Free SSB HB rig

[k7pp]

I've put this on a couple of boards with no response.  Thought I'd try over here and see if anyone
could steer me onto any doc's.

    
Last week a close friend stopped by and dropped off an old boat anchor transmitter.
After close examination, I came to realize that this unit was really a piece of home brew art.
Parting out the unit is out of the question but what to do with it?
Perhaps that's the reason it fell into my possession.

It came with no documentation at all except for the call letters printed on the back panel.
After a pretty good internet search I discovered that it was made by a fellow by the name of
Ken Moore who was reported as one of the more prolific home brew artists around.
It looks as if he was an engineer at one of the major airlines.
It was made for another fellow (I assume a close friend).
Looks as if Ken may be an SK.

Anyway, I'm including some pictures of the unit and I'm hoping that perhaps the concept may
have been published in a mag somewhere.
It appears to be an all band phasing SSB rig with built in VOX and ability to do FSK and CW. WOW!!

I am trying to come up with a tube line up which might help with the design identification.
Of course, it could just as easily been one of Ken's designs and if that's the case, I guess I'm in for allot of
work putting together a drawing.
I'm going to give it a good try to see if I can get this unit back on the air again.

Should be fun....

73's
Pete

[W1ITT]

Nice job, right down to the ink stamped labels on the chassis.  I'm guessing that some of the 1950's ARRL Handbooks should be of assistance, or possibly the West Coast handbook from that era.  There were a number of similar designs for phasing rigs that used the Barker and Williamson 2Q4 plug-in phase shift network.
We've come along way from those classic rigs to the SDR radios that do it all in software and digital to analog conversion.  Modulation now is just arithmetic.

[k7iou]

W6wis is a silent key. Found these two items.
Restore it!

[Pete, WA2CWA]

We directed you to the 1959 November QST on one of the forums you posted the same information. Did you review the information? The article is called "A Phasing-type Sidebander" on page 15.

[k7pp]

Just got your reply on the other board Pete.
That's a great idea.  I found a copy on E bay along with Don Stoner's
SSB Handbook.   They are on their way.
Perhaps there will be enough info that I won't have to roll my own schematic.
That would be wonderful.
I've got some new filters coming as I don't want to risk using 50's or 60's caps.
This thing is so well made, it might just take right off and start working.
In any case,  we'll get it working.

I have to start thinking about a case to fit it in as It won't be used in a rack mounting.

Best Regards,
Pete

[K9DXL]

What a beautiful piece of work.  I hope you can bring it to life so it may speak again!

[N2DTS]

It looks to have a pair of 6146's, you could build an outboard screen modulator for it and put it on AM as well.

[W4RFM]

What a great example of building art. As one who tries and so often fails to build anything impressive (or that works  , I for one am very impressed.

[KA0HCP]

What a beautiful HB!

[Opcom]

I hope you get it working. It's far from a basket case, should not be too hard! It deserves a very nice cabinet.

About AM on it, there is the AUX position on the switch. Instead of screen modulation vis external means, maybe the SSB modulator could be switched up a bit to make AM, or perhaps carrier+USB, although some don't like that. That way there would be no external things hanging off the unit.

Please post as you progress. If you do draw a schematic, please post it up even if it is messy! It's worth it. Maybe the article will be close and you can put it in Paint and mod it.

The way I see things like this, the occasional and beautifully home-made equipment, is that those who come to own them have a duty to preserve these examples of craftsmanship.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I see no point in taking a nice looking SSB transmitter like this and modding it for AM. If it was shoddy construction maybe then I might consider it. However, if AM is a consideration, just adjust the front panel Null controls for full carrier. You won't sound great and you'll be only modulating one sideband but it will put you on AM.

[kb3ouk]

I see no point in taking a nice looking SSB transmitter like this and modding it for AM. If it was shoddy construction maybe then I might consider it. However, if AM is a consideration, just adjust the front panel Null controls for full carrier. You won't sound great and you'll be only modulating one sideband but it will put you on AM.

That's how the old Central Electronics phasing rigs did it, the only difference was they had a DSB position on the bandswitch, you could just adjust the null controls to get the amount of carrier you wanted, from DSB suppressed carrier to DSB full carrier.

[WQ9E]

As Pete said, just unbalance the rig to provide carrier if you want to run AM.  With all of the low power AM rigs running around I wouldn't even consider modifying this nice piece of homebrew gear to make it run AM. 

Of course if you don't align it properly it will end up running DSB AM   The easiest way to set up these phasing rigs is with a spectrum analyzer and I guess many of the SDR receivers would serve this purpose, I use a Tektronix 7L13 and it makes for very easy alignment of phasing type exciters.  Next choice would be a modern selectable sideband receiver with good selectivity.  My last choice would be a scope when setting up a phasing rig since many issues will provide similar scope displays unless you are very good at interpreting them.   A decent dual trace scope is very useful if you run into issues with the phase shift networks.

[N2DTS]

It would be very easy to put it on AM with a screen modulator.
Just put it in CW, tune for maximum output, then switch in the screen modulator.
All you would likely have to do is put a jack on the back for the screen circuit.
It would be nice to have an ssb, cw and am rig like that.