Beauty of old electrical and measuring things, etc.

[dlgoff]

I'm just now getting around to restoring this Universal Radio.

I doubt that it's power plug would get a Underwriters Laboratories endorsement.

What I really find interesting is it's name plate; ... ONLY FOR RADIO AMATEUR, EXPERIMENTAL AND BROADCAST RECEPTION.

 

[jerromyjon]

Hence the name, knob and tube wiring. I haven't acquired any tubes however.

You mean these things in my "ceiling"? They are still where they were installed although I have no clue how many decades since they were used. It was a bar in the 1930's.

 

[jim hardy]

I'm just now getting around to restoring this Universal Radio.

What tubes does it use ?

 

[dlgoff]

You mean these things in my "ceiling"? They are still where they were installed although I have no clue how many decades since they were used. It was a bar in the 1930's.
View attachment 223505 View attachment 223506

According to the Wikipedia page Knob-and-tube wiring, they were

in common use in North America from about 1880 to the 1930s.

Since that post I've acquired a couple of those "tubes".

 

[dlgoff]

What tubes does it use ?

Except for one (a 6F6 GT which may have been a replacement tube?), they're all metal tubes.

Edit: @jim hardy, oops. There's another glass tube. The magic eye vacuum tube (6U5, 6G5).

 

[jim hardy]

Ahhh Octals ? :Local junkshop had a bushel of #30's. I'll see what else is there next week. old jim.

 

[dlgoff]

Ahhh Octals ? :Local junkshop had a bushel of #30's. I'll see what else is there next week. old jim.

Thanks Jim. I'll post a list of these tubes here. The last time (many years now) I powered it up, it received just fine.

Ahhh Octals ?

The 6U5,6G5 has 6 pins.

 

[jedishrfu]

Great collection!

No slide rule or adding machine to top it off?

No TKD breakage either! Kids are kids.

 

[dlgoff]

No slide rule or adding machine to top it off?

Well, way back when I posted this:
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/my-old-computer-collection.727751/#post-4774103

 

[jedishrfu]

Nice collection. I have a couple of decitrig loglog bamboo slide rules and a pocket circular Concise slide rule with an embedded periodic table and other scientific constants insert. I also have an addiator, a handheld mechanical adder/subtractor that fascinated me as a kid.

 

[dlgoff]

Nice collection. I have a couple of decitrig loglog bamboo slide rules and a pocket circular Concise slide rule with an embedded periodic table and other scientific constants insert. I also have an addiator, a handheld mechanical adder/subtractor that fascinated me as a kid.

Photos?

 

[dlgoff]

What tubes does it use ?

I'll see what else is there next week.

Here's a list. Any or all would be welcomed. Thanks Jim.

Metal Shelled Tubes
6F6 - was probably a metal shelled tube originally.
6A8
6F5
6G6
6K7
5Z4

 

[OldWorldBlues]

That's awesome! You're probably a lot older than me, but I love that old aesthetic too :)

 

[dlgoff]

I finally got around to cleaning up the antenna for the Narco Superhomer VHT-3 navigation receiver. Here's how it looked initially:

Here it is with new paint:

I mounted it on a box so it could be mounted in place of the one I built. And like the old one, it has the Physics Forums logo that hopefully @Greg Bernhardt will like.

I mounted the antenna and just finished testing it with the Superhomer receiver. All functions tested okay. It's dark out now so I'll add a mounted picture later.

 

[jedishrfu]

How does it work navigation wise? Were there fixed transmitting stations and triangulation methods to determine your location? Or was that done by receiver magic?

 

[Janus]

I could send you one of these.

View attachment 170323

I used to have a camera like the one on the left. It had been my parent's. I even used it when I was first into photography back in the late '70s. The negatives were large enough that you could produce a good print just using the contact method, and without needing a enlarger. I do still have my folk's Bell & Howell movie camera from the late '50s, still in working condition.

 

[dlgoff]

I used to have a camera like the one on the left. It had been my parent's.

It was my parent's camera as well. I have a lot of the pictures they took with it.

 

[dlgoff]

How does it work navigation wise? Were there fixed transmitting stations and triangulation methods to determine your location? Or was that done by receiver magic?

Navigation is done by the VHF omni directional radio range (VOR) technique. From the Wikipedia page:

A VOR ground station sends out an omnidirectional master signal, and a highly directional second signal is propagated by a phased antenna array and rotates clockwise in space 30 times a second. This signal is timed so that its phase (compared to the master) varies as the secondary signal rotates, and this phase difference is the same as the angular direction of the 'spinning' signal, (so that when the signal is being sent 90 degrees clockwise from north, the signal is 90 degrees out of phase with the master). By comparing the phase of the secondary signal with the master, the angle (bearing) to the aircraft from the station can be determined. ...

 

[dlgoff]

... I'll add a mounted picture later.

It looks good up in the air.

 

[Janus]

How does it work navigation wise? Were there fixed transmitting stations and triangulation methods to determine your location? Or was that done by receiver magic?

The basic system has been explained. For the pilot, It is used this way: you tune your VOR receiver to the station you are using to navigate by. Then you adjust your VOR to the heading you want with respect to the station. A indicator will tell you whether you are flying to or away from the station (it also informs you if you are within range for the signal). A needle will deflect either right or left, which tells you what direction you need to fly to get on the wanted heading with respect to the station. You then just "Fly the needle"(Keep the needle centered ) to fly to or from the VOR station.

 

[Chris Riccard]

Some things I want saved for the for the future are geranium diodes and mylar variable capacitors, a small verity of tubes, old tube televisions in prestine condition, old solid state black and white televisions with air gap tuning variable capasitors in clean working condition, a few 1960s table top radios with the old style carbon comp resistors and ferite antennas, XT computers with 5-1/4 fdds, the works on that one, Mac se30's that still work with software, and dip IC's. Oh and quality VOMs.

I hope somebody keeps a warehouse full of this stuff.

Edit: don't forget the old tape decks and VCRs.

 

[Mark44]

geranium diodes

Good luck finding geranium diodes. The geraniums tend to wilt in just a few weeks.

You'll have better luck finding germanium diodes.

 

[jedishrfu]

The geranium joke reminded of the time a woman came into the store looking for self abasive tape, you know the kind that’s sticky on both sides.

 

[jim hardy]

And don't forget to empty the grid leak drip pans...

 

[dlgoff]

I'm doing a pump-down with my "new" old Welch 1402 vacuum pump. It's doing a beautiful job.

 

[jim hardy]

You have most amazing toys !

old jim

 

[dlgoff]

You have most amazing toys !

old jim

Thanks. And they're beautiful, IMO.

 

[Baluncore]

I'm doing a pump-down with my "new" old Welch 1402 vacuum pump. It's doing a beautiful job.

If you pull a vacuum with an old pump, will it produce a new vacuum or an old vacuum.

 

[jedishrfu]

Will there be any dark matter inside the old vacuum? :-)

 

[dlgoff]

It looks good up in the air.

View attachment 225968

I thought it would look neat to add some navigation lights to the Narco navigation antenna installation.

Aircraft navigation lights are placed in a way similar to that of marine vessels, with a red navigation light located on the left wingtip leading edge and a green light on the right wingtip leading edge.

left navigation light:

right navigation light:

 

[jim hardy]

Is that a VOR or RDF ? Does it find your local radio stations ?

 

[dlgoff]

Is that a VOR or RDF ? Does it find your local radio stations ?

VOR 108.1 to 117.95 MHz and communications 118 to 135 MHz. The VOR station that it's pointed toward is the Butler, MO VORTAC station @115.90 MHz.

 

[jim hardy]

Ahh found ya. Butler looks like a good check.. Topeka's no challenge !

 

[dlgoff]

Ahh found ya. Butler looks like a good check..

Back when I was testing the Narco Super Homer, I found the latitude and longitude of the antenna using Google Earth for Windows and the latitude and longitude of the Butler VOR station using AirNav.com. Then by plugging in these co-ordinates into this distance and bearing calculation site, the Butler VOR station is 116.6 km at a initial bearing of 139°58'30" from the antenna.

 

[dlgoff]

Here's some of my RF stuff:

I came across this Kris 23+ CB Transceiver a year or so ago. It's in pristine condition and was in it's original box. I haven't found the exact time these were manufactured, but they were made in Japan. Probably in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Definitely beautiful; condition and all.

Now this Hammarlund CB-23 is what I used back in the 1960s. They were advertised in the June 1963 edition of Popular Electronics. Very hard to find now days.

Here's a transmitter for the 20, 40, and 80 meter Ham bands. It will require lots of work should I ever get to it.