16-05-2012, 06:08 PM
About four years ago we were out on Saddleworth moors with our walking club, when on the summit of a hill at which there was a radio tower, of all things in the swirling mist, I came across a radiogram with Queen Anne legs that someone had dumped there. It was a monstrosity and incorportated a nafola cocktail cabinet in padded plastic so I can understand why it was unwanted. It looked as though it had been there some time, but quite why anyone would go to the trouble of taking it right up on the moors rather than to their local tip eludes me.
I couldn't hang around long as we were with the club, but as the gram had no back on it, I pludered the valves, which included a pair of EL84s. I don't think the gram had been used much as there was no sign of dust inside and the valves looked (and later tested) like new. Unfortunately, as I never thought I'd see the chassis again, I just put the valves into stock, so I don't know what the line-up was, but each EL84 was on a sub chassis with another valveholder for a driver valve.
Many months later we'd returned to Leeds Bradford Airport from Avignon, so on impulse I decided to try to find the site where the gram had been dumped, and headed for the radio tower, thinking that there may be other bits worth scavenging, such as the OPTs and mains transformer. I did indeed find it - still there, but ever more weatherbeaten. I had no tools so all I could do was wrench the chassis from its moorings. The cabinet had several speakers in it - two quite large, but sadly, all wet through and beyond redemption.
I put it in the greenhouse to dry out, which is where it's been ever since, dry as a bone. I did think that if ever I got round to it and had the circuit of the radio, I could replicate the output stage using he two output transformers, a pair of EL84s and suitable drivers, and the mains transformer for a PSU section, to build a small stereo amplifier.
A bit of a pipe dream really, and without the circuit, or trying to fathom it out from the PCBs, I don't even know which connections are which on the OPTs - I'm not very cvlued up on amplifiers. The dial is in German so wasn't produced specifically for the UK market. Unfortunately the dial has a piece missing from the corner otherwise it might have helped someone in need of it if it could be recognised.
The mains transformer laminations have bulged due to the ingress of damp. I don't know whether that would have any bearing on the transformer's performance because all the 'iron' in the core is still there, and the transformer itself is bone dry.
It's a bit of a long shot, but I wondered if anyone on the forum might recognise the chassis from the attached pics.
I couldn't hang around long as we were with the club, but as the gram had no back on it, I pludered the valves, which included a pair of EL84s. I don't think the gram had been used much as there was no sign of dust inside and the valves looked (and later tested) like new. Unfortunately, as I never thought I'd see the chassis again, I just put the valves into stock, so I don't know what the line-up was, but each EL84 was on a sub chassis with another valveholder for a driver valve.
Many months later we'd returned to Leeds Bradford Airport from Avignon, so on impulse I decided to try to find the site where the gram had been dumped, and headed for the radio tower, thinking that there may be other bits worth scavenging, such as the OPTs and mains transformer. I did indeed find it - still there, but ever more weatherbeaten. I had no tools so all I could do was wrench the chassis from its moorings. The cabinet had several speakers in it - two quite large, but sadly, all wet through and beyond redemption.
I put it in the greenhouse to dry out, which is where it's been ever since, dry as a bone. I did think that if ever I got round to it and had the circuit of the radio, I could replicate the output stage using he two output transformers, a pair of EL84s and suitable drivers, and the mains transformer for a PSU section, to build a small stereo amplifier.
A bit of a pipe dream really, and without the circuit, or trying to fathom it out from the PCBs, I don't even know which connections are which on the OPTs - I'm not very cvlued up on amplifiers. The dial is in German so wasn't produced specifically for the UK market. Unfortunately the dial has a piece missing from the corner otherwise it might have helped someone in need of it if it could be recognised.
The mains transformer laminations have bulged due to the ingress of damp. I don't know whether that would have any bearing on the transformer's performance because all the 'iron' in the core is still there, and the transformer itself is bone dry.
It's a bit of a long shot, but I wondered if anyone on the forum might recognise the chassis from the attached pics.
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
