Steve at Play | Steve's Web Junkyard | Steve Byan

Steve at Play | Steve's Web Junkyard | Steve Byan https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/ en Sat, 25 Nov 2023 14:40:58 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sandvox 2.10.12 Antique Electronics and Vintage Solid State https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/ <div class="article-summary"><p>I collect and restore antique vacuum tube electronics (i.e. "boatanchors") and vintage solid-state gear. I’m mostly interested in post-war test equipment, communication receivers, and consumer radios. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/vanad58space_med.jpeg" alt="vanad58space" width="430" height="361" /> </div> </div> </div><p>This page only has the most recent posts, but you can <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/full-index-of-posts-to.html">view a full index of my posts to Antique Electronics and Vintage Solid State</a>. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide right"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/steve-strongs-chassis-stand.html" title="Steve Strong’s chassis stands"><span class="in">Steve Strong’s chassis stands</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I’ve been happy to have a set of <a href="http://www.radiostands.com/">Steve Strong’s chassis stand</a>s, </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/large_small_radio_stands.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/large_small_radio_stands_med.jpeg" alt="Large Small Radio Stands.jpg" width="430" height="359" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>… both the large and the small stands. </p><p>However, there’s one thing that’s annoyed me about them: when you remove the pins to rotate the stand to a new position, sometimes one of the pins will roll off the bench and skitter across the floor to some obscure spot. …</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/steve-strongs-chassis-stand.html" title="Steve Strong’s chassis stands">Continue reading Steve Strong’s chassis stands</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/steve-strongs-chassis-stand.html" title="Steve Strong’s chassis stands">Nov 25, 2023 at 2:40 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/steve-strongs-chassis-stand.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/harvey-radio-labs-205-ts.html" title="Harvey Radio Labs 205 TS Sweep Generator and 188 TS Oscilloscope"><span class="in">Harvey Radio Labs 205 TS Sweep Generator and 188 TS Oscilloscope</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Does anyone have a manual or a schematic for the Harvey Radio Laboratories (AKA Har-Cam) Model 205 TS Visual Alignment Signal Generator (sweep generator)? Or <em>any</em> information on the companion Model 188 TS Oscilloscope? </p>…</div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/harvey-radio-labs-205-ts.html" title="Harvey Radio Labs 205 TS Sweep Generator and 188 TS Oscilloscope">Continue reading Harvey Radio Labs 205 TS Sweep Generator and 188 TS Oscilloscope</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/harvey-radio-labs-205-ts.html" title="Harvey Radio Labs 205 TS Sweep Generator and 188 TS Oscilloscope">Apr 9, 2023 at 6:11 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/harvey-radio-labs-205-ts.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i3 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/nevee-6-test-equipment.html" title="NEVEE 6 Test Equipment Report"><span class="in">NEVEE 6 Test Equipment Report</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I attended the New England Vintage Electronics Exposition #6 in Windham, New Hampshire, on Sunday, March 5, 2023. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/windham_show_poster.pdf" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/windham_show_poster_med.png" alt="windham show poster" width="430" height="556" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I had a great time. I enjoyed seeing some old buddies and making some new acquaintances. …</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/nevee-6-test-equipment.html" title="NEVEE 6 Test Equipment Report">Continue reading NEVEE 6 Test Equipment Report</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/nevee-6-test-equipment.html" title="NEVEE 6 Test Equipment Report">Mar 7, 2023 at 5:33 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/nevee-6-test-equipment.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i4 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-flea-test-equipment.html" title="MIT Flea Test Equipment Report - August 2022"><span class="in">MIT Flea Test Equipment Report - August 2022</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I had a great time at the MIT Flea today. I bought a season pass, but family events kept coming up (and also the spring Kutztown show), so today was my first flea of the season. August is usually pretty slow, but there were lots of people attending the flea today. </p><p>…</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-flea-test-equipment.html" title="MIT Flea Test Equipment Report - August 2022">Continue reading MIT Flea Test Equipment Report - August 2022</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-flea-test-equipment.html" title="MIT Flea Test Equipment Report - August 2022">Aug 21, 2022 at 2:14 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-flea-test-equipment.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i5 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-456a-ac-current-probe.html" title="HP 456A AC Current Probe"><span class="in">HP 456A AC Current Probe</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I wanted a simple project to take a break from <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/rca-wv-98c-senior-voltohmys.html">working on my RCA WV-98C VTVMs</a>. I’ve had a Hewlett Packard 456A AC Current Probe sitting around for a while. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/456a-catalog-photo.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/456a-catalog-photo_med.jpeg" alt="456A-catalog-photo.jpg" width="430" height="292" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The 456A is a clip-on AC current probe. It is comprised of a clip-on probe and a current-to-voltage amplifier and converter. …</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-456a-ac-current-probe.html" title="HP 456A AC Current Probe">Continue reading HP 456A AC Current Probe</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-456a-ac-current-probe.html" title="HP 456A AC Current Probe">Dec 28, 2021 at 4:24 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-456a-ac-current-probe.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i6 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-413a-null-meter-restorat.html" title="HP 413A Null Meter restoration"><span class="in">HP 413A Null Meter restoration</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I’m getting closer to having a reasonable calibration setup, so I now need a null meter for comparisons between my lab voltage standards and my HP 6920B Meter Calibrator. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/hp-413a.png" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/hp-413a_med.png" alt="HP 413A.png" width="430" height="629" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>So, I thought I’d restore my HP 413A Null Meter. …</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-413a-null-meter-restorat.html" title="HP 413A Null Meter restoration">Continue reading HP 413A Null Meter restoration</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-413a-null-meter-restorat.html" title="HP 413A Null Meter restoration">Oct 7, 2021 at 9:31 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-413a-null-meter-restorat.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i7 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-measurement-lab-resista.html" title="MIT Measurement Lab resistance standards"><span class="in">MIT Measurement Lab resistance standards</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I obtained these resistance standards from the MIT lab clean-out a number of years ago. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_9344.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_9344_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 9344.jpeg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">They are marked “MEAS LAB”, which I presume stands for “Measurement Laboratory”. This is the 2,000,000 Ohm standard. </p>… </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-measurement-lab-resista.html" title="MIT Measurement Lab resistance standards">Continue reading MIT Measurement Lab resistance standards</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-measurement-lab-resista.html" title="MIT Measurement Lab resistance standards">May 24, 2021 at 4:09 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/mit-measurement-lab-resista.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i8 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/homebrew-100k--resistance.html" title="Homebrew 100K Ω Resistance Standard"><span class="in">Homebrew 100K Ω Resistance Standard</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I’m upgrading my lab standards. Up until now, I’ve just depended on an old and long out of calibration HP 3468A as my lab standard. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_9309.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_9309_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 9309.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’m constructing a series of resistance standards. Here’s the 100K Ω standard. </p>… </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/homebrew-100k--resistance.html" title="Homebrew 100K Ω Resistance Standard">Continue reading Homebrew 100K Ω Resistance Standard</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/homebrew-100k--resistance.html" title="Homebrew 100K Ω Resistance Standard">May 21, 2021 at 3:07 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/homebrew-100k--resistance.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i9 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-3456a-digital-voltmeter.html" title="HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter"><span class="in">HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>My friend Andy Wallace gave me some test equipment back in the early 1990’s, ... </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_9310.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_9310_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 9310.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>… and this HP 3456A was among them. </p><p>At power on, it would fail self-test #4 with an overload indication (“OL"), so I set it aside, fearing that it would be difficult to find and fix the fault. …</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-3456a-digital-voltmeter.html" title="HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter">Continue reading HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-3456a-digital-voltmeter.html" title="HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter">May 21, 2021 at 1:58 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/hp-3456a-digital-voltmeter.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i10 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/dumont-405-vtvm.html" title="DuMont 405 VTVM"><span class="in">DuMont 405 VTVM</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I’ve been on the lookout for a DuMont 405 VTVM since <a href="https://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=362393">Mike Kent posted about it on the Antique Radio Forum</a>. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/type-405-line-art.png" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/type-405-line-art_med.png" alt="Type 405 Line Art.png" width="430" height="403" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>In 1957, DuMont introduced their “400 Series” of test equipment, including the Type 405 VTVM. </p><p>…</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="continue-reading-link"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/dumont-405-vtvm.html" title="DuMont 405 VTVM">Continue reading DuMont 405 VTVM</a></div> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/dumont-405-vtvm.html" title="DuMont 405 VTVM">Apr 24, 2021 at 7:20 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/dumont-405-vtvm.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: right; font-size: 15px;"><strong><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/general-radio-1806-a-manual.html">Older Posts</a></strong></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> </div> Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:15:39 -0500 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/ Everything Else https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/ <div class="article-summary"><p>Here's the miscellaneous bucket for all the odd bits. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1779_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1779" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p>Parity isn't conserved. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/inspiration.html" title="Inspiration"><span class="in">Inspiration</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I’ve periodically wondered why the space-themed art and the notion of web salvage seemed so “right” to me when putting together this site. I’ve finally realized it’s an homage to the the asteroid belt junk dealer in Robert H. Heinlein’s “The Rolling Stones”. I can’t remember his name, I’ll have to re-read the book :-)</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/inspiration.html" title="Inspiration">Nov 22, 2019 at 12:40 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/inspiration.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/bad-wolf.html" title="Bad Wolf"><span class="in">Bad Wolf</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Seen at the <a href="http://www.nearc.net/">New England Antique Radio Club </a>spring show in Brookline, NH.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1838.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1838_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 1838" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/bad-wolf.html" title="Bad Wolf">May 22, 2016 at 8:05 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/bad-wolf.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i3 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/doctor-who.html" title="Doctor Who"><span class="in">Doctor Who</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Our kids have become great Doctor Who fans, as are Sue and I. The Daleks are my favorite villain, especially on the very old episodes.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/395864_10150694030996337_74.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/395864_10150694030996337_74_med.jpeg" alt="395864_10150694030996337_748571336_10917419_938632915_n" width="430" height="539" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/to_victory.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/to_victory_med.jpeg" alt="to_victory" width="430" height="608" /></a> </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/doctor-who.html" title="Doctor Who">Aug 18, 2014 at 11:02 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/doctor-who.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i4 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/antique-fans-at-the-horton.html" title="Antique fans at the Horton Grand Hotel"><span class="in">Antique fans at the Horton Grand Hotel</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>We visited San Diego last spring, myself for a SNIA NVM Programming Technical Working Group meeting, the rest of the family for a small vacation. The hotel where we stayed, the Horton Grand Hotel, was in the Gaslight district of downtown and so had an 1890's theme.</p><p>One of the antiques that caught my eye was this pair of ceiling fans.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1733.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1733_med.jpeg" alt="" width="430" height="430" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>They continually rotate around the light fixture. Very nice.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1732.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1732_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1732" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/antique-fans-at-the-horton.html" title="Antique fans at the Horton Grand Hotel">Aug 18, 2014 at 10:48 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/antique-fans-at-the-horton.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i5 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/1962-christmas-music-progra.html" title="1962 Christmas Music Program"><span class="in">1962 Christmas Music Program</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I came across this old LP record from my mom and dad's collection. It's a recording of the <em>1962 Christmas Music Program</em> by the combined choirs of <a href="http://www.hisschurch.org/">Hiss Methodist Church</a>, Baltimore, Md, Prof. Martin R. Rice, Conductor, Edwin Yearley, Organist, and <a href="http://www.faithpcbalt.org/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Faith Presbyterian Church</a>, Baltimore, Md., Wilfred B. Hathaway, Ph. D., Dir. of Music. My parents were members of the Hiss choir and "Mr. Ed" Yearley, the organist, was my god-father.</p><p>From my childhood I remember my Dad setting up his new <a href="http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/vm_model_finder.html">Voice of Music</a> <a href="http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/popup_pics.asp?FOLDER=modelfinderpics/t&FILE=722.jpg&TITLE=722" target="_blank">Model 722 reel-to-reel tape recorder</a> at <a href="http://www.hisschurch.org/" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); ">Hiss Methodist Church</a> to make the master tape for this pressing. I don't know the details of the rest of the production, but I assume that the Hiss Methodist Church and Faith Presbyterian Church arranged to have the recording pressed and distributed to interested church-members. I think this Christmas music program must have taken a good deal of effort to put together; it sounds wonderful.</p><p>I've digitized the LP to AIFF, Apple mp4, and mp3 files. I've been sending CD's to other members of the Hiss choir with whom I am still in touch. I'd like to get in touch with Prof. Rice's family and Mr. Hathaway's family; I imagine they would appreciate a copy of this music. I intend to send the original LP to the <a href="http://www.lovelylanemuseum.com/">United Methodist Historical Society</a> at the <a href="http://lovelylane.net/">Lovely Lane United Methodist Church</a> in Baltimore.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/1962-christmas-music-progra_med.png" alt="1962 Christmas Music Program Side 1" width="430" height="430" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content HTMLElement"> <table> <caption> <b>Side 1</b> </caption> <tr> <td>Side 1 </td> <td>Label </td> <td></td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Side%201.tiff">tiff image</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 1: </td> <td> <em>Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light</em> </td> <td>Bach </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/01%20Break%20Forth,%20O%20Beauteous%20Heavenly%20Light.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/01%20Break%20Forth,%20O%20Beauteous%20Heavenly%20Light.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Break%20Forth,%20O%20Beauteous%20Heavenly%20Light.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 2: </td> <td> <em>Beside thy cradle here I stand</em> </td> <td>Bach </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/02%20Beside%20thy%20cradle%20here%20I%20stand.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/02%20Beside%20thy%20cradle%20here%20I%20stand.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Beside%20thy%20cradle%20here%20I%20stand.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 3: </td> <td> <em>Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding</em> </td> <td>Thiman </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/03%20Hark!%20A%20thrilling%20voice%20is%20sounding.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/03%20Hark!%20A%20thrilling%20voice%20is%20sounding.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Hark!%20A%20thrilling%20voice%20is%20sounding.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 4: </td> <td> <em>Unto Us a Boy is Born</em> </td> <td></td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/04%20Unto%20Us%20a%20Boy%20is%20Born.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/04%20Unto%20Us%20a%20Boy%20is%20Born.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Unto%20Us%20a%20Boy%20is%20Born.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 5: </td> <td> <em>Let our gladness have no end</em> </td> <td>Carol </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/05%20Let%20our%20gladness%20have%20no%20end.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/05%20Let%20our%20gladness%20have%20no%20end.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Let%20our%20gladness%20have%20no%20end.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 6: </td> <td> <em>The Friendly Beasts</em> </td> <td>12th C. Carol </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/06%20The%20Friendly%20Beasts.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/06%20The%20Friendly%20Beasts.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/The%20Friendly%20Beasts.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/1962-christmas-music-progra_med-2.png" alt="1962 Christmas Music Program Side 2" width="430" height="430" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content HTMLElement"> <table> <caption> <b>Side 2</b> </caption> <tr> <td>Side 2 </td> <td colspan="3">Label </td> <td></td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Side%202.tiff">tiff image</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 7: </td> <td colspan="3"> <em>Cantata - The Crib</em> </td> <td>Martin Shaw </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/07%20Cantata%20-%20The%20Crib.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/07%20Cantata%20-%20The%20Crib.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Cantata%20-%20The%20Crib.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>Margaret Jackson, </td> <td> <em>Soprano</em> </td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>George Foy, </td> <td> <em>Tenor</em> </td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>L. Alan Evans, </td> <td> <em>Baritone</em> </td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td>Edwin G. Yearley, </td> <td> <em>Organist</em> </td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 8: </td> <td colspan="3"> <em>Glory to God</em> </td> <td>Bortniansky </td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/08%20Glory%20to%20God.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/08%20Glory%20to%20God.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Glory%20to%20God.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Track 9: </td> <td colspan="3"> <em>Fragment of Organ Interlude</em> </td> <td></td> <td>[ <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/09%20Fragment%20of%20Organ%20Interlude.m4a">m4a</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/09%20Fragment%20of%20Organ%20Interlude.mp3">mp3</a> | <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/Fragment%20of%20Organ%20Interlude.aif">aif</a> ] </td> </tr> </table> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p><p>You can download a zip file of the entire album here in <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/1962-Christmas-Music-Program.m4a.zip">m4a</a>, <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/1962-Christmas-Music-Program.mp3.zip">mp3</a>, or <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/files/1962%20Christmas%20Music%20Program/1962-Christmas-Music-Program.aif.zip">aiff</a> formats.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/1962-christmas-music-progra.html" title="1962 Christmas Music Program">Jan 8, 2013 at 9:39 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/1962-christmas-music-progra.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i6 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/great-bollywood-film-3.html" title="Great Bollywood film: 3 Idiots"><span class="in">Great Bollywood film: 3 Idiots</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/threeidiots2_med.jpeg" alt="" width="325" height="471" /> </div> </div> </div><p>Sue picked out a great DVD from NetFlix: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots">3 Idiots</a>. We had a great time watching it last night. It's an epic plot, but the engaging thing for nerdy me was that the plot revolves around three students at the Imperial College of Engineering. Four stars!</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/great-bollywood-film-3.html" title="Great Bollywood film: 3 Idiots">Jan 25, 2012 at 12:31 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/great-bollywood-film-3.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i7 o last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/first-post.html" title="Phil Greenwood etching"><span class="in">Phil Greenwood etching</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/blossom_med.jpeg" alt="Blossom" width="353" height="400" /> </div> </div> </div><p>When Sue and I and the kids visited Bath in the U.K. a few years back, we stumbled on a <a href="https://www.philgreenwood.info/">Phil Greenwood</a> etching in a gallery that we fell in love with. It's called "Blossom".</p><br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/first-post.html" title="Phil Greenwood etching">Dec 28, 2018 at 10:08 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/first-post.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:42:22 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/everything-else/ Steve's Virtual Yard Sale https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/ <div class="article-summary"><p>From time to time I have some old junk to pass on as someone else's treasure. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3420_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3420.JPG" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p>So I list it here, and often elsewhere such as the Antique Radio Forum, Craigslist, or eBay, or cart it off to a NEARC antique radio meet or a ham-fest. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/philco-46-1209-chassis.html" title="Philco 46-1209 chassis parts"><span class="in">Philco 46-1209 chassis parts</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>My neighbor’s son wanted to bring his grandfather’s Philco 46-1209 radio back to life. We started to recap it, but his chassis had a toasted power transformer. I swapped my restored 46-1209 chassis for his, intending to restore it. I obtained a replacement power transformer from Gary at <a href="http://oldradioparts.com/">Playthings of the Past</a>, but the chassis has sat on the shelf for a couple of years waiting for a round tuit. I’ve finally admitted that I’ll never get to it – I've got more interesting projects to do.</p><p>So, I’m offering the chassis (minus power transformer, no tubes) either free for local pickup or delivery to Radio L in Nashua NH in March, or parted out for $5 a part plus shipping from 01460. I don’t want to deal with shipping the whole chassis.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6770.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6770_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6770.jpg" width="430" height="256" /></a> </div> </div> </div> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6771.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6771_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6771.jpg" width="430" height="253" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6772.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6772_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6772.jpg" width="430" height="223" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6773.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6773_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6773.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6774.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6774_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6774.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">If someone is in need of a Philco part number 32-8248 (or 32-B248, as some sources have it) power transformer, 340-0-340V @70ma, 5V 2A, 6.3V 2.5A, 6.3V .6A, you can have it for $25.00 plus shipping from 01460. Priority Mail medium flat rate box is probably the best shipping option. This transformer was used in the Philco 46-1209, the 48-1264, and maybe the 48-1263 and others.</span></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6775.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6775_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6775.jpg" width="430" height="320" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6776.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6776_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6776.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6777.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6777_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6777.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here’s the crispy power transformer. Anyone up for rewinding it?</p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The loop antenna, dial glass, and the re-coned speaker are also available free for pickup.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/philco-46-1209-chassis.html" title="Philco 46-1209 chassis parts">Nov 6, 2018 at 3:31 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/philco-46-1209-chassis.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/ground-lead-and-tips-for.html" title="Ground lead and tips for General Radio 1806-A AC probe"><span class="in">Ground lead and tips for General Radio 1806-A AC probe</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I made up a small run of ground leads for the AC probe of the General Radio 1806-A VTVM. I also have a small stock of screw-on probe tips that match the original General Radio tips, which were clearly OEM’d from Tektronix. Construction details are in <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/probe-accessories-for-the.html">this post in my blog</a>, if you want to make your own.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6709.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6709_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6709.jpg" width="430" height="255" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6712.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6712_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6712.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Note that three of the ground leads are missing the heat-shrink tubing on the connection to the minigator clip. Solder first, think later, what're ya gonna do :-(. First come get the ones with heat-shrink on both ends.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Price for ground clip: $5 each plus shipping from 01460. They'll fit in a small padded envelope, so they should be able to ship via USPS first class large envelope rate. I have ten available.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I don't expect to be overwhelmed with orders :-)</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I also have fifteen Tektronix 206-0104 straight probe tips and fifteen Tektronix 206-0105 hooked probe tips. See photos below. Both fit the 1806-A AC probe.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Price for tips: $2 each plus shipping from 01460. If you don't want the box for the 206-0104 straight tip, it'll fit in a small padded envelope, as will the 206-0105 hook tip.</span></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6675.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6675_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6675.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>Tek 206-0104 straight tip.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6677.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6677_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6677.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Tek 206-0104 straight tip close-up.</span></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6678.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6678_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6678.jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Tek 206-0104 6-32 spring thread.</span></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6767.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_6767_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 6767.jpg" width="430" height="620" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Tek 206-0105 hook tip.</span></p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/ground-lead-and-tips-for.html" title="Ground lead and tips for General Radio 1806-A AC probe">Nov 5, 2018 at 8:49 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/ground-lead-and-tips-for.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i3 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/tektronix-quickstart-guide.html" title="Tektronix "QuickStart Guide to 2400 Series Digial Oscilloscopes""><span class="in">Tektronix "QuickStart Guide to 2400 Series Digial Oscilloscopes"</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>In one of the piles of junk from a lab cleanout I found a Tektronix “Operator’s Workbook” entitled "QuickStart Guide to 2400 Series Digial Oscilloscopes”. It says it’s part of the “Self-Study Series”, PN 070-7118-00.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4531.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4531_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4531.JPG" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It’s a 6 x 9 inch spiral-bound book in excellent shape.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4532.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4532_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4532.JPG" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It has hands-on exercises to teach you the ins and outs of these digital oscilloscopes. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4534.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4534_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4534.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It has a nice fold-out picture of a Tek 2430A scope.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4536.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4536_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4536.jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>Unfortunately it depends on not only having a 2400-series oscilloscope, but also a special “QuickStart Training Lab” to provide the signals for the exercises.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4533.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4533_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4533.JPG" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>The back cover has the index.</p><p>I’m asking $5 plus media mail postage.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/tektronix-quickstart-guide.html" title="Tektronix "QuickStart Guide to 2400 Series Digial Oscilloscopes"">Nov 5, 2018 at 8:00 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/tektronix-quickstart-guide.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i4 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/micronta-22-201u-vom.html" title="Micronta 22-201U VOM"><span class="in">Micronta 22-201U VOM</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3503_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3503" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p>This is a nice little 20,000 ohms per volt VOM from Radio Shack. Unfortunately the shaft of the range switch broke, so its only good for parts. Maybe it can help repair another copy. The cosmetic condition is very good. Complete with owners manual and original box. No probes, though; I used them to make HV discharge sticks. The meter has pin jacks, not banana jacks.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3500_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3500" width="430" height="645" /> </div> </div> </div><p>You can see that the wiper of the range switch broke off from the shaft. I tried heat-welding the Delrin back together but it didn't have enough strength to handle the spring tension from the wiper.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3504_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3504" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I've also <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/manuals/Micronta/22-201U_VOM.pdf">liberated the manual for download</a>, in case anyone needs a copy.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>Update</strong>:</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s gone. I don’t remember selling it, but I can’t find it :-)</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>Update 2:</strong></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I found it again. Anyone need it? Yours for the cost of the postage.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/micronta-22-201u-vom.html" title="Micronta 22-201U VOM">Nov 5, 2018 at 7:59 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/micronta-22-201u-vom.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i5 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/tektronix-2440-digital.html" title="SOLD: Tektronix "2440 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Operators" manual"><span class="in">SOLD: Tektronix "2440 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Operators" manual</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>In one of the piles of junk from a lab cleanout I found a Tektronix “2440 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Operators” manual, PN 070-6599-00, Product Group 37.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4527-1.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4527-1_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4527 (1).jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It’s in good condition.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4528-1.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4528-1_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4528 (1).jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It’s the December 1988 revision.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4529-1.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_4529-1_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 4529 (1).jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>What makes it “good condition” instead of “excellent condition” is that the back cover has a few tears around the punched holes for the comb binding, and the cover has a little wear that has exposed the white paper under the blue color. The interior pages are in like-new condition.</p><p><s>I’m asking $20 plus media mail postage.</s></p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/tektronix-2440-digital.html" title="SOLD: Tektronix "2440 Digital Storage Oscilloscope Operators" manual">Nov 5, 2018 at 7:57 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/tektronix-2440-digital.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i6 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/antique-homebrew-radio.html" title="SOLD: Antique Homebrew Radio"><span class="in">SOLD: Antique Homebrew Radio</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p><br /></p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0763.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0763_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0763" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I'm parting out this old homebrew radio.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0753.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0753_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0753" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It has four Pacific rheostats,</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0755.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0755_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0755" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>two with porcelain bodies</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0754.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0754_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0754" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>and two with Bakelite bodies.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0758.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0758_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0758" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>The second Bakelite rheostat.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0767.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0767_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0767" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It has part of a plug-in spider-web coil with adjustable coupling.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0766.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0766_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0766" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>Another view of the adjustable coil socket, and a SPST toggle switch.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0752.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0752_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0752" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>There are three Dublier 0.5 mfd condensers, some fairly dirty</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0765.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0765_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0765" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>and some fairly clean.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0756.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0756_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0756" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>There are two Capacigrad straight-line wavelength tuning capacitors </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0757.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0757_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0757" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>with brass plates. The second one doesn't have the manufacturer's name on the back plate, but it's clearly of the same pattern.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0759.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0759_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0759" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I haven't checked the audio interstage transformer to see if the windings are intact. There are also four four-pin tube sockets, a grid-leak capacitor with grid-leak resistor clips,</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0760.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0760_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0760" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>and several miscellaneous resistor clips.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0761.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0761_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0761" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>It has two sets of battery and antenna Fahnstock clip strips.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0762.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0762_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0762" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0764.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0764_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0764" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>Finally, it has two telephone-style phone jacks.</p><p><s>The base and panel are available, too.</s></p><p>Sold to Norm at one of the NEARC shows.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/antique-homebrew-radio.html" title="SOLD: Antique Homebrew Radio">Aug 10, 2017 at 9:21 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/antique-homebrew-radio.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i7 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/broken-leeds--northrup.html" title="SOLD: Broken Leeds & Northrup Galvanometer"><span class="in">SOLD: Broken Leeds & Northrup Galvanometer</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Somewhere along the way I picked up a <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/western-electric-ks-10376.html">Leeds & Northrup bridge</a> made for Western Electric. It's a KS-10376 Null Voltage Test Set. Unfortunately the galvanometer was dead. The coil is open. It's probably burnt out.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3328_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3328" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p>The horseshoe shaped piece is the external magnet.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3329_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3329" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p>The coil is inside the meter assembly. I haven't tried to open it up and look at it. It'd be a challenge to rewind the coil. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3331_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3331" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p>Here's how it looks all together.</p><p><s>Anyone want it? It's yours for the cost of the postage to get it to you.</s></p><p>Gone to someone who needed it for a L & N bridge as a display piece.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/broken-leeds--northrup.html" title="SOLD: Broken Leeds & Northrup Galvanometer">Aug 10, 2017 at 9:18 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/broken-leeds--northrup.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i8 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/toshiba-6tp-385.html" title="SOLD: Toshiba 6TP-385"><span class="in">SOLD: Toshiba 6TP-385</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0511_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0511" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p>I'm selling this for a friend. It's a nice Toshiba 6 transistor portable AM radio from 1960. It needs cleaning. Somewhat surprisingly, it does still work. It is somewhat intermittent, though. The circuit board is missing one of the mounting screws, and reception cuts in and out as the board moves around a little.</p><p>The tuning is interesting as it has a geared drive to the tuning capacitor. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0518-2_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0518" width="430" height="573" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The radio has an internal ferrite bar antenna, but it also includes a telescoping external whip antenna that screws into a socket on the top of the case. The cosmetics are fair; there are some scuff marks and scratches on the case. The case is dirty and there is yellowing. The front metal grill is good.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0512_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0512" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here's the back. There are two cracks in the back of the case in the second and third louvers down from the top on the extreme left-hand side.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0513_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0513" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You can see the cracks better in this photo, as well as the injection-molded badge.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0514_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0514" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A view of the bottom.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0515_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0515" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Top view.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0516_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0516" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Left side.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0526-2_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0526" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There is a hairline crack in the case on the left side, near the top. You can see it on the right-hand side of this photo. It extends around the corner and ends at the back, just where the corner radius ends. The crack is tight on this side, but you can catch your fingernail on it a little after it rounds the bend at the top of the radio.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0517_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0517" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Right side.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0519_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0519" width="430" height="573" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Interior view. The whip antenna is intact. It does have a slight bend in the top section, but it's not kinked and it telescopes easily.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0522_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0522" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The battery compartment has a little discoloration at the bottom of the battery cardboard. This may indicate that there was some leakage at some point, but the PC board looks clean from the top. I didn't pull the circuit board to check the traces underneath.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0521_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0521" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Label inside the back. Note crack in second and third louvers down from the top on the far right-hand side.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0502-2_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0502" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The radio comes with a leather case that is in fair condition except that the strap has broken. The snaps for the strap are still attached to the case, so you might find a leather shop that could repair the strap.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0504-2_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0504" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The back of the case. The pouch at the top is for stowing the external telescoping antenna.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0505-2_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0505" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0507_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0507" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Some of the stitching on the case is frayed.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0509_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0509" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The leather is stiff, but not cracked.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><s>Asking $40 plus shipping</s>. Sold at one of the NEARC shows.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/toshiba-6tp-385.html" title="SOLD: Toshiba 6TP-385">Aug 10, 2017 at 9:20 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/toshiba-6tp-385.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i9 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/heathkit-c-3-condenser.html" title="SOLD: Heathkit C-3 Condenser Checker"><span class="in">SOLD: Heathkit C-3 Condenser Checker</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p><br /></p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1138_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1138" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="width:430px;" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>A Heathkit C-3 with a healthy eye tube.</p></div> </div> </div><p>I acquired this C-3 capacitor checker along a with some other test equipment from the old Linear Electronics in Waltham, MA. They all were marked with "Dr. Ch. Allemand's" sticker and were set up for 230 VAC. I guess Dr. Allemand immigrated from Germany and brought along some gear from his lab. Anyway, this C-3 is unusual in that it doesn't have a dual-primary transformer. The manual includes a sheet on wiring a dual-primary export transformer, but the unit contains a single-primary 230 volt transformer.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1149_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1149" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>230 volt innards, but stock US-style 115 volt plug!</p></div> </div> </div><p>Surprisingly the unit has a stock US-style line cord and plug. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1139_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1139" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Interior top of chassis</p></div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1140_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1140" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Interior of bottom of chassis</p></div> </div> </div><p>The unit is well-built, presumably by Dr. Allemand. The components appear to be stock. The capacitors need to be replaced; the paper caps are almost certainly leaky, and the eye tube has a flutter that I think is probably due to excessive hum due to bad electrolytic filter caps.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1141_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1141" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Front panel.</p></div> </div> </div> <p>The external cosmetics are fair. There are some splatters of white latex paint. (Why does white paint alway spill near the stockpile of electronic goodies?) The front panel shows some mottling. I'd try some auto rubbing compound to try to revive the paint finish.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1145_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1145" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Front view.</p></div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1144_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1144" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Back view.</p></div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1146_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1146" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Paint splatter. Might clean up with some Goof-Off.</p></div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1148_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1148" width="430" height="573" /> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>It still has its feet.</p></div> </div> </div><p>I also have the original manual with fold-out schematic and wiring diagram for this unit.</p><p>I'm half-tempted to replace the transformer with a US-version or mount a 120-to-240 volt transformer inside it, but this unit really belongs back in Europe or somewhere else with 230 volt power. The shipping cost would be horrendous, though. It weighs about 2 kilograms. What to do, what to do? </p><p><s>Anyone want it for $40 plus my actual shipping cost?</s></p><p>I sold it to a fellow in Spain via the <a href="http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=15">Antique Radio Forum Classified section</a>.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/heathkit-c-3-condenser.html" title="SOLD: Heathkit C-3 Condenser Checker">Sep 14, 2013 at 7:54 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/heathkit-c-3-condenser.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i10 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/hp-computing-counter.html" title="No longer for sale: HP 5360A computing counter"><span class="in">No longer for sale: HP 5360A computing counter</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3420_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3420.JPG" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p><s>To do: sell this boatanchor to someone who wants to tinker with it.</s> I've decided to restore the beast; it's one heck of a lot of TTL, apparently including some HP custom chips, but I need a good counter and this one's sitting here in my shop ...</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/hp-computing-counter.html" title="No longer for sale: HP 5360A computing counter">Jan 18, 2012 at 7:06 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/hp-computing-counter.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:15:51 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/steves-virtual-yard-sale/ Photography https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/ <div class="article-summary"><p>I enjoy photography, though I'm not very good. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1759_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1759" width="430" height="286" /> </div> </div> </div><p>My favorite photographers are Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Minor White, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. My cousin Maurice is pretty good, too. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/eiffel-tower.html" title="Eiffel Tower"><span class="in">Eiffel Tower</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>One of my best photos from our trip to England and Paris back in 2007. It was taken lookup upward from the west leg of the Eiffel Tower at dusk.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/eiffel-tower.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/eiffel-tower_med.jpeg" alt="Eiffel Tower" width="430" height="286" /></a> </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/eiffel-tower.html" title="Eiffel Tower">Jan 7, 2013 at 1:38 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/eiffel-tower.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/the-death-of-film.html" title="The Death of Film"><span class="in">The Death of Film</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Film is dead: Kodachrome 25 is gone, Sue and I have got shoeboxes full of 4x6 snapshot prints that we'll never organize, review, nor share. It's past time to ditch the old film cameras. I've already donated the darkroom equipment to the Littleton High School; surprisingly, the students seem to enjoy film-based B&W art photography.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/the-death-of-film.html" title="The Death of Film">Oct 20, 2011 at 2:34 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/the-death-of-film.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:30:13 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/photography/ Retrocomputing https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/ <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/edvac_photo_med.jpeg" alt="edvac_photo" width="430" height="340" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">I'm interested in the history of computing. I have a few interesting examples: a Technico 9900 single board computer using the TI 9900 16-bit processor (my first computer) and a Wicat 2000 system running Unix V7. </p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Some notable computer collections in museums: </p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Computer History Museum in Mountain View </p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Deutches Museum in Munich, Germany </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/" title="Commodore 64C computer"><span class="in">Commodore 64C computer</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>A friend asked me to try to sell her son's old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64">Commodore 64C computer</a>. I had fun learning a bit about them. She had saved the original boxes, some of the packing material, and much of the manuals, warranty card, and other paper.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3299.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3299_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 3299.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>The small box on the left is the power supply for the 64C. On the right is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_1541">Commodore 1541C disk drive</a>.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3301-1.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3301-1_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 3301 (1).jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>The motherboard has the <a href="https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/SID">6581R4 SID sound chip</a>. I used the sample Basic program in <a href="http://www.commodore.ca/manuals/c64_users_guide/c64-users_guide-07-creating_sound.pdf">chapter 7 of the Commodore 64 Users Guide</a> to test that all three voices in the chip still work.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3302.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3302_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 3302.jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>Here's an overview of the right side of the motherboard ...</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3301.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3301_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 3301.jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>... and of the left side.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3293.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3293_med.jpeg" alt="IMG 3293.jpg" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div> <p>I tested it using the sample Basic program in the manual.</p><p>Here's some more photos of the Commodore 64C and accessories.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide left"> <div style="" class="photogrid-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="gridItem i1 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/commodore-64c-original-box.html" title="Commodore 64C original box" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3162_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3162" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/commodore-64c-original-box.html" title="Commodore 64C original box"><span class="in">Commodore 64C original box</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i2 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/original-packing-material.html" title="Original packing material for the 64C" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3185_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3185" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/original-packing-material.html" title="Original packing material for the 64C"><span class="in">Original packing material for the 64C</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i3 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/the-64c-unboxed.html" title="The 64C unboxed" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3186_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3186" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/the-64c-unboxed.html" title="The 64C unboxed"><span class="in">The 64C unboxed</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i4 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-bottom-view.html" title="64C bottom view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3187_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3187" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-bottom-view.html" title="64C bottom view"><span class="in">64C bottom view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i5 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-right-rear-view.html" title="64C right rear view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3190_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3190" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-right-rear-view.html" title="64C right rear view"><span class="in">64C right rear view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i6 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-left-rear-view.html" title="64C left rear view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3191_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3191" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-left-rear-view.html" title="64C left rear view"><span class="in">64C left rear view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i7 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-right-side-view-2.html" title="64C right side view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3193_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3193" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-right-side-view-2.html" title="64C right side view"><span class="in">64C right side view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i8 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-right-side-view-ports.html" title="64C right side view ports" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3192_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3192" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-right-side-view-ports.html" title="64C right side view ports"><span class="in">64C right side view ports</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i9 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-left-side-view.html" title="64C left side view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3194_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3194" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-left-side-view.html" title="64C left side view"><span class="in">64C left side view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i10 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-power-supply-and-disk.html" title="64C power supply and disk cables" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3215_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3215" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-power-supply-and-disk.html" title="64C power supply and disk cables"><span class="in">64C power supply and disk cables</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i11 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-video-switch.html" title="64C video switch" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3221_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3221" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-video-switch.html" title="64C video switch"><span class="in">64C video switch</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i12 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-joysticks.html" title="64C joysticks" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3181_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3181" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-joysticks.html" title="64C joysticks"><span class="in">64C joysticks</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i13 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-system-guide.html" title="64C System Guide" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3243_96.jpeg" alt="IMG_3243" width="96" height="128" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-system-guide.html" title="64C System Guide"><span class="in">64C System Guide</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i14 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-introductory-guide.html" title="64C Introductory Guide" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3247_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3247" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/64c-introductory-guide.html" title="64C Introductory Guide"><span class="in">64C Introductory Guide</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i15 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/don-cassel-book-graphics.html" title="Don Cassel book "Graphics, Sound and Music for the Commodore 64"" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3239_96.jpeg" alt="IMG_3239" width="96" height="128" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/don-cassel-book-graphics.html" title="Don Cassel book "Graphics, Sound and Music for the Commodore 64""><span class="in">Don Cassel book "Graphics, Sound and Music for the Commodore 64"</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i16 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-original-box.html" title="1541C original box" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3203_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3203" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-original-box.html" title="1541C original box"><span class="in">1541C original box</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i17 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-front-view.html" title="1541C front view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3223_96.jpeg" alt="IMG_3223" width="96" height="128" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-front-view.html" title="1541C front view"><span class="in">1541C front view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i18 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-top-view.html" title="1541C top view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3222_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3222" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-top-view.html" title="1541C top view"><span class="in">1541C top view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i19 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-rear-view.html" title="1541C rear view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3224_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3224" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-rear-view.html" title="1541C rear view"><span class="in">1541C rear view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i20 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-bottom-view.html" title="1541C bottom view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3227_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3227" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-bottom-view.html" title="1541C bottom view"><span class="in">1541C bottom view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i21 o"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-front-close-up-view.html" title="1541C front close-up view" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3228_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3228" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-front-close-up-view.html" title="1541C front close-up view"><span class="in">1541C front close-up view</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i22 e"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/commodore-64-assembler.html" title="Commodore 64 Assembler diskette" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3240_128.jpeg" alt="IMG_3240" width="128" height="95" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/commodore-64-assembler.html" title="Commodore 64 Assembler diskette"><span class="in">Commodore 64 Assembler diskette</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="gridItem i23 o last-item"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-users-guide.html" title="1541C user's guide" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3242_96.jpeg" alt="IMG_3242" width="96" height="128" /></a> <h3><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/1541c-users-guide.html" title="1541C user's guide"><span class="in">1541C user's guide</span></a></h3> </div> <div class="photogrid-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/" title="Commodore 64C computer">Feb 5, 2017 at 12:52 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/commodore-64c-computer/#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/mac-os-x-1058-and-canoscan.html" title="Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Canoscan 8400F"><span class="in">Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Canoscan 8400F</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>My nice Canon scanner stopped working with our iMac when we upgraded to OS X 10.7. Apple changed their scanner driver architecture, and Canon didn't revise <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/scanners/canoscan_series/canoscan_8400f#DriversAndSoftware">the old drivers</a> to work in the new framework. So, I got a USB 2.0 card for my old <a href="http://lowendmac.com/ppc/mdd-power-mac-g4-dual.html">Mirrored Drive Door PowerMac G4</a>, which only runs Mac OS X up to 10.5.8. I installed the latest Canon drivers, and started scanning away. </p><p>I noticed one oddity, however. With the latest Canon driver (10.2.4.1X), the CanonScan Toolbox application works fine. However, if I try to use Apple's <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4505?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US">Image Capture application</a>, there are problems. The preview scan shows the entire document, and I can select the entire document, but when I scan it to PDF, something cuts off about an inch from the top of the document. Bummer. </p><p><s>Everything works fine when scanning with Apple's <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2506">Preview application</a>. Very odd, as both applications appear to use the same scanner software component.</s></p><p>I didn't see anything on Google about this bug, so I thought I'd mention it here.</p><p><strong>Update:</strong></p><p>I haven't confirmed this thoroughly, but it seems this bug is triggered by manually inputing the image size in text boxes right-hand side of the dialog box. If I instead set the image size by dragging the rectangle in the preview in the left-hand side of the dialog box, Image Capture operates correctly and does not cut off the top of the image.</p><p>Also, I've reproduced the bug using the Preview application's File->Import Image... menu item, so it does exist in both applications: Preview and Image Capture.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/mac-os-x-1058-and-canoscan.html" title="Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Canoscan 8400F">Jan 30, 2014 at 3:04 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/mac-os-x-1058-and-canoscan.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i3 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/what-a-real-computer-looks.html" title="What a real computer looks like"><span class="in">What a real computer looks like</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p><br /></p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/univac_med.jpeg" alt="" width="430" height="293" /> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/what-a-real-computer-looks.html" title="What a real computer looks like">Apr 5, 2013 at 2:44 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/what-a-real-computer-looks.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i4 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/mac-museum.html" title="Mac Museum"><span class="in">Mac Museum</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I've been collecting some random vintage Macs and have a software collection dating back to 1986. Except for IP networking (which is the killer app), Mac OS 7.6 and its apps have OS X beat all hollow. Especially the travesty that passes for the Finder these days.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/mac-museum.html" title="Mac Museum">Oct 15, 2011 at 1:25 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/mac-museum.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:55:42 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/retrocomputing/ Vintage Audio https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/ <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1953.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1953_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1953" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>This is my old Voice of Music model 1465-2 AM-FM stereo tuner. All vaccuum tubes. I remember using it to listen to 60's rock on WKTK-FM in Baltimore when I was a teen. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/wilcox-gay-recordio-4f10.html" title="Wilcox-Gay Recordio 4F10"><span class="in">Wilcox-Gay Recordio 4F10</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I tried to sell a Wilcox-Gay Recordio model 4F10 at the NEARC Westford show this past winter. I had rescued it from the town dump. It was clearly someone's prized possession, as it had all its accessories, an original service manual, and a telephone pickup coil in its original box. But old mono reel to reel tape recorders aren't very interesting to most collectors, so no one was buying.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/wilcox-gay_recordio_4f10.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/wilcox-gay_recordio_4f10_med.jpeg" alt="Wilcox-Gay Recordio 4F10" width="430" height="344" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>One fellow wanted me to open it up and sell him the tubes from it. I finally gave in and pulled the tubes; he did score a single Ampex Bugle Boy 12AX7, but had hoped to get two. The second 12AX7 didn't have any notable markings.</p><p>I put a "free, take me" sign on the remains, and some young fellow did eventually do that. I regret selling off the tubes; I should have just given the whole works away. But then it probably would have been scavanged for tubes anyway and dumped.</p><p>Anyway, I did make a scan of the <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/manuals/Wilcox-Gay/Wilcox-Gay_Recordio_B&W.pdf" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Wilcox-Gay Recordio 4B10 and 4F10 Service Manual</a>. It's also linked from my Liberated Manual list in the nav-bar to the left of the page.</p><p>I also made a <a href="http://www.byan-roper.org/steve/manuals/Wilcox-Gay/Wilcox-Gay_Recordio.pdf">gray-scale scan of the manual</a>. It's much bigger, but the photos are better. I should have tried a 600 dpi black and white scan with descreening; that probably would have been the best compromise between file size and quality.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/wilcox-gay-recordio-4f10.html" title="Wilcox-Gay Recordio 4F10">Jul 9, 2014 at 10:07 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/wilcox-gay-recordio-4f10.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/v-m-model-168-stereovoice.html" title="V-M Model 168 StereoVoice Auxiliary Speaker with Amplifier"><span class="in">V-M Model 168 StereoVoice Auxiliary Speaker with Amplifier</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Some fellow on the <a href="http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/index.php">Antique Radio Forum</a> was recently asking for service information on a Voice of Music model 722 tape recorder. My dad had one, and I fondly remember spending many hours investigating it as a small boy. </p><p>I recently came across my dad's old owner's manual for the Model 168 Auxiliary Speaker. The model 722 stereo tape recorder only had one speaker and one amplifier channel built-in; the model 168 Auxiliary Speaker provided the amplifier and speaker for the other stereo channel. So, I'm posting a scan of the <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/v-m-168-manual.pdf">Model 168 Auxiliary Speaker Owner's Manual</a> for the ARF'er and anyone else who's interested. Click the preceding link or the image below to download the PDF file.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/v-m-168-manual.pdf" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/v-m-168-manual_med.png" alt="V-M 168 Manual" width="430" height="557" /></a> </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/v-m-model-168-stereovoice.html" title="V-M Model 168 StereoVoice Auxiliary Speaker with Amplifier">Mar 13, 2014 at 12:20 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/v-m-model-168-stereovoice.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i3 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/nikko-nr-719.html" title="Nikko NR-719"><span class="in">Nikko NR-719</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I sold my old Technic SA-200 receiver that I had been using as my bench receiver. I brought it along to the NEARC Westford show mostly in case someone wanted to audition the restored Voice of Music speakers and tuner I was trying to sell, so I didn't really want to sell it. I priced it higher than I thought it was worth, but someone liked the looks of it and bought it.</p><p>So, I dug into the pile and brought out a <a href="http://www.hifiengine.com/gallery/images/nikko-nr719-receiver.shtml">Nikko NR-719</a>. It mostly worked as-is on FM. Deoxit on the controls along with vigorous exercising of them cleaned up the noisy contacts and potentiometers. I put a little Deoxit on the tuning capacitor contact points, too. The AM section was dead and the signal strength and tuning meters didn't move. And, of course, the pilot lights were soldered in and every one was burnt out.</p><p>I couldn't find a service manual for the NR-719, but <a href="http://www.hifiengine.com/">HiFi Engine</a> had a <a href="http://www.hifiengine.com/library/nikko/nr-819.shtml">service manual for the NR-819</a>. I suppose the power amplifier and power supply sections are different, but the RF and preamp sections of the NR-819 manual seem to match my NR-719.</p><p>The unit had a little rust on the bottom cover and a little less corrosion on the top cover and some of the internal structure. It also came with a few dead insects inside. It may have been stored outside in a covered location.</p><p>I cleaned up the rust on the bottom cover with a wire wheel in a hand-drill and coated it with Krylon clear spray to protect it. The rest of the corrosion was minor enough that I just let it go; it's only a workbench receiver, after all.</p><p>I next tackled the meters. The service manual says to release the spring wire clamps from the read of the meter and just pull it out. Mine were held in by hard-to-see clear tape in addition to the wire clamps. I had to pry them out a little with a screwdriver to stretch the tape a little, then get in to cut it with an X-Acto knife. When I put them back in, they seem to be secure enough with just the wire spring, but if I were to ship it, I'd want to replace the tape to prevent the meters from being jarred loose.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1392.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1392_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1392" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>Here the meters are removed from the front panel. The meter bezel is molded into the clear plastic front cover for the tuning scale, so the needle and movement are exposed when they are removed. So be careful, and only do this in a clean environment so crud doesn't get into the movement.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1396.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1396_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1396" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I unsoldered the meters, put my DMM on a high resistance range, and put the probes on the meter lugs. The meter moved but stuck returning to zero. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1402.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1402_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1402" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I played with the needles on both meters; they were both sticky. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1406.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1406_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1406" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I examined the movements carefully but I couldn't see any crud that would rub against the armature. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1408.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1408_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1408" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I guessed that the moist storage environment corroded the bearings. So, I started backing out the pivot screws. It took about three-quarters of a turn before the meters would reliably return to the zero point. The signal meter zero was a little off, but the zero adjustment had been sealed with black lacquer and I couldn't get it to budge with the limited amount of force that I felt comfortable applying to it.</p><p>I reassembled the meters and resoldered them and they are now working nicely on FM.</p><p>I started investigating the AM section. I could get a signal if I cranked my signal generator output level all the way up, but below about 50 millivolts the receiver abruptly cut off. I checked the ceramic filter with a scope; there was a strong signal coming in, but nothing coming out. I at first suspected that the filter was bad, but then I measured the IF frequency by plugging my counter into the vertical output of my scope - the IF was set at 530 kHz! So nothing was going to get through the 455 kHz ceramic filter. Someone had golden screwdrivered the alignment. </p><p>I started following the alignment instructions in the service manual (with a little extra bit of interpretation, as the manual would have you use a sweeper to do the alignment). I got a big clue there: the adjustment on the second IF did very little. After I got the local oscillator on the right frequency so that I was getting a signal through the ceramic filter, I started looking at the second IF. </p><p>The AM receiver uses a Hitachi HA1197 chip, so the second IF is a little strange - it's a series-resonant LC circuit. Examining the signal with a scope, I saw a strong signal coming in but only a small signal after the LC circuit, and diddling the core didn't make much difference. The IF can had a few extra pins; the Nikko schematic didn't show them, but the <a href="http://www.datasheet-pdf.com/datasheet-html/H/A/1/HA1197_HitachiSemiconductor.pdf.html">data sheet for the HA1197</a> did. Assuming the can matched the Hitachi data sheet, I measured the coil resistance as 6 ohms, so probably good, and the capacitor measured about 13 kOhms. Aha! The cap appears to have shorted, so the circuit can't be tuned to resonance, and the series resistance of the short is high enough to greatly attenuate the signal.</p><p>I still have to test this theory and see if I can repair the second IF can by replacing the capacitor. I also still have to test out the phono preamp.</p><p><strong>Update:</strong></p><p>Yes, replacing the capacitor in the second IF can fixed the problem.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/nikko-nr-719.html" title="Nikko NR-719">Mar 13, 2014 at 12:08 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/nikko-nr-719.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i4 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/yamaha-cr-620-receiver.html" title="Yamaha CR-620 Receiver"><span class="in">Yamaha CR-620 Receiver</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I have a 1970's-vintage <a href="http://www.hifiengine.com/library/yamaha/cr-620.shtml">Yamaha CR-620 receiver</a> that I'm trying to restore. I found a <a href="http://www.hifiengine.com/hfe_downloads/index.php?yamaha/yamaha_cr-620_service.pdf">manual for the CR-620</a> on <a href="http://www.hifiengine.com/">HiFi Engine</a>. Electrically it seems to be working fine, aside from some noisy switches and potentiometers. A little Deoxit fixed that up. </p><p>Mechanically, someone removed the tuning pulley and tuning shaft and gear from the tuning capacitor. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1411.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1411_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1411" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Side View</p></div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1414.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1414_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1414" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Top View</p></div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1415.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1415_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1415" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>Three-quarter view</p></div> </div> </div><p>So I'm searching for replacement parts: the tuning pulley and dial cord spring, the tuning shaft, and the gear.</p><p>Here's a view of the top of the RF section:</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1419.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1419_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1419" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>View of entire RF section</p></div> </div> </div><p>The manual says that the same parts are used in the Yamaha CR-620, CR-820, CR-1020, and CR-2020. The pulley part number is 320000-CB07926. The dial spring is 320000-AA08053. The tuning cap and associated parts seem to be part of the RF board assembly and don't have separate part numbers.</p><p>I've found some on eBay at prices too high for me. I'm hoping someone has one of the aforementioned Yamaha receivers in their boneyard and will swap or sell the parts to me at an affordable price.</p><p>I'm also working on a Nikko NR-719 of similar vintage to the Yamaha and noticed that the NR-719 tuning cap looked very similar to the Yamaha CR-620's tuning cap. I suppose the design was a common one among many of the Japanese manufacturers at the time, so perhaps I can find a substitute from a different brand.</p> <br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/yamaha-cr-620-receiver.html" title="Yamaha CR-620 Receiver">Mar 2, 2014 at 12:51 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/yamaha-cr-620-receiver.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i5 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/voice-of-music-model-1465-2.html" title="Voice of Music Model 1465-2 AM-FM Stereo Tuner restoration"><span class="in">Voice of Music Model 1465-2 AM-FM Stereo Tuner restoration</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I started work on restoring my V-M 1465-2 AM-FM Stereo tuner while waiting for parts to complete my V-M 307 restoration.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1953.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1953_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1953" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The bezel got a bit banged-up on the move from my parent's home in Towson, Maryland. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0934.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0934_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0934" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I first pulled all the tubes and cleaned the crud off the chassis with isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0924.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0924_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0924" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A look at the chassis shows that Voice of Music used pretty high-quality components for the early 1960's: carbon film resistors, polystyrene capacitors, and ceramic disks. There were a couple of paper bypass caps.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0926.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0926_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0926" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Is this a film cap or a paper cap? I'll have to test it and see if it leaks, then dissect it.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0925.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0925_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0925" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The blue electrolytic looks to be well sealed. I wonder if it is still good? (Update: it's working fine. It's made by Ducati, in Italy. Still, I'll replace it as a precaution.)</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0930.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0930_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0930" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I do need to re-stuff the main electrolytic can.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0936.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0936_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0936" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I used a couple of short pieces of 1x2 and some small C-clamps to improvise a chassis stand.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0939.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0939_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0939" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Getting the can electrolytic out was a bear. One of the tabs was soldered to the steel chassis and I simply could not get things hot ehough to suck out all the solder. I ended up breaking off that tab.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0944.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0944_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0944" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I restuffed it using 12 mm diameter radial electrolytics from Mouser.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0945.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0945_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0945" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I replaced the paper bypass caps with modern film caps.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0946.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0946_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0946" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I needed to get out my Weller 8200 soldering gun to work on the soldered connections to the steel chassis. I also tried a modern Weller D550 with the set-screws rather than tip-nuts, but my old 8200 seemed to deliver more heat. Too bad Apex or Cooper ruined a good product by cheapening the design.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0950.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0950_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0950" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I'll have to leave the one electrolytic bypass cap in for now, until my next Mouser order.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>Update</strong>:</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I cleaned the tube sockets and pins, applied some DeOxIt to the tube pins and the socket fingers, left it alone for a while, then cleaned up the residue and plugged in the tubes. The tuner mostly works fine and is much more sensitive than my Technics SA-200 shop receiver. It still had one problem that I remember it had back in the early 1970's - the stereo indicator light didn't work.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I had a poor copy of the schematic from the owner's manual (which I seem to have misplaced; I can't find it now that I need it), and so I was able to track down the fault.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1051.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1051_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1051" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This coil (L6 on the schematic) is part of a 19 kHz L/C filter that amplifies the pilot tone and applies it to a neon lamp which is the stereo indicator light. It had gone open. Fortunately it failed at one of the ends and I was able to splice in a small section of 30 gauge wire-wrap wire to fix it. Yay!</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">One of the #1847 pilot lamps failed while I was troubleshooting the stereo indicator problem, so now I need to order some replacement lamps.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">My parts order from Mouser arrived, so now I can replace the blue Ducati-made electrolytic.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Next up: <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/antique-electronics-and-2/eico-315-signal-generator.html">restoring a VHF-capable signal generato</a>r so I can align the tuner.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><strong>Cabinet restoration</strong></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1958.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1958_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1958" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">As I mentioned at the beginning, the front panel was dented in the upper left ...</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1957.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1957_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1957" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">... and the bezel was dented in the upper right.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1191_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1191" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I was successful in removing the dent in the upper left, but less so with fixing the dented bezel. I cleaned up the front panel and the knobs with Gojo, as well as the rest of the cabinet.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1254.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1254_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1254" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here's some photos of the finished product.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1259.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1259_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1259" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1260.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_1260_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_1260" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/voice-of-music-model-1465-2.html" title="Voice of Music Model 1465-2 AM-FM Stereo Tuner restoration">Feb 5, 2014 at 10:35 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/voice-of-music-model-1465-2.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i6 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/dual-1219-repair.html" title="Dual 1219 Repair"><span class="in">Dual 1219 Repair</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I purchased a new Dual 1219 turntable back in my youth. During my college years, I learned about UPS shipping and insurance when I shipped it home one summer. It arrived with the dust cover smashed, the plinth broken apart, and worst of all, the head-shell broken off the tone arm. My fault for not packing it correctly, and of course UPS wouldn't pay up on the insurance.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0526.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0526_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0526" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I repaired it using super-glue, and it served for light duty for years with occasional re-gluing.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0518.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0518_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0518" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But eventually the glue residue became too thick for further repair. I managed to find a replacement headshell (although it's plastic rather than the original cast magnesium). I'm not sure where I bought it; probably from <a href="http://www.garage-a-records.com/">Garage 'A Records</a>.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0523.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0523_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0523" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">I managed to remove the headshell mounting tab from the tone arm without removing the tone arm from the turntable, but I'm sure it's going to need to be removed to install the new headshell and thread the new wire harness into the arm. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0527.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_0527_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_0527" width="430" height="573" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">I tried to get <a href="http://www.theaudiolab.com/index.html">Audio Lab</a> down in Harvard Square to do the work, but their tech didn't want to attempt it. I downloaded a copy of the <a href="http://www.vinylengine.com/library/dual/1219.shtml">manual from the Vinyl Engine</a>, and the instructions for removing the tone arm don't look too difficult.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The lubricants are all gunked up, of course, but the turntable runs its single-play cycle except that the friction plate doesn't move the tone arm. I guess I'm missing the steuerpimpel (guide white). I haven't tried the changer cycle yet; I do have both the 33 1/3 RPM and 45 RPM changer spindles, but I figure I'll wait until I re-lube it before fiddling with the changer cycle.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Anyone have any advice on removing the tone arm and replacing the head-shell, or on cleaning and re-lubricating the works?</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/dual-1219-repair.html" title="Dual 1219 Repair">Jun 30, 2012 at 7:59 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/dual-1219-repair.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:54:13 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/vintage-audio/ Model Railroading https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/ <div class="article-summary"> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3508.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/img_3508_med.jpeg" alt="IMG_3508" width="430" height="83" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>I love model railroading. I like the big ones too, but the technical and artistic challenge of creating a miniature railroad has always captured my imagination, sharpened my design skills, and taught me much technology and craft. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/western-pennsylvania-model.html" title="Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum"><span class="in">Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>While visiting the Pittsburgh area over the holidays, my nephew Colin and I visited the <a href="http://wpmrm.org/">Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum</a> in Gibsonia, PA during their annual holiday train show.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/pittsburgh3.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/pittsburgh3_med.jpeg" alt="pittsburgh3.jpg" width="430" height="322" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>They have a great layout modeling more or less the now-abandoned Western Maryland RR line from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD, over the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Patch_Grade">Sand Patch grade</a>. </p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/salisbury-viaduct_med.jpeg" alt="Salisbury Viaduct.jpg" width="430" height="285" /> </div> </div> </div><p>The model railroad features a number of excellent bridge models and some great scenic vistas. It's well worth a visit.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/western-pennsylvania-model.html" title="Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum">Jan 5, 2014 at 9:55 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/western-pennsylvania-model.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/the-mantua-mikado.html" title="The Mantua Mikado"><span class="in">The Mantua Mikado</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I cajoled my Dad into taking me down to Lloyd's Hobby Shop in downtown Baltimore and purchasing a Mantua locomotive kit. We selected a 2-8-2 Mikado freight engine. I never got the thing running as riveting the running gear was beyond my seven year old abilities, but it came with a wonderful gift: a six month free subscription to <a href="http://mrr.trains.com/">Model Railroader</a> magazine. This was at the beginning of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linn_Westcott">Linn Westcott</a> era, where he led the hobby into transistorized electronics with the series of TAT throttles and Twin-T detectors and new structural designs based on his L-girder construction.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/the-mantua-mikado.html" title="The Mantua Mikado">Oct 15, 2011 at 1:23 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/the-mantua-mikado.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:53:42 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-railroading/ Model Rocketry https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/ <div class="article-summary"><p>I love model rocketry; I grew up as a space kid. I'm a member of the <a href="http://www.nar.org/">National Association of Rocketry</a> and the local NAR section, the <a href="http://www.cmass.org/">Central Massachusetts Spacemodeling Society</a>. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/031021_titan2_04_med.jpeg" alt="031021_titan2_04" width="430" height="494" /> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/personal-computer-catalog.html" title="Personal Computer catalog from 1964"><span class="in">Personal Computer catalog from 1964</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>This is the computing equipment section of the <a href="http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/estes64/64estcat.html">1964 catalog</a> from <a href="http://www.estesrockets.com/">Estes Industries</a>.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/64est54.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/64est54_med.jpeg" alt="64est54" width="430" height="664" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p>My, how far we've come.</p> <br /> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/personal-computer-catalog.html" title="Personal Computer catalog from 1964">Jan 9, 2014 at 12:51 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/personal-computer-catalog.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="http://web.me.com/stevebyan/PMRC/Welcome.html" title="Parker Model Rocket Club"><span class="in">Parker Model Rocket Club</span></a></h3> <div> <p>I volunteer at my kids school, the <a href="http://www.parker.org/">Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School</a> in Devens, MA. I mentor the <a href="http://web.me.com/stevebyan/PMRC/Welcome.html">Parker Model Rocket Club</a>, which competes in the <a href="http://www.rocketcontest.org/">Team America Rocket Challenge</a> contest.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="http://web.me.com/stevebyan/PMRC/Welcome.html" title="Parker Model Rocket Club">Oct 15, 2011 at 12:58 AM</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="i3 o last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/my-start-in-rocketry.html" title="My start in rocketry"><span class="in">My start in rocketry</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>I started in model rocketry in 1963 when I was eight years old. Estes Industries had an ad in the back of "Boy's Life" magazine for a starter kit: 75¢ bought you an Estes Streak, two 1/2A6-4 rocket engines (1/2A.8-4 back then; thrust measurements were in English pounds-force rather than today's metric Newtons), and a sheet on how to construct a launch pad and launch controller. I think it might have included a launch switch (a piece of spring brass and a couple of brass screws mounted on a chunk of Masonite). My dad got a length of 1/8 inch welding rod for the launch rod and we stuck it in a chunk of 2 x 8 wood for the launch pad.</p><p>I couldn't believe that a real rocket was something I could afford. I vividly remember taping my three quarters to the letter, and anxiously awaiting my shipment via the USPS.</p><p>I must have brushed on ten coats of Testor's enamel on that Streak. All that extra mass didn't slow it down, though. We launched it from our backyard and it lived up to its name - we never saw it again.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/my-start-in-rocketry.html" title="My start in rocketry">Jan 18, 2012 at 6:40 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/my-start-in-rocketry.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:53:14 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/model-rocketry/ Shortwave Radio https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/ <div class="article-summary"><p>I'm interested in shortware, mediumwave, and longwave radio listening and DXing. </p><p><br /></p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/titan-missile-transceiver_med.jpeg" alt="Titan missile transceiver" width="430" height="322" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antennas.html" title="Low Noise Antennas"><span class="in">Low Noise Antennas</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Back in the mid-1990's, <a href="http://www.naswa.net/badx/">BADX</a> member John Doty wrote some excellent posts in the rec.radio.shortwave newsgroup about low noise antennas. At the time, I was webmaster for the BADX website and I received his permission to host his material there. Now they have spread across the net, although the most illuminating one, which was illustrated with some graphs, seems to have disappeared. I suspect it is still on the BADX website but it doesn't appear to be linked from the BADX main page. The formatting of them has also been a bit mangled.</p><p>I haven't seen John in twenty years. I don't know where he got off to, after he stopped attending the BADX meetings. I hope he and his family are well. I learned a lot from him. I'm taking the liberty of re-posting his articles here. John, if you object, please let me know.</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antenna-connectio.html">Low-noise antenna.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/ice-matching-transformer.html">Review of the ICE matching transformer.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/grounding-is-key-to-good.html">Grounds for low noise.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/swl-longwire-antenna.html">Longwire impedance matching.</a></li></ul><p><br /></p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antennas.html" title="Low Noise Antennas">May 29, 2017 at 7:31 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antennas.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/swl-longwire-antenna.html" title="SWL Longwire Antenna"><span class="in">SWL Longwire Antenna</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>From: jpd@space.mit.edu (John Doty)<br />Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave<br />Subject: Re: SWL longwire<br />Date: 23 Dec 1996 19:49:01 GMT<br />Organization: MIT Center for Space Research</p><p>In article <9612182335114148@mogur.com> len.anderson@mogur.com (Len Anderson) writes:</p> <div class="first blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p> TV> I wonder if a longwire balun would help match the impedance & provide a better signal?</p><p>No, it will (primarily) change only the magnitude of the antenna impedance over frequency. Some bands will have more sensitivity than other bands. The antenna tuner will take care of that.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>Actually, a fixed matching transformer can dramatically reduce the wild swings in antenna efficiency that a coax fed wire antenna exhibits. Let us calculate:</p><p>The following graphs are based on a 15 meter vertical antenna, fed at ground level, using a conical approximation. The antenna's characteristic impedance is assumed to be 620 ohms, which is typical for a thin wire. For more on the conical approximation, see Chapter 8 of "Antennas" by John D. Kraus (McGraw-Hill, 1950).</p><p>The first graph is for an antenna fed directly from 50 ohm coax. The horizontal axis is the frequency in MHz, the vertical axis is the mismatch loss in dB. The well known "quarter wave" resonances near 5, 15 and 25 MHz are visible as sharp peaks where the mismatch loss closely approaches zero.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/swl_longwirenbgr1.gif" alt="SWL longwire.nbgr1" width="430" height="430" /> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p><p>The second graph assumes a matching transformer with a 9:1 impedance ratio at the feedpoint, presenting the antenna with a load resistance of 450 ohms. At most frequencies, the mismatch losses are considerably lower for this case. The variation in the mismatch loss is also reduced:</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/swl_longwirenbgr3.gif" alt="SWL longwire.nbgr3" width="430" height="430" /> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p><p>Well, so what? In the absence of interference, the signal to noise ratio is the main determining factor for the audio quality of the signal. The mismatch loss affects both signals and noise, so if the receiver was noiseless the losses would not affect the signal to noise ratio. Real receivers, however, are not noiseless: if the loss is too high, receiver noise will become dominant, and overally system sensitivity will suffer.</p><p>The following results assume cosmic noise of 29 dB above thermal at 10 MHz, declining with increasing frequency at -23 dB per decade. No man made or atmosperic noise is assumed. I assume a receiver noise figure of 10 dB.</p><p>First, here is the signal to noise impact of the mismatch losses for a 50 ohm coax feed without a transformer:</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/swl_longwirenbgr4.gif" alt="SWL longwire.nbgr4" width="430" height="430" /> </div> </div> </div><p>Losses in signal to noise of 3-5 dB are likely to be noticeable. The largest impact is in the quiet bands above 15 MHz.</p><p>On the other hand: the loss in signal to noise with a 450 ohm feed is much smaller:</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/swl_longwirenbgr5.gif" alt="SWL longwire.nbgr5" width="430" height="430" /> </div> </div> </div><p>You are unlikely to be able to notice losses in signal to noise in this range.</p><p>The results depend on the assumptions. A real longwire isn't usually vertical: this tends to degrade its performance a bit at the low frequency end, while improving it at high frequencies. This is good, because in the model the signal to noise is declining as the frequency increases: the increase in performance cancels part of this.</p><p>No man made or atmospheric noise is included. If they are significant, the precision of the match becomes less critical. Man made noise can be significant at any frequency, but atmospheric noise is more significant at the lower frequencies.</p><p>A receiver noise figure of 10 dB is mediocre for a solid state receiver or a tube receiver with a triode RF amplifier. Tube receivers with pentode RF stages may be a bit worse than this, and something like a Hallicrafters "Sky Buddy" (no RF stage, pentagrid converter) might have a noise figure >30 dB. The better (smaller) the noise figure, the less you have to worry about matching. Sky Buddy owners will want to tune their antennas very carefully.</p><p>I haven't included cable losses here. These are not terribly important unless you're using an ATU at the receiver end. If you are, using a fixed transformer to get the match roughly right at the antenna end will reduce the cable losses, because cable losses increase with increasing SWR.</p><p>My own experience concurs with the results of this theoretical analysis (or I wouldn't be writing about it: I'd be trying to figure out what was wrong!). I have experienced "deaf bands" with coax fed antennas lacking matching transformers, but my transformer-fed antennas work well across the HF spectrum (and even down to longwave). I don't bother with an ATU.</p><p>See <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antenna-connectio.html">Low Noise Antennas</a> for more on matching transformers and on keeping conducted noise from contaminating a "longwire antenna".</p><p><br /></p><p>John Doty "You can't confuse me, that's my job."</p><p>jpd@space.mit.edu</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/swl-longwire-antenna.html" title="SWL Longwire Antenna">May 29, 2017 at 4:11 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/swl-longwire-antenna.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i3 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/grounding-is-key-to-good.html" title="Grounding is key to good reception"><span class="in">Grounding is key to good reception</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>From: jpd@space.mit.edu (John Doty)<br />Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave<br />Subject: Grounding is key to good reception, was: Experience w/NRD-535<br />Date: 16 Feb 1995 16:36:40 GMT</p><p>In article <825_9502140342@tor250.org> Larry.Picard@odxabbs.tor250.org (Larry Picard) writes:</p> <div class="first blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p>In your recent post you advised that coax should be grounded at two sites, first at the antenna and then just before entering the house. Is there an advantage in grounding at more than these sites?</p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>With grounds the most common experience is "the more the merrier". As you add more, however, you usually reach a diminishing returns (no pun intended) situation where there is no *observable* improvement: that's usually a good place to stop. There are also exceptional circumstances where grounding increases noise problems, but these, in my experience, are much rarer than the pundits who preach against "ground loops" seem to think.</p><p>Even a semi-quantitative theoretical treatment of grounding in oversimplified situations requires heavy math at RF. Experimentation is thus required even if one has done elaborate calculations. It's often easier to use the theory as a guide to what to try, and then experiment.</p> <div class="not-first-item blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p>I would also assume that the antenna is grounded when it is connected to the receiver as the outer braid of the coax is in continuity with the receiver chassis.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>What's ground? If connect the shield of my coax (which is grounded outside) to the antenna input of my R8, I hear lots of junk, indicating that there is an RF voltage difference between the coax shield and the R8 chassis. Last night this measured about S5.5, which is about -93 dBm (preamp off, 6KHz bandwidth). That's a lot of noise: it was 18 dB above my antenna's "noise floor", and 26 dB above the receiver's noise floor.</p><p>This sort of disagreement about ground potential is characteristic of electrically noisy environments. The receiver will, of course, respond to any voltage input that differs from its chassis ground. The antenna, on the other hand, is in a very different environment, and will have its own idea of what ground potential is. If you want to avoid noise pickup, you need to deliver a signal, referenced at the antenna to whatever its ground potential is, in such a way that when it arrives at the receiver, the reference potential is now the receiver's chassis potential.</p><p>Coaxial cable represents one way to do this. Coax has two key properties:</p><ol><li>The voltage between the inner conductor and the shield depends only on the state of the electromagnetic field within the shield.</li><li>The shield prevents the external electromagnetic field from influencing the internal electromagnetic field (but watch out at the ends of the cable!).</li></ol><p>So, it's easy, right? Run coax from the antenna to the receiver. Ground at the antenna end will be whatever the antenna thinks it is, while ground at the receiver end will be whatever the receiver thinks it is. The antenna will produce the appropriate voltage difference at the input side, and the receiver will see that voltage difference uncontaminated by external fields, according to the properties given above.</p><p>Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work that way. It's all true as far as it goes, but it neglects the fact that the coax can also guide noise from your house to your antenna, where it can couple back into the cable and into your receiver. To see how this works, let me first describe how this noise gets around.</p><p>The noise I'm talking about here is more properly called "broadband electromagnetic interference" (EMI). It's made by computers, lamp dimmers, televisions, motors and other modern gadgets. I have all these things. In many cases, I can't get them turned off, because it would provoke intrafamilal rebellion. However, even when I turn them off, the noise in the house doesn't go down very much, because my neighbors all have them too. In any case, one of the worst offenders is my computer, which is such a handy radio companion I'm not about to turn <em>it</em> off.</p><p>Some of this noise is radiated, but the more troublesome component of this is conducted noise that follows utility wires. Any sort of cable supports a "common mode" of electromagnetic energy transport in which all of the conductors in the cable are at the some potential, but that potential differs from the potential of other nearby conductors ("ground"). The noise sources of concern generate common mode waves on power, telephone, and CATV cables which then distribute these waves around your neighborhood. They also generate "differential" mode waves, but simple filters can block these so they aren't normally a problem.</p><p>So, let's say you have a longwire antenna attached to a coaxial cable through an MLB ("Magnetic Longwire Balun" [sic]). Suppose your next door neighbor turns on a dimmer switch. The resulting RF interference travels out his power lines, in through yours, through your receiver's power cord to its chassis, and out your coaxial cable to your MLB. Now on coax, a common mode wave is associated with a current on the shield only, while the mode we want the signal to be in, the "differential" mode, has equal but opposite currents flowing on shield and inner conductor. The MLB works by coupling energy from a current flowing between the antenna wire and the coax shield into into the differential mode. But wait a second: the current from the antenna flows on the coax shield just like the common mode current does. Does this mean that the antenna mode is contaminated with the noise from your neighbor's dimmer?</p><p>The answer is a resounding (and unpleasant) yes! The way wire receiving antennas work is by first moving energy from free space into a common mode moving along the antenna wire, and then picking some of that off and coupling it into a mode on the feedline. In this case, the common mode current moving along the antenna wire flows into the common mode of the coax, and vice versa. The coax is not just feedline: it's an intimate part of the antenna! Furthermore, as we've seen, it's connected back through your electrical wiring to your neighbor's dimmer switch. You have a circuitous but electrically direct connection to this infernal noise source. No wonder it's such a nuisance!</p><p>The solution is to somehow isolate the antenna from the common mode currents on the feedline. One common way to do this is with a balanced "dipole" antenna. Instead of connecting the feedline to the wire at the end, connect it to the middle. Now the antenna current can flow from one side of the antenna to the other, without having to involve the coax shield. Unfortunately, removing the necessity of having the coax be part of the antenna doesn't automatically isolate it: a coax-fed dipole is often only slightly quieter than an end-fed longwire. A "balun", a device which blocks common mode currents from the feedline, is often employed. This can improve the situation considerably. Note that this is not the same device as the miscalled "Magnetic Longwire Balun".</p><p>Another way is to ground the coaxial shield, "short circuiting" the common mode. Antenna currents flow into such a ground freely, in principle not interacting with noise currents. The best ground for such a purpose will be a earth ground near the antenna and far from utility lines.</p><p>Still another way is to block common mode waves by burying the cable. Soil is a very effective absorber of RF energy at close range.</p><p>Unfortunately, none of these methods is generally adequate by itself in the toughest cases. Baluns are not perfectly effective at blocking common mode currents. Even the best balun can be partially defeated if there's any other unsymmetrical coupling between the antenna and feedline. Such coupling can occur if the feedline doesn't come away from the antenna at a right angle. Grounds are not perfect either. Cable burial generally lets some energy leak through. A combination of methods is usually required, both encouraging the common mode currents to take harmless paths (grounding) and blocking them from the harmful paths (baluns and/or burial).</p><p>The required isolation to reach the true reception potential of the site can be large. According to the measurements I quoted above, for my site the antenna noise floor is 18 dB below the conducted noise level at 10 MHz. 18 dB of isolation would thus make the levels equal, but we want to do better than that: we want the pickup of common mode EMI to be insignificant, at least 5 dB down from the antenna's floor. In my location the situation gets worse at higher frequencies as the natural noise level drops and therefore I become more sensitive: even 30 dB of isolation isn't enough to completely silence the common mode noise (but 36 dB *is* enough, except at my computer's CPU clock frequency of 25 MHz).</p><p>Getting rid of the conducted noise can make a huge difference in the number and kinds of stations you can pick up: the 18 dB difference between the conducted and natural noise levels in the case above corresponds to the power difference between a 300 kW major world broadcaster and a modest 5 kW regional station.</p><p>The method I use is to ground the cable shield at two ground stakes and bury the cable in between. The scheme of alternating blocking methods with grounds will generally be the most effective. The ground stake near the house provides a place for the common mode noise current to go, far from the antenna where it cannot couple significantly. The ground stake at the base of my inverted-L antenna provides a place for the antenna current to flow, at a true ground potential relative to the antenna potential. The buried coax between these two points blocks noise currents.</p> <div class="not-first-item blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p>There has been some discussion of grounding problems on this and related echos. I believe it has been mentioned that electrical codes require that all grounds be tied together with heavy guage wire. </p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>I'm no expert on electrical codes, and codes differ in different countries. However, I believe that any such requirement must refer only to grounds used for safety in an electric power distribution system: I do not believe this applies to RF grounds.</p><p>Remember that proper grounding practice for electrical wiring has very little to do with RF grounding. The purpose of an electrical ground is to be at a safe potential (a few volts) relative to non-electrical grounded objects like plumbing. At an operating frequency of 50/60 Hz, it needs to have a low enough impedance (a fraction of an ohm) that in case of a short circuit a fuse or breaker will blow immediately.</p><p>At RF such low impedances are essentially impossible: even a few centimeters of thick wire is likely to exhibit an inductive impedance in the ohm range at 10 MHz (depends sensitively on the locations and connections of nearby conductors). Actual ground connections to real soil may exhibit resistive impedances in the tens of ohms. Despite this, a quiet RF ground needs to be within a fraction of a microvolt of the potential of the surrounding soil. This is difficult, and that's why a single ground is often not enough.</p> <div class="not-first-item blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p>A little experimentation with my radio showed that the chassis was directly connected to the third (grounding) prong of the wall plug. I am concerned that by connecting my receiver to an outside ground I am creating a ground loop that involves my house wiring. Can you comment on this?</p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>Yes, you have a "ground loop". It's harmless. In case of a nearby lightning strike it may actually save your receiver. My R8 isn't grounded like that, so I had to take steps to prevent the coax ground potential from getting wildly out of kilter with the line potential and arcing through the power supply. I'm using a surge supressor designed to protect video equipment: it has both AC outlets and feedthroughs with varistor or gas tube clamps to keep the various relative voltages in check. Of course the best lightning protection is to disconnect the receiver, but I'm a bit absent minded so I need a backup.</p> <div class="not-first-item blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p>This may seem like a trivial point but I recently discovered that the main ground from the electrical service panel in my house was attached to a water pipe which had been painted over. I stripped the paint from the pipe and re-attached the grounding clamp and I noticed a reduction in noise from my receiver.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>Not trivial. Not only did you improve reception, but your wiring is safer for having a good ground.</p><p>I suspect part of the reason I see so much noise from neighbors' appliances on my electric lines may be that my house's main ground wire is quite long. The electrical service comes in at the south corner of the house (which is where the breaker box is), while the water (to which the ground wire is clamped) enters at the east corner. All perfectly up to code and okay at 60 Hz, but lousy at RF: if it was shorter, presumably more of the noise current would want to go that way, and stay away from my receiver.</p> <div class="not-first-item blockquote-container wide center"> <div style="" class="graphic"><blockquote class="figure-content"> <p>I am also a little confused by what constitues an adequate ground. I have read that a conducting stake driven into the ground will divert lightning and provides for electrical safety but that RF grounding systems have to be a lot more complex with multiple radials with lengths related to the frequencies of interest. Is this true?</p> </blockquote> </div> </div><p>Depends on what you're doing. If you're trying to get maximum signal transfer with a short loaded (resonant) vertical antenna with a radiation resistance of, say, 10 ohms, 20 ohms of ground resistance is going to be a big deal. If you're transmitting 50 kW, your ground resistance had better be *really* tiny or things are going to smoke, melt or arc.</p><p>On the other hand, a ground with a resistance of 20 ohms is going to be fairly effective at grounding a cable with a common mode characteristic impedance of a few hundred ohms (the characteristic impedance printed on the cable is for the differential mode; the common mode characteristic impedance depends somewhat on the distance of the cable from other conductors, but is usually in the range of hundreds of ohms). Of course, if it was lower a single ground might do the whole job (but watch out for mutual inductance coupling separate conductors as they approach your single ground).</p><p>In addition, a ground with a resistance of 20 ohms is fine for an unbalanced antenna fed with a high impedance transformer to supress resonance. Such a nonresonant antenna isn't particularly efficient, but high efficiency is not required for good reception at HF and below (not true for VHF and especially microwave frequencies).</p><p>Much antenna lore comes from folks with transmitters who, armed with the "reciprocity" principle, assume that reception is the same problem. The reciprocity principle says that an antenna's transmission and reception properties are closely related: it's good physics, but it ignores the fact that the virtues required of a transmitting and receiving antenna are somewhat different. Inefficiency in a transmitting antenna has a direct, proportional effect on the received signal to noise ratio. On the other hand, moderate inefficiency in an HF receiving antenna usually has a negligible effect on the final result. A few picowatts of excess noise on a transmitting antenna has no effect on its function, but is a big deal if you're receiving (of course, one might not want to have transmitter power going out via unintended paths like utility lines: this is indeed the "reciprocal" of the conducted noise problem, and has similar solutions).</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Appendix: Absolute RF measurements with an R8.</strong></p><p>Although the Drake R8's signal strength meter is marked with silly "S" units, the alignment procedure in the service manual actually sets up the meter to an absolute standard, at least sort of. A 60% modulated signal with a carrier level of -73 dBm (which is really closer to -72 dBm in total power including sidebands) is S9. One S unit is 5 dB. This is with 6 kHz bandwidth and with neither the RF preamp or attenuator engaged. I assume this is what they do at the factory.</p><p>Now, I don't really know how accurately this calibration is performed, and it certainly can't be more accurate than the flatness of the input passband filters (spec'd at &lt;2 dB p-p). There are also problems because the measurement is actually being made by a peak-responding AGC system rather than an RMS meter. Based on experience with other peak sensing systems, I estimate that the meter probably reads noise power too high by about 3 dB, relative to the carrier power in the test waveform. Therefore, for noise, S9 is about -76 dBm.</p><p>On my R8, the linearity of the S-meter calibration is poor at the very low end: S1 is much less than 10 dB below S3. Therefore, for measurements below S3 I do relative measurements and refer them to stronger signals. I have on my NeXT computer an old demo application that gives the RMS amplitude of a signal on the audio input jack. With the R8's AGC turned off and the RF gain set low enough to insure good linearity, this may be used to make quite accurate relative power measurements. You could, of course, use an ordinary AC voltmeter to do this if you have one sensitive enough to read the level of the Drake's audio output (I don't have one).</p><p>Considering all of the uncertainties, the numbers hold together remarkably well, better than the likely accuracies in this case (just dumb luck).</p><p>For the measurements quoted in my previous message, the receiver's noise floor is -119 dBm. Drake's specs imply that for a 6 kHz bandwidth the noise floor should be below -118 dBm with the preamp off.</p><p>According to "Reference Data for Radio Engineers" (Sams, 1975), the wintertime level of natural noise in my area at 10 MHz should be about 32 dB above the thermal reference level: this would produce a noise floor of -104 dBm in this bandwidth with a perfectly efficient antenna. A calculation for a 17 m vertical antenna feeding a high impedance transformer predicts a loss due to mismatch/lack of resonance of 4.5 dB at 10 MHz. My antenna is not a vertical but an inverted L which I presume is slightly less efficient (difficult to calculate). There are also presumably some modest losses in the transformer, the grounds, the cables and the connectors. I wouldn't be surprised if these added up to 3 dB or so. With a total antenna system inefficiency of 7 dB, I'd therefore expect to see an antenna noise floor of -111 dBm, which is, in fact, just what I measure.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/grounding-is-key-to-good.html" title="Grounding is key to good reception">May 29, 2017 at 2:56 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/grounding-is-key-to-good.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i4 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/ice-matching-transformer.html" title="ICE Matching Transformer"><span class="in">ICE Matching Transformer</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p><em>(<strong>Note</strong>: ICE no longer offers this product. - Steve)</em></p><p>From: jpd@space.mit.edu (John Doty)<br />Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave<br />Subject: ICE Matching Transformer<br />Date: 5 Sep 1994 23:05:16 GMT</p><p>At the risk of permanently damaging my reputation as a cheapskate tinkerer who'd never actually go out and buy something like this, I'd like to offer the following:</p><p><strong>A Review of the ICE Model 180 Beverage/Longwire Matching Unit</strong></p><p>The key to minimizing noise pickup with an end fed antenna (Beverage, longwire, inverted L, or vertical) is to feed it with coaxial cable whose shield is well grounded. Unfortunately, coaxial cable is a poor impedance match to a wire antenna, except perhaps at a few special "resonant" frequencies. A matching transformer at the base of the antenna can smooth out the fluctuations in antenna system efficiency with frequency, yielding an antenna system that works well enough for good reception from longwave to the top of the shortwave range.</p><p>I've posted instructions for winding such a transformer several times on rec.radio.shortwave. My homebuilt transformer works well. However, after about the fifth time this summer that I left the antenna cable plugged into my receiver by accident, I decided I needed to improve my lightning protection to minimize the chance of damage. After looking through catalogs, I decided to buy a matching transformer with internal lightning protection.</p><p>The 180 is <strong>very</strong> solidly built. A barrier terminal strip is provided for three different antenna inputs, allowing impedance transformation ratios of 6:1, 9:1, and 12:1 to be chosen. These are labelled as 300, 450, and 600 ohms for use with 50 ohm cable. A "UHF" type coax connector is provided, along with a nice grounding stud for grounding the case.</p><p>The unit appears to be hand made. The transformer itself is wound on a two hole "balun core". There's a gas discharge tube across the transformer secondary and a 3 kV capacitor between the secondary and the central socket of the coaxial connector. The workmanship is excellent.</p><p>The shunt inductance of the transformer drains static to ground. The discharge tube clamps the voltage due to a sudden discharge. Most of the energy in an electrostatic discharge is at low frequency and below: the capacitor blocks this. This is worthwhile protection, but not comprehensive enough to completely protect a sensitive receiver: more protection is needed at the receiver end of the cable. This is not a criticism: I don't believe that comprehensive protection is possible in a single package.</p><p>The unit is rated for use at frequencies of 1-30 MHz with 50 ohm cable. I use 75 ohm cable in my system: this might be expected to reduce the frequency range slightly. To check it, I used the transmitter for a radio controlled boat (at 27.145 MHz) and a local radio station (at 1.600 Mhz) as stable (ground wave) reference signals. I compared the 180, using its 9:1 input, with my homemade 9:1 transformer using the S meter on my Drake R8. The antenna was a 17 m inverted L. At 27.145 MHz, there was no detectable difference (< 1 dB) between the two units. At 1.600 MHz, my homebuilt transformer yielded a slightly stronger signal (1-2 dB). Nevertheless, the Model 180 has enough low frequency response that I can easily hear the antenna's noise floor all the way down to 100 kHz, so a "better" response would not, in fact, improve my listening.</p><p><br /></p><p>In short, I cannot find any fault in this unit. At $32 it is also the least expensive transformer of this type that I'm aware of (unless you make your own). ICE takes orders at 1-800-xxx-xxxx. I have no connection with ICE except that I'm a satisfied customer.</p><p><br /></p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/ice-matching-transformer.html" title="ICE Matching Transformer">May 29, 2017 at 2:47 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/ice-matching-transformer.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i5 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antenna-connectio.html" title="Low Noise Antenna Connection"><span class="in">Low Noise Antenna Connection</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>From: jpd@space.mit.edu (John Doty)<br />Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave<br />Subject: Low Noise Antenna Connection<br />Date: 26 Nov 1993 16:55:24 GMT</p><p><br /></p><p>It doesn't take very much wire to pick up an adequate signal for anything but the crudest shortwave receiver. The difference between a mediocre antenna system and a great antenna system isn't the antenna itself: it's the way you feed signals from the antenna to the receiver. The real trick with a shortwave receiving antenna system is to keep your receiver from picking up noise from all the electrical and electronic gadgets you and your neighbors have.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>The Problem:</strong></p><p>Any unshielded conductor in your antenna/ground system is capable of picking up noise: the antenna, the "lead-in" wire, the ground wire, etc. Even the widely recommended cold water pipe ground can pick up noise if it runs a significant distance before it goes underground</p><p>Symptoms of this problem include buzzing noises, especially at lower frequencies, clicks as appliances are turned on or off, and whines from motorized devices. Sometimes the problem can be reduced by running the radio from batteries.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>The Solution:</strong></p><p>The solution is to keep the antenna as far as possible from houses, power lines, and telephone lines, and to use a shielded (coaxial) transmission line to connect it to the receiver. To get this to work well, two problems must be avoided: noise currents on the shield must be kept away from the antenna, and, if you want to listen to a wide range of frequencies, the cable must be coupled to the antenna in a non-resonant way.</p><p>You can keep noise currents away from the antenna by giving them a path to ground near the house, giving antenna currents a path to ground away from the house, and burying the the coaxial cable from the house to the antenna. Resonance can be avoided by coupling the antenna to the coaxial cable with a transformer.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>Construction:</strong></p><p>My antenna and feed system are built with television antenna system components and other common hardware. These parts are inexpensive and easily obtainable in most places.</p><p>The transformer is built around a toroid extracted from a TV "matching transformer". If you're a pack rat like me, you have a few in your basement: you typically get one with every TV or VCR (or you can buy one). Pop the plastic case off and snip the wires from the toroid (it looks either like a tiny donut, or a pair of tiny donuts stuck together). The transformer windings should be made with thin wire: I use #32 magnet wire. The primary is 30 turns while the secondary is 10 turns. For a one-hole toroid, count each passage of the wire down through the hole as one turn. For a two-holer, each turn is a passage of the wire down through the right hole and up through the left.</p><p>Mount the transformer in an aluminum "minibox" with a "chassis mount" F connector for the coax cable and a "binding post" or other insulated terminal for the antenna. Ground one end of each winding to the aluminum box. Solder the ungrounded end of the primary to the antenna terminal, and solder the ungrounded end of the secondary to the center conductor of the coax connector.</p><p>Drive a ground stake into the earth where you want the base of your antenna to be (well away from the house). Mount the transformer box on the ground stake: its case should make good contact with the metal stake. Drive another ground stake into the earth near the place where you intend for the cable to enter the house. Mount a TV antenna "grounding block" (just a piece of metal with two F connectors on it) to the stake by the house. One easy way to attach hardware to the ground stakes is to use hose clamps.</p><p>Take a piece of 75 ohm coaxial cable with two F connectors on it (I use pre-made cable assemblies), connect one end to the transformer box, the other end to the grounding block. Bury the rest of the cable. Finally, attach a second piece of 75 ohm coax to the other connector on the grounding block and run it into the house. Use waterproof tape to seal the outdoor connector junctions.</p><p>Attach one end of your antenna to the antenna terminal on the transformer box and hoist the other end up a tree or other support(s) (don't use the house as a support: you want to keep the antenna away from the house). My antenna is 16 meters of #18 insulated wire in an "inverted L" configuration supported by two trees.</p><p>If your receiver has a coaxial input connector, you may need an adapter to make the connection; in any case, the center wire of the coaxial cable should attach to the "antenna" connection, and the outer shield should attach to the "ground" connection.</p><p>Multiple grounds and transformer coupling of the antenna should reduce the danger posed by lightning or other electrostatic discharge, but don't press your luck: disconnect the coax from the receiver when you're not using it.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>How it works, in more detail:</strong></p><p>Coaxial cable carries waves in two modes: an "outer" or "common" mode, in which the current flows on the shield and the return current flows through the ground or other nearby conductors, and an "inner" or "differential" mode in which the current flows on the inner conductor and the return current flows on the shield. Theoretically, outside electromagnetic fields excite only the common mode. A properly designed receiver is sensitive only to the differential mode, so if household noise pickup is confined to the common mode, the receiver won't respond to it.</p><p>The "characteristic impedance" of the differential mode is the number you'll see in the catalog or on the cable: 75 ohms for TV antenna coax. The characteristic impedance of the common mode depends on the distance of the line from the conductor or conductors carrying the return current: it varies from tens of ohms for a cable on or under the ground to hundreds of ohms for a cable separated from other conductors.</p><p>A wire antenna can be approximately characterized as a single wire transmission line. A single wire line has only a common mode: for #18 wire 30 feet above ground, the characteristic impedance is about 620 ohms. For heights above a few feet the characteristic impedance depends very little on the height.</p><p>If the impedances of two directly coupled lines match, waves can move from one line to the other without reflection. In case of a mismatch, reflections will occur: the magnitude of the reflected wave increases as the ratio of the impedances moves away from 1. A large reflection, of course, implies a small transmission. Reflections can be avoided by coupling through a transformer whose turns ratio is the square root of the impedance ratio.</p><p>The basic difficulty with coupling a wire antenna to a coaxial line is that the antenna's characteristic impedance is a poor match to the differential mode of the line. Furthermore, unless the line is very close to the ground, the common mode of the line is a good match to the antenna. There is thus a tendency for the line to pick up common mode noise and deliver it efficiently to the antenna. The antenna can then deliver the noise back to the line's differential mode.</p><p>Some antenna systems exploit the mismatch between the antenna's characteristic impedance and the line's characteristic impedance to resonate the antenna. If the reflection at the antenna/line junction is in the correct phase, the reflection will add to the signal current in the antenna, boosting its efficiency. While this is desirable in many cases, it is undesirable for a shortwave listening antenna. Most shortwave receivers will overload on the signals presented by a resonant antenna, and resonance enhances the signal over a narrow range of frequencies at the expense of other frequencies. It's generally better to listen with an antenna system that is moderately efficient over a wide frequency range.</p><p>In my antenna system, grounding the shield of the line at the ground stakes short circuits the common mode. The stake at the base of the antenna gives the antenna current a path to ground (while the transformer directs the energy behind that current into the coax). Burying the cable prevents any common mode pickup outside the house, and also attenuates any common mode currents that escape the short circuits (soil is a very effective absorber of RF energy at close range). Common mode waves excited on the antenna by incoming signals pass, with little reflection, through the transformer into differential mode waves in the coax.</p><p>A major source of "power line buzz" is common mode RF currents from the AC line passed to the receiver through its AC power cord. These currents are normally bypassed to chassis ground inside the receiver. They thus flow out of the receiver via the ground terminal. With an unshielded antenna feedline and a wire ground, the ground wire is a part of the antenna system: these noise currents are thus picked up by the receiver. On the other hand, with a well grounded coaxial feed these currents make common mode waves on the coax that flow to ground without exciting the receiver.</p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p><strong>Performance:</strong></p><p>A few years ago, I put up a conventional random wire antenna without a coaxial feed. I was disappointed that, while it increased signal levels over the whip antenna of my Sony ICF-2001, it increased the noise level almost as much. I then set up the antenna system described above; in my small yard, the base of the antenna was only 12 meters from the house. Nevertheless, the improvement was substantial: the noise level was greatly reduced. This past year I moved to a place with a roomier yard; with the base of the antenna now 28 meters away I can no longer identify any noise from the house.</p><p>The total improvement over the whip is dramatic. A few nights ago, as a test, I did a quick scan of the 60 meter band with the whip and with the external antenna system: with the whip I could only hear one broadcaster, unintelligibly faintly, plus a couple of utes and a noisy WWV signal. With the external antenna system I could hear about ten Central/South American domestic broadcast stations at listenable levels. WWV sounded like it was next door.</p><p>I have also tried the antenna system with other receivers ranging from 1930's consoles to a Sony ICF-SW55. I've seen basically similar results with all.</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antenna-connectio.html" title="Low Noise Antenna Connection">May 29, 2017 at 2:36 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/low-noise-antenna-connectio.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i6 e article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/a-row-of-racal-ra-17s.html" title="A Row of Racal RA-17's"><span class="in">A Row of Racal RA-17's</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>This is one of my favorite scenes from the Bond film <em>Dr. No</em>. It's supposed to be the communications room for the British Secret Service. The operators all have morse code keys (even though the movie has the agents communicating by voice rather than CW), but the equipment in front of them is a pair of <a href="http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/commrx/RACAL/RA17.htm">Racal RA-17 receivers</a>. No transmitters to be seen anywhere.</p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/bond-drno.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/bond-drno_med.jpeg" alt="bond-dr.no" width="430" height="254" /></a> </div> </div> <div style="" class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content caption"><p>A row of lovely radios</p></div> </div> </div><p>Despite quibbles about technical accuracy, it's still nice to see these excellent receivers in this setting. I'd love to have a console of receivers like that!</p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/a-row-of-racal-ra-17s.html" title="A Row of Racal RA-17's">Jan 12, 2014 at 11:48 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/a-row-of-racal-ra-17s.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i7 o last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/beverage-antennas.html" title="Beverage Antennas"><span class="in">Beverage Antennas</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Invented by Harold Beverage.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/beverage-antennas.html" title="Beverage Antennas">Oct 15, 2011 at 1:28 AM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/beverage-antennas.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:51:55 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/shortwave-radio/ Electronics https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/ <div class="article-summary"><p>I've been interested in electronics since I discovered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Powell_Morgan">Alfred P. Morgan</a>'s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boys-First-Book-Radio-Electronics/dp/B0007E1FGC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326928608&sr=1-1">Boys' First Book of Radio and Electronics</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Second-Book-Radio-Electronics/dp/B004BIPHYG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326928555&sr=1-1">Boys' Second Book of Radio and Electronics</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Third-Book-Radio-Electronics/dp/0684126982">Boys' Third Book of Radio and Electronics</a></em> in the <a href="http://harfordhillses.bcps.org/">Harford Hills Elementary School</a> library. They were next to the books on rocketry, so I started in on them after finishing all the books in the rockets and missiles section. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/arma_1958_space_station_00_med.jpeg" alt="arma_1958_space_station_00" width="430" height="446" /> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center"> <div style="" class="general-index graphic"> <div class="figure-content">  <div class="i1 o article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/big-ear--shotgun-mic.html" title="Big Ear / Shotgun mic"><span class="in">Big Ear / Shotgun mic</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Some folks on the <a href="http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/index.php">Antique Radio Forum</a> were <a href="http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=174195">reminiscing about the old ads in magazines for "the big ear"</a>. </p> <div class="first graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/big20ear.jpeg" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/big20ear_med.jpeg" alt="Big%20Ear" width="430" height="356" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p><br /></p><p>The subject of the <a href="http://mail.blockyourid.com/~gbpprorg/mil/shotgun/Build_the_Shotgun_Sound_Snooper.pdf">Popular Electronics shotgun mic project</a> came up.</p> <div class="not-first-item graphic-container wide center ImageElement"> <div class="graphic"> <div class="figure-content"> <a href="http://mail.blockyourid.com/~gbpprorg/mil/shotgun/Build_the_Shotgun_Sound_Snooper.pdf" class="imageLink"><img src="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/_Media/shotgun-mic_med.png" alt="shotgun-mic" width="430" height="631" /></a> </div> </div> </div><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There's a <a href="http://mail.blockyourid.com/~gbpprorg/mil/shotgun/index.html">nice build from the Green Bay Professional Packet Radio</a> group. They host a <a href="http://mail.blockyourid.com/~gbpprorg/mil/shotgun/Build_the_Shotgun_Sound_Snooper.pdf">scan of the original article</a>. James Thompson also hosts a <a href="http://www.analog-innovations.com/SED/ShotGunMike.pdf">scan of the Popular Electronics article</a>.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I had one of the kids in the Parker Model Rocket Club build up a couple of shotgun mics based on the article. We used model rocket cardboard body tubes instead of the aluminum tubes used in the original Popular Electronics version. I'll post a photo when I get a chance.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">By the way, the description in the Popular Electronics article of how the mic works is totally bogus. It's just a phased-array antenna, with the tubing being delay lines. </p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sound from the front travels toward the mic. Some of it is picked up by the longest tube, but it travels at the same speed in the tube as in free air, so it stays in phase as the sound travels to the mic element at the back. The same thing happens with the other shorter tubes. </p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Sound from the side gets picked up by all the tubes more or less simultaneously, but it has to travel differing distances to the mic element due to the different lengths of the tubing. Summing these phase-delayed copies of the sound wave results in partial cancellation of the sound from the side.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></p> </div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/big-ear--shotgun-mic.html" title="Big Ear / Shotgun mic">May 24, 2016 at 7:43 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/big-ear--shotgun-mic.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="i2 e last-item article"> <h3 class="index-title"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/first-post.html" title="Venus Equilateral"><span class="in">Venus Equilateral</span></a></h3> <div class="article-summary"><p>Remember George O. Smith's short SF stories set on the Venus Equilateral Relay Station? I never came across them as a kid, but later in life I've enjoyed them. The electrical engineering and communications engineering elements ring true.</p></div> <div class="article-info"> <div class="timestamp"><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/first-post.html" title="Venus Equilateral">Jan 18, 2012 at 6:25 PM</a></div>  <div class="comments"> <p><a href="https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/first-post.html#disqus_thread">View Comments</a></p> </div>  </div> </div> <div class="general-index-bottom"></div>  </div> </div> </div><br /> </div> Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:51:27 -0400 https://www.byan-roper.org/steve/steve-at-play/electronics/