Submitted by Joe N3IBX

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You are looking at my newest acquisition – the W3CIL homebrew transmitter. W3CIL was a Ham for over 60 years before he became a SK, and went on to become a broadcast engineer for KYW radio and TV in Philadelphia for over 25 years. I was told to "Come and get it out of here" which wasn’t an easy feat. Thanks to the great help of Ray – WD2AFJ, John W3AYT and others I was able to transport it from it’s location in Wyndmoor, outside of Philadelphia, Pa. to a temporary resting place in my garage in Washington Crossing, Pa before it gets sucked into the "Vortex" in my basement Hamshack.

The transmitter is very unusual and somewhat of a mystery to me. Pete Cummings – W3CIL probably built the rig sometime in the 1950’s. It appears to have four different RF decks modulated by a pair of 810’s in a common modulator. As far as I can figure out it has an RF deck for 80M, 20M, 6M and 2 meters via linked coupling or fixed tank coils.

I’d like to request any assistance in identifying the circuitry which may help me understand it better. Eventually I’d like to use it on the air.

As far as I can tell it does not have a speech amp or buffer. It was probably driven by an external exciter which was common practice at the time. It looks like a prime candidate for my Johnson Ranger! Since I believe it doesn’t have a buffer stage I better not loose RF drive or I’ll loose my final tubes in the RF deck for the particular band I’m on.

On to some pictures of the inside of the rig………………..