DOUGLAS COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLETTER Vol. 32, No. 7, JULY 2002 Articles and information for the News letter may be submitted up to the 20th of the month before the next meeting. Ken Blair, KCØGL, Editor 1711 West 19th Terrace Phone: 785-843-8826 Lawrence, KS 66046 e-mail: kc0gl@arrl.net This Newsletter is published monthly by the Douglas County Amateur Radio Club (DCARC). Rreprint permission is granted to other Amateur Radio-orientated publications for non-copyright material provided that credit is given to the author and source. Copyright(c) articles require permission to use from the holder of the copyright. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the club or its officers. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NEW MEETING PLACE Beginning with the July 10 Meeting Douglas County Fairgrounds, Building #1 2120 Harper, Lawrence, Kansas 7:00 p.m. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ PROGRAM FOR THE JULY 10 MEETING We will receive two speakers for our program from the Ensor Farmsite and Museum. They wrote: "Dear James: Marilyn Rockel and myself, Carolyn Smith, will visit with the Douglas County ARC on Wednesday, July 10, 2002 at 7:00 p.m. we will bring along a few of the many items of early radio to share with the group." --Jim Canaday, N6YR, Program Chair ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ FROM THE PRESIDENT Jim Eckler, KCØIDF Well the year is half over and summer is in full swing. I've had a great and interesting time so far. Field Day has come and gone and "Nowhere" special events station is next so start thinking about that. The officers, managers, Keno and myself toured the new meeting place at the fair grounds and they looked great-Building #1. Thanks Bob, ABØQW, for taking the initiative and getting that job done. We'll all meet there from now on at 7 p.m. A special thanks to Jerry Vogel, WAOOWH, for letting us use Independence Inc. We hope to be able to hold classes there in the fall The picnic was a ball and Reid, KCØIDI, is planning one for the fall. I have heard a rumor that Linda is going to have foxtrot, tango lessons in November. Don't know what that's all about. Linda, KCØNFT, is our NCS this month and Matt Hilt, KCØTOY, has accepted the duty for July. Adam Kidder, KCØNFN, is August NCS and Bill Musick, KCØNFL, will be NCS for September. "YC", KCØNBE, signed up for October if he is here. So it looks good folks. Thanks for your new ideas. It has been fun. Earl, NØKYS, has a new and interesting program for introducing ham radio to the young folks and he will need all our help. To address the recent conflict on my job and doing it the new way, not the old way, and not following Roberts Rules, my advice to you all on this matter has to be that we all need to help each other pull the wagon together and in the same direction. Don't just sit in the back and go along for the ride. If our club is going to grow and prosper we need to help each other get our jobs done and not be so quick to complain about how things are being done. Thanks. This is KCØIDF, out. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ MINUTES OF THE JUNE 12,2002 DCVARC MEETING Warren Sunkel, KCLXA, Acting Secretary The June meeting of the Douglas County Amateur Radio Club was held at Independence, Inc. on June 12, 2002. President Eckler, KCØIDF, called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. The 25 members and guests present introduced themselves with their names and call signs. The president reported that the recent picnic and fox hunt were very successful. He requested that members who have attended a number of Field Days in the past give input to what will be needed this year. Linda Randle, KCØNFT, is the net controller this month and is doing a fine job. Y.C. Ng, KCONBE, is scheduled for July but may not be able to serve because of a job conflict. In that case, Matt Hilt, KØTOY, will be the July controller. Adam Kidder, KCØNFN, is scheduled for August. Shortly before the meeting the club executive committee toured Building 1 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds and found it to be quite satisfactory to fill our need for a larger meeting room. The July meeting will be held at the fairgrounds. Jerry Vogel, WAØOWH, was given a round of applause for providing use of the outstanding facilities at Independence, Inc. A motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the minutes of the May meeting as published in the June newsletter. An open discussion was held to arrange the logistics for Field Day coming up on June 22-23, 2002. Will Shockley, KBØWDW, has reserved the space at Wells' Overlook and will bring the emergency communications bus from Douglas County Emergency Management. Members volunteered to bring a variety of transceivers, antennas, tuners, and power supplies. Setup will begin at 8:05 a.m. on Saturday, June 22. Contesting will run from 1:00 p.m. Saturday through 1:00 p.m. Sunday. Matt May, KC4WCG, will procure and deliver all food items necessary for the evening barbecue beginning at 6:00 p.m. Saturday. A motion was made, seconded, and passed to authorize a maximum expenditure of $200 for food and picnic supplies. Earl Schweppe, NØKYS, and Bill Lashier, KCØNFM, made a presentation on future events at the downtown public library. The goal is to introduce ham radio to school kids in the Lawrence area and is part of ARRL's "big project" to introduce ham radio into the schools. Earl requested club members to staff ham radio demonstrations in the library auditorium on three Saturdays in August beginning August 3. Earl is building an interactive display for the library to introduce students to famous scientists. Nikola Tesla will be featured in September, and Isaac Newton will be highlighted in October. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Respectively submitted, Warren Sunkel, KCØLXA, Acting Secretary. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CLUB PICNIC / FOX HUNT Reid Crowe, KCOIDI The first club picnic was a huge success! We had about 22 hams and YL's there. People started showing up around 11:40 and I think we stayed till 5. Tom Wheeler, NØGSG, made an excellent presentation on fox hunting. This was such a successful event we are not only going to have one next spring but possibly this fall. If you have any ideas of what you want to do let me know. Also bring the family too, one of the goals of this is that people get to know each other including the families! 73, Reid KCØIDI ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DAYTON 2002, May 17-19 Gordon Fitch, NØAB This year's show celebrated the 51st show and the 50th anniversary of the "HAMVENTION". This was my 2nd, and at least the 20th for some Lawrence Veterans, who shall remain un-named, but who complained that the show really isn't the same now that these new fangled glass tubes seem to be here to stay. Several vehicles, including the Faymanmobile, Waughmobile, and others from across the heartland, carried us in a converging pattern, soothed by two meter simplex gossip of the purest variety to be had anywhere. The best "stuff" was undoubtedly gone already as we arrived at the hallowed grounds on Friday morning, but there was plenty of "good" stuff still there, based on an informal survey of the ham-mobiles leaving Dayton versus those arriving. Guilty parties shall remain un-named to protect them from their spouses. There were many newly introduced and "announced" products, especially from Ten-Tec, including a new Argonaut V QRP transceiver and a new top of the line, the ORION, as well as a new receiver, the RX-350. Of course it's always nice to see an American manufacturer hanging in there with the best of best from overseas, an increasingly rare occurrence, unfortunately, (small editorial comment). The "veterans" also said the crowds were down from the past, but you couldn't prove it by me, especially when outside rain drove many from the flea market into the exhibit halls. Also of note were some memorable dinners and "post dinner" entertainment, mostly provided by certain persons, some of whom had trouble remembering where their vehicle was parked (vehemently denied by the party in case) and how much clearance is required for parking garage clearance. (I'm just glad I wasn't driving). Good lessons were also learned by a novice about the appropriate attire for the variable weather of Dayton, a lesson long ago learned by the veterans and cheerfully taught to those less experienced, so let no one say there isn't always an opportunity to learn, no matter how ancient one may be! For more details, consult Baker, Fayman, Fitch, , Brann, Waugh, Crowe, and Crowe. (That does sound like a law firm doesn't it, so ask about the consulting fee first!) +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++H WBØAUQ's WEB PICKS OF THE MONTH Bob Rainbolt, WBØAUQ Have you heard the latest and greatest technology in computer motherboards? Seems that AOpen has "discovered" that vacuum tubes provide better high-end audio. Yep, a leading-edge computer with a 12AX7! http://www.aopen.com/products/mb/Pax4b-533tube.htm and http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzAy Need tech info for installing/removing your car radio? Try this site: http://www.installdr.com/home.html A great resource for DSP (Digital Signal Processing), you can download the whole 640-page book, plus other references: http://www.dspguide.com/ For the Naval flying buffs, lots of neat pictures: http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/wwii/aviati/aviat1.htm While on subject of the USN, this site has been around for a while but newly discovered: US Naval Space Command Space Surveillance System http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/spasur_at.htm And this month's site of significant historical interest: NPR recently broadcast a story on Manhattan's (NY) Radio Row. Read about it (and listen) to that broadcast plus many other interesting ones. http://www.npr.org/programs/infsound/stories/current.html -Happy surfin' 73, Bob/WBØ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WANTED: A 2M mobile or base, used, 25W or more power, and not a model that requires menu functions very much. a Dual-band would also be fine. Jim Canaday, N6YR, 785-841-1903 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CONGRATULATIONS to Warren Sunkel, KCØLXA, upon passing the General Class examination in June. Warren was a member of the 2002 DCARC License Class. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ WHOSE CALL IS IT ANYWAY? Eileen Traynor, NI2X When I passed my Extra Class license back in the `70s, I waited for a special call sign with the prefix "NI." I wanted "NI" because it was the abbreviation for Northern Ireland where I was born. As soon as I received my call sign, I applied for a NY State vanity automobile plate "N12X," my new call sign. On many occasions, people showing their curiosity would ask, "What does N12X mean?" This, of course, gave me an opportunity to start "talking up" Amateur Radio and try to recruit people into Amateur Radio or to join our Club, the Rockaway Amateur Radio Club in New York City. One afternoon I had a UPS (United Parcel Service) delivery. The delivery man inquired about the license plate on my car parked at the bottom of the driveway. I, of course, went into my whole routine about Amateur Radio. After listening patiently until my recruiting speech ended, he said, "Oh, I just thought someone in your house worked for UPS." "What do you mean?" I replied. "Well," he said, "We use N12X all the time. When we make two delivery attempts and no one is home, we write on the delivery docket "NI2C' and return the package to our warehouse." "NI2X," he explained, "means Not In Two Times." Boy, was I ever embarrassed! -Worldradio, 27/2 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ENGINEERS AGAINST MANAGERS Submitted by WD5BRP A guy flying in a hot air balloon suddenly realizes he is lost. He reduces height, and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?" The man below says, "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field." "You must work in Engineering," says the. balloonist. I do," replies the man, "How did you know?" "Well," says the balloonist., "everything you have told me is technically correct, but, it's of absolutely no use to anyone!" The man below says, "You must be a manager!" I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?" "Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. And you're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now somehow it's my fault!" -W3OK Corral Newsletter, Clarence Snyder, Editor ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE WAYBACK MACHINE - ISSUE 5 By William Continelli, W2XOY (c) Copyright 2002, William Continelli, W2XOY Used with permission. This is the 5th of a series of articles by Bill Continelli, W2XOY on the History of Amateur Radio. These articles first appeared in the Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association's Newsletter, "RF Musings" and appears here with the permission of the author. * * * * * * * * On November 2, 1920, Warren G. Harding was elected President of the United States. Millions read the election results in the newspapers the next day. In the Pittsburgh area, however, hundreds heard the election returns the moment they were wired in, thanks to Dr. Frank Conrad, a Westinghouse employee, who broadcast the results over 8XK, his amateur station. This station would evolve into KDKA, and the night of November 2, 1920 has been called the start of the multi-billion dollar broadcast industry. But was it? This month "The Wayback Machine" looks at the evolution of broadcasting, and the amateur's role in it. The idea of broadcasting was first considered by Lee deForest in May, 1902, when he wrote that "Ultimately, wireless telephony will be possible". He urged the financial backers of the deForest Wireless Telegraph Company to develop and patent the concept. The stockholders, however, were more interested in immediate profits (through massive stock sales) rather than genuine development, and refused to finance the necessary research. Undaunted, deForest in 1907 formed the deForest Radio Telephone Company. In a statement that for 1907 must have appeared radical and even bizarre, but was amazingly prophetic, he wrote, "I look forward to the day when opera may be brought into every home. Some day the news and even advertising will be sent out over the wireless telephone". Despite deForest's intense interest in this area, he was not the first to broadcast the human voice and music over the airwaves. That honor belongs to Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, a Canadian Professor. He was the first to recognize the inherent flaw in the concept of spark transmissions, and set out to find an alternative. His quest led him to Schenectady, NY, and the services of General Electric's most brilliant scientist, Charles Steinmetz. Fessenden explained his idea: an alternator capable of generating waves of 100,000 cycles per second (3000 meters). Steinmetz and his assistant, Ernst Alexanderson, worked for almost two years, and finally produced an alternator that met Fessenden's requirements. The Alexanderson Alternator, as it was now known, was delivered to Fessenden's station in the Fall of 1906. On the evening of December 24, 1906, ship and amateur operators heard something in their headphones they had never heard before: someone speaking! A woman singing! Someone reading a poem! Fessenden himself played the violin. (The Alexanderson Alternator would play a prominent role in early high power stations and will be fully covered in a column exploring Schenectady's contribution to the development of radio and television). Not to be outdone, deForest continued his radio telephone experiments in the period 1907-1910, broadcasting from the Eiffel Tower and live from the stage of the Metropolotian Opera, where Enrico Caruso was singing. However, all of these transmissions had a major problem: without a pure, stable, direct current CW carrier to modulate, all the signals had a background whine and distortion. Real development in the area of modulated carriers would have to wait until Armstrong discovered the oscillating properties of a regenerative circuit. By 1916, both Armstrong's circuit and the Audion were widely circulating in the radio world, and broadcasting surfaced again. Lee deForest resumed his transmissions, with programs of "good music, culture, and lectures". deForest can be credited with two "firsts" in 1916; the first advertisements (for his Audion and other products), and the broadcast of the Presidential election between Woodrow Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes. (Unfortunately, deForest signed off before the California results were in, so he declared Hughes the winner over Wilson). Also, in 1916, amateur station 2ZK broadcast one hour of music each night. David Sarnoff, who had manned his station during the Titanic disaster, also got into the act. He wrote a memo to his employers at American Marconi suggesting a "Radio Music Box", which would become a "household utility". He went on to describe his vision of radio broadcasting, and then turned to finances. He predicted an income of $75,000,000 or more each year from the sale of receivers. Marconi, still focusing on ship to shore telegraphy, took no action on the memo. After amateurs had returned to the air in November 1919, hundreds of them began to explore the area of broadcasting. In May, 1920, amateur station 8XK joined many other hams in the transmission of music. Incidentally, it WAS LEGAL for amateurs to broadcast music, news, sports, lectures, advertisements, or indeed just about anything else they wanted. The Radio Act of 1912, still in effect, did not mention "amateurs", rather, one paragraph made a general reference to individual private or commercial stations. The only real restriction was the 1 kw power limit and the 200 meter wavelength. After that, the government didn't care. Thus, those amateurs who had built equipment to modulate their CW transmitters eventually played a phonograph record or two, sang (or tried to sing), or broadcast some form of entertainment. With all of the above documented evidence, why is November 2, 1920 considered the start of broadcasting? The answer lies not at the transmitter, but at the receiver. Prior to that night, all broadcasts had, in effect, been from one amateur to another, or to a commercial station. The November broadcast, though, was designed and promoted by Westinghouse as a transmission to the general public. Starting in September, stores were selling basic receivers for $10.00 to receive 8XK. Westinghouse, in effect, had seized deForest's and Sarnoff's idea, and was marketing it to the general public. Thus, it was the makeup of the listening audience that defined the start of broadcasting. When the word of this successful transmission got out, more amateurs got into the act and set up their own little broadcast stations. By the end of 1921, it was estimated that about 1200 amateurs had made at least one broadcast. Some had a regular schedule of programs and would evolve into commercial stations, others did it just out of curiosity. But there were listeners. Over 400,000 people heard the Dempsey-Carpentier fight on July 2, 1921. Radio sales were approaching 100,000 per year, not counting crystal sets which were selling at the rate of 20,000 per month. However, with this explosive growth came two problems for the amateur. The first was an identity crisis; what should the role of the amateur be in broadcasting? Some thought we should stay out of it and just stick to traffic handling on CW. Others envisioned the amateur as a jack of all trades, expert CW operator and relay station, as well as community broadcaster. In fact, a new name evolved to describe this amateur/broadcast hybrid, "Citizen" radio or wireless. Even QST was confused; for a period of time in 1921, the word "Citizen" replaced "Amateur" on the front cover. The other problem was frequencies. Everyone - amateur, broadcaster and hybrid - was on 200 meters. Tuning across the dial in 1921, one would mostly hear CW, a few spark holdouts and the new broadcasters. While the amateurs were used to the interference, the general listening public was not. They had purchased their radios to hear music, not CW. Complaints started to pour into the Secretary of Commerce. Legally he was powerless, as the Radio Act of 1912 offered no solutions. A conference was called for all interested parties, held in Washington in February 1922 to try to resolve the impending crisis. Even though he was exceeding his authority under the Radio Act, Secretary Hoover was able to get the following proposals accepted at the conference: 1) Henceforth, special broadcast licenses would be issued. Two frequencies would be available for broadcasters immediately, 360 meters (833 kHz) for regular transmissions, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for crop reports and weather forecasts. 2) After the marine interests had abandoned the 220 to 545 meter range (1363 to 550 kHz), it would be turned over to broadcasting. 3) Broadcasting was forbidden by amateurs, who were defined for the first time by name as stations operating "without pay or commercial gain, merely for personal interest". 4) "Quiet Hours" were imposed on all amateur stations effective from 8:00 to 10:30 PM daily, and on Sunday morning. The fact that the number of broadcast stations dropped from 1200 to 30 immediately after these regulations went into effect shows just how many amateurs were, in fact, pioneer broadcasters. This agreement, however, was a house of cards. Secretary Hoover has stretched his authority under the Radio Act of 1912 well past the breaking point. In 1926, the cards came tumbling down, and the "Summer of Anarchy" was ushered in. How would amateurs fare with no enforceable regulations in place? Join us next time as "The Wayback Machine" explores the events leading up to the creation of the Federal Radio Commission. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ THE HISTORY OF EIMAC - Part 1 of 2 As told by Jack McCullough, W6CHE Cofounder of Eimac Editor's Note: The following is Part 1 of the story of Eimac that was presented as a slide show at a ham club in 1974. It was contributed by Linda DiLorenzo of CPI/Eimac Division with permission to reprint it in our Newsletter. References to slides have been removed from the story. * * * * * * * The Story Begins Bill [Eitel, W6UF] and I have been asked to tell you something of the history of Eimac. Unfortunately Bill had to undergo major surgery recently and is not up to making this meeting tonight. I would like to spend a fair amount of time describing our experiences at Heintz & Kaufman. The events that led up to the founding of Eimac, the early years of Eimac, and more quickly cover the war and then paint with bolder strokes the thirty post war years. Eimac celebrated its 40th anniversary this past September. Every ham knows that Eimac makes transmitting tubes. With this product and 40 years of history, it should not be surprising when I tell you that Eimac participated directly in every major technological breakthrough over these years that required high power tubes. Paraphrasing a TV program of a few years ago, "Eimac was there." Airline communication update in 1936; radar, 1936 to present; work with Armstrong on development of FM; tubes for TV, both receiving and transmitting, airborne radar, troposcatter communication, broadcast FM and AM, Ballistic Early Warning System, etc. Every moment of our history has been fun and exciting. Much of this history has been told before. Maybe a less known part of Eimac history would be of interest to this group. I am referring to how Eimac got started in the first place. I got my ham license and my present call 6CHE in 1923 when I was a sophomore in high school. Bill Eitel got his license the following year. Little did we know how our interest in amateur radio would cause our paths to cross and eventually form Eimac. A personal note at this point - I became President of the High School Radio Club in my senior year. The principal of the school thought my interest in amateur radio was interfering with my studies so I had to resign as President of the Radio Club. I'll never forget his prophetic words, "Your interest in amateur radio is a waste of time and if you pursue it, you will never amount to much." I wonder what would have happened if I had taken his advice! Spark was just passing from the scene in 1923 so my first transmitter had a UV202, the so-called five watter. Believe me, they were right. You squeezed to get 5 watts! Later I owned a UV203 fifty watter. National Tube Company (Wilbur and Lewis) were making "dynamite" 50 watters, UV203A with straight tungsten filaments. Loop modulations was still an accepted way of going on phone. Off center fed dipole antennas with a flash light bulb in the center were the rage. H&K (Heinz & Kaufman) Bill joined H&K in January 1929. H&K's job was to supply communication equipment for Dollar-Globe Wireless. RCA wouldn't supply tubes to anyone, much less a potential competitor. Dollar, uncertain of RCA patents, had H&K develop a new type tube called gammatron, a name invented by Jim Brown W6AY. The original gammatron had no grid but two plates on each side of the filament; electrons were controlled by the plate close to the filament. Jim named this electrode the gamma plate. No one knew how to make tubes, so Bill and another fellow named Dunlevy learned how to work glass the hard way - lots of broken glass and plenty of burnt fingers. R&K pioneered in the use of tantalum as electrode material for tubes. Tantalum has a melting point nearly as high as tungsten but much easier to form and weld. At a red temperature in absorbed high quantities of gas, tantalum was the basis for the rugged tube. All this at H&K on Natomas St., in San Francisco. H&K moved to South San Francisco in early 1930. About this time, my brother and I had an unsuccessful adventure in the automobile business. We were distributors for the Stutz Automobile for Northern California. In the fall of 1929, the company went bust. To survive, I started a radio service operation in San Francisco but after a few months decided it was not my cup of tea. I looked for a job at about the only electronics activity in the Bay Area, H&K. I found Bill was now in charge of the operation to make these new gammatron tubes at the new H&K South San Francisco plant. Bill gave me a job in this new operation. Being a ham helped. Bill's group had a big job to make the 500 watt H255 gammatron for all the transmitters of the Dollar Steamship Company's ships as well as for the land based stations of Globe Wireless. By the end of 1930, the depression caught up with the Dollar Co. so they decided to slow down on their development of the Globe Wireless communication system which was originally intended to be directly competitive with RCA and McKay. The uncertain patent situation had a lot to do with this hesitancy to proceed at full bore. The net result was an almost complete stoppage of all work at H&K at South San Francisco. >From a payroll of around 300 people in early 1930, the force was reduced to just two people, Bill Eitel and Phil Schofield. Phil was the chief engineer and had designed the equipment used in the system. Bill was supposed to keep the whole system supplied with tubes! I guess the Dollar people didn't realize that tubes don't last forever or how much work was involved in making them. After a few months, Bill decided the job was too much for one man so he was given permission to rehire two people for an uncertain time but for at least six weeks. Bill asked me and one other fellow named Koski whether we would take a chance on such a short-time job offer. The job I had obtained after leaving H&K was only paying $90 per month and I had to commute to San Francisco from San Bruno by car. I didn't have much trouble in deciding to take the temporary job at H&K. The job turned out to be permanent. We soon organized the rebuilding of the HK255 gammatron into an efficient routine. We found we had a reasonable amount of time to explore other avenues of tube development. Remember, this was in 1931-1934 Tubes made by Western Electric usually used oxide coated cathodes. Up until about this time, the only other emitter for a transmitting tube was a pure tungsten filament. The first thoriated tungsten tubes were beginning to appear. The 210 was a replacement for the UV202, the UV203A for the UV203 and the UV204A for the UV204. In 1932 the very tight monopoly exercised by RCA and Western Electric that prevented much competitive tube manufacturing activity was relaxed by order of the Supreme Court; even so, RCA and Western Electric were not about to give away their, trade secrets on how to make these more efficient cathodes. So, like Bill had to do earlier, when he learned to work glass, we had to approach acquiring knowledge on how to make these new type cathodes by the cut and try method. We had some success. One interesting aside - it is one thing to have your chemicals used in making an oxide type cathode in a bottle, but it was quite another to have that material go through the proper chemical reaction and end up adhering firmly to the core material running at 70oC. After many failures in attempting to find a binder, one material that we used successfully for binder material was ordinary Karo syrup bought at the grocery store. I forget now whether it was in the can with the Red label or the one with the Black label. We also found that thoria appearing at less than one percent in tungsten wire doesn't do a thing for the emission unless the filament is properly processed. This process is called carburizing. Usually the thoriated tungsten wire is heated in a hydrocarbon atmosphere until some of the carbon reacts with the tungsten wire. We had a lot of fun before we got this process to work. Actually none of the tubes H&K were making up to that time used or needed these more exotic emitters so Bill and I decided we should try making something unusual for our ham rigs. For its day, one of the more far out tubes we made was a 250 watt plate dissipation pentode. This tube had an indirectly heated oxide cathode. The tube worked well and met our crude criteria of that day and that was it could be driven by a type `46 receiving tube running as a doubler. In September, 1932 an article appeared in QST written by Charlie Perrine W6CUH, showing how to operate a pair of 852 tubes with a kilowatt input. Some of you may remember the B52. After the hams had shouted to the world the importance of the High Frequency bands, the commercial people found much to their dismay, that tubes like the UV204A and UV203A were difficult to operate at these new frequencies. The difficulties were sometimes dramatized by the embarrassing habit of having a grid lead burn up as critical circuits became mistuned. Not understanding the problem, blame was attached to the high interelectrode capacities and therefore the logical answer was to make tubes with low interelectrode capacities. Hence, the 852 type tube. Circuit-wise this tube was easier to handle but performance wise it was a dog. A UV203A could very nicely operate at 175-200 ma with 1000 volts on the plate. It took 2000 volts to get 100 ma on an 852. Bill McAulay W6KM and myself learned this lesson the hard way when we were going to the San Mateo Junior College in 1926. In those days a motor generator was the way to get your high voltage. This worked great on our 203A but we thought we would update by going to the 852 when something happened to the 203A. We had difficulty in getting 100 watts input using our 1000 volt motor generator. All this detour is way of telling you that when Bill and I saw what a struggle Charlie (W6CU had to get 1000 watts into a pair of 852's, we decided the hams needed a better tube. Hence the BK354 gammatron (even though this tube had a conventional type grid, the name gammatron was kept because of this name's identification with H&K). The HK354 had characteristics similar to the 203A but the electrode designs were such that circuit-wise few problems existed at the higher frequencies. Another article appearing in QST in September 1933 (a year later) had an influence on the design of the HK354. This article, "The Inverted Ultraudion" by Hugo Romander was the first article that I recalled that showed triodes used in what has now become known as the grounded grid circuit. The influence on the HK354 was the strange base that extended part way up the bulb to help complete the grid shielding. We had built the first HK354 to use in my ham rig. Again, hopefully, the `46 doubler was to be the driver for a pair of 354's. Everything worked normally until we tried to lead down the amplifier. All our drive disappeared: Lesson number one on ground grid amplifier learned the hard way. It requires a lot of drive! We dug out the neutralizing condensers and went conventional. We didn't again try ground grid until years later. The HK354 was so superior to existing types of tubes for HF use at that time that we prevailed on management to market it. First ad appeared in April 1934. Management was not as sold on the future of the HK354 as we were and it was a subsequent disagreement on how to market this tube that first prompted Bill and myself to question our future at H&K. Our ideas about leaving H&K were further pushed by an across-the-board layoff at H&K. We figured our department was returning a profit to the company where other H&K operations were not and to be given no recognition for our profitable status was too much. In the early fall, my wife and I were playing bridge with some of our friends. After having a few cocktails I felt talkative and I suggested to my friend that if Bill and I had a little financial backing, we could make it big in the tube business. His answer was unexpected, "You could? how much do you need?" Taking a number off the top of my head, I said $5, 000 should be enough. He replied, "I think I can get it for you!" I couldn't back out so that's the way Eimac qot started. We went to the management of the Dollar Steamship Co. and told them about our plans to form a new company. We' knew that they needed tubes but our new company would be pleased to continue making their tube for them. For reasons I can understand now, but didn't at that time, their reaction was quite violent. Before the day was out, Bill and I were on our own! The Beginning of Eimac Eimac was incorporated in September 1934. Our first store was at 592 San Mateo Ave. in San Bruno. It was Eimac's first factory building. It is not true that Eimac started in a meat market. The meat market came after Eimac left. The first tube, of course, was the 150T, really an updated HK354 in a different envelope. It was imperative that we get our operation under way at once so we had to prepare an ad that was to appear in the November 1934 QST before we had actually made our first tube. We were lucky to find Bud Bane, W6WB, who was, among other things, a commercial artist. We showed him the glass bulb, the anode and a drawing of the base. He came up with a drawing of the 150T that appears in that historic ad. Eimac started with only three people. Bill, myself and our first employee, Carl Porter, who was with us at H&K. We had expected a few other people to come with us from H&K but they decided to stay behind. I couldn't blame them. This was 1934 and job security was all important during that depression. Actually those people who initially stayed behind joined up with us a few years later. Obviously with only three people, we had plenty to do. We had to make all of our own equipment. There were few tube companies in 1934. Besides, we didn't have too much money. Much of the early equipment had its ancestry in many of San Francisco's junk yards. We made the rounds regularly. We knew the one on 9th St. specialized in certain types of equipment. Transformers were found at 6th & Harrison and the yard on Bryant St. had various pieces of iron and steel we could hew into our tools and dies. Bill was the machinest and later the glass blower. Carl did the assembly work after he had completed the electrical installations (he had been an electrician before coming to HSK). I built the pumps, did the initial plumbing, did the exhaust, carburizing and basing. The correspondence, at first, was answered by Brad Harrison; later this became one of my tasks! I don't think we worked more than 24 hours in any one day! Eventually we were ready to make tubes. Bill's dies in our "kick" press formed the parts. Carl mounted the filaments and made the grids and finally the exhaust and testing. Bill and I went to the Ham Fest in Fresno in November 1934. Our ad for the 150T had appeared in QST and we had with us five 150T tubes (our entire production). The tubes were well received and our spirits were soaring until someone noticed a crack in one of the filament presses! When we were by ourselves, we examined the remainder of the tubes - they all had cracks. Our entire production down the drain. More disconcerting was the fact that we didn't know how we were going to prevent it happening in the future. After all our effort, to have this happen was almost too much. Brad Harrison invited us over to have a highball and relax. We worked out of our problem. We have had many problems over the forty years of Eimac's history but none seemed as large as our first one! We had a fortunate break as far as publicity was concerned. Dickow was putting out the magazine "Radio" always looking for something new or starting, he found Eimac a fertile field. J.N.A. Hawkins W6AAR was an editor with Dickow. He spent a lot of time at Eimac. Some of his engineering suggestions were most helpful. I believe he was the one that suggested the word, "Eimac." One will never know what influence the publicity in the magazine "Radio" had on Eimac's early success. Looking back over those early years, we were fairly prolific in new tube types. Our second tube was the 50T. The first year we had the 150T and 300T. In 1936, there was the 35T. Also that year the 150T became the 250T, the 50T the 100T, and the 300T the 450T. We had long since paid back to our financial friends $1,250 each so that all four of us owned equal shares of the company. Business was so good, in fact, that we moved out of the store at 592 San Mateo Ave., into a new 5,000 square foot building we had built across the street from the San Bruno depot. It seemed so big. We actually held a dance for a housewarming party. We had about 20 people on our payroll and sales were above $100,000 per year. One must remember that salaries were a little less then. When we started the company, Bill and I had a salary of $150 per month. Considering we were working 70 hours per week, that is slightly less than 50 cents per hour. Our first employees were mostly high school dropouts. We paid them 35 cents per hour to start. When they gained experience, they would go to 70 cents per hour. Remember a tool and die maker was getting $1.10 per hour in those days. Present salary scales, by comparison, are 6 to 10 times as much! Also in 1936 Bill and I made our first trip East. Quite a bumpy 22 hour ride in a Boeing 247, a ten-passenger plane. We visited the various military service laboratories and found them fooling around with a thing called radar. More interestingly, they were using our tubes in these early radars. We established a good working relationship with the Signal Corp Laboratories in Monmouth, N.J. and the Naval Research Laboratories in Washington. We didn't realize at this time how many times in the future we would be making these trips to these laboratories. The U.S. military was just beginning to be ever so slightly concerned about the European political unrest. About this time we visited the National Ham Convention being held in Chicago. Remembering Charlie Perrine's article in 1932 of putting 1000 watts into a pair of 852's, we, thought we would update him a bit. On a breadboard, we mounted four 35T's. One 35T was a crystal oscillator. Another 35T, a quadrupler and a pair of 35T's in push pull as the final amplifier. In a later version the final used a vacuum condensor for the "C". The performance of this rig was rather startling. With 5000 volts @ 200 milliamperes on the plate of the final, close to 1000 watts of output power lit a 1000 watt incandescent lamp nearly to full brilliance. In those days, though albeit dangerous, it was the custom to estimate the performance of an amplifier by the length of the arc that could be drawn from the hot side of the tank, circuit by means of a lead pencil. Needless to say, the two or three inch arc that could be drawn from this 35T rig made a lasting impression on a lot of hams. Incidentally this rig was keyed by some new mercury vapor controlled grid rectifiers we had just made. It is interesting to note that the relatively quiet activity in power tube design that had prevailed in early thirties was vastly changed by 1937-1938. RCA came out with a great quantity of types. Hi mu triodes, pentodes, even some exact copies of the Eimac types. Raytheon started out with several pentode type, tubes but they, like RCA, also made some very close copies of Eimac types. Very flattering. Taylor tube was a big operation at this time with their graphite anode types and liberal replacement policy. H&K, after a lull, again entered the fight in the latter part of the thirties. Eimac started out originally to make tubes primarily for the ham. This decision was not hard to make because we found that when we approached a commercial customer he would say " I have no assurance that you will be in business when I need replacement tubes." We understood their problem. Beause of this background, it came as a pleasant surprise to learn that the airlines were in the process of updating their ground equipment. They had found a pair of our $75 450T tubes would give them 2500 watts of carrier output when high level modulated by another pair of 450T's. For $300 worth of tubes, they were getting six times the 400 watts of carrier they were getting from a $300 W.E. type tube used as a linear amplifier. The economics worked out that having pairs of 450T's per channel and using a common audio modulator, they ended up with higher power, lower cost and eliminated the necessity of retuning when changing frequency. We made a lot of 450T's. As a later bonus when WWII came, this type of equipment was adopted worldwide for airline communication! In 1939 and 1940 the military picture was becoming more grim. The Signal Corp placed its first order for the SCR268 radar with Western Electric. This radar used sixteen special tubes developed from the 100T. It was pulsed by a modulator made up of a number of 304TL tubes. We went back to Western Electric to discuss the procurement of about 15,000 tubes! The order amounted, to about half a million dollars. The fat was now in the fire. Things would never be the same again at Eimac. We had to enlarge our facilities and we had to add to our work force. We were not "chauvanistic pigs" - we hired our first women. In spite of our apprehensions about having women workers, it worked out fine and still is. The need for expansion caused a need for financing and we logically thought that one of our original founders who was relatively wealthy would be glad to guarantee our loan from the bank. No soap. We decided we should buy him out as soon as we could. Not too long afterwards, we bought his orriginal $1250 investment back for $57,000! As it turned out, we did not have much difficulty with our financing. Just before WWII engulfs us, let us stop and recap what has happened in the six years since September of 1934. We have a line of triode tubes starting with the 35T, 100T, 250T, 450T, 750T - 1000 UHF - and 1500T and 2000T, all made of tantalum. We also have a line of vacuum condensors and vacuum relays. We made several type mercury vapor rectifier tubes. our dealings with the military labs have led to some special designs for radar applications. We learn that the first radar in fleet use was on the USS New York using six 100T tubes. (To be continued in the next issue of the Newsletter.) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ END