childhood inventions
 

On 12/01/2013 12:36, tony sayer wrote:

Never bothered with transistors, much too flimsy. Once after I got a
ECC88 going there was no stopping thru 807's and 813's then QQV03-20A
VHF valves;)...

Wot, no 4CX250s? You haven't really built a transmitter until you need
a good 2kV on the anodes...

--
Andy

childhood inventions
 

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
I recall the problems actually attempting to make a radio transmitter from
early transistors. Of course you could just build an oscillator and
modulate its amplitude, but that was not very successful as no matter what
you did, it had some FM tendencies resulting in the middle of the carrier
having an almost dead spot.
The only successful one was three transistors, a buffer and an output
stage which was tuned and then it worked quite well.

Brian

I made a radio transmitter with only one transistor, a point contact one (it
was a good job it only needed one, with the price then I could barely afford
one!). But it was a Morse TX, so the modulation was from a on/off switch
(key). I contacted quite a few fellow Amateurs with it.

childhood inventions
 

On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:41:33 +0200, "Y Dangle"
wrote:


"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
I recall the problems actually attempting to make a radio transmitter from
early transistors. Of course you could just build an oscillator and
modulate its amplitude, but that was not very successful as no matter what
you did, it had some FM tendencies resulting in the middle of the carrier
having an almost dead spot.
The only successful one was three transistors, a buffer and an output
stage which was tuned and then it worked quite well.

Brian

I made a radio transmitter with only one transistor, a point contact one (it
was a good job it only needed one, with the price then I could barely afford
one!). But it was a Morse TX, so the modulation was from a on/off switch
(key). I contacted quite a few fellow Amateurs with it.


The first transmitters I made were unintended ones, they were
super-regenerative receivers. They caused a bit of commotion with the
neighbours, but not as much commotion as the air-band ones might have
caused when we took them to Ringway.

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

childhood inventions
 

wrote in message
...
I was brought up in a house that was a few hundred yards from the edge of a
vast estate of council and NCB houses. If anyone's interested it was on
Middlegate, Scawthorpe, Doncaster. We often used to walk up the hill to the
field at the side of the quarry, from where there was a view across the
estate and also across parts of Bentley. I used to fantasise about
broadcasting to the estate from there, by light. I would set up a powerful
lamp that would be modulated by audio. I knew a filament wouldn't respond
quickly enough, but I didn't know anything else that would, so I just hoped
that sopmething would turn up. Each receiver would have a large parabolic
mirror mounted somewhere high up enough to see my lantern, with a photocell
at the focal point. I remember talking to my science-inclined form master
about this, so that means I must have been first year secondary. Twelve or
thirteen I suppose.

I don't know why this came to mind, but I just wondered if anyone else had
mad inventions when they were a kid...

Bill

I don't know about invention, but just after my eleventh birthday I decided
to build my own radio. My dad took me to London and I bought loads of bits
from an electronics shop in Soho (more than the cost of a built radio).

The original design involved and RF stage with an OC45 and three
[replicated] AF stages using OC71's, which I concocted myself from diagrams
in a book. Fortunately I decided to do a trial run of a radio with just one
AF stage and several hours later (having burnt myself with both the solder
and the soldering iron) hey presto it worked. My gran was immensely
impressed!

Not long after I gained the first scout electronics badge in Scotland - they
even had to send off specially for it.

When I was 12 or 13 I D'xed Radio Peking on medium wave, but that is another
story.

childhood inventions
 

On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:14:30 -0000, "R. Mark Clayton"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
I was brought up in a house that was a few hundred yards from the edge of a
vast estate of council and NCB houses. If anyone's interested it was on
Middlegate, Scawthorpe, Doncaster. We often used to walk up the hill to the
field at the side of the quarry, from where there was a view across the
estate and also across parts of Bentley. I used to fantasise about
broadcasting to the estate from there, by light. I would set up a powerful
lamp that would be modulated by audio. I knew a filament wouldn't respond
quickly enough, but I didn't know anything else that would, so I just hoped
that sopmething would turn up. Each receiver would have a large parabolic
mirror mounted somewhere high up enough to see my lantern, with a photocell
at the focal point. I remember talking to my science-inclined form master
about this, so that means I must have been first year secondary. Twelve or
thirteen I suppose.

I don't know why this came to mind, but I just wondered if anyone else had
mad inventions when they were a kid...

Bill

I don't know about invention, but just after my eleventh birthday I decided
to build my own radio. My dad took me to London and I bought loads of bits
from an electronics shop in Soho (more than the cost of a built radio).

The original design involved and RF stage with an OC45 and three
[replicated] AF stages using OC71's, which I concocted myself from diagrams
in a book. Fortunately I decided to do a trial run of a radio with just one
AF stage and several hours later (having burnt myself with both the solder
and the soldering iron) hey presto it worked. My gran was immensely
impressed!

Not long after I gained the first scout electronics badge in Scotland - they
even had to send off specially for it.

When I was 12 or 13 I D'xed Radio Peking on medium wave, but that is another
story.

In 1968 I could receive loads of American high school kids on 27 mc/s
on a Regonda stereogram, with just a few feet of wire as an aerial.
They seemed unaware that they could be heard on this side of the pond.

Foul language that I had never heard from a radio set before, so I had
to keep the volume down.



--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

childhood inventions
 

In message , Graham.
writes

In 1968 I could receive loads of American high school kids on 27 mc/s
on a Regonda stereogram, with just a few feet of wire as an aerial.
They seemed unaware that they could be heard on this side of the pond.

Foul language that I had never heard from a radio set before, so I had
to keep the volume down.



It's much easier these days, just listen to your local VHF amateur
repeater and you will hear lots of foul language. Probably worse than
you heard on 27.

--
Bill

childhood inventions
 

Martin wrote:
On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:22:53 -0000, "Max Demian"
wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 05:17:15 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

I think I was aged around 8 that while inflating a bicycle tyre I
suddenly got the idea that the action could be reversed and air
could move a piston in a cylinder.
Dashing in to show Mum and Dad my invention I was equally dashed
when Dad explained I was a hundred or more years too late.
All was not lost though as I discovered that afternoon what
pneumatic meant, attending school on Monday the teacher asked what
we had done that weekend and the subject came up. He was a good
teacher and seized upon things like this so we had an hour or two
playing with bicycle pumps and balloons and learnt a bit about air
pressure.
On another occasion he queried why I was late and when finding the
reason was that I had forsaken my bike because I had been offered a
lift on a Steam Roller which was moving to a new section of road
repairs. That morning the class had a lesson on steam power with the
roller as exhibit A.

Was it really a *steam* roller? You must be old!

I'm old enough to remember real steam rollers.

I remember Steam Lorries, i'll get my zimmer frame

Steve Terry
--
Get a free GiffGaff PAYG Sim and £5 bonus after activation at:
http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/gfourwwk

childhood inventions
 

In article ,
Martin wrote:
Was it really a *steam* roller? You must be old!

I'm old enough to remember real steam rollers.

I can just remember steam trucks still in commercial use. Owned by a coal
delivery company, which might explain why.

--
*Horn broken. - Watch for finger.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

childhood inventions
 

"Graham." wrote in message
...
On Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:14:30 -0000, "R. Mark Clayton"
wrote:

When I was 12 or 13 I D'xed Radio Peking on medium wave, but that is
another
story

In 1968 I could receive loads of American high school kids on 27 mc/s
on a Regonda stereogram, with just a few feet of wire as an aerial.
They seemed unaware that they could be heard on this side of the pond.

Foul language that I had never heard from a radio set before, so I had
to keep the volume down.

The odd thing about this was the frequency. Getting radio Peking (and much
else) on SW was easy

In fact the program ("and now we do our morning excercises") was beamed from
China to western USA.

Due to the time of day and year it was dark from UK across USA to eastern
China so I was getting twice bounced sky wave...

Actual equipment - bodged aerial and Wien receiver (that I still have
although it was thrown against a wall by burglars in 1976).



--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

childhood inventions
 

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message , Graham.
writes

In 1968 I could receive loads of American high school kids on 27 mc/s
on a Regonda stereogram, with just a few feet of wire as an aerial.
They seemed unaware that they could be heard on this side of the pond.

Foul language that I had never heard from a radio set before, so I had
to keep the volume down.



It's much easier these days, just listen to your local VHF amateur
repeater and you will hear lots of foul language. Probably worse than you
heard on 27.

--
Bill

Radio Piccadilly ~1980

phone in guest: - Keith Joseph - he's an ****hole
James Standege - there is not need for that kind of language; have you got
something sensible to say.
phone in guest: - I am sorry I just got carried away there.
James Stanegge - go ahead then
phone in guest: - Margaret Thatcher; she is just a ****ing ****.
James Stanedge - that's enough of that then...
engineers - station jingle, adverts, call sign etc.