The Impoverished Radio Experimenter #1
Experimenters
notes on Vacuum Tube Substitutions,
Inexpensive Tube Power Supply, Grid-Leak Detectors,
Regenerative Receiver & more!
Vacuum tubes are to the electronics industry what steam locomotives are to the railroading industry: hot, inefficient maintenance headaches. But like a steam locomotive, a tube has a simple fascinating charm that no high-tech chip can match.
You
must try building a simple radio with tubes! It's easy, and it's cheap. (And
don't tell me that doesn't appeal to you...) Do you remember the excitement
when you built your first crystal set? This is even better.
There are many books available, original and reprints in this
catalog, with simple radio circuits that should be easy to build. Should be.
But they aren't if you try to find the original parts. But the truth is that
you can substitute later very common tubes for the early types and get a beautifully
working radio. Why spend $10 to $30 for a 201A triode? I just bought brand
new in-the-box metal tubes from the 1930's for 50c each a couple of weekends
ago.
Here are tips, hints, suggestions and secrets for substituting common inexpensive tubes in early circuits. You also get details on a crystal set that was converted to a grid-leak radio. You'll get details on how various tubes worked in the circuit.
Then
you'll be shown how to build a simple and cheap power supply from parts you
can buy from current electronic catalogs that will power a two or three tube
radio.
You
get pages of tube charts and basing diagrams, a reprint on tube theory from
1931, 
a bibliography
of research papers from the late 20's, and you get a brief demonstration of
a one-tube regenerative receiver built with a 6SN7 glass tube from the 1950's
(had to scrape the mud off it) using a circuit from 1927. It uses a home-made
variable capacitor and the home-made power supply described.
Get a copy of this. Early radio circuits are simple. And they work. And you don't HAVE to use the exact parts specified. Mix, match, substitute and, above all, do it on the cheap. Old time radio fun for pennies. That's what it's about. Add this to your reference library. 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 booklet 48 pages
No. 22407 ...$5.95
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