6m boatanchor project.. where to start?

[VA3WDH]

hello all! I am sitting around this winter with broken 2M rigs, and EchoLink. #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif #I was sitting in my shack looking around wishing I had a working radio, when I spotted my parts SB-401. I opened it up to find almost everything that I could see intact. in it are some 6416 final tubes, some other assorted tubes.. everything exept for the power transformer. I looked around and found a 12AX7A and some 6L6GC tubes that I had from a guitar amp that I had. when I checked out the specs for the final tubes, it said that they are rated good up to 60 MHz.

I then looked around the internet for anyone who homebrewed a 6M rig with those finals, and appearentally someone did, and used a 6L6 for something in that circuit, but it was a long time ago, and they didnt have schematics for it.

I was wondering if someone would happen to have schematics for a transmitter that I could build out of the parts from a sb-401. if they could share them with me, that would be great. I might stand a chance if the circuit was solid-state, but I am rather young, and have not been exposed to "hollow-state", other than its use in guitar amps (where they are used for their clipping characteristics).

I have wanted to get on 6M for quite some time now, but have been unable to do so for a bunch of reasons. now that I have a bucket of parts, and a friend with an advanced licence who will build the transmitter, I might get on that band if I can find something.

thankyou for your time.
Nate.

VA3WDH
73s

[W0LPQ]

Nate, given the LMO frequency of the 401, you'd be better off selling it for parts (if it is broken) or trying to get it going on HF.

What you want to do is in short a monumental engineering chore that I would not try. Most of the radio (RF wise) is worthless for 6M. 6146's don't come close, although some have tried it.

A 6L6 "MAY" say good to 60Mhz, but efficiency is not good to say the least. They are a great audio tube however.

Look around for one of Glen's (K9STH) favorite Heathkits, the SB-110..! Now there is a 6M radio.

73

Bill, W0LPQ

[VA3WDH]

allrite.. I will give that other heathkit a look.. I thought it might be possible to use those finals on 6M because the specs said they should hold up untill 60 MHz, but as we all know, what the specs say, and what really works are generally 2 different things. ;)

the SB-401 I was going to gut was just a parts transmitter. I have a full SB-301 / SB-401 setup with a station monitor and all sorts of good stuff that we pull out for field day. I cant get on HF untill either industry canada drops the 5 WPM, or I learn CW. as there has been talk about dropping the CW for quite some time, my best bet is to learn the code and be done with it. but untill then, I figured since I can run 50 mhz and above, may as well give 6M a shot.

anyway, thankyou.
Nate

[WA2ZDY]

Bill, I know the 6146 couldn't run to the same specs that high, but the Hammarlund FM50A FM transceiver had a single 6146 and was on VHF high band. Mine was crystalled up on the 146.34/94 repeater. I suspect it might well work on 6m. What finals did the SB110 have?

Nate, the Heath SB series for HF was a fine rig. If it was made well by someone good at building, they're even better. Learn the code, upgrade and get on HF. You've already got a good start and hey, what better to do than learn the code while the lockout drags on?