The AM Forum

Finally, the shack becomes a shack. Only the drawers and a plate at the back of the tables for the outlets, antenna connectors etc have to be mounted. That will be done next week. Than I have to connect everything and mount antenna switches etc
And, there is a first transmitter at the table, the Phillips SFZ395/00, 50 Watts AM.   ;D  Just changed the voltage from 220 to 115
A few pics of this marvelous transmitter attached. Built to last forever. I only have to change a QQE 06/40, that didn't survive the customs handling and the glass broke. Fortunately, there are quite a few at Ebay

some more pics of the SFZ395

Nico,

Nice looking shack! 

What tubes are in the RF chain of your Philips transmitter?

73,
Brad K4RT

Hi Brad
The transmitter has an E80L crystal oscillator / VFO input, an E80L straight 1,5 to 10 MHz, as a doubler for 10 - 20 MHz and as a tripler for 20 - 30 MHz and an E80L driver for the QQE06/40 PA with both sections in parallel. The modulator driver E80L and a QQE06/40 in a balanced PA
The frequency range is from 1,5 - 30 MHz divided in 6 bands
Power output 50 Watts carrier, AM or CW

Great looking shack Nico!  I especially like your very stout wooden top to support a lot of great boat anchors! 

Joe-W3GMS 

You are someone that sees details Joe. I did especially search a very hard wood that can support boatanchors. You can't ever drive a nail in it

Great choice! 

Send us some pictures when you get all your gear setup on it. 

73,
Joe-W3GMS

I wish my shack was that clean!

My work bench looks like that maybe...… once a year! :D

Don't worry, it is clean because it is new, just starting to put my things there....It will change....

Nice Singer / Alfred signal generator as well! Spotted that! I have a couple of them. Great VFOs.
Good on the transmitter for being general coverage!

Where did you sot the Singer Patrick?. I don't have one. I have  Logimetrics signal generaor that runs from 50 kHz upto 80 MHz that I use together with a 300 Watt Dressler wide band amp that runs from 1 MHz to 60 MHz.
Further a Farnell PSG1000 that runs from LF to 1 GHz, an Advantest specrum analyser an a few TEK scopes.
So if you saw a Singer, please help me finding it, I love them :D

The shack is starting to fill up. Here some pics. But there comes more........

and more..

and more

and more

Love the pictures Nico! It will not be long before all those benches are covered with gear and test equipment. That is when the fun begins. What about power and grounding? A lot of your gear is made to run on 220vac. I'm seeing 120v duplex outlets. Lots of challenges for sure.


Jim
Wd5JKO

You are right Jim, there are a few 115 / 220V transformers warming up. But fortunately most of the test equipment could run at 115V And the AN-GRC9 runs at 24VDC using an older type (NO QRN !!) AC - DC converter that has a voltage selector. I feed the 12 VDC euipment with a central Meanwell AC-DC converter supplying 13,5VDC at 50 Amps max.. The linear amp runs from an other Meanwell converter delivering 52 Volts at 1,5 kW. Those converters run all at 115V.
I brought a nice 1.5 kW transformer that I will mount later to supply 220V when needed so I don't need other smaller transformers.
I have a common ground point connected to 3 ground rods and the iron in the concrete of the house with antenna feedthrough gas arresters and fusable links. At that panel is also mounted a 20 Amp AC noise filter and VDR's to supply the 115 V to the whole shack. I will run a hefty ground all along the table to ground everything. So indeed quite a challenge, but fortunately I started thinking about it when building the house.

My error-the unit is a Logimetrics. There are these basically-the-same units with 4 (military), 5, and 6 digits, and with an LCD readout (921A).
Here is one of my Logimetrics 925 in a much older post.
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=37257.msg285333;topicseen#msg285333

If you want a bunch of Singer spectrum analyzers for observing IF outputs (.05 to 27MHz?) I got a rack full but they need work (manuals free online) and the shipping and local customs would be terrible on them.

Indeed Patric, the transport of almost everything to Costa Rica is prohibitive. I have to do with whatever I have and some Ebay materials. Fortunately I have a Advantest spectrum analyser upto 3,8 GHz
I didn't know that the Singer and Logimetrics were identical. I use the Logimetrix together wit a Dressler wideband amp of 300 Watts that runs from 1 - 60 MHz to do measurements and experiments.
The shack is filling up. Attached some pics of a +/- 1927 TRF radio, that I am restoring. Crumbled wires, cut wires, missing valves, oxidation , coil broken etc.  So I had to rewire quite a lot with cloth isolated wire to mimic the original. But fortunately, all important materials are there and good, also the inter stage transformer.. It was  not really easy to find out how it was wired. The first valve was clearly an A442 or alike. The second and third were not clear. There were loose wires for both valves for a side connection of the valve socket (I think, but may have been also wires that did run to the inter stage transformer and were cut and put in holes), so it may have been screen grid valves or a bi-grille as a second valve.  But those wires were not connected and cut, so I can't verify. I have mounted an A415 as a second valve and a B406 as an AF output and wired as such.
Coming days the first tests. I enjoy myself a lot restoring radio's of the years 20 - 30