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[Amps] Use of Manual T/R Switches

To: <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: [Amps] Use of Manual T/R Switches
From: n8de at thepoint.net (Don Havlicek)
Date: Thu Mar 6 16:20:33 2003
There were quite a few 'Electronic T/R switches' available in the late 
50's and early 60's, the most 'famous' of which was the B&W T/R switch.
Most used a cathode-follower circuit to isolate the transmit coax from 
the receiver input and a broadband amplifier to regain the signal level 
[cathode-follower circuit has gain <1 ].  Not sure if any of the 
commercial versions would handle legal limit power, but the ones I built 
back then did an excellent job with 150 watts CW.
Still have one or two of these in my junk-box somewhere [don't ask!].
Don
N8DE

Pete Smith wrote:
> At 10:25 AM 3/6/03 -0500, W8JI wrote:
> 
>> I was never able to get this system to work well on QSK, so I used a 
>> pair of
>> 10 watt 250 volt lightbulbs as a series limiter (they lit like 
>> flashbulbs,
>> and doubled as a reminder the power was on) and a 6AL5 tube as a clamp 
>> for
>> the receiver, followed by a 6J6 to make up for gain loss.
>>
>> I'm actually serious about this, I used this system for years as an 
>> antenna
>> and TR switch. It worked quite well.
> 
> 
> There was actually a commercial TRswitch like this that a friend and I 
> vaporized during an ARRL DX Contest back in the late 1950s, with a 
> single-813 amplifier; if I recall correctly, it used a cathode follower 
> of some sort for isolation and coupled to the tank circuit with a piece 
> of RG-8 -- sometime during the night the RG-8 flashed over and totally 
> nuked everything inside the little metal box the circuit was in.  The 
> miniature tube was reduced to powder, but to the designer's credit, the 
> receiver was not harmed.
> 
> 
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> The World HF Contest Station Database was updated 23 Feb 03.
> Are you current? www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm
> 
> 
> 
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