The following is a brief look into some of the classic electronic magazine articles that I have been saving over the last 20-odd years. I've saved magazines that go back into the 1940's, although some of the most interesting articles (shown below) only go back to the 1950's. They illustrate just how 'hip' some of the writers were way back then. Simply 'click' on an article that interests you, and read for yourself that there is nothing new under the sun! A few of the articles may seem silly and irrelevant, but try to envision the big picture. You'll learn more than you'd imagine if you experiment with the circuit and/or take the 'lesson' further than taught. CAUTION! Some of the bigger articles can take a long time to 'load' (up to two minutes). This is because you are getting a scan of the real article, and not a retype. Enjoy! I'll add more articles as I get the time to sort through the thousands of magazines that I have. I have also learned to use GIF compression software and will slowly condense the larger images and articles. Average download times with a 56K modem are shown in parenthesis. The ones that were painfully slow have been optimized already, and can be identified by the stopwatch label...
ARTICLES THAT
DIDN'T QUITE MAKE THE CUT are great articles that can shed
much light for the novice/beginner tube technician befuddled by the
hype. However, due to either sheer size, poor scanning quality, or
the fact that the article has 10% 'wheat' inside of 90% 'chaff', I
decided not to include it here. But I will include the magazine cover
and/or article 'header' just to show you that they do exist. If you
insist on seeing the article, I can either replace another below or
email the article to you on request. Vote for your favorite now! (130
second download time)
BEGINNERS PAGE:
THE POWER TRANSFORMER is a great introduction in your quest
to learn about AC theory, transformer theory, and much more if you
read 'between the lines'. I still have my home made
transformer! Electronics Illustrated, March 1965. Other
articles from this 'series' have taught you to make your own AC
generator and automobile-style horn, again with only a carriage bolt,
some magnet wire, and a few other odds and ends! Once you have
learned this 'lesson' and experimented with different grades
of bolts (hint, hint) you'll scoff at the notion that it's
paper bobbins that make a transformer 'better'. (30 second download
time)
IDENTIFYING THE SALVAGED
TRANSFORMER is a very easy project you can build in a few
hours, and then calculate the primary impedance of any output
transformer you come across. There have been other methods suggested
in various guitar publications, and they all work well. This is an
old article I had photocopied years ago and then threw out the
magazine! It's from Popular Electronics, but I don't have the
exact issue to refer to. Because the article uses 6F6s and 6AR5s as
examples, I can guess it was originally from the early-to-mid
1950's. (30 second download time)
REGULATED
HEATER SUPPLY is an interesting article from
Radio-Electronics, November 1959. I don't like Variacs in the
least, but if you must have one, use this circuit to keep your
heater supply up to par. Actually, regulated DC heater supplies are
used in high gain amplifiers like Mesa Boogie and Soldano for very
quiet operation. You may have to juggle with the zener and resistor
values, but I've given you more than enough to go on. (40 second
download time)
REMOVING THE MYSTERIES FROM
MATCHING is a great article from Radio Electronics,
December 1966. I've seen very few articles in my entire magazine
collection dealing with the effects of matching the output tube(s)
plate impedance to the speaker load and what is really going
on. This is one of them. (80 second download
time)
SAVE THOSE
DEFECTIVE TRANSFORMERS! Popular Electronics, April
1955. Shows the frugality of the early electronics experimenter,
and illustrates that cost can be everything! If you couldn't
repair the transformer, use the working sections for a different
application! Amazingly, these ideas work very well, especially the
idea of using a power transformer as an output transformer. (95
second download time)
SEEING THE HIGH RESISTANCE GROUND is an interesting idea for measuring resistance as low as .02 ohms! Useful for detecting poor grounds and ground loops, a major headache for Do-It-Yourself types. Even many vintage amplifiers have ground loops, Marshall being notorious. Well, now you can track them down in a jiffy. Why no tube guru has written something like this, I have no idea. Radio Electronics, October 1962. (80 second download time)
WORKING IN A
SPEAKER It seems that ever since speakers were invented,
people had tricks on how to 'improve' them with a plethora of ideas.
Today, legends about some boutique builders 'beating up' their
speakers to try and soften them up a little abound. This is one of
the safer ideas, but still a little 'iffy', so be very cautious if
you decide to try it. I don't like committing any speaker cruelties,
and would rather just buy a speaker that sounded the way I wanted it
to. This article is presented only for information purposes. From the
1959 annual edition of Radio-TV Experimenter. (30 second
download time)
TABLE OF CONTENTS MADE IN CANADA