D&A Phantom 12 tube promotion to Warrior high drive 2017

[giboni]

To sum it up. the Warrior is way under powered. All 11 meter sweep tube amps I have run into are.

Some worse than others. The goal of this conversion. Is to have a GG linear Sweep tube Amp

that does not back swing on vowels. 12 soldiers 4 gas tanks. Option to use a sweep tube driver after

the Stalker 202. Or the Stalker driving the 12 tuber direct. With a driver. This becomes a Warrior !

I'm not going to rewrite. But I know the changes to be done !

 

[giboni]

Re-positioning the trannys. Mounting the 4th tranny. Took a lot longer than I expected.

All the hardware was coated with an epoxy resin. Guess they did not have lock

washers? Several had to be drilled out. No unsoldering. Just carefully repositioning the

wires. Luckily the tranny harnesses had long leads. Enlarging harness holes. Self

tapping screws to save time.

 

[giboni]

The extra tranny came out of the warrior PSU. It is exactly the same as in this 12 tuber.

Forgot the technical name. All the trannys have to be in "phase". These I believe Triad

trannys. They could be Stancors. The Allied catalogs listed several manufacturers.

They could be Hammils?

The way I did it. The color code of the input line voltage was clear. What goes to neutral

and the Hot side. Ah. The extra heater winding will be used to power up some

green LEDS, 12v fans, new regulated negative grid bias board and the soft Start.

Yup. Those RED wires. 680vac 340-0-340. Interestingly. This 12 tuber is only using one

of the HV center taps. the others go to parking posts. The ten tubers. These center taps

are attached to the chassis thru a resistor.


Alright. Turn the box on. One lead of the VOM is attached to incoming AC line in Hot.

"black wire". the other lead. To one of the HV red wires attached to the Bridge rectifier

array. Make note of the voltage reading. Then the other Transformer leads to be phased

with the others. The voltage reading. you will see a high side. & a low side. High to high.

Low to low at the bridge rectifier tie posts. This method works with step down or step

up trannys.

My apologies. I don't know how I uploaded repetative photos.

 

[giboni]

Hopefully she will be up & running tomorrow. Not completely finished. But got to fill up

the space in my passenger seat !

It has an illuminated on off pushbutton switch. Till my order comes in. Bright Green

indicators! Not red. New miliamp meters that will be illuminated by Green Leds.

That look more professional than these or the originals. I might actually use one hole for

a real DC plate voltage meter.

Their is just enouph room to put the meter back in with a bit of safety insulation.

Cooling....Have a bunch of very small put powerful 12v fans that came out of blade

servers.

Stay tuned. It is getting closer to Warrior rank !!!!

 

[giboni]

As you can see in the photos.

The 4th iron is installed. I think the handles are in the pics. It is heavy !

The much needed soft start inrush current limiter.

is Installed. It is my design. Using 2 off the shelf modules & 1 DIY

module. 2 Thermistors. A few more pics of this circuit. Up on fleecbay it goes

as a kit for other D&A afficiendos.

The heaters r thanking me ! LOL

Tomorrow. The regulated Bias supply board for the 8 x 6LQ6 GG AB2 finals.

A polished clean CHROME case ! A pain to line up the Handle Holes now.

But I always put handles on these boat anchors ! & rubber feet.

Then back in my car for some tests. The 4th tranny is a 25% increase in

reserve gasolina for the magnificent 12 ! I'm not expecting a higher dead key.

I expect very little back swing. When the vowels of my voice are enunciated.


Stay tuned

After above is completed. The process of turning this beast into a switchable low to

high

drive begins ! After all . How is the D&A Warrior built ? 4x 6JG6 driving 4X6LQ6

driving 8 6LQ6. 4 gas tanks. Mine already has 4. Four pcs of matching Iron for 12

soldiers. Not 16.

Have several two tube base amps. 12 pin compactrons. The amps are small

My guestimate is. The Warrior pre driver. 4x6JG6

or 6KV6 is putting out 100 watts to 120 max . Perhaps with 8 watts in.

I forgot. I never run it low . He he . The Skipper on low with 8 watts in might be doing

close to the target drive. The Skipper is already in the car. It was the back up. To

the 12 tube Phantom.

73s four fingers & a thumb

 

[giboni]

Think got this photo upload shtick straightened out. LOL.


Today wired in another regulated DC supply off the extra fillament to run small DC fans.

Couldn't find the box of fans. Getting cold. Improvised. Took apart an ancient computer

PSU. Perfect size AC fan. Tested the setup. Ugly. Crude. But it cools the soldiers down

in the box. Temporary. Until the box of 12-24v fans turn up.

Without the outer case & handles. The chassis flexes. So I wasn't going to

carry it down to my basement work shop to work on it. Back into the garage.

Made a mistake meausuring by eye and pencil marks. The made in Japan shitshack or

Lafayette meter does not fit anymore. The new tranny blocks it. No more holes or

repositioning.

It stays this way. Found in my stash of NOS meters. Mostly Modutec. A Milliampmeter.

The Modutec's were USA made cheap meter panels.

The Low power/high power will be changed to tripple pole singel throw. 1 milliamp meter

only needed then. A real DC Plate voltage meter & board is going in.

Tomorrow. Wire up the Fans. Slide the case back on. The handles.

Key up. Take more pictures. With 25% more iron. Should be no backswing on vowels.

Two more batteries into the car. Hook up a power cap to the battery 6 pack. 110lbs each.

Haul out a couple of later 10 tubers. The beige brown dispensed with grid tune. Simply

probably 50 ohm resistor on the input of the driver tube cathodes.

Later grey 10 tubers use a coupling disc capacitor to the 6AQ5. The 12. Just a wire to

the 6AQ5 ? For a workable low to high drive. Thier will have to be a switch.

Stay tuned ! It will be fully promoted to a Warrior soon !

73s

 

[giboni]

Forgot my camera in the garage. Upload on next post.
Good luck ran out. The electronic Gremlins popped out of no-where.
Just as I am ready to test my hypotheses. Less back swing on keyup when I enunciate vowels.
Arcing at the High Voltage bridge. Very bad spot on all versions of Phantoms. Then Low dropped
to zero. Called it a day.
3 pin. 4 pin.8 pin even 12pin screw type terminal block in my stash. No 5 pin. Alright made one.
A bit of scrap metal stud. New safe HV bridge module. Plenty of space where the huge vintage
HV capacitors reside.

It never ceases to amaze me. How long it takes to hardwire a circuit. looks good & professional.

The 4 drivers are GG AB1. The meter associated with the drivers. Is basically useless & for show.
Unecessary. Removed from later PDX400.

The 12 tuber has 3 Rf tank circuits. The main final tank output to antenna.
A secondary final tank to antenna from the drivers. & a intermediate impedance matching
L tank circuit between the driver output / plate to the cathode or input to the cathodes of the 8
finals.
Learned something on my own rolling my own rf inductors Tank coils. Then realized why a Q
of 2
minimum works in a intermediate stage. All this time knocking myself out for a Q of 10.My luck ran out with the Low. Noticed weeks ago. When I replaced the drivers with 4 GE NOS
matched within 5% 8000+ uhmo/GM 6LQ6s.
ZERO output on Low. Ah went to the strong used 6LQ6 tube stash. Found two at 1500 GM to go
with the other two at approx 1500 microohmos/GM/Transconductance.
low came back to life. Two drivers were on thier last legs.
This happens on all 12 tubers. Output Impedance changes when tubes R switched out in the
driver stage. Low in the 12 tuber is the 4 drivers connected directly to the antenna by passing
thru a relay the finals. That is why there is a 2nd final tank circuit !
It has a limited impedance matching range. Well I put it away yesterday. It will work fine on
high.
Just no low. For the time being.
Thats coming out that secondary final tank. The Arco 304 "Load"
air variable also at the cathodes of the final tubes. The tune comes out. Replaced with a compact
but normal 20pf to 400pf air variable. The HV taps on the Trannys have center taps. Just like my
POW KW+'s and Maco 2 Piece. High low can be achieved by switching from a full wave bridge
rectifier to a half wave bridge rectifier. This cuts the plate voltage to the tubes by approximately
by half. Or just simply switch in a higher grid negative bias voltage to the 8 soldiers.
I will have an extra relay available by removing basically a useless circuit. This could be used
to go from Low drive to high drive !

Well. My theory is correct. Adding the 4th tranny did not increase dead key watts. It
substantially reduced back swing when enunciating vowels. Going to bump op the HV caps
to 220uf 450v.
Stay tuned. The phantom 12 tuber is slowly evolving into a Warrior !

fourfingers&Athumb 73s

 

[giboni]

Can'not go too long without gasolina into the 3/4 wave FireStick in my car.
No. 220uf uf in parralel series. Too much soldering. Six yields aprox 144uf.
This is better. 3x1000uf ! In series 333uf.
When I shorted the new caps to chassis ground. Boom. As loud as a firecracker !
lot of reserve gasolina.
The electronic gremlins continued the havoc. 220uf 16v went bad in the
vintage Teaberry Stalker psu board. Huge AC Hum on the air ! 10 minutes fixed. Lo &
behold. Issue with the mic connector. On the modified Turner + 3. Late tired.
Just stuck on the stock mic.
Forgot. Will need part of the space that the soft start occupies for the input IMD filter.
Spice model done awhile back. Have the components. Just got to put in on a circuit board.
Possibly this module will handle 100 Watts +. Guess will find out.

Input IMD filter board is found on all modern Amateur linears. Associated with that is an
impedance matching L circuit. DIY or upgrade of an old all band ham box. It is sugested
strongly among this group. To install one. Possibly several. One for each amateur band.
Biggest complaint against Sweep tube foot warmers. Is the gremlin IMD Havoc they create
across the spectrum ! Some hams might be pleased ha ha !
Though not a ham. I decided to clean my amps up ! Possibly another kit also !
Length of coax can play a part. The filter board has to be as close as possible to the input of
the driver tubes "Cathode". That will be the next sub project.
Lo & behold. The G1 control grid bias is supplied from the High voltage ! Later grey 10 tubers
@ the beige brown D&A's. Negative grid voltage bias is coming off one of the fillament
windings ?
Perhaps when the resident ham technician engineer moved on. The new tech decided to
put his/her ideas unto the D&A line of amps ?
I will experiment later. But the DIY Audio Gurus. Some of them like this method of providing G1
grid bias. I feel it is superior to the later D&A amps. No need to waste precious time.
Installing my own.
If u want to learn about Sweep tubes. Study the material available online concerning Tube
audio amplifiers ! Small but active group of experimenters. 6L6 & all its derivatives. Kt88 etc.
6BG6. Which is a Sweep ! 807 transmitting tubes were used to power movie theatre P.A.
systems back in the day ! Even 813s. Fogetabout about most of the ham literature. Unless u
R
going to build some home brew Monster to put on 11 meters with 3000v to 5000v at the
plate.
The bowl certainly has several cbers running such equipment. One day maybe. Will purchase
a few broadcast/radio station type tubes. & build a Nuke linear.
For now it is sweeps. Enjoy the photos. One is new Full wave bridge mounted on screw type
wire strip.
Checked again all 8 finals. 3 borderline. Usable.
But I want maximum gasolina in the wire.
But of course. A price to pay in time. Output impedance has changed. The current tank coil is
now out of resonance. ehh Have a box full of tank coils I have made thru the years. About
one hour. Maybe 2 ? Found one I made for another amp a few yrs ago that was not the
correct inductance. For that box. 1/4 soft copper. Poor Q of 8.5. Wide barely fits in the box.
My experience. A larger diameter RF tank is best. Anyway. She said wider is better than longer.
Thats what she said !
8 watts in. 650 watts RMS out ! x 4 2600 watts AM PEP Next post will have pics.
On 27.185.
Eat ur hearts out QRP operators Ha Ha !
Tomorrow. Will role another RF tank coil out of nickel plated soft copper tubing. With the
same inductance. But a much higher Q. Q is very important. 10-15 Q. Around 11-12 is optimal for freeband & 11 meters. My experience.
A Q lower than 10. Results in smaller number of channels that
can be tuned at full output. Too high of a quality factor. Q. Results in loosing watts.
The RF tank Coil becomes a heating element !
Even the low setting on this 12 tuber. Somewhat came back to life with the tube swap. Don't
fully understand it yet.
This is a series circuit. A change in the driver circuit affects the finals circuit. A change in the
finals affects the drivers. Including a change in the transceiver"cb radio".
Yes
This is the way it is with 6LQ6's. Unless U have a stash. Of the D&A labelled 6MJ6, lq6's.
Iether it was RCA or GE that supplied D&A manufacturing.
These tubes had more uniform input "cathode" & output "Plate" impedances.
Decided to leave the Chrome case on the other 12 tuber I posess.
An early version with cloth covered leads on the Stancor trannys.
One of these days.
Will get the correct paint. Just refinish the case. One of these days !
Stay tuned. This aged Phantom. Will be promoted. To a Warrior soon !
73s

 

[giboni]

Tried several times to edit the previous post. G1 is not the Control grid of a tube.

It is G3. G1 is supressor. G2 is the screen. G3 is where negative bias voltage is applied
.
Google is ur friend ! If U want to know why-what grid voltage does or how it functions !

Possibly tomorrow. Can do more work on thiis upgrade & promotion.
Hauled out 3 two tubers base. Thunderbolt 101 2x6LQ6. Pal 2x 8950 and a no name 2x 6LF6.
Target is 100-120 watts RMS. Tank circuit with a range to match the impedance of the
cathodes of 4x 6lq6 in the Phantom/Warrior.

Found part of my NOS stash of variable air dialectric capacitors. Small radio/receiving tuning capacitors. They look very much like the ones used in the 10 tubers to load the RF driving tank stage !

Checked out carefully the early model 12 Tuber with cloth covered leads Stancor iron.
3x bias modules versus 1 in the later 12 tuber being upgraded.

I had wondered many times why. All Phantoms. were GG AB1 drivers into GG AB2 Finals.
Wrong. Most are. This beast. Early 12 tuber.

The driver is also. GG AB2 ! I'm going to be doing a lot of experimenting !

Again. Negative grid bias voltage is derived from the HV mains/iron/transformer.
10 tubers use the heater/fillament winding.

Stay tuned . It's coming soon. 12 tube Phantom promoted to Warrior !
73s PuppetMaster

 

[giboni]

Been busy.

Some time tonight. All day tomorrow. However. Skip has been coming in. Want to take a

digiscan off of a TRC 449 & put it on the Teaberry Stalker + a new Motorala noise

cancelling mic & a compressor + Low pass/high pass filter on the Mic.+ 7.8mhz

ladder filter istalled on the Teaberry. Hate being splashed by skip stations on AM LOL !

I'll try to get more of the upgrades put into this Beast. Today complete brake job new

drums/shoes discs/ceramic pads done on my economobile.

Alas last 50 degree + day in my part of the corn patch.

Sooo two more 100lb pound batteries in the back seat. At 650+ RMS 2600 watts + AM

PEP. 900+ SSB PEP. The beast draws the atteries down fast. Maybe 35 amps at idle.

Its looking like the platform car is maxed out. Oh well. Guess i'll have to get another

vehicle. That can turn a 250-300 Amp alternator ?

Ill get something done. On the soon to be promoted. Phantom to Warrior.

73s !

 

[309hellinois]

Been busy.

Some time tonight. All day tomorrow. However. Skip has been coming in. Want to take a

digiscan off of a TRC 449 & put it on the Teaberry Stalker + a new Motorala noise

cancelling mic & a compressor + Low pass/high pass filter on the Mic.+ 7.8mhz

ladder filter istalled on the Teaberry. Hate being splashed by skip stations on AM LOL !

I'll try to get more of the upgrades put into this Beast. Today complete brake job new

drums/shoes discs/ceramic pads done on my economobile.

Alas last 50 degree + day in my part of the corn patch.

Sooo two more 100lb pound batteries in the back seat. At 650+ RMS 2600 watts + AM

PEP. 900+ SSB PEP. The beast draws the atteries down fast. Maybe 35 amps at idle.

Its looking like the platform car is maxed out. Oh well. Guess i'll have to get another

vehicle. That can turn a 250-300 Amp alternator ?

Ill get something done. On the soon to be promoted. Phantom to Warrior.

73s !

Would a second alternator be out of the question? The car audio crowd has some nice options for high output alternators.

 

[giboni]

1600cc traverse mounted 4 cyllender engine. Forgot the MM width. The pulley's

track only accomodate's perhaps .40 inch width of serpentine belt.

No stock Belt tensioner. Spent several hours at the local U pull it salvage yard

to see if I can come up with a custom solution for a Belt tensioner.

It is not possible to change out the crank shaft main pulley or anything else

to wider pully's. No room. & not available.

A 300 amp kit is available for the Denso alternator. This still requires a wider

pulley, belt & belt tensioner.

There is no room at all in the transverse engine compartment for a second
alternator.

The current alternator is from a Kia sedan. Same mounting pattern. 100 amps

versus the 60amp original. Its a cool alternator in that the kia sedan it came out

from had a lot of accesories including AirCon. So the regulator kicks in hard at

idle to carry the load & charge the battery.

If when I can figure out a way to install a belt

tensioner. Possibly could go to 150 amps. Which would charge the large number

of batteries already in the car faster at idle or racing the engine. The belt could

also just slip because it is not wide enouph even with a tensioner.

Best 73s

 

[309hellinois]

1600cc traverse mounted 4 cyllender engine. Forgot the MM width. The pulley's

track only accomodate's perhaps .40 inch width of serpentine belt.

No stock Belt tensioner. Spent several hours at the local U pull it salvage yard

to see if I can come up with a custom solution for a Belt tensioner.

It is not possible to change out the crank shaft main pulley or anything else

to wider pully's. No room. & not available.

A 300 amp kit is available for the Denso alternator. This still requires a wider

pulley, belt & belt tensioner.

There is no room at all in the transverse engine compartment for a second
alternator.

The current alternator is from a Kia sedan. Same mounting pattern. 100 amps

versus the 60amp original. Its a cool alternator in that the kia sedan it came out

from had a lot of accesories including AirCon. So the regulator kicks in hard at

idle to carry the load & charge the battery.

If when I can figure out a way to install a belt

tensioner. Possibly could go to 150 amps. Which would charge the large number

of batteries already in the car faster at idle or racing the engine. The belt could

also just slip because it is not wide enouph even with a tensioner.

Best 73s

Sounds like you have quite the problem then. Hope to see the solution figured out soon. You'll have have a beast in your hands soon.

 

[giboni]

Finally found the time to update this thread. Apologies for the Mob of photo's. Forgot to label each of them.

I cannot quit my day job just yet LOL !

The electronic gremlins have been busy. Four total. Air variable condensers; capacitors have been eaten up by my Beast.

This component can be a Post unto itself. It is the main "Load" control found in all versions of Phantom/Warrior and PDX 400.

It is an AM/FM radio "receiver tuner". I realized quickly. That for "11" meters operation. No Band Switch.

350 to 450 picrofads at most is the required value for this component. Not a whopping 750+ picrofarads.

I experimented with a small stash of these "receiving" type AVC's.

It is about the spacing between the tuning plates. About finding them. The cost etc. The wider the spacing between plates.
The higher the Breakdown Voltage of the AVC. In other words. The dreaded HV ARCING,
As the box is keyed at this component. Power output drop yada yada.

SPACE inside the Phantom where this component is located is a HUGE issue.

I was thinking of making AVC's myself until. After spending about a $100. Plus experimenting with the ones I bought. I discovered.

After blowing up a precious 305M mica AVC. That two AVC with similar plate distance can be strapped together in series.

To give me the picrofarads and higher voltage breakdown than the
original AVC.

AND fit into the chassis. Photo's attached. Years of corrosion build up. Carbon from Arcing. Loose plates.

In this unit. Adding a 4th tranny. Certainly doomed all these recieving AVC's closely spaced.

It is now using a pair of vintage NOS American made "Transmitting"Air Variable capacitors. Wider spacing than the OEM.

They both rotate 360 in iether direction ! Yup numerous combinations are possible !
With the current 6LQ6's in this box. Only 225 to 250 pf are needed so the RF tank circuit resonates on 11 meters. 450pf available in this pair.

I removed the 2nd stage completely. I now have another spare 100vdc relay !
Still no LOW. I completely forgot. The center tap of one of the 4 trannys. Is connected to the Relays LOL !

I can switch it over to 12vdc relays and a analog keyup circuit. Already did it to a grey ten tuber. Buttttt.
Am going to stick with the 12AQ5 for now. I will experiment. Safely. With an isolation transformer.
Using line voltage and a dropping resistor to the 12AQ5 to operate the relays.
When I get that straightened out. The original switch labeled Power will work fine. The 4th center tap can be added to the other three.

I wanted more control Over the driver stage. The 305M mica AVC was removed. I added a pair of receiving AVC in series for a load control. 500 picrofarads +.

This mod resulted in reaching 950 watts out RMS.

Input of final LQ6s "Cathode". Output of drivers. Have a different impedance.
Thats what the driver Tune/Load coil circuit does.

Matches the impedance for 100% percent power transfer. Here. RCVing AVC are fine.
The voltage/current is much lower than the Main RF tank circuit.

Going to try using the original 305M mica AVC padded with a 60 pf wide spaced AVC.
Temperature, humidity causes this 305M to drift slightly. So 60 pf might just be the ticket. For accurate tuning of the driver load.

Unfortunately. When humid. The padding Johnston AVC 75pf arc's.

The 400pf is ok. Possibly another mica AVC rated at 100+pf 500vdc might work ?

But the 400pf is not enouph by itself. To match the 500pf of the 305M mica AVC.

Keep in mind. That the 305M mica AVC. Was not designed for continued turning. It wears out very quickly. The 305M used as the load for the 2nd original stage was worn out on my box.

The original tune is fine. About 20 pf.
In place of the original 2nd stage grid current meter. An image. Of the Phantom ! With a back light.
In fact. I like it so much. Its my Avatar now LOL !
About 7 hours spent. Just on choosing which image. Microsoft paint.
Next one. I use Gimp. Experimenting at FedEx kinko's with transparencys and colored paper. Worth it.
I think that Image is soooo cool !

The 1000uf 450v DC HV filter caps are like,
Hand Grenades.
Compared to the original 100uf. 100uf are like M80's.
Soooo Balancing resistors/bleeders as you see in the pics !

Nice looking grid current meter ! With a 1K pot to adjust it !

Still to do.
High Low circuit completion. Keeping the 12AQ5 and 110v Dc relays.

Interesting note. Later 10 tubers have a 10-20 pf coupling capacitor
coming off the radio input. To the grid of the 12AQ5. The 12 tuber. A straight wire?
I tried using a coupling capacitor. It would not key. Try it again.
When I become familiar with this circuit.

FULLY regulated adjustable negative grid bias supply. I have a board.
Used for professionally built audiio tube amps. I have space under
the full wave bridge module for it.
The issue.
To regulate the bias fully and properly.
The input AC voltage has to be much higher than the DC negative bias voltage one seeks.
I have small transformers. No space. Except where the 12AQ5 sits.

I'm going to experiment. I have a bunch of these main HV transformers.
Series connect the Fillament windings. Ought to work.
Install a DC switching supply on the back. Fully regulated adjustable.
DC Fillament voltage to the tubes ! This will extend tube life.
Quicker. Just strap the the bias transformer instead ?

The 12 tuber. Uses an old audio amp
bias circuit. Straight off the high voltage plate thru dropping resistors or a resistor voltage divider circuit.

Later 10 tubers/PDX 400. Bias current is off the fillament winding with resistors.

Re-mod the driver load/tune.
Decals
Paint job

Stay tuned......... 12 tube Phantom promoted to Phantom Warrior 2018 !
Baddest D&A Phantom of all time ! Untill I get to the rest of my collection LOL !

Yup. The new Decals R in motion ! Another POST LOL. DIY labels !

Ah in one of the pics. U can see the 15 amp push button fuse circuit breaker.
Replacing a 25 amp OEM fuse . LORDY With a Soft Start. An appropriate protection could be installed with this mod.

I think the photos speak for themselves. You can see the diference in spacing. The quality of construction between a recieving AVC and a transmit AVC.

73s Puppet Master "A picture is worth a thousand words" Napoleon Bonaparte

 

[giboni]

more photos limit 10