[BC] Re: Boring versus exciting transmitters

[Rich Wood]

------ At 05:52 AM 4/9/2007, nakayle at gmail.com wrote: -------

>Well when they did away with mercury rectifiers it took a lot of the
>fun out of radio.  It's sad to think how many engineers today have
>never seen the blue glow of MV rectifers flashing with the music.  Or
>hear the roar of motor-generators making DC for the filaments.  Or see
>the majestic spray of water ponds cooling big linear amp tubes.

Those tubes and all their colors is what fascinated me enough to want 
to be in this business. My first view of a transmitter was a 1Kw 
Western Electric with a window displaying 8008s, I think. It had 
smaller windows below that displayed the mercury vapor rectifiers. It 
actually looked like it was doing something. My biggest thrill at the 
time was a water-cooled 50Kw monster that occupied two floors. It had 
no cabinet, just fencing. Very large tubes were bolted to the floor 
and those that required cooling were surrounded by ceramic pipes fed 
by large pumps on the floor below..

My local library had a radio section with many books with pictures of 
similar transmitters. It got me hooked. A 50 Kw transmitter the size 
of a double-wide refrigerator doesn't have the same excitement.

Rich