Re: Building a valve radio

From	Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca>
Newsgroups	sci.electronics.misc
Subject	Re: Building a valve radio
Date	2015-06-17 19:29 -0400
Organization	National Capital Freenet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Message-ID	<alpine.LNX.2.02.1506171925340.4587@darkstar.example.org> (permalink)
References	<mlf42r$b89$1@news.albasani.net> <wcOdnVjV9uda8-bInZ2dnUU7-I2dnZ2d@giganews.com> <mlgo0s$2v5$1@news.albasani.net> <Z0Sex.984999$pj.28100@fx16.am4>

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On Sat, 13 Jun 2015, Tom Gardner wrote:

> On 13/06/15 09:01, Justin Thyme wrote:
>> Dave M wrote:
>>> Are you looking to build [a valve radio] from a kit or completely from 
>>> scratch?
>>
>>  From scratch.
>
> Interestingly you could consider scratch-building the valves
> themselves.
>
I don't think that was ever a common thing for the home builder.  Maybe in 
the very early days, when tubes were just getting started, but I don't 
think even then.  It's just not something I've read about.

Eventually some did make their own tubes, I remember an article in QST 
about 1964 or 65 about an Argentinian who did.

I've seen much more about making one's own components.  Roll your own 
capacitors out of wax paper and tin foil.  Make electrolytics with beer 
bottles and some mixture.  Make variable capacitors, in the early days 
they'd be "book" capacitors, pieces of wood that closed like a book, 
increasing capacitance, but in more recent decades people have made 
variable capacitors for special purposes. SOme did make their own 
resistors, if it was early enough, I've seen descriptions.  Quartz 
crystals seemed to be something made before commercial grinding took off 
(for a long period, crystals weren't very common, then crowded bands and 
restrictions made them a necessity).

    Michael

> I can probably find a 1930s book showing how to make a car. It
> starts by showing how to make the tools necessary to make the
> car - e.g. the engine block from a solid lump of metal.
>
>

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Re: Building a valve radio Justin Thyme <JustinThyme@nowhere.com> - 2015-06-13 09:01 +0100
  Re: Building a valve radio Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2015-06-13 09:41 +0100
    Re: Building a valve radio Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-06-17 19:29 -0400

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