...Every time I get away

They drag me back in.....

30 plus years ago, I converted a Golden Falcon (one 9808 driving three 8908's which, drove six 8908 tubes) to three 6LW6's driving the final stage of six 6LW6's.

Yesterday, I get a call from the owner of the amplifier requesting that I work on it; seems that he has purchased another Golden Falcon from R & L Electronic and he want me to make one good amplifier out of the two hulks.

I politely refuse by offering the excuse that my vision is bad, he doesn't take no for an answer. Next, I tell him that after a certain age, your hands get shaky and, working with High Voltage is not a good idea.

He still does not take "No" for an answer.

Issue is, my 'Elmer' Henry Kuhn made the first modification on this unit and, I am the only one still around who can go in behind him and follow his work; not another Radio amateur or CB'er will do it so, I get the calls 20 years after his passing.

That POS will FRY every device with a USB port if I try to run it, even into a Non-radiating Cantenna

....To be continued.

Oh no, another leenyar driving a leenyar driving the local Tennessee Valley Indians to the warpath http://myvintagetubeamp.com/2019/02/...amp-amplifier/ like a certain D&A Phantom 500 aka The Green Dragon. No, it wasn't mine, I was an AM Gangsta in my CB daze, it sounded like the mic was under water, I wouldn't touch one with a 10ft pole or a Hungarian midget!

Next time that something less than a man coes slinking around keep this from The Everly Brothers' Cathy's Clown in mind:
I've gotta stand tall
You know a man can't crawl
But when he knows you’re tellin’ lies
And he hears them passing’ by
He's not a man at all
To be continued? For the sake of huMANity I certainly hope not.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kb2vxa

Oh no, another leenyar driving a leenyar driving the local Tennessee Valley Indians to the warpath http://myvintagetubeamp.com/2019/02/...amp-amplifier/ like a certain D&A Phantom 500 aka The Green Dragon. No, it wasn't mine, I was an AM Gangsta in my CB daze, it sounded like the mic was under water, I wouldn't touch one with a 10ft pole or a Hungarian midget!

Next time that something less than a man coes slinking around keep this from The Everly Brothers' Cathy's Clown in mind:
I've gotta stand tall
You know a man can't crawl
But when he knows you’re tellin’ lies
And he hears them passing’ by
He's not a man at all
To be continued? For the sake of huMANity I certainly hope not.

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Worked out a game plan:

1. unload from trunk and lug heavy iron outboard Distribution Transformer from car to house
2. 'nother trip to retrieve RF decks
3. Do all of the low voltage work on tube sockets and test.
4. Patch my variable B+ supply in and bring the plates up to about 500 volts
5. Unplug every computer / Rf sensitive in the house.
6. Connect DOSY "wattmeters" and check for some output
7. Package and lug back to car (I'm charging really for the strain on my back more than RF work!)
8. Deliver and return myself to repair retirement.

In my retirement, I am turning down jobs containing "Toobs" with Handles; there are at least three stations running Steel Tubes in the area.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by koØm

Worked out a game plan:

1. unload from trunk and lug heavy iron outboard Distribution Transformer from car to house
2. 'nother trip to retrieve RF decks
3. Do all of the low voltage work on tube sockets and test.
4. Patch my variable B+ supply in and bring the plates up to about 500 volts
5. Unplug every computer / Rf sensitive in the house.
6. Connect DOSY "wattmeters" and check for some output
7. Package and lug back to car (I'm charging really for the strain on my back more than RF work!)
8. Deliver and return myself to repair retirement.

In my retirement, I am turning down jobs containing "Toobs" with Handles; there are at least three stations running Steel Tubes in the area.

.

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I should have turned this one down.

On Edit: I pulled the bottom off of the donor amplifier -- stock, hasn't been touched since it was constructed in the 1980's

Pictures to follow......

Attachment 16947

Attachment 16948

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There were a couple 11M amplifier builders in the area.

Don't know if one had a hand in this construct, but in '79 the Beacon Journal ran a story of an FCC bust involving someone I occasionally talked to in the Class D service. Said individual had a refrigerator-sized, 7.5KW amplifier and in the article was shown being dollied off his front porch.

What this did was to galvanize the gent into commissioning a 25KW "AC Sky" class mobile amplifier and operating strictly mobile from that point forward. That thing generated much more splatter than the base amp did, even when said base amp was run into a high-gain directional antenna.

If the FCC raises the average fine from $7,500 to $75,000 and up maybe the alpha hotels will understand this shit is ILLEGAL for good reason? Backing up to 1959 the cookie company made one of their worst ever blunders, would you call 27MHz equivalent spectrum to 460MHz? Then those dozen alternators up front and a hundred pills in back mobiles can be entertaining at a shootout. The video is overly long and boring, so fast forward to when you hear the engines rev up, that's where it gets interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef6z3MaLOrU

Bears repeating:

https://youtu.be/uChI5DdoAnU

I heard Prime on Ch6 in the 2009-2010 time frame, when I had my first FT-901DM set up. (The hidden "Aux" band was a little more difficult to tease into life than its FT-101 equivalent, though there were other things one had to do to get the rig to transmit on the segment - which was a must for 12M coverage).

His was easily the biggest signal on the band, and also the cleanest. Great sounding audio and no splatter. Someone put a lot of time and money into that station and it shows.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N8YX

There were a couple 11M amplifier builders in the area.

Don't know if one had a hand in this construct, but in '79 the Beacon Journal ran a story of an FCC bust involving someone I occasionally talked to in the Class D service. Said individual had a refrigerator-sized, 7.5KW amplifier and in the article was shown being dollied off his front porch.

What this did was to galvanize the gent into commissioning a 25KW "AC Sky" class mobile amplifier and operating strictly mobile from that point forward. That thing generated much more splatter than the base amp did, even when said base amp was run into a high-gain directional antenna.

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John "Slaveboy" King was actively doing work in your area a couple of years back; don't know about now.

"Sneaky-Pete" the former apprentice of "John-Boy" Williams (Memphis,Tenn.) is doing work out of Arkansas if you take it to him; pay his Airfare and hotel cost and he will come to your home and do the repairs.

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This is not a simple repair, this is a major rebuild.

Attachment 16949
Attachment 16951

Someone has been inside this thing since the last time I saw it 15+ years ago. It's been so long since I messed with the insides of one of these things; goodness only knows what's what in this thing.

Not shown is the outboard B+ transformer.

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ETA: If you think it looks bad from a photograph, you should get a 3-D view of it.

Hey Mel, I'll be interested to read about what you find. I'd also be interested to know why you think it was done.
Thank you and 73.

Yes. But...

https://canwehaveapooldad.files.word...inky.gif?w=332

Well, after about two weeks of just looking at it, after clearing out a workspace for it, I plugged it in and checked the low voltages, all good so far.

Fact: Sometimes, I cannot remember what and why I did 5 minutes previously so, looking at the insides of the amplifier and trying to remembering what and why things were done 10 - 20 years ago was indeed a (acid) trip down memory road.

My Elmer, W8ERG(sk) used to have a saying, "Kid (I was 40 y/o at the time) always build in a 'pay day' when you do a job." For one, he always used the same color of wire (hard to trace) for construction and never build a job like you will be the only person who will have to repair it; he did both on this job.

My biggest concern is going to be those 40 year old electrolytic capacitors; I can see where some have been replaced so, that means all the others are suspect.

When I get the (mental) energy, I will re-wire the tube sockets patch AC into the primary of the outboard B+ via my Variac and wait for the explosion / out gassing of those parts; gonna contact owner to start the search for money for the electrolytic capacitors in the B+ section.

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So, the owner starts bugging me a couple of weeks ago so I finally dug into it.

I take the exterior covers off, look at the bottom and asks myself, WTF was I on when I did the conversion from 8908's to 6LW6's? It was over 15 years since I'd seen this box but, immediately I recognized some 16 gauge orange-purple striped Teflon coated wires that only one person in town used for repairs; me.

I had constructed a 140 vdc screen supply by feeding 12 volts into the secondary winding of a Radio Shack transformer and then rectifying the voltage that was induced into the primary windings. The control grid had a variable negative going power supply to supply the bias. The funny thing that made the 6LW6 hard to work with was that the suppressor grid was internally connected to the cathode.

After digging through my 1967, '77, and 2000 ARRL Handbooks I extrapolated enough information to refresh what Father Time had dimmed and a few days ago I completed the job.

BUT, I am afraid to test it; even into a "Cantenna" because of all the "Part 15 devices" and the 30 y/o electrolytic caps in the B+ section.

Would you use a Variac and try to condition those capacitors slowly or would you just hope for the best and fire it up?

Use the variac... before smoke comes out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PA5COR

Use the variac... before smoke comes out.

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This.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PA5COR

Use the variac... before smoke comes out.

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After a couple of stiff shots of Jack, I did just that.........

No B+ , Huge , 40 pound outboard X-Former; secondary appears to be open

Fudge!

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