SBE rigs

[VE3LYX]

Tim HLR calls these rigs SBE rigs. He showed us a couple of pics of his and I hear it was on air earlier this week. Here is my new one. It uses a 211 tube which I have been told Santa is bringing. Other wise it is almost done. I need a few thumb screws and minor stuff
I will use my cathode modulator I use on my  tnt for now,.
Any others we could look at?

[KC4VWU]

Wow! Nice curly maple base!

[n3lrx]

Ah Yes, Slop Bucket Eliminators! Not to be confused with Slop Bucket Engineering!

Incidentally, the founder of the SBE (Side Band Engineering) CB radios.  Got fed up with how the company was going, quit, and started his own CB radio Company again.. He called it 'TRAM' Which stands for "Transmit Receive AM" TRAM radios never had SSB that I know of, all the one's I've owned were AM Only. And very nice sounding rigs out of the box.

Now you know..

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Ah Yes, Slop Bucket Eliminators! Not to be confused with Slop Bucket Engineering!

Incidentally, the founder of the SBE (Side Band Engineering) CB radios.  Got fed up with how the company was going, quit, and started his own CB radio Company again.. He called it 'TRAM' Which stands for "Transmit Receive AM" TRAM radios never had SSB that I know of, all the one's I've owned were AM Only. And very nice sounding rigs out of the box.

Now you know..

Faust Gonsett, in 1963, formed Sideband Engineers Incorporated (SBE).

TRAM Titan II, Titan III, D201/201A, D300, Corsair, and several Diamond models were sideband/AM rigs and this is just what I remember without looking anything up.

[VE3LYX]

Wow! Nice curly maple base!

Thanks, I realized tonite I had payed as much for the 3 foot board ($80) I cut this from as the 211 tube will cost new from my supplier. I bought it for my fiddle making hobby but it was too tuff to work with and grabs the saw blade when cutting. An old cabinetmaker friend told me it was grown on a side hill probably and is like a giant spring inside. He may be right.
Don

[kb3ouk]

Never saw a coil wound like that before, I assume it's the plate coil?

[VE3LYX]

It is in a Hartley the only coil. One end to grid thru the gridleak assembly taped to the cathode and coupled to the plate thru a cap.
Some early radios used spiral wound coils and rumours were they were less affected by body capacity etc. I wound this one and tested it with my GDO . Seemed to work very well and dip was quite pronounced, seemed more so then normal so I decided to try it. The link coupled output is a single coil starting at the top outside wound on the back and adjustable in spacing. I will be putting on a pair of "gator" clips for antenna connections. It will either work or not. I am prepared for either. I always think "what if it does?!" I am looking for that 1920s ham radio look and aside from modulating it occasionally on AM will be using it on the special vintage CW nites. (Bruce Kelly and straight key nite for example. )
Don

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Faust Gonsett, in 1963, formed Sideband Engineers Incorporated (SBE).

TRAM Titan II, Titan III, D201/201A, D300, Corsair, and several Diamond models were sideband/AM rigs and this is just what I remember without looking anything up.

You missed the Titan IIA, Pete.

In fact, I think the majority of the Tram radios included SSB. Their early TR-27 bases and matching -72 mobile units (the green ones) were AM only as were the original Titan and its mate, the XL-100. After that all of the base units included SSB and all but some of the low end XL mobile units were SSB also.

And IIRC, the founder(s) of Tram actually came to Winnisquam NH from just up the road in Laconia. They were former Browning men from what I remember growing up in the northeast and being fascinated with all things radio.

And wasn't Gonset bought by Electro-Voice or one of those audio-mic companies?

Don, nice looking little.....transmitter. I've got a box full of old wooden fiddle parts here, keys, bridges and so on. Not sure I could build much with them, though. Certainly nothing that nice, or as cool as the R/C car key in another thread.

[K1JJ]

Looks like Tram Browning is still catering to the CB crowd. In this case, quite a far cry from the 5 watt days...  

Super-duper mobile whips:
http://www.trambrowning.com/index_files/page-26.pdf


Home site:
http://www.trambrowning.com/

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

There's also a guy somewhere down here in 4 Land who went up a few years back and bought up all the remaining stock of Browning parts from Gar Jr. and apparently the Tram stock too. Guess he gets big dollars from the current crowd. The big Brownings & Trams still have a cult following of sorts in the 11m community. I think Buddly converted one of the big Golden Eagles for 10m use a few years ago.

A lot of folks don't realize that Browning Labs in Laconia was indeed the same business started decades before by Glenn Browning. It changed hands in the mid-50s and, by the looks of those aerials, again since.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

And wasn't Gonset bought by Electro-Voice or one of those audio-mic companies?

Altec Lansing

[VE3LYX]

I gather then that leaves Tim (HLR)and I for a SBE to SBE AM  QSO
Don

[VE3AJM]

Looks like a fun project Don. A modulated oscillator with a 211 tube.

Al VE3AJM

[VE3LYX]

Something is wrong!
I wired my power plug up (always 7AC tube base) Then took a dead soldier 80 tube base and cleaned it and wired it to a 2a3 tube socket (4 pin like a 45  an 201A etc ) I placed it in the middle of the jumbo socket and double checked that I had crossed the right wires between the 211 socket and the 2a3 socket. then I took the 01A out of my cathode modulator and plugged it it  to the adapter socket. I plugged in the power supply and flipped the switch monitoring on 40M. IT WORKED ! No fiddling no adjusting just instant success. It is very stable. IT could care less about your hands and tunes the entire 40M band nicely. Judging from the pinned FS meter in the shack it is a rather efficient lil begger too. Hard to say what it will tune with the 211 but right now I can go continuous from 3.8 to 10.35mcs
Technically that would be a tribander . Ihe tube will affect it though. It always does in a single tube power oscillator. I would think that a 211 will add C to the circuit so the possibility exists that I will have all or most of 80m and all of 40M I can live with no 30M I did most of my life anyway and it isn't AM friendly.
Don

[VE3LYX]

I swapped the 45 tube in and put the 01A back in the modulator. Clipping the set to my dummy load I clipped in the cathode modulator from my TNT project and fired up the power supply. I used a western electric mic first (telephone operators headset mic) but tried a #4 hand mic from WWII which gave much much better audio. Works great. I tested on both 40M and 80M (ok 75M) and was pleased with the results. I had 160B+ for power from my bench supply. Here is a picture taken while everything was still on. it was kinda a lash up but it works just fine.
BTW someone asked me about the spiral coil. It was my gut instinct that a spiral wound coil shields itself to some extent so I wanted to try it. Look cool too I thought . So tonite after the modulator test I let the Hartley run carrier on and waved my hand all around the set , by the variable cap and as close to to coil as I could get without touching it. I was unable to induce any wobbling in freq short of actually touching the parts. It surprised me so I tried it several times. My TNT which is a normal coil would have gone nuts with the same test. This rig didn't seem to notice. I was surprised. I didn't expect it to be THAT stable. I thought it might be better but in a measured way.
Also I tested on both 40M and 80M on AM as it tunes both without band switching. the cap has enuf range .
The 211 tube has been shipped and should be here soon. We shall see if it behaves as well on 770 volts and with the 211 instead of a 45 in an adapter socket. . The actual lash up during the test is pictured here.
Don

[VE3LYX]

I left it hooked up last night and this morning , just now after breakfast asked the XYL to listen on the far side of the house. (approx. 70 feet and on the upper floor) Now remember I am transmitting into a dummy load , not on an antenna yet but she can still pick up the signal at that range despite being on the dummy.  "I can hear you" she said. "What was it like?" I asked. "Normal, your voice and quite loud," was the reply. Fearing the dreaded FM factor I asked "Was it wobbly?" "No" she said. "It was like I said ,Normal." As a retired school marm she would give me the bad if she could so I am accepting that as a good sig report. SO so far this is looking pretty good
Don

[VE3LYX]

The XYL bought me the 211 tube and it arrived. Unfortunately it is wrapped and under the tree till Christmas. Thrilled that she would go to the trouble to do that for me I'll just suck it up till then making sure it is just purely a plug and play deal then with no fooling around to get it going.
Don

[KA0HCP]

"Anticipation......."