I found it!

[W2NAP]

The perfect station for IZE:



Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

far out man!

[wa6mhz]

FB!

[W7XF]

The perfect station for IZE:



Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

Lots of TOOBS....and KNOBS!!!

[N8OBM]

The perfect station for IZE:



Go get it, John. AM and archaic—you know, right down your alley!

I saw this ad as well. I was thinking that If I had a little more room in the garage, it would be tempting. That would be one heck of a way to go on 160 meter. I'm not that far from Springfield Ma. Its about 2 hours and I could empty out my sound gear trailer to go pick it up. The only question is how long would it be before my wife let me back in the house? It gets mighty cold in the winter here. I could be outside till mid winter.......

Archie N8OBM

[NQ6U]

I saw this ad as well. I was thinking that If I had a little more room in the garage, it would be tempting. [...] The only question is how long would it be before my wife let me back in the house? It gets mighty cold in the winter here. I could be outside till mid winter.......

Archie N8OBM

I suspect the garage would be plenty warm enough once you fired that monster up, Archie.

[kb2vxa]

Eh, that's only the VFO so why stop there? How about 500KW with a few tons of mod iron like two of these babies?

[ki4itv]

There are two rooms I want to spend some time in before I die - an anechoic chamber and a saltwater float tank.

Both have the potential to be very unsound rooms, lulz.

Me too.
"stick out your tongue"... then, slam! :shock:

[N8OBM]

I suspect the garage would be plenty warm enough once you fired that monster up, Archie.

This is true and the garage has its own 200 amp service and meter. The fellow who built the house and the garage was a welder who ran his welders out in the garage. There is no shortage of power there.

Archie N8OBM

[kb2vxa]

Eh, you underestimate the AC power requirement. That beast looks like the 5KW RCA BTA-5G Ampliphase transmitter that had WAY too many problems for me to bother with. First, it requires a 480V 3 phase service the power company charges a king's ransom to install. Then the rectifiers are made of unobtanium, they're not the usual mercury vapor tubes, they're thyratrons (mercury SCRs) controlled by a rotary pulse transformer. The fronts are accordion style sliding doors prone to jamming, that's why in the picture they were completely removed, not just opened for the photo. Ampliphase, RCA's trademark for phase modulation, this is not your standard high level plate and screen modulated transmitter. It saves power because of it BUT the RF sections are overly complicated and require frequent tune ups, like an expensive sports car it spends more time in the shop than it does on the road.

[n2ize]

Eh, you underestimate the AC power requirement. That beast looks like the 5KW RCA BTA-5G Ampliphase transmitter that had WAY too many problems for me to bother with. First, it requires a 480V 3 phase service the power company charges a king's ransom to install. Then the rectifiers are made of unobtanium, they're not the usual mercury vapor tubes, they're thyratrons (mercury SCRs) controlled by a rotary pulse transformer. The fronts are accordion style sliding doors prone to jamming, that's why in the picture they were completely removed, not just opened for the photo. Ampliphase, RCA's trademark for phase modulation, this is not your standard high level plate and screen modulated transmitter. It saves power because of it BUT the RF sections are overly complicated and require frequent tune ups, like an expensive sports car it spends more time in the shop than it does on the road.

I could easily borrow a truck and get to Springfield. But wouln't pick up this beast and bring it down for for the very reasons you stated... plus one more. As you pointed out, the power requirements are too complicated and Con Ed would charge me a fortune to deliver the power I would need to run it. This sure as heck ain't no welding machine. . Secondly, it is overly complex. I suppose it may be possible to do something about the rectifiers but there are too many other potential headaches with that beast. And the one more, I'd have no place to put it. I already have something that resembles a refrigerator and that take enough space as is.

I wouldn't mind getting hold of a 500 W or 1 Kw Bcast AM transmitter... But this beast is too much. Closest I ever got to a big AM transmitter was the 50 kw Continental they had at the old WNEW transmitter site which today the whole site is now somewhere underwater... a part of the Jersey shore. ;)