[time-nuts] Loran, GPS, Lightning, Timing

Max Robinson max at maxsmusicplace.com
Fri Jun 27 16:14:48 UTC 2014


I think the QST article being referred to in this thread is one that I 
remember rather clearly.  I kept the issue for a long time but it got away 
from me somewhere along the line.  It was a lightening direction finder 
using a display much like a radar PPI.  It used two crossed untuned loops 
and a vertical.  All three signals were amplified using tubes and one of the 
loops was fed to the horizontal deflection plates of a CRT and the other 
loop's signal was fed to the vertical plates.  The signal from the vertical 
was fed to the control grid of the CRT.  The project was essentially an XY 
scope built from the ground up.  He suggested figuring out the polarity of 
things by waiting for close lightening that was visible and correlating 
sightings with the display on the CRT.  You wouldn't use a general purpose 
scope because the fair weather condition would burn a spot in the center of 
the screen.  One more thing.  He wound the loops in hula hoops he had cut 
open.  I still have two hula hoops awaiting the project.  The bandwidth of 
his amplifiers was low audio to about 100 kHz.  I suspect that in today's 
radio environment some tuned traps would be necessary to notch out some of 
the strong signals in that frequency range.  You now have all the 
information I have and I am sure I could build one if only I could find the 
time.

Regards.

Max.  K 4 O DS.

Email: max at maxsmusicplace.com

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "paul swed" <paulswedb at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2014 8:10 AM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Loran, GPS, Lightning, Timing


>I have never seen an article using exotic special tubes. I understand that
> benefit but common tubes do a fine job. I still believe it was a QST
> article. Maybe 73 magazine. It was a long time ago. When I started using
> the 12AU7s again for the vlf pre-amp they were $1 or so 7 years ago. Now
> audiophiles have driven them into the silly range especially on the
> websites. I scrounged 4 at really good prices $2 recently. But the
> audiophiles were on the hunt as I noticed.
> Bottom line a tube frontend is easy to build for this application. Even if
> we want to make it seem hard. Its simply not the front end. Its the other
> parts of the solution that should be the focus. How to make a sub $$
> solution. The European solution is several hundred Euros. $$$$
> Regards
> Paul
> WB8TSL
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 10:50 PM, Brian Lloyd <brian at lloyd.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 9:08 PM, DaveH <info at blackmountainforge.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > The tube was probably the FP-54
>> >
>> > http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/141/f/FP54.pdf
>> >
>> > No luck on finding the article - it is not in the Handbook of Projects
>> for
>> > the Amateur Scientist by C.L. Stong
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.sciencemadness.org/library/books/projects_for_the_amateur_scienti
>> > st.pdf
>> >
>> > I thought it might be as I remember there was a project to detect 
>> > sferics
>> > but this one used plain 12AU7s and 6AU6s
>> >
>>
>> When I was a kid this may have been my favorite book. I did build the MRS
>> when I was 12. Sucker actually worked too! I was amazed. I have built
>> several things from this and used many of the projects with modern
>> electronics as projects for my students in middle school.
>>
>> --
>> Brian Lloyd
>> Lloyd Aviation
>> 706 Flightline Drive
>> Spring Branch, TX 78070
>> brian at lloyd.com
>> +1.916.877.5067
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