Time machine HOWTO: How to win the ancient QRP contest

Some time ago digging the web for information on The Radio Club of Hartford, I came across this article in QST magazine (September issue, 1921). In a nutshell, it is about a QRP contest as it should be - "Do More With Less" and then measure how big this "More" is and how much spare "Less" were used. I read this article briefly: something about some kind of reward, some competitions, the names - not very exciting at first sight, but one remarkable thing caught my attention - The Winner, transmitter that won a first prize. This TX has turned my stereotypes upside down (once again): how should it work? where is a rectifier? grounded plate tank? keying the grid-leak?? I have to investigate, or even better - to make my own, based on this article, design and run such a prehistoric radio on the air!
So, is that contest over? I do not think so, not yet, not for me..

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The Radio Club of Hartford (affiliated) recently conducted a very interesting contest in the building of C.W. sets. Several months ago the rules were drawn up and about a dozen members entered. The idea was to devise a simple inexpensive C.W. set of low power, preferably operating from 110 volt lighting current, to supersede the spark coil in the small stations about town. The sharper wave and greater distance with reduced interference made this very desirable, and the Radio Club of Hartford is to be commended for instituting steps that can well be followed by other cities in the reduction of QRM.

One of the members of the club offered a silver loving cup as a grand prize, and in addition there were five 5-watt power tubes offered by the club. The rules called for the award of the prizes to the men having the highest scores on the following basis:

Overall electrical efficiency	50%
Workmanship	20%
Ingenuity in construction	15%
Economy in cost	15%
100%

The awards were made at the final meeting of the club before closing for the summer, and eight contestants were on hand with their sets. These were of every imaginable description, but mostly following the general idea of a small base bearing a vertical panel carrying the controls, with the apparatus behind.

Considerable ingenuity was displayed in the source of power. Several of the sets used step-down ("toy") transformers on the 110 volt supply, the low potential current thus obtained being used both to light the filament and to operate a spark coil with regular interrupter, the secondary voltage of which was dropped by a shunt condenser and then fed to the plate of the tube. These sets of course would operate from a storage battery equally well.

It was a condition of the contest that the operating wave length should not exceed 200 meters, and thru faulty design only two sets were able to achieve this - those submitted by J. C. Randall, 1ANQ, Dist. Supt., and F. H. Schnell, 1MO, our Traffic Manager, who is incidentally vice president of the club. Both of these sets, however, were able to get down to 180 meters, altho readings were taken at 200. A phantom antenna was used, consisting of a 12-ohm resistance and a mica condenser of .0005 mfd. capacity, in series with a Jewell thermo-couple ammeter.

Experimental QRP transmitter by UB5DT, "Radio" magazine, April 1967

For those of my friends tube radio builders, who asked me about "Soviet novice transmitter", "XUSSR QRP TX" (as it pronounced in telegraph),"something authentic, but not too complex" etc, such a RIG should be a good choice - easy to build and clearly adjustable design, small amount of widespread parts, a lot of potential operational fun (two possible output sockets, changeable configuration, very uncommon CW note, i believe). And, after all - a frumpish bald telephonist on the cover as a genuine sign of Soviet authenticity.

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Experimental QRP Transmitter by I. Tsapiv (UB5DT):

This simple two-stage telegraph transmitter has been developed for a QRP experiments on the amateur HF bands.

The rock bound exciter on the 6П3С (6L6) vacuum tube utilizes circuit known as the "Three-point" (or Tritet in common notation). The crystal controls the frequency of oscillation - 3510kc in this case. Signal output is taken from a separate tuned tank circuit L1C4 in the plate circuit of exciter; this tank should be tuned to 3510kc or 7020kc.

The second stage on the 6П7С (6BG6) tube acts as an amplifier or frequency multiplier (doubler or tripler) depends on an inductance of the L2 coil and bias voltage on the signal grid of this tube.

If you would like to use this transmitter on 80m band as well as on 40m with a noticeable lowered power, you have to connect an antenna to the "A1" connector and pull the amplifier tube (6BG6) out from the socket. For the general power output on 7020kc and QRP operations on 14040kc and 21060kc that tube has to be back and antenna switched to the "A2" output connector.

Measured Power:

frequency	single stage (6П3С)	both stages
3510kc	8 W	-
7020kc	3 W	18 W
14040kc	-	6...8 W
21060kc	-	1,5...2,5 W

Several interesting QSO's  has been obtained using this transmitter in October 1966. For example, UA0MX and K2AGU on 14Mc, and F9MC on 21Mc with a power level as low as 1.7 Watt.

Second Life of Dead MFM Hard Drives - Iambic Paddle

Just finished my first in life "Instructable" at the D.I.Y. host site instructables. It is short sketch about Iambic Paddle which has been made using a spare parts from the dead MFM HDD drive. I got a lot of fun posting to that site, and I think that it should be good idea to post more detailed article here. Frankly, this homebrew project is not a Pure Glowing Bug, but I'm not so puristic today.
Well, let me explain - why I decided to use HDD heads as a levers in this Iambic Paddle Project. For many years I've collected computer spare parts for no reason, just because I have a big, nearly endless Junk Box and it was impossible to me to throw such high-tech toys in the trash. But one morning I found that my Junk Box is full and The Time of Trash Bags has come. It was a hard work, but under the tons of debris I found the treasure - my first homemade Z80 Sinclair Spectrum and five old 5 inch MFM hard drives from my second computer.
As you remember, these drives was a big rounded shaped boxes, ideal as a chassis for any homemade electronic projects, tube glowbugs as well as solid state stuff. Another interesting things - powerful electromotor and magnetic cylinders itself, thick shiny discs which are so usable as a dial or scale part, looked much better than a CD in this role. And last but not least - yes, precision bearings on the easy to mount axis in magnetic head's block. What a beautiful hardware! When I opened and totally disassembled these hard drives, I realized that I literally had a very new telegraph key, usual one lever, dual lever iambic paddle or even straight key - not so important, it is easy to make any kind of telegraph manipulator using these nice spare parts. Watch this video demonstrating a working Iambic Paddle and take a look at step by step constructing process here: