Amateur Radio Station

K3HLN / M

On The Road

This is a picture of my 1951 Plymouth station wagon which I purchased from an employee of Scott Communications in Norristown. The big advantage of this purchase (to my young twisted mind) was that it already had holes drilled in it for a two-meter 1/4 wave antenna on the roof and a 10 meter 1/4 wave ball mount on the left fender. I moved the home brew 10 meter mobile from my parents 1957 Ford sedan to this car when I started working at Philadelphia Electronics on West Airy Street in Norristown in 1962.

This picture shows the 10 meter homebrew transmitter mounted under the dash of the 1951 Plymouth station wagon over the transmission hump. The vibrator power supply for the B+ (125 vdc) was mounted under the hood on a shelf between the left wheel well and the fire wall. The dynamotor power supply for the B++ (275 vdc) was mounted on a shelf under the hood between the right wheel well and the fire wall. I used a homebrew crystal controlled converter into the AM broadcast radio and a homebrew TNS (Twin Noise Squelch) for receiving. I had to watch running mobile at night because when the PTT button was keyed the headlights would dim to half brilliance until the dynamotor got up to full speed.

This picture is a closeup of the homebrew 10 meter AM transmitter showing detail of the front panel. The final output tuning controls are in the upper right. The bottom row, left to right: microphone jack, meter switch, main power switch, tune / operate switch, exciter "drive" tuning control and the FT-243 crystal socket. The bottom indicator light was the green "on" indicator and the top one was the red "transmit" indicator.

This picture shows the inside detail of the 10 meter transmitter. The 5763 oscillator tube is mounted between the tuning controls. The final output section is to the lower left where you can see the 2E26, plate coil, plate choke and tuning capacitors. On the back apron to the left is the antenna jack and to the right is the jack for the receiver antenna. To the right on the apron is the octal jack for power and control. The tube in the center is the 1635/6SN7GT modulator tube and to the right of that is the 12AU7 audio pre-amp/amp. At the rear on the right is the plate modulation transformer.

This is the schematic diagram.

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