The Highseas School of Blah-di-Blah

[ATAG_Highseas]

So anyway...

sit down, listen, yawn and ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


In this episode of the Highseas School of Blah-di-Blah (tm)


Old Radio stuff:

Was just mulling stuff over in my head these past few weeks...

you know

Should I mend the gutter that drips all the time?... should I make a new bench for the garden?... should I put more hours in at work...

and then it hit me:

No... none of those things !!

What I really should do is buy an old valve radio from the 40's and make it work like new.

Obviously !



anyway.. this was a few days back.

and now I am the proud owner of a (not 1940's but so what ?.. eh?... ) Bush DAC90A valve radio(gram?) I think its 1954 or so.


Not sure how much you chaps know about 40's-50's (and on to maybe mid 60's) electronics... hell... I'm only 44... But what I do know from guitar amps is that in the olden days they had to make capacitors from paper... wrapped around oil.

yeah...

I know.. oil.. with an external wick.

they made candles... and put them in hot electrical appliances !!!

Poor lambs.



Anyway... as you might imagine... oil soaked paper candles near a 240V live chassis (no transformer in those old radios... they used a voltage droppers instead... )

sounds a bit... inferno risk to me.



After rummaging my stock of capacitors...It was obvious I don't have enough of the right values..... but... I HAD to know if it maybe worked anyway ...

so... i went outside with it ... plugged in...

waited a bit for the valves to warm up... took about 40 seconds and...

what????



PREFECT

holy moley !! HAAAA LE LUJAHHHH etc



un-plugged.

so..

in the next few weeks the oil soaked candle capacitors will get removed, labelled and stored in the cabinet, and replaced with polyester ones...

not sure what to do about the voltage dropper... kinda like to have the metal chassis in the box carrying 12v rather than 240v but... as luck would have it, there is a guy about 5 miles from me in Worthing who is an expert on these sets...

handy ! gonna make friends.


Tune in next week (if your set allows) for The Highseas School of Blah-di-Blah Episode II

(assuming it hasn't been cancelled before then)

I'm very likely to get pulled off air.

EDIT:

Here are some pics

20170330_184220.jpg

and this one shows a blanket of ancient dust across the chassis:

20170330_184141.jpg

[farley]

Sounds like good fun!

Pictures please (But for god's sake, not of you seas! - Your stunning good looks will just make the rest of us, ok, I'll just speak for myself, feel inferior).

Can you still get tubes for those sorts of things?

[Hurricane]

http://www.radio-workshop.co.uk/featured-bush-dac90a/

[farley]

http://www.radio-workshop.co.uk/featured-bush-dac90a/

(I just replied to this and then accidentally wiped it out - but will type it out again)

A bit off topic here, but looking at the photos of the old radios makes me think of my father and grandmother telling me of the evenings when the family would sit around the radio (she still had a large old radio that sat on the floor and was several feet high), and listen to the shows, such as Jack Benny, Amos and Andy, The Shadow.... granny liked the westerns.

My father died 10 years ago, and I think really, as a way of keeping dad fresh in my memory, literally every night before i go to sleep, i lie down and listen to those old radio shows. Of course they are now on the internet, or one radio station here plays them nightly, but the often scratchy recordings help me to imagine my dad and his family hunched close to that old radio, listening intently.... and they also take me back to when i was a kid because i listen with my little portable radio, the way i used to hear my music after i was supposed to be asleep.... or i listen through my tablet which i tuck under my pillow......

My parents didn't always know i was listening after my bedtime..... but the Shadow knew..... bwaahahaha.....

download (1).png Hypnotized_Audience_(Radio_Show).jpg

[Hurricane]

Lovely post farley, my father died 15 years ago.

The Shadow knows everything

I have never been one for listening to the radio, always preferring my own album collection and then cd's.

The couple of years i did listen to it, was during the pirate radio era during the 1960's probably way before your time buddy.

Best regards,
Mike.

[Bonditaria]

Brings back an incident from the Sixties in a sudden flash seeing one of those Highseas.

My paternal Grandmother, a prim and proper Victorian lady who had been a missionary in the Far East and a vehement campaigner against the suffragette movement before that, used exactly this model of radio to listen to the BBC Home Service.

She would listen only to The Daily Service at 9.45am, the Six O'Clock News, and the Shipping Forecast late at night. The radio was never used for anything else nor by anyone else, and I certainly wasn't allowed to touch it. As far as she was concerned children were to be seen and not heard, and we were not at all welcome living in her house.

In 1967 Radio One started, and I got into the habit of waking up early and creeping downstairs to listen to pop music really really softly with my ear pressed to the grill of that radio for an half an hour or so before the other people in the house started to stir. Well, you can guess what happened, one morning I was interrupted and never got the chance, or perhaps simply forgot, to re-tune from Radio 1 to Radio 4 for my Gran before I had to go off to school, so at 9.45 she cranks up the volume to full and starts blasting the Devils music through the house instead of the hymns she was expecting!

She was so angry!


tnx 4 the memories

[ATAG_Lewis]

Did it smell nice...I got an old Fender twin from 1976...sometimes I just plug it in to smell it....

[farley]

Did it smell nice...I got an old Fender twin from 1976...sometimes I just plug it in to smell it....

Bloody hell Lew, it's late. Get to bed!!

[ATAG_Highseas]

That site Farley is by a guy who lives in Worthing about 10 miles from me.

I watched some of his u-tube videos last night. Then wrote him an email.

Guess who I am going to visit next week!

I like this thread already.... Some really interesting stories.


Bonditaria. ... its not just your granny.Grannies eveywhere know you should NEVER tune to Radio 1.

And Lewes.... yeah. It smells great!

Gonna have "radio rob" take a look at it. 1950's capacitors give me the heebie jeebies.

The ultimate plan here is a restoration and to add a line in before the valve amp. but in a way that can be easily reversed. Not a lot on long wave and medium wave these days.

The other option is to build a transmitter. Basically make my own medium or long wave radio station..... since I can't afford a broad cast licence this would have to be Highseas Pirate Radio

Already got the name.......

will put some photos up over the weekend.

[ATAG_kiwiflieger]

The other option is to build a transmitter. Basically make my own medium or long wave radio station..... since I can't afford a broad cast licence this would have to be Highseas Pirate Radio

I would advise getting a receiver as well... So you can listen to the police slowly triangulating your position... then you know when to run.

[ATAG_Highseas]

I added some photos up top...

[Hurricane]

Better conductivity, with a generous covering of fluff and cobwebs.

The case is bakelite yes Seas ?

Best regards,
Mike.

[farley]

I added some photos up top...

Looks nice!
Keep us up to date on how it goes seas.

Second picture looks a bit like the inside of my noggin!

[ATAG_Highseas]

Better conductivity, with a generous covering of fluff and cobwebs.

The case is bakelite yes Seas ?

Best regards,
Mike.

Yep.

Bakelite case. No cracks.

[ATAG_Highseas]

Looks nice!
Keep us up to date on how it goes seas.

Second picture looks a bit like the inside of my noggin!

Mine too.

It's a blurry mess up top for sure !

[ATAG_Laser]

Good luck with the radio seas.

Have to admit I haven't a clue where electronics are concerned, but I am sure you will get it restored with the help of Radio Rob

[Hurricane]

Yep.

Bakelite case. No cracks.

Lovely job Seas, can't wack those old wireless's.

Built to last a thousand years, or was that the third reich ?

Best regards,
Mike.

[ATAG_Highseas]

Lovely job Seas, can't wack those old wireless's.

It is pretty weird that there are still plenty of old valve radios working

The valves are actually pretty robust... paper in oil capacitors however are really not !! I've known this for years though... guitar amps... strip... replace all caps with polyester types... measure all wire wound resistors and replace anything that is off... with something modern that isn't.


It's an interesting project this... really focuses you on the technology that was available during the 40's and was used in those planes we like.

I imagine most of the instruments in the planes were using voltage regulators similar to those still in use in Smiths instruments right up until the collapse of the British motoring industry in what?.. 1980 or so?



My Triumph has them. as will any British Leyland car of that era. 1940's tech in 1980's cars !! no wonder the UK car manufacturing industry went bust !!

I've rebuilt a few of those... they work very well in their ludicrously archaic way.

ha !

[Hurricane]

I was a mechanical fitter, Seas. All that electrical speak goes right over my head buddy.

But i do know the valves are very strong.

They give a much warmer sound than transistors as well.

I had a T reg Dolomite in the 80's. Didn't have a wireless like that in it though.

I love all the old british cars buddy. I cannot stand modern cars one bit.

Just my age i suppose Seas.

You sound like you are well into the old technology ?

Best wishes,
Mike.

[ATAG_Marlow]

So anyway...

sit down, listen, yawn and ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


In this episode of the Highseas School of Blah-di-Blah (tm)


Old Radio stuff:

Was just mulling stuff over in my head these past few weeks...

you know

Should I mend the gutter that drips all the time?... should I make a new bench for the garden?... should I put more hours in at work...

and then it hit me:

No... none of those things !!

What I really should do is buy an old valve radio from the 40's and make it work like new.

Obviously !



anyway.. this was a few days back.

and now I am the proud owner of a (not 1940's but so what ?.. eh?... ) Bush DAC90A valve radio(gram?) I think its 1954 or so.


Not sure how much you chaps know about 40's-50's (and on to maybe mid 60's) electronics... hell... I'm only 44... But what I do know from guitar amps is that in the olden days they had to make capacitors from paper... wrapped around oil.

yeah...

I know.. oil.. with an external wick.

they made candles... and put them in hot electrical appliances !!!

Poor lambs.



Anyway... as you might imagine... oil soaked paper candles near a 240V live chassis (no transformer in those old radios... they used a voltage droppers instead... )

sounds a bit... inferno risk to me.



After rummaging my stock of capacitors...It was obvious I don't have enough of the right values..... but... I HAD to know if it maybe worked anyway ...

so... i went outside with it ... plugged in...

waited a bit for the valves to warm up... took about 40 seconds and...

what????



PREFECT

holy moley !! HAAAA LE LUJAHHHH etc



un-plugged.

so..

in the next few weeks the oil soaked candle capacitors will get removed, labelled and stored in the cabinet, and replaced with polyester ones...

not sure what to do about the voltage dropper... kinda like to have the metal chassis in the box carrying 12v rather than 240v but... as luck would have it, there is a guy about 5 miles from me in Worthing who is an expert on these sets...

handy ! gonna make friends.


Tune in next week (if your set allows) for The Highseas School of Blah-di-Blah Episode II

(assuming it hasn't been cancelled before then)

I'm very likely to get pulled off air.

EDIT:

Here are some pics

20170330_184220.jpg

and this one shows a blanket of ancient dust across the chassis:

20170330_184141.jpg

Seas...this is absolutely priceless!!! Laugh? I nearly died...........but I'm a bit worried!

You said you'd bought an old radio but the second picture looks like a collection of old dildoes!!! Gordon Bennet! (better hide it...just in case!) If this thread isn't pulled...it soon will be! Salute!

[BOO]

Did it smell nice...I got an old Fender twin from 1976...sometimes I just plug it in to smell it....

I bought a Twin when I was 16 cos I thought Jonny Marr used one. - Turned out he didn't. Also Turned out that 100watts is actually much louder than...well.....anything!

So I figured An AC30 would be better since the edge used two...........turns out that 30 watts in an AC30 seemed to be even louder plus it had this unique feature where I couldn't hear it but the old boy at the back of the pub literally exploded when I strummed the guitar. Also transpired that the Edge is a rock god with lots of money to soundproof stuff and buy big stages to play on....as is Mr Marr. I, on the otherhand was yer average pub player with no money and an even smaller audience. Finally came to a head after I got a bloody hernia lugging TWO AC30s and a rack about 3 times a week.

Hello Mr Pod - ewwwwwwwwww - Goodbuy Mr POD - Hello Mr Axe - hmmmm - Goodbuy Mr Axe

Now, after years, I have a hand wired tiny terror built into a 1x12 cab. 7/15 watts of Brit sweetness that'll still take down the wall of the average public house if it wants.

Though the Helix looks a tempting alternative to my old pedalboard.......

Sorry HS - thread Highjack

BTW - nothing beats the smell of MEK - nothing - sends you blind its so good

[ATAG_Highseas]

BTW - nothing beats the smell of MEK - nothing - sends you blind its so good

Isn't that the stuff plumbers used to fuse plastic pipes together ?

I'm more of an evo-stick man myself.

[Bonditaria]

I'm more of an evo-stick man myself.

OK, got the picture Highseas. It's beginning to make sense...

[ATAG_Highseas]

Yikes !! Get a load of this:

"Military radio and radar equipment made during World War II, in particular by the Americans and Germans, was sometimes fitted with explosive charges. These were intended to destroy the equipment in the case of accident (impact) or capture by the enemy (tampering). In recent years at least one collector has seen his garden shed go up with a bang (spontaneous detonation) and another, to his horror, had an innocent-looking ‘component’ identified as a charge. Frequently these detonators look extremely similar in shape and size to electrolytic capacitors and issue 117 (1998) of Funkgeschichte, the German historical wireless society’s magazine, has photographs which illustrate this similarity well. It also quotes a newspaper report of 1949 in which a domestic radio technician testing war-surplus radio components for re-use lost his sight when one of these ‘capacitors’ blew up in his face. In the Australian electronics magazine Radio, Television & Hobbies (later renamed Electronic Australia was a similar warning about the dangers of old demolition charges in wartime eqpt. An Australian radio ham was injured in Melbourne when modifying an old aircraft radar unit that he had picked up in a surplus shop. He attempted to bench test a 'capacitor' and got badly cut and burnt hands plus metal fragments in his face. He was lucky not to lose his sight."

It's an extract from here : http://www.bvws.org.uk/405alive/tech/safety.html

[farley]

YIKES is right!!

My advice - don't take any chances with yours, even if not military.
Don't work on it with it sitting on your lap!!

Man, I would have never thought of that.....

[Silent135]

Interesting thread Highseas, good luck with the old radio, its a beauty. Ive got an ancient looking old battery charger with some nice old gauges on it in the shed here in aussie, i wonder if its got any explosive electrical components in it... just grabbing a phillips head, be right back ... hopefully

[ATAG_Highseas]

Weclome back to another installment of the Highseas School of Blah-di-Blah

In this week episode I will be talking about, erm...

oh... i haven't done much with the Valve radio... i kinda got side tracked with transistor radios along the way. Roberts R200's to be precise.

Amazing what you can learn in a shed.

These babies are easy to convert to add an Aux in so you can play Merttalica or whatever through the amp side of it. The radio side of it can be tempremental but hey.... ive fixed three al;ready... so im pretty happy.

Also been messing with the LM386 chip. Last time i did that i was 16 making a mini amp at school. Kinda weiord doing it again but yeah... made a mini mono amp housed in an old cigar box, with a stereo to mono bridge...

If it was still 1988 and I was still 16 I'd be well chuffed. And in fact I pretty much am still 16 so I'm well chuffed ! The ipod works through it very well indeed.

9v batter, portable... will take it camping with me probably.



Should probably put the exhaust back on the manifold in the Triumph Spit... but... i cant really be bothered... and the MOT isnt for another year anyway.

AM Radios... that's this months obsession.


Tune in next week for... i dunno... depends what take my fancy i suppose.

Stay random.

'Seas

[ATAG_Highseas]

Still messing with Radio stuff here at Highseas Towers.

I should probably sort out the leakey exhaust header on the Spitfire (Triumph)... but... I can't really be bothered.

I was gonna take the kids out to do the local charity shop marathon today ... but they decided they wanted to play sims... and given my CLoD addiction... fair enough !

So.... i slunk of to the garage to mess about a bit more with some of these Roberts R200's ive been slowly picking up. Great little radios ! I was planning intially to add an Aux line in to each, but now that I've started repairing them... i kinda want to leave them original.

The three i had working last week gave up again... transistor issues most likely (having read up).. the later variants have these AF117 transitors in, Turns out that due to the interacting chemistry of the materials used they grow these microscopic tin hairs inside... which short them out.

If you whack them... short sharp tap with something solid... they often work again... but only for a day or so until the short makes itself known again.

Not a drama though as I have a bunch of non hair growing equivelents coming so should be able to sort the lot out.

Anyhooooo...

the one set that was actuaaly working (early version which uses other transistors that don't grow a beard yet) well.... it was sounding a bit... not brilliant sound. not crisp... sloppy.... I assumed it was because in 1961 when this one was built stuff was not very good.

Anyway..... I stripped out every capacitor at or over 0.1uF and replaced all with with new Panasonic ones (mainly) all the electrolytic ones, all the paper in oil junk, and basically gave it the values (in not trashed leakey 58 year old, way past sell by date) quality equivelants that the circuit was originally designed for.

Holy cow !!!

The difference in sound quality is staggering ! 1960's mono radio kit. So... it's not HiFi... but wow, if you swap out the crappy dried up electrolytics... its warm as a buttered button. and three times as golden.

these things back then must have been just gold to the ears. It's genuinely remarkable !


oh... also.... I built a rudimentary medium wave transmitter. Obvioiusly I havent tunred it on as I don't have a broadcast licence and that would be illegal. So i did it as a Sim instead.

Got some interferance that I think is probably down to the sim transformers powering the sim lights in my simulated house.

There is probably a Simple fix.




ah... gotta go. The nurse says my Figgy Duff is ready.

[ATAG_Highseas]

Well hi and thanks for tuning in to this weeks episode of Highseas School of OH DEAR GOD MAKE HIM STOP blah-di-Blah

Still on the Radio theme im afraid... (just roll with it for now)

The valve set is .... still sat by my rudder pedals... done nothing with it yet.


But the transistor stuff... now that has made massive progress..

but it takes flippin ages to strip out and replace the crummy dead componemts... basically it costs money and has a zero return... these (7 of them and thats enough work frankly) are going to make great presants.

i mean... who doesnt want a radio that has... erm... radio 4 on longwave... and erm.. some local drivel on medium wave?


But... this time of night?...

In the evening when the conditions are favourable... dig out an AM radio... long wave and medium wave... and see what you can hear. It's mostly french... but it's far away, and that has a pecliar attraction. and sounds kinda 1940's. Sort of.

five minutes should be enough !




You could probaly get around the lack of channels by making an AM trasmitter and have your own radio staion. and perhaps limit the range to within about presicely the size of your house. But you would need a broadcast licence so naturally I havent done that.

still gotta do the exhaust header on the Spifire. Cant really be bothered though...

hehe

[ATAG_Highseas]

Well thats all the wax blob capacitors switched out for new radial ones.

man those things get everywhere. Its like peeling off toffees that have melted in the sun.

Apparently teh electrolytic ones (theer are only two) are genearlly stable, so i plan to leave those for now... probably...

Resistors tomorrow

and first power up at the weekend probably.