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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 1:54 pm   #1
HamishBoxer
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Default 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

See South Gate Amateur Radio News.A serious beastie,not quite your pantry tx at a whopping 50KW!

Hope someone does rescue it.
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 2:06 pm   #2
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/n...nada-1.4495286

This is reminiscent of the RCA 50E medium-wave transmitter ('T4') that radiated Radio Three (1215kHz) from Moorside Edge until the station was re-engineered in the mid-'80's.
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 2:45 pm   #3
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

I remember that one well. I particularly liked the art-deco horizontal chrome strips that echoed the ones on my AR88 when I saw it as a schoolkid.

But half the visual impact lay in the motor-generator converters, the engines and the hall.

David
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 4:34 pm   #4
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Moorside Edge, that is where the stuff came from that the BVWS sold years ago. I have the RF amp meter.
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 6:43 pm   #5
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Darn ... missed it.
Any chance of a pic?
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 6:48 pm   #6
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Picture at today's South Gate Amateur Radio News. Sorry! you mean my meter? Yes I can arrange that as I saw the meter only the other day. Just dug it out I will post a picture, there was something else I got from there, another meter I believe, not quite as beefy as this one though.
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 6:52 pm   #7
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Calling Robert (?SunThaiBoy) from Criggion - who might like to give this a home?
Regards,
Richard
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 6:57 pm   #8
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

$CAN 5000 plus postage & packing - or maybe FCS ... anyone ?

I'll see if I can track down my collection of North Regional photos for (scan + post)ing in a separate thread.

G
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 7:23 pm   #9
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

My Feeder Ampere Meter.
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 8:37 pm   #10
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

From either of the two Marconi 50kW transmitters originally installed in 1931. Your meter probably came from one of the 'D' units (see pic); these combined the outputs from each final stage (C1, C2).

G.
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 8:38 pm   #11
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
I remember that one well. I particularly liked the art-deco horizontal chrome strips that echoed the ones on my AR88 when I saw it as a schoolkid ...

David
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 9:36 pm   #12
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler View Post
... but half the visual impact lay in the motor-generator converters, the engines and the hall.

David
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Old 23rd Jan 2018, 9:47 pm   #13
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

The Ruston 6VE from Moorside Edge is at Internal Fire Museum in North Wales.
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 9:31 am   #14
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

As seen on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8A5ieoZ_30

Paul very kindly let an 'old hand' run it up when I last visited. The oil priming pump still seemed to take an age before getting the needle to twitch on the pressure gauge
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 11:08 am   #15
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

So the Ruston 6VE is needed to supply the transmitter then?or is just a backup generator?
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 12:01 pm   #16
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Initially (1931), the station had no incoming mains so the transmitting equipment was supplied full-time (during broadcast hours anyway) by running three sets, with the fourth as a standby to cover maintenance/breakdown.

In 1941, the station was put onto the grid (11kV) and the Ruston sets were relegated to emergency standby use. There was also a Ruston 5VPH 60kW DC set that supplied the station auxiliary supplies (kitchen etc.); it lived in the corner of the main engine room.

I'm digitising a station layout drawing that was done by J McPherson on 17th February 1949; once it's complete, I'll upload it.

(Mods, if this is going off topic, please feel free to divert or split as you think fit)

Guy
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 12:15 pm   #17
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

"I'm digitising a station layout drawing that was done by J McPherson on 17th February 1949; once it's complete, I'll upload it."

Here it is - and by the way, the reverse of the original carries a more detailed explanation of the numbered references along with a summary of functionality. That's taking a bit longer to do as I want to get the page formatting as close to the original as possible.

Guy
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 12:48 pm   #18
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Thank you Guy, that explains things nicely. Think we are just about on topic as no power then no transmitter!
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 12:53 pm   #19
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Here's a picture of the rating plate for the 6VE as installed.

Guy
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Old 24th Jan 2018, 2:22 pm   #20
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Default Re: 78 year old transmitter needs a home.

Re. post #12, first image:

In the earlier image, there are three sets shown (two being used for each service - T1, T2 - with the third as a spare i.e. n+1 redundancy).
The motor (smaller machine) is on the right and the two larger machines are on the left.

These were started manually by the engineer standing in front of a live front switchboard and closing the supply isolator knife switches (+ and - sides of the 235v DC station supply) - one at a time and with one's right-hand only - then operating the associated air-circuit breaker to apply power to the motor supply circuit. Immediately afterwards, the first of two field current knife switches would be closed; this put around 500 amps through the motor which needed be given this firm kick up its ar...mature to overcome the 'rotary stiction' due to the white metal sleeve bearings that were used. As the machine set began to pick up speed, the current drawn would reduce due to the increase in the motor's generated ("back") e.m.f.; once this value had got to around 150A, the next field knife switch would be closed, the current would increase, motor speed would increase and so on. This process would be repeated until all the field knife switches were in circuit at which point the machine would be running at 720 r.p.m. and its load on the station supply at this point would be mainly due to I2R, rotational friction and windage losses. All of this was subject to dynamic interaction once the transmitter HT supply was set into service - ! - i.e. as the transmitter came up on power, the station load increased and the diesel engines took up more load - hence the diesel generators' field currents had to be adjusted to compensate for the 'droop'. This required close co-operation with another engineer down in the engine room being prompted by two blasts on a 24v klaxon ('Tx to engine room - raise the volts please') or one blast ('Tx to engine room - lower the volts please') to ensure correct operational voltages were maintained at the transmitter/s as full rated carrier power was approached. Oh, and there were grid-bias and auxiliary HT (again, machine-based) supplies to worry about as well. As Terry Wogan would have said: "What fun!"

Meanwhile, back in the machine room ... the enclosure was Castell-key interlocked so that personnel could not get in without tripping the supply to the set. That didn't stop it rotating though; it took well over fifteen minutes for them to come to a complete stop after use.

Here's a picture of the ratings plates for the H.T. motor generator sets. I've arranged them in logical order i.e. motor on left then the two (series-connected) generators on the right.

I have audio recordings that I made back in 1982 if anyone's interested

Guy
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