Christmas Greetings

[pager8]

Hi All,
Heres wishing members old and new a very happy Christmas and (Hopefully) a better new year. And as ever thanks for all help given,
Pager8 (Geoff)

[Richard]

Thanks Geoff! Yes Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone

[bob orbell]

Ditto Geoff and Richards post. Bob

[bikerhifinut]

And the same to one and all.
I'm still here gents, just my life took a tangential direction for a while.

Andy. 2E0AND, which might give you an idea of what I got up to during the last lockdown.

[Richard]

Good to hear from you Andy. Is ham radio a new hobby?

[Chris]

Happy Christmas, hope everyone gets plenty of audio gifts. Stay safe…

Chris.

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by Richard

Good to hear from you Andy. Is ham radio a new hobby?

Its always been a hobby since I was a kid, I just decided to get off my backside and have a crack at the exams, so far at the Intermediate licence but intend to go for the Full Licence in the New Year. The first 2 stages were frankly pretty easy, but the step up to Full is a different kettle of fish for sure. At least I dont have to brush up on my Morse skills any more.
And who knew rigging aerials would be so technical?

I have been fiddling with a bit of Audio too, but frankly I reckon I can't really get better than the choices of kit I have now. I have been toying (say it softly and dont report me to the minimalist police) with a Valve preamp incorporating defeatable tone controls. It's been interesting and discovering interactions between the Balance and Volume pots has given a lot of head scratching but I think I may have worked out whats happening electrically, nothing to do with flavour of controls but more to do with resistance values and interstage impedances and capacitance causing odd LF boosts but I think I have got to the root of it. It'll involve a redesign of the baxandall network amongst other things, I'll have to knock up a pair of 11 way 2pole rotary switches and have a go at the Morgan Jones design. I will likely use the ex BBC E180F pentodes I have a good stash of, rather than the EF184 that Jones uses, just need to figure out the anode and cathode load resistors for that. I knew that "maka switch" kit bought at a swapmeet would come in handy!
Otherwise theres the matter of getting my nephew and his son started off on DIY audio, starting with a simple SE stereo amp using 6V6 or EL84 to a design I know works well and then see How they go from there.
I also during the lockdowns had a go at a silicon based RIAA stage and have been very pleased with the results with a MM cartridge, I tweaked the EQ in a fairly standard feedback based circuit to get as good a curve as I could with an "all in one" network. I found a cheap source of obsolete Hitachi Audio preamp chips, HA12017 on a hunch and have to say I find it a cracking Audio device.

Oh and the WD KT88 amp converted to integrated with the addition of a HFC remote Volume control board and the Alps RK127 pot that Bob passed on to me has been giving me a lot of pleasurable listening, it definitely synergises well with the Quad ESL989 and I don't feel shortchanged by the absence of a preamp/buffer stage. But I do use sources with a healthy output voltage so the half a volt or so needed to wind the KT88 amp to full chat isnt a problem.


Have a good un, I'm driving on Xmas day delivering my 91 year old parents Lunch so it'll be fairly late on when I get my feet up with a Movie and a decent quality Beer!

Enjoy folks, it's not illegal................yet.

Andy.