I Never Saw A Tuning Indicator I Didn't Like

[CK-722]

Thread under construction.



You'll see these in old movies and TV shows, like The Waltons, on old radios. It pretty much has to be in color. Generally you'll just see the green glow.

[Turkeytop]

Hate to admit it, but I remember those. They were on high end brands like Grundig, Nordmende and Zenith. Nothing I could have afforded in those days.

[k8jd]

The "magic Eye" was a real eye catcher , an analog meter is even better and best is my own ear to get a signal tuned in on CW orSSB on the HF SW bands.

[km1125]

I"m not sure why the image doesn't show up (seems to happen a lot on this site), but are you talking about a "magic eye"??

If so, I think those are really cool. I remember at my grandmothers house she had an old shortwave/longwave/am/fm set with one and I used to play with it as a kid. My dad also built a capacitor tester with one and I played with that too (actually used it for a number of years).

[CK-722]

I"m not sure why the image doesn't show up (seems to happen a lot on this site), but are you talking about a "magic eye"??

If so, I think those are really cool. I remember at my grandmothers house she had an old shortwave/longwave/am/fm set with one and I used to play with it as a kid. My dad also built a capacitor tester with one and I played with that too (actually used it for a number of years).

Try this link for many other types. The double ones were used before Stereo VU meters for each channel.

http://www.magiceyetubes.com

[k8jd]

I can see the GIF of the eye opening and closing on CK722's post

[CK-722]

The "magic Eye" was a real eye catcher , an analog meter is even better and best is my own ear to get a signal tuned in on CW orSSB on the HFT SW bands.

And the human eye and ear for adjusting the rotator on analog TV, FM radio, etc. An analog TV picture was its own signal strength meter.

[CK-722]

I can see the GIF of the eye opening and closing on CK722's post

That is the effect you would get if you had both AM sites of a two site operation on at the same time, and they were about the same strength. I saw this a few times with WGRT/WJPC/...WNTD 950 at Sunset in Chicago. But with a signal strength meter on a Sony portable.

[CK-722]

It's that time of year.

[CK-722]

Found while looking for signal indicator images. Old school lightning arrester. You know you need one when it starts to arc between the plates of an air dielectric variable capacitor. Unhook the antenna fast if you hear that. You'll be lucky if you just have to replace a transistor. Is that 50 ohm balanced ladder line? I can't figure out the formula how distance between conductors affects the characteristic impedance. It involves the inverse hyperbolic cosine function. According to the second link, this would be 600 ohm line. it says that 75 ohm twin lead is available though. I've seen much simpler formulas for these though. I took E and M at U. of M. The professor lectured like Dr. Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun. If you couldn't figure it out yourself, it was useless. We felt like Leon and Bug. The average on the final exam was 83 out of 200. It was on a B- curve.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-lead

[innate-in-you]

Thread under construction.



You'll see these in old movies and TV shows, like The Waltons, on old radios. It pretty much has to be in color. Generally you'll just see the green glow.

I have one of those on my 1935 RCA five-band console radio (continuous coverage 170-70,000 KHz, IIRC).

Two more radios of mine have miniature meter tubes. A Tandberg Sølvsuper 10-70 in the role of signal strength indicator, and a Swan 260 in the role of RF output/tuning indicator.

[Turkeytop]

Found while looking for signal indicator images. Old school lightning arrester. You know you need one when it starts to arc between the plates of an air dielectric variable capacitor. Unhook the antenna fast if you hear that. You'll be lucky if you just have to replace a transistor. Is that 50 ohm balanced ladder line? I can't figure out the formula how distance between conductors affects the characteristic impedance. It involves the inverse hyperbolic cosine function. According to the second link, this would be 600 ohm line. it says that 75 ohm twin lead is available though. I've seen much simpler formulas for these though. I took E and M at U. of M. The professor lectured like Dr. Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun. If you couldn't figure it out yourself, it was useless. We felt like Leon and Bug. The average on the final exam was 83 out of 200. It was on a B- curve.

Thanks. I've memorized that.