The AM Forum

I just installed my AM station. Consists out of a Philips transmitter SFZ395/00, 50 Watts carrier barefoot and a Siemens E311 receiver. Next step are antennas. I have one at 20 meters, a Moxon at 6 meters altitude, but no 40 meter / 80 meter yet. Only a small 15 meter wire 3 meters above the ground. And with the current conditions that may be quite poor. I like to mount a 1/2 wave vertical for 40 meters, but the frequent and violent thunderstorms here made me think twice. So I like to make a small winch so I can raise an lower the wire like a flag in a flagpole (but without the flag    ;D)

Nice looking equipment, Nico. Not the type of stuff commonly seen here in the USA. Good luck with the antenna projects. You didn't mention 10 meters. There's some AM activity around 29.000 Mhz in the USA. You might try giving a listen there. When conditions are right, 50 watts is more than enough on 10 meters.


Don

Am I reading the scale correct on the xmitter?

Dual vfo, continuous coverage?

If so, what a cool xmitter!

--Shane
KD6VXI

No Shane, it is crystal controlled or driven by an external VFO (thats what I do). The lower scale is for grid tuning, the upper scale output tuning, in 6 bands running from 1,5 - 30 MHz
The driver stage is interesting, wide band and filtered in 3 bands from 1,5-10, 10-20 and 20-30 MHz, no tuning required. The drive frequency is 1,5 - 10 MHz. On the higher bands doubling or tripling the frequency.

what are the tubes in the transmitter? they look something like a 5894

Philips! The Eindhoven special! HUP!

Indeed, it are the QQE06/40, an equivalent. The transmitter final uses the two halves in parallel, the modulator is a balanced modulator with a QQE06/40. The driver train has 3 E80L tubes, the AF amp has one E80L with transformer driver to the QQE06/40 final and a transformer input both  for a balanced line input and an a-symetrical input. You can key the transmitter both local or remote at the center of the balanced line input

But it has been made in the Philips factory in Hilversum, the Netherlands. That's were the Philips telecommunication industry was located.

Hilversum, also the former home of Radio Nederlands Wereldomroep

here  https://elektrotanya.com/philips_sfz-395-00_transmitter_sm.pdf/download.html  is the service manual of the transmitter with schematics

That is an excellent looking setup! I like the looks of the classic European equipment. The iron core transformers especially have a unique appearance.

Beautiful station. Hope to catch you on 20, 15 or 10 meters sometime.

I have my antenna down at the moment, a 20 / 17 meter moxon. It was at 6 meters altitude and I will raise it ti 14 meters at a new push-up mast from Spiderbeam.. As soon as the antenna is up again, let's make some skeds. For 40 meters I only have a small wire, that will not work to the USA I think

Hi!

Cool stuff Nico!

Forty meters could be a possibility at the right times. I've worked European stations on AM, some only running 100 watts. QRM would be the biggest hinderance but I've worked many lower-powered stations from Central and South America on SSB during the hours of darkness and especially within the first few hours of darkness. I think at times there may be some TEP enhancement happening.

That is some nice looking gear.  I love the way it is designed.
Should have my AM station together soon.
Three of the five transmitters are done and now working on the receivers.

Happy DX'ing

I just tested the very simple compressor/ equallizer  I did build for the transmitter. That makes a nice difference, very good sounding audio and quite an increase in loudness. So when everything is ready, I like to make a sked to try 40 meters.

They remind me of military rigs only better looking, the modular construction is similar to the R-390 receivers I restored. If you're worried about lightning but want good daytime local coverage AND excellent DX at night the grounded folded vertical unipole is right up your alley. Since this is not the place for technical discussion I refer you to the Internet, this is a good place to start: http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2010/10/the-folded-unipole-antenna/