Video of the Paraset receiving a station. I held the phone to the headphones to record the sound, so it is not the best. Some stations came in clearer than on my modern FT857. That could be because they used different antennas which had gain in different regions.
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Got my Paraset working. After a bit of troubleshooting I got mine working. Turned out I missed one wire from the reaction pot to V2 and I had an intermittent short in the cable from the power supply to the set (from 6.3V to ground). Fortunately the thing is quite robust and I didn't smoke anything.
Last month I had the fortune to visit Xanten in Germany. Xanten used to be a large Roman town. Here is some notgeld I got recently in connection with Xanten and its Roman past. In this case how a Germanic tribe (the Batavi), attempted to revolt against the Romans around 69-70 AD. The revolt was lead by Gaius Julius Civilis (sometimes called Claudius Civilis) who gathered Celtic tribes from Gallia Belgica and some Germanic tribes to his cause. Two legions under Mummius Lupercus were defeated at Castra Vetera (Xanten) as depicted on the notgeld. Unfortunately, for the Batavians, that was not the end. After these initial successes, a massive Roman army led by the Roman general Quintus Petillius Cerialis forced the Gauls and mutinous troops into submission. Civilis was eventually defeated at Augusta Treverorum (Trier) and Castra Vetera, and forced to withdraw to the island of the Batavians. He finally came to an agreement with Cerialis whereby his countrymen obtained certain advantages, and resumed amicable relations with Rome. Between AD 69 and 70, the Batavi, a Germanic tribe located on the delta of the river Rhine, lead a revolt against the Romans in that region of the Empire. It was lead by Gaius Julius Civilis (sometimes called Claudius Civilis) who gathered Celtic tribes from Gallia Belgica and some Germanic tribes to his cause. Two legions under Mummius Lupercus were defeated at Castra Vetera (just as depicted on the notgeld). Unfortunately, for the Batavians, that was not the end. After these initial successes, a massive Roman army led by the Roman general Quintus Petillius Cerialis forced the Gauls and mutinous troops into submission. Civilis was eventually defeated at Augusta Treverorum (Trier) and Castra Vetera, and forced to withdraw to the island of the Batavians. He finally came to an agreement with Cerialis whereby his countrymen obtained certain advantages, and resumed amicable relations with Rome.
This radio did not need any repair work. All it needed was the correct battery setup. That was not as easy at it seems. Even with an ARBE III battery eliminator, I could not get all the voltages I needed to run this set without resorting to an external 6V battery. There +6 tap on the 90V anode battery. That is not a tap available from the ARBE-III as it is not a normal step voltage needed for most battery operated radios, especially North American radios. What I had to do is wire in an actual 6V battery in parallel with the 90V from the battery eliminator. Everything else was supplied from the ARBE-II (90V anode , and 2V heater voltage). Fortunately this worked fine. I picked up these three pre-war German Bakelite radios at a hamfest today. They are very interesting pieces of history. In German the large one is known as a Volksempfänger (Peoples Receiver) VE301. The 301 stood for the 30th of January, the date Hitler came to power.
Just as the Volkswagen (the People's car) was intended to be for the common person, the Volksempfänger's purpose was to make radio reception technology affordable to the general public as well. Of course we all can guess why that was important to a dictatorship! The two smaller radios are known as the Deutscher Kleinempfänger (German small receiver) or the DKE38. 38 stood for the year it was released (1938). These were affectionately known as “Goebbels' Snout”! The VE301 and DKE38 were designed to be produced as cheaply as possible, and they are remarkable simple, but well made. Sensitivity to receive weak signals was limited, to reduce production costs further; so long as the set could receive German stations, it was considered sensitive enough. However, foreign stations could be received after dark with an external antenna, particularly as stations such as the BBC European service increased their transmission power over the course of the war. Listening to foreign stations became a criminal offence in Nazi Germany after the war began. Now that the case is finished, there are a few small things that have to be attended to. The most important is to put power to it and see if it works. To be honest I am a bit afraid to put power to it because it has been a lot of work to assemble and I suspect trouble shooting will not be too easy. Nonetheless, it must be done.
Here are some photos of the finished device. Almost there. Completed making the bottom of the "cashbox" style case for the Paraset. Work on top cover is now in progress. As this is precision work, I suspect I might have to adjust and re-make one or both of these parts so that they mate correctly. A mm here can make all the difference.
Today I finished making the power supply for my WWII Paraset resistance radio. This is a replica of the same type used on the original.
Now that the Paraset Power Supply case is completed, I needed to make a reproduction voltage selector panel. On the original PS, the user could select one of 6 different input voltages from 110 to 240 VAC. Since I used a multi-tap transformer, I could actually reproduce that functionality. This required making up some specialized pins etc., to best match the original.
Started working on the case for the Paraset power supply. The first attempt was a bit of a learning process. I ended up redoing the cover as I goofed and I also needed a heavier brake to bend the metal than the cheap one that I used for thinner metal or Aluminum.
I also decided to redo the bottom as I am not happy with some aspects of it. Having a new bending brake made things a lot easier for. |
AuthorCharles Baetsen holds a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Archives
February 2024
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