My first project was probably a regenerative receiver, even though I had a
perfectly good S-38E I wanted a portable shortwave receiver.
I usually used a 6V lantern battery and 67.5V B battery. It was one of my own
design, today I see I am using the term very loosely. I used
a single 6V6. I did not learn until later it was also a pretty good transmitter.
Second major project was putting up a dipole antenna for my novice station.
My father helped with this one. The nearest tree on our lot
was very far off, 100 yards at least, and down in a valley. So we mounted 2
2x4's on each end of the house and ran a 40 meter halfwave dipole between them.
The house was not quite long enough so we dropped the ends of the dipole, only
a few feet, down next to the supports. This was to get
my novice station on the air. I was about 13 at the time.
After I got my general I wanted more power so I designed a 200W transmitter
using a 6AG7 followed by a 6L6 buffer/multiplier and 2x 6146B's.
This took some time to get working since it was of my own design. Finally got
it working in 9th grade. Entered it into the science fair in the 10th
grade but the judges did not believe I could have done it my self and I did not
place. Afterwards my science teacher had a discussion with the
judges and I did get an honorable mention. This was all in the '60s. Later on I
built some amplifiers and scrapped a HT-4 I got for $20 for parts, wish
I hadn't now, and continued designing and building stuff. Served in the Signal
Corps in early 70's and later became an electrical engineer.
One thing I have noticed over the years, the simplification of language. A
common every day example is the term " wheat bread" instead of
"whole wheat". But in electronics I feel we need to be more specific otherwise
meaning will become lost. Two things that bugged me about
the Expert Linears issue were that they were a foreign company who I felt did
not have standing to demand from our government (the FCC) an exemption.
Secondly was the name. Linear is an adjective and not an noun. It describes how
a amplifier behaves. Years ago we had a discussion on this
list about loosely using the term of linear for any type of amplifier even
class C amplifiers. I try to be more accurate in terminology, especially when
teaching radio to younger students. That being said, I will admit that being an
engineer, I was not born with the "spelling gene" or "proper grammar gene"
but I do try to do my best. I even go out of my way and use the term Short
Circuit rather than Sort, another adjective.
Recall my high school electronics instructor, 10th and 11th grade, being very
specific. One of his pet peeves was the term "grid leak".
He would say grids don't leak, it is really bias by grid rectification. He was
a great instructor.
73
Bill wa4lav
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