Hi, I'm Amie!

[Aerodyne]

Hi Amie

When I was 12 I built my first one-valve radio. This was from a design in Practical Wireless, a long-running and very popular magazine for radio enthusiasts. It is now aimed at radio 'amateurs', that is, people who transmit and receive by radio. Some of these are also constructors but by no means all of them. Books by F.J. Camm, the original editor of the magazine as well worth finding and reading.
I am delighted that you have shown your interest in this subject as I consider valve technology to be an important part of industrial history - at least as important as steam railways. The history of the development of radio and television is a fascinating subject in its own right. Radio and amplifier construction brings a great reward of personal satisfaction, though I would advise that should you wish to construct, stay with battery powered projects until you have developed your skill and knowledge.
Whatever you need to know, the good people on this forum will always try to help.
Welcome!

Tony

[Refugee]

I have sever seen or heard of a square radio valve

Way back when I listened to, 'The Brains Trust,' on
the then Home Service I'm sure the o/p valve became
squarish in appearance during the broadcast.  

In television the picture valves did indeed become square eventually.
Still I have never seen a square radio valve.
Perhaps I could be wrong

[Amie]

Hello everyone, and thanks for the wonderful welcome!

I started to take an interest when I was about seven, and would help (hinder?) when Dad was "playing" electronics, eventually he realized it wasn't a passing interest and taught me the importance of electrical safety and gave me a pile of books to read!

I'm never happy to just accept that something works, I like to know why too, and eventually I started to read the books.

I've been fascinated particularly by valve theory, (told you, square peg!), though I'm currently doing the foundation chapters in the "Art of Electronics", though modern stuff, I've found it very helpful, at least the parts of it that I've got my head round so far 

Even bigger fun for me is making things that actually work, I've done a single transistor radio that I listened to radio Caroline on when they started transmitting on Medium wave again, my Dad was so proud that he published it on one of the forums.

Currently I'm working on a design for a simple tuning system for a vhf FM/air band radio (SRRX) that uses a valve super regenerative detector, powered by a six volt rechargeable battery for the heaters and a homemade HT made from ten, nine volt 6F22's both with fuses, just in case   . It's been very interesting for me learning about the principles and how to get the best from the design, its far better than the transistor SRRX that I tried! Maybe its taking me months where some may take days, (I also have other interests), but I'm having fun.

Eventually I expect that some of Dad's collection will need maintaining, and I believe that is when I'll need helping the most, I think the oldest set is from 1938, an ugly(?) set called an "Airflow" it may be quite new by some standards, but I don't want to mess anything up because of too little knowledge.

Thanks for that link to the American radio history site... I'll be spending some of my phone data on that for sure! Dads collection of magazines includes many editions of practical wireless and nearly all the radio constructor from the early sixties onwards, I'm already a big fan of the adventures of Dick and Smithy. he started to buy and collect them himself from about 1971 when he was seven too.....

Thanks again,
Amie.

[BusyBee]

Perhaps a bit too modern and maybe unlikely to catch on but they can have sharp corners lol:  https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/double-tr...s/1449016/

Tracy

[Amie]

Oh , square valves! Bit of a stretch but what about Raytheon sub miniature valves? They're sort of square in section.

Only know that because I've got some JAN6418's

Thanks.
Amie.

[ppppenguin]

Tracy, I hd no idea a device like that even existed. There's an application note on the RS site: https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/de...ube-basics which unfortunately perpetuates the error of regarding transistors as current operated devices.

[Doodlebug]

One thing that you will notice on this forum, Amie, is
how quickly we can all go off topic.
Makes life even more interesting.

[Refugee]

Oh , square valves! Bit of a stretch but what about Raytheon sub miniature valves? They're sort of square in section.

Only know that because I've got some JAN6418's

Thanks.
Amie.

I was indeed thinking of those green VF displays on a few radios and a lot more video recorders.
They also did British hearing aid valves that were also sort of square.
I had a flashback to putting some in storage.
While looking them out I found an open circuit resistor and discovered that the label on it has also gone open circuit

[Crackle]

Hi Amie and welcome to GVR.
This has to be the freindliest, most easy going forum un the UK, with many experienced members happy to give advice and share knowledge.
Its great to see someone so young having an interest in what essentually now seems an older persons hobby. I started on this hobby when I was probably about 9 or 10.
The hobby carried on through my teens, learning lots from Dick & Smithy, then I found pubs, motor bikes and work. I still had a keen interest in knowing how all things worked throuout all my working life and became a keen vintage radio collector and restorer about 8 or 9 years ago.
It would be nice to know a little about your dad, if feel you want to talk about him, some of us may remember him.

regards
Mike

[Nick]

Tracy, I hd no idea a device like that even existed. There's an application note on the RS site: https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/de...ube-basics which unfortunately perpetuates the error of regarding transistors as current operated devices.

These have been around for a good few years. For ages now, folk have been using (any old) VFD displays as triodes in small signal amplifiers, just for a bit of a laugh, and just because you can! Loads of examples on the www.

Korg are a bit audio bits producer and they got into bed with Noritake to produce an "proper" audio VFD - the upside is that as the physical format is much the same as a normal VFD, the original production lines can be used with minimal changes.

The result was the appallingly named NuTube. It's OK. but mostly a gimmic.

Having said that, Pete Millett, for whom I have a lot of respect, was instrumental in its development and has a headphone amp kit available: http://www.pmillett.com/nuhybrid.html