RC 1978 09

DIGITAL DICE by R. A.
Penfold
14
W A V E G U I D EG A S L A S E R S
by MichaelLorant
19
NEWSAND COMMENT
20
M U SICAL VOLTMETER-Suggested
Circuit by G. A. French
22
THE 58 SET
by Ron Ham
24
AMPLIFIER
T H E Z N 4 2 4 EO P E R A T I O N A L
by P. R. Arthur
25
NEXT MONTH
29
', Data Publications Ltd., 1978. Contents

may only be reproducedafter obtaining
prior permissionfrom the Editor. Short
a b s t r a c t s o r r e f e r e n c e sa r e a l l o w a b i e
provided acknowledgement
of source is
given.
SHORT WAVE NEWS-For DX Listeners

by FrankA. Baldwin
30
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A P O R T A B L EW O R K S H O P
S E P T E M B E 1R9 7 8
V o l u m e3 2 N o . 1
PublishedMonthly
(3rd of precedingMonthl
First Published | 947
lncorporating
The Radio Amateur
Editorial and Advertising Offices

57 MAIDA VALE LONDON W9 ISN
Telephone
0 1- 2 8 6 6 1 4 1
Telcgrams
Databux,London
Technical Aueries. We regret that wo

aro unablo lo answer queriesothor than
those arising from articles appearing in
this magazine ngr can we advise on
modifications to quipment described.
We reqretthat queriescannotbe answered
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reolv.
Conespondence should bo sddro3red to
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8pprop1i8to.
Opinions oxprosssd by contributors are
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Produ ctio n.-Web
Offset.
P u b l i s h e di n G r e a tB r i r a i nb y t h e P r o p r i s t o ras n d
P u b l i s h e r s ,D et a P u b l i c a t i o n sL t d , 5 7 M a i d a
V a l e , L o n d o nW g 1 S N
fhe Radio & Electronies Constructor ig printed
bv Swale Press Ltd.
3 B A N D S H O R T W A V E S U P E R H E T - P a r t 1 32
by R.A. Penfold
39
V A R I A B L E - CA . F . G E N E R A T O R - C o n c l u s i o n 40
by P. R. Arthur
T H Y R I S T O RS E N S I T I V I T YB O O S T E R
by P. D. Southern
44
TRADE NOTE-New ExtensionReel
45
THE "HYBRID" ALL WAVE RADIOC o n c l u s i o n - b yS i r D o u g l a sH a l l ,K . C . M . G .
46
D O O R B E L LM O N I T O R
-ln Your Workshop
50
RADIO TOPICSby Recorder
55
E L E C T R O N I C SD A T A N o . 3 7
(For The Beginner-The Long-Tailed Pair)
T H E O C T O B E RI S S U E
WILL BE PUBLISHED
ON 3rd SEPTEMBER
ii
\-:
af
BY R. A. Penfold
O Random ror-biased
number selection
Much amusementcan be obtained from this
simnle electronic device which simulates the
action of a conventionaldice, or die. The unit is
very simple and is basedon three CMOS integrated
cir6uits,'a 7-segmentl.e.d. display and very few
and
otherdiscretecomponents.It is self-contained
is poweredfrom an internal 9 volt battery'
B
- ASIC PRINCIPLE
T[e basic principle of the unit is quite straightforward, and the first.stepsare illustrated in the
block diacram of Fig. 1. An ordinary counterand
displayciicuit is fedlrom a clockosCillatorby-*qy
of a normallyopennon-ldckingpushbutton switch.
The clock 6scillator operatesat a frequency of
severalhundredHertz,the precisefrequencybeing
unimportant. Thus wllEn the. push. button is

nn.iui"a lhe counter will rapidlv and repeatedly
ibunt through 0 to 9 cycles,but at a speedthat is
far too high;for anyonelooking at the display to
oerceive.The displav thereforeseemsto be showine o fig"r" 8, as ill lhe segmentswill be alight for
part
of the time.
'
Whenthe oushbutton is releasedthe countercircuit will latch at whateverstate it happenedto be
in at the instant the clock signalceased.If, for.example, a fizure 5 was being-displayedat that insluni ttten a"5 will remain In ttrb display after the
oush button is released.There is obviouslyno way
i., *tri.n the operatorcan determinewhich number
*itt U" displaved,as the counteris operatingat far
too high a iat6. It is purely a -matterof chance,and
.o ttr&.trttgement dcts ai a 0 to 9 random number
selector.
IMPROVED VERSION
So far as an electronicdice is concernedthere !s
ru;-i;'-thi;iiicuit, in that a diceonlv
.______J
l;;7
t^--I "*
lcountr onoE=t
I Dcc /driver
-r-l
-l
| |
,
l-l
Fig. |. A basic random number generator' This

7
iroduces singtc cligit numbers front O to
".iJu.ii"'li
oio"ia"i ttu-b.tt from 1 to 6, whereas,adeviceof
tvp. outlined in Fig. 1 will give-numbersfrom 0
iit"-g."So-"
meansof eliminatingthe {igures0, 7, 8
io
thereforebe incorporated.
must
and 9
---eis.
i t[o*. the block diagrirmof the improved
version.Here the clock signal is coupled to the
.ou"i.i via a resistor,whicf, ensuresthat the clock
i"nut .o"pline is of a fairly loose nature' the
i.c. milst also be a spbcial type which has
"oirnt".
CONSTRUCTOR
RADIOANDELECTRONICS
device can have is with nine of the outputs in the

Iow state and one in the high state. fne circuil
starts with the 0 output
in-the high state aftei
-clock
which, with successive
input cyEles,lt t
put goeshigh, then the 2 outpuf, andso on, until
" "u-i
thl
9 output goeshigh..With tlie next input'"t;i;ah;
devlce returns to the state where th6 0 oirtput is
high, and then starts from the begirrnirrg once
agaln.
Fig. 2. A modified number gencr.tor which

suppresses all numberc except I to 6
zero blanking.S_uch
i.c.'shave an output which is
normally low, but
.which goes high while the
counter is at zero. This output is coiinectJdi" 1l;
clock input via a low value capaciioiso that *hen
lne
fgu,nter goes into the zero state a pulse is
supplrgg
to the clock input from the zero out_
put. This takes the countei on to the 1 statevirtual_
ly the rnstant it reachesthe zero state. In this way
the.zero.is suppressed,and cannot Ue aisptaved
Dy-rne crrcurt. Becausecaplcitor C has a faiily-low
value in relation to resistoi R, thesecomporrerrt.do
not upset.theflow of the clock sisnal intb the cioct<
lnput ot the counter.They do, however,enablethe
pulse from.the zero output tb be mix;j-iitfi ifi"
clock signal.
A second counter is fed_from the clock signal,
and this,is what is usually termed o""_oT_t.ri
counter.Such a devicehas-tenoutputs
" *t icn aie
designated0 to g, and the o"tv .faUie siate the
, In this application the one-of-ten counter

nas,lts clock rnput conn-ected
in parallel with that
marn counter,,andso the zero_output
is sup_
9!lh"
pressectrn
same way. Its T output is
.exacfly
.the
connectedto both its own resetierminal and the
reset terminal of the main counter.Thus, after ihe
firury 6 has been displayed on the,;;d;L;d;;i.;;
the. 7 output of the bnd-of-ten co""te. eoe. hisii
a.nd resetsboth countersto zero. The prilst fr;hthe zero output of the main countei lhen takes
tne countersstraight on to the 1 output state, and
they then count up to 6 againin the normal wav.
^ I hrs provrdesthe desiredcircuit actionwith the
0, 7, 8 and 9 output statesall being eliminated.
THE CIRCUIT
.. {ig, 3-shoqqthe completecircuit diagram of the
digital dige. The clock oscillatoris baset-ona 404?
i.c...which is a CMOS monostable/".tuUl"*"t_
tivibr-ator.It is connectedhere l" ttblrle runnins
astable mode with the frequencv of osciliaiil;-;;?
at approximately150H2,but the normale and not_
q outputs(pins 10 and 11 respectivelv)
aie not us_
ed. Instead, the-clock signal is extraited from pin
13,whichprovidesaloritput at twicethelrequen_
cy
cy.or
otf the
the Q and not-Q outputs,or aboul
about 300H2in
this case.
The clock signal is fed to the clock inputs of the

two counteri.c.'s via push button switih Sl and
Indntotaonsot top
FND 5OO
Rcor vicw
Fig' 3' Tha circuit of the digital dice unit. As may bc soen,few discrcte components
are raquired'in addition to th6 integfat.d circuits and the FNDSoo disptay
SEPTEMBER 1978
l5
resistorR2. The one-of-tencounteris IC2, which is

il0iC a"ti*. fn" relevant pin functions of this
.ttl*" in the diagrim, and thesefollow
e.;i;
"t"
ttt. operatio-nof this part of the ciri;;. tt;;;.di"i
uriit.
"'i"is
is the display driver and decoderi'c', and

this"l ; Ci\4oS?o"3a de"ice' The clock signal is
uooti"a t" pin 1 and the signalfrom t}rezerooutput
bv c2' rhe resetsignal

[fil;;;i;;[G'il'-inaT
pin
15
of IC3' Pins2' 3 and
to
li"ti-iCz-iJlppti"a
areunusedin this application'
il;;i"p;t;fi;i;t't
to the negativesupplv
if;"t are connected
;;J;
'rail.
be
The front panel of the digitel dice unlt'

Mounted on the teft is 52' with Sl on the right'
The FNDSOO 7-segment disptay is positioned
at the cantre
Re.si.sfors
(All i watt 5%)
itt tbot cr
R2 1k o
R3 27k tt
Caoacitors
Ct o.orspf' type C28o (Mullard)
C2 470pFceramicPlate
C3 o.ltrF type C280 (Mullard)
Semiconductors
IC1 CD4O47AE
IC2 CD4O17AE
IC3 CD4O33AE
Switches
51 pressbutton, Push to make
52 s.p.s.t.,toggle
DLsplay
displaYtYPeFND500
7-segment
Miscellaneous
Plastic case(seetext)
9-volt battery type PP6 (Ever Ready)
Batterv connector
Verob6ard,0.1 in. matrix
14-nind.i.l, socket
z-oif t6-pin d.i.l. sockets
Wire. solder,etc.
F.o- a nominal9 volt supplythe 4033i,'c'can

ait".lv ative a hilh brightnessI'e'd' dis"."d"toof the cbmmon cathode type' An output
"iav
;b"ut omA i6r segment is
i';;";";; ;i"
that the
;;;ih;i";;"i-..i ";lv it-ii absolutelv6sseLt-ial
disFN.D500
An
tvpe'
eificient
an
i.i.i.-aitpr"v be
iii"i iJ"i,#a-itt itt. prototvpe, and this has a
character
''-bM()S height of 0.5in.
i.c.is require vry little in the way. of
and C3-is the sole.decoupling
.";;ly ;";;pti"el
52 is an ordinary on-off
componentrn tne
"ti."it.
switch.
""$;
from the CD4033and the FNDS00Asdav
are readily available'T'heCD4033
the-[omponents
;;; l; ;i6ined from Messrs'Tom-Powell' qq6 St'
f';;i;; R;;d; Highburv corner, London,^N1 or
Eleclronics, 92 .New Chester
il;'C-t"."br"t"
ii;;d, N;--F;t.y, Wirral,. Mersevside,L62 5AG'
i;'available from Messrs' Tom
fii"-'fNbs0o
p"*"fi.ît-.n"r.tta Uunoted that a kit- of parts for the
i".."i"t""iieiiui di"" project can alsobe provided
bv Messrs.Tom Powell.
U CTION.
CONSTR
-Th;t;6typ9.
uni.tis housedin a plasticcase
of about150by 80
drmensions
outstde
whichhas
the sam.esize or
of
case
e"v-ptu.tic
t;';;ffi.
providedit can
suitable
d.*;;';il;;ld-6e iierfectlv
generallavout
The
ind .o-po""ents'
;::?;;;dri.
panel'can
front
is-the
oihich
;ilir;îie;?'itt"
on the
"utu,
mounted
s2.is
[h; tt";"s'aphs.
;;;;;^f';
The
'side'
hand
right
Si?;ihe
i""ftH;;".td;;;.i
reca
requrres
centre'
the
ai.nluvis fittedat
.unqit
rs-t*-*iat nv 16mm'high'.This
ilHr#;i:""t
saw'Altertti"e ft"tsawor I co.Ping
#";;;;el
"
in-diametercan be
ilii"Jr"l ^ i-t;I. ul";i-i5.n-'
to
:iltn|d-il irt. .""1i. or tnt tia and thenfiled outflat
vnini.ature
s
ti"e utittg.
;h;^;;;;.; .tt"p"
giJ.al"to p"Iition using"-q:$
fii;. Th; Aitpr"vi. ""d
suchas-anPoxvresrn'
qr"fitv gupiitti"g a"dhesive
at the
t"iil;'iGpt"i
The indentatrons
.th""Ld be
FND500
,"r iiftffitil
The component strip'board couples to the c-9m;

the front pa,netby way of thin flexi'
iont^"'on
ble leads
16
fiii;; G requi'ldasthe
a built'in red filter.

has
"-i;;i'F;--iti.
batterv,, the rem.aininqcomiir in' matrix Veroboard
Full
"i""'"
t s copper
p.v
"";;fi.'^;;it.d
37.i';i;i'
-strios'
il;;i' ;ft&'4;?our",i."oi1ttit punti
in
provided
6're
constructlonu,
4.
Fig.
' '3tutt
by cuttingout a paneloJthe correctsizeusitt." drill the two 68A
i";";"rti.[.^*,"rniclearance rno,r"ting holes' Next make the
b;;;k; in The cepper .s!rips,.rhe com;;;;;;;.jinfi *iietare thin solder-edinto.place'
oJ;e;C;J
""lii'tht;;
i.c''s are mounted i" i'q' holders to
r,h;";.'[-of au-"ging them with high-static
"t;iA
u."
;;it*;",lt.thev were ioldered
"oura-o..""i
.i..uit.-cMoS deviie.scan easilv be
iirilii"'i.tti,
.t"ii""ttê.s, although the use of inil;;'"d'il
and splcial packaging
ternal protectron
"iicuilty
CONSTRUCTOR
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS
:
:::::::
::::::
l:::l::
oooooo
oooooo
l:::l:l l:i I;'0

i:l:0:l
:
looooo
looooo
oolooa
I
H
lllilil
F
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oooo
"ft::'*3
:: *'llll
: :
9V pos.vio 52
To disploy
o
o
..tT;;.
D
GF
::l:::
Cothode
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27
oooaoooaoaooooao90
A
B
o J------i-T
o I----T--i--i--I
-------J
o I--- o
o r---T-I
o f----i--i-1o
o I----C------T-]
o f----ii--------J
H
I
K
" Er
" )-------T?
l-------i-l
o ffi
o I-------iI
o f--i----------J
ot-----------------J
o f---------i--i-l
o t---------.--i-I
" ]E
o I--i--T-I
o I------------T-61o
o I-r--T----i------J
"E
o li------------i-(
E
o f-------i--i-i1
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
P
ffi
Fig. 4. Apan
An angled
from
ooooo
ooo
ooooo
oooooooo
cnd the two switches, all the components are assembled on e Vcroboard
the disptay
'
panal. The layout and wiring are illustrated here
shot of the digital
dice unit
1a
SEPTF]MBER1978
The components
on the veroboard.
The thrce integrated

i.c. holders
r,nal-(gs
it highly unlikely that they will be damaged
in this way if they are not misusbd or handled unnecessarily. The i.c.'s are left in their protective
packaging until all other wiring has been completed, and they are then handleil as little as possible.
The completed panel is wired up to the components mounted on the Iid using thin p.v.c. insulated flexible leads. The batteiv conhector is
then wired into circuit. The compbnent panel is
mounted on the base panel of the-case on the extreme right hand side and as far towards the rear as
possible.The side of the panel having the mountins
holes should be towards the front of-the case. 6E}A
bolts about 12mm. Iong are used to mount the pane l , a n d s h o r t s p a c i n gw a s h e r sa b o u t 4 m m . l o n g h o l d
the panel a little clear of the inside case surface. If
spacers are not fitted it is quite
-may possible
-break that the
panel will be strained and
when the
circuits
are fitted
into
mounting bolts and nuts are tiehtened.

Power is obtained from a ppd battery which fits
into the remaining space inside the cas-e.tt canbe
se.curedwrth a simple home-made clip, if desired.
The three CMOS i.b.'s consume ue.y little current,
an-d .so the current consumptio.r of the unit as a'
whole depends.a.lmost.ent-ir'elyupor, *hai numbJr
rs olsptayed. I hls vanes tiom about 10mA with a
1. to .approximately BOmA with a figure 6.
$fu.e
r nere ls, rn consequence, quite good battery
economy.
..- {hen the finished unit is first switched on it is
likely that the display will fail to light up. thi, i,
DecauseruJ may rnrtrally be at zero, and the i.c. is
connected rn such a way that the zero will be blanked. DepressingSl sho.dldcause the aiipilv to tigiit
up. and the circuit will then operate in-the manner
already described.
I
Mail Order Protection Scheme

_.The publishers of this magazine have given to the
Director General of Fair Triding an und'ertaking to
refund -money sent by readers in response to mail
order advertisements^placedin this magazineby mail
order traders who fail to supply goods or iefund
money and who have become the subject of liquida_
tron, or bankruptcy proceedings. These refunds are
m a d e v o l u n t a r r l y a n d a r e - s u b j e c tt o p r o o f t h a t p a v _
ment, was macle to the advertiser for goods ord-ered
through an advertisement in this m?gazine. The
arrangement. do_esnot apply to any failuie to supply
goods advertised in a cataiogue or direct mait sotiiita"tion.
. If a mail order trader fails, readers are advised to

lodge a claim r,vith the Advertisement Manaeer of this
magazine within 3 months of the appeararice of the
advertisernent.
. For .the purpose of this scheme mail order adverilslng ls cletlnectas:
"Direct responseadvertisements,displav or
postal bargains where cash has to be seni in
a d v a n c eo f g o o d sb e i n g d e l i v e r e d . "
Classified and cataloguemail order advertising are
excluded.
RADIO AND ELEC'IRONICS CONSTRUCTOR
WAVEGUIDE GAS
LASERS
By Michael Lorant
.V.ing hollow waveguidesof glass- tiny tubes
with inner diametersibout one'half the thickness
of a pencil lead-Peter Smith and co-workersat Bell
Systems in the United States have succeededin
miniaturising gaslasers.A typical exampleof these
lasers is about two inches lonc and twentv
thousandthsof an inch in diameter.Thelaserswill
be emplovedin communicationssvstemsemnloving coherentlight to ca.rrylarge ndmbers of voici,
prcture
ancl data srgnals.
Spacedat intervals alonga light path, miniature
gas.laserscan amplify light signalsto compenr-ate
tor transmissionlossesin much the samewav that
communicationssignalsare amplified in today's
telephone systems.-Conventiondl *". lasers are
much too Iarge to be used conveniently in such
appllcatlons.
. In most gas -lasers, including the waveguide
-of
Iasers,coherentlieht is qenerateilbv means an
electrical discharge anilogous with that which
causesa neonsignto glow.Accordingto Smith, "for
many gaslasers,the gain (the increasein intensitv
I
I
Peter Smith, Bell Systems scientist. demonst/atas the new miniaturised

waveguide
gas
laser. The line of light in thb glass tubing
at the left is passing
through
a waveguide
configuration
with a diameter of only twenty
thousandths
of an inch. Such
lasers wiil
appear in communications
systems
where
light is the carrier for many channals of data,
voice and picture signals,
SEPTEMBER
1978
The tiny white circle is the inner region of

the miniaturised
waveguide
gas taser. This
region.
roughly
half the thickness
of thd
mechanical pancil lead at the right. serves to
channel light passing through it by means
of multiple reflections from the highly polished
internal walls
*hi+ the light e4periencesin passingthrough the

gas)increasesas the diameteroTthe d-ischarg-e
tube
is decreased".
But a smaller inner diameter is onlv part of the
key to obtaining the required eain for sa'slaser action in very short lengths of tubine. With conventional gas laser designs,for insta-nce,tubes with
small inner diameteis would actuallv block the
passageof someof the laser lisht and would more
than offset the benefit of hishEr sain.
To overcomethis probleri waieguide gas laser
tubes are fabricated with very straight an? highly
polishedinner walls. Light cair be foiussedso as tb
pass down these tubes and experience multiole
reflectionsfrom the walls, allowine a beam to be efficiently transmitted with low lossis.Also. the lisht
whichîs-guideddown the tube can be effectiv-ely
amplified by the gas laser discharge.
Depending on the kind of gas used to fill the
tube, waveguidegas lasers have been operated at
severalwavelengthsin the visible and riear infrared parts of the spectrum. The first successful
waveguidegaslaser_used
a helium-neondischarge,
and operated at 6,328 angstroms.R.F. excitati'ori
was necessaryto maintain a stable discharse.A
Scm.lasertube was alsofabricated,requiringonly
d.c. excitation.
The waveguide configuration for gas lasers
should allow miniaturisation to the point where
these devicescan be u-sedwith integr-atedoptical
elementsin manv fields of communication.
I
19
NEWS
AND
NEW BRITISH UNMANNED

SUBMERSIBLE
A completely new type of microcomputercontrolledûnminned insp-ectionsystem has been
launched bv Richmond-based Marine Unit
Technolorv Limited.
The ndw vehicle - which is supported by the
Department of Energy through the offshore Energy
Teihnology Board - is lighter, smaller, more versatile, and far more controllable than other underwater inspection systems currently available, it
is claimed.
The new system is code'named SMARTIE (Submarine Automatic Remote Television Inspection
E o u i n m e n t ) . I t i s e l l i p t i c a l i n c r o s s - s e c t i o na n d i s
nasic'atlv a hishlv mobile underwater vehicle
equipped with i battery of underwater television
.^-i,iu.. These will coniist of at least one low-light
silicon intensified tarset (SIT) camera and a high
resolution vidicon camera. The vehicle is driven by
an electrically-powered submersible pump and is
therefore nropellerless.
The additirin of on-board computer facilities has
enabled Marine Unit to provide the offshore industrv with a submersible which is much more
nn**iful and versatile than has been available to
ihe industrv in the past. The microcomputer was
designed and developed bv Marine Unit
Tectrnology's research aryd develoPment team
headed by-l-lr. Brian Ray. This-is the first occasion
on which a microcomputer has been installed on an
Marine lJnit Technology stafl give SMARTIE a final

check before it enterc the water on its recent proving
trials in Ptymouth. ln tha background is the opentor's
underwater vehicle of this tYPe.
straightforward
from the relativ6ly
Anart
Drn""dut". of interpreting manually input control
l i m a l . f r o m t h e o p e r a t o r i c o n s o l e ,a n d c o n t r o l l i n g
uJ[ri"l" soeed and direction, the computer is also
c'apableof making SMARTIE a good deal easier to
o D e r a t e .F o r l o w v i s i b i l i t y w o r k , t h e c o m p u t e r c a n
a'ccentinput from the submersible's magnetic comp a s s ' a n d ' g y r o ,a n d p r o j e c t a n a r t i f i c i a l n a v i g a t i o n
Itarcet' wiiich'the operitor can follow on his video
screen even though the craft may be passing
throush an area of zero visibility.
AN NOU N CEM ENTS

ADDITION TO RANGE OF
O We have been advised by Ramar ElecPUSH-BUTTONCAR RADIOS ironics Services Ltd., of Masons Road,
Radiomobile Limited have announced new additions to their popular range of push-button car
radios - including Model 1180.
T h e R a d i o m o b i i - et 1 8 0 i s e q u i p p e d w i t h a d u a l
output stage which makes it ideally suited for use
with a separate stereo cassette deck.
The output using two matched speakers is 10
watts per channel when used as a radio and 5 watts
ner channel with the stereocassettedeck. There are
six nush-buttons giving pre-selectionon five
meclium and one long wa"-e station, full manual
tuning, and variable 6ass/treble tone and balance
controls.
price, including VAT
Recommended
178.64.
that
Warwickshire
Stratford-upon-Avon,
circuit boards for
thev can sripply
- D i gprinted
ltal
Frequency Meter
the CMOSfeatured in our July and August issues.
All boards will be on epoxy glass, roller
tinned, and drilled as follows:- Schmitt etc.
x2.65; Main p.c.b. .3.96;P.S.U. .1.15;
Display 84p. All prices include v.a.t. and
postage.
O Messrs. Brian J. Reed of 161 St. John's
Hill, Battersea, London SWll lTQ,- have
asked us to draw the attention of readers to
the fact that the prices quoted in their advertisements are now inclusive of v.a.t. and
postage.
O The Torbay Amateur Radio Society are
holding their Annual Mobile Rallv oLs-q143v
ZZttt A,tgust. The venue is the SCT/ITT
Social Clntre, Brixham Road,. Paignton,
Devon and the'event is being run in conjunc-tion *ittt the Electronics Division of
STC/ITT.
The Torbay Society continrre to- maintain
the Amateur-Station at the Douglas House
Cheshire Home, Brixham and a-percentage
of tt e proceeds from the Rally will be
donated-to this worthy cause.
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR
COMMENT
ADDITION TO CONSOLERANGE
Vero Electronics Limited have increased their
range of moulded plastic enclosuresby the addition
o r a l a r g e s l o p l n g - t r o n tc a s e .
Vacuum-formed from black textured ABS. the
case, Order Code 75-3960E, is desimed to suit
a p p l i c a t i o n s r e q u i r i n g a f u l l a l -kevboard
ihanumeric
keyboard, or a standar-d calculator
in
association with a number of other coitrols. An
anodised aluminium panel 430 mm x 11b mm is
supplied with the case, but not fitted. for use as
required in component mounting. A flat surface,
suitable for the mounting of digital displays, is
presented to the operator at a convenienf angle.
RESISTORWATTAGES
The ubiquitous miniature ! watt
fixed resistor is so firmlv established in the home-constructor field
that it takes quite an effort to think
back to what now seem to be the incredibly bulky ] watt resistorsof 10
to _20 years ago. But the present
delightfully small components are
now virtually stock items and make
the businessof wiring up electronic
gear a real pleasure.
However, what we hobbvists
cla.ssas_a I watt resistor would very
probably be looked upon as an
eighth watt resistor by a large
manufacturer of electronic equipment. The reason is simply orie bf
obtaining a safety margin. When
hundred.sof thouiands df resistors
are assembledin widely scattered

items which have been sold
throughoutthe country it is comforting for a manufaituer's design
staff to know that all theseresistols
are r.unningwell within their disslpatlon ratlng.
So far as the home-constructor is

concerned the approach towards
selecting resistor wattages is quite
easy. Always make the (albeit
pessimistic) assumption that a
resistor is approaching its maximum dissipation when it is run at
its rated wattage. So, if you put a
resistor in a circuit where its
calculated wattage dissipation is
say 0.2 watt, don't use a ] watt
resistor. Play safe and employ a I
DRY REED RELAYS
I
I
t
F
I
f,
We are all familiar with drv reed

relays in which the contacls are
enclosed in a glass cartridge inserted inside the relay coil. Passing
current through the coil causes the
contacts inside the glass cartridge to
snap together an-d to comp-lete
whatever circuit the relay is iniended to control. The contaci assemblv
may also be used on its own as i
switch which is actuated by one or
more permanent magnets.
But why dry reed relav? Whv is
the word "dry" applied tb the r-eed
contacts? The answer is that the
contacts are not wetted!
In telephone exchangesthe tvpe
rrf relay employed before dry r-eid
relays came on the scenewas of the
P.O.3000type in which the contacts
are open to the air. When the contacts of a relay of this type close
they have a small self-wipi-ng action
which cleansoffanv thinfilm ofoxide which may hav6 formed on their
surfaces.But this self-cleaning
ac-fully
tion may-the
not be sufficient to
remove
oxide if the relav ii
SEPTEMBER1978
energisedvery intrequently, as can

happen in some telephone
applications. The result is that the
completed circuit is not fully effective and the poor contact connection gives rise to crackles.
The oxide on contacts of this
nature can still nevertheless be
broken down if, on closing, the contacts complete a circuit across
which a small direct voltage, of the
order of 30 to 50 volts, is present.
'I'he
tiny spark on contact closure
given by the voltage is sufficient to
break down the oxide and allow a
crackle-free connection to be made.
With infrequently operated open
relay contacts which normally
switch small signal voltages and
currents it is the practice to apply
this voltage, which is referred to as
a "wetting" voltage.
Dry reed contacts are encapsulated in their glass cartridge,
which is filled with inert gas. In
consequence they do not oxidise
and do not need a "wetting"
voltage. Hence the term "dry".
Simple, isn't it?
watt resistor instead.

It is often forgotten that the wattage rating of a potentiometer
applies to its whole track. This
rating then defines the maximum
current which can be safelv drawn
from the track by the potenliometer
slider. If for instance you have a
l-rk{) potentiometer whose track is
rated at 0.5 watt, that 0.5 watt dissipation will be given if there is 50
volts across the track, causing
10mA to flow through it. (50 volts
times 1OmA gives 500 milliwatts, or
0.5 watt.) It follows that the maximum current which may flow
through the track, or any part of it
between the slider and one end. is
l0mA.
Fortunately,
most homeconstructor designs involve low
voltages and low currents and we do
not need to worry overmuch about
excessive resistor and potentiometer dissioations. In most
general cases, indeed, they are frequentlv well below a tenth of a watt.
"No, son, I've no idea what you ncxt

experlmcnt is, Should I hovo?"
CIRCUIT
SUGGESTED
MUSICAL
VOLTMETER
By
We already have moving'coil

voltmetersand digital voltmeters'
voltmeter!It
Here.now ie a mu^s{cal
funciionsby generatingan audible
a.f. tone when a voltageof the correct polaritv is applied to it8 test
terminals,the freq-dencyof the tone
rising as the voltageincreaseg'
This idea is by no meansas outlandish as it may at first sight
appear.After someexperiencewith
the voltmeterthe usersoonacqutres
a knowledgeof the tone frequencY
for specificvoltagesat the test terminals,and it iJ readily Possible,
for instance,to distinguishthe tone
given by a .partly run-down 9 volt
that given by a new
Satterv-against
batterv.The voltmet-ermay also be
useda! a voltagemonitor when it is
desiredto carrv on with other work.
If it is connectbdto, say, the olltput
of a suspectpowersupply its changing tone frequencY will soon tndiiate when the oirtput voltage of
the supplv variesor fluctuatee.For
serviiine work the mueical
voltmeter-has the advantage that
thereis no necessityto visually con'
read-out;ag
sult a scaleor a digital
-knows
the tone
soon as the user
frequency given by. the..voltage
acrossthe main suPPlYralls ol tne
equipment being exlirined it is a
verv simple matter to check
wheiherthi requisitelower voltages
are aoDearinl at the ends of
decoudiinrand-load reeistors'
A dartiiularlv useful feature of
the voltmeterisihat it is completely
silent in the absenceof test voltage.
\Yhen switchedto the lowestvoltage
range, a test voltageof 0.1 volt is
sufficientto causeit to generateits
lowestfrequencytone.
TONEGENERATOR
The tonegeneratorin the musical
voltmeter employs a. unijunction
transistor. A standard un1unctlon
transistoroscillatorcircuit is shown
22
Fronch
T.rt
terminolr
R4
U f'
'Bl
cA
(b)
(o)
Fig. l(a). A standard unfiunctlon trunslttor e'l' oscillator circuit

(il. lf the oscillator clrcult ls modlflcd as shown hcrc, thc frcquencv of oscillation rises as thc tast voltagc incrc''ses
in Fig. 1(a). After the power is

apolie-d.capacitor CA commences
tri charse via resistor RA until the
its platesreachesthe
voltase-across
emitt"er-base1 triggering potential
for the transistor. The caPacitor
rapidly dischargesinto the base.1
load. then chargesonce more vla
RA. The result is a seriesof evenlY
spaced current Pulses Passing
throueh the base 1 load, their
repetilion frequencybeinggoverned
bv
-Inthe values of RA and CA.
Fie. 1(b), RA is disconnected
from th-eupper supply rail and is
connectedinsteadto a positive test
terminal. The comPlementarY
negativetest terminal ii returned to
the slider of a potentiometerconnected acrossthb supply rails, this
slider tapping off a voltagethat is
fractionallv lower than the triggering voltageof the unijunction tran-
sistor.Shouldthe two test terminals

be connectedtogether the circuit
will not oscillate. If, however, a
voltase is applied to the test ter'
minals with the polaritY shown,the
upper end of RAis taken positive.of
the transistor trlggerlng porcntlat
and the circuit then ogcillates' lt
will be evident that the greater the
test voltase the faster will be the
rate of cliarse in CA between dis'
charse pulsel through the emitter
and bas'eI of the transietor.Thue,
increasingthe test voltageincreases
the repe-tition frequencY of the
in the base 1 load.
oulses
'
In both Figs. 1(a) and (b) the
base 1 load of the transistor is a
loudspeaker. This directlY
reoroducesthe pulsesin the form of
an a.f. tone. Wiih Fig, 1(b) the frequency .of the tone rises as test
voltagerncreases.
VR1 can be setup suchthat the output of ICI is just belowthe triggering potentialof TRl. When a test
vo'itigeis appliedthe output of ICl
then goespositive,causingthe uniiunction transistor circuit to os-
V O L T A G EF O L L O W E R S
A working version of the scheme
illustrated in Fig. 1(b) is given in
Fig. 2. The potentiometer now
appears as VRl, with R9 in seriesto
restrict the voltages tapped off by
its slider to the range which is required in practice. The voltage from
VRI is applied to the non-inverting
input of'the 741 operational
amplifier, IC2. This has its output
returned to its inverting input with
the result that it functions as a
voltage follower, its output voltage
being almost exactly equal to the
voltage at its non-inverting input.
The advantage of this op-amp configuration is that it provides an output voltage at low impedance which
is virtually the same as an input
voltage derived from a high impedance source. The output voltage
from IC2 connects to the negative
test terminal of the voltmeter.
IC2 output also connects via R6
to the non-inverting input of
another 741, ICl. This is also a
voltage follower and its output
couples to R7 which, in turn, connects to C1. These two components
carrv out the same functions as did
RA and CA in Fig. 1(b), and their
iunction couples in the same
"-attner
to the^ emitter of the uniiunction transistor TR1. The base 1
i o a d i s t h e 1 5 o s p e a k e r ,L S 1 .
The input impedance of IC1 is
very high, being typically 2Ml). In
the absence of test voltage its noninverting input is therefore at virtuallv the same potential as the output of IC2. tlnder these conditions,
crllate.
It is found that a useful voltage

range variation at the non-inverting
inout of IC1 is from zero to 1 volt
positive. In the present circuit an
arbitrary choice was made to give
the voltmeter a sensitivity of 20ko
oer volt. and R6 has this value. So
ilso has R5 whereupon Range 1,
selected bv 51. is 0-2 volts. The
same value of resistanceper volt is
maintained in the further series
resistors R4 to Rl, giving the range
voltage figures shown in the
olagram.
Diodes Dl and D2 provide
protection against excessive input
test voltages, and they prevent the
n o n - i n v e r t i n gi n p u t o f I C I f r o m b e ine taken more than 0.65 volt
po.sitive of the upper supply rail or
more than 0.65 volt negative of the
lower supply rail. Current limiting
protection for the output of IC2 is
siven bv whichever of the resistors
Rt to Rt is switched in by 31.
P R A C T I C A LP O I N T S
Aoart from some of the series inn u t m u l t i p l i e r r e s i s t o r sa, l l t h e c o m Donents are standard items. LSI
can be any small 15ot speaker with
a diameter of 2.5 in. or more.
Speakers with this impedance are
available from a number of
suppliers, including Doram Elec-
tronics. The volume of the tone

produced by the speaker is not great
but will be more than adequate for
a normal workshop environment,
The pin numbering for ICl and
IC2 applies to the ?41 in its 14 pin
d.i.l. package. The 8 pin d.i.l. version may alternatively be used, in
which case pin 2 is the inverting input. pin 3 the non-inverting input,
pin 4 the negative supply, pin 6 the
output and pin 7 the positive supply. With either i.c. package,no connections are made to the unused
o
- ins.
The current drawn from the 9
volt battery is about 3mA, both
when the a.f. tone is present and
when it is absent. A battery type
PP7 will be adequate. The
voltmeter functions with falling
battery voltage down to ap'oroximatelv 7.5 volts.
The fixed resistors can all be I
watt or I watt types, and R7 to R9
inclusive may have a tolerance of
10'';. R1 to R6 may be 5% or less.
R2. R5 and R6 are in the E24 series
of oreferred values and are offered
by- some suppliers in a closer
tolerance than 5q'o.Rl and R4 do
not have preferred values although
the values shown for these two
resistors are occasionally found
amongst close tolerance types.
Since this is not a pointer instrument it would be satisfactory in
oractice to use a 620kt) 5% resistor
ior Rl and a 62ko 5ec resistor for
R4. Alternativelv. R1 could consist
ol' two 1.2M(l r-esistorsin parallel
and R4 of two 120ktt resistors in
oarallel.
On -Otf
Rt
R2
6OOkn 2OOkn
R3
R4
R5
lOOkn
6Okn
20ko
VRt
22ko
Lrn.
Set zcro
TRr
2N2646
Sl rqngcs
| -o- 2v
2-O-5V
3-O-rOV
4-o-20v
5-O-50V
E,.--\8!
TI
741
Top viqw
2N 2646
L c o d- o u t s
B2v
Fig. 2. The completa
;l
sEI/fFlMUI.lR r978
circuit
of the musical
voltmetel
2:\
comr)onents
The
in any sma\\
assembled
maY
p\astic
tre
case
capable of accommodating them.

This will require an aperture for the
speaker in the front panel, on which
may also be mounted Sl, 52, VRI
anri the test terminals. VRl should
be wired such that the voltage
tapped off by its slider goes positive
as its soindle is turned clockwise.
The voltmeter may be checked
with the circuit shown in Fig. 3,
where a Dotentiometer is connected
across an external 9 volt battery to
give differing test. voltages. The
ootentiometer mav have anv value
between lko and 20kt), and the
voltage between the lower end of its
track and its slider is monitored by
a standard multimeter switched to a
suitable voltage range. Before connecting the musical voltmeter to the
test circuit it is switched on and
VRl is adjusted clockwise to the
setting just below that at which oscillation commences. The musical
voltmeter is then set to Range 2 and
coupled to the test circuit, the
Fig. 3. Checking tho comploted instrument' The monitoring

across the test teminals is a standard muftimeter
viltmetar
switched to a suitable volts range
potentiometer of which is adjusted
io give voltages ranging from zero to
5 volts. The frequency of the tone
oroduced bv the musical voltmeter
lhould inciease noticeablv as the
test voltage increases. Wittr the
prototype circuit the tone frequency
was approximately 200H2 at a very
low test voltage, rising to around
2kKz at the maximum voltage in
selected. The frequency
the range
-continue
to rise for test
should
voltages above the nominal maximum range voltage (i.e. above 5
THE 58 SET
The CanadianWirelessSet No' 58 Mk 1, shown
in the photographwith its lid open,is a recentaddition to the dut6or'scollectionof antiqueand warof the
time radioequipment.Made in 1q43'-i!is-one
employedin World War II.
rarer transcelvers
P E R M E A B I L I TT
YU N I N G
the 58 set is
like all military equipment,
-and
it has many unique
beautifullyengineered,
The Canadian Wireless Set No' 58' one of the

transceivers
encountered
more inf requentlY
from World War tl. used in coniunction with
supply. this
a separate back-pack power
covers 6 to gMHz
volts with the circuit of Fig. 3),

therebv indicating that the
voltmeter has more tlian adequate
sensitivity "in hand."
In use- the musical voltmeter is
emploved in the same manner as an
ordjnary voltmeter, apart from the
fact that it is necessary to set uP
VRI at the start of any set of
measurements. As already stated,
this potentiometer is adjusted
clockwise, with no test voltage
aoolied. to the point iust below that
ai which oscillition commences. I
By Ron Ham
features including permeability tuning and ultra
slow motion tunin! drives for both the receiverand
the transmitter. fhe receiver tuning control is at
the left and that for the transmitter is at the right.
.qf botto- centre is the send-receiveswitch, which
ca" be operatedby a mechanical-shaftingwhen the
lid is cloied. Othei controlsare volume and receiver
aerial trim at upper left, and a transmitter output
trim and nettine-switchbelow the meter.
fit" set weigTrs14 lbs' and, compatible with
WirelessSets16, 19, 38 and 52, covers6 to 9 MHz.
The wirelessunit proper is assembledon the rectangular black panei measuring10| by 5in. and is
3fin. deep, and this is housed in an inner sp-rglg
fiame inside the military green case which
.n"u.tt.. t4 bv ? bv 6in' with the lid closed.On the
iti"..ir n"ni"d tLe front paneland are eight valves,these
neinetwo 1T4's,one 1tt5, three 1SS'sand two loctal
There is also a host of robust components
1299"A's.
u"a 1*o i'useswith the unusual marking of ll32
amp.
A'matching green back-pack,measuring10j by
14 bv 4lin. deenand weishing25 lbs.,containsa
vibritor'Dower back and two 2 volt lead-acidaccumulators together with a set of spare fuses'
valves and vib"rator.Each accumulator has three
coloured balls of different density to indicate the
io""ifi" gravitv of the acid and, h-ence,the state of
.hute.. fhe u6cu-ulators are used individually to
diive-the power unit, but a switch is incorporated
which can brine them both into operationwhen
they are in a loiv state of chargeA 10-wavconnectorat the end of a power lead
from the sipply plugs into the left hand side of the
pair o{ flying leads which
set. There iie"
"tso"ato use the set, each having a
.nublu two operators
paaaea healset with a permanently attached
I
microphone
THE ZN424E
OPERATIONAT
AMPTIFIER
By P. R. Arthur
New i.c. with very low distortion
features in a dynamic microphone
pre-amplifier.
Although i.c. operational
amplifiers were
'for
originally-designed
use in gen-eralanalogue
computing applications,they are employed in a
very wide range of usesthesedays. Among other
thingsthey are capableof low noiselow dislortion
amplification and are therefore ideal for audio
applications.
operational amplifier and audio pre-amplifier i.c.'s

have a much higher open loop gain than the 2N424,
but also have a very much greater level of open loon
distortion, so that 6ven the-increasednegativefeedback does not compensate sufficiently to produce
an improvement on the closed loop distortion performance of the 2N424. Also, the guaranfeed
minimum voltage gain figure for such-devices is
often little or no better than that for the 2N424.
FERRANTI2N424
O-." of the highestquality operationalamplifiers P E R F O R M A N C E
in these two respects(in fact, to the best-of the
The typical open loop voltage gain of theZN424
author'sknowledge,the highestquality operational
amplifier i.c. at presentavailable)is-the Ferranti is 86dB (20,000 times) with the minimum figure
2N424. It comes-inthree versionswhich are elec- being 80dB (10,000times). The absolutemaximum
trically identicalbut havedifferentpackagestyles.
-a.i.t. permissible supply voltage is 18 volts positive and
negative with a dual supply of 35 volts in the case of
These are thd ZN424P which is an 8 pin
device,the ZN424T which has an 8 pih TO-gg a single supply rail. It is advisable and normal to
allow a safety margin of at least 10% under these
metal encapsulation,
and the ZN424Bwhichis a 14
figures, though. The device will work quite weil
pin d.i.l. device.The last is the onlv versionwhich
from a comparatively low voltage supply such as a
is readily availableto the amateuruserat the time
of writing, and it has the pin connections
shownin
Fig. 1.
The main advantageof the 2N424 over alternative devicesis that when operatedfrom a dual
EALANCE f,vil
POS. SUPPLY
supplyvoltagein the range12 to 18voltsmaximum
INV INPUT
N.C.
(or 24 to 36 voltsmaximum if a singlesupplyrail is
N.C
N.C.
used)the i.c. has a tvpical distortionlelvel-ofless
NON-INV INPUT
than 1.5%with a 2 vblt peak-to-peakoutput level
BALANCE /COMP
NC.
and the-output.moderatelyload6d.This may not
seemto be particularlygood"but rememberthat it
OUTPUT t l
NC.
is without any negative feedback applied. There
NEG,SUPPLY
N.C.
are some audio pre-amplifier i.c.'s which offer a
similarlevel of openloop distortion,but they have
zN424E
a considerablylower open loop voltageeain than
TOP VIEW
doesthe 2N424.Thus, for a gi'iencloJed-loop
gain
the 2N424 will provideloweidistortion dueio"the
Fig. l. Pin allocations
for the Ferranti ZN424E
greater amount of feedback. Similarlv, manv
oparational
amplifier
It
JI
L--I
SEPTEMBF]R1978
25
The componentpanel is housedin an all-metal

case which provides screcning
9 volt battery. Without feedback and using the

recomm.ended,compensation network the gain of
the device falls to unity at approximately-4MHz
a"q^th-e- -3dB point of the response is typically
at 20kHz. The input and outpirt resistaircesare
t y p i c a l l y 2 0 0 k n a n d 4 k r r r e s p e c t i v e l v .T h e m a x imum differential input voliage should not be
allowed to exceed 5 volts.
From Fig. 1 it will be seen that the 2N424 has a
gate terminal. This has the effect of isolating the input from the output when it is connected to the
negative supply rail, and the gating facility can be
extremely useful in a few highly specialised
applications. However, in most applicdtions the
gate feature is not required and the gate terrninal
can simply be igaored. An offset null control can be
used if necessary,_andcan consist of a lMr: pre-set
potentiometer with the ends of its track connected
to pins I and 5 of the i.c. The slider of the potent i o m e t e r c o n n e c t st o t h e p o s i t i v e s u p p l v r a i l v i a a
resistor of about 47kr: in value. Of cbuise, in most
audio applications the offset null control is not
needed.
PRACTICAL PROJECT
The 2N424 is suitable for use in many preamplifier applications, and a practical exampie is
given in the circuit of Fig. 2. This is for a low imp e d a n ^ c e ( 2 0 - 0 . ( t )d y n a m i c m i c r o p h o n e p r e amplifier, and it can be readily adapled for 600o
microphones simply by alteririg the- value of one
resistor. A pre-amplifier such as this is usuallv
needed if a low impedance microphone is to be used
in conjunction with an amplifier, as it is very rare
for an amplifier to have a suitable input. Fbr in-
Resistors
(All j watt 10''o)
R1 220.o(seetext)
R 2 1 . 5k o
R3 15ko
R4 15ko
R5 68n
R6 1.5Mo
Capacitors
Cl 4.7pF electrolytic,10 V. Wkg.
C2 lOlF electrolytic.10 V. Wkgl
C3 o.0UF type ezao (Muilardi
C4 1OpFelectrolytic,10 V. Wkg.
C5 0.1pFtype C280 (Mullard)
Semiconductor
IC1 ZN424E
Switch
Sl s.p.s.t.rotary
Sockets
SK1 3.5mm.iack socket
SK2 3.5mm.jack socket
Miscellaneous
Metal case(seetext)
Control knob
9 volt battery type PP3 (Ever Ready)
Batterv connecinr
I.C. holder,14 pin d.i.l.
Veroboard,0.1 in. matrix
Nuts, bolts. wire. etc.
stance,not all tape decks and recorders have an input for this type of microphone, and so a suitable
external microphone pre-amplifier is needed if a
low impedance dynamic microphone is to be used
successfully with such machines.
The pre-amplifier consists basically of just an
o r d i n a r y i n v e r t i n g m o d e o p e r a t i o n a la m p l i f i e r c i r c u i t . A s i n g l es u p p l y r a i l i s u s e d a n d s o R 3 a n d R 4
a r e i n c l u d e d t o p r o v i d e a c e n t r a l v o l t a g e -pnooi nntbetween the supply rails which biases the
i n v e r t i n g i n p u t o f t h e i . c . C 2 p r o v i d e sd e c o u p l i n ga t
the nrrn-inve,rtinginput and helps to produce g6od
s t a o l l t t v a n d a l o w n o r s el e v e l .
R5 dnd 03 are the compensation components,
and these are needed in order to ensure thal the i.c.
remains stable.
The voltage gain and input impedance of the
amplifier are set by the values in thb negative feed-
Fig. 2. Tho clrcuit ol a

dyncmic micmphonc prsrmplllior incorpontlng
thc
zN424E
ITAI)IO ANI) EI,I]CTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR
ptnsl
Tho Vtrobotrd
rrort fltd dtttpin
fwvltn,
maans of rrilonbtf for ilta
eornpo'/*rtr
back network formed by R6 and R2. The voltage

sain is approximatelyequa! to R6 divided by R2
(t,SOOXo71.5krl)
which is obviously 1,000 times
(60dB) with the specifiedcomponentvalues.This
but it must be bornein
mav seemto be rather hieh,
-from
a low impedance
mirid that the output
dvnamic microphoneis only in the regionof a few
hirndred microvolts. A hieh level input on an
amnlifier or tapedeckrequiiesan inputlevel in the
ord'erof a few'hundredririllivolts.Thus, this high
level of gain is necessary.
What is termed a "viriual earth" is formed at the
invertinginput of the i.c. and so, disregardingRl,
the input ihpedance to the op-amp is roughly
equal to R2, 61 1.5k4).Rl shuntsthe input of the
ofe-amnlifierand so reducesthe input impedance
to approximatelythe required level of 200rr.The
valu'e'of R1 miy be aliered to lk-rr if the preamplifier is to be used with a 60011dynamic
microphone.
D.C. blocking is accomplishedat the input by
C1, and C4 providesd.c. blocking at the ou!p.ut,
Boih thesecapacitors,as well as C2, are specified
as 10 V. Wkg., but it will be in order to use components havirrg a higher working voltage.C5 is a
iupplv bvpasJ capacitor and Sl is a straighttoiriaid on-off switch. The circuit consumesonly
about 2mA from a 9 volt supply and so a small
batterv such as a PP3 makes a suitable power
sourcefor the unit.
CONSTRUCTION
All the components,apart from S1 and the input

and output sockets,are wired up on a 0.1 in.-pitch
Veroboardpanel which has 16 Copperstrips by 19
holes.SeeFie. g for full details oflthe layout and
wirins of this-panel,and alsofor detailsof the other
wiring. There-arethree breaks in the copperqtlips,
andthesecan be madeusinqeitherthe specialVero
spotfacecutter tool or a smill twist drill-held in the
hand.The two mountinsholesare 6ElAor M3 clear.
It is not essentialto usean i.c. holderor Soldercon
pins for the 2N424, but as this.is-a comparatively
expensivecomponentit is advisableto do so.
SEPTEMBER 1978
The prototype pre-amplifier is housed in an

aluminium box which has approximate outside
dimensionsof 4 by 3 by 1|in. Tliis can be obtained
from Harrison Bios., iZ tvtilton Road, WestcliffOn-Sea,Essex,SS0 ?LQ. Any similar metal case
which can accommodatethe ilarts will be equally
suitable. It is essentialfor the case to be of allmetal constructionso that the circuit is well screened from mains hum and other stray electricalpickup.
The generallayout of the pre-amplifiercan be
seenfrom the accbmpanyingphotographs,and this
is not at all critical.S1 is mountedtowardsthe right
hand side of the front panel,which consistsof the
lid of the box. SKl and-SK2are mountedat the left
hand side of the panel, one above the other with
SK2 the higher of the two. 51 requires a l_14.(or
10mm.)dia'metermountinghole.SK1 and SK2 are
both 3.5mm. jack socketsand require-{in' (or
about6.5mm.)diametermountingholes.Thesetwo
socketsshouldbe of openconstruction(i.e.not insulated)becausethe negativesupply rail connects
to the metal case via their mounting bushesand
nuts. The completedcomponentpanel is mounted
on the rear panel of the c-aseon dheleft hand side
usins two 68A or M3 bolts and nuts. Spacersare
passedover the bolts to hold the copper strips on
ihe undersideof the panel about lin. clear of the
rnetal case.The panel must be wired up to SI!-1'
SK2, S1 and the battery clip before it is finally
mountedinside the case.
leadsto connect
There is no needto usescreened
SKl and SK2 to the componentpanel as the case
nrovides overall screening.AIso, there is little
iikelihoodof instabilityoccurringdue to strayfeed'
back betweenthe input and output of the preamplifier despiteits high voltagegain,sincethe input is at a low impedanceand the input and output
are in snti-phase.The input and output cablesconnectins to the microphone and the amplifier
should] however,be screened.There is plenty of
soacefor a PP3 batterv to the rear of 51, and if
.ricer.arv some foam nibber or a similar material
can be uied to ensurethat this battery is held firmly in position.
27
Eott"ry
Jo""oooo
//0
?:
o
o
J
I
t^ a l
H
c
I
E
D
Ol
l,,l
I
o
conncctoc
ffi$
t3
tl
tI
t5
t7
o
o
o
o
o
t9
aoooaoaoaooa9
oa
..
-----.lol
ol
D
E
F
a
n
I
J
K
L
How the Pr.'

Fig.3.
amplifier comPonents crc
laid out on tho Veroboard
panel. Also shown are thc
connoctions to the two
sockets, the switch and tho
battery connector
ooa
M
N
o
P
(J\J"
ooooooooo0000000
PERFORMANCE
For a 2 volt peak-to-peakoutput signal the
2N424 i.c. has a typical distortion level of lessthan
l.5To,as was statedearlier.The typical open loop
gain of the deviceis 20,000times (86dB) and the
ilosedloopgain in this applicationis 1,000(60d8).
.,\
NK.
N
The front panel of the pre-amplifier. Mounted
here are the input and output socktfs and tho
rotary on-off switch
28
This meansthat the feedbackis reducing the gain

of the i.c. by 20 times (26dB) and so the distortion
is similarly reduced. This would give the unit a
tvpical lev-elof t.h.d. of lessthan 0.075%.Such a
figure may not be quite achievedin practicehere as
the i.c. is beingrun from a supply pbtentialof only
9 volts, but the distortion on the prototype is certainly very low and is only in the region of the
calculated figure. (The distortion was too low for
the author to measureaccurately with the equipment availableto him.)
The wideband output noiseof the prototype was
measuredat 1mV, which was a little disappointing
ratio of -54dB
sinceit representsa signal-to-noise
with referenceto an outnut level of 500mV r.m.s.
However, further investigationshowedthat much
of this noisewas well abdvethe upper limit of the
audio spectrum, and filtering out the ultrasonic
noise content produced a signal-to-noiseratio of
better than -63dB. Proper weightingwould almost
certainly produce an even better figure.
The pre-amplifierwill producean output of just
under 2 volts r.m.s. from a 9 volt supply witliout
the overloadmargin can be
clipping.If necessary,
if the supply voltageis raised to 18 volts
inCr-eased
by using two PP3 batteries connected in series.
There is plenty of room for these inside the case.
T
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONS'I'RUCTOR
FORDX L TENERS
By Frank A. Baldwin
'.
Htt
.'''..'....''
,,'|.',''Frcque*ies
: ktrIz
firrrss* CUt
O LATIN AMERICA
alwaysof interest
South
"-o.T Americanstationsare
logging.of
successfulfor
the
Uut
Dierl
to
early morning
-"nv of thesetransmitters,-many
iii,iiii"*.!..io". arerequired- dnd I meanearlv
- anvtlmebetween0100and 0500'
S"rit-"i1n. LA transmittersrecentlyheardhere
arelistedbelow.
from 1800 to 2100 on 1182O dailY.
. THAILAND
"Radio Thailand" has an External Service in
which ntocta-tn"s in English are radiated from
oiis io-oEi5 and from 1055to 1155on 9655 and
o"- f fgOS beamed to both Asia and Europe'
proctr--"s
in various languagesare featured on
in"r?i*" -uichannelsfrom sign-onat 0415throughto
l+zs. Additionallv, there is a further
.i*-oif
O PERU
English from 7330 to 0155 on the
;;%;.;;-.-in
0355,
at
ol
Iquitos,
la
Selva,
ianie
channels.
de
LaYoz
18??.
Ofr4-*iitt iaentificationin Spanishfollowedbv

local-style music and songs.
O HONDURAS
on 482O at
Tegucigalpa,
La Yoz Evangelica,
in the U.S' and
o+od.ou *itir ^"t^tt abouitra--vel
religion,all in English.
. MALAYSIA
The "Voice of Malaysia", Kuala Lum,pul'
broadcastsin English from O0ZSto 0855on 6175'
9750 and on 15295.
O NIGERIA
O COLOMBIA
The Nigerian BroadcastingCorporation, -Lagos'
on.4815at 0130'
RadioGuatapuri,Valledupar,
in tlie Dpmg-st!c Service
ruai"i".
s c^liimiranaldentiiicationiir Spanishby OM' LA ?.îi"""t itograttt-es
ir.rÊpslish,on 499O
mostly
Fto"gta-*e)
dancemusic.
from i?00 thiough to 2305,
i;or;"omo t" ibbo
O VENEZUELA
at
RadioCarora,Carora,on a measured.49O7
local
commercials,
ldentification,
;ith
4"2,-OM
01
pops
'"f,;ii;on records'
i-o""to. Valencia,on 3355 at 0335,YL
iit Spanish,oM announcer,LA
*i;h i;;;;i"i
--music.
n"aio Universidad,Merida, on .Q395at 0225,
UM announcer'
dancemusicandsongs,
Iocal-type
1000 to 1700'
ot 7255 from""il
-'Pt;a;;;.
"lro
itt the Domest& Service from
r"iio"""f .."tt"s are as follows - E-lury, AnaTbra
S1"u1",fto* 0430 to 2305 on 6025; Benin.^Cltl'
ffia'.i Si"te, from 0430 to !3^0^5on- 1^9-32;

ff,t"ia"htti.-iiot"o State, ftom 0430 tô2305 on
eioo;ULbai, Crossliver State,on 6146 from
Kadunq9tate,from 0430to
K-adutta,
-Jnibtte;llorin,
dft"ot.i5bf
from 0430to
Kqara S^tate,
ii05
from 0425to
state,
Sokoto
i50b ;; iI45; Sokot6,
2305,on 6195.
O BRAZIL
O ETHIOPIA
RadioBrazilCentral,Goiania,on4985 at 0435,
The "Voice of Revolutionary. Eihiopia
Iocalpop records,OM in Portuguese'
the
of
National Setvice", Addis Ababa' is one
mostlyin
opeqqt!1s
-f'oi"
ij"-.rli. Servicetransmitterq
CURRENT SCHEDULES
"throu
I;ii;;il
r'o"' ;;'6ir' ;il-;'
os3o
ghto
ZbOOo" 4905, 5985 and on 711O'
O SAUDI ARABIA
The BroadcastingService--ofthe Kingdom.of O CHINA
Saua-iIi"bd operitesthe Holy Qur'an Station
External
For 'China watchets', the following information
f.;;'Iiiu"d Uoth in the Domedtic--and
be
mav
*iit-Ue of inlere.t. Whil6 all of the channelsare not
neaaingfrom the Holy-Qur'an
il;i*J:
on
onlv
Fridavs
tieie, those that should provide targets
on
1010
to
;;;;i";;d
0636
[;;A-ii"-
i6li6ri'i'i--isoo"ioibbbonugr6 dailvand
30
for most SWL's are included'
RADIO AND ELEC'TRONICS CONSTRUCTOR
FUKIEN FRONT
* The Fukien Front^ statior.r operated by the
People's
,Liberation _Army, t.o-ia-.u.i. both in
4TqV and StandardChineseto Taiwan and othei
Offshore Islands.
From 1415to 2400on 24gO; from 1444to 2810
on^3ÔOO;
from 1600to22BJor,gb3b;lrom 1600to
p"^19^4o;
from-1000
to 0bs0;?o+s; irorn
?|??to
111! 2400on4B3O;from1000to i-SSg
andf.om
and from 1300to 2010(Saturdaysuntil 2110).The

power is lkW.
Nairobi on a measured4gB4 at 1g20,OM an_
nouncer.witha programmeof local-typemusicand
gonqs.This transmitter formerly opeidtedon 4g1b
but has beenon this channelfoi so'memonths-now.
The scheduleis from -02b5(Sundaysfrom O5-g0i
-untij
t"
0630 and from 1430 to 201b (Saturdavs
2lI5). This is the Home Service'in Swatiiti.ffie
power is 10kW.
2234 to 0b30 on b246 and f.om iOOOio tbbg and

from 2234to 0580on b26b. Aii
f"r"soins are
palt of the First Network in Standard
"itir.
iTril;U.'^^The Second Network.opu.ut"i l" lmoy tiom
0230to O74band in Standaid Cirinesefrom 074bto
0930. From 1515to 1900on t6o-o;l;;;
1400to
O CONGO
_ Brazzavilleon a measured 4764 at 0400,
-at choral
'Internationale'
and Moslem
dign_onfrom_1b15
to rgoo-,i"-s"ioo;rrom The scheduleis from 0430 to-0700
199Q"" ??oo;
"h""i.
a$;d"Flr;;
1400to 1900onB4OO;from 15tba"lb00 o.,ggOO; 0400);
from 1700to 2400and the &G. ijSO[W.
f1_om
tp1 to 1900on'414O;f.om bt50
to 1900on
a3Q_0;
from 0230to 1900o" +e+O
fro- OZiij
to 1900on blZO.
"na
. UGANDA
Kampala on a masuredbO26 at 1g4S,OM in
RADIO PEKING - DOMESTICSERVICES vernacular followed by a newsc"rl i"-Bngtirii
'i. -it ,i
with station identificatio". fnG
1.900
-["i"g-r.orn
u
p
q
k
i
"
g
Do
.^The Radio
" m e s t i c S e r v i c e ilajlgial f.ôflg--9,,the schedut"
Sche8ule
ii;t.
)
(weekcrays)
i'h; f;it;*l;;
0J0-0_to1130 and from 1300 6 2110
!lll111,"-'t.{utumn,
cnannels
llkely to be of interest to the Dxer.
(Saturdays.ald Sundays
until 2110 continuous
programme from 1408
--rlrst
to 1Z3b and lrom
tnroughout).I'he poweris Z.SkW.
to
2300-on
446o;
fr;;11b0;"îij'b and rrom
?9Q9
?999to 0100on 48oo; from 1i00;; iiSb and rrom O CAMEROON
?999to 2300on 4eo5i from 1105;; iiSb and from
Radio Garouaon bOlO at 042g,interval sienal
2000to 2400on b32d and from iiO-OtJ tzss
ana
rgpeated(drums and Tam-Tam),'OM-witi, iE;;_
from 2000 to 0100 on 5g6O.
tification at. sign-on.The scheduie-oftti. 30kW
Programmefrom 1408to 1700and lrom
^- Fg"oqd_
tra-n-smrtter
rs tiom 0b00 to 0200 and from 1?00to
to
22rb
,
in
425o;
from
labb a; it00 and from
?J99
2200. An Enelish programme is radiated Jiiiv
on 48bol from 1355;; ii00 u"a i.onl
?\9?to 2-240
from 1830to tg+S.
2100to 2400on bOTb and f.om i5SCiJ rzOo
ana
from 2100to 2400on bl68.
O RWANDA
RADIO PEKING - EXTERNAL SERVICES
.Radio.Rwanda,
.Kigali,on BBBO at 1g02,OM,s
wlth a dlscusslonin
Progra^mmes
vernacularin the Home Ser_
in English-directed to Europe are
vice. The scheduleis from 0300to 060Oas;d;Jt.
now as follows - ff"l 2030 to ii50 ;"
bSgO,
and Sundays frolm 0?00); from O9bii to 1200
6860, 7590 and on g66O, this lasi-ch"a"*il"i,ie
- - -^-*"
(Saturda_ys
and Sundays until 2100) and from
used for the SSB transmission.
13110
to
2100.
The powei is 5kW.
pro-gramme
in
English
directed
to North and
.,.A
west Atrica may be heard from 2030 to 2180 on
O GABON
6550, 7620,85+b and on 942O."-- ""
Francevilleon BB5O.at1909,OM's with a dis_
AROUND THE DIAL
cussionin French. This 20kW transmitter in the
RegionalNetwork operatesfrom 0480a" 0Zd0;rj
O MAURITANIA
from 1700to 2200.Nouakchott on 4845 at-2045, OM with an_
O ANGOLA
nouncementsin French after a' programme of
African music. This transmittei oierates on
.Radio Nac.ional,Luanda, on BBZ5 at 0444,OM
weekdaysfrom 0600to 0900and from t'gOO
to ZgtO wtrn a tatk tn portuguese.The scheduleis from
(!11days_gnd
Saturdaysuntil 2400),Sundaysfrom
0430 to 2400 continuousand the powei is 10kW99Q9!q 0900 and from tZ0Ob 2a00.The fower is
100kw.
O YEMEN
O GHANA
_ Ag."T" on 4915 at 2249, OM with a talk in
P"gli.tr on local affairs. p.ogrammeJ ,." in
Englishand vernacularsand th;.r;h;a;le is from
(lu"aaysthrough
t" 9QQ5
to 2Sboiand
from
9ll9
1200to 2300.
The power is 1"0kW.
{de4 on 5O6Oat 1920,YL with sonssin Arabic_

1tyle,OM announcer.This transmia#-.;di;1;to
East Africa accordingto the followine scneaufe.
From O3O0to gS^g^Q
(Fiidays through iiZZOO; ,na
trom. I,l_tJ0
to 2030 ($q1il-gRama-danthrough to
2300).The poweris Z.bkW.
O SWAZILAND
O KENYA
qWI (Tra_ns-World
Radio) Mpangela
on B24O
-music
. Nairobi on a measured4g04 at 1g50,OM disc at -0438, OM in vernacular, tiltrt
nuro_
with U.K. made pops on ,-""oia. in rhe sty'le.This one^_operates
i*ockgv.
in Afiika";;;d
;;;lt"nflt:q programmedHome Service,the schedule nac_ulars
fiom 0815to 0415
g-dS
ot whrchrs trom 0255(Sundaysfrom 0830)to 0630 daily. The power is 30kW. and from tgO0t; f
SEPTEMBER 19?8
31
3 BA'UDSHORT
part I U parts)
*Mech
filter pl
tiplier I
na
banr
*Comprehensive
circuit covering
1.6 to 25 MHz.
Short wave radio has for many yearsbeen a verv
popular hobby, and it is probably more popular
now than ever before.With the current high costof
ready built communications receivers there is a
strong incentive to construct one's own set and, of
course,many people prefer to build their own
receivers anyway. In view of this there is
presumablya demand for a modern design,aimed
at the home constructor, which provides a fairly
high level of performancewithout beingexcessively
complexand expensive.
The short wave receiverwhich forms the sublect
of this 4-part article has been designedto meet the
abovere{uirements.Its coverageis from about 1.6
to 25MHz in three switchedrangesand it therefore
provides reception on most of the amateur and
broadcastshoit wave bands. A signal strength"S"
meter is incorporated,and so is a product detector
for the receptionof i.s.b. and c.fo.signals.Good
selectivityis provided by the useof an inexpensive
mechanical filter and a Q multiplier circuit.
LF omps.
BFI85 BFI84
B L O C KD I A G R A M
A block diagram showing the stages which
comprise the receiver appears in Fie. 1. The
.eceiuer has no r.f. stage and tne aerial signal is
coupleddirect to the mixer via the usualaerialtuned circuit.A dual gateMOSFET mixer is employed
in the receivertogetherwith a separateJugfet oscillator.
Dual gateMOSFETs make really excellentmixers since they provide a low noise level and low
levels of cross-modulationnoise. This noise is
producedby stronginput signalsbeing distorted in
the r.f. (if fitted) and mixer stagesof a superhet.
Becausethe r.f. bandwidth of a superhet is far
wider than the i.f. bandwidth. cross-modulation
which are
:roisecan be producedby transmissions
well awav from the reception frequency.
A.M. detcctor
AGC.
OA9l
Product
dctcctor
40673
32
A.F
outPUt
Fig. l. Btock diagram illustrrting tha various stages in this comprehensive receiver. The preselector and
mains power suppty unit are optional extras which will be descrihed in future issues
WAVESUPERHET
By R. A. Penfold
'rProvisionsfor upper or lower

s.s.b. reception.
rnical i.f.
rs O mul'iles very
rrow
width.
A good practical test of a receiver's crossmodulation performance is to try it out on the 40

metre amateur band after dark. This band
overlaps the 39 metre broadcast band, and the
weak amateur transmissions can be easily drowned
in cross-modulation noise caused bv- oowerful
broadcast transmissions. When the prototype was
tested in this way it managed to produce r-eadable
signals from two American and one Japanese station, and its cross-modulation perform-anceis extremely good.
There are two disadvantageswith this simple input arrangement, however, the most obvious one
being that the lack of an r.f. stageresults in a loss of
sensitivity. With the present set this is not a serious
drawback since the receiver is still verv sensitive
without the r.f. stage. Of greater imp-ortance in
&
,&
Front panel layout
SEPTEMBER 1978
of tha completed
practice is limited image or second channel rejection at the higher frequencies due to the fact that
there is only a single tuned circuit ahead of the
mixer. This situation can be improved by the use of
a tuned preselector connected between the aerial
and the receiver input, and a simple unit employing a single dual gate MOSFET wiil be describ'edin
a later,article. This preselector is a completely independent unit which has its own batteiy surjplv.
The i.f. amplifier has a fairly converitional 2stage circuit but, instead of the usual i.f.
transformer at the input a mechanical filter is
employed. The Q multiplier also operates in this
part of the i.f. amplifier. The provision of a high
level of selectivity ahead of the i.f. amplifier transistors virtually eradicates i.f. cross-modulation.
The a.m. detector and a.g.c. circuitry is quite
conventional. The "S" meter appears in an extremely simple circuit employing one transistor
and very few other parts, and is operated by the
a.g.c. voltage.
short wave
superhet
receiver
The product detectorincorporatesanother dual

gateMOSFET, the b.f.o. signalbeingprovidedby a
Hartley oscillator. A switch selects the output
from either the envelopedetector or the product
detectorand feedsit to the audio stages.Only one
active device is used in the audio amplifier, and
ihis is a TBA800 i.c. which will provide an output
of up to about 500mW r.m.s. into an external8,o
speaker.It can also be used to feed any normal
or earpiece.
type of headphones
The receiveris poweredby an internal PPg 9
volt battery, and both the local oscillator and b.f.o.
suppliesare stabilizedby zenerdioderegulators.If
preferred, the receiver can be operated from a
separatemains power supply unit. A combined
mains power supply and speakerunit has been
designedfor usewith the set and, like the preselector, will be describedin a following article.
It is worth noting that becausea product detector is usedfor s.s.b.reception,rather than the more
common method of loosely coupling the b.f.o.
signalinto the i.f. amplifier stages,the a.g.c.and
"S" meter circuits work normally with the set
switchedto the s.s.b.mode.However,due to the intermittentnatureof an s.s.b.signal,neitherof these
circuitsare 100% efficient on this mode of reception. They both have fast attack and fast decay
times,whereasfor s.s.b.receptiona systemhaving
a fast attack and slow decay (usually termed a
"hang a.g.c."system)is better. A modificationto
slow the decaywill be describedin Part 4.
RECEIVER
CASE
The receiveris assembledon four circuit boards
and also has a home constructedcoilpack
assembly.Despite the consequentsiYnplificationof
construction the receiver is still not really a
suitableproject for a beginner.The prototype is
housedin a metal case.detailsof which are shown
in Fig. 2. Commerciallymadecasesof a similar size
are available and one of these should also be
suitable.
The material for the case is 18 s.w.g.alumtntum

sheet and most of its construction is quite straightforward. The "S" meter employed in the prototype
is a 170o unit obtainable from Doram Electronics
Limited, and this fits into a 39mm. circular cutout. This cut-out can be made with either a fretsaw
or a miniature round file. The positions of the four
mounting holes around the cut-out are then located
with the aid of the meter itself. The tuning drive is
a .lackson type 4103/A (listed by some suppliers as
4103) and is available from several sources. One
wav of making the large central hole this requires is
to first punch out a circular hole of 25mm.
diameter and then cut out the two notches at the
side with a miniature round file. As with the "S"
meter the four small mounting holes can be located
bv means of the drive itself. It will be noted that
there are two 6mm. diameter holes in the front
flange of the chassis. These enable it to clear the
Iower rrair of mounting screws and nuts of the
drive, ind the holes can"be marked out and drilled
after the corresponding holes have been made in
t,he front panel.
The rectangular cut-out in the front of the
chassisis made by first making the two 25mm. cuts
with a hacksaw. A sharp modelling knife is then
used to deeply score the metal along the remaining
50mm. cut. If the metal is then repeatedly bent up
and down along this scored line it will fatigue, and
this part of the chassis will then break off leaving
the required cut-out.
The front, rear and sides of the case are bolted
together using short 68A screws with nuts. The top
and bottom panels are secured by means of eight
self-tapping screws.The top and bottom panels are
not shown in Fig. 2. Each consists of a rectangle of
18 s.w.g. aluminium measuring 343 by 144mm.
Both panels have four mounting holes which are
clearance size fbr the self-tapping screws.The holes
correspond with those in thi fl"angesof the sides
and are positioned 30mm. in from the long edges
and 10mm. in from the short edges.
The layout of the individual circuit modulos inside the superhet

information
plained in the text, with much of the constructional
,ssue
case. Their positioning is exbeing given in next month's
RADIO AND RLECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR
Florn3r ofr bant

downwordrot 9Oo
-6
VRe
3.2 dio
REARPANEL
.ll-
o/d
CHASSIS
6 dio
o-e-e
All dim.nriona in mm
Fig. 2. Thc partl whtch mako up thc chassls .nd coac of thc rcceivcz The material is 18 s.w.g.
aluminium sheet. Holos for contrcl bushas and for JKI erc lOmm. ditmeter. The large holc for the tun'
lng drlvc ls dlscustod in the tcxt
No dimensions for the mounting holes in the

flangesof the front and rear panelsare given.The
positionsof theseare found using the side panelsas
templates.This method is usedas it is obviouslyessential for the sets of holes to accurately corresoond. The too and basepanelsare similarlv usedto
locate the positions of ihe mounting holds in the
flansesof the side panels.
The chassisis secirredto the rear panel by means
of two 68A screwsand nuts togetherwith the two
socketsSKl and SK2. (Two further socketsare
visible in the photographofthe rear ofthe receiver.
These are added later if the receiveris to be used
with the mains power supply and speaker unit).
The front panel and the chassis are secured
togetherby the mounting bushesand nuts of JKl,
VR2 and VRl. Note that the chassisflangespoint
upwards.The two mounting holes for VC2l3 are
SEPTEMBER 19?8
4BA clear and are located with the aid of the

canacitor. which is temporarilv fitted to the drive
for this operation.The iwo 4BA screwspass into
threadedholesin the baseof the capacitoi and it is
most important to ensure that their ends do not
penetrat6 too far into the capacitor body as they
would then damage the metal vanes. The screws
should not be more than about 20mm. long, and
thev pass throueh the chassisfrom its underside
and then throueh 4BA spacersabout 13 to 14mm.
long before eitering the tapped holes in the
capacitor.Since the case and chassisare homemide there will almost certainlv be some small
dimensionaldifferencesbetweenone unit and the
next. whereupon it is the constructor who must
finailv nrovide a satisfactorv mountins for the
varia6le capacitorwhich allows it to be a-ccurately
aligned mechanically with the tuning drive and
1?csls/ors
(All fixed values) watt 10%)
R1 560ko
R2 1.8ko
R 3 1 2 0 ko
R4 39kt:
R5 680rr
R6 390']
R7 470ko
R8 68k tr
R9 680 c)
R 1 0 5 . 6 ko
Rl1 3.9ko
R12 680ko
R l 3 2 . 2 kr :
R l 4 1 2 ko
R 1 5 1 kt t
R 1 6 1 0 ko
R17 33 (.r
R l 8 1 0 0t t
R 1 9 1 0r r
R20 1.5Mo
R 2 1 1 2 0 kt t
R22 l2}krt
R23 2.2ktt
R24 2.2ko
R25 820o
R26 3.3kr,r
R27 lk o
VRl lko potentiometer,linear
VR2 25k rr potentiometer,log, with switch 53
VR3 22ko potentiometer,linear
VR4 lktl potentiometer,linear
Capacttors
Cl 470pF polystyrene
C3 4.7 or SpcFelectrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C4 0.lPF tvpe C280 (Mullard)
C5 0.01pFtype C280 (Mullard)'
C6 0.1t,Ftype C280 (Mullard)
C7 0.022t'Ftype C280 (Mullard)
C8 0.01t,Ftype C280 (Mullard)
C9 6.8pF ceramic
C10 0.ipF type C280 (Mullard)
Cll 0.22pFtype C280 (Mullard)
C12 i33pFpolystyrene
C13 150pF polystyrene
C14 5.6nF ceramic
C15 4,700pFpolystyrene
C17 100tF electrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C18 100t,Felectrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C19 100pFelectrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C20 270pF polystyreneor silveredmica
C2l 2,200pFpolystyrene
C22 680PFelectrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C23 0.1/.Ftype C280 (Mullard)
C24 680PFelectrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C25 0.1r-'Ftype C280 (Mullard)
C26 82pF polystyreneor silveredmica
C27 2.2pF ceramic
C28 8.2bF ceramic
C29 6.8t.Felectrolytic,10V. Wkg.
C31 0.lpF type C280 (Mullard)
C33 0.047PFtype C280 (Mullard)

CP1 3,000pFpolysiyrene(seeteit)
CP2 1,100iF irolystyrene(seetext)
VC1 50pF-variabie,-type
C804 (Jackson)
VC2-3 e0SiS0Spf 2-fane variable, type 02
(Jackson)
Semiconductors
TR1 40673
TR2 2N5245
TR3 8F185
TR4 8F184
TRs 2N3702
TR6 BC1O9
TR? 40673
TR8 2N3819
ICl
D1
D2
I)3
D4
TBAsOO
BZY88C4V3
0491
0A200
BZY88C6V2
Inductors
Ll Miniature Dual-PurposeCoils, Blue, valve
usage,Ranges3, 4 and 5 (Denco)
L2 Miniature Dual-PurposeCoils, Red, valve
usage,Ranges3, 4 and 5 (Denco)
L3 LF. transformertype lFT14/4?0kHz(Denco)
lFTl I.F. transformer type IFTl3/470kHz
(Denco)
IFT2 I.F. transformer type IF'tl4l47}kHz
(Denco)
I F T S I . F . t r a n s f o r m e rt y p e I F T l 8 / 4 6 5 k H z
(Denco)
F.iLter
MFl 455kHzmechanicalfilter type MFH41-T
(Toko)
Meter
Ml "S" meter,0-1mA (seetext)
Sockets
SK1 Insulatedwander socket
SK2 Insulatedwander socket
JKl in. jack socket
Switches
51 4-pole3-way rotary
52 a-fole 3-way rotary
53 S.P.S.T.toggle(part of VR2)
Miscellaneous
Tuningdrive-type4103/A,6:1 and 36:1(Jackson)
Large control knob
7 medium sizecontrol knobs
18 s.w.g.aluminium sheet
Plain perforateds.r.b.p.,0.1in. matrix
Plain perforateds.r.b.p.,0.15in.matrix
9-volt battery type PP9 (Ever Ready)
batterv connectors
Ve.ropins,
0.15in-and 0.1in. types
Wire, solder,bolts. etc.
RAI)IO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR
fui. to oac
ffi'/l
-{lil
aiii
| |
tl
L!jii]
I
I
. srb
VRr
l.
vRa
M1
d,._-rg2
ll
tl
sVgl
cPr
Fig. 3. The circuit of the mixcr and oscill.tor
4Q673
Lcod -outs
stagos, togother
driver stage
with which the mounting bolt ends do not penetrate

excessivelyinto the capacitor.
Four solder tags are-fitted at this stage.Two of
these are mounted under the securing nuts which
hold the chassisand rear panel toqeth;r. A third is
positioned at the top left-hand m"ounting screw of
the tuning drive, and the fourth at th1 bottom
The rear panel of the case. The controt visible

here is that for zaro-setting the ,.5,, meter. The
aerial and edrth sockets arc at the lowar ldft.
The two upper sockets are not used in tha prc_
sent version of thc supcrhe| and aie a
modffication which allows an extemal power
supply to be appliad
SEPTEMBER 1978
(t
E)
so9
,\z
2N5245
Lcod-outs
BFI84 BF I85
Lcod-outs
with the i.f. amptifier
DC
2N3702
Lcod-outs
and the "5" mater
right-handscrewof the "S" meter.

M I X E RA N D I . F .S T A G E S
The circuit of the mixer, oscillatorand i.f. stages
is given in -Fig. 3. AIso shown are the enveldpe
detectorand a.g.c.circuit, as well as the "S" metbr
stage.VRl is a variable aerial input attenuator,
and this control is incorporatedfor two reasons.
First, due to the set'ssensilivitvit is possiblefor exceptionallystrongsignalsto overloadthe receiver,
and thesecan be reducedin intensitvbv the control. Secondly,it is not advisableto havemaximum
aerial coupling to the mixer as powerful simals
may then take it into a non-linear'mode
with severe
cross-modulation
resulting,making it difficult to
cgpy even quite strong signals.The effect is particularly noticeable on the 40 and 80 metre
amateurbandsand can bp "ernovedby appropriate
adjustmentof the potent,'lneter.
Ll. is the-r.f. input translbrnrerand its primary
couplesto the aerial.The secondaryconneclsdireit
to the gate 1 oJthe mixer transistorand is tuned by
one sectionof the 2-gangvariablecapacitor,
VC2.
-is
VC1, mounted on the front panel, the aerial
trimmer, and this is set up for optimum reception
Tap vlaw of tht co/@.ac/t,

mlxer tnd oEottlrtor
a*cmbty
beingreceivon the particularrangeof frequencies

ed.The useof this trimmer eliminatesthe needfor
a trimmins capacitorto be connectedacrosseach
tuned coil"and greatly simplifies the alignment
procedure.There are three r.f. input transfonners
but, for simplicity, only one is shown in the
diagram.
Aeain. onlv one of the three oscillator coils is
shoin, this biing identified as L2. All the coils for
L1 and L2 wereoriginallydesignedfor valveusage,
in which the tunedcoil iouplel direct to the valve
srid. Thev mav, with equal efficiency, be coniiecteddirect to the gate of an f.e.t.TR2 is the oscillator transistoran? its output is coupledto the
sate 2 of the mixer via CL4. Zener diode Dl
stabilizesthe oscillator supply voltage. It was
foundthat a slight frequencymodulationof the oscillatorwasappiarent\jiith s.s.b.and c.w' signalson
the 15 and 20 metre bands when the volume was
set to a medium to high level, with consequent
loadinsof the batterv. The addition of C34 across
the zeier diode virtu-allyeliminatedthis problem.
switch'
The 4-poleswitch,S1, is the wavechange
and its aims switchthe non-earthyendsof the win-
dings.As alreadystated,only oneof the three coils

for Ll andL2 is shown.The approximatefrequencv rangescoveredare: Range 3, 1.6 to 4.6MHz;
F[angen, 4.5 to l2MHz; Range 5, 10 to 25MHz.
The rangenumbersare theseascribedto the coils
bv theif manufacturer.The oscillator coils have
tlie earthy ends of the tuned windings terminated
On Range4 this is
in differeht pins on eachrange.
-chassis
pin 4, and'it connectsto
via padding
bapacitor CPl. CP2, connectingto pin 3 of the
Rdnge 3 coil, is the padding capacitor for that
The Range5 coil doesnot rdquirea padding
rang"e.
capacitor.and its pin 6 connectsdirect to chassis'
The paddingcapaiitorshaverather unusualvalues
and it may be necessaryfor theseto be made up ol'
two capaiitors in parallel. In the prototype,CPl
consist-ed
of two 1,500pFcapacitorsin parallel,and
CP2 of a 1,000pF and a 100pF capacitor in
narallel.
'
The output from the mi.xer is fed to a conventional two stage 455kHz i.f. amplifier. The
mechanicalfiltei doesnot have an internal tuning
capacitoracrossits tuned input winding,and soC1
is used to perform this function.
lht collplrk rtrailbtl

rrlttrowd trcm tE padilon
an lhe lront pusl ti t{iol
thc coile may bt cout
38
_4.G.C, is applied to the first i.f. transistorvia

R14,and t^h_e
i.'g.c.actioncausesthe uJiage at the
junctionof
F3, R+ and RttGb-;."Jr"""f'on srrons
,"al"iio" ii;il;";;-i:
llc^lals,with a conse^quent
for. TR3. The strongei the received
1,,::
Sy,.r"tt
slgnalthe.loweris the voltageat ttre
,..irto, irn"_
tron, and this vottageis alsofised't;;;;;;;-h;:t3",,
meter circuit.
This last circuit is basedon TRb which
is con_
nectedâs a common emitter
the
meter,formins irs co_!]ec_to.
"-bjiii"i'*ith
tgaaTiiiî.""aju.tea
.o
'I
th,qvoltageat no emtrer rs
ll3l
nlgherthan its basevoltage*t"n noabout 0.6 volts
i"lut.ignui i,
present.When a strongsifnal i.
;";;i;;f,,
tR-b il;
goes morê_negative
and thus the tase-emitrei
of TR5 is increased;
;h"I;grffilt
pur.*.
l:l3gg
collector_current
and causes a deflJction in
The collector current i""ieas"s"with the
- b a s e in_
c::t^"1.
reasrng negativ-e voltage. at
TR5
and
therefore. meter deflection is proportionuf
to tf,"
a.g.c. voltage. The function
dd i;";relv
to
"t
red,uc.e
the impedancein the emitter
and thereby allow it to pass;r;a;q;;;;circuit of TRb
coilector
current.
N E X TM O N T H
The full. Components
!i.! accompaniesthe
present article and the ,""ii"Lir'iiv
of the
componentb,the "S"
..,a tii" "f";"
6;i"g
iri"i,
lnetgr
has. already been d-ug_!!*liil'"ft"
4b5kHz
mechanicaliitter type MFitfi:f'"""11
-i^h"
obhined
A;1rllt I nterni,tionat.
i li'
l::
:
uslecr have nominal,.frequencies ti"in.rur_.r.
465kHz, but they wrll tune dorvn "f 4tbfu;-;;
tre,lugncyat whiih the mechanifii to the 4bbkHz
iift"i""perates.
ln next month's issuewe shali carry
Jn to the
cônstructionof the coilpack aisemUiv,r*ti.f,
.on_
tarns the mixer and - oscillato,
;i;d;ihy.
thi.
assembly.appearsin two of-it"
,""i#p"rrying
photographs.
(to be continued)
A PORTABLE
WORKSHOP
...^19.::ilt
suited 1b.rconslructorswho have limited
Ti'i,"frr_F,"..",,;"la:y,:**}:',"#
ilil{.iL?J.f
234-24u
Lond<.,n
Road,.Mirch";;,'iu.r"y, Cn+
;tHI
). Thiscomprisesi"tla'i"t'i.*Tlpll,l"t,
mua*
"
u p i n w o o d ,w h i c h c :
.dq;i.;;,;;;';;T"'h'
l,ff B'fff$""1
?l;, nfi:Xill
qherable is re[uired f;;;ii,;;'

i.g.
:.fworkrns
;u rposes.
" i,
l ne
surla<:e
is 2 ti.
by zb"i".i""p,
w i t h t h e c e n t r ep o r t i o n - wide
' c o " J . " iU, ' J u t h i t . k
rubber.mat. Two-i i-..-jrii'. on
19povabt9
eirher
slde
can take such

ui"".'r
iiu.'
l,;;";;;; :"fj":'.,X1.'
i;il'ff 1n,iii,,l
may be fitted.
slopingpanel back sectionis divided

,_-ll.
into
[n the teti
l,?f:"
:o-,purrmenrs..
,rcu speakerand volumecontrol tiandle.rion l. u
*t ilitliiif," ilsh;
!1n9- gg-.partment is a .variabf" uoitre" power
pac.k.oilering
zeroro 20.voltsa.c.
rn. wrdecentralsectionhas a lockat i;ffi..fhe l2
be opened to take tools and ani k..i ura .un
'd".;;;i.
in progress.If thJ;;ch "ry i;'b_ that is
lyrrelt{v,
remov_
ed qurckly all irems m.avb9 .6;;d
in ihi. .o__
partmentan{..thebench-picked
;t;;;
iuk"n our
nl
}lt" way..There are rubber feei unJe. the t.lar
sectron
and alsoon t
stand upright when ,i;ri",ilf"i"el, so that it mav
F urther facilitiesare two
.133-p mains sockets,
terminatsfi,r aerialand earth,
rhil ;;;;;;"cles for
solclerand .wire, a neon rndrcator
lamp lor the
lnarnssupply,.anda pilot ii;h;;'rh;wtwtren the
supply is,switchedonl^q tt.*ible leaa
rrnm
.pf::.
lli,,ir"iliuia.n
be plugged
into.any con,Jenrional
qrruururcu
ueni-{,, comp_lete
comp-letern
in .every
every detail
detaiI
?l*. p,:l:i, at
ifj "rl,yj,fg,,'-liygllgle r45."1,rrriy-*ired.ar
,.*,::::f
W*ir;;t;#tiliyr#;{ff
u'oofir'f';;lf
V;g{,fi,,r{'l#i
ns;";;; bi;' ;i'i r[",5];

3l
I' 3
;,Y'
ty +:
r" *^,
qn
?ijiIil;:l..gq
; ;;:.I i:tl",i,T"#
?'Ja
31
:l Ji",utYXT
a n d f 2 . 5 0 c a r r i age.
aee.
sFtI']'EI\tBER1978
VARIABLE _ C
A, F. GENERATOR
Part 2 (Conclusion)
BV P. R. Arthur
Concluding details on construction

The prototype signal generator is housed in a
metal instrument case having approximate outside
dimensions of 7 by 8 by 3in. This is a casetype C3,
available from Harrison Bros., 22 Milton Road,
Westcliff-on-Sea,Essex SS0 7LQ. Any similar allmetal casecan be used provided that it can accommodate the parts, and it need not be quite as large
as that employed by the author, particularly in the
front to back dimension. An all-metal caseis needed to provide screeningand to prevent the pick-up
of mains hum and other noise at the non-inverting
input of IC1.
The general layout of the front panel can be seen
in the photographs.Here, 52 is at upper left and 53
upper central with, below, 51 at lower left and VR1
lower central. The large control knob at the right is
for VCl-2. The general layout is not particularly
critical.
It is essential that the metal frame of VC1-2 be
insulated from the metal case. The capacitor
frame, common with the moving vanes, connectsto
the non-inverting input of IC1. The fixed vanes of
VCI then connect to the iunction of R2 and R3. and
t h e f i x e d v a n e so f V C 2 t o t h e a r m o f 3 1 ( b ) . V C t i s
mounted on a small panel of s.r.b.p. having the
dimensions shown in Fig. 3. The two 4BA clear
holes here correspondwith 4BA tapped holes in the
l
3,8"
{
ttt{
-514'" -l
{to
'
68A cl?or
<
,.,.1
,'
I
zttz"
-]
Fig. 3. The metal frame on the dual-gang

variable capacitor is insulated from chassis,
and it is mounted on the s;.b.p. panel shown
herc
Component
layout
on the Vercboard
pencl
bottom of the capacitor frame and the hole

positions shown in Fig. 3 meet the requirements of
the dual-gang capacitor used by the author. Before
marking up and drilling the 4BA clear holes, the
constructor should verify that they conform with
the positions of the tapped holes in the particular
capacitor employed by him. If there are any discrepancies the hole positions in the s.r.b.p. panel
should be rnodified accordingly. The main criterion
is that the capacitor body be central on the panel,
with the two 684 clear holes on either side. The
4RA bolts passing into the tapped holes in the
capacitor frame must be short. and their ends
should not pass more than marginally past the
metal bottom of the frame as they could then
damage the fixed or moving vanes of the capacitor.
Also, spacing washers are required over the bolts
between the s.r.b.p. panel and the capacitor frame
to provide clearance for protruding items on the
bottom of the frame. A solder tag under one of the
bolt heads may be used to provide connectionto the
capacitor frame.
The s.r.b.p. panel is secured to the bottom of the
case by two 6E}4 bolts about lin. long. The
capacitor spindle passescentrally through a hole of
lin. diameter in the front panel, and the 68A bolts
are provided with spacers and are positioned to
allow the spindle to be concentric in the front panel
hole. The capacitor must not be fitted with a control knob of all-metal construction.
"O. ". . "
aa
"Z'"...
oo
c
B
o
o
.o .o "o
iln"
l.'
fro' I l l l - l
f, ll:nT
""(,
]A
:V
l:;
ltt
ooo
o
T\
V C 1& V C 2
common
ooo
"
oooJoo
o
."":".
, .
oo)-{.
cl
o
ool-X
.b;
oaooa
oa
aoaoaaoa
" I.
Oo
oI o
1"1
f"r{J-
I r '---Y-
C2
"loooC5
oloooo
15
B
c
"t..":
oo./o
loooo
t7
oooaoooo
oaoooa
----Jof---------o--l---1o
-----i---l
orE o
o f---o----5----1
--__-1or-----------;-__-1ori--_1o
K
L
oooooooooooooooooooooo
684
clcor
Bottcry clip pos
,i .$:
i$
llc
Fig. 4. Details of the wiring
on the Veroboard
and to the front panel components
Ir.*"
i
SEPTEMBER 1978
1l
ln
vicw d the a.f.

*ryN
dgnel gonuotar
Manv of the components are assembled on a

Veroboird panel of d.lin. having 14 copper strips
bV 29 .holes. .Details of this Rgpel, and of the
remaining wiring, are given in Fig. 4. As can be
seen,the Wien network resistorsand the attenuator
resistorsare soldered direct to the tags ofSl and 53
respectively. Before wiring to the rotary switches
check the relative positioning of the inner tags and
the corresponding outer tags; with some switches
this may differ from the positioning shown in Fig.
4. Interconnections between the Veroboard panel
and the front panel components are indicated by
the letters A tb G. The fead from hole E3 of th-e
board connects to the frame of VC1-2, whilst that
from hole C4 connectsto the fixed vanes ol V01, as
also does a lead from the common connection of R4
to R7. The arm of 51(b) connectsto the fixed vanes
of VC2. In the prototype, VCl is the front section of
the dual-gang capacitor and VC2 the rear section.
The Veroboard is mounted at the centre of the

case bottom using two 6BA screws and nuts with
spacing washers to keep the board underside clear
of the metal of the case. Copper strip A is towards
the front. The board cannot be finally mounted until all the connections to it have been completed.
There is plenty of space inside the case for the
b a t t e r y a n d , i f d e s i r e d ,t h i s c a n b e h e l d i n p l a c e b y
a simple aluminium bracket.
CALIBRATION
I f ' s u i t a b l e t e s t e q u i p m e n t i s a v a i l a b l e ,s u c h a s a
frequency meter, a calibrated a.f. generator or an
oscilloscope, this can be brought into service to
c a l i b r a t e t h e d i a l o f t h e u n i t , a n d i t i s a s s u m e dt h a t
readershaving such equipment will know how to
rrtilise it f'or the function.
A n a l t e r n a t i v em e t h o d i s t o s i m p l y c o p y t h e s c a l e
Flg. S, Thcfroguenry
procows
The output socket, SKl, is fitted to the rear panel of the case, and it should be a type having open
construction, i.e. not insulated. A lead from
Veroboard hole Al0 passesto its "sleeve" contact,
and this lead provides the chassisconnection to the
case. The arm of 53 connects to the socket "tip"
contact.
tadaalt mad. w vlth tha

r.f. gcn&ctsr
r e J r r o d u c e di n F i g . 5 , t h i s h a v i n g b e e n o b t a i n e d
with the prototype signal generator.The frequency
s e l e c t i v ec o m p o n e n t sh a v e c l o s e t o l e r a n c e sa n d s o
t h e u s e o f t h i s s c a l es h o u l d p r o v i d e q u i t e a c c u r a t e
calibration for units built to the same desien.
(Concluded)
CONSTRUC'i'OR
RADIOANI) ELECTRON]CS
THYRISTOR
SENSITIVITY
BOOSTEB
By P. D. Southern
Add a transistor and make a super-sensitive

silicon controlled rectifier.
A standard thyristor or silicon controlled rectifier circuit appears in Fig. 1(a). Until it is
triggered the thyristor is non-conductive and
passes,in practice, an insigrrificant leakagecurrent
which is in the order of microamps only.
Ii the gate of the thyristor is slowly taken
positive of the cathode, forward current will flow
ihrough the gate-cathodejunction ofthe device at a
voltage of about 0.6 volt. The gate current may
then be increased until it reachesa critical level at
which the thyristor suddenly triggers on, causing
the full supply, less a small voltage dropped in the
conducting thyristor, to be applied to the load. If
the current drawn by the load is above the
"holding" value for the thyristor the latter will
then remain conductive regardlessof whether the
gate current is maintained or removed. It follows
that the thvristor will also turn on and remain
turned on ifthe gate current, at or above triggering
level, is applied in the form of a very short pulse.
GATE CURRENT
'l'he gate
current required to trigger on a
thyristor is not small and can be typically in the
range of 0.5 to 20mA or more according to the
thyristor typ.e employed. It occurred to the writer
that sensitivity could be considerably increasedby
the simple processof adding an n.p.n. transistor in
the manner shown in Fie. 1(b).
In this new circuit the input triggering current is
applied to the base of the transistor, which functions as an emitter follower. The gate current
passed to the thyristor is then equal to the input
current multiplied by the current gain of the transistor. At the instant of triggering the transistor
collector receives an adequate collector supply
voltage by way of the load. After triggering the
voltage available to the collector will be verv low,
but this does not matter becausethe purposebf tne
circuit, that of turning on the thyristor with a low
input current, has been achieved. If an input current still flows it will merely pass through the forward biased base-emitter iunction <lf the transistor
and the similarly forwdrd biased gate-cathode
iunction of the thvristor.
rro"t,cor-cnicr
It is always a good plan to check out theory in
practice, and the author next made up the test circuit of Fig. 2(a). The load is a 470 e resistor, a
voltmeter being connected across it to monitor the
state of the thyristor.
Gate current is supplied by a
-o
variable 10k
resistor with a currenl reading
meter (shown as a circle enclosingthe Ietter "I") in
series. The particular thyristor ihosen is a small
device in a TO5 case which has the same
characteristics as the CRl/051C and other small
thyristors in similar encapsulations.
The resistance inserted bv the variable resistor
is decreased until the thyristor triggers, as is indicated by the sudden appearance of the full load
Flg. l(rt, A tt ndd

thyrtttr cttrltilt, tlh;
t ryrlrloir fu twnsd ur hv takbg ilre g.ta
po*ttlw 6 ths asth&
lbl, A ceaddsably lw;tr tttggtcr crmrnt ,r
theor.ttcrw portlb/' trlt,',nsmor lt.ddod. .t
hac
(o)
( b)
c,,--\c
z\o
(t
r-l
\z
\i/o
cRsr
/os
BCrOT
Leod-outs
Lod-outs
(o)
(b)
Fig. 2(a). Practicdl test circuit to determine

reduced input current required
the gate triggeilng

for the transistor
voltage acrossthe 470 o resistor.With the thyristor

employed the triggering gate current was just under il.5mA.
Thg n.p.q.transistor was added as in Fig. 2(b)
and the variable resistor value increased to"lM o.
Input triggering current was found to be 30pA only, whereupon it can be seen that the addition of
the transistor is definitely worth-while if sensitive
thvristor operating conditions are required. The
impedance at the base of the transistbr is much
higher than that at the gate of the thvristor with
the result that false triggering may be caused if the
current of a thyristor (b). Evaluating

and thyristor combination
the
base wiring is long and picks up mains hum or

static voltages.Should it occur the false triggering
elt'ect can be eradicated by addine the 0.0llF
bypass capacitor which is shown in broken line.
I.f .ygu -want to try out the circuits of Figs. 2(a)
anct (b) always ensure that the variable resiitor inserts maximum resistance at the start, and then
decrease the resistance slowly. Should the
resistance inserted into circuit to be too low the
current reading meter may be wrecked and the
potentiometer track could even be burnt out.
T
TRADE NOTE
EXTENSION
REEL
Whenever vou need electrical

power and a proper socket is not
a v a i l a b l e i n t h e v i c i n i t -vp. h ot ht oe"mini-reel" shown in the
g r a p h c o u l . d .s o l v e t h e p r o b l e m
lirr vou. This has iust 6een intr.rl11r's61
bv Buieesi Power Tools
L i m i t e d . r r f ' S a p c o t eL, e i c e s t e r s h i r e ,
l,Flg {i.)W. and it follows the success
of their alreadv established larger
I)owerline Safelv Cable Reel.
'lhe
r n i n i - r e e l - i sl ? 8 m m . ( ? i n . ) i n
d i a n r e t e r ,a n d i s c l a i m e d t o b e o n e
of the safest,toughest and most vers a t i l e e x t e n s i o nc a b l e r e e l s o n t h e
market. It is fitted with twin socket
o u t l e t sa n d h a s 8 m e t r e s ( 2 6 f t . ) o f B core cable. A thermal and current
overload cut-out is fitted to ensure
safetv.
'l'he
mini-reel is small enoushto
be held in the palm of the hand, it
allows easv pull-out and rewind'of
the cable and it mav be used with
airpliances taking a total of 6 amps

or less at one time. The twin socklt
outlets are particularly useful, as
l h e v a v o i d t h e i n c o n v e n i e n c eo f
changing over from one tool to
another. Alternatively, of course,
one outlel can be used to provide a
Ilu
The Burgess Powsr Tools "mini-reel,'. Despite

its small size this has I metres of 3-cora exten_
sion cable. lt is fittcd with a thcrmel .nd
currcnt ovcrload cut_out
SI.]PTEMBF]R19?8
lighting supply when the other is in

u s e w i t h a n e l e c t r i ct o o l . T h e w e i e h t
r r f t h e m i n i - r e e l i s 0 . 9 K g ( 2 1 b . )"
. The ori-ginalSafety Cable Reel is,
i n c i d e n t a l l v .a l s o p r r i v i d e dw i t h t w o
outlet sockets, and this has I9
metres (60ft.) of 3-core cable.
''HYBRID''ALL
WAVE
THE
RADIO -- Part 2 (Conclusion)
By Sir DouglasHall, K.C.M.G.
Concludingdetails on construction
We now continuewith the constructionaldetails

for this receiver.In doins so, we will need to refer
to Figs.2, 3 and 4, all of which werepublishedlast
month.
CAPACITORMOUNTING
The tuning capacitor, VC2, has next to be
mounted to the item of Fig. a(b) using three short
4BA bolts passing into tapped holes_inthe front
piece
nlate of the tunin-ccapaciioi frame. Place a -spinbf naper with a +ii. ho'lein its centreover the
dld ol the capacitor and mark out the positionsof
the tapped hbles on this with a pencil. Then, using
the paper as a template mark out the correspondine h6les on the it6m of Fis. a(b) and drill these
4BA clear.Then fit the tuning capacitor.The three
4BA mounting bolts need to be short becausetheir
endsmust nof passmore than marginally past the
capacitorfronf plate or they will damagethe fixed
or movrng vanes.
Paestwo countersunkbolts, 1iin. Iong, through

the 4BA clear holes in the front panel and tighten
them with two nuts on the inside. Run ori-two
further nuts to about the centreeof the bolts. Fit
the tuning drive to the spindle of VC2 and passthe
item of Fig. a(b) over the 4BA bolte,using the drive
to mark out a 684 clear hole on the front panel to
take a bolt securingthe drive anchoring lug. Drill
out the hole and then finally assemblethe piece of
Fig.4(b), the tuning drive and the variable
capacitor to the front panel. Two further nuts are
paised over the 4BA tlolts and these and the two
irevious ones are all tightened at the appropriate
posltronsalong the bolts.
Next cut out two 4-way tagstripsfrom the group
panel and secure these to the upper side of the
"chassis" deck as in Fig. 5, using the same
procedureas was employedwith the g-way tagstrip
on the underside. TRB is mounted on a heatsink
made from a piece of aluminium sheet of around
18 s.w.g.measuring3 by 2|in. One 3in. edgeis bent
VFll krcb
Front pon.l 40
Bolt holding spcok.r
iltil[
b)\"
-\t\\\\\
4BA lock
nut
ssctbn 2b
Sction 2c
Fig, 5, Thc componontn which are fittod and wired abovc tha "chassis" deck
46
Wtuing and canripoaottfr- lrila*

tr. "c/?s/Rsit. dtr'c d tho
rccdw
through 90 degreesj,in. in to- make a jin.

wide
.
mounting
lq"gi..Drifl out tn" n"ilri"t to rake the
emrtter and
baselead_o.uts
of the transistor,as well
as its two mounting bolts. Aiso dritt'i;; mounting
holes in the {in. ?"ng" ild *""r""in,.
to the
"chassis" decli with .rrirtt *ooiiii"ir.'fn"
trur,_
sistor is not insulated from-ihe-ir""iri"t
and a
fitt"a urr_
19ldertag for connectioat"it.
der
one of its mou,ntingnuts.
"off".i#i.
C"l out the 2in.
squareaperturein the itêr1of Fig.a(C)
'so thatil;
po_s-r-tjo.n
matches that of the heaftini.'
Wirine mav now Ue.cjriiea out. f i?. e shows
the
position-lng
oi the malns.,transtormer
^;hir#'FiL-.
and the
-swir_
ing under-the ,,chassir"-d;;[,
li
lustratesthat above.The bridg;.;iil;,
is a small
light_cgmponent
and-m"v be .'".punJljî" the wir_
ing. When rhe smoothi;d;;;;i;;lil
positioned
and wired as shown,the"truriirev;il.-;; iow
that it
is rlifficrrlt to tell whether o. .,oi ihe*receiueris
switched on. Hum ap.pears,on thl;-th;i
h;;;, ii
C9 is mountedalongJhJCio.-iii. iiipirtant
that
the negativeends of^C10and Cig-boc'o"nnected
to
the,earthytag of VR3,.and thai;iid iJ connectea
to the cathodenin of the valveholder.th"
negutiu"
leadsof Ct0 ana Crg ;;"";;;;;;;
-aioiae.
tag at
""'
one of.the speakermountins;;;.:"
_-{t thrs stagedo not finally fit the -"""
lead between
TRl collectoi and pin 8 of LetLi'.It, has to be rememberedthat, when the
set is
and pluggea in to ih'e ;;l;;
supply,
:_Tt].j:*
malns voltagesare accpssibleat the on_olT
switdt
and at the primary orti.-Until-tii. ."'ii.
Iitted
in
its caseall t'heusuil precqqtionsagainst
accidental
shockmust be obseried.th;"rr;f;i""hihoura
u"
secured to the ,,chassis" aecf witii"a
suitable
plastic.orplastic
lhe back mav be
"ou"r"d
"l;;;.
finally.affiied
at this stage.A
4BA bott with spacins.;6h..;;J.Jj
il.'ougr, tle
back. and the heatsirik f* t{t
;u ;,;. added
rigidity.
. It i_snext necessaryto add a wire link between
p.rlq 3 and 4 of the Hange 4-c"it. firiJ'iiirk;rl;;;
R4.into circuit wtren fhe-coi-ii;;jrfte.d'i.,.
rit tti"
coil into a BgA valveholderto act"is a heatsink,
then quickly. solder ttie *-iie U!;*;ili"
endsof its pins 3 and a. Wait uniil-ii"'pin.upper
completelyiool before,"-ouing ii," coii trom u."
tt e
valveholder.
The plasticmateriafin w-hich
are imbeddedmelts ,"uattv *llil-i;;;.'^' rhe pins
S E P T E M B E RI 9 7 8
S E T T I N GU P
^ Set the slidersof VR2 and VRb so that thev are
fyly -agi-clockwise .ho*r, i;Fis.'&'Alil :;;
". ptug i; th;R;;se 4 coil.
X!_l
{'ltva anti-clockwise.
L,onnect
meter switched to give a clear reading of
6.3voltsacross.C12,
with the"same
ilt"rity u. tiui
compoment.
Switchon the receiverttrenst6wty-aJi:ll
Yns clockwiseuntil a 6.s voli;;;ai"g i". ot_
talned.
, ^N"Tt, switch the meter to give a clearreadineof
50q14 and connectit betwee"n
tt e -ihe -collector.
fnJ
q".4 pitt -9_of LBI 4, ryith positive io
""tt"ct"r?
Adjust VR2 untii a'S00pA'reaai"g
i ;i;-";. S;i;;i;
o1'[.and complete the'connectio"nU?t*""n
TIii
collectorand-pin 8 of LSIL4
Try o_uJthe receiver with the Range 4 coil in_
serted,.PIug in the.aerial, set VR+ a?-maximum
anct vKr near maximum, then adjust VR3
-thatwhile
stations are being tuned in by Vbf so
i-he
rcett'erls on the vergeof oscillation.Remember
that the.valve takes aS.oura_O
i,ei,oiilr'to"i^r.rm up
after switshingo{,, during wtriin iime iioreceiver
rs dead. AdJ.ustthe core of the coil so that the 16
metre band is receivedwith the vanesof VC2 near_
fv .fullv opeq. 1.6.metres shoula U" .o"rij"."a
oerngaboutthe highestfrequencyat which reliable
".
receptlonmay be obtained.The low frequencyend
Front view of the receiver. This is provided

with'; a tuning scale calibrated in ierms it
wavelength and short wave bands
lqst*Iiad rn I o!4-Atof,Ttrf'J.mry
tbc r*fu
,bf thr
bi vrrnlshad e p&Wd, x p#
aonctruEtor
of the coverageoffered by the Range 4 coil, with

YC2 at maxiirum capaciiance,shouldtake in the
49 metre band.
Plug in the Range3 coil and adjust its coreso that
the high frequency end of the 49 metre band is
receivedwith the vanes of VC2 fully open. When
VC2 is at maximum capacitancethe rangeshould
extend to near the low wavelength end of the
medium wave band. Adjust the coresof the Range
2 coil (medium waves)and the Range1 coil (long
Waves)in a similar manner.
It will be found that, with the Range4 coil, VR3
will need to be continually advancedfor the nearoscillation setting as frequency of reception
decreases
until, at about 50 metres,it is just about
fully advanced. There may still be some further
clockwisemovementavailablein VC2 but it may
prove impossibleto achieveoscillationabove the
50 metre setting.The appropriate frequencieshere
are, of course,coveredby the Range3 coil. Using
the Range 3 coil, oscillation will commence with

VR3 Iess far advanced, and will be easy to obtain
over the full range offered by VC2. Oscillation will
start at quite a low setting of VR3 with both the
Range 2 and the Range 1 coils, although some advance ofthe regeneration control will be needed as
VC2 capacitance is increased.
SELECTIVIW CONTROL
VRl shouldbe usedas a selectivitycontrol.As it
is turned anti-clockwiseit will be found increasinglv easierto separatestations,though there will be a
for VR2
fhtt in volum6 and a consequentn"ecessity
to be set more critically. VRl shouldbe set back a
little if overloading occurs, as is shown by a
tendency for strong stations to break through due
to cross-modulation.Otherwise,VR4 should be
used as a volume control since setting back VR1
reducesthe a.g.c.effect. It will not, of course,be
,_* :$... -i
TherebchingadlldkW
cabintt
top ptncl. whleh
rllows colls to b6 eh.ngd.
Tln lgrnllrredffi
,r, talrrrd
fu at dxs{dc band sefiarttd
6tar,v6rfr twa woa6r's*x
s
possibleto hold weak fading stations steady.

{hen operation is satisfactory, the wave trap
consistingof VCl and L2 is set up to reduce the
effects of any strong local medium wave station,
shouldthis be present.The core adjusting screwof
L2 needonly project slightly abovethe coil former,
so that there is no need to drill a hole in the top of
the screeningcan, and adjustmentsare made by
meansof Ve1. Set VRl to maximum and tune iir
the station concerned,then adjust VC1 until the
volume from that station is at a minimum. VCl is
then left alone and need only be re-adjusted (and,
if necessary,a trimmer of different value wired in
as was described last month) if the receiver is
taken to a new locality or if other factors,such as a
frequency re-allocation, cause the interfering
signal to be on a different wavelength.
A suitable caseis illustrated in Fig. 6, in which
the material is {in. plywood.This has a hingedlid
at the top to provide accessfor coil changing.Fig.
6(h) showshow two small woodscrews
and a large
elastic band may be fitted to the lid underside to
hold the three coilsnot in use,and this will prevent
them becominglost. The dimensionsin Fig. 6 are
intended only as a guide since they allow no
tolerancesand assumethat the receiver has been
built exactly to the sizes given in the previous
diagrams.In practice,the daseshould be dimensionedagainstthe receiver,as built. When completed it may be varnishedor painted.
As can be seenfrom the photographsthe front
panel of the receiveris fitted with a tuning scale.
This may be made up from stout white card and
marked up accordingto the constructor'stastes
and requirements. A perspex cursor, or two stiff
s3tt
l_
rlt)
'1;l
lr,o'
W@d srcws
Ho,e'orocrio,
I
*'*'
L__[f
I
,.1L
-]]L
t3lt
L *t I
s3ta"I
Fig. 6. Details of the essembly of a case lor the

receiven Dimensions are for guidance only
and may need to be modified slightly to suit
tho receiver as buift
wires, may be securedto the flange of the tuning

drive by meansof two 8BA bolts.
(Concluded)
UNDERSTANDDATA
PROCESSING
D A T A P R O C E S S I N Gb ,y O l i v e r& C h a p m a n i,s n o w i n
i t s T h i r d E d i t i o n- f i r s t p u b l i s h e d - 1 9 7 2 .
200 pages
9i" x 6t"
PRICEf2,75
P U B L I S H E DB Y D . P . P U B L I C A T I O N S
P.&P.35p
T h e p r i m a r y a i m o f t h i s o u t s t a n d i n g m a n u a l i s t o p r o v i d e a s i m p l i f i e da p p r o a c ht o
t h e u n d e r s t a n d i n go f d a t a p r o c e s s i n g - ( p r e v i o u s k n o w l e d g e o f t h e s u b j e c t i s n o t
n e c e s s ar y ) .
The 4O chapters and appendices cover the following topics: Introduction to
Data Processing; Organisation and Methods; Conventional Methods; lntroduction
to EDP and Computers; Hardware; Computer Files; Data Collection and Control;
Programming and Software; Flowcharts and Decision Tables; Systems Arralysis;
Applications; Management of EDP, etc.
A v a i l a b tfer o m : D A T A p U B L I C A T I O N S
LTD.,
5 7 M A I D A V A L E ,L O N D O NW 9 1 S N .
SEP.TI.]MBER
1978
49
oo
-
DOOR
BETT
furoll
IIOR
Qo(
0ur
0r
"Now," said Dick anxiously,
"you will be careful what you say,
won't vou?"
"WliLatd'you mean, be careful?"
responded Smithy irately. "I'm
always careful what I say."
"Not always you aren't," stated
Dick accusingly. "You do tend to
get yourself all worked up every
now and again."
"That," snorted Smithy, "is
becauseit's .ruu who gets irie all
worked up. [n fact, ydu're beginning to get me all worked up right
now. ['m alreadyregrettingthatl'd
agreedto spend our annual day off
togetherover at your Auntie Effs."
"Well, she heard about these
door bell monitors of yours which
you've knocked up for someof your
friends, and she thought she'd like
one herself. After all. thev are
rather unique'."
D O O R B E L LM O N I T O R
Mollified, Smithy slowed down
his impatientstride.Dick, carrying
a small shoppingbag, changedhis
step accordingly.
"It's funny," remarked Smithy,
"how popular simple little eleccan become.All that
tronic Clevices
thesedoor bell gubbinsesof mine do
is tell you whether anybody has
called while vou were but 6f the
house.My maleswho havegot them
saythey'rereally useful.You could,
for instance, be waiting 'for a
delivery of furniture or for a service
engineerto call or something like
thit, and you find you havetoleave
the house for iust a few minutes.
When you get back again my little
circuit can tell vou at once if
anybody called in your absence.If
50
:'l
,:':
Dfd anyone caII while

you were out?
it showsthat they didn't you then

have the satisfaitory feeling that
you haven't missed anything important."
"Am I conect," queried Dick,
"in saying that you just connect
your deviceto the front door bell?"
" T h a t ' s r i g h t ," c o n f i r m e d
Smithy. "However, you have to
checkfirst whetherthe existingbell
circuit is going to be suitable. We
should be nearly there, shouldn't
we?"
"There's not far to go now," said
Dick. "We just turn down into this
side street here."
The pair walked comfortably, in
the warm August afternoon sun,
along the quiet pavement. They
soonarrived at a small woodengate
in the wall. Dick unlatchedthis and
Smithy followedhim througha neat
and meticulously kept garden. At
the front door Dick oressed the
bell-push, whereuponthe door was
opened almost immediately to
reveala white haired beaminglittle
old ladv
"Hello, Auntie Eff. I've brought
Smithy along, as I promised."
Auntie Eff eyed Smithy appraisingly, then extended a
diminutive white gloved hand.
Smithy shook it delicately with a
murmured greeting.
"Now, do come in," enthused
Auntie Eff in tinkling bell-like
tones. "And don't forget to wipe
-vour feet."
Dutifully, the pair wiped their
shoes on the front door mat and
enteredthe hall. An antique dealer
would have immediately commenced slobbering at the tr-easuresthis
contained. Smithy's gaze was
drawn to an elephant's foot um-
brella stand, and he was momentarily unnervedto seethe head of a

tabby cat rise above its upper surface and scan the surroundings
laterally like a submarine
periscope, before it silently
ilescend6dout of sight again.Aunti-e
Eff led them into a living-room,
with the samestyle of furnishing as
existed in the hall. On a sideboard
was visible a three-tierwoodencake
stand on whose shelves nestled a
rich arrav of chocolate eclairs,
merinzues-andsimilar confections.
Dick ioticed Smithy's face visibly
blanch at the sight.
"We're in a bit of a hurry, Auntie," he said hastily."Perhapswe'd
better set working on the bell first."
"AJ vou wish." she cooed
oblieinelv."And after that you dear
havesomethihgto eat
boyJca-n-both
and drink."
"Well," said Dick to Smithy,
"the bell is at the back of the hall.
Did you say you wanted to check it
first?"
"That's right," said Smithy, as
they returned to the hall, leaving
Auntie Eff alonein the finery of her
living room. "You Bee, what my
doorbell monitor does is detect the
Dresenceof voltaqe acrossthe bell
when anvone pre5sesthe bell-push
at the fr6nt door. This voltagelhen
triggersan electroniclatch from one
state to the other. The only snag
hereis that domesticfront door bell
systemsvary considerablyfrom one
installation to the neirt. Some
systemswere installed well before
the last war and may still be in
ouite eood working order. But
e'oodne;sknows whaf condition the
Insulation of the bell wiring is in.
Again, some electric bells are very
Fig. | . There can ba faw circuits simpler than that of

the usual front door ball
system. ln (a) the bell is
powered by a battery,and in
lb) it is powarad from the
mains by a bell transformer
sensitive and will work with surprisingly low voltagesand currents,

whilst others are dead insensitive
affairs which require quite high
currentg to operate."
"There's also the question of
whether the bell worke from a
batterv or a maingbell transformer.
isn't there?" (Figs. 1(a) and (b).)
"That's true," agreedSmithy."If
the system works from a battery,
the voltage appearing at the bell
may be too Iow for the monitor.
With battery systems,though, you
can at least be certain that the insulationof the bell wiring is in pretty good nick."
"Why's that?"
"Because," stated Smithy, "if
there was anv gerious leakase
betweenthe twir wires soinc to tf,e
bell-push the battery fuould need
replacing much too frequently.
Good grief, something's attacking
me!"
CHECKINGTHE BELL
Frenziedlv. Smithv clutched at
his shouldei.'to find a cat locked
securelyto the right of his neck, its
clawsimbedded in the cloth of his
iacket. From the corner of his eve
he spieda thick gingerstriped furiy
tail. The cat rubbed its headagainet
Smithy's sparse locks, purrihg
deafeninglyin his ear.
"I ghouldhave warnedvou about
that ginger cat," said Dick in a
matter-of-fact tone. "He alwave
doesthat to strangers,He perchis
on the top of the- hall-staird and
then jumps them."
SEPTEMBER1978
"Blimey," gasped Smithy. "He

just about ecaredme out of my wite.
Here, get him off me, will you?"
Deftly, Dick unhookedthe ginger
cat's claws and then placed him
gently on the floor. The cat sat and
lookedup at Smithy with an intense
unblinking gaze.
"He likes you," commentedDick
dispassionately."Anyway, tell me
how vou checkthe door bell svstem
when it's powered by
- a bdttery.
How d'vou'do that?"
Smithy smoothed down the cloth
of his coat.
"You simply connect a multimeter set to a low d.c. volts rdnge
acrossthe bell," he anoweredafter
some moments. "You should then
get a zero volte reading in the meter
when the bell-push isn't pressed,
and a reading of 1.5 volts or more
when the hell-pushis closed.If you
eet both thesevoltacereadincsthen
lhe bell circuit is Suitable Ior use
with my door bell monitor, This test
alsoenablesyou to find which ofthe
bell terminals hae the poeitive
supply polarity applied to it. You
mark up this terminal or make a
note of which one it is." (Fic. 2.)
"That seemsfair enoujh,t commented Dick. "What about belle
which are run off a bell
trangformer?"
"You have to use a little test ric
consistingof a seriescombinationoT
a rectifier and a caDacitor. The
rectifier can be any-silicon type
having a p.i.v. of 100 volts or more,
and the capacitorcan be either nonelectrolvtic or electrolvtic. If it's
electro[ytic it needs'a working
voltage of at least 50 volte. The
capacitor can have any value
between1 and 10pF. You couple a
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Mechanical
Electrical
GATFREE
W H I S T O ND E P TR . E . C .
NEW MILLS,STOCKPORT
Fig. 2. Eafore constructing

and connecting Smithy's
door bell monitor it is first of
all necessary to check that
the existlng bell system is
suitable for it, With baftery
powered bell systems this
merely involvcs taking
dlrcct voltaga mc.turaments across thc ball
multimeter switchedto a lowishd.c.

volts rangeacrossthe capacitorand
apply the ends of the test circuit to
of 3pchrnd murlc from

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you prug In our Modcl I 5 cr.
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Flned with r Goodmrnr
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in s sprclally dcalgnodclblnct
en3uresxcollsntquallty.
Full monoy bsck gurranta
it not dsllghtcd.
Thousand3alraadyIn ulc by
cino enthuslastsfor fllm show
p.6sonlStions,
Suits 4 to I ohms outputs
Pric. tl6 lncludlng pott
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P.O. D.pt. E!ilficld Houx,
Smdand Rod, Nclaon, Llnca.
v
r-roFF
40V wkg
-t
aJ
Fig. 3. A simple rectifier and
reservoir capacitor circuit is
the
required
for checking
of a.c. bell
suitability
systems
the bell terminals." (Fig. 3)')

"That 50 volts is a PrettY high
caoacitorworkingvoltage,isn't it?"
i'Not reallv." thuckled Smithv.
"You'd be suiprised at someof the
which appear in electric
voltases
"circuits.
Coilirvaduk, there's
bell
anothercat here now!"
A black and white cat had
appearedwhilst SmithY was talkirid. Rangedalongsideth3 Erngercat
it,- too, iegarded the Serviceman
with an unwaveringintensestare.
"Mv Auntie Effs bell system
uses a transformer," pronounced
Dick. "I know becauseI Put it in
myself."
Smithv turned a dietracted
glancefrom the cat to his assistant'e
face.
"Did vou?" he remarked absentlv. "Well. with a.c. powered bells
the test conditionswhich have to be
satisfied are zero volts in the meter
when the bell-push isn't pressed
and 1.5 volts or more when it is."
"Why are you so fussy about
thesetest voltages?"
"For the simple reason,"explained Smithy, "that there'sno point in
makins up and tlttins the door bell
monitdi ii the existing bell system
isn't suitable for it."
"That seemsreasonableenough,"
stated Dick. "IncidentallY, I
haven't even seen a circuit of the
monitor yet."
Smithv took out his wallet and
extracted a piece of paper, He
carefully unfolded this and passed
it to his assistant.(Fig. a.)
"There you are," he pronounced
oroudlv. nHere's the Tull works.
The hdart of the gadgetis a 2-way
latch circuit incorporatingtwo 2input NAND gates.Each-of these
has its inputs connectedtogetherso
that it acts as a CMOS inverter."
"How does the latch circuit
work?"
52
LATCH OPERATION
"It has two stablestates,"replied
Smithv. "In oneof the statesthe input of the lower gate, or inverter
now, is high, whereuponits output
is low. The low voltageis passedto
the input of the upper inverter,
whoseoutput is thereforehigh. This
high output is applied via a 47kO
resistor, which I've marked up as
R4, back to the input of the lower
inverter. So the latch circuit holds
itself stableunder theseconditions.
The secondstable state is with the
input of the lower inverter low. Its
output is then high, as is the input
of the upper inverter. The consequent low output of the upper inverter is then coupled,by way of the
47ko resistor, to the input of the
lower inverter."
"I think I can follow that orettv
easily. Can you changethe state oi
the latch?"
"Oh yes," stated Smithy. "You
do it by altering the voltageat the
input of the lower inverter.If this
input is low and you momentarily
take it up to the positivesupply rail
the circuit will take up the alternative state with the input of the
lower invefter high. You can bring
it back to the previous state by
momentarily connectingthe input
of the lower inverter to the negative
rail. That input will then stav Iow
after -you remove the conneltion.
'lhe 47ktl
resistor,R4, preventsexcessivecurrentsat the outout of the
upper inverter when you make
thesechanges."
76-;\o
EI
\_:/.
"Gosh, that's neat. How about a

rundown on the whole circuit?"
"All rieht." said Smithy obliginel.y. "To siart off with. let's say-that
you're going out and you want to
leave the door bell monitor set up to
tell vou if anvone has called whilst
youtre away.- You can do this by
pressing the'Reset' push-button.
This ensures that the-input to the
lower inverter is high. When the
'Reset' button is released,this input
will stay high. For the time being
we'll assume that the door bell is
Dowered bv an a.c. bell
transformer. iwo wires, one from
the anode of diode D1 and the other
from the negative rail connect to the
bell. Okay so far?"
"Oh ves." said Dick. "Let's see
what oicurs if nobody presses the
bell before you return."
"As you wish," replied Smithy.
"'fhe circuit will then be in the
same state as it was when you left.
To find out if anyone has called you
pressthe'Interrogate' button. Since
the output of the upper inverter is
high so also will be the voltage at
the base of the emitter follower,
TR3. Pressing the'Interrogate' button completes a circuit via R5 to the
' N o ' l . e . d . ,a n d t h i s w i l l l i g h t u p t o
tell vou lhat nobodv has called."
'Interrogate',"
"l like that word
grinned Dick. "Let's say next that
somebody did call while you were
out."
"In that case," responded
Smruhy, "they would have rung the
bell, causing an alternating
voltage to be passed to D1 and C1,
*'rl
s, "pncet i^
BC tO7
Lsod-outs
.:?:,
I
cD40ll
Top vicw
Bvr T
evl
TR2
BCrO7
y4 CD40rl
LED2
.\\
Dl
R1
rN4OO2 47kn
.\\
'NO
R5
47Oo
7,8,9,t2,t3
q^h
*t
o l-lnterrogote
Fig. 4. The circuit of the door bell monitor. The resrstors are ] watt
lO%otypes, and LEDI and LED2 can be any small light-emitting
diodes. lf desired, LEDI may be green and LED2 red. Cl is a
polyester capacitor
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS
CONSTRUCTOR
and giving a rectified positive

voltage on the upper plate of Cl.
This-causesTRi-to lurn on. Its
collector voltagefalls to nearly the
negativesupply rail potential, and
it takes the input of the lower inverter low by way of diode D2.
When the bell-push is releaeed,
TR1 will turn off asain and its
collector voltage will go high. But
the input to the lower inverter will
still stay low becausediode D2 is
now reversebiased."
"Ah," said Dick, his eyesgleaming. "I can seewhat happensnext.
This time it will be the output of the
lower inverter which is hieh so that.
when the 'Interrogate' button is
pressed,the 'Yes' l.e.d. will light
up.tt
':.
"That's it precisely," gtated

Smithy. "A minor poindis that the
'Yes' l.e.d.will light
up if more than
one person has called.But you will
at leastknow that sorneonehascalled. Yee-augh!"
Dick looked up in surpriseto see
the Serviceman'i face c6ntortedin
agony.Glancing down, Dick noticed that a Persiancat had joined the
feline throng around Smithy, and
was reaching up gracefullywith its
claws sunk deep in the Serviceman'sample right calf.
" H e ' s o n l y s h a r p e n i n gh i s
claws," Dick iemonstr-atedrfrildtv.
"All cats like to sharpen their
claws."
"Not on mv flaming les thev
don't," srated
-teeth. Smithi tf,rouch
'of
clenched
"For the love
Mike pull it off me."
For the secondtime that afternoon, Dick disengagedthe claweof
one of his aunt's cortege of cats.
Smithy hitched up his trouser les
and examinedthe damageto his leE
anxiously.
"The sooner we get out of this
cat-infested house t-he better." he
announceddarkly. "I've probably
got tetanus now. It'll be rabies
next."
But Dick was more interestedin
the circuit of Smithy's door bell
monltor.
"What do you do," he asked,"if
the bell happens to run from a
batterv?"
"You connect to the bell in the
same way as vou do to an a.c.
driven bell," stritedSmithy, gingerly massaginghis leg, "remlm-beiinc
this time that the anodeof Dl ha6
to connectto the terminal of the bell
which you have previously determined has the positive voltage. It
may seem surprising that you still
need a rectifier when the bell is
driven by a direct voltage,but it's
the only.s.impleway. ol .ensuring
tnat,any nlgn reverseback-e.m.f.'s
g.enerated
in the bell do not get into
the monitor circuit, where they can
cause erratic performance.-It's
quite important, also, to connect
the monitor to the bell risht wav
roundwhen it's battery opeiated.if
youdon't, Dl and Cl rirai upsetthe
operationof the bell itse-lf.'l
SEPTEMBER1978
MONITOR CURRENT
"Blow he," protested Dick,
"we're only talking about an ordinary inoffensive electric bell.
Don't tell me that a diode and
capacitor connectedacrossit wrong
way round will causeany unusual
effect."
"You'd better believe it."
stated Smithv forciblv. "What vou
refer to as ai ordinaiv inoffeniive
bell can be an absolutelittle demon
so far as inductively generatedhigh
voltages are concerned. Anyway,
let's get back to the circuit. The two
NAND gatesin this which act as inverters are parts of a quad-NAND
gate type CD4011. This has the
positive supply going to pin 14 and
the negativesupply going to pin ?.
The inputs of the remaining two
gates,at pins 8, 9, 12 and 13, are
taken to the negative rail, and no
connectionsare made to the outputs
at pins 10 and 11."
"What about current consumption from the 9 volt batterv?"
"When the bell sounds,'ireplied
Smithy, "the current drawn is
about 0.3mA through R2. And when
you press the 'Interrogate' button
the current drawn bv either LED1
or LED2 is about 14mA. If neither
of these things happen the current
taken from the batterv should be
less than a microamp.-The CMOS
i,c. draws very nearly zero current
and the remaining current is
leakagecurrent in TRl, and in D2
as well if the input of the lower inverter is low. In the practical circuits I've checked, the current
drawn from the batterv in the
quiescentstate doesnot even cause
a perceptiblemovementin the needle of a 0-50pA meter. So you
shouldget a very longlife from, say,
a PP7 batterv."
"That seefrrs to tie everything
up," said Dick. "No it doesn't!Why
have you got that 4.?ho resistor,
R3, in serieswith the 'Reset'button?"
"It could happen." exDlained
Smithy, "that soir-eonbmight press
the bell-push at the same time as
you're pressingthe 'Reset' button.
If this doesoccur.R3 will limit TR1
collector current to a safe level of
around 2mA. A final point is that,
when you switch on at S3, the latch
may take up the state wherethe input of the lower inverter is low. You
can always guard against this by
pressingS1 after switching on."
He looked around at the group of
three cats which now surrounded
him.
"If," he continued, "I can find
my way through this feline forest,
I'll next check if vour Auntie Effs
bell system is iuitable for the
monitor. You'll find an a.c. test rig
consisting of a rectifier and
capacitorin seriesin that bag I gave
vou to carrv. Couoleit up to the bell
ind seewliat haipens.'
Dick quickly friund the a.c. test
componentsand connectedthem to
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53
the bell terminals.He took a multimeter from the shoppingbag, set

it to a 0-10 volt d.c. range and
clipped its leads across the
capacitor. The needle indicated
zerovolts.
"So far, so good," stated Smithy
ap
provlnglv.
'He
wa"lliedto the front door,
followedby his retinue of cats.He
ooenedthe door. leaned out and
piessedthe bell-pushseveraltimes.
After closingthe door, he returned
to his assistantand raised an enquiring eyebrow.
"Did you get a suitablevoltage?"
" I ' l l s a vl d i d . " s a i dD i c k . " M o s t
of the time the needle hovered
around6 volts or so when the bell
wasrinsins.But when vou released
the last [ime, it shot
the bell"-pu-sh
risht off-scale!"
"I told you," grinned Smithy,
"that thesebells can oroducesome
pretty high voltages.Anyway, seeing that everythipg is satisfactory
perhapsyou could now connectthe
monitorunit up to the bell. I should
add that, sofar aswiring is concerned, it is always advisableto keep
the wiresfrom the bell well clearof
the wiring in the monitor including,
in particular the wiring to the
CMOS inverter inputs."
Smithy fished in the shopping
bag and produceda small plastic
casein which the monitorwashoused, together with a length of twin
cable. Dick took theseitems from
him and, placingthe monitoron the
hall-stand, proceededto run the
cablefrom its input terminalsup to
t h e b e l l . ( F i g .5 ) .
" l ' v e i u s t l h o u g h to f s o m e t h i n g , "
he remarked as he worked on the
cable. "What about those bell
svstemswhere the bell-Pushis ill u m i n a t e d ? "( F i g ' 6 ' )
Fig. 6. A.C. powered systems freguently have a low consumption

bulb connected across the bell-push. This bulb has to be removed
because of the consequent voltage dropped across the bell, particularly if its armature contacts are worn
"In those," remarked Smithy,

"there is a low-consumptionbulb
acrossthe bell-push contacts.This
lights up when ihe bell-push is not
oressed.the current it draws beins
too low'to operatethe bell. You'd
have to reniove the bulb if you
wanted to use such a svstem with
mv
bell monitor."
-"Fair
enough, And what about
those two-tone ding-dong type
bells?"
"I haven't tried out my gadget
with anv of them." admitted
Srnithv. i'But it should work all
risht ii the voltagesacrossthe twotone bell meet the requirements I
statedearlier on."
It was not long before Dick had
completed the wiring to the bell,
whereuoon the bell monitor was
ceremonially checked out, with
Dick at the front door bell-pushand
Smithy operatingthe monitor. It
functioned satisfactorily on every

occasion.
A TOUCH OF COMFORT
The intermittent ringing of the
bell had brought out the tabbY cat
residinein the elephant'sfoot umbrella Jtand. as wrill as two further
cats from the upper regionsof the
house. It also brought out Auntie
Eff. She was quickly instructed in
the operation of the monitor unit,
and pronounced herself extremelY
pleas'ed
with its efficiency.
'
She then led Dick, SmithY and
all six cats back into the livingroom, on the centre table of which
was now arraveda silvertea-Poton
a stand, a silver milk jug, a silver
sugarbowl and a tea set of delicate
bone china.
"Time for tea, boys," she sang
sailv as shepouredout a diminutive
buo'of tea and handed it to her
to his
neohew.Smithv. accustomed
cabacioustin mug in the WorkshoP,
ey'edthe tiny cupson the tablewith
apprehension.
"But for we more grown-up
ones."she pronounced,beamingat
him benierrlv,"perhaPssomething
more fitti-ng-for-thislovely August
LED2
afternoon."
caLu ?
oro aruvorue
LEDl
The bemused SmithY found a
larse slass on the table in front of
hir;. A similar glasshad appeared
No
YEs
.@*
at Auntie Effls place'She roseand
I
opened a beautifully finished old
BELL
Tcrminols
S3
Voak cabinet.
"Let me see,"shetrilled happily'
ON
"I have Smirnoff, Booth's, Gordon's.Grant's,Teacher'sand John'
nv Walker."
s2
Smithy's mouth droPPedoPen.
She cissled.
INTERROGATE
RESET
"gell'J would be verY aPoropriate.wouldn't it? Or possibly
mv'ownlittle favourite- a touchof
SouthernComfort."
As Smithv remarked to himself
later on in that eventfulday, Dick's
Fig. 5. The bell monitor can ba assembled in any plastic case
Auntie Eff was certainlY well
the components and battery, and hauq
capable of accommodating
p r e s e r v e df o r h e r Y e a r s . O r ,
ing a front panel layout similar to that shown here. Whatever
perhaps, 'Pickled' would be the
method of construction
is cmploycd,
thc two wircs from the bell
I
more appropriate term.
must be kept well clear of the circuitry following Cl
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(a device which convertsspeechto
an alternativesignalform) higitizes
tne speech,.a crypto$aphic stage
encypnersthe ensuingdata stream
and finally a multi-tone modem
(modulator - demodulator)
' sturns
imai
the data stream into a
suitable for transmission.'On
receipt of the- coded signal,
uryptlex's modem feeds the
demodulated signal to the crvptogra.phicstage-for decoding,after
whrchthe vocoderreconstitutesthe
speechfrom the decodeddata.
Crypflex is stated to be the first
equipment to combine all these
functions in a single unit small
gnqugh for vehicle mounting.
tjetbre the advent of Crvpflex 1
system embracing the h.f. radio
bandrequiredthe useof equipment
s0targeanclexpensiveas to restrict
it to specialist applications where
SEPTEMBER
19?8
for boginners, very sensitive FET front snd

wilh varactor controllsd bandspread and lC
audio stage. \ly'e guaranree WORLD WIDE
RECEPTION. kir absotutoly comptoto with
earpieco and full instructions including our
Dx-ing guide,
Kir pric onty f9.U6 + izl
VAT
size and cost were of relativelv low

significance. By taking advairtage
ot very advanced digital signa-lprocessing techniques, but usine
standard dieital mircocircuitsl
Crypflex provides the facilities in a
single housing of convenient size
and at a drasticallv reduced cost.
The Crypflex vbcoder converts
speech to a data stream at onlv 2.4
kilobits per second and in- the
receive mode converts the data
stream back again to speech. With a
quality- of reproducedspeech comparable with that 6f speech
digitizers working at a spe6d
ten
-listeners
times. that of Crypflex,
qurckly become accustomed to the
vocoder sound and can easilv
recognise individual speakers. Th-e
low bit rate of.Crypflei is the major
Iactor ln maklng speech encrvDtion
feasible over nairow band channels.
. The cryptographic unit, employrng, nl.ghly actvanced cryptographic
t-ecnnlques, processes the vocoder
data output into an apparently ranoom brt stream at the same rate of
CRYSTAL CALTBRATOR. Modet RO-1. This is

an original design which
gives CW or
Amplitud Modulated harmoniis of I MHz,
lOOKHz. and IOKHz weil bVond VHF.
Kit at unboltoble
price f12.72
, g% VAT
MORSE PRACTTCE SET. Hetp yoursetl
through the morse t6st by g6tting esssntial
practico. We offer a complete kit includino
morse key, oscillator. loudspesk6r etc. in i
praslc case.
Onty C8.25 + 12{% VAT
SoJr!Lolq?t9arl - post.go .ppret.t.d

ROCOUAINE ELECTRONICS
Aldobarrn,Rocquaine,
Lc Coudrc.
G U E R N S E YC.H A N N E LI S L E S .
2.4 Hlobits per seCo;illln-The
receive mode the vocoder data iA

recoveredfrom the apDarentlvrandom bit stream. Bit:6v-bit aisital
encryption.is applied-using [eystreamswhlch cannotpossiblvcv_
cle in periodsof severalmontis 6f
continuousoperationand which are
so complexthat analysisis virtuallv
impossible by anv form of crvo-tanalysisknown to the desimeri.
Operationof the Crvpfleiequioment is simple.Apart 6om makins
the reguired code setting, whicf,
takes about 30_seconds,
an? setting
the mode switch for clear or secure
operation, no further operator
attention is necessarv.Each user is
allocatedan ex-clusiv-e
group of over
on-emillion million codes,ind code
selectionis madequicklv and simoly by setting iO thumbwhe'el
switches.The codesettingsmust. of
course,be the sameon thi Crvpflex
unit at eachend of the link bifore
any .decryptedintelligencecan be
BYTHEG3HSC
RHYTHM
METHODT
Tlrlsr
rrr,rses wltre h have been
solrl for
^r
lrive be4n proved many times
lr],I-1-l y",n,l
D
tastest method of learning Mors
lp
-th9
Yr)il sldrl r0hl.awdy hv lparnino th;
so,,n.ls
ot,iltp.varrorts lpllprs nil,nhprs. plc.
as vou
wilt,rn ldr I rtse lhprrr Not a series ol .lols
an(l
( l d s r r o sw r l r r r t A l ? , y ( t t t
wilt hdvp tO lranslale
t r l l r ) l , ) l l r r r c d r r ( 1w ( ) r d <
Usirltl s, iInt'fI llly t)rFl)a.pd j snpF.l recor.lq
vr)u drrt,jntdlrc,tllV tpdrn to recoOnls" lhe
lrrrir'. .9.1{YTHM withoLrr lranslar'ing
yo,i
,.1'.1.1'l'l.li,r tl s .rs easv as tea,nrnqi
trrne
lBWPM
,,' 4 weeks quanrlnpd
Tlrr, 0orDttletr: COtirsr: consislq
of three
r r , r : o r r J sd s w e l l ; 1 5 i 1 1 q 1 r , , a 1 1 oDno o t ( s .
For Complete
Course send tb.OO plus part
postage
SOp (overseas surface mail f ,l oxtral.
Now availableShrouded Morse Kevg*

f2.7O inc. UK postage
T H E G 3 H S C M O R S EC E N T R E
Box 8,45 Grcen Lanc, pudcy, Surrcy.
I encloss f5.50 or s.a.e.for oxplanatorv
booklet.
N am 6 . . . .
Address
obtalned.
55
F.E.T. AMPLIFIER
*itfun
nlmrddrld wr/*
twiH, lmm lt.&F.
@a
f;tt'aiis'
t 2 oonttit
ad rzrqtlutr#y
@in
ry*ryry
SPACE SAVER SWITCH

The accompanying photograph
shows a new miniaturised wafer
switch now being manufacturedby
N.S.F. Limited, Keighley,
Yorkshire, BD21 5EF. This has
beenevolvedto meet the increasing
emphasis_withinstrument layouts
towards decreasinginternal measurementsand the use of miniature
components.The switch combinee
the N.S.F. Type A mechanismwith
moulded wafers Type MA.
The switch has 12 contact
positions and, measures only
ig.O5mm. from the mounting face
to the switch end.
rOP FERRITES
The selection of exotic shapes
vou can see in the second
will gladdenthe eyesof
irhotogra.ph
anv pulse transformer designer.
Thev are manufacturedby Ceramic
MadneticsInc., for whornWalmore
Eleltronics have been appointed
exclusiveagentsin the U.K.
Components produced by
Ceramic Mametics have the distinction of belngthe most expensive
ferrites curreitly availabje. AII
parts are machinedfrom solid rods
or ingots under very carefully controlled conditions, resulting in
products which are both
homogenousand stress-free and
which conform to extremely strict
dimensional, mechanical and
magnetictolerances.
used
The nature of the processes
not only allows reproducibility
- t hofe
producis but alio offers
iapability of manufacturingcomol6x snecialsto verv hieh standards
in a cbmparativelyshdrt period of
time. The components can be
produced from a variety of high
berformancematerials,such as the
MN60 high permeability low-loss
ferrite which givesthe lowestpower
loss currently possiblewith today's
materials.
Full details on the ferrite
oroducts mav be obtained from
Walmore ElectronicsLtd.. ll-15
BettertonStreet,Drury Lane, London, WC2H 9BS.
NN\i.
Sont t of tho wih tgtgr. d frrl{f;e W

@,
4 Fc-.mgcrrl trlllttv
El'E qtr|- ltd,
mft*ffi!
bf W*rrftr
i
Wav back in Julv of 1976 I mentioned that field-eifect transistors

capable of handling high audio
powers were being'developed in
ianan. and that these could be
employed in the output stagesof hifi amilifiers. In this application
thev give the same "smooth"
amolification which is associated
with the old triode valve.
I see now that Hitachi have unveiled a new MOSFET high fidelitY
stereo amplifier with, presumably,
high power f.e.t.'s in the, outPut
stages. The new Hitachi amPlifier,
moilel HMA-7500. will deliver 75
watts r.m.s. per channel with a total
distortion o10.01% across the entire
ranse of 20Hz to 20kHz. At 40 watts
r.m.s. the distortion is only 0.005Vo.
It is refreshing to see an entirely
new technique emerging in what is
one of the liveliest branches of
domestic electronic equipment. It
has been occasionally stated that if
the f.e.t. had appeared before the
bipolar transistor, our transition
from valve to semiconductor
technology would have been vastly
different. Circuitry would have
then changed much less abruptly
from the valve approach to that
required with the roughly analogous
field-effect transistor. Late starter
though it may be, the f.e.t. certainly
seems to be doing its best to catch
upl
NEW MANUFACTURER
A new name to add to semiconductor devicesmanufacturedin the

U.K. is that of International
DevicesInc. This companyhas now
establisheda U.K. manufacturing
olant at Harlow in Essex. The
ilritish operation, known as IDI
SemiconductorsLtd.. has moved
into a 6,000 square ft. factory, and
w i l l i n i t i a l l y s p e c i a l i s ei n t h e
manufactureof germaniumpower
transistors with further product
Iines to follow.
International DevicesInc. has its
headquarters near Los Angeles
International Airport, and its total
product line covers about 2,300
lvpes.includinsgermanium
-transistors,small'
silicon
signai and powJr
n . p . n ./ p . n . p . s m a l l - s i g n a l a n d
power transistors, plastic Power
devices and Darlingtons, diodes,
rectifiers and thvristors.
In addition, devicesare produced
to special customer specifications,
and replacementscan be offeredfor
obsolei.eor discontinuedtransistors
in a variety of packages.
The Briiish dompany is already
receivinglarge-quantity orders for
devicesto be made at the new plant,
'
and olans to conducta hieh level of
e*po'r'ts,mainly to the E.E.C. countries. The full addressof the new
companv is IDI Semiconductors
Ltd.. tne Fairwav. Bush Fair.
Hariow. Essex.
I
RADIO AND ELECTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR

RC 1978 09

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DIGITAL DICE by R. A.

', Data Publications Ltd., 1978. Contents

SHORT WAVE NEWS-For DX Listeners

Annual Suhscription: f 7.0O, Overseas

The Radio Amateur

Editorial and Advertising Offices

Technical Aueries. We regret that wo

TRADE NOTE-New ExtensionReel

THE "HYBRID" ALL WAVE RADIOC o n c l u s i o n - b yS i r D o u g l a sH a l l ,K . C . M . G .

RADIO TOPICSby Recorder

unimportant. Thus wllEn the. push. button is

ru;-i;'-thi;iiicuit, in that a diceonlv

Fig. |. A basic random number generator' This

device can have is with nine of the outputs in the

Fig. 2. A modified number gencr.tor which

, In this application the one-of-ten counter

The clock signal is fed to the clock inputs of the

resistorR2. The one-of-tencounteris IC2, which is

is the display driver and decoderi'c', and

bv c2' rhe resetsignal

The front panel of the digitel dice unlt'

F.o- a nominal9 volt supplythe 4033i,'c'can

The component strip'board couples to the c-9m;

a built'in red filter.

l:::l:l l:i I;'0

shot of the digital

The thrce integrated

mounting bolts and nuts are tiehtened.

Mail Order Protection Scheme

. If a mail order trader fails, readers are advised to

RADIO AND ELEC'IRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

Peter Smith, Bell Systems scientist. demonst/atas the new miniaturised

The tiny white circle is the inner region of

*hi+ the light e4periencesin passingthrough the

NEW BRITISH UNMANNED

Marine lJnit Technology stafl give SMARTIE a final

AN NOU N CEM ENTS

are assembledin widely scattered

So far as the home-constructor is

DRY REED RELAYS

We are all familiar with drv reed

energisedvery intrequently, as can

watt resistor instead.

"No, son, I've no idea what you ncxt

We already have moving'coil

Fig. l(a). A standard unfiunctlon trunslttor e'l' oscillator circuit

in Fig. 1(a). After the power is

sistor.Shouldthe two test terminals

RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

It is found that a useful voltage

tronics. The volume of the tone

Fig. 2. The completa

capable of accommodating them.

Fig. 3. Checking tho comploted instrument' The monitoring

The Canadian Wireless Set No' 58' one of the

volts with the circuit of Fig. 3),

operational amplifier and audio pre-amplifier i.c.'s

The componentpanel is housedin an all-metal

9 volt battery. Without feedback and using the

Fig. 2. Tho clrcuit ol a

ITAI)IO ANI) EI,I]CTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR

back network formed by R6 and R2. The voltage

All the components,apart from S1 and the input