Re: [ARSCLIST] My cat just ate my phasitron

[John Ross <johnross@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At  6/16/2006 07:19 PM, you wrote:
> What is/was/were/usw. a "Phasitron?!"
 Phasitrons were a method of FM modulation for which Generous 
Electric made the tube that drove it. GE, Collins and Federal all 
made Phasitron exciters for their transmitters. Here's a web site 
with lots of technical information :

www.w9gr.com/phasitron.html

Scroll about two-thirds down the page for the technical stuff.

By the late 1960s, Phasitron tubes had become unobtanium. I have no 
idea where the heck Hemphill found the one he used in his replica transmitter.

In the early days of community radio, when it was still possible to 
scrounge most of the equipment necessary to put a low-power station 
on the air using junk piled up in the back of commercial stations' 
transmitter shacks -- somebody's old exciter and a lot of surplus 
Gates and RCA equipment -- the word went around the community of 
engineers that Phasitrons and Berlant tape recorders would be 
everlasting sources of grief.

John Ross