In article ,
(M Wilson) writes:

Can someone suggest a CW only, all tube tranceiver for me? Nothing
QRP, more like between 20 and 100 watts, no transmitter/receiver
separate boxes, and no SSB transmitting capability. I want glowing
tubes and CW, in one box (power supply, of course, on the side).

What you describe is what I've been seeking for 30+ years. There ain't none
made. So I built my own. Three of them, in fact. My latest one runs 100 watts
out on 80, 40, and 20, has RIT, cascaded 8 pole 500 Hz filters, beam deflection
mixer, no AGC, dial drive/capacitor from a BC-221, and lots more. The only
semiconductors are a pair of 1N34s in the SWR bridge.

807s in the final, 866As in the power supply....

The HW-16 comes close, but it is not a *true* transceiver - it's a transmitter
and receiver in one box with a common power supply. You have to re-zero the
external VFO every time you QSY.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:09:01 UTC, (M Wilson) wrote:

The HW-16 is a great idea, although the VFO adds another box, but
that's okay with me. Based on that, let me -revise- my request, to
include tube receiver/transmitter combos... it does not need to be a
transceiver. Suggestions?

Thanks again folks!

-mw

The Drake 2B and 2NT combo.

There are a plethora of small basic tube receivers, Heath and
Hallicrafters made them, that could be paired up with an EICO 720,
Heath DX-60 or DX-40, Knight T-60.

I've been working on my boatanchor collection which includes several
hot SB-303's and and a Signal/One CX7A.

Frankly, in my city QTH, the QRN runs S-7 or more. I don't see how
a modern, high-end receiver will work that much better than a basic,
1-4 uV sensitivity, tube receiver.

A modern receiver will give you .01 kHz readout as opposed to 5
kHz calibration marks, smoother tuning, much more stability but for
"communicating", the basic receivers will copy them just as well.
I'm not even thinking about something as good as a 2B. I think
Heath made something called the HR-10 that was a ham band, sliderule
dial, 5-6 tuber.

I've been thinking about getting an HW-16 but I already have too
many radios.

de ah6gi/4

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:09:01 UTC, (M Wilson) wrote:

The HW-16 is a great idea, although the VFO adds another box, but
that's okay with me. Based on that, let me -revise- my request, to
include tube receiver/transmitter combos... it does not need to be a
transceiver. Suggestions?

Thanks again folks!

-mw

The Drake 2B and 2NT combo.

There are a plethora of small basic tube receivers, Heath and
Hallicrafters made them, that could be paired up with an EICO 720,
Heath DX-60 or DX-40, Knight T-60.

I've been working on my boatanchor collection which includes several
hot SB-303's and and a Signal/One CX7A.

Frankly, in my city QTH, the QRN runs S-7 or more. I don't see how
a modern, high-end receiver will work that much better than a basic,
1-4 uV sensitivity, tube receiver.

A modern receiver will give you .01 kHz readout as opposed to 5
kHz calibration marks, smoother tuning, much more stability but for
"communicating", the basic receivers will copy them just as well.
I'm not even thinking about something as good as a 2B. I think
Heath made something called the HR-10 that was a ham band, sliderule
dial, 5-6 tuber.

I've been thinking about getting an HW-16 but I already have too
many radios.

de ah6gi/4

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 01:09:23 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

In article ,
(M Wilson) writes:

Can someone suggest a CW only, all tube tranceiver for me? Nothing
QRP, more like between 20 and 100 watts, no transmitter/receiver
separate boxes, and no SSB transmitting capability. I want glowing
tubes and CW, in one box (power supply, of course, on the side).

What you describe is what I've been seeking for 30+ years. There ain't none
made. So I built my own. Three of them, in fact. My latest one runs 100 watts
out on 80, 40, and 20, has RIT, cascaded 8 pole 500 Hz filters, beam deflection
mixer, no AGC, dial drive/capacitor from a BC-221, and lots more. The only
semiconductors are a pair of 1N34s in the SWR bridge.

807s in the final, 866As in the power supply....

The HW-16 comes close, but it is not a *true* transceiver - it's a transmitter
and receiver in one box with a common power supply. You have to re-zero the
external VFO every time you QSY.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Suppose you started with a Heathkit SB-101 (the 102 had a solid
state LMO), and removed the mike amp tube. It would be a CW only
tube transceiver, 2 6146's give you 100 Watts out.

You could cascade two Heathkit 400 Hz filters, using the space for
the SSB filter and just jumpering around the switch.

Relatively compact. 1 kHz readout, great stability. No RIT though.

You can probably buy a fixer for about $150.
--

de ah6gi/4

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 01:09:23 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

In article ,
(M Wilson) writes:

Can someone suggest a CW only, all tube tranceiver for me? Nothing
QRP, more like between 20 and 100 watts, no transmitter/receiver
separate boxes, and no SSB transmitting capability. I want glowing
tubes and CW, in one box (power supply, of course, on the side).

What you describe is what I've been seeking for 30+ years. There ain't none
made. So I built my own. Three of them, in fact. My latest one runs 100 watts
out on 80, 40, and 20, has RIT, cascaded 8 pole 500 Hz filters, beam deflection
mixer, no AGC, dial drive/capacitor from a BC-221, and lots more. The only
semiconductors are a pair of 1N34s in the SWR bridge.

807s in the final, 866As in the power supply....

The HW-16 comes close, but it is not a *true* transceiver - it's a transmitter
and receiver in one box with a common power supply. You have to re-zero the
external VFO every time you QSY.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Suppose you started with a Heathkit SB-101 (the 102 had a solid
state LMO), and removed the mike amp tube. It would be a CW only
tube transceiver, 2 6146's give you 100 Watts out.

You could cascade two Heathkit 400 Hz filters, using the space for
the SSB filter and just jumpering around the switch.

Relatively compact. 1 kHz readout, great stability. No RIT though.

You can probably buy a fixer for about $150.
--

de ah6gi/4

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 01:09:23 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

In article ,

(M Wilson) writes:

Can someone suggest a CW only, all tube tranceiver for me? Nothing
QRP, more like between 20 and 100 watts, no transmitter/receiver
separate boxes, and no SSB transmitting capability. I want glowing
tubes and CW, in one box (power supply, of course, on the side).

What you describe is what I've been seeking for 30+ years. There ain't none
made. So I built my own. Three of them, in fact. My latest one runs 100
watts
out on 80, 40, and 20, has RIT, cascaded 8 pole 500 Hz filters, beam
deflection
mixer, no AGC, dial drive/capacitor from a BC-221, and lots more. The only
semiconductors are a pair of 1N34s in the SWR bridge.

807s in the final, 866As in the power supply....

The result is known as the "Southgate Type 7"

The HW-16 comes close, but it is not a *true* transceiver - it's a
transmitter
and receiver in one box with a common power supply. You have to re-zero the
external VFO every time you QSY.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Suppose you started with a Heathkit SB-101 (the 102 had a solid
state LMO), and removed the mike amp tube.

Not a good idea because the heaters in the '101 are in series-parallel.

It would be a CW only
tube transceiver, 2 6146's give you 100 Watts out.

Yup. But the AGC isn't defeatable. And the pinchdrive dial isn't as solid nor
as slow as some prefer.

Same tricks could be done with the HW-101, too.

You could cascade two Heathkit 400 Hz filters, using the space for
the SSB filter and just jumpering around the switch.

Definite possiblity. Or spend the money on an 8 pole Inrad filter.


Relatively compact. 1 kHz readout, great stability. No RIT though.

Which is a real problem in my book. Might be worth opening up the LMO to add
it.

The same tricks could be applied to the SB-100, which lacks the filter switch.
Or even the venerable HW-100 and HW-101, whose VFOs are not as nice as the
SB-series LMO.

Of course, for "a little more money", one could get an SB-300 or 301 and the
matching SB-400 or 401, and simply not use the SSB.

The Drake TR-4Cw probably comes closest to the original request. The last
version had both a 500Hz filter and RIT. But the dern AGC is not defeatable,
the finals are sweep tubes, and the PTO is solidstate.

For those who like to tinker, a Tempo One might make a good starting point.
Convert finals to 6146s, replace the SSB filter with a 9 MHz Inrad, and install
AGC defeat. Already has RIT and a nice dial.

You can probably buy a fixer for about $150.
--

The Southgate Type 7 cost me less than $100. But I have a big junkbox.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 01:09:23 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

In article ,

(M Wilson) writes:

Can someone suggest a CW only, all tube tranceiver for me? Nothing
QRP, more like between 20 and 100 watts, no transmitter/receiver
separate boxes, and no SSB transmitting capability. I want glowing
tubes and CW, in one box (power supply, of course, on the side).

What you describe is what I've been seeking for 30+ years. There ain't none
made. So I built my own. Three of them, in fact. My latest one runs 100
watts
out on 80, 40, and 20, has RIT, cascaded 8 pole 500 Hz filters, beam
deflection
mixer, no AGC, dial drive/capacitor from a BC-221, and lots more. The only
semiconductors are a pair of 1N34s in the SWR bridge.

807s in the final, 866As in the power supply....

The result is known as the "Southgate Type 7"

The HW-16 comes close, but it is not a *true* transceiver - it's a
transmitter
and receiver in one box with a common power supply. You have to re-zero the
external VFO every time you QSY.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Suppose you started with a Heathkit SB-101 (the 102 had a solid
state LMO), and removed the mike amp tube.

Not a good idea because the heaters in the '101 are in series-parallel.

It would be a CW only
tube transceiver, 2 6146's give you 100 Watts out.

Yup. But the AGC isn't defeatable. And the pinchdrive dial isn't as solid nor
as slow as some prefer.

Same tricks could be done with the HW-101, too.

You could cascade two Heathkit 400 Hz filters, using the space for
the SSB filter and just jumpering around the switch.

Definite possiblity. Or spend the money on an 8 pole Inrad filter.


Relatively compact. 1 kHz readout, great stability. No RIT though.

Which is a real problem in my book. Might be worth opening up the LMO to add
it.

The same tricks could be applied to the SB-100, which lacks the filter switch.
Or even the venerable HW-100 and HW-101, whose VFOs are not as nice as the
SB-series LMO.

Of course, for "a little more money", one could get an SB-300 or 301 and the
matching SB-400 or 401, and simply not use the SSB.

The Drake TR-4Cw probably comes closest to the original request. The last
version had both a 500Hz filter and RIT. But the dern AGC is not defeatable,
the finals are sweep tubes, and the PTO is solidstate.

For those who like to tinker, a Tempo One might make a good starting point.
Convert finals to 6146s, replace the SSB filter with a 9 MHz Inrad, and install
AGC defeat. Already has RIT and a nice dial.

You can probably buy a fixer for about $150.
--

The Southgate Type 7 cost me less than $100. But I have a big junkbox.

73 de Jim, N2EY

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 00:31:07 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

How about,
put a piece of tape over the mike jack. Or even more realisticly,
give up finding a Heathkit 2 prong mike connector.

HAW! That's a good one!

I spent a year looking for that connector. Someone told me that
it's a still in production Amphenol part, or Amphenol sold the
rights to someone, no one knew the part number but that Newark
carried it.

I couldn't figure out what part it was so I asked a vendor at the
Timonium Maryland Hamfest and they had it. It's pricey so I only
got two. Dumb move on my part since I have 5 rigs that need it, an
SB-104A, SB-401, two SB-102's, and an SB-101.

The connector/coax vendor goes to all the mid-Atlantic Hamfests and
is based in Rockville, MD.

None of the rigs are "ready to use". I've been working on my SB-303
collection. The plan is to clean up and restore the radios and
eventually sell them off, keeping one SB-102/SB-303 combination, the
104A, and the CX7A.

Seriously, though, that series is a good candidate for conversion to CW-only,
as you suggest.

Well, I wouldn't actually "modify" the radios. I'm a restorer,
although I'm not a purest. One of my SB-200s has the Harbach soft
key mod in it and I'm getting ready to add the mod to the other.

My rules a 1) keep it looking factory stock, 2) if I modify it,
do it out of sight and reversable. 3) no cutting sheetmetal but an
added bracket or board is acceptable. 4) tack solder electrical
mods.

I'll replace components with close-enough and modern. I put a
radial lead cap in place of an axial in an SB-303. The new cap is
about half the size and has more capacity.

I always operate with it off! Old trick, makes CW much more fun. AF gain way
up, RF gain way down, RF gain used as volume control. Try it - you may like it.


With AGC on, anyhting in the passband makes the gain go up and down. And since
a CW signal is all ups and downs, having the AGC on can make QRM worse!

Ever use a Drake 2B on slow AGC? It takes a LONG time for the gain
to come back. Of course on fast, it's pumping the noise.

After all these years using homebrew rigs whose tunable oscillators are built
around variables from ARC-5 transmitters and BC-221s, I'm spoiled rotten. 6 kHz
per turn of the big, skirted solid Bakelite tuning knob. Silky smooth when you
have a good one. Almost not fit for polite company.

I might have one of those in my basement. Big air cap, like a
transmitter tuning capacitor but with a worm drive?

Unless your junkbox has a pair of thsoe Heath CW filters, the Inrad may be
cheaper! The Heath filters are only 4 pole, with 5:1 shape factor.

I have lots of Heathkit filters. Most are in radios. I have one
SB-303 with dual cascaded 2.1 filters in it. There is an audible
difference in how fast signals vanish as you tune past them. Never
thought to try that with CW filters.

Has to be in the LMO. Maybe they use the sideband-offset thingie.

I found one write up for the HW-101. That has a exposed VFO. The
SB LMO is hard to remove from the radio and is built in layers.
Also, Heath did not publish the internal details.

Looked in a couple radios. Seems that the SB-10x and the SB-30x had
different LMO's. The SB-30x LMO had a RTTY board on it.

Here's another trick for the scrounger:

Get both a Tempo One and an HW-100 or 101. Remove the often-balky Heath VFO and
install the VFO from the Tempo. That Tempo (actually Yaesu) VFO is about the
best thing in the rig, and it tunes the right range (5-5.5 MHz). And it is all
set up for RIT!

It might tune in the wrong direction. .... Or is that just the
electrical direction?


Classic Exchange is this weekend.

The Type 7 is only about 12 years old. Maybe I'll have to drag the Type 6 out
of storage...

That's a conundrum. If you build a new design tube radio, why
is that not a classic? Why is my 1970ish solid state, digital
readout CX7A or SB-104A more a classic?

you might be interested in

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amateur-repairs

About 1,000 of us hang out there and discuss fixing radios.




de ah6gi/4

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 00:31:07 UTC, (N2EY) wrote:

How about,
put a piece of tape over the mike jack. Or even more realisticly,
give up finding a Heathkit 2 prong mike connector.

HAW! That's a good one!

I spent a year looking for that connector. Someone told me that
it's a still in production Amphenol part, or Amphenol sold the
rights to someone, no one knew the part number but that Newark
carried it.

I couldn't figure out what part it was so I asked a vendor at the
Timonium Maryland Hamfest and they had it. It's pricey so I only
got two. Dumb move on my part since I have 5 rigs that need it, an
SB-104A, SB-401, two SB-102's, and an SB-101.

The connector/coax vendor goes to all the mid-Atlantic Hamfests and
is based in Rockville, MD.

None of the rigs are "ready to use". I've been working on my SB-303
collection. The plan is to clean up and restore the radios and
eventually sell them off, keeping one SB-102/SB-303 combination, the
104A, and the CX7A.

Seriously, though, that series is a good candidate for conversion to CW-only,
as you suggest.

Well, I wouldn't actually "modify" the radios. I'm a restorer,
although I'm not a purest. One of my SB-200s has the Harbach soft
key mod in it and I'm getting ready to add the mod to the other.

My rules a 1) keep it looking factory stock, 2) if I modify it,
do it out of sight and reversable. 3) no cutting sheetmetal but an
added bracket or board is acceptable. 4) tack solder electrical
mods.

I'll replace components with close-enough and modern. I put a
radial lead cap in place of an axial in an SB-303. The new cap is
about half the size and has more capacity.

I always operate with it off! Old trick, makes CW much more fun. AF gain way
up, RF gain way down, RF gain used as volume control. Try it - you may like it.


With AGC on, anyhting in the passband makes the gain go up and down. And since
a CW signal is all ups and downs, having the AGC on can make QRM worse!

Ever use a Drake 2B on slow AGC? It takes a LONG time for the gain
to come back. Of course on fast, it's pumping the noise.

After all these years using homebrew rigs whose tunable oscillators are built
around variables from ARC-5 transmitters and BC-221s, I'm spoiled rotten. 6 kHz
per turn of the big, skirted solid Bakelite tuning knob. Silky smooth when you
have a good one. Almost not fit for polite company.

I might have one of those in my basement. Big air cap, like a
transmitter tuning capacitor but with a worm drive?

Unless your junkbox has a pair of thsoe Heath CW filters, the Inrad may be
cheaper! The Heath filters are only 4 pole, with 5:1 shape factor.

I have lots of Heathkit filters. Most are in radios. I have one
SB-303 with dual cascaded 2.1 filters in it. There is an audible
difference in how fast signals vanish as you tune past them. Never
thought to try that with CW filters.

Has to be in the LMO. Maybe they use the sideband-offset thingie.

I found one write up for the HW-101. That has a exposed VFO. The
SB LMO is hard to remove from the radio and is built in layers.
Also, Heath did not publish the internal details.

Looked in a couple radios. Seems that the SB-10x and the SB-30x had
different LMO's. The SB-30x LMO had a RTTY board on it.

Here's another trick for the scrounger:

Get both a Tempo One and an HW-100 or 101. Remove the often-balky Heath VFO and
install the VFO from the Tempo. That Tempo (actually Yaesu) VFO is about the
best thing in the rig, and it tunes the right range (5-5.5 MHz). And it is all
set up for RIT!

It might tune in the wrong direction. .... Or is that just the
electrical direction?


Classic Exchange is this weekend.

The Type 7 is only about 12 years old. Maybe I'll have to drag the Type 6 out
of storage...

That's a conundrum. If you build a new design tube radio, why
is that not a classic? Why is my 1970ish solid state, digital
readout CX7A or SB-104A more a classic?

you might be interested in

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amateur-repairs

About 1,000 of us hang out there and discuss fixing radios.




de ah6gi/4

In article ,
No Spam (ckh) wrote:

I couldn't figure out what part it was so I asked a vendor at the
Timonium Maryland Hamfest and they had it. It's pricey so I only
got two. Dumb move on my part since I have 5 rigs that need it, an
SB-104A, SB-401, two SB-102's, and an SB-101.

The connector/coax vendor goes to all the mid-Atlantic Hamfests and
is based in Rockville, MD.

RF Parts, Inc.?

Newark has a LOT of stuff in the Amphenol line, including all the Tuchel
connectors. They can also get most of the old Cannon types from Alcatel.
The problem is that you need the EXACT part number from Amphenol or Alcatel;
the old Tuchel or Cannon numbers won't do. And nobody at Newark has any
clue about them.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."