Wobbulator No. 1

[Yorkie]

Lawrence, I'm sure David (Yorkie) made that Radio Bygones one. I could be wrong!

Andrew

Yes, that's the one that I built. It featured in RB #82, April/May 2003, and in June/July RB #83 there was an RF probe - both articles by RF Haigh. It was later published in the BVWS Bulletin I think. All of my projects have a long gestation period and I didn't get round to building mine until 2010, by which time the four Toko coils had become well and truly obsolete. I managed to get them all from one place or another. I dare say it would be possible to wind coils on scrap Toko transformers if the inductance was known, but anyone tempted to buld that design would be well advised to sourse the coils first.

Though the circuit in Fig 2 is correct, there's an error in the wiring of the wavechange switch 'SW1A' and SW1B. A glance at Fig 3 will show that the wires from SW1A pins 3 & 4, and SW1B pins 9 & 10 need to be reversed so that the connections go to L3 & L4 - not as shown - to L4 & L3. I only discvoered that when I checked the coverage of those ranges on a frequency counter and found the coverage of ranges 3 & 4 was reversed. I've never actually used it - I've just been a compulsive home-brewer over the years, and like building little bits of test gear.

As to my whereabouts and absence from the forum, how kind that people have noticed! Yes, I'm snatching each brief 'sunny spell' to get on with my fence project, which is dragging on due to the rain. I've got three out of ten panels erected and in between times and in the garage painting the other panels with fence treatment.

The third Tuesdays in the month are always hectic for me as it's when we have our local Woodturning Club meetings, which consist of a programme of professional demonstrators, and a members' competition of which I'm one of the panel of three judges, in addtion to being the secretary. It involves setting out chairs, setting up two projectors stands and screens, a video camera, competition judging stand, sales tables dust extraction equipment and so on, then at the end of the evening, clearing everything away and leaving the Village Hall as we found it. My wife and I set it all up late in the afternoon, then in the evening, with other members help, the lathe has to be lugged out of the storeroom, and up two ramps into the hall. all in all, quite a palaver.

So, what with that and the fence malarkey, it's rather eaten into my forum time, and has also distracted me from several restoration projects that I'm keen to get on with. Progress today? Nil - just got back from B&Q with five bags of ballast and one of cement - steady downpour in for the day, so it's painting duties after lunch.

The 'where's Yorkie?' comment reminds me of when - many years ago, as I climbed the greasy pole of management, I had to undergo psychometric tests, and 'personality style inventories'. I well recall that the resulting report that delivered the verdict stated: "He neither adds to, nor significantly detracts from whatever projects in which he is involved, but when he is not present, his absence is noticed".

That damning verdict on my contribution didn't seem to impede my career progression, and it least it didn't say 'this man is nuts and should be sectioned right away', but maybe it was rather too close to the truth for comfort, and still seems to have relevance to this day !!

Wobbulator and fence pics attached. (Fence from my neighbour's side - not my lawn!)