Batboard

Once - very long ago I worked, and lived, on Mt. Wilson in California.

We had repeaters in the same building as the RCA service company, the guy from RCA was a friend and came up only when something needed fixing. Everything was tubes then.

One day he was coming up the hill to service a system that was dead on receive - he was on a service call and I heard the dispatch. Ah, I thought now for some fun....

So before he arrived, I went over to that radio system, a remote VHF base, and pulled a tube from the receiver. A 12AX7 I remember.

I then carefully clipped the smallest bit off the top of the tube seal.

Little by little, with the tube in a cup of water. It worked, as soon as I cut away just enough the vacuum pulled in the water filling the tube! You could not see the tiny hole at all. The tube looked completely normal in every way - cept' for the.... water! I put the tube back in the base.

Ah, when he got there he finally found that tube. Can you imagine, he was beside himself, came running over to me with this tube - he could not believe it!! He just had this warm slightly fizzy tube in his hand - full of water. How could this be he asked??

Ah, a wateree tube I said, I find em, now and then too -something to do with the altitude, said I.

I never told him - He kept that tube for years showing it to everyone - Those days were fun, 2c39's and all! True story, one of so many. Some day I will tell the vibrator repair story!

Ra

There ya go!

Hey!!! Is that Col. Harlan Saunders??????

Frank

I have worked on repeaters on Mt Wilson too. I also worked changing antennas on the Ross and McKinney buildings (now NexTell-- damm). I did a lot of repeater and antenna work for the Green Hornet too.

Could that be Ron A., from the mountain. Lets see who worked for RCA back a while, Stan, Rick, Bob, Steve, and Will. Maybe John L. ??
Ray would'nt do that!!???

When I started a lot of our radios used vibrators and tubes. Later, a customer bought a '49 Ford with a radio that didn't work because the vibrator quit - tore it apart and rebuilt same. Also had a few 80D's and 140d's with dynamotors which drew enough current to kill the ignition.

Lets get the vibrator story, as long as it has been mentioned.

Tron

I like hearing the "old time" stories...I've only been in radio for 6 years total, and electronics for 12 years, so there are many things I don't know about. I have no experience with anything tube related, other than throwing them against a wall to hear the "bang!" when I was a youngster. I know I answer a lot of questions, but it's only because I retain everything I read, see & experience. I'd like to hear about the vibrator story as well, Ra.

Todd