Video courtesy of Mike, WA3TTS

We had a lot of fun putting up another 1930s style station this year for Field Day 2017.  The station was 100% homebrew, with the transmitter and receiver being based on articles in the August and May editions of QST respectively.   The link coupled tuner was based on the 1936 ARRL Handbook.  The power supplies were based on standard designs from that era as well, using 866s in the amplifier supply and 83s in the buffer and oscillator supplies.  The bias supply used a type 80 rectifier and a 874 regulator (late 20s tube) for -90V bias.

The TR switch could be operated from a footswitch and served several functions: 1) switching the antenna between the receiver and transmitter, 2) opened the keying line in receive, 3) grounded the receiver input on transmit, 4) lifted the grounded end of the receiver’s RF/IF gain pot and put a 15K pot inline to allow adjusting the “sidetone” level.

Total QSOs: 305 (154 40M, 151 80M)

My sincere thanks to Mike (WA3TTS), Steve (WA3JJT), and Mark H.  for coming out to the farm, pounding some brass,  and being great company.  Mike and Mark worked hard to get the generator going after being in storage for several years so we could claim “A” category.

Some photos from Steve, WA3JJT:

NO3M hooking up the open wire feeders to the 80M doublet

NO3M Tuning up the transmitter for 40M

WA3JJT at the key operating on 40M

At the Breezeshooters Hamfest in Butler, PA, I setup a 1930s style station for an on-air demonstration.  We made a few contacts on 40M CW, as far as NC.  The transmitter was only producing about 30W output (work in progress).  There were also some issues with the receiver which were brought on by the trip to the Hamfest.  It was “rattled” out of alignment, causing one of the IF tubes to oscillate (manifesting as a loud squealing when the gain control was high enough) and developed an intermittent “raspiness” (later found to be a bad BFO tube).  Overall, it was a fun time and nice to see old friends and meet many new friends.

Additional photos by Tom, K8CX, at: http://hamgallery.com/gallery/B/Breezeshooters2017/w8cdx.htm

 

I had been tossing around the idea of doing an antique FD (Field Day) setup this year after having a lot of fun running my 1920s replica transmitters during several of the recent 160M Stew Perry (TBDC) events.  Once I committed to the idea by inviting several friends out for Saturday afternoon, I knew it was time to get busy, as I did not even have a transmitter built for 40M yet and it was about a week and a half before the FD weekend! Continue reading