Nikola Tesla

[Nowhere-Man]

Speaking of reviews and a bit off topic, I found a very smug and unfair review of Rick McWhorter on Amazon. This was aimed at Rick's book on transformerless All American Five Radios. Rick had apparently referred to bias on a triode grid as being "positive" and was taken literally by the sharks who then slammed the book. I'm sure Rick simply meant a bias that was "more positive" such as a DC - 5 bias becoming - 3 on an A.C.positive signal. I have encountered some brilliant radio engineers who often make apparent technical slip-ups and yet can repair radios well because they do it all the time.I saw Rick's YouTube channel and I thought he was pretty good myself.

[Nowhere-Man]

There is a schematic somewhere for Tesla's radio receiver. It tells you how to make one the same as he used. I don't know much about this radio but both Tesla and Marconi had claimed they had received SETI signals. Some speculate Tesla was using very low frequency equipment.

[pwdrive]

Wow....

Lawrence

[Alan Douglas]

It's easy for armchair critics to pick out minor errors and show how smart they are. None of them could write a book.

"Tesla's radio receiver." That's pretty funny. I've read all of his original publications and nothing like that was ever described. Quite unlike Marconi and Fessenden who did actually transmit and receive and held public demonstrations to prove it.

[pwdrive]

Just avoid any confusion the statement I made in post#13 was with regard to SETI......SETI..Wow....(Wow signal)

Lawrence.

[Nowhere-Man]

It's easy for armchair critics to pick out minor errors and show how smart they are.  None of them could write a book.

"Tesla's radio receiver."  That's pretty funny.  I've read all of his original publications and nothing like that was ever described.  Quite unlike Marconi and Fessenden who did actually transmit and receive and held public demonstrations to prove it.

Decent books are few and far between. Chas Miller's was extremely good but I wish he'd devoted more pages to basic stuff like potentiometers. That is how to test the bias between potentiometer and grid. I had to learn all of this by myself.

Someone sold me an early forties book on tube radio which is a gem. There is only TRF covered and most of that was battery power. I liked the tips on discharging HT caps using a mere pocket pen-knife!!

The book I use now is very technical aimed at amateur radio construction. Last night I was going through the circuits on cathode followers.

[pwdrive]

NM here's a classic text on potentiometers:

https://www.bourns.com/pdfs/OnlinePotent...ndbook.pdf

Lawrence.

[Nowhere-Man]

NM here's a classic text on potentiometers:

https://www.bourns.com/pdfs/OnlinePotent...ndbook.pdf

Lawrence.

Thanks. That was something I was struggling with on the GEC at the time. It just took me a while to finally figure out they simply can put bias on the grid. In fact, Chas Miller pointed out he'd often found 5 K potentiometers fitted as opposed to 500 K ones. I just thought it would have been nice in the book to put a few sketches of potentiometer resistance wiring and then I'd not have to have struggled as much at the time. That book was written by someone who'd been doing radio repair for decades but the reader very often has no such hands-on experience or apprenticeship.

Rick Mcwhorter's book is free to download. Despite some bad reviews he's clearly repaired dozens of American tube radios so my best is he's maybe got a few good ideas to share. Don't know if his YouTube channel is still running.

[Nowhere-Man]

It's easy for armchair critics to pick out minor errors and show how smart they are.  None of them could write a book.

"Tesla's radio receiver."  That's pretty funny.  I've read all of his original publications and nothing like that was ever described.  Quite unlike Marconi and Fessenden who did actually transmit and receive and held public demonstrations to prove it.

P.S. Alan, I envy your location. I really love those American Five radios and bet they're easy for you to come across. I have heard some nightmarish accounts of the hot chassis ones, though.

[Nowhere-Man]

Wow....

Lawrence

I take it you've seen both "Contact" and "Frequency". Two very good movies about radio.