Sem Europa VHF transverter.

[John-G0GUF]

I own the above device and a few years ago I used it with a yaesu hf transmitter.

I have now purchased a Yaesu FT950 and wondering if any one could tell me if with some modifications to the transverter in particular the plugging arrangements whether it could be used with my rig.

The other thing does anyone know if “Solid State Models of Huddersfield England” where the TRANSVERTER was made are still in business

Thanks for any information

Regards
John-G0GUF

[Radio Wrangler]

Hello, and welcome!

SSM were active about 50 to 55 years ago. It was a small hobby business run from the owner's home. Despite living a couple of miles away at the time, I never knew the chap. I lusted after one of the SSM two-metre converters, but they were somewhat beyond the reach of my pocket money, so I built my own valved ones. I think the firm went out of action when the Japanese makers started flogging VHF radios in quantity.

I can't help with using the two together as I've no experience of either unit, but one general comment is that the SSM converters and transverters were done at a time when a transverter was seen as a way of getting on a band at all. Performance was not so important.

Modern transverters are used by people wanting higher performance on VHF/UHF bands than is offered by the one-box VHF/UHF rigs. HF transceivers offer more dynamic range, better filtering and better QRM evasion functions than is usally provided in VHF rigs, so a high dynamic range transverter with a clean LO is still the highest performance setup for VHF DXing and moonbounce.

If you want to use a transverter in order to get the highest performance on VHF, then you need one from a later era. One of Chris Bartram's Mutek ones, or something from the pages of Dubus magazine.

If you want to use the SSM transverter for old-times-sake nostalgia, then that's great, but with that non-contemporaneous pairing, you're unlikely to be lucky enough to find someone who's already done it, so you'll likely have to work through the compatibility issues yourself.

You'll need to hunt up the documentation for the transverter, and read through what Yaesu say on the subject of transverters for that transceiver and try to reconcile the two.

It's safe to say that no-one at SSM could have predicted sets like the FT950, and that no-one at Yaesu knew that SSM had ever existed.

David

[G3PIJpeter]

I'm currently (slowly) refurbishing one of these transverters. I have all the documentation available from the web. Once you have the plug connections, what you have to do should become clearer. If a normal web search does not turn up these docs, then contact me and I'll send you the pdfs that I have.

Peter G3PIJ

[G3PIJpeter]

There's an earlier thread on this subject at
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=129938
The "Search this Website" button at the top of the page is a useful facility.
Peter G3PIJ

[G6Tanuki]

A lot of the transverters from that era were designed to plug into and take their power from the HF radio (whose PA stage was often disabled in the process).

Do you have a power-supply for your transverter? If not I rather doubt your FT950 will have the ability to provide the necessary several hundred volts to power the transverter's valve PA stage.

[GMB]

That's +300V, +800V and -100V
You will need a PSU for those!
It is a lot more satisfactory to use it with a FT101 as designed.

[HamishBoxer]

Welcome! I had a Europa back in the 70's that was driven by an FT200 and it was fine. Yes, if you can sort the power connections and than a 28--30Mhz drive from the FT950 you could get it up on 144Mhz.

Of course not saying you can mind.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Here's my QM70 Electronics 10m <> 2m transverter


QM70 Electronics was the late G3LEQ Gordon Adams's company in Knutsford Cheshire.

I also have an FT200 that will power and drive it.