The AM Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuoXhfMTAJA&feature=em-uploademail

What part do you not believe?

Burt wasn't anywhere near when this happened.

That is the way it was, without embellishment.

I didn't even mention how it was raining on the sloped site, the muddy truck slid sideways into the building once, and we pulled up the old water plumbing with the trailer hitch by accident.

Maybe in part two...

73DG

I have moved a transmitter or two and the thing that strikes me funny is how easily you address pushing around thousands of pounds of heavy, dirty transmitter and getting them loaded and have to say if you can just nudge up to these things and push them out the door there ant no reason you have to concern yourself about some nut with a chain saw! Some friends of mine and I moved a signal bay 1 KW RCA and some other transmitter a couple years back and that about did us in. I have posted a couple videos myself and have two on a RCA that I now have on 160, addresses are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr_dGrM6wvY

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abX5ha3957Q

And have a final video of the transmitter in operation at:

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

I have a masters' degree in leverage ;).

A piece at a time made it doable, after all it was shipped in pieces originally.

73DG

Gosh Dennis, what a fascinating account!  I'd like to see some pictures of this beast up close and personal.  Also, I do hope there is a part 2,  3 etc.  Would love to see this xmtr come to life

Is that a HP 8568 or 66?  Nice - I used to work on those a million years ago

Al

So what is not to believe about this. Thanks for sharing Dennis!

I brought a 21E back from Port Huron, MI with a Dodge Mini Van and an aluminum utility trailer. One bay in the van, two in the trailer. I recollect that  the wheels on the front wheel drive van would spin quite easily....accelerating and braking! This made going back through Chicago more of a thrill. Some great local guys helped drag the 21E out of the Xmtr Hut. The biggest problem was the hornets nest (no snakes) and the live coax dangling from the ceiling. Leverage, hydraulics, and a winch did the trick. When I flopped the mod reactor into the van the floor developed a bulge..but it was only visible from underneath.
I have Mike Dorrough, K06NM, for motivating me to shag this unit, now on the air at K7YOO. You notice how Mike's name pops up around heavy metal?
Once you have done a multi-bay transmitter a single bay seems too easy, unless it is a Raytheon. The front door on one of these beasts weighs darn near as much as a 20V!

Thanks, guys.  It was an undertaking, albeit almost ten years ago. 

The poor thing is still languishing in storage as to my solemn promise to finish the house before any serious hamming takes place.  Gathering is exempt from this restriction.

I do have a good shot of what it looks like, rather than the pre-war cabinetry shown in the vid:

73DG

   :) :) :) :)

You gotta love dual-purpose radios  big enough serve as fallout shelters!

I'm offering to come out there for a week this summer, "assay the situation" :), and help you finish it !

You're on, Pete.

I'm doing soffits and decking right now, then the metal roofing goes on and you would be very welcome.

73DG

...if you can just nudge up to these things and push them out the door there ain't no reason you have to concern yourself ...

They should all be just a gentle nudge out the back. Consider K3MSB's experience:

Rental truck sat fine, empty, out back where the utility door was.

You'd think it would have better traction once an RCA BTA1M was loaded up.

Sank up to the axle when we tried to pull away.

http://amfone.net/bta1m.html (http://amfone.net/bta1m.html)

Here is a shot of us setting up the shoot:

73DG

That bottle  in the chair just makes me worry.

Thanks for sharing!

"You know you're not quite right in the head when.....[insert transmitter story here]"   ;D


Isn't THAT the truth! Pulling that RA-1000 out of WGAI before they bulldozed the building was a lesson in patience and leverage. You get the outside cabinet partly disassembled only to find another, internal cabinet with all the 'stuff' hung on it. 'Overbuilt' is an understatement when it comes to an old Raytheon BC transmitter.

Moving the 21E from Syracuse was easy in comparison. I actually unloaded it alone, with a little help from my wife running the lift gate while I kept things from falling off. If anyone really wants a big, beautiful transmitter, all converted and ready to go, c'mon down!


I wondered about that as the one in the video looks remarkably similar to a pre-war transmitter in the Yarmouth, NS museum. Was the first one on the island. Really cool in a primitive sorta way.

No copperheads seen here yet, just a big ol' black snake that scared the wife the first summer we were down here. Plenty of Black Widder spiders!

The copperheads were a new one on me. 

They don't play fair, as everything snaky out here that will give you the poison chomp makes a warning racket beforehand.

Tube in chair=choreographed suspense.

73DG

Shorty, K6JSI, just grabbed the KYA transmitter. I think Mike was behind that too. Here's a little video about it. It doesn't show the heavy lifting.

http://online.sfsu.edu/hl/KYA.K6JSI.html

Dennis. That story is amazing. I think you used up 2 of your 9 lives just on that trip.

Is that a Machlett? Looks like am ML892 with a radiator.

Is Machlett 343A.

Not interchangeable with the 892.

No radiators, they are the water cooled version.

73DG

the few copper heads I've come across over the years here in CT typically scurry away or make some movement to forewarn.  I guess they'd chomp if surprised and ended up within inches. of course most are usually in the 'open' and not tucked in a transmitter.

The 892 was water cooled and looked similar to that tube, the 892R was just a water cooled tube that had an air cooler added.

I finished parting out a Raytheon RA-5 (5/10KW AM Tx) in 1991. It used those. When was the last time anyone saw one of those tubes in service?

The guy in California that rebuilds those tubes (not Econco, Freeland or CTL) does it in his home garage.  He says there are still some induction furnaces running them overseas.

He is redoing one of my 343A's.

73DG

Wow. I had no idea they were still used. A friend is a low Mu triode expert. He worked on all kinds of RF heating machines. He never mentioned those ancient bottles. 9 kv!

I tried to find it and can't, but I'm pretty sure I saw brand new ones for sale somewhere, of course they were Chinese made, but it was interesting to see an early high power tube design like that still being in use.

How were the old radiators attached to the cylindrical plate? soldered on?

Yep, usually with silver solder.  Right to the same copper plate that would otherwise sit in a water jacket.  The fins were about 1/8" thick, enough of them to make up to forty pounds of copper.

The air-cooled tubes had a massive, thick porcelain chimney to direct the flow.

Air wasn't as messy as the water system, but the payoff came in runtime hours:  Average 8,000 for air, 40,000 for water-cooled.

73DG

There's a book around here somewhere that shows the air cooled tubes like that in a 50 kw Westinghouse transmitter, if I remember right this thing has 4 of them, one pair would run then if they failed, the other ones could be switched in.