Old Rig

[teckniqs]

Old Roger 50w rig from around 1986/87

[radium98]

nice ,beutiful ,clean and simple

[Banus_radio]

Old Roger 50w rig from around 1986/87

Wrong, Thats a TX-35 built buy Steve B******e.

It has Sonia written on the board which is the name of his daughter.

Other boards had S + S written on them, Sharon and steve his wife.

Theres some history right there for you. I remember one of these on a station when I was a kid, took about 45 mins to warm up and settle on frequency

[teckniqs]

Ahh fair enough, I was told that it was Roger who built it anyway, I found that picture on an old hard drive after about 15 years.

[Twista UK]

Dream FM used to get their rigs from scott back in the day. does anyone have any pictures of any scott rigs ive not ever seen one before with the box open

[Albert H]

Old Roger 50w rig from around 1986/87

Wrong, That's a TX-35 built buy Steve B******e.

It has Sonia written on the board which is the name of his daughter.

Other boards had S + S written on them, Sharon and Steve

Someone brought three or four of those things 'round to my place when I was living in Islington in the 80s. They were harmonically pretty good, but drifted badly. I made a little "above board" that sampled the output from the BLW16 (I think) stage after the oscillator, divided it by 64 in a prescaler IC, then the PLL magic happened at around 25 kHz, with a couple of divider ICs, a 4060 for the reference and a 4046 for the phase comparator. I used the source follower in the 4046 as part of the loop filter, and added a relay that disconnected the power to the drive and final until the PLL locked. The final was a Thomson SD-series transistor, roughly equivalent to an MRF238, and would deliver around 40 Watts. With the PLL, it was a really good rig. The ones I modified were used by a station in Peckham.

[mixfm]

first vfo rig i bought. hot air tx 35, lasted a couple of years on the pirate radio scene in birmingham. running direct rig on roof audio cable down drain pipe, lol; before some b-----d stole it late 1 saturday night,

[darren123]

Yeah you would be safer to use a Chinese sprogg box than use that thing.

....And BLW60C is actually rated at 45w, but I've had not too far off double that amount of power from one in the past with about 8w drive into it at 15VDC, and had 78 watts!!

Yes you are right. Theres no low pass in there. The rig was never used. The final finished article would have a low pass inside. I thought this post topic was to show off your work. Some of the comments are pretty harsh. It's a fully working rig. Yes not finished. Safer to use a chinese sprog box. The rig was made by my own hands and works well. But yes just missing the low pass filter. Thankyou Albert h for your comments I've always found you very constructive and knowledgeable with your information.

[Bton-FM]

Here's a rig I knocked up for a station called fusion fm 90.2

Is that fusion from the west midlands?

[darren123]

Here's a rig I knocked up for a station called fusion fm 90.2

Is that fusion from the west midlands?

Yes it was fusion from the west midlands. It was years ago when it finished and never returned

[teckniqs]

Yeah you would be safer to use a Chinese sprogg box than use that thing.

....And BLW60C is actually rated at 45w, but I've had not too far off double that amount of power from one in the past with about 8w drive into it at 15VDC, and had 78 watts!!

Yes you are right. Theres no low pass in there. The rig was never used. The final finished article would have a low pass inside. I thought this post topic was to show off your work. Some of the comments are pretty harsh. It's a fully working rig. Yes not finished. Safer to use a chinese sprog box. The rig was made by my own hands and works well. But yes just missing the low pass filter. Thankyou Albert h for your comments I've always found you very constructive and knowledgeable with your information.

No need to get so offended. ....If you'd explained that when you first put the picture up it would've helped.
But instead you chose to have said "here is a rig I built for a station on 90.2"

If people like Albert didn't comment on people "showing off their work" to see it lacking the most important parts for it to work properly and keep the signal clean, then wouldn't that seem very irresposnsible of them?

At leaat Chinese rigs have low pass filters and I fail to understand why you would want to waste your time building a whole rig for it to not even have one. I've never heard of anyone just building a rig for display purposes to simply just "show off their work" and even so, you've come to the WRONG place if you want to show off your work if it's missing the most vital parts like that,

.....And further-more Pirate Radio already has a bad enough name for it without the likes of you showing off your work so other people can potentionally copy it and take out the whole radio spectrum.

[livendirect]

heres a 50 watt alan rig we had knocking around, the rig we used to install last result. lol memories... built in a disco light...

Alan liked those Disco lights! I remember seeing one like that round Johnny B's place at some point.

Alan didnt build that rig 100% but i have also seen that rig in johnny b's house thats defo a johnny locker lol

[Kdw32]

Hi I just picked up a Hotair TX35FM. I was looking for info any info and was nicely pointed over to this thread where there is some info. I have Sonia marked on the board. Anyway I though upload a clearer picture of the board.

Thanks

[LeeCavanagh]

That peak light is just for show isn’t it ? Tells you when you are over but won’t do anything to help, that correct?

[trancetechnic]

Hi I just picked up a Hotair TX35FM. I was looking for info any info and was nicely pointed over to this thread where there is some info. I have Sonia marked on the board. Anyway I though upload a clearer picture of the board.

Thanks

I remember seeing this TX in a magazine in the early nineties. As far as I recall, cricklewood electronics from London were selling this transmitter, over the 180 pounds mark. Unfortunately, I never had that kind of money at the time and found an alternative shop also from London called 'OIKRON' where I bought a 10 WATT VFO TX. Less power but got my station on the air back in late 1993.

[Frequent Lee]

from London called 'OIKRON' where I bought a 10 WATT VFO TX. Less power but got my station on the air back in late 1993.

That was Eikron they used to run a regular advert in exchange and mart and occasionally in Record Mirror & DJ magazine. £225 for a 100 watt PLL. The advert just said "transmitters, links stereo encoders studio quality call Eikron Audio 01-800-1234

I bought a 10 watt vfo in 1989 for £40 and it wasn't much better than a the Pantek junk driftboard.

[Mr.S]

Steve from Stevenage's handy work there.

[Shedbuilt]

from London called 'OIKRON' where I bought a 10 WATT VFO TX. Less power but got my station on the air back in late 1993.

That was Eikron they used to run a regular advert in exchange and mart and occasionally in Record Mirror & DJ magazine. £225 for a 100 watt PLL. The advert just said "transmitters, links stereo encoders studio quality call Eikron Audio 01-800-1234

I bought a 10 watt vfo in 1989 for £40 and it wasn't much better than a the Pantek junk driftboard.

Their early adverts (80s era) in E&M (and maybe one or two others), said: “Pirate radio ? we build transmitters”. Later ads were less brazen. Some of that early stuff wasn’t great. I think most of their ‘80s stuff used this exciter design (pic attached from another thread). Much better than Pantek, but still not good; compounded by advertising so openly (which meant people, who had no background at all, saw the ads, thought “I could do that”, and bought equipmentt). Their later stuff was, apparently, completely different.

[Shedbuilt]

Steve from Stevenage's handy work there.

Yep

[outis]

Yes there was a time before internet and ebay - and people were making things themselves. Not always elegant or safe or mindful of interference...