Look what I stumbled across...
 

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:24:24 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Eisboch" wrote in message
...


Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Eisboch


The one in the link (above) is an old AN/FRT-40 used by the Navy
primarily at shore based naval transmitter sites from late 40's. They
were phased out by the mid 70's.

The "40" was a 50kw version of this, an An/FRT-39. It was used both at
shore stations and aboard ship.

The left side rack contained the modulation mode select (CW, FSK, Voice,
and the output mode .... carrier or SSB. It had an "exciter" capable of
1000 watts used to drive the right hand side, 10kw power amp. The exciter
could also be used by itself, hooked to an antenna in emergencies. We
used to have a lot of fun screwing around with that.

http://jproc.ca/rrp/coverdale_gpt10k.gif

A FRT-40 added an additional power output section to raise the output to
50KW

I can't remember anymore. Is it "peak the grid, dip the plate" or the
other way around?

Here's one I used at the Marine MARS station on Okinawa fro RTTY traffic..

http://www.collinsradio.org/html/kw-1.html

That was a sweet rig back in the day. Never really got into RTTY for
some reason - when I was still up on code, I could "read" 60 Baudot
RTTY by ear - could catch enough to parse the word pretty well.

Then again, my CW speed was up around 65 wpm with 100% copy. I was
just listening to the high speed cw net on 75 - I can still copy 40
wpm pretty well, but I've lost my 50+ speed ear - have to keep
listening for a few days to get it back.

A lot of that is machine code now done by computer - not a lot of us
left who enjoy high speed full breakin code using a Vibrolplex bug. I
use my Dad's presentation bug - he was given it by the radio guys on
his DE during WWII.

Love that thing.

We also had several Collins original *S* Line setups. We had a 600' per leg
rhombic pointed at Southern California, Camp Pendleton. They were are main
outlet for RTTY traffic.

My Dad's S-line is a great system - looks great too.

Nothing like tubes.

BTW, don't peak the plate, you'll be replacing finals. 8)

Been there, done that.

Much to my Dad's displeasure. :)

Look what I stumbled across...
 

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:24:24 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Eisboch" wrote in message
...


Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Eisboch


The one in the link (above) is an old AN/FRT-40 used by the Navy
primarily at shore based naval transmitter sites from late 40's. They
were phased out by the mid 70's.

The "40" was a 50kw version of this, an An/FRT-39. It was used both at
shore stations and aboard ship.

The left side rack contained the modulation mode select (CW, FSK, Voice,
and the output mode .... carrier or SSB. It had an "exciter" capable of
1000 watts used to drive the right hand side, 10kw power amp. The exciter
could also be used by itself, hooked to an antenna in emergencies. We
used to have a lot of fun screwing around with that.

http://jproc.ca/rrp/coverdale_gpt10k.gif

A FRT-40 added an additional power output section to raise the output to
50KW

I can't remember anymore. Is it "peak the grid, dip the plate" or the
other way around?


Eisboch


Here's one I used at the Marine MARS station on Okinawa fro RTTY traffic..

http://www.collinsradio.org/html/kw-1.html


We also had several Collins original *S* Line setups. We had a 600' per leg
rhombic pointed at Southern California, Camp Pendleton. They were are main
outlet for RTTY traffic.

BTW, don't peak the plate, you'll be replacing finals. 8)


You MARS guys were life-savers during the Vietnam days.

Thanks for what you did!
--
A Harry Krause truism:

"It's not a *baby* kicking, beautiful bride, it's just a fetus!"

Look what I stumbled across...
 

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:59:06 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 17:04:10 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"D.Duck" wrote in message
...

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

My first, circa 1955

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S20R.html

Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Got to play with the exciter of one once when I worked some MARS phone
patches back in the day. I couldn't talk the Chief into letting me
fire up the finals on the big guns though. :)

I did get to play with an Air Force station at full power once though
- blasted a signal right below the lower end of the 20 meter ham band
on a phone patch to the East Coast - MARS again.

That was cool. :)

Man, we could get away with some stuff back then on MARS.

Thank you for your MARS work also.
--
A Harry Krause truism:

"It's not a *baby* kicking, beautiful bride, it's just a fetus!"

Look what I stumbled across...
 

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:24:24 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Eisboch" wrote in message
...


Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Eisboch


The one in the link (above) is an old AN/FRT-40 used by the Navy
primarily at shore based naval transmitter sites from late 40's. They
were phased out by the mid 70's.

The "40" was a 50kw version of this, an An/FRT-39. It was used both at
shore stations and aboard ship.

The left side rack contained the modulation mode select (CW, FSK, Voice,
and the output mode .... carrier or SSB. It had an "exciter" capable of
1000 watts used to drive the right hand side, 10kw power amp. The
exciter
could also be used by itself, hooked to an antenna in emergencies. We
used to have a lot of fun screwing around with that.

http://jproc.ca/rrp/coverdale_gpt10k.gif

A FRT-40 added an additional power output section to raise the output to
50KW

I can't remember anymore. Is it "peak the grid, dip the plate" or the
other way around?

Here's one I used at the Marine MARS station on Okinawa fro RTTY traffic..

http://www.collinsradio.org/html/kw-1.html

That was a sweet rig back in the day. Never really got into RTTY for
some reason - when I was still up on code, I could "read" 60 Baudot
RTTY by ear - could catch enough to parse the word pretty well.

Then again, my CW speed was up around 65 wpm with 100% copy. I was
just listening to the high speed cw net on 75 - I can still copy 40
wpm pretty well, but I've lost my 50+ speed ear - have to keep
listening for a few days to get it back.

A lot of that is machine code now done by computer - not a lot of us
left who enjoy high speed full breakin code using a Vibrolplex bug. I
use my Dad's presentation bug - he was given it by the radio guys on
his DE during WWII.

Love that thing.

We also had several Collins original *S* Line setups. We had a 600' per
leg
rhombic pointed at Southern California, Camp Pendleton. They were are
main
outlet for RTTY traffic.

My Dad's S-line is a great system - looks great too.

Nothing like tubes.

BTW, don't peak the plate, you'll be replacing finals. 8)

Been there, done that.

Much to my Dad's displeasure. :)

While searching for a picture of the KW-1 I came across this site. Quite a
collection.

http://www.isquare.com/personal_pages/ras-hardware.htm

Look what I stumbled across...
 

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:31:32 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:47:14 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

My first, circa 1955

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S20R.html

Yeppers - never owned one, but one of my buddies did.

This was my very first shortwave radio I built in kit form.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/Hal_S119.htm

I remember when I built it, the detector diode was blown so my Dad and
I went to Radio Shack in Boston and got several. There must have been
a difference, because that radio was HOT even on the built in whip
antenna.

I outgrew that one and managed to save enough money to get the SW-500.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S120.html

By that time, I had my ticket and was using it as a standby receiver.
I still have it (had it recently restored) - modified to receive SSB.

Man, those were the days. Staying up late at night "working" AM
stations around the country. In those days, the SWL could write the
station, send a signal report with a brief description of the
programming and how long you listened and the station's Chief Engineer
would return a QSL card verifying that your information was correct
and a thanks for listening.

My very first one was a station in Des Moines, Iowa - a small, 1kw
(night time) country western station. I'd have to go through the QSL
card file to remember the call sign. One of my best shortwave ones
ever was Thailand - AM no less on a rainy Saturday. Took five weeks,
but I got the QSL card. :)

My Dad was a ham from the 1930's. Never got active again after the forced
shut down during WWII. In the 50's when I was 12 he bought me a kit from
Allied Radio. Looked about the same as your Sky Buddy except had plug in
coils for various frequency ranges.

There were several like that - Lafayette and Allied made a few like it
in kit form. It wasn't a Space Spanner by any chance? Seems to me I
remember one of the guys in my Scout troop built one of those.

That got my Dad started again and I progressed up the ranks from novice,
general and amateur extra. I haven't been active for many years. Except of
the CW banks it seemed that the rest of the frequency allocations turned
into a giant CB party.

I blame no-code. :)

Ahhh, the good ole days....

Tell me about it. We used to do some really cool stuff just
experimenting and what not. One of my most memorable QSOs was with a
guy in Chicago I worked off a 100 watt industrial light bulb as a
dummy load when I built my first Heathkit transmitter. Milwaukee to
Chicago from my basement "shack" at 50 watts off a light bulb.

Or the time I shunt loaded a steel rail road bridge on a bet and
worked a guy 300 miles away on CW. :)

Or the time I obtained a weather balloon and made a 2,500 vertical
complete with ground grid for 160 on Field Day. Man, was that antenna
loud. Only stayed calm enough for an hour, but I made a ton of Qs
during that hour. :)

Yep - the good old days.

Look what I stumbled across...
 

On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:49:03 GMT, JohnH wrote:

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:59:06 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 17:04:10 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"D.Duck" wrote in message
...

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

My first, circa 1955

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S20R.html

Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Got to play with the exciter of one once when I worked some MARS phone
patches back in the day. I couldn't talk the Chief into letting me
fire up the finals on the big guns though. :)

I did get to play with an Air Force station at full power once though
- blasted a signal right below the lower end of the 20 meter ham band
on a phone patch to the East Coast - MARS again.

That was cool. :)

Man, we could get away with some stuff back then on MARS.

Thank you for your MARS work also.

Hey - it was fun for us too you know.

Got to play with some great military gear when it was available and
where there wasn't military gear, the club stations were top notch.

Besides, back in those days, it was part of the deal - the reason for
the Amateur Radio Service's existence. And who woulnd't want to help
our fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen if you could.

It was a blast - like life in a way - sometimes tragic, sometimes
joyful, but always important.

Look what I stumbled across...
 

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:24:24 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Eisboch" wrote in message
...


Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Eisboch


The one in the link (above) is an old AN/FRT-40 used by the Navy
primarily at shore based naval transmitter sites from late 40's. They
were phased out by the mid 70's.

The "40" was a 50kw version of this, an An/FRT-39. It was used both at
shore stations and aboard ship.

The left side rack contained the modulation mode select (CW, FSK, Voice,
and the output mode .... carrier or SSB. It had an "exciter" capable of
1000 watts used to drive the right hand side, 10kw power amp. The
exciter
could also be used by itself, hooked to an antenna in emergencies. We
used to have a lot of fun screwing around with that.

http://jproc.ca/rrp/coverdale_gpt10k.gif

A FRT-40 added an additional power output section to raise the output to
50KW

I can't remember anymore. Is it "peak the grid, dip the plate" or the
other way around?

Here's one I used at the Marine MARS station on Okinawa fro RTTY traffic..

http://www.collinsradio.org/html/kw-1.html

That was a sweet rig back in the day. Never really got into RTTY for
some reason - when I was still up on code, I could "read" 60 Baudot
RTTY by ear - could catch enough to parse the word pretty well.

Then again, my CW speed was up around 65 wpm with 100% copy. I was
just listening to the high speed cw net on 75 - I can still copy 40
wpm pretty well, but I've lost my 50+ speed ear - have to keep
listening for a few days to get it back.

A lot of that is machine code now done by computer - not a lot of us
left who enjoy high speed full breakin code using a Vibrolplex bug. I
use my Dad's presentation bug - he was given it by the radio guys on
his DE during WWII.

Love that thing.

We also had several Collins original *S* Line setups. We had a 600' per
leg
rhombic pointed at Southern California, Camp Pendleton. They were are
main
outlet for RTTY traffic.

My Dad's S-line is a great system - looks great too.

Nothing like tubes.

BTW, don't peak the plate, you'll be replacing finals. 8)

Been there, done that.

Much to my Dad's displeasure. :)

Never could get into the code. I just looked at the wheels and figured out
the dots and dashes on the navigation systems I worked on. Tacan, Loran,
ILS beacons.

Look what I stumbled across...
 

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:31:32 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:47:14 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

My first, circa 1955

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S20R.html

Yeppers - never owned one, but one of my buddies did.

This was my very first shortwave radio I built in kit form.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/Hal_S119.htm

I remember when I built it, the detector diode was blown so my Dad and
I went to Radio Shack in Boston and got several. There must have been
a difference, because that radio was HOT even on the built in whip
antenna.

I outgrew that one and managed to save enough money to get the SW-500.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S120.html

By that time, I had my ticket and was using it as a standby receiver.
I still have it (had it recently restored) - modified to receive SSB.

Man, those were the days. Staying up late at night "working" AM
stations around the country. In those days, the SWL could write the
station, send a signal report with a brief description of the
programming and how long you listened and the station's Chief Engineer
would return a QSL card verifying that your information was correct
and a thanks for listening.

My very first one was a station in Des Moines, Iowa - a small, 1kw
(night time) country western station. I'd have to go through the QSL
card file to remember the call sign. One of my best shortwave ones
ever was Thailand - AM no less on a rainy Saturday. Took five weeks,
but I got the QSL card. :)

My Dad was a ham from the 1930's. Never got active again after the forced
shut down during WWII. In the 50's when I was 12 he bought me a kit from
Allied Radio. Looked about the same as your Sky Buddy except had plug in
coils for various frequency ranges.

There were several like that - Lafayette and Allied made a few like it
in kit form. It wasn't a Space Spanner by any chance? Seems to me I
remember one of the guys in my Scout troop built one of those.

That got my Dad started again and I progressed up the ranks from novice,
general and amateur extra. I haven't been active for many years. Except
of
the CW banks it seemed that the rest of the frequency allocations turned
into a giant CB party.

I blame no-code. :)

Ahhh, the good ole days....

Tell me about it. We used to do some really cool stuff just
experimenting and what not. One of my most memorable QSOs was with a
guy in Chicago I worked off a 100 watt industrial light bulb as a
dummy load when I built my first Heathkit transmitter. Milwaukee to
Chicago from my basement "shack" at 50 watts off a light bulb.

Or the time I shunt loaded a steel rail road bridge on a bet and
worked a guy 300 miles away on CW. :)

Or the time I obtained a weather balloon and made a 2,500 vertical
complete with ground grid for 160 on Field Day. Man, was that antenna
loud. Only stayed calm enough for an hour, but I made a ton of Qs
during that hour. :)

Yep - the good old days.

What I played with:
http://www.navcom.com/tacan.pdf

Look what I stumbled across...
 

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 17:04:10 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"D.Duck" wrote in message
...

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

My first, circa 1955

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S20R.html

Here's the one I used to play with:

http://www.geocities.com/technician4/ronw1.jpg

Got to play with the exciter of one once when I worked some MARS phone
patches back in the day. I couldn't talk the Chief into letting me
fire up the finals on the big guns though. :)

I did get to play with an Air Force station at full power once though
- blasted a signal right below the lower end of the 20 meter ham band
on a phone patch to the East Coast - MARS again.

That was cool. :)

Man, we could get away with some stuff back then on MARS.


After I completed my initial and short introductory phase of military
service, I came back to the states and was offered electronics schools in
IL. I had been a Radioman and had a TTY repair job code, so my "watches"
during school was manning the base Mars station once every four days. I
didn't know much about Mars when I first started, but got the hang of it
after a while. It was always a busy watch, being the only military
representative on the net. Even did a few watches as "net control" a few
times.

That was a long, long time ago. Now everybody uses cell phones, I guess.

Eisboch

Look what I stumbled across...
 

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:00:35 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

I had one of these as a kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnWFPmG0ypo

http://www.antiqueradio.org/halli07.htm

My Dad bought it right after WWII in 1947 and it was built like a
battleship. It had continuous tuning from the bottom of the
broadcast band at .55 MHz all the way to the top of the FM band at 108
MHz.

When I was 12 years old I built of of these:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4093