|
Title: RCA BTA-1R1 conversion....it's alive Post by: K8DI on April 27, 2022, 02:05:07 PM Hey, just an update. After dozens of hiccups and holdups, delays and other work taking my time, a busted wrist/surgery making doing stuff impossible even when I had time, and so forth, I made RF into a dummy load yesterday, on 80 and 40m, with the big grey box that is my RCA... She tuned up easily with nice plate dips, the stepper motor remote tuning system worked perfectly (I had some fear it would puke from the RF getting into things), the AMX touchscreen interface to operate it worked, from a control and RF perspective, all that's left is tweaking. I did the testing with pretty weak tubes, figuring if it got away from me I wouldn't be out too much. Still saw 600w carrier on 40, more on 80m. I have a set of new finals for the RF, I'll test with those and go through the modulator setup (bias, etc.) this weekend. If I am lucky, I may get to yell out a CQ sometime too!
Also this weekend I'll take a few new pictures. I'm in the office today, so photos have to wait. Ed Title: Re: RCA BTA-1R1 conversion....it's alive Post by: W3GMS on April 27, 2022, 10:06:50 PM Congrats!
I have a Gates 250C1 to do the same with. Push pull 810's modulated by another pair. In BC service it is rated at 250W out, but will easily do legal limit AM. Joe-GMS Title: Re: RCA BTA-1R1 conversion....it's alive Post by: DMOD on April 30, 2022, 08:46:49 PM Congrats to you both. AMfone - Dedicated to Amplitude Modulation on the Amateur Radio Bands
I used to babysit an RCA BTA-1R1 (main) and a Gates BC500-GY (backup). Phil |