Obscure Radios and why some did not succeed!

In recent days I have had several email exchanges with W4OP, Dale and W9RAN, Bob. In the course of those discussions SSB radio models came up that never really made it to market. Certainly, companies like Gonset, E F Johnson and Cosmophone were not obscure and had a track record, but they really never had the success with SSB products like Heathkit, Swan, Drake, Collins and of course Atlas. 

That is a key issue as none of these companies exist today building ham equipment. So, what caused some to not enter a market or others to withdraw. An over simplistic answer is foreign competition. You know FBC, Faster, Better and Cheaper. That in my opinion is only part of the answer. 

The other part may involve the people versus a team. Swan and Atlas are synonymous with Herb Johnson. E F Johnson and Gonset, were family-owned companies as was Drake and Collins. We shouldn't forget Hallicrafters (Bill Halligan) and of course WRL (Leo Myerson) and Ten Tec (Al Khan).

One must ponder if product decisions were made based on market research or the "gut" of a single individual who started the company. There is also a bit of we are going to give it to you, and you will like it. 

I recently saw some photos of a Gonset GC-102 SSB transceiver -- it looked Klunky to me!

Look at that dial readout. You would need a 10X magnifying glass sitting in front of that small window to even guess what band and what 10kHz segment. Yes, it did have a Collins filter, but why all of the IF transformer cans. The exposed variable multiple variable capacitors shouts -- alignment issues.

The front panel has no "sex appeal" and appears rather bland. I suspect the GC-102 cost over $600 in 1967. That is about $6000 today.

Supposedly, the GC-102 would do 150 watts which is less than a Swan 500 or a Drake TR-4. Hallicrafters built some great gear that is until the FPM-300 which was competing in a market with radios from Japan. Rubber Band driven band switches are a bad idea and proved to be so. However, if you remove the main board (all SS) and S Meter from the FPM 300 and build around it, the result is a quite good radio. 

Just take a hard look at who is building radios in the US today and you can count them on one hand.  (FLEX, Elecraft and a few small boutique CW rig manufacturers) True FLEX and Elecraft sell lots of radios but there is a step function in their pricing. I simply could not afford a FLEX 8000 nor a K4. For those who would shout what about Ten Tec. Vaporware is a great word. 

So do you think tariffs will drive US companies to start building ham radios. I doubt it as we have lost a generation of innovators that once existed here and that too is needed to be successful. I would not call the GC-102 an innovation. There are no more Herb Johnson's sitting behind door #3.

Them that know can make it go.

73's 

Pete N6QW

A Hot Bed of Ham Radio Activity!

Speaking of Radio Activity, JFF, (Just For Fun) I operated Field Day yesterday and made one contact on 20M with a station in Oregon using the KWM-1. I snickered a bit as I mused... an old guy running an old radio!

As I did so, I held up my middle finger and saluted that organization sponsoring the event and noted most signals were really down in the mud. The exception of course was the station I worked. How amazing is Cycle 25...NOT!

Afterward I was thinking about the San Diego area which is approximately 200 miles south of me. San Diego is the home of Black's Beach whose southern portion of course is a nude beach ... a real chance to get fully tanned. But more importantly the San Diego Area was a hot bed of amateur radio manufacturing and homebrewing during the 1960's and 1970's.

If you don't really enumerate the manufacturers and products, then you would miss the impact. Likely few of those entities or remnants thereof exist today. But let's make a list.

* SWAN Engineering (Herb Johnson)

* Cubic Corp (Astro and later Swan Models)

* Sideband Engineers (Faust Gonsett)

* Atlas Radio (Herb Johnson)

* Southcom International (Les Earnshaw) 

* Kachina (Les Earnshaw)

* Alda (Alda 103 and Alda 105)

* Transcom SBT3

* Palomar

Atlas 180

Alda 103

SBE-33

Transcom SBT3

Cubic Astro 150

Swan Engineering SW-140

On the homebrew side we have Ernie Mason, W6IQY, and Ed Marriner, W6BLZ, who took an ARC-5, BC-453 Receiver (85 kHz IF) and turned it into a SSB Transceiver. Both lived in the San Diego area. W6BLZ penned many articles for CQ and QST.

It was an exciting time for radio manufacturing in the San Diego area during that time period. In effect many innovations arising from these companies became standard for all ham gear. Small, compact and 100 watts and mostly or all Solid State was the standard. 

So, OK you are still thinking about Black's Beach ... Tubes and Boobs are always a winning combination!

A bit of trivia was the collaboration of Herb Johnson (W6QKI, SK) and Les Earnshaw (ex ZL1AAX, SK). The Atlas radios used circuits developed by Earnshaw's company for use in manpack military SSB transceivers. The Atlas Radios were very successful with over 14000 radios produced and many still kicking around shacks today. I ran an Atlas 180 Mobile in the early 1970's and have one today.

Them that know can make it go!

73's

Pete N6QW

Tool/Aid Suggestions from N5OLA.

Field Day Weekend. This is where you prove that the $2400 you spent for a new appliance box was not good enough. Should have bought the $6K rig.

In the posting of 6/27 on the SB-101 restoration, N5OLA presented two tools/aids that might qualify as hitting the jackpot. A $20 Bill placed with the newly married couple will get you these.

The Dental Tool Kit, a best seller, has uses beyond boat anchor restoration and I am thinking SMD soldering. I am ashamed I didn't get a set of these earlier in life. 

There was a rust remover with a strange name that I need to track down which I will share when I find it. Found it ... another $20.

In case you haven't figured it out these can be bought at Amazon. 

While you are shopping at Amazon, throw these in the shopping cart. These might be the third hand needed to assemble the LMO back in the case.

Them that know can make it go.

73's

Pete N6QW

Well that never fails...

 A Tip of the Cap to N5OLA

I had an email exchange with Will, N5OLA. several weeks ago, regarding finding replacement L2 and L3 coils for you know "That Rig". N5OLA lives on south Padre Island and does Heathkit restorations. His videos are quite excellent, and I learned a lot about how to clean up the old boat anchors. I need to find where to buy some Krud Kutter.

In watching his videos, it is clear he has a process, and I am still warming up to immersing a rig in the kitchen sink and giving it a bath followed by a bake in the oven followed by a process similar to sun drying tomatoes. The end results speak for themselves. 

One learned lesson for me -- avoid any work on the SB Series of Heathkits with the LMO. I swear I spotted three hands in the video as he reassembled the LMO back into the chassis. In truth it looks like you would need three hands.

Going back to an earlier statement regarding N5OLA's process and that starts with a full inspection of the "as is" condition, the cleaning process followed by testing all of resistors. He has Cheat Sheets which are laminated Xray photos of the component installations so he can follow right along and mark up the sheets with suspect components. I have a dental mirror but now need to get a couple of dental picks. 

I was surprised to see the paint failure on several of the radios. You could use a fingernail to scrape of the paint. In one video he shows how he bought an overlay ($40) and that essentially gave you a new front panel. 

So, while you may not be restoring a Heathkit the process applies to any boat anchor. 

The never fails comment applies here as well. Never trust that some former owner made a not so obvious mod that causes the radio not to operate. That is where the thorough initial inspection is important as does reading the manual. A failure in the S Meter circuit after a warmup was linked to two tubes and the necessity to only use a certain brand as any other brand will fail the heat test. RTFM! Well that never fails...

Them that know can make it go.

73's

Pete N6QW

What do you do when you relegate a piece of crap to the landfill?

 You buy another boat anchor!

I bought this SBE-34 for less than a junker HW-32A. It was missing the Collins filter (I had a spare) and was sold for parts and not working. 

Replacing the filter and a bit of tweaking of the IF and Mixer transformers and this is what you get. The VFO is subject to some jumping (Damn Analog VFO's) but the dial corrector pot needs a shot of DeOxit and an adjustment of R42, a pot in the VR circuit is needed. There might be a loose connection someplace, but we will track it down.

I have three sets of 6GB5's from former SBE-34 sojourns and a replacement of the ones that came with the radio and the driver tube, a 12BY7, yields 60 watts out on 40 and 20M. So, it meets spec. 

This was a late build as it shows Raytheon on the back panel and was made in South San Francisco. One of the PC boards (converter stage) is actually silk screened with parts identified with an outline and value. One other clue about what was touched... red paint was applied to all solder joints after soldering. No red paint means that joint was touched.

Them that know can make it go.

73's

Pete N6QW

POX on the HW-32A!

After two months of toil it is "Basta" time for the HW-32A. Or better said I seek more productive use of my time. A great anchor point is the SBE-33 that was purchased for $45 and given the N6QW overhaul. Now that was a satisfying experience. 

I dug it out as it was a project that was vastly more complicated and to provide a reference point of what can be done with old boat anchors. You have not lived life until you fish out and replace all of the electrolytic caps that are used in the voltage quadruple circuit.

Enjoy!

Them that know can make things go (most of the time).

The SBE-33, vintage 1962 was a four band (80-15) Hybrid Rig featuring a Collins Filter, all solid state except for the driver and final and had a built-in power supply. The transistors were mostly Germanium and featured a bilateral configuration, certainly not the 1st bilateral, but 50 years ahead of a Bitx rig.

A short history of Ham Radio is here.

73's

Pete N6QW

Better Than a Smart Watch ~ Loot from Apex Surplus

 As I was rummaging through the bins at Apex Surplus, I just knew this NIB Raytheon Knob would be perfect for the Hybrid Wireless SSB rig. It is!

I used the Smart Watch yesterday when I took my walk around the neighborhood. Now I am really upset! The metrics showed that I only burnt calories equivalent to 1/2 of a wheat bagel without any topping. All the time through the walking adventure I was thinking about a toasted bagel with cream cheese topping -- after all I had just exercised. 

A quick calculation indicated that I would have to do three times that walking course just to offset the bagel reward -- Dumb Watch!

Them that know can make things go!

73's

Pete N6QW

A case of the Smart Watch ~ Not!

How many of you own a smart watch? Well now I have one too. It is not something I would buy for myself but was a gift from the offspring who are concerned about my safety. Supposedly it has things like fall detection and calling 911 and even an EKG. The health array includes performance workouts. You also can receive text messages and emails.

The other bonus you can answer the phone on your Smart Watch. Believe it or not I would just like to know what time it is and that is the toughest thing to do! Once the Smart Watch is in a do loop mode navigating menus swiping up, swiping down turning the outer dial does not get you back to the watch face. Even though I was presented the largest form of the Smart Watch it is incompatible with FFS -- Fat Finger Syndrome.

I received a long-distance call yesterday from a ham friend who was sharing a tale of woe -- smoked finals. When I answered my phone, the call went to the watch where the puny audio output was hardly heard. Dumb Watch! You cannot increase the audio from the watch directly and you have to go to the app on your smart phone to do that.

My friend on the phone shared that when he pulls into his garage that his Smart Watch switches over to his wife's phone and requires a reset--- every time. That must be annoying.

So, I am thinking of a solution where with some duct tape on the watch you can defeat any buttons, and it always stays with the time and isn't that the purpose of a watch.

Now mind you I sound like some of the emails I receive about one of my projects not working. For me this miracle invention perhaps did not consider that users may not want everything including the kitchen sink. 

For me it is obvious that answering the phone on my watch given you have to bring the watch up to your ear to barely hear the other end is not useful when driving warp speed down the 101 Freeway. That is plain dangerous!

I have a very repeat very expensive watch that was also a present from offspring and the last time I wore it was to the XYL's funeral. I am really hard on watches and my $10 watch I bought on Amazon tells perfect time and the watch face has two solder burns and at $10 it is no big deal. A solder burn on the expensive watch would really bother me. The watch was so expensive that I am uncomfortable wearing it for everyday use.

To gain a little practice with the text function while my coffee was brewing at 5AM, I accidentally sent the word OK to my daughter --- that prompted a call back to see if I was OK. I can't type word answers on the text screen you know FFS.

Again, I would not buy a Smart Watch as the functions are mostly gimmicks == I just want to know the time and pushing one of the buttons takes you to the Samsung Wallet--- I guess you can buy stuff with your Smart Watch --- now that is DUMB especially if you lose the watch!

73's

Pete N6QW

Trip to Apex Surplus

Disorganized Mayhem! But I loved it. You had an array of resistors on the same shelf as O Rings. Nothing is priced and while shopping boxes were provided, small bags would have been really helpful.

I bought two things, a large diameter Raytheon tuning knob (NIB) and a relay socket. $10.

In thinking back to 1967 San Francisco and the tough choice between the BC-348 Receiver and the topless hotties it was a reminder. Well today the hotties would be in their 80's suffering from sagging boobs, but the BC-348 receivers still maintain an allure. There were no less than four of them and all in good shape and the prices ranged from $170 to $230. The sales guy hinted even those prices were subject to negotiation.

There were also a bunch of National receivers from the same vintage. No HRO receivers were evident. One of them had a gear driven drive system with two circular dials with one that gave a readout to 1kHz. 

So, in summary, a trip involving Boobs and Tubes and a whole lot of stuff seemingly thrown on the shelves.

So, if you are visiting SoCal, a trip to Apex Surplus has got to be on your list.

73's

Pete N6QW

I need to activate the ABC Circuit!

As usually happens my brain awoke me at 3AM and said "Hey Pete", activate the ABC Circuit on the HW-32A!

ABC circuit, say what? Not everyone has one but should have one. The ABC stands for Automatic Brain Control and mine is telling me to stop work on the HW-32A! 

Yesterday I spent over 6 hours in a hot garage chasing why I couldn't get more than 40 watts PEP out of the radio. I was not successful as I even found the extra set of finals and they yielded no more than 40 watts. BTW in aggregate the HW-32A Rx is not that good and never was.

If I were to move forward with the JF3HZB dial mechanism I still would have an end result of a fancy front panel on a radio that does not function to spec. [Lipstick on a Pig, still a Pig!] The ABC says head back to Solid State or build another Hybrid SSB rig that stands head and shoulders above the HW-32A. 

Currently on eBay, Buy It Now for $20

A new Hybrid SSB rig on 20M could use this filter from a HW-101. (You could too.) I have an excellent working and looking template with the 40M Version using the same tube line up. The really good news is the use of the readily available and inexpensive 6JH8 as the Balanced Modulator, which I already have a stock of in the bins. 

Add in a few 6BE6's, 6BA6 and 12BA6's, along with 12AU7 and 12AX7 for the mic and product detector circuits and we are close to being there. Probably would stick with the Solid-State Audio Output. The bottom-line is that we have a baseline and known performance so when there is an issue, we have the prototype for reference purposes.

Pre JF3HZB Dial

How the Hybrid was built.

The Italians say it best: "Basta"!

73's

Pete N6QW

I have violated the Rule of Three!

I have violated the Rule of Three (many times over on this subject) as this might be posting #9 about the HW-32A.

At times you do something that is absolutely wrong, but you seem to get the right result. I have suspected for some time that there is an issue with the ALC circuit that is preventing the HW-32A from reaching full output. This posting is to highlight such an event.

The ALC circuitry in any transmitter essentially puts a brake on the input to prevent flat topping or overdriving the final. The flat topping or overdriving results in an awful signal and sounds like a buzz saw and affects transmissions close to your signal. It is not only bad form, but simply a bad signal.

The ALC can take several forms but in general the input to the final amp stage is sampled and if it exceeds a certain level generates a negative voltage applied to the circuit in this case to earlier stages to reduce the gain. It is a loop and hopefully a fast time constant so that the output sounds excellent and of a more or less constant level. It is in essence similar to Receiver AGC.

To the Grid (Pin 2) of the 12BY7 are two resistors, a 47 Ohm (R50) connected at the other end to Pin 4 of L2 the Driver Grid Transformer. Also connected to Pin 2, on the 12BY7 is a 6.8K Resistor (R51). To the other end of the 6.8K we have a .02Ufd bypass cap, a connection to Pin 3 of L2 and finally a connection to a 47K resistor connected to the ALC Buss. 

Looking closely at R50 and R51, they are essentially in series across L2 with most of the secondary voltage appearing at the Grid of the 12BY7. The series combo is a voltage divider! I disconnected R51 from the circuit (the wrong part) and we have Pin 3 on L2 at AC ground through the .02 cap and a 47 Ohm resistance from Pin 4 to Pin2 on the 12BY7. ALC is still provided through the 47K through the L2 winding and on to the Grid through the 47 Ohm resistance. Close to 80 watts out on tune but regrettably unstable. 

So, there is something awry in the application of ALC. A better test would be to remove the 47K which disconnects the ALC to the 12BY7, but then we risk flat topping and a bad signal.

I have settled on a compromise approach where the tune level is set at 10 watts and on SSB I get 40 watts PEP to the antenna. I have set the bias level up at tad bit since I have 300 VDC on the plates/screens. The 40 watts may also be the finals are not 100%. 

So, let's see if I can make some contacts at 40 watts and I did! Sometimes luck prevails and last night I had a nice coast to coast contact at 2015 PDST with KC1CWW, Herb, in Boston running 40 watts to my Delta Loop. So that indeed was a pleasant surprise after almost two months of work. There still is an issue because I can't hit 100 watts, but at this point I am tapped out. I now will turn my attention to building the JF3HZB package for installation in the HW-32A and noodle a bit more about the why of only 40 watts.

Them that know can make it go.

Everyone comfortable that old what's his name may be dragging us into a War in the Mideast. The hawks in his orbit must be sharpening their knives. A war however shifts the focus off of the economy which awaits the boom that was promised.

Perhaps by drafting up a big army and sending them off to war is a solution to the homeless and immigrant problems. Just wonder how many of those hawk advisors actually saw military service in a hot war zone. Trust me if you have served in one of those zones, your perspective is much different, and I do know. 

73's

Pete N6QW

One of the Last Places on Earth!

Malden, MA, Cortland St., NYC, Market St., SF, Anaheim, CA, St. Louis, MO and Burbank, CA. These locations share a common bond and that bond is Surplus Electronics locations. Sadly, only one location remains today supplying the needs of those seeking POP, (Parts of Pastimes).

Meshna Electronics was a mail order electronics store in Malden, MA where I bought my 1st ARC-5 for $3.50. Cortland St. in NYC of course was the home of Radio Row. 

In June of 1967, I was discharged from the Navy and started my 1st civilian job right in downtown San Francisco just off of Market St. 

Imagine my surprise when I discovered SF had a radio row just up the street from where I worked. I almost bought a NIB BC-348 receiver for $25. But shortly after arrival in SF, I discovered North Beach (I lived two blocks from there) and many of the topless dancers I soon discovered actually lived in my apartment complex. I never went back to look at the BC-348.

There remains but one of these giants of Electronic Surplus and that is in Burbank (Sunland) CA. The name should roll of your tongue like honey -- it's called Apex Surplus.

This is O'Scope Row

Need Some Wire!

Apex sells all sorts of surplus including rocket parts, Industrial Chambers, hardware (nuts & bolts) and of course electronics.

With a high degree of certainty blog readers have seen merchandise from Apex Surplus! That is because they supply the movie industry with props as that is a large part of their business. So that latest sci-fi movie you watched on Netflix that had a cockpit full of electronic panels all lit up --- yep Apex. Their website has a photo of the original Proton Packs as seen in Ghost Busters. I think I saw a brief passing image of Bill Murray lurking behind a spent rocket motor. See also if you can spot the pristine looking Hammarlund SP-600 Radio Receiver they have for rent as a prop.

So why is Apex today's subject? Well, my #3 son is coming for a visit this weekend and he is an ardent mechanical homebrewer and has visited Apex many times in the past. 

He is always in search of mechanical assemblies and hardware found nowhere else. So, he is dragging me along on this trip and it will be a 1st time visit for me. I am visualizing a spent rocket motor in my front yard as an "Objet d'art".

Son, Nick, and I when we lived in St. Louis, would make a regular sojourn to Gateway Electronics and would spend hours rummaging through the bins looking for stepper motors, controller boards and mechanical assemblies. Today he uses those same parts in his day job.

Often times when I buy a birthday present for someone I wonder if it will hit the mark and is it appropriate. On his last birthday in March, I bought him a welder. It hit the mark! This was timed perfectly with a purchase he made for a well-seasoned metal lathe that lacked a mounting pedestal. 

The welder was the tool he needed to build the pedestal base. The lathe he bought came from England and had all the accessories for cutting gears and threads. The pedestal base is now built and thus he is looking for stock/materials to build hardware on the lathe. That is the reason for the visit to Apex. He lives in the Bay Area and has a big truck -- it will go home full up with home cooked food and surplus.

Them that know can make things go.

73's

Pete N6QW

PS Confession Time. I hope to entice #3 son to make me some metallic 1.75" in diameter knobs with a knurled finish around the outside and finished off in black. That would look so cool on the Hybrid SSB Transceiver. So, one of the things I will be looking for is some aluminum stock big enough to fab the knobs. I was born at night... but not last night.

Forward Progress.

What better way to celebrate Father's Day than to have lunch with my favorite daughter (my only daughter) and enjoy a great meal and to get some valuable presents. 

A T Shirt from the Viper Room (LA), some plastic parts storage bins and coffee mugs to replace the one I recently broke. Hey I scored!

That said (and a most enjoyable time) I made some real progress on the HW-32A. Throwing caution to the wind, I made two small holes in the tops of the sealed cans (L2, L3) and a tweak or two significantly raised the output.

The HW-32A uses a fixed load capacitor on the Pi Network, a 290pF, 3% Silver Mica. I read on one of the Heathkit forums that a low power output was traced to this cap. I popped it of the circuit and installed a 330pF, 2KV Polyester unit. Shazam -- 30 watts on Tune. So we had a banner day.

This morning, I wanted to follow up on something I observed yesterday. I note that on voice peaks, that I hardly hit the 30 watts. By design, the HW-32A on Tune is intended to give a quite good bit of RF for tune up and SWR adjust but NOT full output as with voice peaks.

I also noted that there is one critical setting on the mic gain control where you get the 30 watts on Voice Peaks. The mic gain has no impact during the Tune process. In fact opening up the mic gain reduces the output. Yep, it has got to be the ALC circuit is limiting the output.

A quick look at the audio input to the balanced modulator shows a clean waveform and the mic gain control is fully adjustable from 0 to Full Open. So, it is not the mic gain stage. 

The ALC looks similar to the AGC and upon a sensing of overdrive at the 6GE5's generates a negative voltage applied to several lower-level stages to reduce the gain including the transmit IF amp V2A and the Driver V5.

The ALC circuitry is located in the upper left-hand corner of the chassis facing front. Regrettably there are many under chassis parts that prevent easy access to this area (Power Plug wiring and the Audio Transformer). So, I might have to resort to clipping out the part and installing new parts on the stubs sticking out from the top of the circuit board. Certainly not aesthetic but may be required.

That is on the work list for today, to first see if it is a simple fix to the ALC or the more drastic part removal.

Them that know can make it go.

73's

Pete N6QW

Any one feel concerned that $45M of US Tax Dollars were spent so 20,000 of your fellow citizens could watch a parade. Anyone disagree that such a sum could have been directed to more significant uses?

Two steps forward and three steps back.

I am determined, compelled, obsessed, driven, immersed, and downright incentivized to get the HW-32A to a working state. So far, I have failed! It simply can't be that hard!

See if you can spot the new parts that have been swapped in for the old parts? Most of those new parts are involved with the Transmit Mixer and Driver stage and on the Receive side the Receiver RF Amp and Receiver Mixer stage.

My Heathkit HP-23 supply has a two-position switch that controls the LV value. You have a choice of either 250VDC or 300VDC. The LV value is used on the plates of the lower-level tubes and on the Screen of the 6GE5's RF amp tubes.

At the 250VDC setting it is like the receiver is dead and nothing from the transmitter. In the 300VDC position the receiver comes alive and I can get about 10 watts output from the finals.

So now I need to circle back to look once more at all of the voltages on the tube sockets at the 250VDC LV level. Several of the charts in the HW-32 Manual have the nominal pin voltage at the 250VDC setting.

Them that know can make things go. At this point I am not there on this project.

73's

Pete N6QW

Did you participate in any of the demonstrations yesterday? I was too busy at the bench. You also need to know the "crew" knows how to find you. Those photos with your cats are constantly scanned by those who ferret out any resistance to you know who.

I have fallen down the rabbit hole!

I continue to try and resurrect the HW-32A and am way down the rabbit hole. Small bits of progress but no major breakthrough. 

The 20M band was open last night and I could hear stations on the east coast and a couple of South American call signs. That was not good as the volume control was wide open, and you hear no change in atmospheric noise when you dis-connect the antenna.

My gut tells me it is a front-end issue. Often the most fundamental test with a homebrew radio is disconnect/connect the antenna and can you hear any changes. My HW-32A flunks that simple test. I reason that with a strong band opening and a limp front end then you will hear signals but like they are in the mud. In hunting this down I tried the tube swap with known good tubes and have found some really off value components. 

But by and large a target would be caps that link the circuit modules. In taking a look from 5000 feet (look at the total schematic) there are but only a few of those as there is lots of transformer coupling between modules and that is compounded by two such elements L2 and L3 which are sealed and cannot be adjusted. 

Switching to the transmit side I now can get about 3/4 of a watt out to the antenna and those two same inductors (L2, L3) are in the transmit chain. I also found that the (small) output is not consistent across the 150 kHz range. Tuning L5 which is in the output side of the 6BE6 heterodyne oscillator/mixer stage can peak the portion of the band where you have the greatest output. Typically, that peak is only about 50kHz wide i.e. not broadband. So, this is noteworthy when I add the JF3HZB dial to the mix.

The plan going forward is to continue replacing any module coupling capacitors with modern units and to look at perhaps not so obvious issues. One target is the single 12AT7, a dual triode. One half is the Product Detector, and the other half is the BFO / Carrier Insertion Oscillator. Insufficient injection of the BFO / CIO would impact the received signal as well as the transmitted signal levels. 

The output from the BFO/CIO is taken through two separate caps connected to the cathode of one of the Triodes. (Open cap = low injection, and the cap values are 36 and 47pF).

There are other verification tests like the rails that supply the 250 VDC plate / screen voltages. A too low screen voltage dramatically reduces the output on both receive and transmit. There are test pins on the top side of the PCB that would give access to these voltages. A look see at a couple of points would identify a general condition. 

So, I am determined to fix the HW-32A and when I get there it will likely be something really simple bit so far, the simplicity has eluded me.

Now to shift the story to bringing back manufacturing to America. I marvel when I hear discussions on 40M from stations in the 5 and 7 call areas that suggest it would take a month and have it all back and up and running. They are simply wrong and here is a link as to why. 

The YouTube video narrator wanted to develop a product that is totally Made In America. It is a simple product that is all mechanical, with no moving parts and no electronics involved. The product is an outdoor grill cleaner. The underlying issue is the lack of tool and die making capability. When manufacturing shifted offshore one of the lost critical skills was tool and die making. 

Having run a large-scale production line, I personally do know what it takes to build stuff. Most of the brilliant geniuses, "best people" in Washington have no clue what it takes to manufacture products. So, we will just have to suffer through the next 3.5 years, but the fact remains you know who does not have a magic wand at the end of his finger. The other critical fact: tool and die makers are not churned out after a two-week course.

Them that know can build stuff!

73's

Pete N6QW

Found Some Way Off Value Resistors

 

I went through a whole roll of solder wick and as I await Lauren Sanchez's main squeeze to send me another roll, I took a look at the transmitter circuits. 

The test set up is to sample the output of the 12BY7A as seen from the Grid Input of the 6GE5's. Doesn't look too bad and sounds OK. 

Later today, I hope to see the smiley truck show up with another roll of solder wick so I can attack the off-value resistors in the receive circuits.

Them that know can make it go.

73's

Pete N6QW

No Drama up here at Newbury Park and so no military presence is evident. Shades of 103rd and Grape Street (Center of Watts) and think forward 60 years and now a photo op.

The Marines are Coming!

Not to the Halls of Montezuma or the Shores of Tripoli but to a city about 40 Miles from my QTH... Los Angeles. We'll have to see how that unfolds.

I have great respect for the United States Marines Corp having served with them in Regimental Landing Team 4 at Chu Lai. I guess this raises many questions as a Marine Deployment is very serious business. We are all thinking was this necessary or just a photo op in the quest for relevance. We all sort of know the answer.

Changed out the AGC circuitry on the HW-32A and while some improvement it did not resolve the low receive issue. I noticed some excessive heating in the 12VDC power supply to the rig filaments, and I pulled the final tubes as I suspect a possible short in the finals. That is unrelated to the low signal level detection.

With the finals out of the circuit and No HV supplied, I tested some of the transmit functions. The VOX works and with an external receiver using a 1-foot antenna I could hear the HW-32A running only the driver (12BY7A). It was clear and no distortion and both sidebands work.

This last test is significant in that we have some proof that the transmit only and common functions work. It was at the end of the day, so I only did a listen test and what I need to do is look at the actual waveform from the 12BY7A. A snoop loop wrapped around the 12BY7A tube has been used in the past and that will be the first attempt. Film at 11PM.

I had a curious observation and not clear as to why. There are actually test points on the HW32 circuit board. One of those test points is on the output of the heterodyned signal.

just 

In the photo above we see V13 and V14 and L3. The secondary side of L3 feeds the Cathode of the Receive Mixer V8B through a chunk of shielded cable and just to the right and mid-cable is the Letter "C". This is a test point. So, I hooked my scope probe to this point and saw a waveform and the frequency was about 16.5 MHz. This is validation of the heterodyne operation and in the correct range. L3 also feeds the transmit mixer not shown.

Now the curious part as I tuned across the signal from the signal generator which was on 14.25 not connected to the circuit and about 5 feet away suddenly the S Meter read 20/9 (that is what it should be). Now remove the scope lead and back to S5. It is repeatable. I also note an increase in background noise. Removing the scope lead and substituting a wire with a clip lead (From Parts Candy, FB stuff) the same result.

THIS is telling me something but what is it saying. I need to noodle through that a bit.

Go back to V8B and this is in reference to a recent post on Hackaday about a 1-tube SDR receiver. I am having trouble seeing how that receiver works from what is described in the hackaday post. 

But I could see if we took a 12AX7 which is two Hi-Mu independent triodes and using V8B as an example we could feed a quadrature LO into the cathodes and using a splitter (FT-37-43 Core) feed RF into the grids we could produce and I and Q signal streams to feed a computer sound card and we are off and running. That would be a single tube SDR Receiver. 

We could have a 2nd 12AX7 used only transmit and then it would be a two-tube low level SDR transceiver. 

Them that know can make it go.

73's

Pete N6QW