close to the ' culmination. Because you now h a ve a semi - fi nal
schema t ic drawn for t hat r ig you wan t .
One more ste p, and you're ready to dive
for the junk box . T h at ste p is th is. Take your
schema t ic, st u dy it ca re f ull y. You m ight eve n
memorize it , if you haven't already done so.
Make absolutely certain that it does what you
wa nt it to do-ass um ing it 's going to work at
a ll when you wire it up .
.,
I n all probability, you'll find several points
you wa nt to change. Make those changes, and
draw a final wor king plan.
Now to the junk box. Everybody ha s a differ ent approach to a building j ob, but I like
to have every part, down to n ut s , wa shers,
and tie poi nt lugs in hand before I st a r t. I
get them all together in a coffee can, then begin s the real labor part of the operat ion.
You st ill don 't need any fan cy equipment
at thi s st age, but of course, the more of it you
have, the easier it can be.
The only absolutely necessary tools are a
pair of wire-cutters, a ha cksaw, a drill, a nd a
solde r ing iron. The on ly pi ece of t est equipment you ca n't get along without is a volt -ohmmiIli a meter of some sort, and th is ca n be a
jury-rigged affair.
The ubiquitou s grid -dipper comes in handy,
sure, but you can build many a tran smitter
witho ut one by carefu l calcu lation of coils.
At th is point, parts layout comes into its
own. If you're building a ch asis fr om sc r a tch ,
you ca n juggle t he pa rts around unti l t hey 'r e
the way you wa nt them and determine chass is
si ze. If you're using a ready-mad e box, t hen
shif t t he componen ts on it until you're sa t isfied .
One point to rem ember, s ince it spells the
difference between s uccess and failur e in many
circuits, is t o keep all sig nal-ca rrying leads
short. Good looks of the panel may h ave to be
sacrificed t o attain thi s, but the object is to
make t he thing work.
Once satisfied with the parts a r r an gement ,
and with a ll parts on hand, you're ready to
proceed with the wiring. Except, that is, f or
cutting the chass is. Drill all holes and mount
all tube sockets a nd hea vy items such as transformers. It helps if you turn tube sockets so
that leads run naturally to the point they have
to get to, rather t han having to crjss-cross
above t he socket.
Actual wiring is s imila r to wiring a kit, except that you have no instruction, book telling
you what to p ut where and when to solder.
FEBRUARY 19b1

Underside of chassis shows sepa ration of RF


secti ons. Clutter at rea r of cha ssis is co ntrol
circuity not shown on sc hematics. It incl udes
anten na relays a nd rece ive r mutin g cont rols.
Sele nium rectifie r provides DC fo r coax relay.
Ba nd swit ch assembly is at top center. Turnedover edges of shieldin g co ntact bottom plate
fi rmly to button up rig a gai nst TV !. Also visible
are ceramic fee d.t hro ug h ca pacitors used on
all low-voltag e power leads which pass th ro ugh
shield ing.

I have fo und it most h elpful to work from


th e first st age toward the rear of the equipment, completing each st a ge as I go and testing it. By this I mean s ta r t at the oscillator
of a t rans mitter and work t oward the antenna.
an d start at the antenna of a rece iver.
I n original des igns there is going to be much
cut-an d-t r y fi tting, and sometimes things which
look on paper a s if they s hou ld work fine s imply refuse to operate when you wire t hem
up. Doing one stage at a time, buildi ng block
f a shi on, helps you avoid trouble since you can
test a s you go a long. You k now as each stage
is tested that it works, a nd if it fails you h ave
more r oom in which t o work on it.
If you wire your design in thi s manner,
you'll know that it works when the la st st ag e
ch ecks out. N ext th ing to d o is to p ut it in
oper at ion.
Live with it a while. You can be su r e of one
t hi ng : B ug s will appear. I have never heard
of any equipment being built from a n untested
design working perfectly the first time around.
Give the bugs a good chance to mak~~ t hemselves known .
Then, obviously, apply bug eliminator. This
t r a nsla tes a s hard work, since what cures a
sympt om in one rig only makes it worse in
another. Th e h a ndbook s , h owever, have good
coverage on t hese troubles, and many su gg estion s.
After the first period of testing and im- '
provement comes a n ot her , much the sa me. The
second time, though, the t rou bles will he much
m ore minor, and when they are cured. you
73 MAGAZINE

IS

Details of 6-meter side of transmitter. Tube s


in shields are 5163s. Behind them are two
OB2 in low-voltage supply_ Control behind
OB25 is to set bias on fina l stag es. On ly one
section of split-stator capacitor is used-but it
happened to be in the junk box when rig
was bu ilt

w ill h a ve a piece of gea r you ca n be proud of .


T h e fi na l wo r d is this: when it does what
you set ou t t o do, leave it alone! More bad
s ig na ls are emitted fr om transmitters which

were touched up just once too ofte n t ha n for


any other single reason. Of cou rse, thi s applies to all gear, not only homebrew.
Since you de signed and built it you're naturally the most competent person alive to make
improvements. But be certa in, before you do,
that what you're about to do is improvement.
You'll find, al so, t ha t the first time is the
ha r dest . After that, the whole th ing comes
m uch easier, a nd before long , you'll have the
reputation of being a man who ca n d esign
anything anytime, anywhere, and have it work.
Since I u sed the combo rig here as an example ea r lie r , here's the fini shed product, pictured in Fig. 5. Running 60 watt s input t o the
final, high-leve l plate modulated, it has uccounted for some 22 st a tes and two countries
on s ix meters despite a sha r p lack of a ctivity
on my part, on the air. It gets 40 watts into
the antenna, for 67 percent effi ciency.
Most hearten ing of all, though, is the comment on it which is st ill music to my ears although I heal' it freque ntly, on both V HF and
MARS frequ encies: "You can't be running 60
watts, old man . Your signa l is the loudest on
the band."
Excu se me now. I just had an idea. If you
t ook a 4Xe150A and a hetrodyne VFO . . . .
. .. . Gotta run for the slide rul e.
73

Pre-amp for Vairca p M odulator

wr iter ha s r eceived sever a l requests


f or the tran si stor pre-amp circuit u sed
w ith the V aricap modulator. The or ig ina l Varica p mo dulator was u sed in the VFO which
mu ltiplied f rom 10.5 me to 21 me and it was
'fou nd t ha t about 1 vol t Rl\IS wa s necessary
to get a 3 kc band at the 21 mc tran smittingfr equ ency. A s ing le transistor following a
dynamic mike did thi s very well. Subsequently

HE

16

MAGAZINE

a 40 meter command transmitter has been


modified by placing a Varicap modulator in
the grid circuit of the oscillator. A V C-IOO in
ser ies with a 25 mmfd cer a mic were the only
changes from the or igina l cir cuit.
Using the above arrangement it was necessa r y to have over 2 volts of audio to get the
necessary band w idth. So it was decided to
build another pre-amp. After a little experimentation th e circuit in Fig. 1. evolved. Batte r y and all is enclosed in a n aluminum box.
The mike has a sta nda r d phone plug sc rewed
in th e end a nd plugs into a st a nda r d jack on
top of t he pre-amp. This unit works equally
well for 15 or 40 meters, The volume of course
is decreased on 15. With NFM this will modulate 1 watt or 1 kilowatt equa lly well.
If 75 meter NFM is contem plated, perhaps
a pair of 100 mmfd Varicaps in p arallel, connected in se r ie s with a 40 or 50 mmfd mica or
ceramic will do t he j ob.
. . W7CSD
."

...

..

CK722

CK722

'r1

FEBRUARY 1 9~1

ham who a s pires to per form a n y sor t


of publi c-ser vice operating soon fi nds himself in need of a phon e pa t ch-and he t hen
learns im medi ately th a t t he re a re p hone patches a nd more phone patc he s, all of them costing
mon ey.
T he rleld of patches ra nges from t he f a ncy
hybrid type (excellent for so many pu rposes,
a nd t he on ly kind which a llows VOX o pe r ation
on side bund ) whic h he a r an equ a lly-fnncy
pri ce tag , down to th e well-known Macy Specia l wh ich ca n be bu ilt for $2.98.
The subj ect of this article, though , outdoes them all in at lea st one respect-it will
cost the a ve rag-e ham a bsol utely not hing!
T hat's r ig ht , I sa id " N ot hi ngl" Every component can be f ound in the junk box of anyone w ho's been in t he busines s at least t wo
months .
Req ui r ed mate r ia ls are these : one each d iscarded A C powe r tra n sformer (the ancient
2.5-volt-fi lam ent-w in ding v ar iet y which ca n
be sa lvaged f r om a d iscard ed B C set is excellent) , one eac h volume control (anyth ing
from 100 K upwards to 2 meg), a mounting
board ( the prove r bia l bread board is fine ),
so me wire, a nd a D P ST swi tch . The swi t ch is
ne cessary only if you w is h to be a mite fa ncier
a bout it.
w hen you have t hese components ga thered
in your hot little hands, wire t hem together
a s shown in t he schem a t ic. None of t he wi ri ng
is cr itica l.
Opera t ion of t his patch divides into two
phases-insta llat ion and use .
T he patch is inst a lled in what may appear
to be an unco nventional ma nn er: I nste a d of
be ing connec ted in parallel with th e telephone
li ne , it is connected in ser ies w ith eit her t h e
red or the green w ire.
If the patch is inadvertently connected
across the phone li ne, ycu'Il hear f rom t he
telephone com pany, fo r it will create a co nt in ua l busy signa l on you r circu it and make it
im possi ble fo r a nyone to ca ll you. I t w ill a lso
hamper your pl a cing of outgoi ng ca lls. Be
certain to connect it in series to avoid t h is
problem.
Once installed, t he volume control may best
be se t by a n on-t he-a ir tes t w ith a cou p le of
willing frie nds. Adj u st this control so that
the incoming telephone voice modu lates your
tran smitter fully without sp la tter ing .
Volume of t he so u nd fed into t he phone line
will be dete rm ined by the setti ng of your
receiver 's au di o gai n control. Try t o k eep it
slig h tl y below the volume of a n ormal t elephone voice, to combat bot h the tendency of
the telephone par-ty to mumble and the t endency of the telep hone line to cre ate crossta lk .
Tha t 's it-s-t he wo r ld 's sim plest phone patch.
H a ve fun, a nd be ce r t ai n you are r eady t o perform public service.
lIlW

THE
World 's
SIMPLEST
PHONE
PATCH
Jim Kyle, KSJ KX/6
1851 Sta mfo rd Ave .

Sa nta Su sa na , Celtf.

HV
Wi'JDl'<G

:
IN SERIES WITH

TEL LINE
(See Teltt)

FEBRUAR Y 19. ,

o 0
WINDING

TO RCYR
VOICE COIL

VERY

73 MAGA ZIN E

17

Roy Fulton KbBP


Rt I. Box 345
Lethrc p. Cellfomle

3 Tubes, 2 Watts, 2 Meters


cou ple of hours. Two wat t s won't work DX,
but it will put you in good touch with all of the
locals and generall y t hat is all you need f or
rag che wing.
Short-cut number one wa s t he use of a n
18 me crystal, which saves us an extra multi plier stage that we would nor mally use with

is running a contest for the


simplest two meter rig I figure I have it
won, hands down. Of course I had to pull a
couple of "deals" t o boil t he rig down to such
basics, a s you will see, but t he end r esult may
justify the means. The finished pro du ct is a
two meter phone rig that you can build in a

ANYONE

6CXB

...
"

, ,,ow,

".,

"

"

--~- -

"

~;

.2nlolC

"i"

"'"

"'"

"'"
-

1",hlW'

"

"
'- ---

'"

lOT

"
"'"
I'h\~~ ~~

,~

TOO, T'"

TOO, T""
~

"'"
.J.::'.
---;;-

"n '"
-

TOO,

T OO,

..

12h1C

"

6C)(B

~"'

CH()I(E

6CXB

....

" ",

".,

'"\.:---

~,

Is-

-0-

"

,..

,.. Pil T

....,

-,

02

_ 82Q

YJO

""

~r

-p~

'"

."
,.

2'0. /80101.

18

73 MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 1961

the more popula r 8 me crystals. Fortunately 19


me crystals are availab le from surplus, so
this isn't quite the hurdle that it might have
been. T hese crystals come eight-to-the-box for
jus t under $2. Thr ee of t hem h it the two meter
band, fou r hit s ix meters a nd one is fine fo r
The second short-cut is the Heis ing screen
modulation. This really saves a lot of bu ilding and extra tubes. Not only that but it works
just fi ne. Signal reports are qu it e flatte ring.

follow the layout diagr am and pho tos rather


closely. It takes experience to successf u lly
ad lib. Your leads and by-passes have to be
as short as poss ible. This rig has been built
and re-built ma ny t imes, so why not take a dva n tage of all that spent effort a nd do it my
way ? Or maybe yo u 'd rather red iscover all
of the mistakes I've stumbled through.
The chassis is 5" x 3* " (or thereabouts) .
There are so few parts that you should have
t hem mounted in a jiff'y.

C onstru ction

The Circuit

T hose of you who are taking the first plunge


at 144 me type construction would do well to

The triode section of the first 6CX8 is used


as a crystal oscillator on 18 me. T h is feeds into
t he pentode sect ion where it is doub led to
36 me. T he t riode sectio n of t he seco nd 6CX8
aga in dou bles, g iv in g us 72 m e. ' Ve double
again in the fi n al t o 144 m c, r un n ing abo u t two
watts input to the pentode section of the tube.
P ur ist s who are starting in with puttering fits
at th is point can calm themselves down somewhat . .. we recommend a sma ll filter in the
outp ut to cut down th e 72 m e outp ut t ha t
m igh t sneak t hrough. Deta ils on that later.
T her e is eno ugh aud io g ain in t h is g adget t o
get a ll the sock yo u wa nt with a cryst a l
m icrophone.

220 me.

Sch em atic Diagram. L1- 21 T ins ulated


wire on 112" poly slug tuned form .
L2- lOT insulated wire on 12" poly slug
tuned form . L3- 7T 5/16" (lead pencil
size) a ir wound #20 bare wire. L4 4T
5/16" air wound #20 tapped IT fr om
8+ end, bare wire. RFC- over 25T
on

lJ4

11

fo rm or any small choke you

have around. Audio Choke- primary


of any small output transformer.
FEBRUARY 1961

73 MAGAZINE

19

Details
Grid dip your coil s to be su re they cover the
range desired. You can sa v e an awful lot of
time and fru stration thi s way. When you are
ready to tune up the riJ{ it is a good idea to
limit the voltag e to 150 v so th e tubes can't
be damaged. Tu ne the oscillat or, then the
36 me st a ge. The 72 me s t a g e has to be tuned
by squeezin g th e coil. A field s t r ength meter
comes in handy about this time . A voltmeter
will do a lot too. Ground the positive probe and
connect the negative probe through an rf
choke to the grid of the s t a g e following- the
one you're tuning. Thi s will mea sure the drive
to the foll owing' st a ge.
If you are impatient with a fixed fr equency
rig you can grid dip yourself a sl ug tuned
circuit for t he 72 me stage.
Now, about that trap to remove you from
any 72 me receivers. in the immediate neighborhood. Ten turns of #20 (or so ) on a half
inch f orm with a s m a ll variable conden ser
(15 mmfd) in ser ies with the coil s hould be
connected from the antenna terminal to
ground . Thi s can be built into the rig. Dip it
to frequency.
Oh, and about those extra crystals you got

ba ck in paragraph two. Thi s rtg can be reworked for six meters quite simply, a s you
should s us pect . It will a lso perk on 220 me,
which should come a s a surprise. Try a three
turn 3 /16 " diameter #20 bare wire coil for
the "tank." Connect antenna one turn from
B-plus. U se the dipper carefully on thi s a s
there are all sorts of frequ encies you can be
using with thi s arrangement. You will only get
about a half watt, but you'll be on 2201

Ha ve Fun
. . . K6BP

Edwin K. Col e W71 DF


P. O. Box 3.
Ve sho n. W e sh.

N on' that we are irrevocably into 1961 and

ou r New Year re solutions have been


thoughtfully fi led away, let's turn from sea son a l self -a p p r a isa l and consider the mischief
perpetrated by other people.
It seem s strange that fa ir-minded, tactful
a nd unbiased criticism usually meets with rese nt m en t . It s h ou ld n 't- s uch criticism is mild,
benign and u seless . On the other hand, the
effective critic is bia sed by personal e x pe ri ence, single-minded and happy to sacrifice the
grace of tact for immediate results. He meets
20

73 M A G AZINE

op pos it ion head-on, wins o r loses without wastin g time on irrelevanci es and moves on to
another issue. But hi s blunt arguments
s houldn 't be resented eit her for there follow
upon s uch efforts all the progress we make
which cannot be laid to fortuitou s chance.
(W hat other ham magazine prints p hrase s like
"fortuitous chance"?) (It's redundant, but
sor t of Churchillian.)
\Ve have ou r marvel s of tran sportation and
communication because u s here-now common
folk's weren't sati sfied with running and shoutFEB RU A RY 1961

iog a s tra nsce nde nt ac t ivi ties. \Ve were cr itics


who) wa nted somet h ing better th a n we ha d.
I n. this econ omy th e best ins pir a t ion of the
inve nto r is the potenti al co nsume r st a nding
behind hi m-c-wa it mg. So they tell us, and if
it's true I'd like a second c hance with some of
those resourceful gentlemen . For example, I
wouldn't w as te much time if I could g-et into
the right position behind the one who thought
of mark ing miniature, G and GT tubes with
van is hi ng ink, sea wate r or fa iry tear s. W ha tever the st uff is I ha ve com e t o sus pect it beg-ins fading on th e date of s a le.
It is true that if the internal s t r uctu r e is
visible an experienced prospector for markings
can often con fi dently ha zard a g uess a s to the
tube type, but hazard is unfortunate ly the
right word and in thi s s po rting s pir it you can
even try a tube tester to confirm or refute
your insigh t. A I 0 ing e niou s schemes for decipheri ng fa in t identification mark s h a ve been
published in our magazines, but t hese expert ments with oblique illumination, ammonia or
polar ized moon light f ail w ith me. They e nd
as t hey begi n-with my cro ssed , myopic eyes
t rying to foc u s on a tu be pr essed aga inst my
nose. Revolted by fru stration, my brain, which
is not very large or healthy anyway, sli ps out
of gear into a neutral st a te which is mani fested a s daydream ing. Thi s is hilarious to my
ch ild ren who promptl y pr ess t ubes to the ir hot
little noses and invent a typical " f a mil y fun"
game combining apparent lunacy, a spects of
hysteria and sly deflation of a grown-up.
So ma ny glass octal tu bes had t hei r ide ntifi cation sta m ped ha ndsomely on t he base a s well
a s th e bulb during the secon d \Vor ld Wa r that
this secur it y leak came t o be t a ke n for granted.
Presumably tha t novel conces sion w as made
to fac ilitate t u rn ing t he st u bs in for replaceme nt in t he event a d ir ect mortar hit b roke t he
gla ss. Anyway the favor was soon withdrawn.
Ca me pea ce, back to the modern evanescent
me ssage on the bu lb, and on the base nothing
but a f a ncy tradema rk a n d m yst erious code
number s wh ich are probably digital for "lots
of luck," or somet hing worse.
In the late f orti es I wa s living in a lowno ise, high-O X area of western Ala ska when
one day a shi pment of tu bes f u rnished me w ith.
shor t -li ved encou ragement. T h ese were standard types of oct a ls but with king-size markings
on the bases a s well a s on coated bulbs s ized
between G and GT. They looked very bu sinesslike. I pl ugg ed one into my V F O and w en t
out of bus iness. This was the pre-war Millen
ac-dc model and t he difficulty was that th e
heater current r equirements of t he tubes bore
no relation to any fi g u r es in th e tube manual.
La ter someone told me t h a t th ey h ad been
ma nu factured to special order for t he Bri t ish
forces, perhaps wit h the idea that if you shoot
a private calibre the en em)' ca n 't use your
amm u niti on. Ma ybe thi s was a blow to the
N azi table radio Gesellschaft, ce r tain ly it was

a blow to me f or t u bes we re har d for me to get


a nd I s up pose it con tributed to m y moodiness
about their markings .
It would seem to be less than charitable to
add ress t hi s p ipsqueak of a com pl a int to t he
indu st r y that p rov ided me w ith, among ot her
blessi ng-s, a lively 6D6 I have had for nea rly
a quarter of a century, vintage 80's that would
pro-rate at a nickel a year, 6C5's whose life
s pa n may e xceed m ine, a nd so on. Yet there
are indicatio ns t hat a a few obst re pero us
g-rowl s from the market p lace wou ld not be
unti mel y just now. T he increasing sheet -meta l
elega nce in much new equipment, the airy
references in copy to " dia l excursio ns" meaning t u ning, t he e ndless ab use of "mode" a nd
"configuration" and other an noyances lead me
t o sus pect that some of our manufacturers
whose products have de se rvedly been accepted
on faith may be putt ing t oo lit tle em phasi s on
t he qu a lities tha t made th em successfu l. Land
sa kes, I hope our tube and equ ipment prod ucers aren't in danger of infection by the
wrap-around tail-fin crowd.
we have been fo rtu nate in tha t t he major
ma n ufa ctu r ers of t he gea r we use prof ess a nd
demon strate a s t r in ge nt honesty in thei r dealings with us, indeed to the point of crustiness
if the quality of their e ffor t is questioned.
Some yea r s back, to ill ust rate j ust for f u n , I
bought a s ma ll t r ansmitte r f rom McMurdo
Silve r a nd fo u nd occasio n to w r it e t o t hem regarding the pos sibility of parusitics. A swift
r eply combin ing equal parts of cou rteous ad vice and s na pp is hness some how lef t me w it h
the f eeli ng that I was on probatio n a s a cust omer and shou ld cher ish my good fortu ne
ca ref ull y. I'm sor r y to sa y that I can no long er
find thi s letter, but I do ha ve one from Ba rker
a nd Willia msom wh ich ill ustrate s the same
po int. I wrote t o th em to orde r a variable
cond en ser for a di p meter wh ich has g iven fin e
se r vice for t en years. They an swered promptly,
coolly advi sing me that it would be quite pointless to sell me a new cond ens er beca use the
u nits do not become de fect ive, a nd t hey added
pointedly that the)' had neve r ha d a ny complaint about them . ( who's complaining?) If I
ca r ed to r eturn the dip meter to the f actory ,
however , they woul d r est ore it to n ew condition . I knew I cou ld be t m y bottom socket it
would come back to me with the original tuning condenser in perfect condition, a nd a s I'm
as hardhead ed a s t he next guy I didn't send it .
I was carefu l to keep the lette r, and I ma y
have fi led it unde r " Sorehe ad s " but I li ke it .
It s pells pride to me.
Okay, fell as- shoot the works on high st y le
cab inets, cont inu e to pr int the val u es on some
micas and color-code t he ones I need, m icroengrave t he en ds of ca rtridge fu ses , don't g ive
in on st a nda r d iza t ion of tran si stor desig na ti on s, but how about those markings on the
GT 's and min iatures? U se the good stu ff you
pu t in t he tradem arks. . . .
W7IDF
13 MAGAZI NE

FEBRUARY 196 1

...

os

21

50 Me
Converter
Without B+
Ji m Kyle. K5JKX/6

it's no secret that mobile operation


with the new hybrid and transi storized
auto radios is possible. Either transistors or
the 12-volt ser ies of vacuum tubes can be used
in a ha m-band converte r with t hese sets.
However , this trick has apparently been employed only on the lower ham bands. No circuits for VHF converters for u se with highvoltage-less auto radio s have been published to
the author's knowledge.
H er e's one for the 50 me ban d which gives
excellent results in local-range work. w h tle its
se nsitivity won't measure up to )'OUI' cascadeamplifier home-station converter, it wiII pull
in any signal you can ever read under mobile
conditions.
The tubes used were carefully selected from
the entire 12-voIt series for maximum transconductance. As a result, the receiver \....ith this
converter will give a clear, readable output
with less than 1 microvolt input.
Basic operating p r inciples of the circuit are
similar to a conventional converter. I ncomi ng
s ig na ls are amplified by the pentode rf stage
and mixed with the local-oscillator 49.4 me signal in the converter. Output, in the 600-4600
kc ra nge, is taken from the converter plate.
\Vh en use d with a conventional auto receiver
the converter tunes from 49.95 to 50.95 me.
Since the lower 100 kc of the band has been
assigned for C\V exclusively, you might want
to change the crystal to a 49.55 me unit and
t une f rom 50.1 to 51.1 me. Tuning is accompl ished with t he auto r ad io t u ning knob.
Only two differences exist between circuitry
of this converter and a conventional unit using
high-voltage type tubes. The most obvious is
in the grid circuits. Si nce cathode bias would
r ob you of a la r g e portion of the plate sup ply
voltage. contact bias is obtained through the

22

73 MAGAZINE

NOW

FEB RUARY 19b1

2.2 megohm r esistors, Signal is coupled to the


g r id through low-valu e ca p acitors.
The other d iffe rence is t he a bsence of any
screen-droppi ng r esistors. Wit h 12-volt t ubes
t he screens ta ke full p late s up ply voltage.
Not shown on the schemat ic, s ince it may not
be n ecessary in all cases, is a low-pass filter
in t he 12-volt supply li ne . The fi lter , which r esembles a conventional powe r -suppl y filter in
a rrangement, r emoves all noise from the battery line and a ssures that only pure de r eaches
t he converter t ubes. It w as add ed to t he protot ype to eliminate vi bra tor n oise f rom another
unit.
The co nve rter is built on a plate of fla shing
copp er, 2 ';4 by 3% inches in s ize. Brass 6-32
nu ts sol de r ed to t he plate a t th e corners allow
for moun t ing wit h 1 % inch s pacers in a 3 by 4
by 5 chassis. The open side of the chassis is
covered by a sheet of Reynold s do-it-yourself
aluminum held down with self -t a pp ing scr ews.
These elabora te enclos u re methods were employed to keep all noise possible ou t of the converter and to assu re that any s igna l reaching
it would e nter through the antenna jack only.
The copp er chassi s is eas ily solde r ed with a
47-watt " super-hi-temp" tip in an U ng a r
solder ing pen cil. All tube sockets a n d tie points
were soldered ins tead of bolted to the plate.
Coils Ll, L2 , and L3 were obt a ined in su rplus. Their n omenclatur e and valu e are unknow n , but any coil of proper inductance and
Q w ill s ubstitute. The coils we r e purchased
r eady-wound, and r equ ired only t he removal of
t h ree turn s f ro m ea ch to fi t the converter 's
r equirements.

The swit ch , visible in Ute photos and shown


on the sch ema t ic, is another surplus item. A
4P DT bat-handle toggle, it provides single.
control oper ation f or the converter. Input and
outpu t co nnect ions are made through s tan da r d
auto-radio connectors, and a 3-foot extension
cable (NOT r egular coax) is used to connect
the converte r to the auto radio.
F ew part s values are critical in this converter. However, converter-plate-circuit com-

ponents (the 1 rnh rf choke and the 68 nunfd


capacitor) s ho uld not be changed. With these
values, and the 3-foot length of auto-radio
antenna cable , th e circuit is broadly r esonant
a t approximat ely 1 mc and g ives good output
across the broadc ast band while discriminating
against higher-frequency noise in the neighborhood of 3 me.
Another item which will have quite an eff ect on conve rter sensit ivit y is the 22,000-ohm
crystal r esi stor. This may be varied from the
val ue shown up t o 470,000 ohms. However,
local-oscill a t or amplitude will vary as this resistor is chang ed, and may reduce the converter's g a in . The value sh own was best for
the prototype-s-other converters might require
a different value.
Us ing the la yout and components shown in
t he photos, t he fin ished converter is a natural
for hid eaway mounting. One of the original
design specifi ca t ion s was that the unit be
mount ed com pletely concealed behind the dash
lip on a 1959 F ord, with the on-off switch
r ead ily accessible but not v isible. \Vith this
added f eat ure, you sh ou ld have no XYL
trouble with t h is converter.
III III

Lt. Lt, lr-8 turns No. 24 enam on 3/8" nylon iron-slug form (surplus item-dip to frequency)
L1 link- 3 turns hookup wire on top of L1

Crystal-49.4 me. overtone (International FA-5)

-----

,--~!-_-t---

~.

-, -0

--------

I
I
I
I

FEBRUARY 1961

I
I

I
I
I

73 MAGAZINE

23

Alli e C . Pe ed , J r. K2 DHA,
34 Ashle y Drive,
Rochester 20, N. Y.

The Heathkit
Hybrid
Phone Patch'
... a revIew
a fundamental viewpoint a phone patch
unit has a formidable set of conditions to
satisfy. It must match the nominal GOO-ohm
balanced landl ine to the unbalanced high impedance input of the transm itter, and it must
match the very low impedance speaker line (3
to 8-ohms usually) to the same line. It must
do this using one line for both transmitting
and receiving witlunct swifching. And finally.
is mu st maintain isolation between the speaker
and microphone so that a feedbac k loop is not
formed. I n view of t hese considerations, a
good phone patch is a pretty neat trick.
Fortunately, a traditional technique of the
telephone industry is perfectly suitable to the
problem. This is the h yb ri d matching method
used in most phone patch designs. In essence,
transformers are utilized with their windings
wired into a bridge circuit in such a fashion
that sig nals coming in on the phone line will
appeal' at one set of transformer wind ings
(co nnected to the tra nsm itter in put. ) S igna ls
coming into another set of wi nd ings f rom the
receiver will appeal' across the land line terminal s while cancelling out in the winding
connected to the transmitter. And, since transformers are used a s the coupling devices, impedance t r a ns for ma tions ca n be accomp lish ed

RO M

24

73 MAGA Z IN E

at the same time.


There have been many phone patch circuits
desc ribe d in the lit er atur e arou n d a daptations
of transformers wh ich were available in surplus or which were made for other purposes.
::'tlost of these have been compromises in that
the transformers didn't always exactly fit the
re -uirements. Many of the circu its did not provide fer ma tching to land line wh ich were
somewhere between balanced and unbalanced
electrically (as many phone lines are), and
they did not provide for a method of monitoring and adju sting the level of the sig na ls to
and from the line.
T r oubles with many such home -brew pho ne
patches have generally taken the form of:
high hum level making intelligibility poor and
VOX operation difficult if not impossible;
overdriven phone lines causing cross-talk in
t he tele phone company's equipmen t ; and genera lly poor audio qual ity as a result of t he use
of transformers not specifica lly designed for
the purpose. The fundamental problems of
adequate isolation between input and output
and of prevention of rf energy from fee ding
in t o t he telep hone system have a lso been in a dequately solved by some of the earlier desig ns.
Fortunately, the Heath Company with its
usual competent engineering has solved all of
t hese problems in the Hea thk it Model HD-19
Phon e Patch. Due to t he size of t heir market ,
the}' could have good quality transformers
made up to su it the application. Provision is
made for balancing the bridge of the phone
patch to imperfectly balanced land lines; and
a VU meter is provided for mo nitoring th e
li ne at a ll times to a ssure t hat it is not overdriven. (The meter of the VU circuit also
ser ves as a very sensit ive and effect ive indicator for making the line match.)
T wo potentiometers on the fro nt panel ullow ad j ustmen t of t r ansmitted and r eceived
signals to comfortable levels wh ile another
potentiometer on th e rear apron adjusts the
balance of the patch to that of the line. Two
switches complete th e external controls avail able. A slide switch on the back apron places
the V V met er across t he line for mon itor ing
pur poses or the meter at full sensitivity acros s

FEBRUARY 196 1

the . m icrophone output of the patch f or balancmg purposes.


The front panel swit ch places the patch in
01' ? ut .of th e circu it a s desired. It provides for
switchi ng t~e micr op hon e st r a ig ht t hrough to
the transn~ltter and the rece iver st r a ig h t
t hrou g h to Its s peaker wh en t he patch is off. In
the "o.n" position of this swi tch , the s peaker
~ nd microphone a re both di sconnected and loca l
Input and output of the sta t ion are through the
telephone hand set only. This s witching arrangement allows t he patch uni t t o r ema in con nected
at a ll times without affecting normal operation
of t he st at ion.
A termin al st r ip, coaxial pheno-type out p ut
con nector , and a coa xial microphone connect or
comple te the con nect ors sup plied . Shielded
cable a nd mating- con nectors are p rovided for
maki ng u p the line from the patch to the
tran smitter microphone input.
Und erneath t he chass is are the compo nents
of t~e line fi lter wh ich prevents rf from being'
fed int o the te lephone lines, and th e two 2-mfd.
capacitors which are paralleled to form the
de block ing, audi o-pass filter between the patch
and land line.
Con structio n t ime for t he kit is abo ut t wo
hours at the most for a ca reful worker an d
there is nothing tight or tr-icky about it. '
All of the external connections are s pelJed
out in good detai l in t he ma nua l. However
t her e is on e th ing' wh ich mu st be watched here'
and which is not mentioned in the man ual:
Many modern communications receivers have
one s ide of the out p ut t r a ns for mer seconda r y
g rou nded to t he cha ssis of t he r eceiver. Th is
polarity must be obser ved in connection of the
r eceiver to t he patch, or it will be f ound that
the spea ker is "on" under a ll circumsta nces
and cannot be swit ched by the patch. S ince
the de res istance of the output tran s forme r is
quite low, it is not possible with the usual
t y pes of ohmmeters to determine which of the
term inals is g rounded in t he receive r. You
must either find th is from the sch ema t ic in
your receiver's manual, or a s a la st resort
you will ha ve to ope n you r r eceive r and see
wh ich terminal is grounded. (Of course, you
ca n t r y t he con nection one way and if it

= -_...-

does n't work , reverse the lead connections at


the patc h. B ut th is is a most unscientific way
to proceed !)
Connection of the patch to the land line can
be made with almost any kind of insulated
wi re-zi p cor d, twisted pai r , etc. S ince t his is
a low im ped ance balanced line, t here should
be no rf pickup. H owever , if you want to be
su re, and especially if the line must run in
close proximity to yo ur tra nsmitte r, yo u ca n
use two conductor shielded line (not coax ial)
s uch a s is sold for running sh ielded extension
s peaker leads. Ground the s hield of this line
to the patch and lea ve the other end floati ng.
Th er e a r e only two criticisms which t he
wr iter ha s after a few mo nths u se of t his
patch. These are :
It might be better if the null adju stment
potentiometer an d t he met er switch had been
placed on the f r ont panel. Admit t edl y, these
need not be used often; but when it is n ecessa r y , it is a nuisance to have to pull the patch
unit out to gain access to t hem. And , in those
st a t ions where each p iece of gear is built into
its ow n pigeon hole in a console, th is could
be a g-reat annoyance.
The other crit ici sm is a very petty one indeed, but one wh ich could be easily corrected.
T he metal knobs are very neat in a p peara nce
a nd s hou ld be quite ser vicea ble, but the index
mark on the two sma ll ones consists of a very
s ma ll indented tr iangle fi lled with red pa in t
on t he na rrow skir t of the k nobs. This is quit e
difficult to see from the usual operating positi on di sta nce. A dab of r ed paint on the side
of t he knobs ha s solved the problem for the
wr ite r , eve n though it doesn't look very prof easi onul .

I n s u mma r y, the Heathkit Phone P a tch is a


very sntis fucto t-y p iece of gear, and one which
we ca n hope will attr act many operators into
provid ing t hem se lves with patchi ng fac ilities.
This activity is one of the mo st rewarding in
amateur rad io. and one whi ch certainly is good
public relations for our hobby. The gratitude
of some of t he people who can hear t he voices
of t heir loved ones from overseas is hea r t warm ing, and thi s is often their fi r st personal
contact with ama teur radio.
73
FEBRUARY 19b 1

73 MAG A ZI N E

25

Life Insurance for Your Tronsistors


Roy A. McC orthy K6EAW
737 W . Mexzl m Ave.
Fulle rton, Cali fo rnia

GENERAL purpose transistors of both low


power and high power are becoming to
be extremely inexpensive. RF transistors for
Amateur freque ncies through the VHF range
are even quite reasonable. However, thi s does
not necessarily mean that the tr-an si stor-c-orother semiconductor we are using-will have
a readily ava ilable replacement. Many experimenters and technicians (and engineers) tend
to grow a bit careless in the u se and handl ing
of tran sistors. The re sult is of course a rash
of ~asualties wh ich could be avoided by followi ng a few common sense ru les in the application and u se of the semicond uctors, which
normally should have an extremely long life
spa n.

Soldering
Practically all articles written on the construction of trans istor circuits r ecommend
the use of long nose pliers as a heat sink. Very
few, unfortu nately, tell how this can be done.
There are two fairly easy and conven ient
methods. ( 1). Hold the pliers in one hand the
soldering iron in the other, and h old the s~l der
between your teeth. T his is not particularly
recommended for people who are s uscept ible
to lead poisoning. (2). The transistor lead and
the . lug or term inal are both pretin ned, then
a bit of solder on t he iron is applied carefully
and quickly. My preferred method of h ea tsi nki ng t he lead is to u se a small Mueller coil
clip, (type 88), or a flattened copper Minigator
clip. Effectiveness of the heat sink can be
checked by measuring IcO while soldering.
T he type and wattage of t he iron itself
makes a lot of d ifference. A big iron can actually radiate enough h ea t to ruin a diode or
transistor even though the connection being
worked on is not even electrically related to
the semiconductor. A very low wattage or improperly tinned iron, on t he other h a nd, may
take so long to solder a connection that heat
h a s time to travel up the leads and ru in a
tran sistor in spite of the use of a heat sink.
Some irons are not su ffi cientl y isolated from
the li ne to prevent a slig ht surge of current on
contact with the transi stor lead. For work
with VHF tran sistors an isolation transformer
of some kind on the ir on is h ighly recommended.
Most germanium transistors have iron
leads. This aid s in slowing down h eat conduction to the extent that a temperature of 240
degrees C is permitted for 10 seco nds as dose
26

73 MAGAZINE

a s 1/16 in ch 1/32 inch from the base . Obviously there is no room here for a heat sink
of t he usual type. A little spacer is available
from some manufacturers to lift the transistor
off a printed cir cuit board to provid e a slight
safety factor when dip solder ing . Inexpensive
sili con diodes have copper leads. This sh ould
not be overlooked when solder ing them into a
circu it with very shor t leads. Th e higher temperature rating of silicon can be easily exceeded with a good h ot iron. Fortunately
perhap s, Zener diodes commonly are equipped
wi th iron leads, and in addition the Zener
breakdown point is not nearly a s sensit ive to
temperature as is l eO in tran sistors. That is,
Zener diodes may recover, but tran si stors seldam do.
To avoid solder in g the tran sistors into the
circuit, many wi se experimenters u se sock ets,
especially in their breadboard circuits. A
curiou s not e is that this too h as it's pitfalls.
A tra nsistor can easily be s poiled if you solder
to t he socket while it is plugged in. In addition, one t ext s ays that t he j u nct ion may be
fract ured unless precautions are taken when
clipping the leads with a shar p pair of cutters. Ever consider how fast and fa r t he
clipped lea d flies acr oss t he room? The old
sa ying "for every a ction there is an equ al a nd
opposite reaction" m ay well be a pplied here.
Of course some types of tra nsi stors have already been tested for shock re sistance. One
common test is 3 drops from a height of 30
inches to a maple block. Another is a vibrational test of 500 G's. After purchas ing a
transistor for a particular circuit it is wiser
to avoid any simila r tests.

Test It Before Use


Wh ile any new pi ece of gear or component
thereof is generally con sidered to meet specif ication s, in semiconductor work the se specificat ions are often quit e liberal. For example,
CK722's have been encountered with leO of
10 m icroamperes and Beta of 20, and also
with l eO of 1 micr oamp a nd Beta of 200. Both
might be consid ered a s good for some circu its,
but n ot for others. Th e breakdown voltage
rating is al so very im portant in certain circuits. Fortunately again, most are rated far
below what they can really t ake. In particular, the emitter-to-base breakdown voltage may
be sever al t imes what th e spec sheet indicat es
a s a minimum value.
FEBRUARY 1961

An example of where these r a ti ngs should


be considered is in a free runn ing mult.iv ibr-ator circuit. Here the low Beta units may perform better than higher gain tran si stors.
Also, the base-to-collector junction is subjected to twice t he power supply voltage when
the base is reverse biased by the charge on
the coupling capacitor. Hence, with a 22%
volt supply the junction is s ubj ect ed to 45
volts. Thi s is a mite high for popular experimenta l types, and t he 22 % volts reverse bias
on t he base-to-emitter junction is too h ig h for
even more expensive indu strial types. Th is,
coupled with the increase of leO at such voltages, leads to the neces sity for select ion of
each one. while selection ca n be made easy if
you bu ild up a test circuit, the need for r eplacement at an inconvenient time (middle
of DX QSO) shou ld be con sidered.

Protection
Transistors and diodes can extinguish themse lves much fa ster than any known fu se of
sim ila r ratings. This naturally lead s to the
obv ious conclusion that it is useless to attempt
to fuse your t rans istor circu its. Th a nks to
the happy circumstance that power tra nsistors are becoming inexpen sive, this is not too
much of a problem. But a power transistor
can be protected with a fu se, provided it h a s
a h igh peak current rati ng and a ser ies resistor is used to limit current to t hi s peak
rating. Here again thi s is a partial truth, in
that a shor t circuit will blow the fu se, but
a s light ove rload may catch an occas iona l
transistor fi r st . I n any case, if t he transistor
is rated at 10 or 15 amps peak current, a L it tlefuse type SAG fu se of 1 or 2 amps rating
is often very helpful.
A ddi tiona l protectio n for power transistors
can be provided b y careful des ign of t he circuit, avoiding possibilities of generating h igh
transient peaks in case of overl oad sig n a ls or
amplifier tests using square waves, etc. Sharp
inverse spikes , such a s the k ickback voltage
from a relay, m a y not immediately ru in t he
transistor since even if it breaks down the current is limited by the circu it resistance. Since
these circu its gen erally reverse bias the baseem itter junct ion to cut off collector curre nt
and t hu s open the relay, t he collector to em itter current during breakdown may be concentrated in a very small area of the junction.
Eventual malfunct ion is almost a certainty,
d ue to an accumulative e ffect of this.
I n u sing power t ra nsistors to really hand le
lots of power, or where temperature derati ng
is necessary, the manufacturers spec sheet
shou ld be examined very carefully. Rather
t han trying to economize on the size of the
heat radi ator u s ed it is advi sable to m a k e i t
larger than recommended. This will help
make up for the fact that you didn't have
the right type of silicone coating for the aS
sembly, a nd the s lig ht errors in calculations
4

FEBRUARY 1961

that a lwa ys seem to creep into ex perimental


work. Ma ny la r g er ma nufacturers h a ve f ree
bulletins on how to handle the problems with
a minimum of ri sk of error and effort.

Don't Panic
\ Vhen a transi stor accidently pops two conflicting emotions occur. One is the feeling of
dispair-what to do next. The other is the
tem ptation to say "it was a n accidenta l short,"
an d plug in or try a nothe r one . T hat type of
procedure invariably results in one or two
more "popped" transistors. These are occas iona lly useful a s diodes, but that doesn't help
solve the pr oblem. If a careful check of conn ections reveals nothi ng wro ng it is poss ible
to calculate the value of two or t hree resistors
to temporarily replace the transistor and make
voltage mea surements, unless the transistor
was expected to fur nish self-bias as in some
oscillators. Th e open ci rcu it voltages w it h t he
transi stor disconnected may also g ive some
clue a s to what went wrong.

Interpreting the Ratings


T h is is really a tough problem if you take
them ser ious ly . As a matter of fact many
transistor ratings on the usual spec s heet do
not rea lly mean much to t he rad io amateur
except to se rve as a gui de in select ing the
type to u se. Once you have definitely decided
on a certain type for a particular circuit, it
still is quite as im por ta n t , to test this transistor to be su re it will work. R et u rning defect ive transistors to your local jobber may
also prove to be more of a t ask than was the
case with vacuum tubes.
The best solu t ion is to test your own as
you buy them . Several portable transistor a nd
diode checkers are on t he mar ket, and m a ny
have been described in construction articles.
The main point of this is of course to get the
best your dealer has for the circuit you are
p lann ing to use . If he r ecom me nds a nother
that he ha s on h and you should be able t o test
it and make your own deci sion. Naturally his
friend ship and cooperation are very important; both of which are more likely to
be fo u nd on lax week days t ha n on a busy
Saturday morni ng.

Last But Not Least


W hile a com mon (and sometimes j u stified )
com ment of confi r med va cu um t ube type person ne l is that "transistors aren 't here to stay,"
the fact r emains that transistors will stay
around a very long while if they are treated
with the r espect t hey deserve. They ha ve inn umerable adva ntages over t ubes or other
types of amplifiers in certain applications, a nd
they can certainly give you your moneys worth
of trouble free operation with a lower casuality
rate t han you may have learned to expect. 73
73 MAGAZINE

27

St~ ff

BEAT GENERATION
NoT too many years ago, C\ V reception was
a simple affair. You either adjusted th e
one-lunger until it broke into oscillation, or
turned on the BFO- and that was all there was
to it (except the small matter of copying the
code) .
In those ancient days, sideband hadn't been
heard of by most of the ham frat ernit y-and
reinserted carrier detection was just a group of
almos t-meaningless words .
Not so any more. \Vith the rise of SSB operation and th e similarity bet ween SSB aIHI C\ V
detection techniques, th e business of demodulati ng a currie-less (or intermpted-carrier ) slg-

nal has gotten complicated, A whole group of


new detection circu its has been developed.
Interest in th ese circuits has gon e through a
sharp peak ill th e past few years, leaving a
mass of misinformation in its wake. Pros and
cons of each circuit have been aired quite
thorough ly-leavi ng most of us slightly befudd led if we try to an swer the q uestion ,
"Which is the best technique?"
The purpose of this articl e is to ga ther in
one convenient location most of these circuits.
together with a listing of the advantages and
disadvan tages of each . \ Vith this information ,
YOU can easilv determin e which-if anywill do

the most for b eat generation in your own set.

Fig, I-Con version of th e BFO to an ad justable-injection ci rcuit al lows foolpr oof SSB and CW
reception , BFO compon ents and all power lea d s must be rf-t ight to prevent leakage of e ne rg y
and subsequent bird ies. The " g immick" shown at if g rid co nsists of two or three t urns of insulat e d
wire wra p pe d aro und t he grid le ad.
LAST IF STAGE

GI MMIC K

---

+-1---

:1
II

DETECTOR

NOTE : AOO ITIONS ARE IN


BOLO L INE:

"'----,

AFQUTPUT

E XI STING CIR CUIT RY

T
TO

Ave

-------~

,
,

~--------------------------ADDEO OR CHANG EO CI RCUIT RY

tO ml> RFC

22

'"
220

'"

-T OOl
-

~--.f-:
470 K

100

.0 5

62

EX ISTING
ere TANK

'---~:::'.
28

73 MAGAZINE

.t---~>---"':'~O;;-'-;'N~JECTI O N CONTROL

FEBRUARY 19b1

The malar purpose 01 any SSB or C\V de-

A better diode detector for recep tion of SSG


is th e "square-law" detector. With thi s one,
output is proportional to the square of the
input voltage. On A~I , d istortion is hi gh, but
th e di stortion is of such a natu re that it tends
to correct some of the diode 's deficien cies for
SSB use.
T here's no particular trick to installing a
sq uare-law deteetor in your set, since the conventional di ode action becomes squa re-law at
ext remely low signal leve ls. Just turn the AI'"
gain up fu ll and the HF gain down low. . . .
Sound fa miliar?

tector is to mix locall y prod uced signals wit h


the incoming rf, thus generating beat notes in
the audio-Frequency range. In th e case of C\\',
the beat note has a steady frequency. \VHh
SSB inpu t, th e beat varies in both pitch an d
amplit ude, reproducing the original voice.
Of course, any non-linea r device will cause
a mixing together of input signa ls. In hi- H,
th ey call thi s intermodulation . In receiver front
ends , it's ca lled cross-mod u lation. In both locations, it's an evil byproduct of improper operat ion.

,.

,.
12AU7

; f 0'
I

VI

12AU1
V2

---

~m

".
12AU7

v,

+ 2~0
i~ o ,

IE

AF' OUTPUT

':.-

270 0

470K

e 20

-20
1000 '

000

;;r:

47 01<

Fig . 2- The Crosby th ree-friode


" Prod uct Del ector" circ uit. O ne
triod e can be eliminat ed by cern bin ing fund io ns of V2 and V3.
Elim inate plat e circuit of V2 . and
grid e od ee thode circ uit of V3.
Con nect ple t e circ uit of V3 to V2
instead. The 1OOO.ohm pot in VI
ca t hode is the 1M ad justment, a
reee-penel con b-el.

'TO 8FO

But in recep tion of SSB or C\V signa ls, it 's


a necessity to p roduce resu lts. That's rule one
- the detector mu st be non-linea r.
So what's all this we read about "linear SSB
d etectors" in advertising, product reports, and
some theory articles? \Vhat the w rite rs reall y
mean is thi s: the d etector isn't linear in its own
operation, bu t it prod uces a signa l wh ich is related in a linear manner to the original modulation.
The sa me confusion is presen t in Ar-. l
d etectors. They, too, must be non-linear to give
results-but the most common type is called
the "peak linea r" detector.
Tha t's just the beginning of the confusion,
though. The peak linea r detector, w hich is inherently non-linear in itself, doesn't even give
linear reprod uction of SSB or C \ V signals in
most cases. \ Vhile the input fr equencies are
mixed properly, the outpu t is of almos t CO Ilstant amp litude. This destroys all naturalness
in the received signal, a nd in fac t makes it
undeciphera ble. You m ight say it's overmodulated-the sound is the same.
FEBRUARY 1901

O f course, d istortion is still present with


this a rrangement - a lthough some extremely
pleasan t-sounding SSB can b e received in thi s
manner. The major ca use of the distortion is
our old friend the sq uare-law characteristic. If
we could opera te th e detector in peak-linear
fashion but escape the automatic amplitude
limiting, we might do bett er. . .
T he circuit of Fig. 1 is adap ted from some
of the oldest SSB circuitry in the books, but is
still one of th e least tricky arrangements
around . The detector fun ctions norma lly, a nd
can be of any sort al though a conven tional
d iode is shown. The reason for this is that the
d etector thinks it 's work ing with AM . .. .
Let's back off a couple of steps. Most receiver ci rcuits combine the locally - inserted
carrier wi th the incoming signal at the detector
stage , to eliminate possible trouble wi th BFO
harm onics which might get into the set's front
e nd .
Since the BFO is limited in ou tp ut, you're

usually lucky to find 10 volts of loeal carrier


a t the second d etector. In contrast, incoming
73 MAGAZINE

29

..
signal may ra nge as high as 20 to 25 volts.
This causes no p articular problem in C\ V,
since you're only interested in th e pi tch-amplitude makes little difference.
H owever, for true "mixing" action as opposed to simple beat-note production, the
carrier must be at least four times th e a mplitude of th e incoming signal. Distortion will
d ecrease as ca rrie r increases. so the more, the
m e rrier.

\ Vhen you cut back the rf gai n, you not


only for ced the d etect or into th e sq uare-law
region but yon also cut the level of the incoming signal down to less than a fourth
that of the local carrier.
But to keep the detector operating in th e
"linea r" region, it's far better to boost the level
of the local carrier. If the local carrier is at
proper frequency. the detector stage then cannot tell the difference between SSB and AMand your ea rs won 't notice the difference
either.
By using a low - impedance potentiometer
and shielded interconnecting leads, you can
control the BFa voltage injected in to the last
if sta ge. The less voltage injected, the lower
the carrier level at the d etector w ill be.
If the BFO is tightly enough shielded , it
can be left in operation at an times for better
frequency stability. With INJECTION controls
set to zero, A~l reception will be p ossible . Injection can then be increased as necessary for
SSB and CW.
To use this trick, first tun e to the SSE or
CW signal with INJECTI00I set to zero. Tune
for maximum wiggle of the S-meter needle .
Then slowly increase the injection until the Smeter just sto ps wiggling. Adjust frequency of
the BFO as necessa ry for a natural sound. If
distortion is noticed, increase inj ection slow ly
until it disappears. You can now give an honest
S-meter read ing, because w hen the meter
steadied you had injected just enough carrier
to produce eq uivalent 100 percent modulation
at the detector of yo ur receiver. AVe will not
be active, but you'll hardly notice it s loss.
The only two disadvantages of this circuit,
aside from the added front-panel control, are
its susceptibility to BFO leakage and the
nuisance of having to ad just another knob.
With these points in mind, amateur d esigners continued the search for a better inserted -carrier detector. One of the most successful was Murray Crosby, \ V2CSY. His threetriode circuit has been widely discussed in
print, and a number of varia tions have appeared. One is shown in Fig. 2.
This circuit, origina lly known as the p roduct
detector (a term later app lied to other SSB
30

73 MAGAZINE

LF. 0

"

6BE6

Z~
),

--~

~1

OUTPUT

'0'

"

II

E-o
A~IO

TO

--~
--- - --

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~
F'

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+2 !1 0

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d etector circuits as wen ), requires only a


small amount of BFa injection voltage and
features especially-low intermodulation distortion , due to the adjus tment provided.
Its operation can be exp lained only b y resorting to columns of algebraic eq uations.
Approximately, though, the first tw o triodes act
a s cathode followers, on e driven by the if
strip and the other b y the BFO. Since they
sha re a common load resistor, the two incoming signals are mixed in the load.
This common load resistor is also the source
for the third triode, a grounded-grid amplifier. It isolates the mixing portion of the
circuit from the audio output elements ( and
in one variation popularized by one \V2NSD,
w as com bined with the BFa cathode follower
with no loss in performance ) . The potentiometer ad justs ope rating bias of the tubes,
and is set for minimum distortion.
Advantages of the Crosby circuit and modifications of it have already been listed. Its
disadvantages are these: 1. Audio ou tp ut is
much lower than from other detectors, usuall y
requiring an extra stage of a udio. 2. The d etector is easily overloaded . 3. Adjustment of
the 1M pot is critical. 4 . The circuit is comlex, requiring at least two tubes and a number of extra components, not to mention a
separate BFa. \ Vhen used, it is best built
as an outboard unit for this reason alone.
One of the next circu its announced afte r
the Crosby detector gained popularity was the
p entagrid-mixer d etector. It's almost impossible to gi ve proper credit for this one, since
a number of amateurs published circuits of
similar nature at almost the sa me time . At
any rat e, it was a logical development, once
the point was firml y made that detection is
mainly a mixing p rocess.
FEBRUARY 1961

Fig. 3-This pente grid mixer circuit gives


approximately the same results as the
Crosby detector, with a slight increase
in aud io output. 1M distortion is reduced by adjustment of the SOO-ohm
po tentiometer. Value of RI must be determined by experim ent. Start with 33,000 ohms ; reduce as necessary (in 5
percent steps) until no trace of distortion is heard on strong signals.

The pentagrid d etector, shown in Figure 3,


is almost identical to a sta ndard mixer circuit
as used in the receiver front end . The major
difference is that ou tpu t is taken through an
audio network instead of through an if transformer. Another difference is the I~l adj ustment pot, which allows this much-simpler circuit to compete with the Crosby array on eq ual
terms so far as distortion is concerned.
Ad vantages of the pentagrid detector include simp licity, low distortion, ample audio
outp ut, and the abilit y to substit u te on a tubefor-tube basis for an existing BFO since the
penta grid detector requires only a single tube
for all functions.
On the disadvantage side of the ledger are
two poin ts. The pentagrid detector, like the
Crosby circuit, is extremely sensitive to overload . In add ition, adjustment of th e 1M pot
is especially critical and can only be made
properly with th e aid of an oscilloscope. Full
adj ustment d etails can be found in the references.

Possibly the newest entry in the field is


the sheet-beam d etector, which makes use of
a special tube originally d eveloped for colortelevision use and later announced as a 5SB
specia l b y RCA.
Several det ector circuits can be built around
th e sheet-beam tube. One of the simplest is
shown in Fig. 4. It was apparently originated
by ZLIAAX and later developed by RCA
engineers.

The secret of this circuit lies in the tube


itself. It's a cross between an rf p entode and
a cathode-ray tube, having d eflection electrodes wh ere most pentodes have sup pressors.
\Vith one cathode, one control grid, one
screen, two deflectors, and two plates, the
tube's output can be switched from one plate
to the other by signals impressed on the deRectors. At the same time, the output can
be modulated by a signal on the control grid.
When the if strip output is fed to the control grid and the BFO signal is fed to the deRectors, the average current to one plate
(either can be used) will be a replica of the
original audio. This means that output can
be taken from the plate circuit.
If the if outp ut is fed to the deflectors, however, and the BFO signal goes to the control grid, the aud io will appear (in push-pull
fashion ) at both plates. Using a push-pull
transformer wiIl allow the BFO signal to be
cancelled out, eliminating possible overload of
later stages.
Audio output of this detector is extremely
high-in the neighborhood of 30 volts. This
is sufficient to drive the output tube directly,
and in new-equipment design both the push.
pull tran sformer and the driving stage can be
eliminated b y H-C coup ling to push-pull audio
ou tput tubes. In adapting older gear, it's best

6BU8 .6ARB

Fig. 4-The sheet-beam d etector originated by ZLlAAX features minim um


distortion and maximum audio outp ut.
Although a separate BFa is sh own, it
sho uld be possible t o use the control
and sc ree n grids as BFO e leme nts in an
electron-coup led circuit. Major disadvantage is the specie Itube required.

"

TRANS

AU DIO
,"0

lOO K

".

OUTPUT
+ 105 REG

TO ",0

FEBRUARY 1961

73 MAGAZINE

31

TO

6ALS .te

'"

8US

sse

'0."

*
~;

'0100
AO" " c

* ~''m'

Fig. 5--Th is fo ur.component circuit switches


time con stan ts in the AVe line to make it sultable f or either AM or SSBCW reception . Se e
text for d iscussion of RICI va lues a nd adjustme nt of atta ck a nd re le ase times.

to p ad the output back down to the nominal


L vclr level to eliminate read justm en t of the
audio gain control when switching from A~I
to SSB and back agai n.
Advantages of the sheet-beam d etector include its high outp ut, its res istance to overload , its circui t simp licity, and its low intermodulat ion distortion (where it's even better
than the Crosby or th e pentagrid, and is far
superior to simp le diode detectors ).
Di sadvantages are the requi rement for push pull circuitry, need for a sep arate BFO, and,
most important, possible diffi culties in obtaining th e special tube u sed.
. Before leaving SSB d etectors and moving
into AVC circu itry for use with them, one
more circuit deserves mention : Webb's "synchrouous detector" adap ter w hich allows reception of not only SSB and C\ V signals, but
DSB transmissions as well. \Vhile its advantages are numerous, so are its disadvantages:
it is complex, expensive, bulky, and somewh at
tricky in ad justment. Full details are found
in the references; it's a full article in itself.
All the SSIl and CW detectors described
here (with the excep tion of th at shown in Fi g.
1 ) sha re a common d isad vantage-they make
no provisions for AVC .
\ Vhile AVC is no necessity for reception,
no one will d eny that it makes listening easier
- especiaII y in a roundtable sort of operation
w here some stat ions have strong signals and
others are weaker. A good AVe which brings
them a ll to commo n level elim inates blasting
of the eardrums.
If you r receiver is a Super-Pro or a similar
design, us ing separate channels for signal and
for AVC, there's little problem. In fact, such
a receiver can be used with no change a t all,
especially if separa te switches contro l the Ave
and the BFO functions. However, the attack
and release time consta nts best su ited for A~l
use lead to a distinct "thump" on each

32

73 MAGAZINE

sy llable of a SSB signal, and put a chirp on


every C\ V station .
The circuit of Fig. 5 puts an end to such
problems. The d iode ( which must be a
vacuum-tube type ) presents very small resista nce ill one din..' ctinn but almost infinite
resista nce in the ot her. Connected as shown,
it provides an AVC attac k time measu red in
microsec ond s, hu t release time stretc hes out
to he al most in seconds. Thus, the A\ 'C can
cut hack instant ly when a strong signa l arrives, hut gai n won't be restored between
syllables ( or between d its of C\V). Between
words, normally, the gain will return.
Both the attack and the release times can
he controlled independently by adj ustment of
va lues of C l and Rl. C l controls attack
time; increa sing its va lue makes the AVC
take longer to respond to a signal. \Vith C l
set at the proper value, Rl determines release time. In creasing its value increases recovery tim e bet ween signa ls. Values shown in
the figure have been p roved in practice,
though they may seem un duly large.
Since SSB and C\ V AVC aren't suited to A~I
reception, th e switch shown in th e schematic
is u sed to restore normal A~I ac tion. It is
ganged to the F UNCTIO N selector on the
front panel, or may he an added control.
Th is syste m of AVC won't work un less your
set has separate if channels for signal and
AVC lines. To install AVC for sideband or
C \ V Oil a single-cha nnel set, you have th ree
choices: yOll can build up a complete sep arat e if clunmel ( which is bulky, expensive and

Fi g . b-This cha nne l-sp litter (two cat hode follo wers with parall eled inputs) allows th e same
if strip to be used independently for sig nal
and fo r Ave. It is connected betwe en the last
if transformer and the detector inputs. Interaction between the detectors is minimized by
its isolati ng acti on .

l!oO.
8_
I F IN

12AX7

-;:,-

,.
,~

~
OET

--

I,r:

~l

,I
"

-.~ TO Av e

"

FE BRUARY 1961


Fig. 7-Aud io hangi ng AVe g ives AaHest possible characteristic for sse and ew use.
Audio is amp lified in ha lf of 12AX7, rectified
to produ ce AVe voltage by I N34, and AVe
is g ated to contro l bus by o ther half of
12AX7, di od e-conn ected . Th e switch a llo ws use
of norm a l AVe circ uit ry o n AM si3 nals.

''''

of

"
TO TOP Of

complex ); you can install a twin -triode splitting amplifier ( see Fig. 6 ) at th e end of the
if strip , a head of the detectors; or vo u can
install audio A VC .
.
Of the three, amlin AVC offe rs more ad vantages a nd fewer disad vantages. T he separate channel system has no advantages, and
its disadvantages have just been listed . The
splitter of F ig . 6 has the advan tage of comparative simplicity (a nd the A:\I detector ca n
he com bined w ith th e Ave channel) but is
still more co mplex th an aud io A " C .
Audio Ave offers the advantage of a fla tter
ga in-control characteristic, greatest simp licity
in construction, fewest number of parts, and
reliability. Its on ly major disadvantage,
which can be overcome hy ca reful desig n, is
that it makes it possible to overload the d ete ctor before Ave cuts gain back. However,
this effect is normall y present only wi th A:\l
signals of very low mod ulat ion percentage.
The circuit for an audio AVC circu it is
shown in F ig. 7. Included in thi s circuit are
the tim e-shapin g netw orks of Fig. 5, in
slightly different form . This ci rc uit is adapted
from one described by \V pBFL th ree years
ago. The origina l circuit used five tubes ( in
two envelopes) to accomp lish its purposes.
T he modified circuit uses a single 12AU7 and
one I N34 , allowing it to be added to almost
any receiver.
T ha t about wraps it up for now . There arc
countless other SSB or C \ V detector circu its,
but virtua lly a ll are modifica tion s of one or
another of these basic arrangements. If you
need additiona l deta ils on any of the circuits,

12AX7

220K 01

VOL.CONTI'l 0'

IN3 4

--

--

-c

"

4 10K

~
1M

$SB
AYC 8U S

./
AM

10M

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TO
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AYC OEl

they can he found in th e references listed


below; if you can't find them there, the au tho r
below.
73
BIBLIOG RAPHY
Crosby, \ V2CS Y. Reeeutton With Produ ct Detectors. QST ,
Ma)' , 1956, Peee 20 .
CQ Staff. Product Detector, CQ :'o lagazint", November. 1956.
Page 19.
Earnshaw, ZLIAAX, and Stoner. W6TNS, A N ew
Product Detector, CQ MSKlu.:ine, August, 1959, Page 36.
E a s tma n , Fundamentall\ of Vacuum Tubes, Third Edition,
P ages 555 -55R and 575.
E kst rom, WI UGX /3 , Si mplifhod Predu c t Detecto r Design.
QST, M a y. 1959, P a g e 4 3.
Good man. W ID X, Retter AVe for 8 SB and Co de Reeeution , QST. January. 195 Page 16.
H ea ley, W 3HEC. No h'. o n t he Pj-odu et Deteetor. QST.
December, 1957. Page 42.
Lee. W3JHR. Seve Your S u per- P r o for S S B. CQ Maga _
z ine. September, 1958. PaKe 52.
Lu ic k. W RFL. Improved A .V.C. for Side nand and
C. W QS T, October, Hl57 , P a g -e 46.
Terma n, E Ie ct rorric and Radio Engin t"t"ring, Fourt h Editio n. Pages 56R-5Rl and 1007.
W eb b, W AHM / 2. A S)"nehronOU $ D et l"C."tion Adapter f or
Communj('atlon ll Reeetvees, CQ MaKazine. June, 1957,
P a g e 30.

Protect the Panel


Probably the most exaspera t ing a ccid ent
that can happen in a construction p roject is
to reach the final assembly stage and h ave the
wrench slip as the control nu ts are bei ng tightened. A dee p scratch t hrough the decals a nd
pa int is the usual resu lt .
A metal wa sh er, with a center hole just
lar ge eno ugh t o clea r the cont rol mounti ng
nut, will serve to protect t he fini sh of t he panel
against tool marks. The photograph shows th e
method used.
. . Pafenberg

FEBR UARY 19b1

73 MAGAZINE

33

Up-Dating the
Absorption Wavemeter
by Edwerd M. Noll W3FQJ

absorption wavem eter has had numerous applications around the station. Its
resonant cir cu it makes rather efficient u se of
radiated rf energy. An absorption wavemeter
r-an be calibrated rather clo sely freque ncywise and is not troubled with beats and harmon ics like t he more sensit ive frequency
meters. It is a fi ne devic e for checking-in t he
correct harmon ic and for chasing down p araHE

eve n better pick up . Ju st a three or f our foot


length of st iff wire has a pronounced effect
on pick up. Therefore the wavemeter need
not be coupled n early so close to sour ces of rf
ener -gy.
If you bring the pick-up antenna into r esonance by loading it works ou t rather well a s a
field st r eng th me t er. At least you ca n set it
up ou ts ide a nd walt z it a roun d the directional
antenna to see wha t is or isn't happening.
we u se the arrangement to check out class
D CB transmitters in the shack. It does a much
better job than t he untuned jobs used widely
fo r CB te sting. T hese are r eally flea -pow er
tran smitters and a n improved pick-up is of
great benefi t .

stttcs.
The average absorption wavemeter can be

Modulation Checks

made even more ver sati le with some minor


revi sions. Many hams now have an oscilloscope
at their disposal. Why not set up the absorption wavemeter to permit a convenien t display
of mutation envelope? Give the absorption
wavemeter- a tittle more pick up a nd it does
well a s a field strength met er. Some bands pr ead tuning helps out when you are concerned with a s peci fi c sect ion of a band.
Our Triplett Model 3256 Absorption Wavemeter was the obj ect of ou r modernization
plan. As shown in F ig . lA it uses a tapped coil
arrangement and, th erefore a single coil to
cover the bands fr om 10 to 80 meter s inclusive.
A sing le-pole sing le-t hrow switch permits high
and low band change-over. Three components
were added to permit more versatile operation.
A sma ll t rimmer capacitor was added across
the regu lar ta nk ca pacitor to a ct a s a bandsp r eader . We selected a sma ll 15 mmfd j ob

Most ser vice and ham-shack oscilloscopes


provide easy access to deflection plate term inals. Usually a back or s ide plate mu st be
removed to ex pose the direct -connection terminals. The connectio ns are made via an R-C
coupling ne twork ( most always built into the
scope ) to isola te th e oscilloscope high voltages
from the terminals . Thus direct lines can be
run from the two add ed t erminals of the absor pt ion wavem eter to the direct-connection
terminal s of the oscilloscope. The rf energy
in the wavemeter tank circuit is applied directly to th e vertical deflection pl ate s a s per
I"'i g . 2.
T he u se of the absorption wavemeter and
oscilloscope rep resen t s a n easy method of dis.
playing a mod u lated envelope on the scope
scr een . No circu it need be broken in to because
no insertions have to be made into the trans mitter or its transm ission line. The wavemeter
and a st iff antenna wire of four f oot length
w hen spaced seve r a l feet from a five watt CB
transmitter p icks up su fficient ene r g y to display a two to t hr ee inch modulation envelope
on t he scope screen. I s there a more convenient method to check out modul a ti on cha r acter ist ics for an y type of an Al\I or SS B transmitter?
In checking modul a tion on the oscilloscope
an unconnected phone plug wa s inserted into
the phone jack to t ake the r ectifi er and meter
ou t of the waveme ter circuit. This precaution
prevents high cu rrent flow in the meter circuit
a nd clipping of the envelope.
73

ANTEIfil

CI-JQtiNSON 15 MI1
142J1 MIN.VAR1A8lE
2- SMT H 8IHOlNG POSTS
257R ANO.2578
ANTENIrlA WIRE

TERMINAL

with a very low minimum. Wit h t he low mi nimum value, the mai n dia l ca libr a tion ho lds up
whe never the ba ndsp read capacitor is set to
mi nimum capacity.
Two multi-purpose b inding posts were connected across the r esonant tank of the wavemeter. These permit con venience in removing
rf energy for oscilloscopic di splays. They also
provide a facility for con nect ing a st iff wire
antenna and an a ssociated loading coil for

14

73 MAGAZINE

ANTENNA

,,,m,
,

LINE
S~I

sccee

,
I

TERIllHrUL5

FEBRUARY 1961

The
Interference
Chaser
of the most annoying forms of interference-TV, Be, HA (hea r ing aid ) , or
a ny other k ind-is that ca used by a udio r ectification. It ann oys n ot only the list ener, who
hears unwanted sounds in his set , but the ham
- sin ce the ira t e TV fan ca n easily learn his
ca ll let ter s a nd bomba r d him with comp la ints !
Of course. curing a udio inter f erence is
simple. The ha ndbook s have carried complete
deta ils f or yea rs. All you have to do is conn ect a low-pass audio filter ah ea d of the fir st
a u dio st a ge of the affected set (see ARRL
H andbook, Ed itors and Engin eers Radio Handbook, etc.) an d t he interfer ence disa ppears.
T he trouble with this approach is equa lly
sim ple-few of u s like t o d ive beneath the
chass is of a commerc iall y-bu ilt r ecei ver. And
explaining to an unhappy n eighbor, in t erms
he ca n r elay to hi s r epairman, u su ally proves
to be a t a sk beyond the cap ability of the most
literate hams.
Here's a little gadget which you'Il be able
to wh ip t og eth er in h alf an ho ur or less which
does all t he work fo r you . T otal cost will be
less than $1. 50-and mo st TV fans will be
willing to pay for the p arts when t he gimmick
proves it s abilit y to cha se your voice fro m
thei r sets.
The Int erf er ence Ch a ser is a plug-in device
wh ich goes into the fi r s t audio tube socket of
t he affected set. The tube t hen plugs into the
Chaser , and presto, int erference is gone.
It's effect ive on ly against a udio r ectification.
If you're having trou ble with so u nd b ars,

NE

FEBRUARY 1961

blackout, negative images, etc., t he Ch aser


won't help much. B ut against r ectification,
it's murd er.
To build the Ch ase r , first determine wh ich
tube type is affected in t he set. Usua lly , the
tube loca t ion cha rt pasted to t he back of mo st
TV sets will give you t his inf ormation. AI.
thoug h ther e's no sta nd a r d ized tube f or the
fir st aud io position, many sets use a t ype 6AV6
(or s im ilar ser ies-s t r ing 'A V6 type) here, and
the wiring di agram s ho wn in Fig. 1 is f or the
'AV6 series.
Nex t, gather the pa r t s. F or a 7-pin Chaser ,
get a Vector type TX-7-M-S "Experimenter's
T ube Socket Adap ter," a 47K lh -wat t r esistor,
a nd t he s mallest 47 mmf. ceramic ca p acitor
yo u ca n loca t e.
If t he se t you' r e wor k ing on has a It-p in tube
in the fi r s t a udio slot , get a Vector TX-9-N-S
adapter . F or octal-based tubes, g et the Vector
TX-8-0-S. Other parts r equirements do n ot
cha ng e.
Now to the bench a nd solder ing ir on. Strap
t he plug and socket connections, with except ion
of t he g rid pin. By " s t rap," we mean connect
pi n 2 of t he pl ug to pi n 2 of the socket , etc.,
so that a ll con nections go st r a ig ht t h roug h the
a da pter-except the g ri d conn ection.
At the grid pin (pin 1 on the 6AV6, 6AT6,
6AU6, 6AQ5, and many but not a ll other
7-pin tubes), connect the 47K resistor in the
circu it . One end goes to the plug, the other
to t he socket. Then connect t he 47 mmfd capacitor f rom the grid pin of the socket to the
ca t hode with the sho rtest poss ible leads.
Finally, put the shell on the adapter and
you're all done with the gadget.
In operation , a u dio s ig na ls are un affected by
the Chaser's built-in filter since it h as a cu toff
f requency of a pp r oxi mately 150 k c, However,
r f signa ls are grea tly attenuated (mo r e than
60 db a t 50 mc) and ca nnot r each the tube's
g rid wi th enough st r en gt h to cause r ectificat ion.
Usua lly, a single Cha ser clears up t he int erference. St u bborn cases, such a s a sensitive tape-recorder a m plifier ope r ated within
50 f eet of the t rans mitter, might r equ ire two.
In thi s case , put on e in the first st a ge and the
ot her in t he second.
K5JKX /6

,~

~.f:Ii
".

:9)

TUBE SOCKET
( BO":" /CM VIE w)

A 7<

(0,
,

r
e

~V

PLUG, ~;

BASE
( TOP VIEWl

73 MAGAZINE

35

Getting the Most from


Your Mobile Whip
C harle s E. Spitz

' 420 S. Reedclph St.


Arlingto n 4. Virg iM

you arc one of the ma ny who test out


your new mobile r ig on the big rotary beam
and get th ese flat tering reports that make
you wonder if you s hou ld chuck the big juice
eater out, then with unbounded enthusiasm go
through the gymnastics of installing it in the
family chariot
and call and
ca ll without breaking that round table, this
may be for you.
Did you ever r e ve r se the sit ua t ion and see
how the big rig would work on that pretty
miniature mobile whip? \Vell, of course no
one in their right mind would mount the whip
on an ash can and pump a kilowatt through it.
Ah, but it should work way up on top of that
fifty foot crank -up tower! In fact, I th ink,
let 's put the 40 mete r whip on top of the
tru sty tr'i-bander and add forty meters to our
antenna repertoire. After all, that's why we
insi sted upon all-band. receivers and tran smitters . One glance at the wintry breezes out of
doors convinced me to sha r e this secr et
thought, and after a brief di scu ssion and with
the vision of doing away with masts a nd long
w ires, my good frie nd Les Will iam s, W 4ERZ
ex-F7EM, volu nteered.
From the comfort of my arm chair where I
perused vision s of new el ectronics devices,
alarming sca tter ed reports came in over the
radio. Now alert to the sit u a tion , I found the
full stor y deep under the heterodynes of forty
meters. Les put a shiney new fiber glass whip
with a spirally wound element on top of h is
tower. H e gradually cranked in carrier and it
became evident that the VSWR was good and
that the thing might work . Up came the full
power, then the on-the-air trials . There is an
0 1 t repeated amateur legend that says "a
vertical antenna is equally poor in all directions." Even with a full kilowatt, the reports
were n't just poo r, what t here were of them
were horr ible.
The tower was cranked back down, dutifully
tilted over, and the antenna and all connections were examined. This type of whip has
a rubber compound tip, now all blackened,
lo'

lb

13 MAGAZINE

splatte red and char red. Even the resona nt fr eque ncy of t he antenna ha d shifted. Obv iously
we di scovered a new type of electronic heater
t hat did not have a good indu strial application on top of an antenna ma st. I n fact, it
certainly did not appear to have the makings
of a good antenna in thi s application.
I am sure that by now you may be ' onderin g JURt what a ll t his h a s to do w ith mob ile
work. W ell , the effects are similar bllt the
lower ])ou:er nor m all y used in mobile work
does not show If]} som-e of th e invisible forces
a,t play so eos ily . Come sum mer the KWM -2
was going to be mobile and these were the
antenna s to be used . The lessons learned
should, of course, be, applied.
,

WHIP

,-

..

0 ,

~: ;~
METER

A basic problem is to get the most from


a wh ip. There are a ll kinds of w hip a ntennas,
and while there was no attempt to try them
all, the experiments we made led us to think
all would be s im ila r ly affected to some degree .
B~' outlining the parameters of the sit ua t ion,
we find :
1. Unless there is some basic change
in the art, t he abbrevi ated whip is n ot
very effic ient; you must live wi th it and
old man H ea viside (layer) as your chief
aide.
2. The impedance should be matched to
your feedline. After all, radiation inside
your car isn't of much value!
FESRUARY 1961

Photograph, W4ERZ and W4API with


whip and grid-dip meter.

3. The antenn a shoul d be r eson a nt a t


you r operati ng fr equency. {Ha ! sez you,
I know that! Yes, but did yo u ever do
anyt hing about it?)
P r oblem One is beyond ou r con trol. Probl em
Two can and u sually is taken care of wi t h
the trusty M icromatch. Most peop le come
afoul of Problem Three an d do noth ing abou t
it. W ith t he spira lly wo und gl a ss w hips t his
is tricky. One of the purposes of t hi s article
is to gi ve yo u t he courage to use a ha cksaw
on t hat pretty whip yet retai n it 's trad e-in
value.
In or der to t une up th e anten n a moun t ed on
your ea r, you mu st s imu la t e operat in g conditions in a ll respects . T hi s mea n you do t his
a way from build ings, people, a nd car doors
a nd tru nks mu st be closed. You r chief tool
is th e g'I'id dip meter and rece ive r . You may
h a ve to drill a hole in t he body of the ca r
(out of s igh t , of cour se l ) , so you may run
a t wisted pa ir to a g ri d dip met er link and
yet close the trunk . Yo u may elect to do your
mea suring on the car sea t (hoping you have
foa m rubber se ats , an d not nast y i nduc ti ve
coil spr ings) , u sing the car r ig low impedance
anten na f'eedl in e. T he tri cky part of thi s ope ration is t o keep the antenna ve r y loosely
coupled to the g rid dip meter by a li nk so
you ca n be sure of the r eson ant freq uency.
FEBRUARY 19b1

N ote your basic r esonant frequen cy and write


it down . You mu st be su r e of it, because t h is
is where th e hacksaw comes in a nd your rate
of change is noted . You sa w off the end of
you r an tenn a , one in ch or one-ha lf inch at a
time a s ill us t r ated in the chart.
The ph oto s hows t he proper att ire for t he
exper iment- in mid summer. The picture a ctua lly s ho ws how not to do it, a s the whip
s hou ld be moun ted on the ca r and people a s
far away a s pos sibl e.
T he purpose of Fig . 1 is to in sure f amiliarity
with t he proper hooku p to any g r id di p meter.
Tw isted pa ir or light co-a x ia l ca ble may be
used to couple the meter to a one tur n li nk
on the appropria te coil f or t he band used. The
cou pli ng may be "tig ht ," th at is near t he
coi l, f or in it ial location of the resonan t f req uency of t he ante nna . T he " big dip" is wh a t
you are looking for. The link is then backed
a wa y from t he co il, however in doing so you
will note t hat t he g rid dip meter fr equency
ha s chan ged. The process may have to be r epea ted u n t il you a re su r e you have the cor rect
f req u e ncy, which will be the only appreciabl e
big di p. Grid dip meters are not oriously poor
in ca li br at ion , therefore when you have t he
correct s pot, tune it in on a f requency meter
or g ood r eceiver in or der to g et the exact
fr eq uency.
Ou r a im wa s to cut a 40 mete r Shakespea r e
Wonde rod Model 62-6 whip to 721 0 kc and a
Model 62-7 to 3975 kc, for S SB oper a t io ns .
The char t illu st ra tes t he cau ti ous inch-by-i nch
measurements a s the whips w ere pruned w ith
a hack saw. You will note t hat a s the fr equency goes up, t he effect of th e w inding' pit ch
of the spir al ante nna and ind uct ive effect increases th e fr equen cy cha nge per i nch. Thi s
w ill becom e more cri tical on hi gh er fr equency
band ant ennas.
W hat happen s if you cut too much off ?
Rem ember ou r rubber com pou nd ti p? Placing
t he tip back on t he 80 mete r whi p low ered
the f requ ency f rom 3975 kc to 3955.5 kc I This
o pens u p t he possi bili t y of fr eq uency r ecovery
by t he u se of the ca paci tive effe ct of a lossy
d ielectric su ch a s t he rubber co m pou nd. Various t ypes of tape shou ld do thi s a lso, and there
should be no d ifficulty just a s long a s you
don 't feed a k ilowatt in to th e anten na!
73
F req ue ncies S hnw n are Wit hout Rub ber T ip
80 Mete rs
One Inch St e ps, Sewe d
Off Ta pe red End

40 Mete rs
One-hell Inc h Ste ps.
Sa wed Off Te pered End

Ba sic
Freq ue ncy-38SS kc

Bes te
Freq ue ncy- 7046 kc
-7073 kc
-7109 kc
- 7134 kc
- 7168 ke
-7192 kc
-7210 kc

-3900 kc

-3933 kc
- 39 7S kc

71 MA6AZINE

37

How Modern

IS

the VFO?
H OW lHd S. Pyle " YB" W 70E
3434 74th Aven ue , S.E.
Merce r lsle nd . W ashi ngton

communication field . H ow could you possibly


work a ny DX with 5 or 10 watts of power
from a little lamp when you had trouble covering three to five hundred miles with a quarter or half kilowatt "rock-crusher"?
A tunable oscillator of the late 20'5.

Tu ned -plate , tu ned-g rid tra nsmitter of th e 30's.

Grid coil on left. plate coil on right.

EWCOMERS to the ham ranks take the "var-i-

able frequency oscillator" or "VFO" as


it is popularly termed, for granted. If they
have entered the field via the Novice route,
a VFO is of course, 'forbidden fruit' until
s uch time as they qualify for a higher class
of license. Surprisingly enough, a large number of relatively "old timers" among the General class licensee s accept the VFO a s a development of fairly recent years. Let's see
how recent!
Right after \Vor ld War I, when the ban was
lifted from amateur operation (October 1919),
great interest was exhibited in the vacuum
tube as a generator of radio frequency oscillations not only by hams but by commercial
compa nies and t he military services as well.
Experi men ta l work in var ious labor atories
during the period of hostilities had ra ther conelusively demon st r a ted that great possibilities
were evident here. \Vhile vacuum tubes had
previously been used to a limited extent, chiefly
by Dr. Lee deForest, their inventor, as radio
frequency generators, they were not popu larly
accepted either in amateur cireles or by
commercial operating interests; " spark transmitters predominated in the wireless /radio
38

13 MAGAZINE

Probably the greatest single incentive which


brought the turn to vacuum tubes for transmission was the development and production
for the U. S. Navy by the \Vestern Electric
Company working in conjunction with the Bell
Telephone Laboratories, of the C\V-936
RADIO TELEGRA P H AN D TELEPHONE
T RA NS MITTE R / RECE IVER. Nominally
rated at ten watts, it employed a VT-2 oxidecoated fi lament type of vacuum tube as the
r adio f r equency osc illator. A similar t ube acted
as a power a mplifier . Oxide filament tubes of
smaller physical size and r ating, designated
a s the VT -I , were employed in the receiver
portion of this compact un it. T he C\V-936,
initially designed for the small \VW- I subchasers, performed so surprisingly well that th ey
soon found their way aboard destroyers and
not long thereafter were included in the rad io
equipment complement of more major war vesFEBRUA RY 1961

sels. Hundreds of hams among the thou sands


who had enlisted in naval ser vice, found opportunity to u se and evaluate these li t tle r igs.
Much thought ful pond erin g r esulted: " I l -mm; ten watts? Only 350 volts of dir ect cur r ent at a few milliamperes and yet we work
hund reds, even thousands of miles? Ma ybe it 's
because we a r e a t s ea on a n u nbroken expanse

tion to a whale of a lot of problems which had


been plaguing the development of t he radio
t elephone! It beg an to look like it wouldn 't be
to o long befor e the hams cou ld converse by
means of the h u ma n voice, as well as the more
conventional keyed characters of the radio
teleg raph code !
Th at did it! Somewh at of a la ndslide s t ar t ed. Ha ms by t he score we re in vest ing in t r a nsmitting vacuum tubes and appropriate power
s upply compo nents , both of which were beg inning to appear on the open market. Tubes
were ava ila ble in sever a l wattage rating s;
most popular at the outset was the U V-202
whi ch was , if my memory isn't fau lt y , rated
a t 7 % wa tts. In most cases, t he ha m woef ully
overloaded them a nd t hey ran closer to 15 or
20 watts in many rigs even if their meta l
plates did turn a cherry red or bet t er! But
they wor ked ! It was not long be fo re th e UV203 tube, with a r a tin g of fifty watts ap pear ed.
100 watt 200 meter tran smitter cir ca 1924. The
wa vel ength was a dj usted by th e two var iable
cond en sers.

./I j I

Side view of the 200 meter transmitter. The


g rid coil is mounted insid e th e e d ge-wound
p late ind ucta nce .

of salt water bu t too, maybe th ey've got somet h ing the re J If we ever get out of t his nav y
and back on the air, let's try it!"
And they did! The transition period was
relatively s low ; many " die-hard s" who had
only heard of the ma r velous perfor mance of
the tiny vacuum tube . .. they had not been
assigned where they could actually observe
this . . . still s wore by 'spark' an d st uck t o
thei r gun s. Ju st t he same, more a nd m or e of
the peculiar, h igh-p itched whistles began to a ppear in the regenerative receivers of that day.
T he r emar kable th ing was t hat such st a tions,
many a thousa nd or more miles d istan t, we re
con sistently heard st a t ing that they were using only 5, 7 % , 10 . . . only a very few were
r ep orting a s m uch a s fifty watts of power!
Remember too, t hat t he f requency or 'wavelengths' a s it was then r eferred to, was in the
neig hbor hood of 200 meters or 1500 ki locycles,
admitt edl y f a r less effect ive t han t he much
higher frequenc ies whic h we u se today. And,
the use of vacuum tubes seemed to offer a 501uFEBRUARY 1961

They we re costly ... in it ia lly $30.00 each a nd


some a mb it ious r ig b uild er s requi r-ed t w o ;
they were just a s subj ect to burn-out a nd
breakage a s the relatively less expensive
sma lle r t ubes, but a n umber of ham s go bbled
t hem u p, perhaps parall eled t wo of th em a s a
'high power oscillator' or used one as a n os73 MAGAZINE

39

cillato r-, the other a s an 'amplifier' with h igher


voltage and current in put .
And what did the ham use for an oscillator
circuit? Cu r rent magazines were literally sat u rated with construction articles and schema t ics
covering vacuum tube tran smitters. Circu its
were devised , altered and ' im proved ' practically overnig-ht. It made your head swim;
what to use? I nvar iably an 'oscillator' tube
was employed ; it wa s t he actual radio f r equency generator and the real heart of the
r ig . Hartley a nd Colp itts oscillator circuits
were t he most po pula r among the early exper imente r s. Basic equipment wa s t he tube, an
inductance coil, variabl e condenser and a
sma ll handful of fixed condensers and resi stors ; ma ybe an rf choke or two. Often the
inductance fo r even a fi ve watt rig wa s wound
of 1,4" copper tubi ng or even larger ! It just
didn't seem rea sonable that a transmitter
wou ld work with smalle r diameter conducting
material when we remembered that our spar k
rigs invariably called for such copper "pipe"
or heavy cop per r ibbon for the "oscillation
transformer"! Look at t he oscillator coil in
your rig today; probably wound with #20 or
#22 wire; t he final amplifier coil in even a
half kilowatt modern rig, seldom uses anything
lar g er t han # 10 copper wire!
Ma ny of t hese in iti al tube tra nsm itters con s ist ed merely of an oscillator feedi ng di r ectly
into an a ntenn a ; no buffer, no intermediate
or final amplifiers; st rictl y a one tube job
(ignoring the rectifier t ube 0 1' the ' slop-jar'
rectifier, of cou r se!) . And, by simp ly moving
clips on the oscillator coil and adju sting t he
variable condenser, any f requency wit hin the
L IC limits of the circuit components, could
be rap idly tuned! What was that other than
a 'variable frequency oscillator' .. . a VF O?
Many, many mo re circuit s were tri ed, a ccepted or di scarded. For a long ti me, what
was known a s the "tuned-plate tuned -grid "
circuit wa s highly in fav or. I n effect , it was
merely the conventional oscillator circuit of
the time with a tuned plate circuit, to wh ich

had been added ad ditional L I C com ponents in


the grid circu it, making t h at also tuneable .
Wheth er this was any gain over the simpler
oscillator circuit alone or not, is somewhat of
a moot qu estion today; at any rate they
worked good .. . I u sed one for a couple of
yea r s.
The commercial compan ies a s well as the
military communication branches were not
asleep eith er. The amat eur wa s pointing the
way with hi s impressive increase in sig n al
exchange distance and the exceptional sh ar pness of t he emi ssion p er mitti ng- dozens more
st ations to operate within the frequency sector
formerly dominated by one spa rk sig nal ! As
with the amateur, newly designed commercial
equipment incorporated a "tuneable oscillator"
to wh ich the power am plifier an d the an ten na
could be r esonat ed throughout the f requency
r a nge of the equipment. What were th ese
ot her than 'VFO's' basi cally?
Amateur a s well a s commercial and military
equipme nt has been through a progra m of
continued prog ress an d improvemen t ever since
Ma r con i startled the world with hi s reception
of the letter "S" across the Atlantic Ocean in
late 1901. Prior to \Vor ld \Va r I , development
of ' spark' equipment from the simple sp a rk
coil of Ma r coni, to 500 cycle, quenched spark
ga p equi pment, took place.
Subsequent to
W'V-I , with the impetus which it gave to
vacuum tube tran smission, developments have
continued at even greater . . . almost fanta stic
. . . speed. The use of vacuum tubes are even
now t hreatened to a cons ider a ble extent by
a r elat ivel y newcomer . . . the tra nsi stor. Remember t hough, that just like the progress of
spa rk tran smis sion which, rig-ht up to the
la st, r equired high voltage, large compon ents
a nd a spa r k di scharge gap to cr ea te rf oscilla tions , t he vacu um t ube first requ ired an oscilla tor to create rf generat ion, just a s it does
today. T he ea r liest vacuum t ube osc ill ators of
record were capable of fr equen cy va ri ation .. .
the forerunn er of our present VFO! Do you
73
st ill th ink a VFO is someth ing "new"?

Improved Mounting Feet


Alth ough commercial rubber "bumpers" or
protective mounting fe et are manufactured for
installation on electronic equipment, t hey are
oft en difficult to locate and t he proper size
may not be immed iately available.
Automotive su pply sto res stock r eplacement
rubber hydraulic brake cups in a variety of
sizes and prices on th ese items are rea sonable.
T he photogra ph shows t he original uni t and
it s insta lla tion in a metal plate. T he groove
at the t op secur ely hold s the foot in the mounting hole. Th e rubber tip whi ch proj ects into
the cup is cut off with a pair of diagonal pliers.
These mounting feet are a di stinct improvement over those comme rci a lly a vail able. The
suct ion cup action will hold the equipment
40

73

MAG AZIN~

.. w
secur ely in place on a ny reasonably smooth
sur f ace.
. . . . Pefenberq
F ~ BR UARY

1961

LPA-l
AVAILABLE
IN KIT FORM
The most copied grounded-grid l-KW linear amplifier by
those who build their own.

AMPLIFIER KIT
LPA1 K it - (Iess t ubes, cabinet and b lower )
Blower- (optio na l for wa rm climate use)
Ca binetAdapter panel for rack mou nting .. _
_
LPA-1 Amplifier-Factory wired and tested
Complete with cabinet, blower and tubes

.
.
.
.

$269.50
19.95
48.75
9.95

375.00

.
.

$169.50
9.95

205.00

POWER SUPPLY KIT TOO


LPS-1 K it - (com plete with cabinet but less tubes )
Adapter panel for rack mounting
LPS-1 Power Supply-Factory wired and tested
Complete with cabinet and tubes

(5. . No v . QST, page "S and No v . CO, page 21, For outstanding Features)
KI TS AVAI LAB LE I N f EBR UA RY

lPA MU Malchin g Un it Price $3 6 .00


LPA.MU.2 Match ln9 Un it Price $ 36 .5 0
Fad o, .,. wired a nd le st.d
LPS .' Power Suppl y fo r LPA.l

Canal and Beaver. Bristol, Penna.


F orei gn S al e s-Ro y al N a ti onal Corp., 250 W e st 57th St., N e w York 19, N.Y.
OTHER B&W EQUIPMENT : Transmitters AMCW-SSB Transistorized Power Convert ers and I nverters Dip Meters . Match masters Frequency
Multipliels low Pass f iltels T-R s wucnes s R. f . f il ament Chokes . Irans mitting R. f . Plate Chokes . Band-Switchin g Pi-N etwo.k Inductors
Cyclometers Antenna Coalial ccnnectcrs Baluns Variable Capacltols Tol oidal Transformers . Conial SWItches . Fil ed and Rotary edgewound
Inductors . Plug-in Coils with fil ed and variable lin ks . Straight type air wound coils in a variety of dimensions.

73 MAGAZINE

41

73 Tests
the

710 C. D. O .
Dcneld A. Smith- W 3U ZN
Assoeiote Editor

Price: $29.95
Time for construction : 3 hours

Range: 400 kc-250 mc


A. 400-700 kc
B. 700-1380 kc
C. 1380-2900 kc
D. 2900-7500 kc
E. 7.5- 18 mc
F. 1842 mc
G. 42 100 mc
H . 100-250 me
Input power: 117 vee a t 10 watts
(little enough t o be used with a small
inverter in your car)

Warm up time: 90 seconds for use

3 minutes for stabil ity


Uses: Checking freq uency of a tuned
ci rc uit
Modula tion monitor

Crystal checker
Marker generat or

Siqnel genera tor


Oscillation detector
Neu tral ization detector
Find ing ca pacity of unknown
condenser
Finding inductance o f unknown

coil

Note that tuninq and sensitivity controls


are on right, making for simple one-hand
operation.
42

73 MAGAZINE

dip met er is one of those mus t. pieces


of equi pme nt for the ha m shack. By
buildin g one you can save mo ney and become
completely f a mil iar with t he un it at the same
ti me. Th e Ei co Model 710 comes in k it f orm
a nd sells for $29.95 . It ha s a band coverag e of
400 kc to 250 me, with all coils pr e-wound a nd
cal ibr ated.
T he unit is very small (2 14 " high, 2 9/16"
wide a nd 6'%" long ) , permit ti ng eas y, one
hand operation. It h as its own built-in ac power su pply, a s well a s a 500 microampere met er
f or r eadin g osc illato r current . T he frequ ency
scales are on a cylindrical dru m wh ich is
r ot a ted t hrough 340 0 , all scales having t he
same len g t h. Th e f ro nt pa nel is brushed sat in
alu min um, with ma rk ings etched into t he
pa nel. Th e cabinet is a g r ey fi n ished steel , fo r
r ug gedness an d good shielding characteristics.
Th e circu it used in the E ico G.D.a ., is a
Colpitts oscillator, using the excellent 6AF4A
high frequ ency triode. Eight di fferent ra nges
between 400 kc and 250 me a re provided by
eight pr e-wou nd plug-in coils. All scales are
3%. " long. A sens itivity control is pla ced in
parallel with the 500 l1a meter to adju st the
oscillator current to a mid -scale reading. A
switch is provided to cut off the B+ to the
oscillator, thu s permitting the circuit to work
as a tuned diode detector. A headphone jack
is mou nted on the front panel fo r C'V or phone
monotori ng, and zero beat purposes. T he meter
is automatically di sconnected when phones are
used a nd the sensit ivit y control is u sed to
control the volume at the headphones. A pilot
lamp is included to provide light for the d ial
sca les.

GRID

FEBRUARY 1961

Building t he unit requires some care, t hough


it is no t difficult. It is n eces sa r y to keep t he
leads short in t he osc illator circuit. Also, t he
unit wa s designed to be compact, which is a
r eal advantage when using it in tight places.
The oscillator tube is mounted at an angle, a s
ca n be s een in the p hotos, reducing lead
length and lower ing s t r a y capacities. T he osc illa tor circu it is wired fi r st with t he power su pply and other parts follow ing. T he drum (dia l
scales ) and gearing between the drum and
variable ca pacitor are mounted after the wiring is alm ost complete. The gearing syst em almost comp letely elimi nates backlash in the
di a l sys tem. T he met er and phone jack are the
last to be wired before the unit is mou nted in
its cabinet.
Eico ha s don e a very complete job on its inst r uct ions f or the u se of the unit. The manual
ex pla ins over one dozen uses, including the

..

...
e.

<0

. OGO. . . . . . . .

~-

finding of " Q" in a circuit, u nknown in ductance, checking neutr a lizat ion, etc. Drawing s
are pr ovided in the man u a l, sho wing various
method s of coupling the g.d.o. to t u ned circui ts,
crystals, etc. This feature of the instruction
manual will be of great help to the amateur
who ha s not used a g rid dip meter before.

Shacks
No matter how elaborate t he equ ipment or
ornate the set t ing , the room where J oh nn y
ham sets up bu siness is called "the sh ack."
This is not because a good many such insta llation a do actua lly deserve such a name , it 's just
a part of t he old ham tradition. I n the early
days of a mateu r rad io, commun icat ion of sorts
wa s accomp lished with the aid of motor-d r iven
spa r k gaps, chemi ca l r ectifiers in fruit jars,
ex t remely high voltages and huge antennas.

No mo t her or XYL wou ld tole r ate t he accompanying odors, din and a cut e dange r of fir e
and explosion anywhere in t he house. The only
solu t ion was a ' shack' in the backyard. Lon g
after spa r k wa s replaced by C\V, s hacks r ema in ed po p ula r for the pr ivacy they afforded
and were f reque ntly seen r igh t up to WWII.
Now, yea r s lat er , th e s hacks are go ne but the
t erm continues on.
W pH K F

=======~;;;;;;;;;

A COMPLETE 6 OR 2 METER RECEIVER


f or only

95

including built-in I 10 volt AC power supply and loudspeaker

Only 3 inc he s high , co mple tel y enclosed in ca b ine t


exce lle nt sensit ivi t y with st able . superregenerative detector
RF sta g e fo r increa sed sensitivity an d antenna isola tion
re ce iver mu ting switch fo r sfe nd bv-re ceive
fu lly transfor mer o pera ted
feat ure s dependabi lity ond sta ble op e rat ion
kit includ es p re-tuned coils for ea se of co nstruct io n
q ua lity com pon ents used throughout assure dependability

Mod e l SOSA (s ix mete rs) or Mode l SabA (two meters) kit, co mplete with st e pby-ste p co nstruction ma nu al
.
. $29.95
.
Mod e l SOSA o r Model SabA, wired, fa ctory tested . _
Ne il Model ALP HA six meter transmitte r kit, fe atures fi nest qua lity modulation , crysta l switch ing, front panel controls, t uning meters, cabinet 3 inches
high , 20 watts in put, low frequency osc illato r not ove rto ne typ e .. . _. . . _... .

49.95
58.50

See your d ealer or order from:

THE

NEIL CO. 1336 Calkins Road, Pittsford, N. Y. Baker 56170

FEBRUARY 1961

73 MAGAZINE

43

Power
for the
Old Pro
Jim Kyle KSJ KX/6

of the best buys around on the su r plus


market-when you can find it-is the BC779 receiver. In its civilian dress as the Hammarlund Super-Pro, the rig is well-known and
justly famou s.
The old Pro, how ever, has one design feature whi ch is at the sa me time an advantage
and a di sadvantage. The power supply is on a
separate chass is from the rest of the receiver.
Most of the time, thi s is a great help . The
receiver run s cooler, there is less trouble with
induced hum, and weight of each unit is somewhat lessened.
The only time it proves to be a sever e disadvantage is when you find one in your surplu s supply hou se-without power supply.
"So what," do I hear you ask? " What's so
tricky about building a power supply ?"
Really , it 's not so hard. But t he Super-Pro
powe r su pply, actua lly, is not one but tw6
separate su p plies. One furnis hes 385 volts at
100 ma, :no volts at 80 ma, and 270 volts at
50 mao The other furni shes negative 50 volts
for fixed bias . And duplicatio n of the original
XE

power-supply circuit proves to be an expens ive , time-consum ing operation.


Here's a modified Super-Pro power sup ply,
presently doing yeoman duty on my BC-779.
U sing' a combination of old and new idea s, thi s
su pply furni shes all oper a t ing voltages for the
Pro, at a total cost of less than $-!O is all parts
are purchased new. Any good su r plus hound
with a fair junk-box to dig through ca n trim
the cost to $10 or le ss.
Th is s u pply uses two 10-amp, 6.3-volt filament tran sformers, connected back-to-back, for
isolation purposes a s well a s to su pply heater
power for the r ecei ver. The isol a t ed 117-volt ac
then goes to a voltage tripler us ing silicon
d iodes. Thi s tt-ipler provi de s the positive vol tag-es. Highest potentia l under load is approximately 350 volts. A lthough th is is s ligh tl y
lower than t he des ign value for the receiver,
no ill effects have been noticed.
I n addition to feeding the tr-ipler, t he tra nsformer s also feed a half-wave rectifier which
al so use s a s ilicon diode . Th is diode is connected
with reversed polarity to provide bias voltage.

W ELL JIM YOU SHOULD HAVE. YOU R


KW FINAL HOOKED IN NOW, SO LE.1S
SEE: HOW 11 SOUNDS ACROSS 1 0WN
HEI<E....
44

73 MAGAZIN E

FEBRUARY 1961

117 VAC

*,,0

+ 385
(MERIT C2493)

10 K

5K
40

5K

, -50

A st iff bleeder and plenty of filter capacity assu re stea dy bias voltage r egardless of overall
load on the s u pply.
All connections are shown on the schema t ic
diagram, Fig. 1. No part of the writing is
critical. However, be su r e the solder j oints are
good-the original model blew one filter
capacitor because of a poor solder joint.
If you want to rai se the output voltage of
the tripler a bit, double the capacity of each
capacitor in that part of the circu it. T hi s wiII
rai se output voltage to 395 under load, but will

40

NO s 310

+ 270

also ra ise the voltage t apped down t he bleeder


accor di ng ly and so me modification of bleederresistor values may be necessary.
If you hav e a Super-Pro s it t ing around the
sh ack waiting f or a power su pply--or k now
where t o fi nd one cheap but h ave been held
back by lack of power for it-this simple circuit may be the an swer to your problem. Try
it a nd see !
Edit or'e Not e : E v en if you never see a
Super P 1' O this 1S a darned good power supply
icka to k eep on file.

Cash

Ham Headlines
If ham radio malus t h,. tr"1('s/,al'l' I's in )'0" 1' t01('n p!l'as,.
u nd a d ippitlg t o M art'in Lipton VEJ DQ X , 3 11 R osem.al'y R oad . T oronto 10, O nt ario. Canada. M arvin rims th ,.
i3 XMI'S S ervice, a montl y pllblka tion sen t t o all editors
of club bidletins. He w ill digest t hl' III OSt i m port ant
stories tha t are subm itted cad i monlh f or 1/$ to print in 73.

Everyw here I go people want to know what


sor t of articles we're looking for. :My yard stick
is simple : if the article is interesting and
accurate I want to print it. H aven 't you des ig ned somet hing unu sual which your friend s
have been a sking about? Drop a card for our
st yle sheet and get to it,
... \V2N S D

I~ollg

.J01111 }\ IICe llIH'


for 6 ~leCers
FEATURES
Des igned for maximum 'orword go;n.

Gam ma Motch for co -ox fe eder.


Fine st g ra de alum in um tubin g .
Ex ceptionall y sl ro ng s ince th ere ore

hol es.
All a lum inum co ns t ruct io n e li mi na tes ele clrolys is.
Ent ire b eam a nd s uppo rts [an b e g ro u nded for
lig ht ni ng protection .

!'i I'f:nf' If:AT lll:\S ' l flD E L 1,J . 6


lJ..siK" (;.... , .',. . . . . ... . . . . . , . , . 5 0.5 :ne
t:.. in . . . . . . , . . . . . ... . . . . . . . .. . , . , ] 3 DU

FIR N 'H i .. . .. . . . . . . .
" .S.lr.R

2 3 DB

I : I. I..,... I h a n 1..;:1 ..-Il hi n 2 )Ie

1f '1.1'1z s - ( ~.: 1>0...... polnlll)


I m p <,./o n c f' a ny ,.'a ..dard ",o .allial cab le
(h .. ..all l...." , h . . . . . . . . .. . . . . , . , . 21 ' . 6 "
IInrs . H... m

.\ '.. , ",','i ll"1 . , . . ,. , . . .. . . .. . . . 1 5 Il. ~ .


Shi,.pln" Ir..l"h , .... ,., . .. 20 lb .

We ore proud of t h is new l o n g J o h n An tenna. We've


fried to pu t in every fe at u re you could want. The re s u ll is 0 reeseeebte cos t high gain beam which can
e a sily be pu t up and which will s t a y there practically
forever. It has a wide enough lobe so you d on 't hove
to sw ing it (>r ou nd all the t ime, yet gives you tre m end~us g ::l in where you want it .

AT

HI-PAR PRODUCTS 'CO


FEBRUARY 196 1

n O drill ed

nH 'N

IH.'lTNIJIt' TO R S

OR

Jr"RI1'f: IHREC T

FITCHBURG, MASS.

73 MAGAZIN E

45

Pre cision Sw itch ing


at Specified
Current Le vels
is Easily Achieved

Photo by Ji m Gord ner

The Sigma Series 72 polar relay is shown


in contrast wit h th e much larger Western
Electric 255A relay.

with
This Unusual Application
of Polar Relays

Ro y E. Pefe nberq
P.O. Box 844

Fort Cle vton


Co nal Zo ne

Differen tia I
Switch ing
with
Polar
Relays

46

13 MAGAZINE

need fo r r elay operation at an easily


adju stable, preset current level is a com mon r equiremen t that is very diffi cult to meet
with conven ti onal r elays a nd st andar d circuit r y. Commonly available r elays are des ig ned
and fa ctory adjusted to t ri p at a specified
voltage or current a nd t o r elease at a point
substa nt iall y below the closi ng point. 'Vhile
the closing current is fa irl y well controlled
in production, th e r ele ase point is no t and generally ranges between 30 and GO % of the
value r equired to close the r elay. A real problem exists when an a ppli cation necessitates
fie ld a dj uatment of both t he pu ll-in and dropou t points of an available r elay.
The common ly accepted meth od of providing
a n easily ad justable relay is to se lect a more
se nsitive unit t ha n is actually required and to
s hunt t he oper ating wi nding wi th an adjustable or variable r es istor. An example will
show that thi s furth er increases, in actual curr ent, the undesirable s pr ead betwee n the operate and release points of the relay. Assume
that the wi nd ing of a r elay, which normally
closes on a cu rrent of 100 rna and releases
when the current drops t o 60 rna, is sh unted
with a resistor of the sa me valu e as the resistance of the winding. The relay will now
close on 200 rna and drop out at 120 rna. The

HE

FEBRUARY 19b1

Silr ma T y p e
Xu mbf'r
72AOZ-I0TS
72 AOZ-160_TS
72 A O Z 400-TS
72A OZ-I000-TS
72AOZ-2500TS
72AOZ-4 000TS

R f'sislan ce

nas ic R tla ,.

Euh Coil

SeR!~ i tl v i t ,.

10 ohms
160 ohms
400 ohms
1000 ohms
2500 oh ms
4 000 o h ms

5.60
1.40
0.90
0 .56
0 .35
0 .28

ma
ma
ma
ma
ma
ma

Opt'rati ng R an lrf'
:\lin . Max.
5 .60-240 ma
1.4 0- 60 ma
0 .90- 38 m a
0.56- 2 4 ma
0.35- 15 ma
0.28- 12 ma

Diu

nia ll Ser res


R ellilltan ce
J21.250 ohms
25- 10,000 ohms
50- 20 ,000 oh ms
250- 60,000 ohms
600-150,000 oh m s
400- 200.000 ohm,

S u p p ly

sv
12 v
18 v
32 v
48v
", v

"Cur-rent required t h ro ug h one coil to s w it ch un b tased re lay.

differen ce between the operate a nd r el ease


points ha s i ncr ea sed from 40 to 80 rna . Th is
Fig . I. Ba sic eleme nts of th e po lar rela y, The
sig nal winding c urre nt must ove rcome the
" bias" o f t he p e rma nent magnetic fi e ld before
t he relay will switc h.

.'
~

""

-,

characteristic cou ld easily ma ke an other wise


su ita ble relay u nu sable in cert a in shu nted applicat ions.
Th e defi ciencies cited a bove ca n , f or m any
applications, be overcome by the u se of a
pol a r r ela y. Thi s relay, in its mos t common
fo r m, co ns ists of a flo ati ng armature posit ioned bet ween t h e poles of a perma nent mag net fi eld. Th e armature may r est a g a inst
either pole of t he field and is magnetically
la tched in eithe r positi on, This con fig ur ation
is k nown a s t he " either side st a ble" type of
polar relay . Th e a rma ture is t he cent er contact a r m of the s ignle pole, double throw
contact arra ngeme nt normally pr ovid ed . Two
ide ntical oper a ti ng coils a r e provided a s signal
wind ings, either or both of wh ich may be
u sed. Opera t ing curren t. app lied to a w ind ing, dependi ng on t he polarity, either presses
the armature mo re firm ly ag ainst the co ntact
or tran sfer s it to the ot her con ta ct , Once
tra n sferred, t he a rm a t ure r ema in s in thi s posit ion until a n operati ng coil s ig nal of t he

CONTROLLED ILLUMINATION SIGN

HEAVY GAUGE STEEL CASE

WALL OR TABLE MOUNTING

BRIGHT RED LETTERS ON WHITE

ACOC 6-12-120V (SPECIFYI

BLACK OR GRAY BAKED FINISH

10'/ , 'L x 3W"H x 3"0

ONLY

95
NET

FEBRUARY 1961

TO I N STA l l SI MPLY CO N N ECT LEA DS TO THE COIL


OF YOUR ANT EN N A CHA N G EO V ER RElAY. WHEN
YOU ' Fl I P" TO TRAN SM IT YOU ARE O N THE A IR.

IcQ;A;;(HEPROD urn

AVAILABLE
IN OTHER
LANGUAGES

7 .95

-- -------WHO IS M Y

STELL A R El ECT RONI C


BO X 8 2

GARLAND, TEXAS
NAME

ADDRESS

NEAREST DISTRIBUTOR?
_

_ _ CAll _
STATE

73 MAGAZINE

47

opposite polar ity returns it to the original


position. Figure 1 shov..-e the basic elements of
a polar relay.
These relay's have been used in the communicati on s field for decades. They are precision sens iti ve r elays. with th e sensi t ivit y very
close ly cont rolled in manufacture and adju stment. The magn etic latching characteristic of
these relays is known in the communications
ind ust r y a s bias and thi s normal permanent
magnet bias may be augmented by flowing a
current t h r ou g h one of the two w indings .
When current, of t he m-oper polarity, is pa ssed
t h roug h t he ot he r winding and exceed s the
bias current by an amo unt equal to the basi c
sensit ivit y of the r ela y, the relay will switch.
When the sig na l current dr-ops below the bias
current by th e sa me amount, the relay will
switch back. In ot he r word s, regardless of
bias curren t, the differential between the operate and relea se condition s of the relay is
alway s constant and equal to twice the basic
sens it ivit y of the relay. T herefore, by regulating and controlling the bias current, it is
poss ible to extend th e ba sic precision of these
r elays over an e xt r e mely wid e range of operating cu rrents. As an example, if the unbia sed sensit ivit y of a polar relay is 0.5 ma
and a bias current of 50 rna is applied, the
relay will switch on a sign a l winding current
of 50.5 rna and swit ch back when the signal
current drops t o 49.5 mao
While man)' manufacturers make polar relays, the new Sigma Instruments, Inc. Series
72 units are r epresentative of the variou s
type s and are readily available in a number of
basic se ns itivit ies. The cha r t sh ows the published characteristics of t he variou s types and
al so gives bias su pply values and operating
r anges computed for the application show n
in Fig. 2 and described herein:

.-

-<>

LOAD

plus the indicated se nsit ivity of the relay,


while the drop-out current is the value shown
min us the sensitivity of the relay . T he mini mum currents sho wn are limited by the sen si ti vit y of the r elay, whil e the maximum
current is determ ined by t he rated dissipation
of the r elay windings. The bias su ppl y voltage s list ed were arbi trarily selected to provide
a voltage greater than that actually required
to allow a full range of adjustment. The s am e
con siderations apply in the maximum and
minimum values of r esi st ance speci fied . In one
extreme, the maxi m um d issi pation of t he relay
coils is slig htl y exceeded and t he bias cu rrent
is dropped below the sensitivity of the r elay
in t he other extreme.
Cure should be e xer cised in the selection of
t he ser- ies resistors in the event an application
requires adjustment through the complete
range of current. While a dj ust a ble and variable resi stors are rated in wattage di ssipation,
a maximum cur r ent Iimitution is imposed. Thi s
rating is usually t hat value of current which
results in the rated wattage di ssipation wh en
the t otal re sistance of the unit is in the circui t. U se of swi-tc he d fi xed r esi stor s and a
lower value adjustable or variable resi stor
will permit the use of lower wattage units.
Those readers that have regard ed relays
a s necessary evil s, to be used only when a
remotely located sw itch must be actuat ed, are
in for a pleasant su r prise when they explore
the infinite varie ty of circuit functions that
may be more sim ply performed by modern
relays. The example cited herein is only one
of many valuable applications of the polar
relay. While se m i-cond uct or devices are being
used for many switch ing functi ons, the relay
will be with u s f or many years to come. while
apparently s im ple, the application and u se of
rel ays is an intriguing sub j ect and familiarization and experience with th ese components
can be of great value in the development of
the technician.
73
Fig . 3. Bottom view of the base connections for
the Sigma Series 72 po lar relay. Polarity shown
closes 6 & 7.

CONTR Ol SIGNAL

r'

1111:

Fig . 2. This circuit provides precision switching


at easily adjustable signal current levels. See
ted for co mpo nent values.

Fig. :l shows the base connection of th e


Series 72 relay. The operating range shown
in the chart indi cates the range of bias current adjus tm ent possible for each type of relay. T he pull- in current will be thi s value
48

73 MAGAZINE

,," ,,

L-+i'

"..----,

. 7

FE8RUARY 1961

(. .. d. W2NS D (,om peg . 8)


A combi nation of curiosity about t his record and a des ire to ad d to the 45 rpm prog ram
material which I have bee n collecting to use
on my ca r r ecord p layer made me t hrow caution to the wind s a nd send in t he qu a r t er.
T he recor d came. I t was interest ing too. I
t urned up the vol ume a bit a s I bounced a long.
Sudden ly I almost we nt th r oug h a r ed light
when I heard my own voice com ing from t he
record talki ng to Mirko, Y UIAD as p a rt of
the demon stration of what yo u m igh t hear on
the ham ba nd s. Wha t a su r pr ise ! I looked
around fo r someone to tell, but a ll a r ound me
were the usual kids in Bui ck s waiti ng to outdrag my little spor ts car at t he light a nd fat
cigar smok ing men in CadiIlacs trying to elbow
me off th eir road . It 's very fr ustrati ng when
you ha ve somet h ing exc iti ng to tell a nd no one
to tel l it to.

P erha ps fi ndi ng my own voice on t he r ecord


colored my opinion, bu t I sure found the r ecord inter est ing . It (t he record) shou ld, I t hink,
help ge t a Jot of people listen ing to t he sho r t
waves.

....

TE XA S

CITIZEN BAND
CLASS "0" CRYSTALS
All 22 Frequenci e l

in Stoc k

$2 95

3r<l ere rtoee. ,OOS% loln'anf e--to meet . 11


C C rE' 'l u lr em E'nti. H enue tlc. lly .eal ed
Jl C6/U h oMe" . %" p in
I t>aflnx-.O:'O pin . (.1I93

plnl ull.blf!. alld l ~ pe r cr,rstal).


EACH
The lollowlnl Clan " 0" CIti zen Sa nd f~qu ene i es In I toc k
(freq uencies li lted 1ft meg H yd ll!$ ): 26.965. 26,975. 26.985.
27.005. 27.0 Ill. 27.025, 27.035. 27.055. 27.065. 27.075.
2 7 .Cl6~
27. IOS. 27.1 1.5. 27.125. 27. 135. 27. 155. 27.165.
27. 175. 27. 1M . 27.205. 27.215. 27.225 .
U at f b lld CT}'st.1 tell for Gl obe. uonser, Citl .'one .nd nam
cr aftl'" Un itl U .90 per SE't. 8 p edf)' equipment ma ke,

RADIO CONTROL CRYSTALS IN HC6/U HOLDERS


~peclfy f requency. %" pi n spaelne
pin diam ...ter .05
(.093 p in dllmE'ter dd 1St)
$2.95 ea.
fUNDAMENTAL FREQ. SEALED CRYSTALS
In H C6/ hOl dE'"
From 1400 KC to 4000 I{C .005% 'rereranee
$4.95 ea.
From 4000 KC to 15.000 KC any (req uell""
.005~ T olerant .. . ...... ....... $3.50 ea.
SEALED OVERTONE CRYSTALS
S up plied In met" II C6/ U boldE'lI
P in IPlclne .4S6. d llme ler .O~O
15 to 30 :'o I C .00.. Toler l nce . ... . . ... . . , $3.85 ea.
30 10 45 :'o l e .005 T olera nce . .. ... . . ... $4. 10 ea.
45 to 60 }Ie .005 ToleUllCe
$4.50 ea.

QUARTZ CRYSTALS
FOR EVERY SERVICE

Late January

All CT}'l t all ma lle from Gud8 "A"


Imported quartz--cround and etched to
eaect f r e quo n e i e I . Uncon dIti onally
eu aran teed l Supplied In :

The January issue of 73 wa s ma iled on


J a nua r y 3rd t o all s ubscri bers from our post
office in N orwal k, Con n. All copies were
mailed at one t ime. A ch ecki ng copy was in cluded t o ou r office in Brooklyn. Thus turned
u p on t he tenth! Copies were r eported being received f rom Lon g Island ham s a s lat e as t he
16th. The ways of the postal ser vice are
hard f or us morta ls t o u nd ersta nd .

FT 243 holden
I'ln . pacl ne %"
I' ln d iameter .1193

MC7 holde rs
P in s paci ng '%. ..
P in diameter . 125

DC34 hol den


I' l n I pacl ni '%. ..
I'ln d iameter .156

F T . 171 h old erl


Pin I paclng '%."
B anana pl nl

New Books
J ohn Rid er h a s j U!~ t pub f lshed a book w h ic h w ill be
o f g reat Int e r est. to our younger readers , t houg h t he
price is a b it s t ilt fo r t h e m. This is B ui(,8 of A nalog
Co m p u te n by Truitt a nd R oge rs. H o w c om e s uc h a com plicated book fo r )'ounlZlItE'rs! W e ll. fi rst o f a ll . a s any
o f you w ho h a ve in vested in R ide r books know, by t h e
time J o hn g E'ts th roug h publ ishing a book the su b j ect
has been r ende red unde rs tandable. Secondly. a s everyone
knows . c om p u ters a r e g ro wing i n to a tremendous field.
o n e which yo u would do well to consider if yo u s t ill are
tryin g to d ecide which way to head in this Iife. Teena gers who take up ham r adio are years ahead of the
f e ll ows who g o in to el ectronics in o r after college. I t
is a s h a me t o waste all this time just in playing around
o n two mete rs when it coul d be u sed to develop underst a n din a in com p u t ers. U HF. o r some of the obvious ly
big electronic fields ahead. In a d d itio n to giving you a
good foundation for unde rstading analog co mputers. this
book is fun to r ead. You will never be quite the same
o nce you've rea d it. 4 00 pagE'S. $ 12.5 0. John R ider, 116
W est 14th Street, N ew York.
Gernsback Library ha ll a new book by G. J . Christ:
T ub E'S a nd Ci r cu it8. Tbia book goes into good d e ta il on
the theory o f v acuum tubes and th ei r applications . W h en
y o u g et through wi t h this 192 pager y o u s ho u ld have
a good unde rstan din g of t he whole sub ject. $3.45 paper
cc ve r ed : $5 .00 cloth bound.

FEBRUARY 1961

ASK YOU R PARTS D EAL E R F OR TEXAS CRY ST ALS


see bli red diIPI., . . , If he does n' t ltoc k th e m. send UI
hil name and Ol'dE'r d ll'l!'l' t f rom our Flor ida ractOry.
NOW I E n li neerl ul lamp l.... and ~mall ouan tltlel fol' proLO ty pel nO"" llllide either at Chiea ,o or F t . :'oiYen P lant . 24
H our s err tce I
I N C H IC A GO, P HO NE GLa dstone 3-3555

RUSH YOUR ORDER TO OUR NEW PLANT


Use elHlp.n below for lit Clan s hi pment.

TEXAS CRYSTALS
DeD t . G31. 1000 CRYSTAL DR IVE. F ORT MY E RS . FLA.
For ut ra fut lervle Ph ell8 W E 6 2 100

I
I
I

I
I
I

'

-----------------------_.
73 MAGAZINE

49

'I

/~
.-

..."

. :

50

"

13 MAGAZINE

FEBRUARY 1961

H ere 's a N ew On e in Too ls

And . .. the belrt part . . . less than $4.0u


f or thi s handy contrivance and we'll bet that
your local h a m j obber already stocks it. If
n ot , write Adel Tool Co., 4640 Ronal d Street,
Chicago 3 1, Il lin ois fo r f ur t he r information .

We have recently had occasion to try out


a most exc iting new tool addition to the works hop equipment of the ha m who likes to build
hi , own gear ; the AD E L N I BB LING TO O L.
A wl it's [uet that ; a "ni bbler." Myst ifieJ ?
Well you might be un less you're " in t he k now."
This tricky little device takes all the hard
work out of cutting odd-shaped holes in metal
panels and chassis a s well as in tubular metal
pa r ts within it s generou s thickness liimts.
The "nibbler" will bite holes in s heet metal
up to 18 gauge st eel or 1116" copper or aluminum in j ust about any fo r mation you can

:--_ HAIL, COLUMBIA!_.-,


NOW!

Largest Store- Warehouse in the cou ntry


H u ge stock of electronic com ponents
C iga ntic surp lus d epartment
Like E lectron lcsville, man , all under one
roof!
Free Bulletins. Writ e. Try resisting our irresistuble bargains!
' Ve huy used equ ip ment. TS , C RC, P HC,
VHC , e tc. Let us hear from you.

COLUMBIA ELECTRONICS
~36 5

W. Pica Blvd. (ne o r Crenshow)


los Ang e le s, Colif
W E 8 -373 1
W hy b uy else where -when CO LUM BIA u nd e r.-lIs
ev.ry onel

CUT IT OUT!
Run, do no t wal k, t o t he ne ere st U. S. postal service
depository ond get the vo tes in for ' he a rticles in t h is
issue of 73. List et least you r firs t five choices os to
in terest. Winning outhor gets big bonus. You ge t nothing
out o f it but fervent 'honks f rom said au thor cnd better
crticles in the future.

think of. Cut your initials in a piece of rain


pipe do,... n-spout or your call letters in a
panel; squa r e, rectangu lar, oval or round cutouts for component mou ntings , as easily as
you pu nch ca r dboard w ith a pa per pun ch! E n larging h oles of a ny shape is 'duck sou p' f or
thi s li t tl e h ickey ; stick h is sn out in the hole
and do a bit of 'click-click' finger squeezing
and you've got a clean, smooth hole of the s ize
and sh a pe you want!

- Ro lli ng You r O w n
-Vorico p Amplifie r
- Simp lest Pctch
- 2M Pip.Squeok
- Sq uo w k
- 6 M Conve rter
- He a t h Palch
-L ife Insurance
-Ab sorption Wa ve me te r

_
_
_
_
-

In te rfe re nce Chase r


Mob ile Whip
V FO Modern
EICO GOO
Pro Po wer
Diffe re nt ia l Sw itch in g
Propagatio n Gue ssi ng
Ed it or ia l
Bea t Generation

with
-

\\-1 /

ute-

Send fo r (or, at yo ur dist ributo r), PL 7 7 Technica l Specificat ion s and Perfo rm an ce Bu ll etin descri b ing 106 Ant enn as from % th rough 80 meters
includ ing " BALUN" - FED ROTATABLE DIPOLES,
MONO, DUO , TRI, 4BAND AND " SPI RALRAY"
ANTENNAS, ROTATOR/ INDICATOR SYSTEM S,
TOWERS, BROAD-BAND " BA LU NS," ACCES
SOR IES AND " N ICE TO HAVE AROUND YOUR
SHACK" INFO.

For TOPMANON
THEFREQUENCY results . .
Install a Tel rex ante nna .. . doll ar for
dollar better in every way! Antenna
systems from $6,95 to $12,000,00

FEBRUARY 1961

Com m u nication an d TV Antennas

SINC E
192 1

rex LABORATORIES
ASBURY PARK 40, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A.

73 MAGAZINE

51

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -

New

Product
VHF Beam s
Cus hc ra f't has just announ ced a new lin e of
light weight, mechanically balanc ed 16 ele ment beam s for 144-220-4 20 me bands. These
are de sign ed so they can ea sily be g-anged for
larg-er a r r ays . Th ey mat ch any coaxia l or open
feed lin e and have a gai n of 13.2 db over a
dipol e. The booms are made of %" drawn
aluminum tubing, the ele men ts of 14" and the
s t acking bars of 3/ 16" heat treat ed solid aluminum rod. A lot of ca re has gone into the design
of thes e beam s. If yo u're bu zzing around th e
VHF's yo u'll want t o have all th e info on th ese
new bea ms. T he prices are very r easonable
(only $16 for th e Two met er 16 el ement beam) .
Cueherat t, 621 Hayward S t reet , Mal/chester,
New Hampsh re.

(.;;;

A Use for the Surplus 717A


T he su r plus 717A is a 'W or ld W ar Two
vint age h igh f req uency pentode th at has been
seen in "Radio Row" fo r a s little a s ten cents.
It was u sed e xtens ively in m ilitary V H F gea r .
I t h a s t he sa me ba se con nections a s th e 6SK7
and is di rectly inter ch ang eable with it. The
ARC-5 r ece iver s h ave t hree 12S K 7's u sed a s
rf and if amplifiers a nd t he 717A comes in
h a n dy when converting t hese r ece iver s f or six
volt operation. Th e 717A is also u seful in
increa sin g t he gai n and sensi t iv it y of older
receivers em ploying 6SK7 's in t h e rf or if
stages. T hi s is because the 717A h a s a lm ost
double the t ran sconductan ce of the 6SK7.
. . . W A2A KT

Letters
Dea r w ev ne :
T hr ee cheers for Wg E AM (on p , 57) fur the boost
for CWo
According t o W<j>H KF (on page 6) 50 cycles is dead.
For t he r ecord I wou ld like to s ta te t ha t approx imat ely
h a l o f my s a la r y for the past year was earned modify inR' equipm ent &/ o r n rcvt ng it wou ld work properly
o n 50 cycles a s well as un . (;0 cycles. Yest e rda y wa s
really a 100100. T he equip me nt l ikes to have one side
of t he po wer line g rounded. but t he 50 cycl e zenera to r
has o ne side 40 volts and the other s ide 60 vo lt s a bove
g-ro u tt d , with a bout 118 volts betwix t he t wo leads.
A 5 cycle component is nlso im p ressed o n t he 50 cycle.
Doesn ' t he like to wo r k D X ? Japan uses 50 cyc les at
100 vol ts, Germany 50 cycles a t 220 vol t s, and others
use 25 cyc les and 4 :~ cycles.
Ro y A . McCart hy. K6EAW
F ullerton . Ca li fo r n ia

FOR THE FIR S TTl ME. . .


In six attractive, permanent
colors with simple directions~:;:=~~~
for applying. Unequaled in ~
appearance. Ideal gift. Fo r
cln, doors , equip., boats,
plllnes, etc. Beautiful design
of world available in place
of state for Canad ian and
OX AmatlilUrs.

52

73 MAGAZINE

J~~~~~

Your Call and home state


in a single custom decal!

~~~~~~~~~;;7 each.
Price for either design
Add 4 % tax- in

$1.95
Calif.
Approx. size 3314" Jt 9". Mailed
P,P. within 7 days . No COD's
please . Enclose check or
M.O. Designate world design
if desired. Ask for quote on reo
producing your club Insignia.

FEBRUARY 1961

Letters
Dear

wa y ne :

Co n gratu latio ns o n th e J an u a r y bs ue of 7a Mn R"ltzine .


I found it m an y ti mes m ut-e i n t (' l"I~>ltin g t ha n t he c or respo n d i n g iss u es of b r 1!.mlll X & Y. K 8 ERV' s a rt icle on
th e Nuvis to r Converters ro r 6 & 2 w a s excell e nt; load ed
with food fo r t houg ht n n d c a u sed It g ood man y fri ends
and m yself t o a sk, " W hy d id n' t 1 t hi n k of that ?" ! The
"See-S a w B leede r " o f KV4 CI was a n ovel t ake-off o n a n
o ld " H ints & Kink s" idea but de ser- ves p r-aise (or b r in g in g it "up-t o-dat e." H .,8 1)>I of luc k , k eep up th e g ood
wor k o n 73.
AI La P la ca K2DD K
:'Ilanh :J.s s !'l. x. Y.

Dea r w a vne :
I j us t finishe d r('~..linR" th e J anu8r,." 1961 is s ue co ver
to cove r . The r e r-eally j" a lot o f art icle- pages in side .
He r e i s a ru n-down 0 11 m )" t h o ugh t s o n the conte nts.
The roltowrne were. I t h oug h t, a bo ve o r d in a ry. T h ey
are li sted in o rde r o f n r e ference .
L P olari t y T ot (apH- W 2QC I.
This a r-tiele was
w orth the co s t. of t h e m aga e fne, I t is the cleve r es t
and mos t u se f u l idea I h a v e seen in R lon g time. H o wever. wh y no t u s e sod iu m ch lorid e inste ad of potassi u m
ch lo rid e ! I t w orks just a s WE'll an d m igh t be easie r
t o come by ( ta b le sa lt , you kn o w ) . Thi s system is really
se na itive.
2. 129 6 Me/ II- V e ry e ood artte tc.. Gl ad to s ee things
on the pioneering phas es of h amdon .
3. Lo st i n a Tunn el - S a m e th inR: l':'Ol"!l for t h is one.
4. Suvi stor Co nv(' r te rs f or Six & Tw o-e- Ve rv good
construct ion n r-ti clc. One t h iJl4r I don't u n dersta nd, tho.
'W hat if! a "eonve ntionnl tu r ned plate c ircuit" ( P . 10 ) ?
5. A-)I ()f'l ef'to rl< - V ery good t echical article.
6. Tran si stori zed . R ee etv er-c- Oc c d "sl'e what can
be done" art icle .
7. Dewn w ith DriCt - A n ot h ('r l':'flm! technical ns-ticle.
J would also like to 111M t h e u sc o f h ent d is sipa t in g tube
s h ields to h is list.
T h e rest o f t he ur t iclcs wer-e sn t.is f' act or-y , They n rc
n o t listed exce p t for t hr-ee wh ic h ,Ies e r ve s om e comment.
Goblin I'at rnl - Gn"d "puhlic se rv ic e" article but i t
paints a hor rihle p ict u r e of t ce n u e e rs.
Transi l'toril:t'd I"r Pqu -:-n cy S ta n d a r d -Gives the impre~ s i on t hat a 100 1\c/ .. oscilln t or is t he t r- ic k ies t circuit
in exis t ence.
6 N2 Compleh'd - Gu ,ls
I I
I s this a s ig n of the f utu re? W ill the tec hn ic a l m un n ai n e o f 1965 be a coflecti on of p ermutati ons o f com merc ial equ ipment ? 'Vi II
the amateur become Htc e t h e Hi-F'i Fan (a u d iophi le f ]
who " con st ru ct s " his own syst e m? ' U Z N could h ave a t
least bui lt and de st en ed his o w n pOWE'r su p p ly. T h is
o n e r E'all y shoo k m e u p .
All in a ll thi,. was a very good issue. J di d not
reafi ae that the re w a s so m u -h s pace de voted to ar ticles
u n t il I r-ead th e wh o le t h ing in o ne s itt in g. K ee p up
the good w o r k .
A r nold R einhold. K 2P:SK
Ha, ha, ha . . Ill' doon't knoiV tl'lra t a tUnlcd plate

cin: ll it IS.
Dear ,,'a yne :
K 3EBB ( Mac k) loa ned m e h is comes o f ) ' OU I' first
three issues a nd I w a s d e li gh t ed w it h what you a re
d oing. I pa rti c ul a r !)' li ke the prepo n dera nce o f eo n s t ruct io n a n d t ec hn ical articles nnd w a s further p leased
to n o te t hat so m an y o f you r wr-Iter-s were t op d r awer.
If you c a n continu e to e nt ice articles from men li ke
H e rb B rf er, J im K yle a n ti m y ver-y good friend J ohn
Specie lny , t h e n yOU reall y h a ve it made . Thanks t oo,
for the n ic e plug of t he AF.MARS Eas t er n Technica l
N e t Sunday a ft e r n oo n b rofld clls t S. m y p a rticula r Inte r est.
Quel'}' : wh o loW t nu mbe r I on the Xma s cov er, y ou
o r J im ?
Ea r l H ens on , W 3 ZSF

THE MIRACLE IS POSSIBLE THE IMPOSSIBLE CAN


BE DONE
ITS NEW, ITS COM PACT, ITS PO WERFUL,
ITS LO W IN PRICE
PRICE

$39.95
Net to Amateurs,
Complete wilh Tube s.
Se e Your Deoler.
SE N D MO NEY
ORDER.
Prices Subject to
Chonge without
Nerice.

TUBE CO MPLEMENT
5763 Final Am plifier
6AQS Moduh.lor
6UB O scillator Multiplier
I2AX7 Speech Amplifier
EXCELLO ELECTRONICS PRESENTS
A New Lo w Pr ice V. H. F. Six MeIer Tro ns m itte r wired
and te ste d wilh t ub e s. The Ex ce llo Mod. II Six Me Ier
Tro nsm itler is th e lowesl priced six mete r tr a ns mitte r
o n the ma rke l today. This is not 0 kit, but 0 comple te
unit, ready 10 put o n t he ai r wi th any power supply
supplying 300 v , o t 100 m.e,
TRANSMITTER FEATURES
Meter Ind icato r- Pro vid ing monitoring of Final Tuni ng ,
Grid Dr ive ClOd Modula ti o n, o t a glance.
Tuning Controls- Tuning Ceetrols a re all on the Front
Ponel.
Acce n to Components-Removable Enclosure gives c ceess to 011 Components.
T. V.1. Supprenion - T.V .1. Suppression is a cco m plishe d
by shie lding ond d e sign.
Compact Size -Comple le si ze of un it is 4 " xS " x6 " mc k ing it one of the Smoltest Six Me te r Xmi tte rs ava ilable.
tow Po w er Ca n sum p ti o n - 2S0 -300 v , ot 7S m .o . 10
Wa tts on t he Ante nn a .

EXCELLO EXCITER
A Ne w t o w Pr ice V. F. H. Six Me te r Excit er wired
a nd te st e d wi th t ub e s. The Excello SPC 6 -6 Six Meter
Tra n sm itter Exciter is t he low e st priced si x meter
t ra nsm itter o n t he m arket to -d cr y. Thi s is n ot a kit,
hu t a co mp lete uni t, re od y 10 put o n the a ir with
any power su p p ly f ro m o n AC rec eiver.

P RIC E

$29.95
net 10 Amateurs
complete wt ih
tub es.

TRANSMITTER FEATURES
Ne o n Indicators-Providing moni torinK of B plus,
Fino l Tuning, Grid Drive ond Modula tio n, a t a
Glance .
Tu n ing Controls - Tun ing conlrols are all 00 the Fro nt
Panel.
Access to Components-Removoble Enclosure g ives
occess to 011 Components.
T. V. I. Suppression- To V. I. Suppression is cccomplished by shielding and design.
Compact Size -Complele size of uni t is 4 " x S " x 6 "
moking it one of t he Smallest Six MeIe r Xmitters
e velleble,
tow Po w e r Cansumption-2S0-300 volts @ 60 MA,
6AQS Finol Amplifier, 12AT7 Oscillator Multiplie r,
6AQS Madulo tor, 6AU6 Speech Am p lifie r .
S .. n d

,"o n ~,.

To

Excello Electronics Co. , Inc.


196 -10 116TH AVENUE

ST. ALBANS 12, N. Y.


Allow I t o 2 Wee ks Shipping

.If1'.

FEBRU A RY 1961

13 MAGAZINE

53

Flying Hams

Give your shack that


professional lookinstall an

.-

ALDEN

HAM

BENCH

.....

with power facilities.


See our full page ad in the January 73
(page 45) and order yours today. For
furth er information see your d ealer or
write to

.J e ck Gu tzeit W2lZX
75-02 168 th Stre et
Flushing 66. New Yo rk

ALDEN PRODUCTS CO.


2186 North Maine Street. Brockton, Mass.

II A M -''''y,S \V A.- ..r


Th e FA STEST w a y to>

'ell Or ' '''Gp lIam Ge..

$1 (I year b ri ngs you 24 issues o f b a rg ain s go lorePLU S th e " foste sl Way in t he W orld" t o p ro fi ta b ly
dispose of you r o ld o r excess p a rts an d eq u ipmen t.
FREE ad ce rtificote and late st e di tio n returned Immed iole ly if you se nd $1 NOW to :
HAM-SWAP, lne., 35-f East Wockef Dr., Chicago 1,

,:::::::.:;.;~ PLEASE NOTlCE---.


For the best in new and reconditioned used
ham gear, try Bob Graham . Wl KTJ (Graham
CompanyJ New England's only exclusive amateur radio stores.
N o r t h o f n o~ 1 on

5 0:>

~h l n .

U.... .u".

T .. 1. 9 1.1__10 0 0

S .. u t h ... 1 Ho sto"
II O ~ :\... . 'la in . Uan tl ol"h
T..I. WO 3-;;;00:>

SURPLUS BUYS
mpler:-:.tlonal-~%" rd-lIlumlna l ed--2
~Odb O"< e r 1,}---npw .......... . . ...

ecto r d ial-to
. .. .... . $3.49
t:aUPr dnlarnutor-new-Inllu t 6 1'dc---outllu t 405 1'-210 rna-ronlt. duty ........... ........ .... $4.9.5-2 l ov $9.00
Carter d)namotor---new- i nllut 6 1'de--outllut $ 0 '-30 rna-('0011. dUlY ....... .. ..... .... . . . .. $3.9.5-2 lor $7.00
RF meter In an lmna r ela7 OO'l for A R C - 5---5ee ecneer ucn
:'lI n c h 196G-CtJ -DCH 2 boJ:-new ... _. _... $2.95-2 tM' $5.00
lie . 33 Cillo' ,,",pl'n- IO tuwl--dynam. ---C Q C(I(1 'enioo for
~ ot' 6-c lnn .................. _. . . . . 55.9.5-2 lov $ 10.00
F Ua ment--ea n tl-- her. Jld.-llri.-1l5 1'--60 CY. ItIC. ::: 1- 2.5 1'23a ct. see. : 2- 2.5 -23a d. use a 2.5 v ct 4. 6a 01" 5,-23 a.
_._
$6.95-2 lor $1 3.00
6 a 4'A1 ...-10 1111
HC 60 t lIDtr.-Xo1'. CQ ron,e,..lon to r 10 m~I.'!'-"""50 Ibl . . ........... . ....... _. .. .... .. ... $9.95
lbor darson dK>k_T05933 P UV upe--6 he'nrY-300 mll_
30 lbl.---n
$5.9 5-2 for $1 0.00
!'Ip ll t Itatur u rlable rondpnlt'l"---d ual 350mOltd. Ikv.-Xew
$2 .9.5-2 1M' $5 .00
lI n H' n li core platt' and ftlamt'I'lt l fom ler-llrL liS v ac eee,
6.3 v at l Oa . 6.3 v at ~a. 11 0 v at 1.6'1. 1.0 v at 1.6au ~etI In toltace tloub leor ci n-u ltl to ach le, e 4.50 or 000 V
II 600 mil a- new 5'A1 J: 6'A1 J: 6--201 Ibs ... $7.95-2 lor $1 5 .00
i'lel l'fllum~rull " 'II"V b rhlc_lt\p ut 1)- ):;;0 " al,'-~%a J: 2'A1 1 4
$3.95-2 for $7.00
" l'l"

R.EX R.ADIO SUPPLY 84 Cort landt St., N.Y. 7, N.Y.

S4

13 MAGAZINE

so me t ime now I have been noticing that


more and more of the fellows I con tact are
also interested in the hobby of flying. After
talking to a dozen or so fellow flyers, I beg-an
to kee p a list . The list ha s g rown an d grow n,
but st ill is far f rom complet e. I would a ppreciate knowi ng of any ad ditions t ha t yo u cou ld
sugg es t. Some of t he better known flying hams
are:
W1 ZD- Joh n M. Wells of the H a r vey-Wells
Compa ny, a pilot since 1930 and a ham s ince
1920, now flys his Beech T r avel Air f or bu siness and pleasure.
W2AQ K- F r a nk Melville of t he Melville
Radio Distributing Company, Wh ite P la in s,
New York, anot her old timer now fl ying a
Bonanza.
\V2DI O- Geor g e Zarrin of the Harvey
Radio Company, New York, who st a rted both
ham r ad io and flying more than 25 years ago,
today is very a ct ive in both rad io and CAP
a ctivi ties.
K4LIB-Arthur Godf r ey (need we comment ?)
K6BX- Clif E vans received hi s Nav y \Vings
in '27, has flown 138 different types of ai rcraft
a nd has over 14,000 hours logged, now r etired
as Commander and very actively engaged in
ham r adio and The Direct ory of Cert ific ates
and Award s.
W8QBF-J. Donald Sh ir er , Chief of Police
at Olmstead F alls, Ohio.
K4RF A- Cu rt LaMay, Gen era l In the
Un ited Sta tes Air Force.
KjJD WC--Francis "B utch" Gr iswold , Gen73
er al in t he U nited States Air F orce.

OR

FEBRU A RY 19b1

WIBMR
W IBZH
K IEGO
WlIZ
K IIZM
WIJ IB
WIJM
WIJTB
WILZV
WINPY
W IPRI
WlSBM
WITIM
WIVLT
WIYUO
WIZ D
W2AS
K2AAN
W2ABK
W2AQK
WAZAVT

WZBAE
W2BHD
WA2BCS
WA2BRY
W2BKX
W2BMV
K2BPM
W2BPV
W2BUS
K2BVY
W2CAN
K2CNF
K2CTK
K2CTR
K2CYA
K2DG I
W2 DHN
W2DIO
W2DR
W2DZV
W2EHV
K2ENC
K2EZC
W2FCJ
W2FDL
W2FME
W2FWG
W2GG
W2GJX
K2GHN
K2GMV
W2HBK
W2 HDM
WA2 HDP
W2H HK
W2 HNG
K2HOK
W2HTI
W2HZC
K2IEY
K21 HD
WA2 1MA
K21ND
K2IOG
K2 IQX
W2ISY
KN2IUM
W21UX
W2 1VW
W2IX D
W2 IXJ
W2IXT
W2JAO
K2JCC
K2JCZ
K2JDV
K2JDZ
K2 JGG
K2JHM
K2JQO

K2JVQ
W2 KA H
W2KZS
WA2 LG D
W2LHK
WV2LKN
KzLUR
W2LZ
WZLZX
WA2LXH
K2MGQ
W2MHM
K2MMM
W2MRJ
WZMRY
K2MWN
W2NNU
W2NRM
W2NSD
W2NXZ
W20BW
W20ZD
W2PNR
W2 PYK
W2PZE
W2RCQ
K2 REC
W2R HN
W2RJM
K2RMA
W2RNN
W2RRP
W2SCH
W2SIM
K2TAQ
K2TOL
K2VAU
W2VEG
W2VGQ
W2V HS
W2VKS
W2VZF
W2ZGA
K2Z MX
K2ZPJ
W2ZRY
W3AMO
W3CO
W3 DJV
K3IBD
K3IBE
W3 1XL
W3JSN
K3KB I
W3 PGH
W3PQR
W3ZP
W4ABZ
W4BAZ
W4BHJ
W4BHR
W4BJR
K4BTX
K4CUGI
K4D L H
W4DNO
W4EEF
W4ERD
W4FHB
K4GGS
K4GG
K4GTZ
W4GQV
W4 HAY
W4HCZ
K4IHS
K4IWB
K-UKP
W4JQG
K4LHT
K4LKY
K4I.IB
W4LZR

FEB RUA RY 1961

K4MLZ
K40JV
W40RS
K4PQQ
K4PYO
K4 QNG
K4Q YX
K4RFA
K4R HG
W4RRH
K4RUX
W4SHG
K4S IX
W4SJO
W4UDG
W4UPZ
K4USM
W4VIW
W4VTT
W4WSS
K4YCX
W4YGY
W4Y IU
K4YYJ
W4ZKE
W4ZWA
K5HGG
K6BTE
K5CNI
K6DCM
K5MRU
K5NFM
W50Z1
W5QK
K5SDM
WSULI
W5YCK
W5YQO
W5ZRA
K611X
W6BZ
K6CU K
WA6DBG
W6EFB
W6F;PJ
W6LI
W60JK
K6QP I
W6RM T
W6SRE
W6ZGZ
K6ZXW
K7AEJ
W7AMU
W7AOD
K7BCK
W7 BPS
K7CET
K7 DSR.
K7ENQ
W7ETK
W7GI
K7GHZ
W7GKC
K7LMU
W7LZU
K7MAT
W7PYY
W7VBP
K8BTL
K8CFU
K8DXC
W8EA I
W8FBV
KRGRE
WRGDC
W8GOE
W8 HNY
W8HWJ
K8KSA
K8LTS
WSLVQ

W8MGU
W8MRJ
W8QBF
W9AON
W9AX L
K9 BYK
K9CJ H
W9DIA
W9 00N
K9DOX
K9EEK
W9EMR
W9GDS
W9GQI
W9GXA
K9HFN
W9IEF
Wg!Z!
K9JFZ
W9JUV
K 9KU C
W9KYV
W9LBH
K9LFW
W9 I.XS
W9 MOW
W90GP
K90TY
W9PMO
W9RBX
W9RHS
W9TGM
W9TQT
W9TRN
K9UML
W9UWL
K9VDW
W9VXE
W9WAF
W9WNT
K9WXO
W9ZWF
WO'ABF
W(lURK
W(fDSM
K(1DWC
R(jFIC
K(1GRI,
W(jGZ
W(fIBZ
K(j,JST
K(jKFQ
W(1LZL
W(1LZU
W(jNOD
W(10U8
WORAM
W(jRPE
W(1RXK
WOTGL
WOVOP
KOWKO
K(:fZFR
DL4TN
EI.4A
G I3CWY
He l F O
HCINX
KL7A HP
K I.7DJD
LU2ZA
LU2Z0
LU2ZR
LU2ZS
LU2ZY
LUSCW
LU0'CQ
VEZGQ
VE2WW
X}<~ZFA

THINKING SIX
~

(OR TWO)

LW51

6M 50 watt 2M 45 watt
Kit price . ...
$37.50
$39.95
W /tubes & xtal.
49.50
54.95
Roth models in kit form have over 85 chassis
parts mounted and all di ffi cult soldering completed with explic it wiring inst ructio ns and
photo-d iagrams. Xtal osc, using low priced
8 mc xtals, mult iplier (s}, srraight-thru final,
two stage speech amp, push -pull mod ulators.
May be converted to LW.51 DELUXE
for $25
Ofher products:
LW61 VHF Converters ... $18.50
12.50
LW.80 PreAmplifi ers .... ..
LW.72A Transmitter Power
49.95
Supply ..... ..... .... ..

LWELECTRONIC LABORATORY

ROUTE 2

JACKSON, MICHIGAN

" EK O " GOO Kit #7 10-K


and 0 5::tms book, " 101
TEM6 . $2.50 Woys to use your Ham Te st
Equipme nt ," This book has 67 poges on how t o
use the GOO .
Here lc my DEA L both of obcve $3 1.45 Pre-poid
to you
Dole W9NZJ /ex W8GOE

710k 529.95

Dale' s Electro n ic S u p p ly Co.


11 25 Eost Michigon Street
MICHIGAN CITY, INDIANA

T ELETYI> EWIlITEIl EC!UIP~IENT


COLLIN S 51J2, 51J3, R-390A/URR Re ceivers (.50-30. 5 MCI
TelET YPE Prin ters # 14, # 15, # 19, # 20, # 26, .tt28,
KLEINSCH MIDT Printers # TT_4 A, TT76, TT-98, TT99 ,
TT.100, OG C3,
TElEW RITER Frequency Sh ift Co n verter,
for general infarm'l tion & e-ruipmen t list write:
Tom W 1A FN

ALLTRONICS.HOWARD CO.
Box 19, Boston 1, Mnss.

Rl d 'm .. nrl '2 .0048

Kaufman Electronics Inc.


Street
Bri dg e port. C o nn.
F rank

Phon e : EDi son 5-733 1


Southern Connect icut's Hom Sto re

Ne w- Used Ham Gear Parts


W1JV9

KlLKF

KIPLI

W1ZTY

WIRIO

73 MAGAZIN E

55

ARGE NTINA
AUSTRALIA
CANAL ZONE
ENGLAND
GERMANY
HAWAII
INDIA
JAPAN
MEXICO
PHILIPPINE 'S
PORTO RICO
SOUTH AFRICA
U.S S.R.

ALASKA
ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA
CANAL ZONE
ENGLAND
GERMANY
HAWAII
IND IA
JAPAN
MEXICO
PHILIPPINE' S
PORTO RICO
SOUTH AFRICA
U. S. S.R.

ALASKA
ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA
CANAL ZONE
ENGL AND
GERMANY
HAWAII
INDI A
JAPAN
MEXICO
PH ILIPPINE ' S

.m. . .





m
m

IIIIIIII

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

IIIIIIII.

POR TO RICO

SOU TH AFRICA

IIIIIIII.. .

U 5 .S.A.
L EGEND

Propagation
Charts
D~ v id

A. Brown K2 1G Y

60 New Yo rk Ave nue

W est Hempstead , N. Y.

The bands listed are .\1UFs and a hi gher


band will not work for the time period listed.
as well.
Lower bands will work, bu t not nearly

Times are C .\IT , not local time.


These charts are to he used as it guide to
ham band openings for the mon th of F ebrua ry, 1961 to the various count ries listed . I
will be interested to hear of your results in
using th ese charts and to know w hat other
areas you might wish included in future charts.

Ad vanced Forecast: February 1961


Good 5. 10, 16-21 , 24-28
Fair 1-2,4, 11-13, 15, 22-23

Ad lor O .E.M. Prices.


0 .50
0 .100
0 -200
0 .500
500 -50
100. 0 -100
500-0 -500
0-1
0 -.5
0 .1 0
0 50
0 100
0300
0 -30
0 300
0 .1 50
-20 + 3

p. A DC.
p. A DC.
p. A DC.

.. $8.9.5
... 7 .9.5
7.7.5
/lA DC. . . 6 .95
/lA DC..
7 .9.5
/l A DC.. .
7 .75
p. A DC .. .
6 .95
MA DC.. . ..
5 .95
MA DC.... .
5 .95
MA DC
5 .95
MA DC
5 .95
MA DC. . ... 5 .9 5
MA DC
5 .95
VDC 1000 U. 5. 95
VDC ~r .. ol t 5.95
VAC .
.. 6 ."5
VU ...... 7 .95

D'A rsonyo l Type ..... e ..e ment

2 .5% ACCURACYI

B ro ~k bcIkel ite (ose l


Production Quantities 90
scale arc!
Available
Fill 2J/.. Mount ing Ho le .

Q

fA IL Ie: lo~ ~'~~~:,~~~~ .~~~,~~~~~: ~~::

Bad 3, 14

(J r .l..r di re'" u r Irom I...-a l j .. bber

---- Air

Crystal Grinding Powd er


On e of the detail s tha t see ms to puzzle embryo crys tal g r inder s is where t o latc h on to
the neces sary abras ive powd er. Simple. T here
a re a lm ost as ma n y r ockhou nd s arou nd the
count ry nowa da ys a s the r e a re ha ms. The stu ff
is known t o t he m a s "gr its" and t hey use it by
the pou nd in t hei r t u mble rs to smooth and
contou r th ei r r ock spec ime ns. It s ho uldn't
be diffic u lt t o get on t he tra il of one a nd talk
him out of a f ew s poon f uls of 400 or 800 g r it .
F a iling that one ca n a lways look up " Lapida ries " in th e classifi ed phone book and bu y
it like the r ock hou nd s do . . . by the 5 lb.
bag .
IV(1 HJ(f'

IN THE " , ' . .

--------Force MARS

Eastern Technical Net


Su nda ys
2-4 PM E ST
Fe b.
Feb.
Feb.
Feb.
Mar.

---

V\V IES~riIElri'N

3295kc 7540kc 15,715kc

5-0 r. Micheel C efole : Tit re flo n W it h


Hig h Freq ue ncy Radi atio n
12- Fr. Cla re nce Schubert: The Electronic
Em ission Microsco pe
19- Robe rt Gu nde rso n: Electronic Test
Eq uipme nt For the Blind C om mc ni ce to.
2b- Vice Ad mire! Robe rt B. Pirie: Petriotic Re erme me nt Thro ug h Ed ucat ion
5-Dr. C. R. Ke ll y: Physics lind C he mistr y
of Pure Me ta ls

-------- ---

I
-----..)

WEST It'.

I~~IDII 0

and TlLEVISION
SUPPLY

nI1

-<:;;~~ I'I"

) CO.

_=
_
c

-~

FOR OVER 2S YEARS ONE OF THE WEST'S OLDEST AND LARGEST FIRMS
DEVOTED EXCLUSIVelY TO AMATEUR AND elECTRONIC EQUIPMENT.

1331 India St.


P. O. Box 172B
FEBR UARY 19b1

San Diego 1, Calif.


BElmont 9-0361
73 MAGAZIN E

57

Subscription Deportment
There seems to be a misu nde rstan ding here t hat needs immed iate corrective mea sures. Can you possibly have fail ed to not ice that we have pri nted 4 (fou r) subscription
blanks below thi s puff? Do you f or one moment think that we ran ou t of interesting
things to publish and d ecided just to fill up th e page with sub blanks? Perhaps we'd
better s pell this ou t in pl a in langu age so there will be no more confusion. \Ve put four
subscr ip tion blanks below so you could fi ll out fou r subscr ipt ion blanks and send t hem
in. You may even make reasonably accur a te facsim ilies of these fou r blanks if you
w ish to carry a n uncut copy of 73 t hrough t he re st of your life. Now, if you are
alrea dy subscr ibed then you are supposed to put the names of four frien ds in the
blanks and send them to us, together with just enough money to add up to a mi nimum of $3 each. It is none of our bu siness where you get the money. If you have not
yet subsc r ibed for yourself then please use one of the blanks to r emedy thi s oversight.
(lrc'r e 1"'un nin g out of back ieeuee. Order w luu y ou wa nt, u:e'U sen d what we have
le f t)

Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . ... ,

.. ... . ... . . . . . . . . . . Call

Address

City

yea r s. 8 ta rt : Oct.

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Zone

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Feb.

l\'1ar.

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Dec.

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City

year s. Sta rt: Oct.

Call

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Address
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yea rs. 8 ta i-t : Oct.

Call

Nov.

Zone

Dec.

J an .

$5 2 yrs.

Address

City

yea rs. 8 ta r t: Oct.

Nov.

73 MAGAZINE

Zone

Dec.

Jan.

Call

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Feb.

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DX

(Check one)

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DX

(Check one)

Mar .

Feb.

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Y.

73 Magazine; 1379 East 15th

58

73 Magazine ; 1379 East 15th se., Brooklyn 30, N.

Name

Y.

$3 yr.

State

DX

(Check one)

Mar.

$4 yr.

Feb.

$5 2 yrs.

73 Magazine; 1379 East 15th st., Brooklyn 30, N.

Name

State . . ..... .. ..

J an.

Dec.

$3 yr.

$3 yr.

$5 2 yrs.

$4 yr.

Mar.

DX

(Check one)

st., Brooklyn 30, N. Y.


FE8RUARY 1961

C ap acity Meter (December 731


Mak e a note on pa ge 15 of the December i3
th at LI is 65 tu rn s of # 32 wound in three
laye rs on a ;f" slug tuned form . The tap
is 15 turn s from th e ground end. L2 is 37 turn s
of B&W M iniductor 30 12 (A ir-Du x, 632,
ida mete r, 32 t u r ns per inch ), tapped at s ix
t urns . B et t er put this note in now so you won't
ha ve to h un t w hen yo u st a r t buil ding th is
ga dget.

*"

MOBILE
POWER
SUPPLY
MODEL
A12 /600!200

NOW

$59.50

/ MM's

This 12 V input de t o' de tra nsistorized con verter is


con servative ly roted for continuous output of 120
wctts at 600V o r J OOV. o r any combination of 600
Clnd 3 0 0 volt loads totaling 120 wa tts.

A lis t of Me rchant M<'Irine Amoteur Mobile


Stetio os. and a ddresses is eveile ble fo r FR EE.

Send " stam ped seli-e d dressed e nvelo pe t o


Ma riner W6 BLZ , 528 C oli me Stree t, Le Jolle,
Celi jo rnie ,

High e fficiency, small size. and light weight, plus


freedom from ma intenance, conserve your battery
and increase the e njoyme nt of mobile operation.

Accurate Crystals

ELECTRDNICS DIVISION

T o a ccurately s pot your tran smitter in the


VHF bands grind or et ch th e crysta l about one
kil ocycl e above t he fr -equency and then adjust
it down to the e xact spot by m ounti ng an NPO
3-12 trimmer on t he holder.
K 8ERV

GLOBE INDUSTRIES. INC.


525 MAIN STREET
BELLEVILLE. NEW JERSEY

Are You On Two Meters?

HAS FRIEN OS

fN WA SH IN6fOI'l /

lm_

l iUIIDUlWUWiIIWMIIOIiWOHII

UllilUiIIllI1 :WlllllrJ!U1UUIDiill

Old Call Books

=
=

Few OX o pe ra tors co n effcrd to b uy e Ca llb ook. If you hove one t hat is le ss t he n three
years old thet you wou ld like t o se nd to 0 DX
ho m t hen drop e cord to C liff Eva ns KbBX
end he will send you 0 le tte r from 0 DX =
hom t hot wou ld like to h ove yo ur Ce llbco k.

K6BX, Box 385, Bonito, Celifomle. We think


t his is 0 wonderful serv ice end exte nd our b est
re q e rcis to Cliff fo r his work.

~llIIllIIllIIlIlIIlIllUlUlllimlllllililUllllllllilllllUIlIUIIIUIIIIIIIIJIiIiIlIllIlIIiIiIIllII!UIIII1II1i1i111ll1l11i1i1ll1i1ll1ll1l11ll1J1lliliU'

FE BRU A RY 19b1

It's Easy with this


little rig!
Approximately two
watts into the antenna
Excellent modulation
Very compact
Uses three 6CX8 tubes
Requires 6.3v at 2 '1..A
and fram 75-275 HY
Only $18.50 (less power, mike & tubes)
$25 with tubes
Uses a crystal mike
Uses inexpensive crystals
Crystals: 8 for $1.75. Three h it tw o meters,
four hit six meters and one h its 220 me.
F or further in forma tion sec th e article in
this issue of 73 or write to u s. I n the San
Francisco Bay area call on Fortune Electronics in San Carlos or see " Dutch" in
Live rmore on Main Street.
Special : Twa Meter Beams that Wark!
$11.50 each. We have a new design in
verticals, mobile or fixed: $12.50.

FULT ON'S RAIIIO SE RVIC E


Local hams are invited to call in person:
120 Highway, two miles west of Manteca,
California. Phone TA ]-]717 and ask for
K6BP.

Dcalers, Factory Reps, please contact.


73 M A GAZIN E

59

Radio Bookshop
I nstead of wtsht nz you had these books why not
t r y ge t ti nR" o ne a mo n t h u ntil you have a decen t
r e fere n ce libra r y ? T h e s e are c a ref u lly se lected :
no d ogs.
t -ELECTRONICS & RADIO ENGINEERING -Terman. 0 1'18
o f th e mo sl comp le te Ie ",' books e ver printe d . 1078
po g e s.

The o ry, but easy on the m o th .

2-ELECTll:ICAl

ENGINEE RING

$15.5 0

HAN0800 K- Md l w o in.

Fo r m ulo s, t o b le s, ci rcuits. A real hand boo k. 161 8 p o ges.

$10 .00
5- ANTENN AS- Kra u l (W a l K). The m e at complete b ook
on on tennO$ in p ri nt, bu t lorge ly d esign a nd t he or y,
com p lete wi th math.
$11.50
8-RADIO TELEVISION & BASIC ELECTRONICS - O ld fie ld .
L09 icoi

p rese nto tio n ond

des crip tive

illust ra t io n ma ke

Ihis o n id e ol b ook for the begi nne r. Wr itten b y self.


lear ning o f e lectron in p rincip les. 342 pages.
54 .9 5
20- RTTY HANDBOO K- Kre t zm o n (W 2JT P). A -I o f ho m
53 .00
Te letype . Ve ry popu la r b o ok , low supply.
21 -VHF HANDBOO K- J oh nso n (W6Q KI). Typ e s of VHF
propaga t ion, VHF circuitry, co mpo ne nt lim it ations, onte nno d e si gn o nd construct ion, te st equipment. Ve ry
t horo ug h b o ok o nd one th ot shou ld be in e very VHF
sh o ck.
52 .9 5
22 -BEAM ANTENNA HANDBOOK- O rr (W 6SAI). Ba sin ,
the or y and constru cti on of beams, tr a ns miss io n line s,
matching d e vice s, a nd te st e q uip me n t. Alm ost all hom
stat ions need 0 beam o f so me so rt he re is the
on ly so urce o f basic info to he lp yo u decide whot beam
to bui ld or b uy, how to in stall it, ho w t o t une it. 52.70
23 - NOVICE
&
TECHNICIAN
HANDBOOK - Stoner
(W6 TNS). Sug a r coa ted t he o ry: re ce ivers, transmi tters,
p owe r supplies, antenna s; simp le const ruct ion of a
co mp le te sta ti on, conve rting su rp lus e q u ip me nt. How to
52.85
g e t 0 hom lice nse and b uild a sto t io n.
24-BETTER SHORT WAVE RECEPTION-Orr (W6S A I).
How to b uy a re ce ive r, ho w t o t une it, a lig n it; bui lding a cce sso ries; beller o nte nnos; Q SL' s, mops, a u ro ra
l one s, CW rece p ti o n, sse re ce pt ion , e tc . Ha nd b ook f or
$2. 8S
sh o rt w ove list ene rs and ra di o ama teu rs.
28 -TELEVISION INTERFERENCE-Ra nd (W 1D8M). This is
t he a utho rita t ive b ook on the sub je ct of ge tt ing TVI o ut
51.7 S
o f your rig s and the neighbors se ts.
32 -RCA RADIOTRON DESIGNERS HANDBOOK-1 S00
p a ges of de sign notes o n every p ossi b le t yp e of cir cu it.
Fa b u lo us. Ever y d e sign engineer needs t his o ne.
57 .50

69-5-9 SIGNAL5- 0 rr (W6 SAI). A man uo l of pract ica l,


deta iled data co vering des ign a nd co nstru ct io n of h ighl y
e fficient, in ex p en sive antennas fo r the amateu r bonds
that you can bui ld yo urse lf .
51.00
7S-BUILD-A-WARD QSL ALBUM- Mou nt your pri ze OSL's
in this album . Ro om f or 100 card s in each a lb um p lu s
la be ls for ju st a bo ut all p o ssible operat ing a wa rds. A
fi ne wo y to show off you r cords.
51.95
80- SUR PLUS RADIO CONVERSION MANUAL VOLUME
NO . I (second edi tion ). Th is b ook gives circuit die g ro ms , p hoto s of mo st e quip me nt, a nd rat her g ood a nd
comple te conversio n ins t ru ctions fo r the follow ing : BC221, 8C-342, 8C312, BC34B , 8C -412, BC 645, 8C-9468,
SCR -274N 4S3A se ries re ce ive rs co nve rs ion to 10 meter
receivers, SC R-274N 451A series transm itt ers (co nve rsion to VFO), SCRS22 (BC6 24 a nd BC 625 convers io n
to 2 meters), TSY t o 10 a nd 6 meters, PE -l 03A, 8C
1068A / 1161A re ce iver to 2 meters, Surp lu s tu be ind ex,
cross index o f A/N t ube s vs, commercial t ypes, TV &
FM channels.
53.00
81 -SURPLUS RADIO CONVERSION MANUAL VOLUME
NO. II. Orig in al and conve rs io n circu it d ia gra ms, plu s
p hotos of mo st e quipme n ts and f ull convers ion d iscuss ion o f the fo llowi ng : BC454/A RC -5 rece ive rs t o 10
me te rs, AN /APS13 xmtr/ r cvr to 420 me, BC-451jARC-S
llmt rs to 10 me te rs , Seleni um rectifier power un its , ARC-5
power a nd to inclu de 10 me ters, Coi l data-simplified
VHF, GO-9/TBW , BC-357, TA-12 B, AN/A RT13 to c c
winding cho rt" AVT1 12A, AM-26/AIC, LM fr equency
me te r, ro ta tors, powe r chart, AR8 diagra m .
53 .00
82 -SURPLUS RADIO CONVERSION MANUAL VOLUME
NO. III - Or ig in al ond conversi on diagroms, plu s some
p hoto of t he se : 701A, AN /APN l , AN/CRC7, AN/URC -4,
CBY-29 12S, 50083, 5014 1, 5220B, 52232, 52302-09, n ARA, BC 442 , 453 455 , 456459, 8C -696, 950, 1066, 1253,
241A fo r xtal fi lte r, MBF (CO L- 4 306 5), MD7/A RC -5,
R-9/ APN -4, R23 R2B/ARC-5, RA T, RAV, RM-S2 (53),
Rt -19/ARC -4, SCR274N, SCRS22, T-1 S/ A RC-5 to T
23/ARCS, LM, ART 13, BC31 2, 3 42, 348, 19 1, 375.
Schema t in of APT-S, ASS-5, BC-659, 1335A, A RR-2,
53.00
APA IO, APT2 .
R199-GETTING STARTED IN AMATEUR RADIO -Bere ns
(W2 PIK). Fundamen ta ls fo r ge tting Novice Licen se . 52 .40
R221 -BUILDING THE AMATEUR RADIO STATION -Bere ns
(W2 PIK) . Seque l t o ab ove. Every thing you need t o kn ow
$2 .9 5
to build yo ur first h om sta t io n.
SNS8-S0UND-N-SIGHT CODE COURSE. Thre e 10" LP
re co rd s a nd instru cti ons fo r No v ice code, 0 -8 wp m. $9 .50
SNS20-S0UND-N-5IGHT CODE COURSE 20 WPM . Ad va nced course fr o m 9 20 wpm, th ree 10 " LP' s.
$8.95
SNS28-S0UND.N5IGHT CODE COURSE COMPLETE . All
six LP re cord s. 0 -20 wpm and fu ll instructions.
$15 .95

33 -WAVE PROPAGATION & ANTENNAS- Welch. Hig h ly


re commend ed b y t he pro pagat ion e llpe rts as th e be st
b ook on t he sub ject.
40-RADIO HANDBOOK , 15th ED ITION- O rr (W6 SAI).
Th is is for a nd awa y the best amateur rad io ho ndbo ok
ever p r inte d . Over 800 pages.
5B.50
45-CURTA CO MPUTER. The w orld ' s smo llest co mpu te r.
Se nd for d eta ile d info rma t ion. Make s t he s lide ru le look
si ck. Like a Mon roe co mp uter on ly ho nd stee.
5125 .00
52 -HOW TO READ SCHEMATiC DIAGRAMS- Ma rks.
Components & dia gra m s; e lect rica l. e lectron ic, c e, de,
aud io, d , TV. Storts w it h ind iv id uol circu its and corri e s
th ro ug h com p lete e quipments.
53 .50
53-BA51C ELECTRONIC TEST PROCEDU RES - Tu rne r. This
b ook cov e rs ius t abo ut every p o ss ib le t yp e o f electroni c
te st equip me nt and explai ns in detail how to use it for
every pu rpose. Te sting : oudio eq uipment, re ceivers,
tra nsm itte rs, transist ors, p hotocels, d ist ortio n, t ube s,
power e tc.
58 .00
57 -QUAD ANTENNAS- O rr (W 6SA I). The o ry,
constructio n and opera tion of cub ical quads.
you rse lf info. Fee d syste m s, t uni ng .

de sig n,
Build -it
52 .85

58 -ANTENNAS FOR CITIZENS RADIO-Orr (W6 SAI) .


Ge ne rol coverage, mobile a nd directional antennas for
27 me , b ond. 8u ild & t une ' e m.
51.00

60

73 MAGAZI N E

Order Form
2 5 8 20 21 22 23 24 28 32
33 40 45 52 53 57 58 69 75 80 8 I
82 RI99 R221 SNS8 5NS20 SNS28
I

Nam e

C all

Add ress
C it y

.
.

State

RADIO BOOKSHOP
1379 East 15th Street, 8rooklyn 30, N. Y.
(N.Y.C. ad d

370

tax )
FEBRU A RY 1961

I111111I11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111I11111111

Other Ham
Pu bl ications
ATH ER than devote half o r mo re
of 73 t o t he p rintin g of news of
int ere st t o sp ec ia lize d g ro ups we believe that it is ou r f unction t o d o everyt hi ng possible t o e ncoura ge the publishe rs of bu lleti ns which ca t e r t o t hese
interests. These bu lletin s bring yo u t he
news yo u wan t in far g reater detail and
in much le ss t ime tha n is po ssib le in a
monthly mag azine whe re it usually t a ke s
two months For ne ws t o get int o
p rint.

................................
t

KEEP CANDEE HAN DEE!

:
:

A TRIO OF HEAD SET BAR GA I NS l


HS -23 : Hi Impe d anee , L ea ther CO"ered headband.
B ra n d new. Grcat !;uy. o ntr . . . . . . . . . . . $4.95
HS -33 : Low I mpeda nce. Lea th er covered hudband. B ra nd new . A. J . J . Ca ndee Special ... . 5 .95
HI F I Hea dsd : 15.000 c)'cles! B ran d new with
ch amois cushlnn l . It ' l terrlflcl O nly .. . . . 8.95
CD 3C7A Headset E:dtl ll$ion Cor d : B rand new.
AP!',rn..i mat..l,. .~ ft. len ll"th. Onl y . ...... .. . . .
.49

!
i

4 ~O 4 G O

~k.
~ hp.

Aflprox.

APN l F M TRAN SCEI VER


Comp1. with Iubea, Ex c. I'a
52.95
lI t. [lcr un it 25 Ibl. . . ... . . . . TW O for 5.00

YO U GOT IT l WE WA NT t T ! lE T' S D EAl 'l


We ' re pa)'in ll" top U' for O IlC 9: P RC -B. 8. 9. -10 ;
G ~ - !'i ~ A:

All ..I....tronlc t nt MlIln.

A P X 6 T RAN S P OND E R
A ml d ltet warehouse of p artl l B lowers . three Yee dcr l toot counterll. I.lI'. Ilrlps. calIt}. O\'c r 30 tube s...te.
Includ u 3 E29 tube. Good rond o A ST E AL AT OX I,\"
(2 for '19.00) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9.95
R -4 A1ARR 2 RECEIV ER
23425g Me. ~ I tube. Bin " tunahl e r _ l rer. see
A u g. / S9 C.Q. Ma l[a zl ne for eon-erst cn. EJ;cell ent condo
TW O for $5 i~;o/:;~1 SI.G ~A~ .G E.N E.R A.T ~.R
$2.95

.. .. ..

Freq. nngel : 1.9-4.5 :\Ic. and 19- 45 :\Ic. J.' requenc)'


dewlatlon may be adj ul trd 0.5 ke. for 1.9-4 .5 :\Ie. and
0 5(1 ke, each aid e for 1M 19 -45 :\Ie. band. W it h
output mete r and Slleaker . 115v 60 ercies or 12 vnc
In put. ":J;eell " nt condi tion . ... . . . . . . . . .. . 549 .95
A ll i t em . FOil BlIrl",n k , Ca lil. , I h b j e cr ro prio r .ale.
I n Ca Ul . ad ,l 4 % . Min . o rde i'- $3. 95.

J. J. CANDEE CO.
HAM -SW A P. Published by Ha m-Swa p , Inc., 35 East
W ader Drive. Chicag o l , Illinoi s. Ed itor is Ed Shue y,
K9 BDK . Subs a re $ r per veer by 3rd cless moil , $3 for

fAMOU S Q 5' E R I I I
T h is " the fantalJ ulous onel 190 550 ke. T he re ce i ver )'ou' ve bee n looking for at only , .. .. . . $9.9';
8 C 454 : 3-6 lit e.... ... '" . . .. . .. . . 7.95
8C455 : 6 -9. 1 M ~ . . . . .. .... . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . 7 .9:'.0
MD-7 MOD ULA TOR : ~ pech l
. 3.95

D.pl. MS
50 9 N o . Victory Blv d., Burban k, com.

Ph one: Vi ttorio 92411

+-

a a +-+-+

1st cless. $S air mail, lind $7.20 special delivery . Pub.


lished onc e <'!I mo nt h. Con tains classified ad s en tirely.
This is yo ur b est bet fo r on inexpensive WfJY to sell
o r swep some gea r in e hu rry . W ithin two weeks
people are answering yo ur ad.

WANTED: Students
no experience necessary
l e arn

FLO RID A RTTY BUL LETIN . F,ed W. DeM otte


W 4RW M, P.O. Box 6047, Daytona Beach. Florid" . $3
per veer incl ud ing membership in Florida RTIY
Society. Mostly ope re tinq news wit h II b it o f te ch nical
info now and then . All TT me n shoul d be ge tting
this.

Il uild t hese a nd 13 other


pieces of equipment whic h
wi ll enable yOU to learn
t he in's and c ut's of Radio
eon steucrion and servicing
H am gear.

H am Radi o
the Ea s y Way

R_f Signa l Gene ra to r

SO UTH ERN C ALIFO RNI A RTTY BULLETI N . M e,,;11


L, Swan W bAEE. 372 West W orren Way. A rca d ia .
Californ ia. $2.75 per yea r. not incl ud ing membership in
Soc iety. Operetinq news end so me technlcel a rticl es .
This is the oldes t IT b ull etin goin g . A ll IT me n sho uld
a lso get th is o ne . Monthly.

73 HAM CLUB BULLETI N . M er vi n U p t on VEJDQ X.


3 11 Rose ma ry Road. Toronto 10 , Onta rio, Cened e .
Sent free to all ed ito rs of hom club bulletins monthly
to ke ep t he m abreast o f what is g oing on with all
th e other ho m clu bs. Th is is an exce ll e nt source of
news fo r p utting toge the r you r dub b ulleti ns. To su bscribe to this news b ulletin just send a copy of you r
own club b ulle ti n to Marvin.
FEBR UARY 1961

AM XMTR

All the n ecessa r y parts


a nd simple, easy to understand instructions accompa ny each RTT A
K it, whic h is des ig ned
a nd engineered to meet
the most r igid requirements.
Correspondence cou rses or r esident inst r uction are
available for both t he beginner a nd f or t he a dvanced
s t ude n t in all phas es of Radio a n d Electronics.
for info rmalio n w rit e t o:

Radio Television Training of America


52 East 19t h Stre et

New York, N. Y.

73 MAGAZINE

61

--~----------------_..1

Reduces
IIrlerlen nee
a nd
Noll e on All Mak es Short
Wave Recel vert. Mu" Worl d
Wide
R ~ pll on
Stronger.
Crnn r on All Ban dl l

//- 0 :

. rot> All Amate ur Tran sGuaranteed for


500 Watts Power for P I.
Net or Link D i red F eed .
L i ght . N eat . We. th erpnol
m itten .

CDm plete as s hown lou1 le ne th 102 ft . witb 81 ft. or 12 oh m


h. lan.,.C1 Ieedlt n... Il l - Imp..., molded r ll8Of1 ln t IUps, (\VI. 3 01;.

1" x 5 " 1(01) . You IUl t t une to dK lre4 band for beam llke r el uH. Etrel hmt for ALL world - wide sneer - were reeet vera l nd
amll"U T tran.mlltt'U. F or NOVICE A~O ALI. CL..'\S S A~IA
TE cn!'! !

::-;0

t;ll mlnatn

"\l.nn'~ .

EXTRA

l epa n t..

TlJ.:-;F.RS OR GADC.ETS :KEEDED !

antennu

wit h

n:cpl1l.'flt

Perform , Dl

U Invln ed V Irw a ll ban d power gai n. :KO


HAYWIRE 1I0Ul'lE API'F,ARAXCF. ! EASY IX ST ALLA T IOX I
1l0 -40 -2{l-l.5 10 meter bl ndl . Complete.. . .. .. $14.95
40 -20 ,U- IO mel ..r b. nd. 54 ft. ant . ( best for wow . .... 11) 13. 95
20- 1!1 I O meter ban<tl . Du .1 Tr ap. 24 -ft. a ntenn . _. . . 19.95
S E ND ONLY 13.00 (cuh . rtt . mrtl and nay DOI tman balance

COD pl ua postal"e on ar rh.1 or aend full p rice for postpaid


ddh"....,..

w~ !'\TF RN

RA nin

.' u n_ bl.. 0fI1v fr om :

Dent. 7_2

ANNOUNCING THE

~borr[re)t

2M CONVERTER
SU PER LOW.NO ISE-CUSTOM BU ILT
USIN G RCA', N EW N UVISTOR
PAUL A. REVEAL W2ADD BOX 575
Ch ur th Str.., Sta tio n, New York 8, N. Y.

~LARK * Wl ULU
Kl'f W IRING & T ESTING I,ARS

JIM

REPAIRS & SERVICE ON All MAKES OF HAM GEAR

AND

TEST EQUIPMENT. CITIZENS BAND GEAR & HI-FI


2 Aiken St.
Tel. HEmlot k 23600
Derry, N. H.
All WORK GUARANTE ED

....---TELETYPE:-~
AN/U HA-6 Freq uency Shift
Conve rte rs.
T hese co nsist of two i-f typc con verte rs for
du a l diversit y r ece pt ion or for lise on t wo
differen t hands , both of wh ic h feed in to a
selector unit .... hl ch chooses the best signal
a nd ke ys your printer . Each co nver ter h as it s
own ';;I'upe b uilt i n fur tuning. I n p ut is 395470 kc. Th ese a re b uilt in to a small cabin e t
a nd each of t he th ree un its is on ro llers for
easy servicing or removal fro m the cabinet.
Shipping weight a bou t 200 pounds . The cabinet i .. about two feet high. Thi s is a ll you
need III co nnect your Teletype pri n ter to
yo ur sia lion receiver a nd copy ham and
comme rc ia l sig nals , Original cost about
3000. Your cost is only ,,29,'). These come
co mplete with sc hematic diagram and instruction book . ,.:\ 1' a matter of fact we'll se n d you
a dia gram if you ju-t write fo r more info.
SPECIAL OFFER TO 73 READERS ONLY:
LIMITED OFFER
6146' , ...... $3.95
BRAND NEW TUBES
2E26 ' s . . 53.20
NO SURPLUS!
5763' , . $1.99
THIS MONTH ONLV
we've got so much s t uff in stock we can 't get
into n-e ..tockroom anymore , We t ook the la st
few inches to put in a press so we could s end
out Hvts o f our baraa tna . Send a card and w e' II
sm other you with li sts ... or come i n and see
for y ou r se lf.
Ru s s W2U F U.

SPERA ELECTRONIC SUPPLY

37-1 0 33rd ST., LO NG ISLAND CITY I, NEW YO RK


STillwell 6-2191
STil well 6 -2190

62

73 MA GAZI N E

Advertisers Index
Ale 0
. 57
Alde n
. 54
Allied Radio
. 64
All t ro nics-Howard
, . 55
Ar ro'""
_
. 2
. 41
Barker and W illiamson
Cal l-DCal
. . . . . . . .. 52
Candee
. 61
Central
.
7
Clegg
.
I
C lark, J im
. 62
Columbia
. 51
Curta
. 63
DaIe
. 55
Eico ....,..... . . . . ... ... .... . . 10
Exce llo
. 53
Fulton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 59
Gi dgets & Gadge ts
. 63
G lobe Industries
59
Gonset
C over II
Graham
.. 54
54
Ha m-Swa p . .
Hi-Per
43
4, 5
Inte rnational Crysta l
Kaufman
55
LR . .
. .. . . . . .. . . ,
63
LW
.
. . .. 55
Lafaye tte
. 9
Nationa l
,. ,
C over IV
Neil
45
Cover III
Pete rsen
Rad io Booksh op . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
RTTA
61
Rex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 54
Rider, John
8
Shorecrest
62
Spera
62
47
Stellar
58
Subscr iption to 73
Telrex
51
Texas C rystal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 49
W este rn Ra dio [San Dieq o]
57
Western Ra dio (Neb ra ska)
62
73 Subscriptio n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 58

FEBRU A RY 196 1

/1111111111111111111111111111111/1111111111111111111111II1I111II

SIOEBAND ER. Offi cial o rqe n of the Single Sideband


Amateur Redic Assc cletlcn . 12 Elm Street. Lynbrook.
l. I., N. Y. Subs include mem be rship to SSBARA: $3
p e r yee r. Monthly. Prime rllv o pere tin q news end chit.

che t for t he

sse ox

g ~n g .

TH E MON ITO R. Mo!I r -Jtl~ Publishe rs, 507 We st Davis


Street. Dalle s 8. Texas. $1 e yeer. 3 veers for $2.50.
Mo nt hly. Lerq elv o pe rating news. C olumns: YL. C lu b
Meeti ngs. Arke nses News , Mississippi News. Flori d"
News, OX. Missouri News, MARS, Cellfcm ie News.

The Curta Computer


This, the world' s smo llest (o mputer, is mode in a
t iny fo (lory up in the mounloi ns of Lie (htenste in. AI
most unknown in t h i ~ (ountry, this is a n ;n(red ible
invention. It will do eve rything tho t a big desk type
(an do. though it is on ly 2" in diometer ( 2 ~2 "
for the " big" Curto ). If you have to do a lot of
(a kul oting in your bus inen and you wou ld like
something sma ller or less e l C pe nsive than the Mon
roe or Fride n, then send for litero ture. The " big"
Curta has e leven keys ond wi ll give on a nswer 0((urate to 15 dig ;l$. You (on multip ly a n 11 d igit
numbe r times on 8 d ig it number and ge t your an swer to 1.5 pfoces , Adds, subtro(h, multiplies, di vides q uickly and o((urote ly. Takes on ly 0 fe w
minutes to leorn how to use. Rugged.

Loui sie ne News. VHF News, Oklehcme News. Rio


G rond e Valley Ne ws, N o vice N e ws.
(:urta ;\Iotl" 1 1 - ( II I, II.. ,~
(or r .. ~ u h

VHF AMATEUR. b7 Russoli Avenue. Rehwev. New


Jersey. $3 yeor. Monthly. O peret ing neWs for VH F
men . So me te chnical info .

DX.OSL N ews Lette r. C lif Evens , K6BX, Box 385 ,


Bonite , Celifo mie. Publi shed quarterly. 40 ea c h ; Annual subsc ription $1.25 (four copie s ) b y first cle ss ,
mo!l il ($1.50 for DX ste ticns]. lists all QSL Burea us,
manogers fo r rere OX sta t ions, etc. W hy no t send
you r o ld Ca ll book t o a DX hem? Write Clif fo r t he
no me of so me one who needs it.

DIRECTORY O F C ERTI FICATES AN D A W ARD S. eli !


Eva ns, K6BX, Box 385, Bonita, C al. C omplete Direct o ry plus o ne yea r of revisio ns (q uarterl y) $3 .50 . Add
75 for 1st cla ss ma il; $ 1.25 for a irma il; OX stetlc ns
Ist cl ass mai l add $1.00. Need le ss t o say, this is t he
mo st co mp le t e colle ctio n o f dat a on the hundreds 0 1
c e rt ifica t e s lind awards lIva illlble.

MOB ilE NEWS. Published mo nthl y b y the A mateu r


Red ic Mobile Socie ty. 79 M ur c hi son Rd ., leyton , E.
10, En g la nd . Joi nin g fe e li nd I yell r sub. is $2 .50.

OX BULLETIN . Don Chesser W4KVX, RFD I, Burling .


t on, Kentucky. OX news in depth. Publ ished wee kly.
3rd Cl ass moil $5 veer : 1st cless $6; Airmo il $7,50.
OX retes on request.

Don Wil lillmso n


WESTERN RADIO AMATEUR .
W6JRE, 10517 Heve rly Street, El Monte, Cellfornie .
Monthly . Subs lir e $2 per yee r, $3.50 for two vee rs, $5
fo r thre e years. Ope refinq news of west coast a ctivity,
columns on OX, SSB, YL, lind some articles . 48 peqes.

Curta -'loci.)

. . . ..

11- ( 15

$ 1 2 5.0 0

1,1......

( or r .... uh) .. . .

$ 165.fHJ

Furth er Informaflon ?
Write

RA DIO BOOKSHOP
1379 Ea st 15th Street

Brooklyn 30, N. Y.

GIDGETS & GADGETS


is o!I silly ne me for
you to reed our
providing ~ its o f
un its described in

a co m pa ny, but we wanted


a d . H ere 's t he plot: we 're
p arts t o m ek e t he va rious
th e 73 c onstruction er fle les.

Bantam Converters (specify band),


W9DUT 10 ct. 73 )
$22.S0
6M Transmitter, KeNIC/5 ( Oct. 73) $22.50
A ll ~ ih a re abso lut e ly com plete: pu nch ed
chass is, c opy of art icle, xt a l, tub es , wir e , solde r,
e tc ., and lI nyt hi ng e lse we c e n t hink of th o!lt will
hel p. A ll prices p ostp aid . Luck y NYC dwe llers
a d d 3,"0'

GIDGETS & GADGETS


P.O. BOX 117
FOR EST HILLS 7S, N. Y.
lazy? Add S7..50 for unit wired ond tested.
Wotch for even more of these kits next month.

METERS! METERS!! METERS!!!


TWO 73 SPECIALS ! 0300 v , ec. 4" f a c e , sq ua re
$3.95 !
0 100 rna dc , 2" o r 3" ro und o r sq uare
$2.95!
Be the fi rsl to toke odvontoge of us at these pricesa traction of the g oing prices for these new meters!
While they lost I
Thousonds of other !Ourp lus items in slack. Ma ny
e llCciting borgain, . Get
SURPLUS AT ITS BE ST

from

L R ELECTRONICS

3529 Eost Colorado, Pa sa de na, Calif.


recogni zed J ohnson d istributor
How !
J ohn son M e sse nger $134.95
Write for FREE bulletin

SY 6-5521

1/1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111II11111
13 MAGAZIN E

FEBRUARY 19b1

b3

Join the VHF fun


with ALLIED's own

CO,L,~ . "",."
'UN
" .",

LINCOLN

."

6-METER
TRANSCEIVER
MODEL L -2754

SUPER-VALUE

COMPLETE B-METER STATION

FOR

ONLY

50

,u,,

~~~v Tunable Superhet Receiver Covers Entire Band

Built-In Adjustable Noise Limiter


V Front-Panel Crystal Socket
V 1 Watts Inpul-liCXB Final Amplifier

a ntenna; uses Sed -overtone crystals which pl ug into


front -panel socket. With neon modulation indicato r. Tu b e li ne- up: 6U8A RF amp/mixer ; 6U8A
oBC / I F; 6AL5 d et / ANL; 6C X 8 xtal osejRF output;
12AX5 AF/ mike amp; 6V6GT AF output/modulator. Attractive. compact cabinet measures 5 ~ x
16 J4' x 6 % ". Shpg. wt. , ll ibs.
78 SZ 1955. Only $5 Down. NET
S57.50
12-Volt Power Supply. 2 % x 5 % x 4 ~ . 4 Ibe.
785163. NET
$10.95
6- Volt P ower Supp ly. 2% x 5 % x 4 ~ ". 4lbs.
785184. N E T
$10 .95

Get in o n the 6-m eter fu n with this o utstand ing


Allied special! It'e complete-all set to go, with
built-in 115-volt AC power su p p ly , 50.2-me crystal

and crystal mike-tops in value for 6-meler mobile.


fixed station, or both. Just connect an antenna and
you're on the air! Superhet recei ver section covers
50-54 me with vernier tuning; includes adjustable
noise limiter. Transmitter section uses a 6CXB
final at 7 watts input; has built-in TV I filter; fully
tunable o utput network matches a ny 30-100 ohm

make ALLIED your


Ham Headquarters'
Get our famous u Klng _5h::e" tradesthey're highesll
Only $2 down on orders up to $50 ;

order from

ALLIED RADIO

r---------------------- BIG VHF

only $5 up to $2001
.. m_to_hamu helpl
Enloy t o p service ond real ha

I
I

100 N. W.,'.rn Av., Chicago 10, III.


Ship me the follow ing,
78 SZ 1955 Lincoln 6Meter Transceiver
0 78 S 163 12-Va lt Power Supply
7 8 S 164 6Volt Power Supply
0
$ enclosed

o
o

Flash I Ham Shack Open Sundays

N W tern Ave. on SunWe're open at 100 . toe;.OO p m .-80 we're


de
from 1100 a .m.
.
. k
ys
. . seven days a wee .,.
at your service

I
I
I
I Name,:-::-:
I

~o

1 -_

If you haowen't thl.

eata/Ollnd to, It
64

ALLIED RADIO, Dept. 150- 81

73 MAGAZINE

-.
I

I
I
I
I

Savings

Send fr ee 1961 I
Allied Catalog

:
I
I
I
I
I

Addr.u

, Q.I'OI' ... .

. ~' .

_'! . "

L
I

CUy

lone

SIo'.

FEBR UARY 1961

'_ ../
-

When Agena, the world's lirst polar


orbit sat ellite. wa s laun ched from
Vandenberg Air Force Base. California.
in the Air Force Discoverer program. it
was a great triumph for the Air Force
Ballistic Missile Division and Lockheed
Missil e s and Spac e Division. Ev en
gr eat er triumph wa s the FIRST
CAPSULE from spa ce. recovered near
Hawaii. aft er b eing ej e ct ed from the
orbiting Agena sa te llite on its 17th trip
around the earth.
Th e 300-pound capsule, sep ara ted from
the s a te llite and de-orbited by r e tr orocket s. was tracked in it s progres s
back to earth. by radio signal s
(telemetry ) received on recovery planes
and ships.

Petersen Radio Co. . is proud that PR


Crystal s are making an important
contribution to the Lockheed/Air Force
Satellite Program. In this field where
split-second timing. precision and
dependability are vital to success, PHs
are being u sed in circuits in the various
tracking stations. These stations perform many fun ctions during the orbital
Ii Ie 01 the s a t e ll i t e . including the
recovery sequence of the re-entry body.

J; X PO RT SALES :

Roya l :Nado na l Co rpo enrion , 250 \'\'. 57l h Strn-t.


N ew York 19. N. Y. U. S. A.

_.

with buill-ill PROD UCT DETECTOR

THE "COSMIC BLUE" NATIONAL'S NEW HAMBAND RECEIVER


This newest and finest precision double conversion amateur receiver with 6 meter coverage, brings you
an ease of sideband tuning previously available only in the most expensive equipment. The NC-:!70
features a n exclusive "Ferrite Filler" for instant upper-lower SSB selectio n and a degree of selectivity
to conquer even the toughest AM and C\V signal condition s. The solid X " steel panel, ceramic coil
forms, double-spaced tuning gang, and full ventilation cabinet combine to give mechanical and
thermal stability that will surprise even the most critical operator. Even the color of the NC-270 is
outstandingly different. National's new duo-tone "Cosmic Blue." Write for detailed specificatio ns.

Only $24.99 down"


Suggested cash price: S2~9.95 . NTS-3 Matching Speaker . $19.95 (slightly higher west of
the Rockies and outside the U.S.A.). "Most National d istributo rs offer budget terms
a nd trade-in allowances.

NATIONAL RADIO COMPANY, INC.


MELROSE 76, MASS.
Export: AD AURIEMA, INC., 85 8road St .. New York, N. Y.
Canada: CANADIAN MARCONI CO.. 830 Bayview Ave .. Toronto 17. On t.
A WHOllY OWNED SUBSIDIARYOF NATIONAL CO . INC.

A nd :Val/Ofl{~l Radio's pattrue d " Flip Fo ot" m ak n


o~rarillg the .\'C 170 so eaJy.

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