Institute of Amateur Radio Peterhorough New Hampshire

100 Pages·2009·25.69 MB·English

February 1964
Same old 40c
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Place
4. Stamp
Here
Institute of Amateur Radio
Peterhorough
New Hampshire
•
•
IT IS TIME TO BE COUNTED
The ARRL claims that there is no point in running a poll on matters of
interest because too few amateurs ever take the trouhle to answer the poll.
Please tear or eut out the postcard below, fill it out, stamp it and mail it.
If you are against shredding your magazine then use your QSL card or a
regular postcard . . . send something with the information requested.
'Vhen you have accomplished this then get on the air and get as many
other fellows to send in cards as you can . . . get everyone at your radio
c1uh to send in a card. Get on the phone and get every ham you can think
of to send in a card. Let's make this 100% for all 73 readers and 200 %
for their friends ... or better. Vote yes, vote no ... but vote.
The results of this poll will he published in 7:3 and will he made part
of the record on the proposal on file with the FCC. We will also see that
the ARRL Directors get a copy of the poll results.
THE I'ROPOSITION
The ARRL has suhmitted a proposal to the FCC to make the Advanced
Class license available to anyone who has held a General Class license for
at least one year and passes an additional technical examination under
FCC supervision. This license would he available to Conditional class li
censees who have been licensed for at least one year and who pass the
additional technical exam and a 13 wpm code speed test under FCC suo
pervision, The new technical exam would be somewhere between the
present General and Extra class license exam s in difficulty. The present
Conditional licenses could only he renewed in cases of the handicapped,
overseas military or other hardships.
The present phone bands would bc rcstrieted to Advanced and Extra
Class licensees as follows:
20 meter phone July 1, 19fi.5
40 and 1.5 metcr phone July I, 19fifi
7.5 meter phone July I, 19fi7
No discussion of the arguments for or against this proposal will be given
here. You can read the arguments in past issues of 73, QST, and CQ if you
are not familiar with all of the problems involved. \
~I ,~ c- ! .
G r'.J _ I _
v (
Name 'Call _
Address _
Cily Slate lip/Zone _
I am a member of ARRL __• I am in favor of the proposal _ _
I am not a member of ARRl __ I am opposed to the proposal __
I am a member of loAR _ _. I don't care one way the other __
Of
Remarks:
Two Meter SSB Rig
7 3 WA21Kl 6
Heath Warrior Tip
W2DOR 12
v\agazine
Simplified Receiver Design
WA21NM 14
W2NS D/ 1
Vayne Green
Making an AC Capacitor
K5JKX 23
.d it o r, etcetera
Heat Dissipating Tube Shields
K2ENN 24
More on the Magic TR K5JKX 28
Miniture AM Tuner . K6AI 30
:eb r ua ry, 1964
10 1. XV, No . 2 Loud Speakers and Enclosures WlJKZ 32
Transistor CW Transmitter . .
. W2RHD 36
Quieting Small Cooling Fans Ives 39
Unusual Receiver Circuits W100P 40
A Long Look at Test Equipment .. K5JKX 42
Practical Ground Systems .W A6BSO 52
BFO .. . . .. K1YVB 62
Zl Special for Forty Scharpf 64
Rx Audio Probe W5VOH 66
Neutralization K5JKX 68
Comments on " Ince ntive Licensing .. KZ5lC 78
Still More on " Ince ntive licensing" . W2AOE 80
Cartoon . . . Rogers 95
73 :\Iagal ine is published monthly
by 73, Inc., Peterborough, N . H .
T he phone number is 603-924·3873.
Subscription rates have just been
hiked (after considerable warning) to
$4.00 per year, $7. 00 for two years,
$ 10 for three years world wide.
Corrections 21, 26 L etters . .. 82, 83
Second class postage is paid at
Peterborough, N ew H ampshire and
Panel Coaling . 35 !'\ew Products . . 82
at additional mailing offices. Printed
in the U.S.A. Entire contents copy
Listen, con't . . ... 8 1
right 1964 by 73, I nc. Postmaster :
please send form 3579 to 73 Mnga
line, Peterborough, New H ampshire.
FEBRUARY 1964 I
de
W2NSD!1
, . '
never say die
The turn of events would be comical if it ceived utility that would have made us as
weren't serious. ARRL's bungling action has potent as a newborn. I guarantee that amateur
$0
split our hobby catastrophically, making pre radio is going to have the ben efit of the same
vious splits over such mund ane m atters as type of thinking applied to it at some time in
SSB/ AM , AM/CW, Spark/ CW, etc., appear the future, and I wish to hell your waming in
like little wrinkles by comparison. As Mr . the current issue would have had a hit more
Kitrell of Hy-Gain p oints out in a letter to mustard in it."
~I r. Hoover, " HM-499 is creating shameful The ARRL Executive Comm ittee met in
d issension among amateur ranks. I d o not early December and decided that everything
believe that this dissen sion is a result of lack was going all OK and that no changes needed
of information or anything other than the to be made.
amateurs not believing in your incentive licens- AHRL Executive Committee! ARHL Direc
.
"
mg program . tors! Don't you fellows even read the articles
Or, as Milt de Heyna K4ZJF, General Man in your own magazine? \Vhat are you thinking
ager of W EAH-TV, puts it, "You have the b est of? How can you desert us in this emergency?
answer to amateur radio's current problems in Did you miss the message which you printed
your editorial (January ), only I wish you had in QST from the head of the amateur division
given more space to it; we need a damned of the FCC? Mr. Loucks spoke plainly and
good W ashington lobby so b ad we can taste it. directly to you. lie may have been add ressing
W e need inept and d ownright misled and un the QCWA, but he wa s talking to you. And you
informed leadership such as Newington is are not listening. \ Vell fellows, some of us are
providing about as bad as we need a good listening. Did n't you even read the timely
case of athlete's foot. As businessmen, you and article by Prose W alker in QST ? Prose has
I both know we'd fire, without a moment's b een on the U. S. d elegations to ITU con
hesitation, any employee who b otched up a ferences for a long time now and you should
program as bad as AHRL has this one; I read what he has to say.
thought the last Chinese fire d rill I saw was the The story from both Mr. \Valker and Mr.
classic example of a S~AFU, but I must defer Loucks is th e same: things h ave slid long
to the new leader. I'm not now considering enough . , . changes must he made if we are
whether the AHHL p roposal is good or b ad ; to protect our wonderful hobby. And what
I'm talking about the League's almost n aive h ave you gentlemen proposed as a course of
lack of effort to sell the membership on its action? You've handed us all a prize collection
program, and above all, on the necessity of of cliches and a proposal for one of the most
providing a united front to the FCC. W e've destructive rule ch anges imaginable. Thanks.
now got one hell of a mess on our hands; ARHL, you have failed not only the mem
the biggest thing we've lost is the League's bers you have pledged to represent, but you
stand ing in front of the FCC as a spokesman have failed all amateurs everywhere . . . and
for th e great majority of amateurs." Milt goes you've failed yourselves.
on to say, "T he point is this-were it not for \Vhat is necessary for amateur radio to sur
an experienced, excellent lobby, commercial vive the next Geneva C....nference with some
television today could have been reduced to thing resembling our present ham hands? What
a shambles, and replaced by a government con- must we do to survive right here at home?
2
73 MACAZINE
S I N G L E
S I D E B A N D
F I L T E R S
• 9 me center frequency
• Bandpass 6 db 3 kc (approximate)
ACF-2 Two-crystal filter circ uit usi ng low impedance
link input and 2K resist ive output load. Unwanted
sideband rej ection greater than 30 db. Mounting
space 1112" . $9.95
ACF-4 Four-crystal f ilter circ uit using nominal 600
ohm input and out put. Unwanted sideband rej ection
o greater t han 40 db. Mounting space 2", $18.95
/ ACF-6 Six-crystal f ilter circuit using nomina l 600
ohm input and out pu t. Unwanted sideband rej ect ion
greater t han 55 db. Mounting space 3" . $27.95
MATCHING OSCILLATOR CRYSTALS for the ACF
titter series. Recommended for use in 05-4 oscillator.
CY·6·9LO $4.40
CY-6-9HI $4.40
05·4 Crysta l Osci llato r $6.95
SE·6F Mounti ng Case
Special AOe case for mounting fil ter plates.
Conta ins case hardware and input - output
terminals. $5.50
* Add-On-Circu it
FEBRUARY 1964 3
What changes must we make. What improve
ments are called for? While the amateur ranks
are torn with dissension over H~1-499 our date
with fat e at Geneva is drawing inexorably
closer. We must act right now.
Here is wha t I propose we do.
STRENGTH
I ) Increase the In stitute of Amateur Radio
dues to $ 10 a year to provide the financing
needed to have the Institute undertake tasks
for which the ARRL is not now responsible.
I feel that it is important that amateur radio
be put back together. not split further, and
therefore believe that we should attempt to
THRE E REASONS WHY
have the Institute operate in areas which
YOUR BEST BUY IS •••
have been left open by the ARRL. This would
make it important for amateurs to support
E-Z WAY
both organizations rather than having to de
So:WittT\60~ cide which one was the most important to
support.
2 ) We have a great need for an office in Wash
E·Z WAY AERO.DYNAMIC
ington, manned by an amateur who can be
design decreases wind load
reached whenever there is a q uestion posed by
and . provides t e le s c o p in g
o c t io n tho t permi t rai sing any branch of the military, any government
end lower ing of towe sections.
agency, or any Congressman. \Vh en matters of
CRANK UP TO 60 FEET.
importance come up this man will know who
DOWN TO 2S FEET a nd
to call for the best results. We can provide a
TfL TS OVER FOR ACCESS
TO ROTO R OR BEAM. steady stream of information about the service
tha t amateur radio provides to Congress and
TRENGTH built-in to
is
eery E·Z Wa y Tow er ••• H eovy government offi cials through such an office. \Ve
II s teel t ub ing legs, con
w need badly to tell the story of public service
t inuous d iagonal bra c ing of
that we render, the discoveries that are being
solid s teel rod a nd elec tric
made on the ham bands, and the intemational
cally welded t hr o ug ho ut. . •. no
loos e bolts or nuts here. E -Z good will that we engender to everyone who
Wa y e s ign and streng th are
can possibly help us. It is possible that we
your a s surance of DEP END
may even be able to exp and to a full Hedged
ABI L IT Y t hai you con count
on yeo r after yee r , See yo ur lobby with our small w ashington office as
near est d istributor today or
liason. \Ve certainly have had adequate proof
write fo r free li terature .
that we badly all the push we can muster
TlL-'Cd
there. The ARRL has been under pressure for
The SATEllITE
years to open a \Vashington office and has
Model RBX·60-3P (Po;nted) $335.00
turned thumbs d own time after time. One
Model RBX-60 (Galvanized) $410.00
43G
of the biggest allies we will be able to have
MOUNTING KIT$,
on our side at Geneva next time is aU. S.
GPK X60-3 (Ground Post) $125.00
delegation that has instructions to keep ama
BAK X (Wall Bracket) $ 17.00
teur radio strong. This was not part of the
Frerlht Prepaid anywhere in (48) U. S. A.
instructions last time . . . I know . . . I was
Other Towers from $99.50 to $1995.00
there and I asked them.
3) Every now and then an amateur finds him
self up against imposing legal odds. The usual
result of this is that he puts in a panic call
to the ARRL for help. The ARRL will give
all the help it can in the way of legal refer.
ences, but does not have funds available, as
far as I know, to help the beleaguered amateur
in his battle. This is not unreasonable, for this
could easily run into hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year. I do believe that there should
(Turn to page 831
P. O. BOX 5767 TAMPA 5. FLORIDA
73 MAGAZINE
5
FEBRUARY 1964
•
2 Meter SSB Rig
em ployin g n ovel fe atures
Richard Foetor WA21KL
Photo credit: Steve Schu·IJ,.tz lfIA 2YDN
This project was started as an attempt to work stations off frequency. Only the synthe
get on two meter SSB. That it was successful sizer a nd the associated control circuitry will
there is little doubt, but my aversion for con be d iscussed here as the two meter receiving
trols and my d esire to see what could be done and transmitting converters are standard cir
with some of th e more modern and unusual cuits. Many VHF men will be able to build
(for ham eq uipment ) components leu to the the synthesizer portion and then plug its out
design pictured above. (F ig. 1 ) . It is essen put into the crystal circuits of their two meter
tially a frequency synthesizer which adds the mixers.
sum frequencies of two crystal oscillators and Although I call the frequency determining
a VFO to give a frequen cy exactly 14 mc circuit a synthesizer, it is not of the familiar
below any selected frequency in the two meter kind in which many crystals are used to pro
band. It is obvious that this frequen cy can be vide steps of 1 kc and a VXO to interpolate
mixed with the output of any 14 me rig to between individual kilocycles. For one thing, it
give two meter transmission and reception. is quite tedious to tune a band 4 me wide by
Since this is possibl e, one can connect a trans individual kilocycles. In addition, crystals are
mitter and receiver tuned to 14 me to the expensive. Therefore a VFO 200 kc wide is
transceiving transverter and never have to tune used for interpolation between ranges.
either to operate transceive on two meters. Marry of you are wondering what the glow
Needless to say, it is a great advantage to have ing numbers in Fig. 1 signify. The rest of you
a tunable receiver, although a fixed-tuned one have a good idea and are wondering when I'll
with a tunable transmitter could be used to get to it. The author has always been impressed
by the blinking of computer panels and in
dustrial equipment and it has seemed a sh ame
that almost all ham equipment h as had nothing
more impressive in it than a monitor scope
or a n occassional eye tube. Therefore, when
I managed to acquire some Burroughs Nixie
tuhes, I was d etermined to do my b est to al
leviate this condition. Briefly, the Nixie is a
neon filled tube with ten individual cathodes
shaped in the form of the numbers one through
zero. \Vhen a voltage greater than the firing
voltage is placed across the anode and the se
•
• lected cath ode, a neon glow discharge occurs
Fig. I-Front view of unit : g lowing num in the shape of the selected cathode. The
bers between the deca ls show the frequency method of controlling these tubes and the Ire
range. The " interpola tion oscillator" control
quency is the second u nusual feature of the
- the VFO--is tuned by the vernier and the
unit.
reading multiplied x 2 to give frequency in
The button labeled "Press for un it/Tum to
kc to be added to the above range.
6
73 MACAZINE
cycle" controls a 26 position stepping relay
which selects crystals, tunes the plate circuit
of a crystal oscillator, and selects which cath
cdc of each of the Nixie tubes is to be ground
ed.
The actual circuitry is neither unusual nor
d ifficult to construct. Referring to F ig. 5 it can
be seen that the output of a VFO is mixed with
the outp ut of a crystal oscillator. The crystal
frequencies (YI -Y5) were chosen mainly be
cause that series is readily available from at
least two mail order surplus hou ses at a price
of 50c each. The VFO frequency, 5.000-5. 000
me was chosen to avoid as man y spurious
p roducts as possible and because it is a Fig . 2-Rear view : The stepping re la y is
in the case in front of the power tronsform
very common VFO frequency, and many
er, All shields hove been removed far th is
published circuits, as well as quite a few
and all othe r photographs. The Nixie ponel
units, are on hand in SSB stations. The out
is visible on top of the front penal . Sockets
put of the mixer goes to an amplifier whose on back ore in order: switched 1 1SVAC for
purpose is partially to provide increased drive linear, 50-239 output to 14 mc receiver,
a nd 50-239 input from SSB exciter. 144
for the second mixer but mainly to compensa te
mc output is on subchossis.
for the d ifficulty of b road banding a circuit
whose center frequency is 12 mc by a whole main purpose is amplification , as the mixer
mc. The output of the "bandpass" amplifier output is not very great. After this amplifier,
goes to the second mixer where it is mixed with the detailed description stops, as the other
the output of an overtone oscillator. The output circuitry is likely to be in existence or can be
of this mixer is the final injection frequency built from many articles. The two subchassis
which is to be mixed with the fourteen me of conrail separately the transmitting and receiv
the existing station . It is amplified by the sec ing converters. The only unusual feature is that
ond "baud pass amplifier," but this time the the transmitting converter has no plate tuning
\V
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CoscoCle
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Sleppirog 5";;"" lie.
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25V.D.C. Flo. 5163
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0.1l SItI'Pin9 R..". I Llntor
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FIG URE 5
FEBRUARY 1964 7
-
• •• • an old telephone awl could easily be replaced
by a center-off, spring return SPDT toggle
•
switch. \Vhen the button is pressed, it grounds
,
one end of the coil of the stepping relay, the
I •
other end of which is connected to a 25VDC
supply. This advances the relay one step,
giving a frequency range 200 KC h igher.
\Vhen the button is turned . it activa tes a
modified POO-Key Jr. which is used to key
the stepp ing relay at any speed the operator
desires. No control is included to vary the
speed because it is not anticipated that the
operator will be in a hurry one day and not the
next. If you feel yourself unpredictable, you
can put a "QSY rate" control in. As a m atter of
ioterest, the stepp ing relay 1 used actually Iol
lowed the 60 C PS of the power line, so set the
keyer at as high a speed as you think your re
Fig. 3-lnnards
flexes capable of. T his is the reason the dual
control since the transverter is to be used with
first position was included-to let the serious
a linear amplifier with an ACe which will
operator get home fast! Although I enjoy the
automatically compensate for non-uniform out
relay very much, it is obvious that many will
put. If it should ever be necessary to 01'·
prefer switches to the expense of the relay and
erate without a linear, all that has to be done
the somewh at tedious wiring required. The re
is to drill a hole in the panel which will allow
lay I used cost $10 on New York's "Radio Row,"
access to th e tuning capacitor. ( Incid entally,
and similar ones are available from $3 to $12
the large space on the bottom of the chassis
depending upon condition and number of con
is reserved for the addition of a fixed-frequen
tacts.
cv SS B exciter. T his accoun ts for the absence
The Nixie tubes used-Burroughs 6844A's
of any comp licated relay-swi tching arrange
are the most readily available Nixie's. I was
ments.)
lucky enough to acquire a few which a fri end
Getting the circuit to work properly is no
thought were no longer needed in a UNIVAC
prob lem. However, it is imperative to sh ield
installation. The sockets are 13 pin miniatures
the top and bottom of the VFO to avoid an
which I found b y accident. It is q uite possible
abomination of sp urious responses in the con
that you will not be able to find Nixies at less
verter which are probably the result of the
than list price (about $15). If this happens,
harmonics of the differen ce frequency b etween
1 will be happy to send a list of people who
the low-frequency crystal oscillator and the
have tubes for about $5 each . As most of these
VFO. T o remove all vestiges of spurious prod
peop le have only 6 or so tubes apiece, it is ob
ucts, it is advisable to shield both crystal
vious that they will run out of them if only
oscillators.
very few are interested . T herefore, if you
A few hundred words about the stepping
happen to know where more are available at
relay and the Nixie tubes: Stepping relays are
available as surplus and can come in many
different types. The one used here was a 24
VDe unit with 26 positions and 12 wafers.
Four wafers and all 26 p ositions were used .
Figuring th at there are only 5X4 crystals to
be switched , it appears that six positions are
useless. Actuallv I connected the first two
positions ( 144.0: 144.2 me) in parallel, and the
last fi ve to cover the range of 148.0·149.0 me.
No crystals were provided for this range, of
course, and it was included only for con
tinuitv. The double 1440.0-1 44. range is quite
pracdcal, because of the automatic switching
system which will now be d escribed.
Fig. 4- Side-top view. Bottom of trc nsmlt
. Remember the button whose legend is . . .
ting converter visible as well as some de
«Turn to cycle"? The button itself came from
toil of the mounting of the Nixie's.
8 73 MACAZINE