bearfootIII base tube amp ...transformerless!!!!read on(pic)

[sherman north]

I'll be getting that short cable that I need too join the watt meter & the antenna tomorrow is what usps.com says online.
Will give you the results of the wattage soon.

I recceived the cable today & made some adjustments on the Bearfoot lll amplifier, I turned the tune control & the load control & when I engaged the mcirophone to talk the watt meter showed about 80-85 watts.
I try to talk to my brother about 12-15 miles away & he could bearly here me once.
This Harlan county Ky. has mountains in it.
Tell me what you think, shouldn't this cb output go out farther than what I stated above ? Thank you

 

[Scrappy transmit]

thats right this thing is transformerless.i never knew this existed?when i went to pick this amp up i nearly threw it in the air...lol....i had to look twice inside only to find no transformer....wow...cool.....big fat caps in it ...3 of them...............31js6 tubes if i remember right.3 of those .swings 500.........i could swear i seen the tube cap leads soldered on the tube caps.the fan pulls air across the tubes instead of blowing on them.coolest little amp i seen yet....no transformer in a base tube amp.....sweet.

anyone ever see such a thing?

-------------------------


Report this to a Moderator Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit

Hey did you ever find any schematics for the bearfoot 3 I just got one and I need to replace some capacitors

 

[Marc@Radio59]

thats right this thing is transformerless.i never knew this existed?when i went to pick this amp up i nearly threw it in the air...lol....i had to look twice inside only to find no transformer....wow...cool.....big fat caps in it ...3 of them...............31js6 tubes if i remember right.3 of those .swings 500.........i could swear i seen the tube cap leads soldered on the tube caps.the fan pulls air across the tubes instead of blowing on them.coolest little amp i seen yet....no transformer in a base tube amp.....sweet.

anyone ever see such a thing?

-------------------------


Report this to a Moderator Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit

Hello, I just picked up one
a great condition!

 

[Staybolt]

Those amps are a death trap!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Those amps are a death trap!

Yup. I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot fibreglass pole.

 

[Marc@Radio59]

Those amps are a death trap!

It was repaired by Wolf in Florida and it works great! However, I was only testing it for output power and it peps at about 500 watts.

 

[nomadradio]

That's very cool! If it has a three-prong line cord on it, this prevents all the shock hazards on the outside of the cabinet.

If your wall outlet is wired properly, anyway.

Hazards on the inside with the cover removed is a different issue, but we don't need to go there.

And if it has a two-prong line cord, you can prevent small "tingle" shock hazards easily.

Never remove a coax connector with the line cord plugged into the wall. Always pull the plug before molesting coax connections.

Likewise, when you plug in a coax and tighten the connector's shell, make sure the power cord is unplugged. Only plug the power cord into the outlet after coax connections are snug.

A 2-wire cord still makes you vulnerable to a low-grade "tingle" shock if you grab the metal cabinet with one hand, holding onto a grounded coax connector in the other hand.

Always pulling the plug first, and plugging it back in last will prevent this.

73

 

[Marc@Radio59]

That's very cool! If it has a three-prong line cord on it, this prevents all the shock hazards on the outside of the cabinet.

If your wall outlet is wired properly, anyway.

Hazards on the inside with the cover removed is a different issue, but we don't need to go there.

And if it has a two-prong line cord, you can prevent small "tingle" shock hazards easily.

Never remove a coax connector with the line cord plugged into the wall. Always pull the plug before molesting coax connections.

Likewise, when you plug in a coax and tighten the connector's shell, make sure the power cord is unplugged. Only plug the power cord into the outlet after coax connections are snug.

A 2-wire cord still makes you vulnerable to a low-grade "tingle" shock if you grab the metal cabinet with one hand, holding onto a grounded coax connector in the other hand.

Always pulling the plug first, and plugging it back in last will prevent this.

73

Thanks

 

[Scrappy transmit]

I have the bear foot linear it's not a b3 it runs 3 36kd6s The only place I even found them in mentioned is on this site did you ever find any other information about yours I'll send you a picture of mine

 

[Scrappy transmit]

hey nomad radio ...heres a picture of the amp since you never heard of this one.i didnt even see a small transformer at all ,none.......just a thick yellow 3 prong cord leading up to the electronics inside and you can see 3 big fat tall caps inside.with 5 watts in i get 100 watt key on high swinging to 4-500......on low....50watt key swinging 250..........not a great big keyer but a nice little 4-500 watt pep amp.there is a fuse inside that you can see very easy.i,ll take a shot of the insides later when i have more time.so this would be a rare amp huh?i knew i had something rare here.how would you say ground it??run a wire from the chassis to where??no actual good ground in my room here other than the electrical outlet ground.i imagine if you hammered away at this amp the caps could drain enough that the power could suffer??

thats right this thing is transformerless.i never knew this existed?when i went to pick this amp up i nearly threw it in the air...lol....i had to look twice inside only to find no transformer....wow...cool.....big fat caps in it ...3 of them...............31js6 tubes if i remember right.3 of those .swings 500.........i could swear i seen the tube cap leads soldered on the tube caps.the fan pulls air across the tubes instead of blowing on them.coolest little amp i seen yet....no transformer in a base tube amp.....sweet.

anyone ever see such a thing?

-------------------------


Report this to a Moderator Reply Quote Top Bottom Edit

Thanks for the info sorry for you losses to nature it is a nice little amp I paid 100 bucks for it and I found it in a storage locker and I got that and a Navajo 458 with it but one of the caps blew out I had my local amp service guy he got her working again but she's only doing about 300 with five watch in he said the tubes were at 98% could he possibly miss tuned the input

 

[Enterprise312ok]

Thanks for the info sorry for you losses to nature it is a nice little amp I paid 100 bucks for it and I found it in a storage locker and I got that and a Navajo 458 with it but one of the caps blew out I had my local amp service guy he got her working again but she's only doing about 300 with five watch in he said the tubes were at 98% could he possibly miss tuned the input

300 sounds like good output to me, I would like to find one of these for the collection some day.

 

[Holydvr]

I know someone that has one. He gets about 300 out of it also.

 

[Scrappy transmit]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3SBNCoeajYoinj4B8. My bear foot 3-36lk6-40lk6

 

[RK20]

An old transformerless "KW in a suitcase" article in one of the mags. Transformerless HV, 6.3V transformer for the nine 6DQ6 heaters.

 

[nomadradio]

Cool! Add a couple of VR tubes and a transformer for the B+ and you'll have an Elkin amplifier. Gotta figure Ray Felts' starting point was a design like this one.

73