Actually the name Radio Dumpster 909 seems very normal to me.
The word "dumpster" often gets mentioned, such as RFB locating an LPB transmitter thanks to a "dumpster tip," and the terrible story of all of LPB's inventory and manuals being pitched in a dumpster by new owners.
I got several hundred pounds of 16" electrical disk transcriptions pitched in a radio station dumpster, and there's the fond story of my first streaming computer, and I feel a song coming on....
When we ran an audio/video business, we used 100% Amiga computers because they had such strong television and graphics capabilities, but Amiga went out of business when the two owners suddenly grabbed the assets and moved to Bermuda.
One day I saw an old PC out with a neighbors trash. I drove by it all day, and finally grabbed it and began to learn Windows, a platform we never wanted, but it seemed to be the only choice for the future. In the panel for "Computer Name" we entered "Dumpster." It was the start of KDX Worldround Radio.
And yes, we certainly are fortunate to have the members we have who know the field very well and make this the official part 15 website.
That's really interesting stuff!
Well, any kid would want to make
lightning bolts that are 25 feet
long. If I had the stuff to do
it now - I would! And I'm 57 years
old. It sounds like great fun. It
would be great to have a hover craft,
too. Some guys just built one. It
was very very unique. It had a whole
lot of little motors and props on
some kind of frame work. There was
a chair on top of the whole thing
just sitting there. You could either
fly the machine by remote control or
you could get up in the chair and still
fly it by remote control. (Except you
are then sitting on top of the thing.)
Somebody wrote the software for this
hover craft so it sort of knew what it
was doing, if you know what I mean.
The machine is very stable. I wish I
knew where I saw this thing on the
internet.
Still, lightning bolts that are 25 feet
long might be better after all.
I am very impressed that you built a
ten watt AM transmitter and a coupler
so long ago. I remember the 1963 book,
Understanding Amateur Radio, from the
ARRL had AM transmitter projects. I
found it in the high school library when
I was about 17 in 1971. It was the first
time I saw a schematic for a real AM
transmitter. But for various reasons, I
was unable to built that sort of stuff.
I'm wondering what you first studio was
like. Did you build you own audio board,
too? A lot of people did that then,
as you know. There was no other way.
It just sounds absolutely wonderful.
Well, I'm off (but I've been that way
a long time.) Thanks for the cool story.
Bruce,
Ameba Radio AM 530
Paramecium Radio FM 88.1
Euglena Radio 27.125 MHz
Wonder what Carl will think of that one?
Carl - when you get around to reading this -
let me know if you are tired of hearing
all of these made-up Part 15 station names.
I'll probably start running out of them
soon anyway. Then again... maybe not!
"I'm wondering what you first studio was like. Did you build you own audio board, too? A lot of people did that then, as you know. There was no other way. It just sounds absolutely wonderful."
As a matter of fact, yes. All built with salvaged parts from junked audio gear and televisions.
BSE turntables, two 8 track recorder/player decks, two Pioneer reel to reel decks, and two Sony cassette decks and two AKG recording studio mics. Some of that hardware is sitting in storage back home all wrapped up in plastic, including the home brew audio console.
All were wired up for stereo even though the transmitted signal was AM mono. The studio monitor system was also a Pioneer 150 watt home receiver amplifier pushing two Altec Lansing 1200 monitor arrays. I remember them well as they used to blast the entire house and surrounding area!
The coupler was a mass mess of LC circuits comprising of 8 stages of tuned circuits. The first 4 were to match up the transmitter for 50 ohms and half of the first 4 were to tune up as a high pass filter to block any return AC hum from getting into the final and causing hum on the signal.
The next 4 were to take the 50 ohm match down to the .2 ohm load on the hots, as well as half of it serving as a high pass filter blocking AC return from getting into the final.
It worked really well, but due to the simple fact that it was a cluster of LC circuits subject to temperature effects and inductive effects, it was not capable of tracking the load changes on the line side from one part of the day to the next. It constantly had to be adjusted, mostly on the line side, and was a nightmare to keep tuned up. Thankfully the home brew TX was tube and tolerated such changes in the line inductance. The combiner and its 8 stages of tuned circuits did isolate the transmitter from those load changes somewhat, but no where near the 3000 to 1 ratio that the LPB TCU couplers had.
When my RC-6A was replaced with a solid state unit, I used the same TCU-8 coupler and it worked great!
Man that was so long ago. Brings back a bunch of great memories and fun times. Seems like that sort of thing could relive itself today if there wasn't all this other nonsense going on in the world. I'm sure we all long for those days to return. In a way they are in our own way. As long as we remember those times and look back on those days, those times will never fade into the noise floor abyss.
RFB
Dog 2, alias Micro, is welcome to keep the names coming and they will get phone calls on a future LPH. Is "Paramecium" a real word? Is "Euglena" a real name?
I thought of a new name today also. Being withheld until showtime.
The carrier current LPB2-20 Exciter is ready for a trial run this very night.
EDITOR'S NEW THOUGHT: If MICRO 1700 had a son named "Mike" who merged with "The Crow", he could be named "Mike Crow".
"The carrier current LPB2-20 Exciter is ready for a trial run this very night."
Oh my...calm down Carl! Let the exciter get excited! Your heart is racing so fast it's causing tremors in the mantle! 😉
But we all will keep a watchful eye out for the mushroom cloud and remember The Day After! 😀
RFB
1) RFB, I am blown away by what you did!
That's the first thing. OOps now there are
two things - uh, three.
4) A Paramecium is a one celled creature that
has a whole bunch of little hairs around it.
5) A euglena is also a one celled creature.
It is neither a plant or animal, or both, depending
on how you look at it. Opps, that's seven. It has
both food storage and chlorophyl. A really cool
little thing.
10) The LBP RC-6A arrived at my house at 5.48 PM.
11) But, I am at work! I will be looking at it around
midnight.
13 Bruce, Muddy-Hog Radio. Put your radio in a
garbage bag before listening. Opps, that's 14.
No, it's 15. Oh my God, it's 16. OK OK OK stop.
18)
Bruce Dog Studio:
How is it that you know so many one-celled creatures?
How do we fit in as far as cells are concerned?
I have never owned a one-celled telephone.
Seriously, I just was fascinated by the one celled
creatures in the 7th grade, and some of the knowledge
stuck in my brain.
I always thought the euglena was cool. I guess there
are something like 5000 varieties of them or more.
There are beautiful pictures and films of some of these
one celled animals on YouTube.
So, wish me luck. Tonight when I get home, I'm going
to check this LPB RC-6A out.
As far as CC is concerned, you are really on track. It's
a good thing RFB is nearby.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dissolving Music Radio Zero (DMRZ)
(Melts on your table, not in your car.)
Take the rest of the week off because I just turned on the Exciter portion of the LPB2-20 into a 50-ohm load and it puts a fat signal at 570 just like a real transmitter!
Here's the part that departs from expectation: I was only testing the carrier, because I don't have audio into it yet, but it had audio anyway, the exact audio from KDX 13.560mHz because the Big Talker transmitter is right there on the bench and the dipole is just overhead. Sounded good!
I'll be sending party girls to all the members, and wives need not worry because I'll also send party men!
YEAH!!!!!!!!!
Pea-Pod Radio 2
"Here's the part that departs from expectation: I was only testing the carrier, because I don't have audio into it yet, but it had audio anyway, the exact audio from KDX 13.560mHz because the Big Talker transmitter is right there on the bench and the dipole is just overhead. Sounded good!"
Title says it all.
The last thing you need is some other transmitter with its antenna over the bench flooding the bench with RF while your trying to determine the LPB exciters carrier purity!!
And the exciter is not in it's cabinet where it would be shielded from outside influence like it is right now..hearing audio from another transmitter on a totally different frequency embedding itself onto that exciter!
Your 13 meg TX is inducing strong RF onto that exciter board and if not careful, may damage it!
No different from overloading the front end of a receiver...saturating it. That is what is happening right now.
I suggest turning off ALL non essential transmitters while your benching that LPB!!!
RFB
Luckily that first test was a quick "carrier proof" and was turned off right away.
Now the shortwave station is off for the night so I can run a tone generator into the LPB without interference from stray RFI.
I will even get the exciter in its case where it will live a happy life.
It sounds very very good. I don't know
why, yet. My friend has not yet sent in
his report.
I'm expecting new 6AL11 tubes tomorrow
or the next day. My other friend across town
has them. We just have to meet up.
I put a dummy load on and plugged in an IPOD.
I don't know if the rig was running 100 percent
modulation - but it's up there.
Audio response is good, it's sounds very reasonable.
It is on 860 kHz, where I don't want to be, but
we'll worry about that later.
It's working a lot better than I expected. I wonder
why?
Bruce, DOGGRADIO STUDIO 2
I notice you've run out of 1-celled station names, Bruce.
How many cells are you running on?
It seems maybe lucky that your transmitter is showing healthy signs of life.
There's another song coming on....
It's a lovely night for trans-mit-ters
Spring air is filled with output pairs
You carry my current
I'll carry yours
Verticals that resonate
Radials will radiate
As we sing
The part 15 serenade
Just getting the audio generator hooked to the LPB2-20 for Exciter modulation tests into a dummy load.
But also, thinking ahead, I think I'll finally use the Volumax 4300 which has never before had a purpose except to fill up a rack space.
Any opinions about the Volumax?