J U N E1 9 7 8

V o l u m e3 1 N o . 1O
PublishdMonthly
(2nd ol procodingMonth)
Fhst Pubtithed | 947
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f el.ghms
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Data PublicatiohsLtd., 1977. Contenrs

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NEWSAND COMMENT

596

L O W C U R R E N TT I M I N G C I R C U I T
- Suggested Circuit by G. A. French

598

N E W T O K O I .F . F I L T E R S

601

3 . V O L T A G EB A T T E R YE L I M I N A T O R
by A. P. Roberts

602

S E C O N D A R YE L E C T R O NC A M E R AT U B E
b y M i c h a e lL o r a n t

607

TV SOUND AOAPTOR
by R. A. Penfold

608

R E C E N TP UB U C A T I O N S

613

SHOBT WAVE NEIVSb V F r a n kA . B a l d w i n

614

P u b l i s h e d i n G r e a r B r h a i n b y t h e P r o D r i o t o r sa n d
Publishers. Ora Pubtications Lrd, 57 Maroa
Vale London W9 1SN
T!\e Radio & Electrcnics
by Swale Press Lld.

Cor.rarucaor

For DX Listonors

T H E " M A I N S M I C R O - A M P "- P a f t 2
b y S i r D o u g l a sH a l l , K . C . M . G .

{ C o n c l u s i o n6)1 6

A DEMONSTRATION
C O N T R O LS E R V O
b y E . A . P a r ra n d J . A s h

620

T R A DE N E W S

626

S T E R E OA M P L I F I E RR E P A I R
- In Your Workshop

627

ELECTRON
ICS DATA No. 34
- { F o rT h e B e g i n n e -r N . P . N .a n d P . N . P . )

Pto du ct io n,-W ab Olls6l.

.ll \Fl 19711

588

fho Rtdio Amttaur

Edito altnd Advenisina Ollices

57 MAIDA VALE LONDdN W9 ISN
felephone
01-286 6141

S I N G L EI . C . D I G I T A LC L O C K
by P. R. Arthur

is o.inled

THEJULY ISSUE
WILL BE PUBLISHED
3 r dJ U N E

iii

SINGLE
CLOCK
By P. R. Arthur

Although it is possibleto construct a digital

clockusingordinarylogici.c.'s,thereis little incent i v e t o d o s o t h e s ed a y s .S p e c i a lp u r p o s ed i g i t a l
c l o c k i . c . ' s a r e c u r r e n t l y a v a i l a b l ea t v e r y
prices,and their use greatly simplifies
reasonable
the constructionof a dieital clock as well as reducing its cost.Admittedly, employingordinary logic
i.c.'s doesoffer the advantageof giving the constructora greaterunderstandingof how the finishe d c l o c kf u n c t i o n sb, u t t h i sw i l l b e o f m i n o ri m p o r .
r a n (e l l , m o s tr e a d e r sa. n d i s c e r t a i n l yr - ' lfi t t l e i m oortanceheresincethe main reouirementwasfor a
very simple electronicdigital clock design.
It was not difficult to selectthe i.c. which forms
t h e b a s i so f t h'fhis
i s p r o j e c t .a n d t h e A Y - 5 - 1 2 2 4 Ah a s
been chosen.
device is not one of the most
recently introduced clock i.c.'s, but it is
quite advanced.It is housedin a stannevertheless
dard 16 pin d.i.l. package,and it providesall the
necessary
logiccircuitry for a mains operatedlbur
dicit clock.The clock which is describedhere is a
lfhour type which is poweredfrom a 50Hz supply.
However,it is an easymatter to modify the circuit
for 24 hour and/or 60Hz operation,and detailso1'
thesemodificationswill be nrovided. The i.c. is
Iisted by some'suppliers,sr.ichas Maplin ElecSunnlles,as AY-5-1224without the suffix
lflic
It should perhapsbe explained that although
this projectis relativelyeasyto constructin comparisonwith other clock designs,it is not really
suitablefor the beginner or near-beginnerand
someexperience
of etchingprinted circuit boards
ls necessarv.
An articiein the followineissuewill describean
add-on facility which cauies the display to be
automaticallydimmed under very dark lighting
conditions.This reducesglare and is particularly
usefulif the clock is installedin a bedroom.
O P E R A T I N GP R I N C I P L E
T h e g r e a t l ls i m p l i f i e db l o c kd i a g r a mo 1F i g . I i l I u s t r a t e st h e w a v i n w h i c h a c l o c ko f t h i s n a t u r e
operates.The tiining controlsignalis providedby
the 50Hz mains supply which is normally accuratelymaintainedat its nominal frequency.The
;st
I

accuracv obtained from the present clock desiS'n

certainlvseemsto be better than that providedb5'
n
. step-dou
m o s tm e c h a n i c asly n c h r o n o ucsl o c k s A
transformer reducesthe mains voltagettr a level
that is suitable to drive the clock circuit input.
This transformetis also used in the power supply
sectionand it providesisolation from the mains
suppry.
the clock input,.it.s
, A schmitt triggerappars_at
function beins to provide a 50Hz waveformwhich
has fast leadi"ngaird trailing edges.The very slow
r i s ea n d f a l l t i m e o f t h e m a i n si n p u t i s n o t s ui t a b l e
f o r d i r e c t l yd r i v i n gl o g i cc i r c u i t r y .a s m a l f u n c l i o n s
can occuras the waveformchangesslowly from one
losic atateto the other. The Schmitt triggerincor
p o r a t e sh v s t e r e s i sw, h i c h m e r e l y m e a n sl h a t l h e
input voltageat which the outpul goesto logic I is
h i i h e r t h a n t h a t w h i c hc a u s e st h e o u t p u l l o r e t u r n
t o t h e l o c i c0 s t a t e .T h i s h e l p st h e S c h m i t tt r i g g e r
to operati reliably from the slowly changinginput
waviform and it also reducesthe risk ol spurious
triggeringdue to mains noisespikes.rViewingthe
m a i n sw a v e f o r mo n a n o s c i l ) o s c o puei l l s h o wt h a l
it can be far from a Derfectsinewave.)
T h e o u t D u t o f t h e - S c h m i t tt r i s s e r i s f e d t o a
d i v i d e - b v - 5 0d0i v i d e rc h a i n ,c a u s i n gt h e 5 0 H z i n put to b; reducedto one cycle per minute A lwr,i l i s i t c o u n t e ri s f e d f r o m t h e d i v i d e rc h a i no u t p u t .
but this is not an ordinary 0 to 99 counter.It is
d e s i s n e tdo a u t o m a t i c a l lrve s e ti t s e l ft o z e r r , , , nl h e
folloiwinginput pulsewhen a counl of 59 has been

5al hz

Fig. , . Simplified block diag@m illustrating the

stages which allow tho sOH. mdins suPPly to
control the minutes and hours displaY of a
digital clock
l . t A t ) t oA N I ) I . ) , ! x " t ' R o N t (s ( ' o \ s ' f R l ( 1 0

I.C.DIGITAL
* Readily available components
* Attractive design

Fig. 2. Demonstrating th. multiplexing technique. fhe electtonic switches to ou@uts |, 2, 3

and 4 close in ordeL driven by an internel oscillator in th6 i.c.

reached.and it thereforeorovidesthe minutesdisp l a y . W i t h a 6 0 H z m a i n s s u p p l yt h e c i r c u i t a s s o

iar'described functions in a'riiriilar manner. but
t h e f i r s t d i v i d e rc h a i n m u s t d i v i d eb v 3 6 0 r a t h e r
than by 300 in order to provide an output at one
cycle per mlnute.
The output from the first divider chain is also
appliedto a seconddivider chain,and this time the
d i v i s i o ni s b y 6 0 .T h u s ,a n o u t p u tp u l s ei s p r o d u c e d a t i n t e r v a l so f o n eh o u r ,a n d t h i s s i g n a li s u s e d
to feed the two-digit hours counter and display.
The signal can also be employedto provide the
automaticresetto zeroafter 12 for a 12 hour clock.
or after 2,1for a 2.1hour clock. Aeain.this is not a
r ' " n v e n t i o n at )l t , r 9 9 c u u n t e rc i r ( u i t .

* Simple circuit

quence, a system known as multiplexing is

employed to enable the display to be driven from
just ll i.c. outputs. Apart from reducing the
n u m b e r o f p i n s t h a t t h e i . c . n e e d st o h a v e ,m u l ,
tiplexing also has the advantaseof reducins the
n u m b e i o f l e a d sw h i c h a r e r e q- i i r e d t o c o u p l i t h e
clock circuitrv to the disolav.
Fig. 2 illustratesthe wav in which multiolexine
funciionswith four commoncathodedisolivs. A
the A segmentsin each display are ion;ected
together,as are all the B. C, D, E, F and G
segments,so that, howevermany digits there are,
there are iust seven inputs plus the common
cathodes.Fbr the sakeof simpliiity. only the A segmenl wrnng ls snown ln I ts. Z. I he common
cathodesare not simply conn-"ected
direct to the
negativesupply rail: insteadthey.areconnectedto
lhe negativesupply rail via switchingcircuitry inside the i.c. or, to be more precise,via discrete
switching transistors which ari controlled by outouts of the i.c.
In this example we will assume that the A
segmentsof displays 1 and 3 are to be switched on,
and that thoseof displays2 and 4 are to be turned
off. An internal oscillatorof the clock will in turn
closethe switches at outputs 1 to 4, so that as one
switchis closedthe previ6usoneis opened.The circuit continually cycles in this minner at high
sgeed,with the switcheseach being closedfor an
roentrcarlenctn ol trme.

M U L T I PL E X I NG
The clock circuitrv drives four commoncathode
l.e.dd
. i s p l a y sC
, l o c l ii . c . ' sa r e s o m e t i m eds e s i g n e d
t o p r o v i d ea n i n d i v i d u a lo u t p u tt e r m i n a lt o r e a ( h
displal.
but this would nor be possible
- T hsegm_ent.
e
here.
A Y - 5 - 1 2 2 4 Ah a so n l y I 6 p i n s .a n d t h e r e
are 23 anodesto be driven (5 s'egmtints
ol the letlhand hours display are unusedas this
displav is
'l
ertherbiank or indicatesthe number ). In'conse.ltr\ll l9?rl

On the
buftons

reer panel ar6 mounted the pushwhich provide aaro raset, minute
chango and how chenge

In^order to light up the segmentsof disqlays I

ano J, rt ls merelvnecessarvto closethe swltch at
the A output eachtime the iwitch at either the I or
the 3 outpu,t is closed. Obviously the two A
segments
-will not,be poweredcontinuously,but
they will be pulsedon and off at a rate conirolled
by rhe cycling oscillator.This runs at a relarively
hlgh lrequency.whereuponpersistenceof vision
causesthe segmentsto appearto be continuallvlit
up. The other segmentsbf each display cari be
similarly .illuminat-ed.the appropriite' segment
swltch belng closedat the same time as is the
switch couplingto the display common cathode.
THECIRCUIT
_ The circuit diagramof the digital clock appears
in Fig, 3, and foi the sake of ilaritv the diinlav
section is shown in a simplified foim with one
block representingthe four dlsplays.The full dis
p l a v c r r c u l tr s r l l u s t r a l e di n F i e . 4 .
W i t h r e f e r e n c teo F i g . 3 , T 1 - i s t h e m a i n s s t e D down transformerand ii feedsa full-waverectifier.
C 1 provides.
smoothingof the d.c.output of the rectifier, and this very simple powerslrbply provides
more tnan adequ.ate.
pertormancelor the present

lf?T"::iil

----

I heroaded
outputvoLtase
isaboutl6

The 50Hz input signalfor the clock is appliedto

pin 4 of the i.c., and it is derivedfrom onewindine
of T1 via a simple RC low passfilter incorooratine
R1 and C3. The purposeofthe filter is to aitenuatE
noisespikesand so reducethe possibilityof these
causingspuriousoperationof the input circuitry.
and
. C2 is part ofthe multiplex cyclingos_cil)aror.
rts value determinesthe liequency of oscillation.
TR1 to TR4 are used as thb multiplex switches
between the -display-catlodes and-rhe negative
supply rail. Theyare fed from the appropriareourputs of the i.c. via current limitine risisiors R2 t"
R5.
Similar discrete transistor sesment drive
switchesare often employedat the segmentoutputs of the clock i.c., as the seementdr-ivecurrent
is limited bv the maximum permissibledissination
of the i.c. The AY-5-1224Aian, however,drive r he
segmentsdirectly, this beingdone from the ourprrl
plns concerneovta culrent ltmltlns reslstorsR6 to
R12. The display section incorpolalesfour hieh
brightnessred Le.d.displaystype DL704 with the
resultthat, eventhougha comparativelysmall seg.
ment currentis employed,fully satisfactoryresulrs
are obtqined.The DL70a displaysare. inaidenralIy, availablefrom severalsupplilrs includingAm.
Dlt lnternauonat.

:.
la-

T R rBCrOS

1 Fcu
<

A I

F
O2
rN4(].'

IC
aY 5 - 1224A

2 : 6 r o r 5 t 4 3 2 t l

T
I
I

t lG

FoLI

d I t .ohmon

C o t h o a cL E D d r s p r . y
F

Roi

BaroE

sr ,l
D3
rN4t48

The circuit of tho singlo i,c, dlgit l clock, Fot otse ol presontation the four DL7O4 displays arc
shown ts a singla display block
RADIO A\D ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

oL7A4
2

aLm4
8

2 t 6 7 8 t 3 t 4

J 8

3 ) 4

Fig. 4. Detailed circuit illustrating the connections to the DLTM disptays. The display pin numbers corraspond with the approp ate segments lrom A to G

Semitttndu,c
htrs
IC1 AY-5-1224A
T
RI ltc108
.I'R2
BC I 08
T R i l B C1 0 8
TRl BCr108
I)1 l N1001
I)2 l -\r.1001
l)3 1\11.18
I)1 IN,1148

,?cslrlr,,rs
(All i watt 5'rl)
Rl 150k0
R2 8.2kn
R3 8.2kn
R4 8.2ko
Rb 8.2ko
R6 2.2ko
R't 2.2ko
R8 2.2ko
R9 2.2ko
R102.2ko
R1l 2.2ko
Rr2 2.2ko

,Srlilches
S l p r r s h - b u t t o np,r e s st o m a k e
5 2 p r r s h , b u t t o np.r e s stq make
S l ) l t l r s h - b u t t o np,r e s sto make
I)isp1ovs
. 1 - o f fI ) 1 , 7 0 , 1

('apacitrtrs
( ' l 1 . 0 ( X ) l le, 'l e c t r o l v t i c2, 5 V W k g .
C2 680pF ceramic nlate
C3 0.0d68tF polyst'yrene

Miscellaneous
-Mini-Bec"

Transfrtrmt,r
T1 miniature mains transformer,secondaries
0l 2 V ' 2 5 0 m A ,0 - 1 2 V2 5 0 m A ( s e er e x r )

\
a,

',.

Most of tho componanta ara

.starnbted on t printcd clrcuit bo.rd which is moootod
on tho boatom of th. craa

t
a

case,7 x 5 x ilin, (seetext)

Printed board materials
I ) i s p l a v f i l t e r ( s e et e x t )
L C . h r , l d e r ,1 6 p i n d . i . l .
i l - c o r em a i n s l e a d
W i r e . s o l d e r ,e t c .

7fu vttlng Li dr. g.ah,4.t,tut ,r/altd'et on th. tqr

panat

,|;

Fig. 5. Component and copper sidos of thc main printod boad. fhe lettar and figure references cortes'
pond with the sDme references in Fig. 6
I]AI)I() ANI) I.]I,ECI'RONICSCONSTRI]CTOR

It is necessarvto incorporatesomemeansol seltins the clock to the coriect time, of course.and

cloiine Sl causesthe hoursto advanceat a rate of
one nir second.Closine52 causesthe minutes to
advanceat a rate of oni Dersecondand the hours
counter to advance at-or\e hour per minute.
Depressing53 sets the counters to zero and.
althoueh lhis is not an essentialfeature, il can
oftenbe usefuland savetime when readjustingthe
clock.
CONSTRUCTION
"Mini'
T h e D r o t o t v p ec l o c ki s b u i l t i n a D . l . Y .
Bec" cdsehavineoutsidedimensionsof abouti by
5 bv 3in. This ian be obtainedfrom H M. Electroriics,2?5a Fulwood Road, Sheffield,S10 3BD.
The casehas woodenend cheeks,an aluminium
chassis and front panel, and a steel lid with
simulated black leatherclain finish. The end
cheekswerefinishedwith a satin type varnish.but
any other finish mav be applied.
T h e s e n e r a l a v o u ti s v e r v s i m p l ea n d s t r a i s h t forward, as can 6e seenfroh thd photographJ.A
rectangular aperture measuring about 53 by
17mm. is made at the centreof the front panel fbr
the readoutdisplay, and this can be cut out with
either a fretsawor a miniature round file. It is advisableto use someform of display filter in order to
provide the unit with a neat fi;ish and to improve
ihe clarity of the display.A pieceof red Perspexis
emnlovedin the proiotipe,6ut anv filter intinded
for'usdwith a red displiy shouldb-esatisfactory.A
suitable filter is available, for instance, from
Maplin ElectronicSuppies,The filter is glued in
plaie behind the aperfurewith a goodgeneralpurnose
adhesive.
A hole for the 3-core mains lead is drilled
towardsthe right-handside (asseenfrom the rear)
of the caseback, and this holemust be fitted with a
srommet. The three push-butron switches are
i.rountedin a horizontil row betweenthe centre
and the left-hand side of the back, with S1 closest
to the mains lead hole,52 in the middle and S3 at
the left. The mains lead should be securedinside
the casewith a suitableclamp.

ztiti

?78"

-l

Fig. 6. The coppe. side of the display bo.r.l'

Connections shown here es lines are, in practice, nar.ow copper ttucks. Like Fig. 5, this is
reprcduced full si.o for ttucing

The board desims are fairlv complex,and an

etchingpen havini a fine nib (srlchas ihe DECONDALO 33 tvne) is reallv necessarvwhen construcrins these.Uirinethe m6thodsdesiribedin the article-"ProducinsPrinted Circuit Boards" (Radio &
ElectronicsConstructor,March 1977)it is not too
difficult to comDlete both boards. Mains
transformerT1 is mounted on the rnain board by
meansof two 4BA bolts and nuts. The bolt heads
are below the board. The transformer must be a
sood cualitv tvDe as it will be left running in6efinit'ely,and'sbmecheap types will overheatif
usedin this manner.The maximum supplycurrent
is about 100mA and so a componenthaving a
secondaryrating of 250mA, as is specifiedin the
ComponentsLisi, will be run well wilhin its ratings
and will providetrouble-freeoperationprovidedit
is of reasbnablequalitv. Suita6letransformerscan
be obtained fror; Maplin Electronic Suppliesor
Doram Electronics.In the caseof the component
suooliedbv the latter. there mav be two 115 volt
PRINTEDBOARDS
oririrarv windingswhich must be seriesconnected
Apart from lhe three switches.the remaining ior use on the normal U.K. mains supply. Both
v i n d i n e sw h i c h
t v D e sh a v et w o 1 2 v o l t s e c o n d a r w
comDonents
aie all mountedon two printed circuit
b o a r d sO
. n ec o n t q i n st h e m a i n c i r c u i t r yw h i l s tt h e mustbe seriesconnecledto p;oviilewhat is then,in
effect, a 12-0-12volt winding. Secondaryconnecotheris for the diiolav section.Detailsof the main
boardare shownin Fig. 5. and the displayboard is tions are as indicated in Fig. 3.
Fig. 6 showsthe coppersideof the display printed
i l l u s t r a t e di n F i g . 6 .B o t hd i a g r a m sa r e r e p r o d u c e d
boar"d.this beinethe'sidewhich will laie ih'emain
actual size so tfrat thev can !e easilv cofied.

rho conn@tions h aha dirptry prtntcd

Tto
bo..d.
coppar ida of thlt bo.rd ls
aowards tIr. lntld. ol tt c
oaaa

.iL,\E r9i8

593

photaCftph lthtt a6 the .lumlntu n

Thh_
bttc*at oD whlch tha d&W borrd tE fiouat d

p r i n t e db o a r d w h e n r h e d i s p l a yi s f i u e d i n p l a c e . passed.over.
the mounting bolts to hold
board
I he drsplay.lead-outspassthrough the holesand u n o e r s l d ec l e a ro t t h e m e t a lc a s eb o t t o mthe
.T h e b o l t
are then soldered to the corresponding..copper headsare, ot course,on the Inderside
of the case.
a,reas.
The.only.ho.leswhich needto be dn ed are
l ne spactngwasherat the hole near transformer
rnoseror the dlsllay lead-outsand the two 6BA
I t must be a m,etaI type as it takesthe mainsearth
m o u n t r n gb o l t s .' l h e . r e m a i n i nbgl a c k p o i n t si n r h e connectro_n
to the metal chassis.Before the main
olagTammerely lndrcateconnectingpoints which o o a r dt s l l n a l l y m o u n t e dh. o w e v e r ,
l h e m a i n se a r t h
are made on the copper side of the board. Inter_ wrre and-insulated.flexible leads about
l00mm.
connectlonsbetweensegmentlead_outsand to the longare solderdto lt. the latter at
the pointswhich
segment connectingpoinls are shown as single c o n n e c t 1 9 .t h e d i s p l a y b o a r d a n d
the
t l n e s :l n . p r a c t t c et h e y c o n s i s to f n a r r o w c o p p e r swrtches.I hen. when the main board hast h r e e
been
tracks a llttle lessthan 0.05in.widemounled the .wiring can be compleled. the lnThe display board is mounted on an L-shaoed surareo-teadsbelng cut to length as required and
live and neutial wiresof
mourrting bracket which is constructedfrom'1g solderedinto position.-The
s.w.g-aluminium
T .h i s r a i s e st h e l o w e re d s eo f t h e rne malns lead can also be connected.
It will be evident from what has alreadv been
b o a r d a b o u t - 6 - m m(.o r a s i s r e q u i r e d )a S o v et h e
basepanel of the casein order to brine rhe disolav statedthat the leadswhich connectto the riisoiav
board are not solderedto this in the usual fasiiori.
into alignmentwith thedisplay winaori.St orr 6Ei
Dottswlth nuts are usedto securethe board to the They are soldered direct to the copper side of ihe
p a n e l ,r a t h e r i n t h e s a m ew a v a s i 6 n n e c t i o n sa r e
bracket, and the bracket to the case.
made to a "Blob Board"The- main printed circuit board is mounted
The unit is then complete and is ready for
towardsthe rear of the caseby meansof rhree684
Iesnng..I he malns wtring is accessiblebefore the
b o l t sa n d n u t s .S p a c i n gw a s h e r a
s b o u tj i n . l o n ga r e caselld rs securedin position, snd so the
usual

Ddtailed vLrY df tlw tnmponent side ol tha maln

pit tod Eirvuic b.rd

RAI)I0 ANI) ELEC'I'RONICSCONSl'RLICTOR

precautionsagainstshockmust be observed.Apart
irom correctly setting the time using the pishbuttons mounted on the rear panel, the finished
clock requires no further adjustment.
6OHz/24HOUR OPERATION
In areasof the world wherethe mains freouencv
is 60Hz it is still nossibleto use thc clock'as thi
necessarycircuitry is incorporatedin the i.c. It is
merelv necessarvto add a 1N4I48 diode betgeen
nins 6 and t2 oi the i.c. as shownin the skeleton

circuit diagramof Fig. 7. In practice,probablythe

easiestwav of carrvineout this modificationwould
be to simily soldir tJreadditional diode in position on the undersideof the printed board. Care
must be taken to ensurethat no accidentalshortcircuits can result.
If a 24 hour versionof the clockis preferred,this
can be accomplishedby adding a iNataS diode
betweenoins 6 and 13 of the i.c. This modification
is alsoshbwnin Fig. ?. Again,in practicethe diode
can be solderedinto positionon the undersideof
the nrinted board.

ICr
A Y- 5 t 2 2 4 4

d".,

do.,

dos,
tN4t48

Fig. 7. An additional

diode is connected to the circuit if it is desircd

with a 6OHz fiains
clock is to function

to have 24 hour operction,

supply

or if the

I . C .H A N D L I N G
The AY-5-1224Ai.c. is a PMOS type and can
therefore be damaged by static charges.It should
be suooliedin some form of Drotectivepackagins
such as conductive foam, aird it shou'ldnoi bi
removedfrom this packaginguntilit is time to connect the deviceinto circuit after all wiring hasbeen
completed.As indicatedin Fig. 5. an i.c. socketis
recommended,
and it is essentialto ensurethat the
i.c. is pluggedinto this the right way round. Do not
h a n d l et h e i . c . m o r et h a n i s a b s o l u t e l yn e c e s s a r ] .
B R I G H T E RD I S P L A Y
The brightnessof the displayshouldbe salisfactory for most requirements.although under very
bright ambient lighting conditions slightly inriill improvelegibilily:This
creisingthe brightniess
can be achievedby reducing the values of the
current limiting resitors,R6 to R12. Theseshould
all have the same value, and it is recommended
that thev shouldnot be lessthan 1.8kn. With these
resistorsat the specifiedvalueof 2.2ko, or reduced
to 1.8ko, the i.c. will run warm but it should not
becomehot to the touch.
A rectangular apefturc on tho front panal ot tho
fot the
electrcnic
clock provides
a window
digitel reddout

AUTOMATIC CONTROL
A modificationwhich automaticallvreducesthe
h r i g h t n e sosf t h e d i s p l a yu n d e rd a r k a m b i e n tc o n ditions will be describedin next month's issue.

t
Jt \Fl l9?8

595

NEWS
P U B L I CV I E W D A T A S E R V I C E-

AND
G.P.O.'s 'WORLD FtRST,

a q u a r t e ro l a m i l l i o n ' p a g e so' l i n l r - ] r m ai or n .
O n eo f V i e w d a t a ' cs h i ef a t tr a c ri o n si s t h a r i t u i l l
make availablevirtually limitlessinlbrmation on a
hugerangeof subjects from stockmarket prices
to sportsresultsand from householdhints to lravel
timetables.The informationcan be calledun at the
t o u c ho f a b u t t o na n d d i s p l a y e di n w o r d so i s i m p l e
olagramson tne I v screen.
Consumerguidancewill be available from the
Consumers'Associationand the Denartment of
P r i c e sa n d C o n s u m eP
r r o t e c l i o nT. h e r ew i l l b e r ai l
and air travel information, tourist information,
careersguidance,job vacanciesand educational
oDDOnUnlnes.
Barclaycardand Accessare also raking part so
r h a t . i tw i l l e v e n t u a l l yb e p o s s i b l et o o r d e r - g o o dosr
servrces,or reserverail or air seatsand nav fbr
A massivee23mhasbeenearmarkedbv the Post them by credit card - all throush Viewdatdl
O f f i c et o e s t a b l i s thh ew o r l d ' sf i r s t p u b l i cV i e w d a r a
T o u s eV i e w d a t ap, e o p l ea t h o m ew i l l n e e dr u b e
service- enablingpeopleto call up infbrmation on the phone.and f-obuy or rent a colour TV set
orer lheir lelephoneline and have it displayedon t h a t h a s b e e ns p e c i a l l vm o d i f i e dt o r e c e i v eV i e utnerr lelevrslonsets.
d a t a .T h e T V r e c e i v e rw
i o u l d ,i n g e n e r a lb, e o t r h e
The public
servicewill start early in 1979,a year more advancedtype, with such fiatures as remote
-l
picture, volume, and channel control. Thev are
sooner han oricinallv envisased.
Up to r5m wJll be-spent
irimediatelv to ser uD s u p p l i e dw i t h t h e p u s h - b u t t o nu n i t s t h a t a r e u s e d
ten Viewdata centres, located in London and ar to obtain Viewdata information and thev would
least two other cities. A further e18m has been also enableusersto receiveteletext.the bioadcast
m a d e a v a i l a b l e t o e x t e n d a n d d e v e l o o t h i s i n f o r m a t i o n s e r v i c e so p e r a t e d h y r h e B r i r i s h
r e v o l u t i o n a r sy e r v i c ed u r i n g 1 9 7 9 .
Broadcasting
C o r p o r a t i o na n d r h e I n d e p e n d e n r
Plans now beingdrawn up are for Viewdatacen- BroadcastingAutliority.
tres in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, - For businessusers,desk-topTV sets are being
Leeds,Manchesterand Norwich.
dev-eloped
for Viewdata. Theie may be in blac[
Viewdata- inventedbv the British Post Ollice a n d w h i t e o r c o l o u r . W h e n e c j u i p p e d w i t h
- i s t h e p a c e - s e t t i ncgo m m u n i c a t i osny s r e ml i n k - typewriter-likekeyboards,they wotild, within the
i n g t h e p h o n et o t h e T V s e t .I t e n a b l e .pse o p l er o next two years, allow users to send or receive
call up informationstoredin a computeranil dis- m e s s a g eass w e l l a s d i s p l a vV i e u d a t ai n l o r m a t i u n .
pla1,it in words and simple diagramson their TV
T h e r ei s a n a n n u a lf e en f r 2 l 0 t o p r o ri d e i n l o r screens.
m a t i o n f o r V i e w d a t ap
. l u s a s t o r a g e( h a r g eo l t l
Almost limitless information can be made per pagea year. In addition, the specialtirminal
available, on'a wealth of subjects ranging lrom usedto put informationinto Viewdatacostsf400 a
sportsresultsto stock market piices,and-Ir6mup- year to rent from the Post Office.
to-the-minutenewsto welfareservices.At the start
It will be interestingto seehow soon the viewof public service,the systemwill havea capacityof data servicebecomesiommonuace.

HOTELS ()UIZZED ON ELECTRONIC N E E D S

H o t e l m a n a g e r st h r o u g h o u rB r i t a i n a r e b e i n e to some2,000hotelshaving more than bC rooms.
a s k e dt h e i r v i e w so n t h e f u t u r e n e e d so f t h e i n The questionnairedealswith suchelectronicserd u s t r yf o r t h e m a n y f o r m so f e l e c t r o n i e
c q u i p m e n t v i c e sa s : r o o m s t a t u s :m o r n i n gc a l l a n d m e s s a g e
n o w b e c o m i n gi n c r e a s i n g l ya v a i l a b l eo n t h e w a l t r n gs e r v t c e st h: e p r o v i s i o no f e n l e r t a i n m e ni tn marKei.
c l u d r n gt e l e v i s i o n" ,i n h o u s e "m u v i e sp, a y - T V ,a n d
This initiative is beins taken bv British Relav
hackground
m u s i c :t h e V i e w d a t aa n d - T e l e t e xi n
t_
(Electronics)Ltd which is concern'ed
at the ureent t o r m a t i o ns - e r v i c e st h: e e l e c t r o n i cr o o m b a r ; a n d
needto plan for the future in the faceol the ripid
cont'erence
facilitiesand simultaneoustranslation.
advancesnow being made in the field of elec.
T h e c o m p a n yw i l l m a k e t h e c o n s o l i d a r efdi n .
tronlcs.
dlngsof the questionnaireavailableto the hotel inThe companyis mailing a detailedquestionnaire oustry.
596

t-.

RA])I0 ANI) t'LECTR0NICS CONS'I'RI]CTOR

COMMENT
RCA INTRODUCE LOW-COST COMPUTER KIT
A n e w l o w - c o s td o - i t - y o u r s e l fc o m p u l e r - k i t . -t h e
C O S M A C V I P ( V i d e o l n l e r f a c eP r o c e s s o rh) a s b e e n
Iaunchedbv RCA Solid State - Europe, Sunburv-on
Thames,Mlddlesex.The new system.designedlo interface with a cathode-ray display or, via a suilable
modulator,with a TV receiver,allowsthe userto assemble a completemicrocomputerfor creatingand.playing
videogames.generstingcomputergraphlcsand develupcontrol tuncllons.
ing
microprocessor
"the
VtP offers a complete computer syslem on a
printed-circuit card, with .a powerlul, -unclullered
operating system using, only 4k tllts ol read'only
nie-nryl Programscan-be generatedand str-'redin an
audio cassettetape recorderfor easy retrievaland use.
T h e h e a r t o f t h e V I P i s R C A ' s C O S M A CC D P I s u 2
g - M O S c i r c u i t r yl b r l " w
m i c r o o r o c e s s oi n
r .c o r p o r a t i n C
architeclurefor ea.e"l
8-bil
and
an
ooweiconsumolion
aDDlrcatlon.

G E O S T A T I O N A R YS A T E L L I T EA S S I S T S I N S T E M M I N G
CONTRABANDDRUGS
General Electronic Company of the U.S.A.'s*
researchers have demonstrated that space
t e c h n o l o gcyo u l da s s i s tn a r c o t i c sa n d i m m i g r a t i o n
agentsin stemmingthe llow ol contrab.anddrugs
a n d i l l e e a la l i e n sa c r o s sr e m o t es t r e l c h e so l t h e
U.S.A.'sborders.
In field tests rangingacrossthe U.S.. GETUSAt
c o m m u n i c a t i o nesx i e r t sh a v ed e m o n s t r a t etdh a t a
s e o s t a t i o n a sr vo a c es a t e l l i t eo, r b i t i n ga t a n a l l i l u d e
a fixed spoton the earth'ssurmi-les'over
6t zS,OOO
field
agentsin constant mobile
keep
face,'could
radio contact with a base station - even lrom
isolated^now,
ooints thousandsof miles apart.
conventional mobile radio comUntil
'have
been Iimited to line-o1-sight
munications

transmissions between sender ancl receiver, a distance of usuallv no more than 30 nriles. And il the
terrain is mountainous -- as it is, for exampJe,
a l o n s l o n' g r e a c h e so I t h e I , 6 0 l ]m i l e U . S . - M e x i r r r
the messagemay be blocked.
bord"er
H o w e v e r . s i n c e a g e o s t a t i u n a 1 5s p a t e i a t e l l i t e
staysfixed in the sky..it is in.line,,l sightrvrlh
a b o u r 4 3 p e r c e n l u f l h e e a r l h s s u r l a c e .E r t n
t h o u e h t h e s a t e l l i t ei s t h o u s a n d so l m i l e s a w a 1 . i t
c a n l e d e s i g n e dt o p i { k r r p l i r " r e l a t i 'e l 1 * e a k
sisnal from an agent'i mobile radi', rran:.rIli er.
a i p l i f v t h e s i g n a ' i ,a n d r e l a 5 i t b a c k l o c a r r h .
'' riincrql
'' rr',t
I " . l t t r t t t ) n t p q n \ , ' ft l t , l \ l
t t t n n e c t e d u ' i t h t h e E n g l i s h ( ( ) t t t p Q t l \t t l a s i n t i l u r
narr(.

TEACHING THE TEACHERS

As a magazine for the home electronics enthusiast we
feel that t"he4ews we give of the wider field of eler'ironics, as g
- ei vnitnh ui ns i tahset f o r e g o i n g n e w s i t e m s , e n a b l e t h e
to see his hobby in an excittng
e l e c tr o n i c s
wider context.
The gap between home electronics projects and the
sonhisticaied projects used by governmenls and com'
o"g""isations is largeiy-bridged bv teachers of
.i""iti
e l e c t r o n i c s ,a n d a l l i e d s u b j e c t s .
W e a r e t h e r e f o r e p l e a s e dt o g i v e d e t a i l s o f l h e . a n n u - a l
electronics summer ichool for teachers to be held al the
U n i v e r s i t y o f E s s e x d u r i n g t h e w e e k 1 O - 1 4J u l y '
T h i s v e i r . a s w e l l a s r u n n i n g t w o e s t a b l i s h e dc o u r s ( ' s
i n l i n e a i c i r c u i t d e s i g n a n d d i g i t a l c i r c u i t d e s i g n , a .l h i r ( l
course in Electronics Systems is being introduced' lhe
n e w c o u r s e i s c l o s e l y r e l a t e d t o t h e A t t t t s l e c t r o n (r 'cl 's
te"et: ttr6 objective being to cover some
S;;t.;;lAj
the more difficult material on the AEB syllabus as u elas discussin
gthhoe t e a c h i n g a s p e c t so f t h e ' A ' l e v e l '
-w
require further information on the
Teachers
summer school should contact R. J. Mack at the DepartElectrical Engineering Science, University of
.;;t.i
Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester.

"l

ve head

of baftery hens but this

is ridiculousl"

CIRCUIT
SUGGESTED

tOW CURRENT
TIMINGCIRGUIT
By G. A. French

Some electronictiming circuits

are battery operatedand are intendedto giverelativelylongtiming
delavs.
'an sav from severalminutesto
half
h6ur. Typi.calapplications
are $ven by eggtl mers..remlnoer
tlmers and guard clrcutts, wnlcn
causean alarh to be givenif a timinq circuit is not manually reset
wilhin a givenperiodof time. Such
timing circuits can lunction quite
reliablv bv taking advantageof the
chargingoi a capacitor,and with
modernelectrolyticcapacitorssuro r i s i n s l vl o n s t i m i n g p e r i o d sa r e
i e a s i b JF
e .o r i x a m p l e ,t h e t i m e c o n stant of a 4.?00r.rFelectrolYtic
capacitorand a 4?0kOresistoris of
thi nrder of 2,400 seconds,or 40
minutes.
Whilst in most conventional
llatterv timins svstems it is in'
evitabiethat ai appreciablecurrent
mLlst flow from the batterY when
the timins period is at an end
because
soinesort of indicatoris activated, it is obviously desirable
that the current drawn from the
battery should be very low during
t h e t i r n i n gp r i o di t s e l f . . I ft h e t i m l n g s v s t e mr s m l n l a t u l l s e oa n o I s
s u p p i i e d ,s a y , b y a P P 3 9 v o l t
h a t t e r ve, v e nc u r r e n t sa s I o wa sh a l i
if
a milliamDor sobecomeexcessive
lonsand reliablebatterylife is to be
given.The ubiquitous555 i.c. does
not satisfy this current requirement, since it has a typical quiesof 6mA
c e n t c u r r e n tc o n s u m p t i o n
et a supplv voltaseof 9 volts.
T h i s i r l i c l e d i s c r i b e sa t i m i n g
circuit which is particularly
suitable for battery operated
sJstemsgivinglong timing periods,
the averagecurrent consumptron
during the period being about
0.lmA.

c M o s c t R c ut T
When considering low current
consumption circuits one tends to
turn to CMOS logic devices which,
:)9li

greater !ate. Thus the circuit

6peratesag a timinc device. the
funCtionof the rieht-handinverter
being to speedup the transitionof
the output voltagefrom low to high,
U n f o r t u n a t e l y , t h e cu r r e n t
drawn from the supply by the two
inverters incleases dramaticallv
when their input voltagesgo central
of the fully high and fully low
states.Fig.2. showstypical voltage
and current transfercharacte!istics
for a CMOS losic inverter with a 9
volt supply. Ai will be seen, the
current drawn bY the inverter increasesfrom a negligibly low level
to a maximum of about 2mA as the
input voltage approachesand
passes through a roughly central

Fig. l. A simple timing circuit incorporating two

CMOS inveners

voltage.

with their exceptionally high gate

input resistances,are particularly
attractive for timing applications.A
possible timing circuit is shown in
lig.1, in which there are two
CM0S logic inverters connectedin
taodem. The oositive supolv is
applredto tne vuu termlnal ome
i.c. in which the invertelsar inco!porated, and the negativesupply is
applied to the VSS terminal.
Before the start of a timing
period the switch acrosscapacitorC
keepsthe capacitor short-circuited,
so that it is in the dischargedcondition. The input of the left-handinverter is therefore low and its output is high. The output of the righthand inverter is in consequence
low. When the switch is thrown to
take the short-circuit off C, this
capacito! commencesto charge via
R. After a period,dependingupon
the values of C and R, the input
voltage to the left-hand inverter
reachestransitionleveland its output, amplified in the inverter, sta s
to changefrom the high to the lor*
state. When this outDut reachesthe
transition level for the input of the
right-hand inverter, the output of
the latter starts to go high at a

Fis. 3 illustrates the VDD

current characteristic to be expected from the timins circuit of
Fig. l when it has a g volt supply,
and this has been checked out bv
the author in practice.Point O oir
the horizontal time axis corresDondsto the instant when the
sholt-circuit is taken off the timine
capacitor and it becins to charse.
The current drawn trom the I v;lt
supplv bv the two invertersiB very
nehilv zeio until ooint A is reached.
The iurrent theri rises uD to point
B, with virtually all the cirrrerit being drawn by the left-handinverter.
At B the risht-hand inverter also
commencea1o draw current from
the 9 volt supply, culminating in
the Deak at point C where current
drai;r (bv tw; inverters now) is oI
the order of 4mA. The timine
period ends approximately at poini
C. after which the currentdrawn bv
the two inverters is of less relativ'e
imDortancesince current wiil also
be probably drawn by the timed indicatinedevice.
As cin be seenby inspection,the
a v e r a s ec u r r e n t d r a w n i n F i g . 3
betwein points O and B is ofthe
ord.er oi three-quarters of a
mlIlamp.

RADIO AND ELECTRON-ICSCONSTRUCTOR

Fig. 2. Typical supply cu ent and voltage transfer characteristics

for a CMOS invener opercting frcm a 9 vott supply

L O W C U R R E N TC I R C UI T
'f
he situation changes considerablv if rve add a silicon tran,
sistor and two resistors,as we do in
'l'he
Fig. 1.
2.?kO resistor and the
base-emitter junction of the transistor are now inserted in serieswith
the positive supply to the VDD ter
rninal for the inveters. with the
consequencethat the VDD current
llows through the 2.?kO. resisbr.
After taking the short-circuit o11
the capacitor this commences to
charge, as before. Similarlv as
D c I n r e ,I n e v t J l J c u r r e n t l l o w l n g
through the 2.7k0 resistor is initiallv low. causing onl1, a small
voltage to be dropped across it.

A positive regenerationloop i6 Bet

up in the circuit as soonas the transistnrcommencesto passa simificant collector currerit. Incre-asing
positive voltage at the input of the
left-hand inverter causes greater
currentflow in the baseof the transistor,whereuponthe consequently
increasedcollector current takes
the inverter input further Dositive
again.The addiiionofthe transistor
and its two resistorsconsiderably
increasesthe rate of changeof output from the right-handinverterat
the end of the timing period.Note
also that, even if the transistor
passesa high collectorcurrent,the
VDD voltagefor the inverters nevel
falls lowerthan about0.6 to 0.7 volt
helowthe supply voltagebecauseit
is held at this level by the forward
biasedbase-emitterjunction of the
transistor.
The circuit can be set up so that
the translstorturns on at any ar,
b i t r ar i l y c h o s e n v a l u e , w i t h i n
reason, of VD[) current. In the
author's circuit it was decided to
choosea VDD current of 0.25mA,

After a periodthe VDD current increasesin the mannershownin Fig.

i l a n d , w h e n i t a s c e n d st n a p r e d e t e r m i n e lde v e l t, h e v o l t a g ea c r o s s
the 2.7kh resistorreachesihe t'rrrnon base-emittervoltageof the tran,
sistor. A further ise in VDI)
current then results in increased
collectorcurrent in the transistor,
and the latter causesthe capacitor
to chargevery rapidly ria the
current limiting lk ft resistor.As a
result, both inverters go quickly
through their transition voltage
levels,and the capacitorcontinues
to chargerapidly until the current
passing through the 2.7O resistor
falls to a value at which the trensistor turns off again,
Fig.4. Adding a silicon trcnsistor to curtail the timing
period at a low level of VOD
cuffent

Fig. 3. Current drawn by tha circuit of Fig. t du ng and alter the

,ll'\l.l l{rir'l

at which the 2.7k O resistor gives a

calculated voltage drop of 0.67 volt.
Some further VDD current must
flow in the base-emitter junction of
the transistor if the latter is to pass
an adequate collector current and it
ivas found that, in practice, the circuit triggered at a VDD current ol
slightly less than 0.3mA.
The timing period ior a given
value oi C and R with the circuit of
Fig. 4 is about half of that given by
a c i r c u i t o f t h e t v D e s h o w ni n F i e . 1 .
This may represint a slight diiadvantage if it necessitates the use ol a
larger and consequently more expensive capacitor, but the saving in
expenditure on batteries should
soon counterbalance any initial inerease rn component costs.
r)99

t
;,1," --'l .rl:
BC2r4L

Fig. 5. A ptactical
working version of the timer with two inverters
ancl a transistor.
The length of the timing period is cont.olled
bv
the values ol Rt and Cl

W O R K I N GC I R C U I T
A working versionof the circuit
is givenin Fig.5. For convenience
the two invertersare NAND qates
with their inputs conneated
together. These have the same
transferand currentcharacteristics
which wereshownin Fig. 2 for the
inverters,and are part of an inexp e n s i v ei n t e g r a t e dc i r c u i t l v p e
Cl)4011.R3 is insertedbetweenthe
positive terminal of the timing
capacitoC
r , 1 ,a n d t h e i n p u t o f t h e
first inverter.This resistbrhas no
effecton circuitoperationand is included merely to limit forward
current in the inDut protection
diodesin the i,c. in-the 6vent o1 a
fault condition.The inputs of the
remainingtwo NAND gatesin the
Ul)4011 are taken to the negative
rail and no connections
are mide to
their outputs.
Powersupplyswitchingis carried
out by the 2-Dole 3-wav rotarv
s w i t c t rS 1 ( a ) ( b )l.n t h e ' O f f p o s i tion Sl(a) interruDts the 9 volt
supplywhilstS1(b);nsuresthat C1
is maintained discharged via
current limiting resistorR4. In the
"Standby" position,
S1(a) com,
oletes the 9 volt Dositivecircrrit
w h i l s tS l ( b ) k e e p sC l s t i l l d i s c h a r g ed. Cl is allowedto chargevia Rl
when 51(a)(b)is set to "Run". Us,
ing a 3-way switch in this manner
ensuresthat Cl is alwavsdischareed, or very nearly so, when the
power is disconnected from the
600

c D 4 0 l t b \ s w i r c h i n eS I { a ) ( b ) t o
"off'.
'l'he
current drawn from the 9
v o l t s u p p l y i s i l l u s l r a t e db v t h e
c u r v e o l F i g . 6 . C I c o m m e n ; e st o
c h a r g ea t p o i n t O o f t h e h o r i z o n t a l
t i m e a x i sa n d c o n t i n u etso d o s ou n t i l t h e c u r r e n ta c r o s sR 5 o f F i g . 5
rises to a little less than 0.3mA
T l r i s o c c u r sa l p o i n l E o f F i g .6 . A s
s o , ' na q l h e t r a n s i s l osr t a r t st o p a s s
e u l l e c t ocru r r e n l ,t h e c u r r e n ld r a w r r
l , \ ' t h e c i r c u i ti n r . r e a s er as p i d l vt o a
p e a ko f a l r o u t7 m A a t p o i n t F . T h i .
c r r r r e nrt ' ' r r r s i sl as r g e l yo f c h a r g i n g
r ' u r r e nitn t n ( ' I v i a R 2 . T h e c u r r e n L
falls and then rises again to the
peak at pr'int G. which-is.givenby
lne secondrnverterchanglngstate.
Aller point G rhe current falls
r a p i d l v a g a i n l o a l i t t l e I e s st h a r o : l m A a t -continues
p o i n tH . a n d t h e n i t v e r \ .
gradually
to fall as Ci
charBeslurther via RL The lene-rh
,,f the period betweennoints E a-nc
H dependson the valueofCl; when
this is l,000tF the length of the
periodis ofthe orderof 1 secondonly. The output from the secondinverter chansesstate at Doint G.
\\"rrkins Trnmthe curies of Frss.
ti:rnd 3. the averagecurrent drain
f r , ' m t h e9 v o l t s u p p l yu p t o p o i n t E
i s a p | r o x i r n a t e l y0 . l m A . T h i s c a n
be considereda satisfactoryvalue
for.a long-periodbattery oferated
utntng crrculL
Apart from R5, the resistorsin
F i g . 5 c a n a l l b e ] w a t t 1 0 % ;R 5
should be ] watt 5o.. The switch
m a v h e a , l - p o l e 3 - w a v t v D ew i t h
two of the polesunusedlThe values

Fig. 6. The circuit of Fig. 5 leaturcs tow VDD cuftent drcin exceot
,bt a shod period at the end ol the timing cycte
HAt) IO ANt) ELEC.fRONICS

CO^*S.|RUCTOR

" "

actoT

(b)
Fig,

7ld.

The output

ol the timer

can switch

on a load

with

the did

ol an extenal transistor
(b). fwo transistots are required for a heaw load cunent

of Rl and Cl will dependupon the

lensth of the timing p-eriodriquired
and on spreadin the characteristics
of the i.i. and the transistor,and
will need to be determined emoiricallv.Workins from resultswith
lhe or6totvpe circuit the timing
perioh wili be about two-fifths ol
ihe time con8tantof the8etwo comoonents,
'
At the end of the timing period
the outout of the secondinverter,at
oin s ol the C D4011.coeshich.The
currentcaDabilityherl is ratherIow
and it wifl be a-dvisableto switch
anv load. such as a warninc in.
didator.bv wav of an externaliransistor. A'circuit suitable for loaa
currentsup to about lOmA i8 given
in.Fig. 7lal. For higher load
currents, up to 50mA, it is
preferableto-add a secondtran.
iistor. emplovins the circuit given
in Fig. ?ib). A-gain,the resistors
may be + watt 1090type8.
!

NEW TOKOI,F. FILTERS

Ambit International, of 2 Gresham Road,
Brentwood, Essex, CM14 4HN announce the
availabilitv of a new ranse of Toko i.f. filters for
455 to 470kHz. There are two types in the new
series,a four sectionmicrominiatuieladder filter,
tvne LFY. and a two elementmechanicalfilter, the
CFUz. ftre LFY units are exceptionalfor their k-rw
cost,and the typical shapefactor of 6/60dB 2:1 for
two units in cascade.
T h e C F M 2 l v p e sa r e t h e s a m es i z ea s t h e w i d e l y
used CFS seriei t,f 10.7MHzf.m. reramic i.f.
filters, and can be obtained in a wide variety of
bandwidthsand centrefrequencies.They are particularlv well suited to replacethe usual capacitor
found in manv i.f. bandpassfilter designs,to imo r o v ei . f . s h a o ea n d t o s i m p l i f v i . l . a l i m m e n t .A s
i u i t h t h e L F V s e r i e st,h e s e ' f i l t i r sm a y b e d i r e c t l y
c a s c a d e da, n d c a n b e c o m b i n e di n i . f . d e s i g n st o
provide a variety of i.f. responsesfor all modes

Spoctrum analyEer taace

lust@ting the bandp.ss
two Toko LFY filters
cascdde

from n.f.b.m. to s.s.b.'

The LFY filters havea 6dB bandwidthof plus or
minus 3kHz, an insertion loss of 6dB maximum
a n d i n o u t a n d o u t p u t i m D e d a n c eosf 2 k o . T h e
a0dB bandwidthis nlus or itinus gkHz maximum.
One of the featuies of the CFM2 is its except i , r n a l l ys m a l l p h y s i c a l . s i z eT.h e .f i l t e r c o m p r i s e s
two ceramicresonatorelementswlth a mechanlcal
couplingin the form of a speciallydevelopedalloy.
Irrput imrredanceis 1k o and output impedanceis
t .5k o, Bbth the CFM2 and the LFY filters are 3terminal devices.
Ambit International also announce a new
cataloguetimed to coincidewith the expansionof
t h e i r ' s t o c k s o f t h e T o k o r a n g e so f ' c o i l s , i . f .
transformers.I unerheads,ceramii and mechanical
filters, and this will be provided free of chargeto
bona fide industrial users.
I

A. P. Foberts
Easy-to-buildunit gives stabilized outputs of 6, 7.5 and
9 volts
at currents up to l OomA.
A simple. mains operated power supply or
,
battery eliminator having d.c. outputs ot 6 volts,
/ . i v o l r sa n d 9 v o t t sa t c u r r e n t s u p t o a b o u t I 0 0 m A
can be.extremely useful when buildinq or servicine
smalt batt^ery powered equipment. and a unit ot
rnrs rype lorms the subject of this article. .lr ob_
vlates.the need lor a supply of batteries to be ma in _
larned ln the wo-rkshop.and with their relatjvelv
n r g n p n c e t h e s ed a y s t h e i n i t i a l c o s t o f r h e u n i t c a ;
soon De
_recovered in saved expenditure on
n a t t e n e s .t t i s a l s o p o s s i b l el o u s et h i e l i m i n a t o r a s
the. normal supply for small batterv operated
e.qurpment such as transistor radios. Heri asain
the.cot o-l the unit can be quickly recovered, es_
p e c l a l l y t t l h e e q u i p m e n t i s u s e d e x t e n s i r . e l va n d
rrequent oattery changes would otherwise be re_
q u r r e d . I h e e l i m i n a t o r d e s c r i b e dh e r e i s d e s i m e d
to be_used as an external unit, and so no mlaior
mpdltrcations.nee{to be made to the equipment
w h l c h r s s u p p l i e d .T h i s m a k e s i t a n e a s y m a i r e r l o
revert to ba r tery-operation if. at some firture time,
rne.portabllrtJ. allorded by independence from the
malns snould be leourred.

Fig.

Tlre output voltage,is well regulared and drops

,Dy onllr
about_tjumV between zeru output current
a n o r u l t l o a d . I h e o u t p u t i s a l s ov e r y w e l l s m o o t h _
e d _w
. r l h t h e n o i s eo n l h e o u r p u r b e i n g t , n l y a h o u l
u : D T y . a l l o w o u t p u t c u r r e n t s ,r i s i n g t o a h r , r r r2 m V
aI lu . load..Uutput current limiting is incor_
p o r a t e d -l n t h e c i r c u i t . w h i c h a l s o h a s r h e r m a l
o v e r l o a d p r o t e c t i o ni n i t s v o l t a g e r e g u i a t o r .

M O N O L I T H I CR E G U L A T O R S
. M a n y r e a d e r sw i l l b e a w a r e o f t h e a v a i l a b i l i t v o t
lntegrated circu-it monolithic voltage resulatorr.
and.rt ls one ot these devices which forms ihe basis
of this project. For fairly low curent urrpii""ilo""
s u c h , a s t h e p r e s e n t . o n e -t h e s m a l l e s - t ' t y p e sn l
r g u l a t o r . a r ea l m o s t i d e a l . T h e s e a r e 3 - t i i m i n a l
devrceswhtch a.re.containedin TOg2 style encap_
s u l a t l o n s - ., a n d l n a p p e a r a n c e t h e v a r e i n _
drstrngurshableliom TO92 transistors.
. Voltage regulators of this type are emploved in
t n e . m a n n e r s h o w n i n F i g . I { a . 1 .F o r a n b r m a l
posltlve type regulator the common terminal is
connectedto the negative supply rail, the un-

,(a).

A monoli.thic
voltage rcgulator
can employ
the circuit shown here. An unstabjlized
suppty
voltage is appried to the input and the fegutated
uohage ippears at the output
(bl rhe regurated output vottage
may be increased by insening a ziner aiiae n
series with the common

(c). rhe zenetdiode mavbe ,.r,'..iT13,"!liir,::;

602

;:I::iT,"

orrersa stabirizedvottase

which is
ctependent on the values of RA and RB
RAI)I0 ANI) !]I,!](]'fRONICS CO\S1'RI;C.I'OR

On the front ponel of the

ere
bdttery eliminator
mountad the two outqut
sockets, the voltega selecto, switch and tha mains onoff switch

resulatedsuonlv connectsto the input terminal,

A M P L I F I E DD I O D E
an? the outoiri tirminal suppliesthe iezulatedoutLow stabilized voltagesare usually obtained by
out. CaoacitorsCA and CB are needet to ensure
or a
means
of either forward biasedsilicon diodes
ihat the circuit has both good stability and tran"amplified
hieh eain silicon diode emplovedas an
slent resDonse.
di6de'',and the latter is tlie irethod which is used
Virtually all monolithic voltageregulatorshave
in the eliminator. The basic idea of an amplified
some form of output current limiting, and small
diode is shown in Fie. 1(c).
have
devicesof the tlrre snecifiedfor the eliminator
:onventionalcriireni limrtins at a nominal level of
1COmA.
Most devicesof thisirature alsohavethermal overloadprotection circuitry so that, if the diss i o a t i o n i n t h e d e v i c e b e c o h e s e x c e s s i v e ,a
teinperature sensing element reduces the output
current to a value which producesan acceptable
dissipationlevel. Thus. thi devicesare not-easily
damaeedin normal use.
Whin one considers the level of performance
Reslslors
(AIl I watt 5%)
and the facilities offered by these regulators, they
obviously provide very useful electronicbuilding
R1 4.7kn
R2 lko
blocks.Alsb,they are [uite modestlypriced.Theii
R3 1.8ko
one main drawbick when used in iihple circuits
R4 8.2ko
such as that of Fig. l{a) is that they are only
designedto provide a single output voltage.lhe
Capacitors
mosi co-mon voltagesbeing 5. i2 and 15"volts.
CL 470uF electrolytic,25V Wkg.
Nevertheless,
the devicescan be easilyadaptedto
producerezulatedoutput voltages
which
are
higher
C2 O.lpF type C280 (Mullard)
"primarily
designed.
ihan those"forwhich ihey are
Transformer
One simple theoretical wav of doins this is illustrated'inFig. 1(b). Here ir zenerdiode has been
T1 mains transformer, primary 240V, secondary 6-0-6V at 100mA.
connectedin serieswith the common terminal of
the device, and'it has the effect of raising the
Semiconductors
voltageat the comrnon terminal by a level equal to
TRl BClOgC
the zener voltage. The zener voltage appears
IC1 pA78L05WC
becausea small quiescentcurrent flows through
Dl-D4 1N4001
the rezulator. and'this provides the zener diode
with the necessaryoperritingcurrent. The output
voltaseof the renilat6r is thelnsubilized at its own
Suitches
fixed-levelabovi the Dotentialat the commonterSl d.p.s.t.rotarv mains switch
minal. In other words,by raisingthe voltageat the
52 4-bole3-way rotary switch.
commonterminal the output voltageis raised by
Sockets
a similar amount.
SKl insulatedwander socket,red.
Output voltagesof 6 volts, 7.5 volts and 9 volts
SK2 insulatedwander socket,black.
can be provided by a 5 volt regulator if three zenerof 1.,2.5 and 4 volts
type deviceshaving.voltages
Miscellaneous
resDectivelvare switched into the common terMetal case(seetext)
miiral circiit. In oractice.zenerdiodescannot be
Veroboard,0.15in.matrix.
used at the low vdltage of 1 volt, and zener diodes
2 control knobs.
oDeratinsat around2.5 and 4 volts are not verv effiiient. ;ith the conseouencethat alterndtive
3-coremains lead.
Nuts, bolts, wire, etc.
deviceswhich eive the sa;re effect as zener diodes
needto be employedinstead.
JL]NE 19?8

When -RA and .RB are equal, the collector

voltageof TRA is rhereforestabilized"i ,b;ri-i.i
votts.{Jther stabilizedcollectorvoltagescan be ob_
tained,of course._
by alteringthe ratio"of RA to RB.
lncreaslngKA \,vithrespectto RB will increasethe
collectorvoltageand decreasingit will reducerhe
co[ector- vottage. It is possible to obtain anv
sl.abllrzed
collectorvoltage,within reason,which is
ngner tnan the baseturn-on voltageof the transistor, but in. practic the circuit- becomes-Gs
ellectlve e! hlgher voltagesbecausethe lossesin
KA and KIJ trecometoo great in comparisonwith
l.hegarn ol the transistor.In the presentanolicatron the amplified diode circuit works extiemelv
well over the rangeofstabilizedvoltagesit is calleil
upon Coprovlde.
P R A C T I C A LC I R C U I T
The completecircuit of the batterv eliminalor
appearsin Fig. 3. TransformerTl stebsdown the
mains voltageto the requjred level a-ndprovides
isolationfrom the mains.Sl is a rotarv 2-ooleonoff switch. The secondarywinding ofTl'feeds a
I f a g r a p h s h , r r v i n gb a s e r . o i t a g ev e r s u sc o l l e c t o r Dndge.rectrtrer.
and the output from this is
c u r r e n i t i ) r a h r g h g a i n s i l i c o n l r a n s i s t o rw e r e l o h e
smoothed-byCl. Note tha_tT1 sicondaryis actualdrawn the result would be along the lines illv a 9-0-6,volt winding. but the centre-tapis iglustraled in Fig. 2. With base-emitpr voltasesot uu
noreo ano^tne secondaryls ueed as a straight_
t o a b n u t0 . 6 r o l t o n l 5 a n e x t r e l n e l vs m a l l c o l l e c l n r rorwaro lz volt wlndlns.
cxrrent flows. Above about 0.6'volt (the exact
Apart from providing smoothing. Cl is the
figrre taries slightlv between individual iianequivalent of CA in Fig. 1(a), anld C2 is the
sistors and uith changes in lemperature) the
equivalentof CB. ICl is ihe voltageregulatorinc o l l e c t o rc u r r e n t r i s e s r a p i d l y w i t h v e r y s m a l l i n tegrated circuit.
c r e a s e sl n - h a s e - e m i r t e vr n l t a g e .I f i n t h e c i r c u i t o f
TR I is in .the amplified diode circuit, and R I
(
c
t r g . l l r h e v al u e s o f R A a n d R B a r e e q u al . a b o u r
carnes out the same function as did RA in Fis.
1.2 volts rviil be needed at the collector oi TRA
l(c). RB is now representedby one of the threi
befnre this transistor beginsto conduct. Raisins swltched resistors,
R2 to R4. These enable
t h e i n p u t | o i t a g e l o r h e r . i r c u i tw e l l a h o v et h i s l e v e l
ellmrna.tor.
output voltages-of 9. 7.5 and 6 vohs
r n a n . a l l ( ' n ) p t t t , I b r c e t h e c o l l e c t o rv o l r a g eh i q h e r
respectlvelyto. be Fven, the appropriate resistor
u o u l d n o t b e v e r y s u c c e s s f u la s i t w o u l d m e " r e l v Delngselecteo
-fRA
bv Jz.
r e s r r l ti n
p a s s i n gm o r e c o l l e c t o rc u r r e n t , w i t h
In
the
inset
f6r the lead-outlayout of ICl, the
.
a F r e a l e r r u l t a g e d r o p a c r o s s R C . T h e c o l l e c t o r pins
are. shown -pointing towaids the reader.
v n l t a g eo f T R A r r " u l d r i s e b 1 . n n l y a v e r y s m a l l
Layout dlagTamstor the i.c. concernedfrequentlv
amount_
give a view from above,with the lead-outsnbintin!
away from the reader, and will in conslouencE
differ from the presentationgivenin Fig. 3. The i.c.
is availablefrom Maplin ElectronicS"upplies.
Fig. 2. Typical cu^/e showing
the rclationship
between
fo.ward
base emittet
voltage and
collector cu cnt in a silicon tansstor

CONSTRUCTION

The mains ttansfomtet aDri the Vercboard com

ponent module arc both bolted to the bottom
of the netal case

The battery eliminator may be housed in any

metal casewhtch_h,asadequateroom for the coml
ponentparts. and that emplcyedfor the protolvDe
wasa cabinettype BVJ which is availabli from Bi_
Pak Semiconductors.
This has dimensionsof 6 bv
-if
could be employed,
1* Fv J i*, A smaller_case
oeslreo. Ihe general layout ol the DrototvDeis
quite straightforward,as is demonstiaredbi the
photographs.As can be seen, 52 is mounted
toward-s
the cenlreof the front panel,with Sl on its
right. SocketsSKI and SK2 ale to the tefi of 52,
ano a.pteastngappearanceis givenif the four holes
lor^alltheseitems are on a straighthorizontal line.
- A nole lor the J-core marns lead is required in
the rear of the caseand this must be ririiJ wlit'"
grommet. A- suitable plastic or plaslic covered
clamp shoxldsecure.!he
mainsleadon the insideof
the case. l l is positionedto the rear of Sl and is
bolted to the bottom of the caseby meansof two
68A. or-4BA bolts and nuts, as aiplicable
i; il;
-The
partlcular transformer employed.
nuts are
abovethe casebottom and a soldertaq is secured
RAI)IOANDELEC.TRONICS
CONSTRUCTOR

3
2

trli
rN4c)Ql

ac o9c

Fig.3.

The circuit of the 3-voltage battery eliminatot. No connection is made to the centre taD ol the
mains transforme, secondary, Output voltages are setected by 52

u n d e ro n eo f t h e m ,t h i sp r o v i d i n gt h ee a r l hc o n n e c t i o n t o t h e m e t a lc a s eT. h e f a c t [ h a t T 1 i s m o u n t e d
directly onto a metal surfaceassistsin enablingit
rc run cool.
Most of the other componentsare assembledon
a 0.15in.matrix Veroboardwhich has 14 holesbv 9
c o p p e sr t r i p s .W h e na b o a r do f t h ea p p r o p r i a rsei z e
hasbeencut out, the two 68A clearmountingholes
are drilled out and the singlebreak in the copper
s t r i p si s m a d e b e f o r et h e v a r i o u sc o m p o n e n tbi r e
s o l d e r e di n t o p o s i t i o n .D e t a i ) so f t h e b o a r d a r e
p r o v i d e di n F i e . 4 . T h e c o m p l e t e db o a r di s w i r e d
Lp tn the rest of the unit beftjreit is securedto the
bottom of the case.to the rear of SK1 and SK2. It
is mountedusingtwo 684 screwsabout 1in. long.
M e t a l s p a c e r so n i h e b o l t s a r e u s e d t o h o l d r h e
board about ]in. clear of the casebottom surface,
so as to prevent short-circuits. Note that the
spacersmust not be too wide in casethey approach
s t r i p F o f t h e b o a r dt o o c l o s e l v
Before wiring up to S1 it is'advisableto check
the tassto which connections
shouldbe madewith
the aid of an ohmmeteror continuitv tester.since
g i t h s o m es w i t c h e sn i a y v a r y l r o m
t a g p o s i t i o n i nw
l h a t s h o w ni n F i g . 4 , I t i s s i m i l a r ya d v i s a b l reo
Iocatethe inner and corresponding
outertagsof 52
as, again, tag positioning may vary. The three
resistors,R2, R3 and R4, are soldereddirectly to
the switchtags,as shown.Note that 52 is a 4-iole
3 - w a vr o t a r v s w i t c hw i t h 3 o f t h e o o l e su n u s e d .
I t i h o u l d b e b o r n ei n m i n d t h a t t l e w i r i n s t o S l
a n dt o t h e t r a n s f o r m eor r i m a r vi s a t m a i n s b o t e n tial and that this wiriire is accessiblewhen the
coverof the caseis removed.In consequence.
all
p r e c a u l i o n sa g a i n s t a c c i d e n t a ls h o c k - m u s t h e
observed.
J l r \ u t9 ? r i

,/'----q
\-.**u***

\
The Vercboard lavout is neat and uncluttered.
The board is mounted by maans of two 68A
bolts and nuts with spacing washers

"

"

"

:6fi3/i
. l + l - . / o

l o l

.,9t ./" "

4

B
c

]
\..

I,)<.., I

''-

/
,'t

: {}'

...

"

"

-)

12__:

Fig. 4. Layout of cofiponents

on the Veroboard and the genercl

wiring

of the battery

eliminatot

to 7.5 volts during its working life. Constructors

who wish to have the output voltagescloseto the
The threeoutput voltagesare nominal onl5 and. nominal valuesmay selectresistorsfor R2. R3 and
R4 on an experimentalbasis. Alternatively, the
due to soreadin i he turn-onbase-emitt er voltageof
prethe transistorand tolerancesin the valuesof the fixed resistorscould be replacedby miniature
2.2k
values
being
r)
variable
resistots,
suitable
set
from
the
volt
away
resistors.mav be up to 0.5
v a l u e ss p e c i f i e dT. h i s i s n o t r e a l l yo f g r e a ti m p o r - for R2,4.7ko for R3 and 10ko for R4. However,for
i.scon- nearlv all applications it should be more than
tanceso'far as battery operated.equipment
c e r n e dF
. o r i n s t a n c et,h e a c t u a lv o l t s g ed e l l v e r e d adequate-to irimply employ the same resistorsas
were used in the irototype and acceptany small
bv a 9 volt batterv will usuallyvary from about9 6

O P E R A T I O NA N D U S E

Tha wtrlng to ,t. cotnpot an t md$tod ott the

tfgnt pancl

606

RAI)IO ANI] ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

d i s c r e p a n c i ei sn t h e o u t p u t v o l t a g e sw h i c h m a y
resultThe connectionbetweenthe batterv eliminator
a n o t h e p o w e r e de q u i p m e n tc a n b e m a d e v i a a
rwln, tead termlnated at one end in a red and a
o r a c Kw a n d e rp t u g l o r i n s e r t i o ni n S K I a n d S K 2 .
r n m o s tc a s e st h e o t h e re n d o f l h e t w i n l e a dc a n b e
r e r m l n a t e dt n a b a l t e r y c l i p o r c o n n e c t o rosf t h e
s a m er y p e a s r s u s e di n t h e s u p p l i e de q u i p m e n t .

Take tare to ensu_re

that connectionsare made
wrrn,rne correctpolarity and that the metal parts
or rne Dattery cllp or connectorscannot slort_
crrcutt to any paft of the suppliedequipment.
I r. rne battery ellminator is to be employedon a
semr-permanentbasis with the supplied eouiD_
m e n t ,t h e l a t t e r w i l l r e q u i r ea s m " l l ' ; ; ; ; t ; h ; T e
ln,lrs caset^oprovtde.access
lbr the power lead.No
other modrllcationshould be necessary.
f

Secondary electron
camera tube
By Michael Lorant
New camera tube takes advantage of secondary emission
to
provide a very wide range of illumination sensitivities.
Westinghouse Electric Corporatiun has int r o d u c e d- a 1 . 6 i n . d i a g o n a l i m a g e , . . s e c u n d a r r
t s l e c t r o n( o n d u c t i o n ' - r S E C t . c a m i r a t u b e . U s i n i
m a g n e t l cs c a n n t n ga n d h a v i n g a n e l e c r r u s t a t i ( . i m _
a g e s e c t r o n .t h i s n e w r u b e i s d e s i g n a t e dr h e \ 4 X _
30654. It has a larger format and provid", g.e"f".
s e n s i t i v i w .h e t t e r r e s , ) l u l i n na n d a ' l a r g e rs i g n a l t o _
n o r s er a t l o , th a n t h e c o m p a n y s p r e v i o u sW L _ j t 0 6 gI
IuDe, and lhese lmprovements are achie\'ed
w r t h o u t c o m p r o m i s i n go t h e r p e r f o r m a n c e
parameters.
. B e c a u s eo f i t s u n i q u e S E C t a r g e t .l h e W X _ 3 0 6 i 4
l s a h t e t n , , l j e r a t en v e r I v e r v w i d e r a n g e o f s c e n e
l l l u , m r n a l r , , n rs( r l h h i g h s e n s i t j v i t v . L o c a l i s e d
.
r e g l o n so l a s c e n ew h i c h a r e s u f f i c i e n t l v b r i e h t t , ,
c a u s es a t u r a l i o - nd o n o t p r o d u c eh a l a t i o n , , r b l o o m _
l n g . s o t h a l rn t o r m a ti o n .f r o m s u r r o u n d i n g r e g i o n s
l s n o t o t r s c u r e d .I h e l u b e p e r f o r m s a t s l , , u i c a n _
n l n g r a l e s ^ a sw e l l a s a t t h e n u r m a l s c a n n i n ps r r c e d
In the U.5. ol 30 fields per second.
" I h e e l e c t r o s t a t i ci m a g e s e c t i o nr e m a i n s i n l u ( . u r
to^a
r l l p h o t o c a t h o d ev o l t a g e s S
. i n c e t h e s e n s i t i ri t r
o l t h e t u b e v a r i e s w i t h p h o r o c a t h o d ev o l t a g e ,r h i ,
I e a l u r e p r o v l d e s a c o n \ ' e n i e n tm e a n s o l g a i n c o n _
trol..There are four grids, connections tn it """'6elng brought out to pins at the base.

Pholocorhod.-

l.

.l?

"\:-.7'
u! !9!,!!c ! q!

j
I

Dimensions of the new camera tube, The Dins

at the base cater for heater, cathode and four
gtids. Pin 9 js a short pin for location puryoses

'I'he

.WX-30654 has been designed Ior

applications where limitations nf "o;;e;iio;;l

An overcll
WX-30654

JU\-E 19;8

view of the Westinghouse Etectric

SEC camera tube wlth etectrcstatic
image section

c am
meerraa t u b
t reess .({ f o r - e x a m p l e . t h e p e r s i s l e n c ea n d
rower,sensttlvtto
y .t l h e . v i d i c o n o r t h e o p e r a l i o n a l
c oom
complexity
mppl leexxl ti vt ya.nadnldoow
weerrd vynngam
^ fti'hi h- e ;i m
' . -a. ,s^e
mi iccr a nnoeaeo

o r t h l c o n )e r t h e rc o m p r o m i s ep e r f o i m a n c eo r i r i i poseunacceptablesystemsrequirements.
T

ADA
BvR
A unit which oxtracts the
direct connection to givo in

A u.h.f. televisionsoundchannelis theoreticallv

capable of high fidelity performance,bur few
televigionsetaeven come closeto such a level of
reproduction.This is rather a pity, especiallywhen
one congtoersthe number ot musrcalDrosrammes T H EC I R C U I T
which are transmittedby the various'Tf stations
Fig. 1 showsthe completecircuit diasram of the
tnesedavs.
TV soundadaptor.Ll is the pick-up coil. and this
It is possibleto overcomethe shortcomingsbv
forms a 6.0M[lz tuned circuit in criniunction with
feeding the televisionsound channel to a lli-fi
trimmer capacitor'l ('1. 'I'he latter ia adiusted to
systemvia someform of adaptor,and then turnine
peakthe tuned circuit at the correctfreqiencv. In
back the volume conuol on the TV set to iG
practicethe pick-up coil is connectedto ihe rest of
minimum setting.There are severalwavs of tanthe unit by wayof a length.ofcoaxialcable-.
and the
ping off the televlsionsoundsignal,but ii mosriircapacltanceln this cablealsofbrmspart of the tunstancesit is not possibleto use; direct link. Thjs is
ed circuit.
due to the facf that nearly all TV sers have a
chassiswhich is connectedt6 onesideof the mains
supply, whilst Hi-Fi systems have an earthed
chassisconnection.Connectingthe two chassis
togetherwould be a dsngerousundertakineto sav
the least,snd could leadio the possibilityof .eu"ti
shock. Some form of isolaiine ciriuit must
therefore be used.
The mostobvioussolutionwouldbe to usean a.f.
isolatingtransformer,or a modernequivalentsuch
as a circuit,employingan opto-isolatbr.The drawback to suchsystemsis that thev must pick up lhe
soundsignalnot only after ir hasbeenpiocessidbr.
the sounddetectorin the TV set but probablvals'o
by the audio stagesas well. Thus, the signalmay
not be of a very high quality once it reachesrhi
adaptor. which obviates the point of usine rhe
adaptorin the first place.Anothermethodis io use
a.high quality.TV sound tuner to provide all the
srgnal processlJlgtrom aerial to audio. output.
vvnlle rnls wlrl produce optrmum results. il 's
rather a complexand expensive
solution,
-the
The system used in
TV sound addDlor
describedin this article is in effect a comoromise
just outlined.The unit
betweenthe two approaches
c o n s i s t so f a 6 . 0 M H z a m p l i f i e ra n d h i e h o u a l i t v
f.m. detector which is fid from a niik-uo "nil
situated inside the TV receiver neai the'inrercarrier soundcircuitry. It thus picks up the inrer.
BC 09
carner slgnal,beloredelectlon.and Drocesses
it to
p r o d u c ea n a u d i o o u t p u t .P r o v i d e d - t h tee l e v i s i o n
receiver-is n-otlqdly out of alignment,the inlercarrier siqnalwill be at a high quality.level.as will
Fig. t . The circuit of ths television sound adaD
r,nenDe tne audlo output Irom the adaplor.
cenier signal frcm the TV set. This is amotilieo

608

RAI)IO ANI) I]I,!)CTRONICSCONSTRT]CTOR

.*
TVS0UND
iiiiii
.
ADAPT0R
iiilii
;:::;:

i:i:ii

Bv R.A. Penfold

;,:,;,;

:'i':;
i:::i:

A unit which oxtractsthe telovisionsound channelwithout

direct connectionto give improvodsound reproduction.
THECIRCUIT
_.Fig. 1 showsthe completecircuit diagramof the
TV soundadaptor.Ll is the pick-up co-il.and this
forms a 6,0M[lz tuned circuit
'l'he in conjunctign with
trimmer capacitor'1Cl.
latter is adjustedtr,
peakthe tunedclrcuit at the correctfreeuencv.In
practicethe pick.upcoil is connectedto ihe rest ol
the unit by wayof a lengthof coaxialcable,and the
capacitance
in thiscablealsoformspart of the tuneo clrcult.

A common sourceJugfet amplifier aDDearsr

the input of the adaptor,this beiirgTRI. tr1 mair
tarnsthe gateat chassispotentialif Ll is not olus
ed in, R2 is the sourcebias resistorand C3'is il
source bypass capacitor. The output of th
qmplifier is developedacrossdrain load resist
R3. This amplifier piovides little in the wav of vol
agegain and is mainly usedas a buffer betweenth
pick-up coil and the second 6.0MHz amolifie
stage,which incorporatesTR2.
TR2 is connected in the common emitter con

acro9

Fig. t. The circuit of ths television sound adaptot. Lt is a pick_up coit which picks up the
6.OMHZ intercanier signal from the TV set. This is amptified by TR |, IR2 and tcr, the tast atsop.oviding
detection
I.tAI)I0 A\I) !]t,F]('TRONICSCONSTRI]CTOR
,ItlN-E 1978

OUND
PTOR
\. Penfold

The completed adaptor with the pick-up coil

plugged in and raady for use

rlarieion
sound channlwithout a
rovodsound reproduction.
Resrstors
(AIl I watt 5%)
Rl 100ko
A common sourceJugfet amplifier aDDearsat
R2 820n
the input of the adaptor,lhis beiireTR 1.Iil mainR3 330o
tains the gateat chassispotentialii Ll is not plueeR4 180o

R5 220kn
R6 100o
R7 330o
R8 330(r
R9 18ko

ed in, R2 is the sourcebias resistorand C3-isth''e

source bypass capacitor. The output of the Capacitors
amplifier is developedacrossdrain load resistor
C1 0.1pF plastic foil
R3. This amplifier plovides little in the wav of voltC2 0.lriF plastic fbil
agegain and is mainly usedas a buffer bet-ween
the
uJ u.ul!-r dtsc ceramlc
pick-up coil and the second 6.0MHz amnlifier
C4 0.1y'Fplastic foil
stage.which incorporatesTR2.
uD u.r!.rr qlsc ceramlc
TR2 is connectedin the common emitter conC6 0.1pF disc ceramic
C7 33pF ceramicplate
C8 33iF ceramicilate
C9 |0pF electrolytic,10 V. Wkg.
C10 68pF ceramicplate
C11 0.015tF plasti; foil
TCI 10-60pFceramictrimmer
Inductors
L1 see text
L2 quadraturecoil, Toko tvpe KACS K586HM
(Ambit International)
Filters
CFl, CF2 6.0MHz ceramicfilters type SFE6.0
(Ambit International)

Semicond,uctors
TR1 BF244B
TR2 BC109
IC1 SN7666ON

hA is a pick up coit which picks up the 6.OMHz inter

by{Rl, TR2 and lC r. the tast also providing detection
.

JL'NE 1978

Switch
S1 s.p.s.t.toggle

MiscelLaneous
Aluminium box tvpe AB8
Coaxial socket
3.5mm.jack socket
9 volt battery type PP6 {Every Ready)
Battery connector
Coaxial plug
1 metre coaxialcable
Materials_forprinted circuit board
4 rubber leet
Wire, bolts, nuts, etc.
609

figurationwith R7 as its collectorload resistorand

R5 as,its base bias resistor.Ceramic fiite. CFi
interstage coupling between TRI ;;a
R1:idj.
l K Z . L e r a m l cl i l t e r s- r e q u i r en o a l i g n m e n lu, n l i k e
o r o l n a j y 1 . . 1 .t r a n s l o r m e r s , a n d t h i s g r e a r l v
s r m p t r l r etsh e s e t t i n gu p o f t h e f i n i s h e da d a n t o r .
. A . s e c o n .dc e r a m i cf i l t e r c o u p l e sT R 2 r o ' I C l ,
w h i c h p r o v i d e sm o s to f t h e v o l t a g eq a i n i n t h e c i r _
cult Al -6,0M.H2this is typicalit of the order of
ttudu.-t(6 ls a biasresistorand it alsosetsthe inDUt
impedanceof the i.c. at the required level.
, - { s w e l l a s i n c o r p o r a t i n ag h i g h g a i n a m p l i l i e r .
r\ l also.contarnsa htgh qualitv quadraturedetec_
tor, Lz .ls the detecto.rcrrjl.this componentbeing
p r rm a r rt y I n t e n d e d l o r u s e w i r h I 0 . 7 M H t
q u a d r a t u r ed e m o d u l a r o r C
s .1 0 s h u n t st h e i n t e r n a l
c a p a c i l oor f r h ec o i l u n i t a n d r e d u c e sr h eo p e i a i i n e
lrequencyto the required figure of 6.0MFIz.
. I he ayjtlo outpul is obtainedfrom pin g of the
r - c . .a n d ( I p r o v r d e sd . c . b l o c k i n gh e r e .C l 1 g i re s
d e - e m p h a s l nw,h i c h i s m e r e l y a d e g r e eo f t i e b l e
c u t , I h r sc o m p e n s a t et bs r a s i m i l a ra m o u n to l t r e _
t,le boost.or pre-emphasisapplied to the audio
9 l g l l a la t l h e t r a n s m i t t e rT. h e r e s u l ti s a n o v e r a l l
flat frequencyresponsetogetherwirh a inmewhai
r m p r o v e ds l g n a l - t o - n o i sr a
e t i o .T h e a u d i o o u t p u t
l e v e lr s a b o v e2 5 0 m Vr . m . s .
. T , h es u p p l yn e e d st o b ew e l l d e c o u p l e du er o t h e
r a l n y h l g h .g a t n a n d o p e r a t i n gf r e q u e n c yo f r h e
a o a p r o r .t . h l sd ^ e c o u p t i ni sg p r o v i d e db y R 4 . R 6 ,
r l . ( z a n d ( 4 . 5 l i s t h e o n - o { f s w i t c hT. h e c u r r e n t
c o n s u m p l i o no f t h e a d a p t o r i s t v p i c a l"l lyaat rbeoruut.
1 7 m A . P o w e r i s o b t a i n e df r u - a ? p O
w h l c h h a s a r e a s o n a b l lyr r n gw o r k i n gl i l e .

However, any small trimmer having a similar

swingshouldbe equally suitable.The
lqp-acitance
bl2448 transistor specified for TRl and the
aluminium box rype AP8 in which the adaptor is
nousedare avallable lrom severalsuonliers.includ.ing.Electrovalue.Ltd., Ze St. Jidei Road,
EnglefieldGreen. Egham, Suney, TW20 0HB.
CONSTRUCTION

Most of the componentsare mounted on a

printed^circxit.
board. which is illustrated full size
tn trg. z. I he board is made up in the usual way.
but notethat the two holesfor the mountinglugs5i
L2 must be somewhatlarger than the othe-rh;le;.
Lrrmenslons
here are best taken from the coil unit
itself. The project is housedin an aluminium box
w h r c hm e a s u r eas b o u t1 0 2b v 1 0 2b v 3 8 m m .t 4 b v
4, by llin.) and the generallayout ian be seenin
tne accompanytngp-hotogTaphs.
I ne two ceramtclllters are symmetricaldevices
with identical input and output impedances,and
tests_carned
out by the author indicate that thev
may be connectedeitherway round with, of course,
the centre lead-outconnectingto chassis.
The.input socketis_a standardpanel-mounting
coaxlaltype, and a soldertag is securedinsidethe
caseunder one of its 68A mounting nuts. TCI is
soldereddirectly acrossthe centreiontact oi rhe
socket and this solder tag. The solder tas also
providesa connectionfor the negativeba ert lead.
A slngrewrre connectsthe centre contact of the
coaxial.socket to tlre- ap_propriatepoint of the
Doard.Another slngle.lead connectsto the output
socket.a 3.5mm, jack type of open conslructjon
wnlcn allows lts bush contactto be automaticallv
COMPONENTS
connected to the metal case when it is fitted iit
T h r e eo f t h e c o m p o n e n luss e di n t h i s p r o i e c la r e
place.
o l a . r a t h e rs p e c i a l i s enda t u r ea n d a r e i r o t " w i d e l v
The printed circuit board is mounted usine a
avarlable.I heseare the two ceramicfilters and the
couple of 684 bolts about lin. Ions, and me-tjl
quadraturecoil, all of which can be obtainedfrom
spacersare usedover thesebolts to h6ld the board
2 QreshamRoad,Brentwood, a little way clear of the metal case.The chassis
Ambit Inte-rnatio_nal,
Essex, CM14 4HN. The i.c. is available fiom
conne{tibnto both th-einput and output socketsis
s e v e r a l. c o m p o n e n st u p p l i e r s .i n c l u d i n g A m b i r
completedby way of thesesDacers.
lnternatlona I
, Finally, four.rubber feet are bolted or glued to
The trimmer capacitor,TC1, used in the
the bottom of the box.
prototypeis a 10-60pFceramic componentTvne
A, which can be obrainedfrom Doram Electroriics P I C K - U PC O I L
L t d . , P . O . B o x T R 8 , W e l l i n q t o nR o a d I n d u s t r i a l
The pick-up coil consistsof8 turns ofthin multiE s t a t e , W e l l i n g t o nB r i d g e . L e e d s , L S l 2 2 U F .
strand p.v.c.coveredconnectingwire, and it has a

The coaxial input socket is on the reat panel of the box

RAI )IO ANI] EI,t.]CTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR

-*- "^.,.\u
r
, / o
'l-n
ll e o! . 1 l

R3

fo'",fi'g|,%
fi

rRr I

[.,
,.'
1f '

I t

il
il"+d;-'.0

:,\T'
"u
I
lc:V

I '{rd'

lo'
?
'

A-

\,*
I

Fig. 2. Details of thd printed

board assemblv, f his i3
reoroduced full size for traci"c

F\ cr"Fl
\

\ \ l

\. ))J

6--a----n//
-,,/ /
l. ./

- -

A\rr
l.'\ \
\ \.1\

diameter of 2in. Four bands of insulating tape are

usedto Dreventthe coil from unwindingand make
it self-supportine.The coil is connecledto the
adaotor 6v a lead which consistsof a 1 metre
Iensih of siandard TV coaxial cable terminated in
whichjoin
a coaxialplus. The solderedconnections
the coil io the coaxial cable must be very well
coveredwith severallayersof insulating.ape.The
coil will eventuallv fit inside the TV set cabint,
and it is absolutelj essentialthat there is no risk of
JUr-E 1978

anv direct connection between the coil and any

oait
of the TV receiveroccurring.
'
If the television 8et and the Hi'Fi amplifier-aresome diEtanceapart, do -not use a longer length ol
coaxialcableto enablethe adaptor to be sltuated
near the amDlifier,as this would make it impossible to oeak the pick-up coil ptoperly' The adaptor
should be Dlaceaneaf the TV set and a long outout lead uied instead.The output lead must be I
icreenedtype.

:l

Aut erct lalout s, compohcnas

ADJ USTMENT
Assumingthat no suitabletest gearis available.
the easiestwav of adiustingthe unit is to first connect everlthiis up and switch on all the equipment. Bv-olacins the pick-up coil near the intercarrier iiriuits df the-televiiion set it should be
oossibleto Dick up the sound chsnnel, although
irerhapsnof very well at this.stage.TCI is rhen
Deaked tor best results, whlch correspono lo
noise.After this, the core of
ininimum background
-for
maximum audio output. Use a
L2 is adiusted
propertrimmingtoo-lwhenadjustingL2. as thereis
otherwrsea nsk ot damagrngtne core. rlnally.
moveLl awav from the televisionintercarriercircuits to a point where only a rather poor signalis
r e c e i v e d ,a n d t h e n p e a k T C I f o r m i n i m u m
back$ound noiseonce again.
In-usethe pick-up coifis placedin the position
which eivesthe mosi noise-freesignaland its exact
oositio-nine
will nrobablv not be-too critical, this
beingespeliallvirue if the TV set is a valve lype.
n6rmall! providequite a largeamountof inThes,"e
to make a
tercarrierradiation.It may be necessary
smell entrv hole in the rear of the set for the coax'
ial lead, but it is more than likely that some
suitableaccesspoint will already be available

It may be possible to obtain satisfactory resulls

with the coil-completely outside the TV set case,
but this is only likely if the TV intercarrier circuits
happened to be close to the sel back. The necessity oI
poiitioning the pick-up coil fairly close to the,TV
intercarrier circults ts not prlmsrlly due to tnere
beins a lack of suitable 6.OMHz signal slren$h
seveial inches awav. Instead. it is due to the lact
that the 6.0MHz fiequency coincides with the 49
metre short wave broadcast band, which normally
orovides verv strons simals after dark. It is in con'
iequence neiessary to-have a fairly tight coupling
to t}e TV intercarrier simal so that lhis is sul
ficiently strong to swamp out the broadcast signals.
All precautionssgainst shock must be fully observ6d whon working wilh the tlovision receiver. It the
pick-up coil doos have to ba positionod insids th TV
recaiuer, do not touch dnything inside the set while it
is ptugged in to the mains supply. Doing so could
rsult in a gsverg or dangious electric ahock being
obtained. lt is sdvisablto woar rubbar gloves when
positioning tha pick-up coil.
Finally,it should bo pointsd out that the unit is only
suitabl6 tor use with u.h.f, 825 line TV sets, es the
necessary6.OMHZ intercarriersignal is only prosont
with this typ of receivr.
I

RAI)IO ANI) F]LECTRONICSCONSTRTICTOR

T H E B A N G & O L U F S E N B O O K O F H l - F l . B y D a n E v e r a r d l.3 4
p a g e s ,1 8 0 x 1 1 O m m . ( 7 x 4 f , i n . ) P u b l i s h e db y W o o d h e a d - F a u l k n e r
( P u b l i s h e r sL)t d . P r i c e f 1 . 2 5 .
Althoughthe publicationof this book has beensponsoredby Bang & Olufsen,this well-known
of high fideliiyequipmenthasin no way intluencedthe contentof its text The book is
manu{acturer
simDIya well-writtenintroductionto high lidelitY,havinga generalapproachwith no bias whalsoevertowards the productsof any one company.
In his prefacethe authorstatesthat he has been approachedover the years by non-technical
peopleseekingadviceon qualityaudio equipment,and has found that their unwittingpurchaseof
incorreclilems has provedto be costly in terms of expenditureHe telt that someoneought to
write a book" on the subject,and the publicationunder review is the result.
The book explainsin simple terms how the varioussectionsof a hi-fi installationwork in conjunctionwith each other. Dealt with in detail are the overallsystem,recordsand recordplayers,
The book then proceedsto the settingup
and tape recorders.
radiotuners,amplifiers,loudspeakers
and maintenanceof high fidelityequipment,carryingon to chaptersdescribingthe natureof sound
and recordingtechniques.There is finally a 21 page glossaryof the terms encounteredin audio
sound recordingand reproduction.

1 1 0 I N T E G R A T E DC I R C U I T P R O J E C T SF O R T H E H O M E
x 1 3 O m m(.8 { x
C O N S T R U C T O RB. y R .M . M a r s t o.n1 2 7 p a g e s , 2 1 5
5in.) Publishedby The ButterworthGroup.Pricef2.95.
This is a comglelelyrewritlensecondeditionand followsthe successfulfirst editionwhich was
publishedunderthe sametitle,The integratedcircuitsdealtwith in lhe presentvolumeare amongst
t h e l a t e s ta v a i l a b l e .
a panicular
The book is dividedinto five chapters,eachof which describesprojectsincorporating
integratedcircuit.The firsl chapterdeals with 741 op-amp projects,these includingamplifiers,
and instruments
voltagefollowers,phasesplitters,filters,squarewave and Wien bridgegenerators,
Chapter2 is centredqn the 555 limer ic '
of current,voltageand resistance.
lor lhe measurement
circuitswhich are
and again there is a wide range oI applications,includinglhree imaginative
"wailing" American
capableof reproducingthe sound of the British two-tone police siren,the
poficesiren and the "Red Alert" alarm heard in the Star Trek TV seraes.
The third chapteris devoledto projectsbuill aroundthe XR-2206 functiongenerator'This is a
very versatilei.c. which, with little externalcircuitry,can producesine,square,triangle,ramp and
pulsewaveformsat frequenciesfrom considerably
lessthan I Hz to severalhundredkHz The output frequency,which is RC controlled,can be modulatedin amplitudeor trequency,and can alsobe
subjectedto phaseor frequencyshift keying.The chaptergivescircuitswhich take advantageof all
these capabilities.In the founh chapterwe find 2 watl audio amplifiercircuitsincorporatingthe
LM380, and in the fifth chapterpower supplyprojectsemployingthe 723 vollage regulatori.c.

M O D E L E N G I N E E R I N G .B y M a r t i n E v a n s .2 2 4 p a g e s ,2 4 5 x
1 9 0 m m .( 9 ! x 7 { i n . ) P u b l i s h ebdy P i t m a nP u b l i s h i nLgt d .P r i c e 7 . 9 5
There is an artistic and almost creative gratification in the building of a working model of
machinery.This is given not only by the exercise of skil[in dealing with the materials employed bul
also by the dimensional accuracy with which the work must be made, the fact that the model is intended to function and, finally, the overallappearance of the completed model ln this hard cover
book, Martin Evans successfully captures all these facets of the world ot model engineering
Dealing Iirst with the text, the volume covers the entire field ol practical model conslruction, giving full delails of all the tools required from the humble hammer to the screw-cutting centre lathe.
Also given is very helpful and down-to-earth advice on the home workshop, together with descriptions of the materials incorporated in working models and the ioining of metals.
And that is jusl the text. Accompanying the words are an exceptionallylarge number of clear and
attractive photographs of aclual models, including steam locomotives, traction engines, internal
combustion engines, clocks and scientitic instruments.
The experienced will find this book a continuing pleasure to browse through, and the newcomer
will tind it an excellent source of information on successfulmodel building. lt is certainly a delight to
review a work which is so exceptionally well set up both in its pictorial and in its textual subiectmaIIer.

FOR DX LISIENERS
By Frank A. Baldwin

nrnes: GMT

As mostof this articleis devotedto the HF bands

(see Around the Dial). some LF loggingsare
presentedhere; we commencewith O SWAZII,AND
TWR Mpangelaon 4?60 at 0403,religiousserv i c e ,h v m n si n A f r i k a a n s .
O AFGHANISTAN
K a b u l o n 3 3 9 0 a t 0 1 4 6 ,r e l i g i o u sc h a n t si n t h e
Home Service1. scheduledfrom 0130 to 0330 for
this transrnission.
. PAKISTAN
I s l a m a b a d o n a m e a s u r e d5 0 6 l a t 0 1 2 5 ,
religiouschants and programme.

servicein English to Europe (not Sundays)from

2030 to 2230 on 7155 and 95O5.
O PAKISTAN
"Radio Pakistan", Karachi,
has an External
Servicein which a newscastin Enelishread at slow
s p e e di s d i r e c t e dt o E u r o p ef r o m I 1 0 0 t o 1 l 1 5 o n
I 5 t l 5 a n d o n 1 7 6 6 5 . A p r o q r a m m ei n U r d u f o r
t h e U . K . i s f r o m 0 8 3 0r o I 1 - 0 0
o n t h e s a m ef r e o u e n c i e s .F r o m l 9 l 5 t o 2 l l 5 a t r a n s m i s s i oinn U r d i a n d
from fl15 to 2145in Sylheti for the U.K. may be
heard on 471a,6235 and on ?O95,
. TURKEY
"The Voiceof Turkey", Ankara,
operatesan Ext e r n a lS e r v i c ei n w h i c h a n E n g l i s hp r o g r a m m ef o r
E u r n p e .N o r t h A f r i c a a n d N o r t h A m e r i c ac a n b e
h e a r r io n 7 l ? O a n d o n g 5 1 5 .

. CONGO
P o i n t e N o i r o n a m e a s u r e d4 8 4 3 a t 1 9 3 8 , . A U S T R I A
c l a s s i c apl i a n o . s o l oO, M a n n o u n c eirn F r e n c h .
"Radio Austria", Vienna,
radiatesprogrammes
in Englishfor Europefrom 0830to 0900on 6156,
O COI,OMBIA
1 5 1 0 5 , f 5 4 f 0 a n d o n 1 7 8 1 5 ; f r o m 1 2 3 0t o 1 3 0 0
Radio Bucaramangaon 4845 at 0330,OM with
on 6155, 9770, I l79O andon l77lo; from 1830
identificationin Spanish,LA pops.
t o 1 9 0 0o n 6 1 5 5 , 9 7 2 5 , 1 5 3 3 5 a n d o n 1 7 7 7 O .
. BRAZII,
R a d i o O l i n d a ,P e r n a m b u c oo, n 3 2 8 5 a t 0 1 3 7 , . L E B A N O N
"Radio Lebanon", Beirut,
OM with an excited sports commentaryin Porhas an English
programmefor Africa from 1830to 1900on I1766
tuguese.
and tirr North Americafrom 0230to 0300on 9680.
a C A M F i R O O N R a d i oB e r t o u ao n 4 7 5 0 a t 1 8 2 8 ,
Yl, with English programmefollowed by that in
. PORTUGAL
"RadiodifussaoPortuguesa",Lisbon, offers
F r e n c ha t 1 8 3 0 .
a
programmein English for Europe from 2030 to
. PERII
2100 (Sundays 2030 to 2050) on 6O25 and on
R a d i oQ r r i l l a b a m boan 5 0 2 5 a t 0 1 3 3 ,l o c a lp o p s 9 7 4 0 .
on records,()\.{ in Spanish.
VATICAN CITY
"Vatican
CURRENT SCHEDULES
Radio", Vatican, beams programmes
in Enelishto the U.K. and Eire from 1345to 1400
. SPAIN
on 619O, 7250,9645 and on 1174O; from 2030to
"Radio Exterior de Espana",
Madrid, presentsa 20.15on 619O, 725O and on 9645.
6t4

RAI)IO AN*ll ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

O HUNGARY
''Ba.dio
,.
9 u d a p e s r " s c h e d u l e sp r o g r a m m e si n
{ . n s l ] s hr , ) l . , u r o p eI r o m I 2 0 0 t o I 2 2 0 ( n o t S a t u r _
n a y sn r s u n d a y s o) n 6 O 4 0 ,Z I b b , 9 5 9 b . l l 9 f 0 ,
r 5 1 6 0 , 1 7 7 8 5 a n do n 2 t i 2 \ ; f . d - Z r O O i oZi r i j

.n
lo,7200,96bb,I l9lo, rs2zo;;a
{ r n 9999,^6!

| / /6u_datty. A prngrammefor l)xers is to be

hcard ,,n tuesdays and Fridays in English from
I s lr^ro I 530 0n 5680. 72 I 5. 9885, I l9"r o and
on

r 5160.
. BUI,GARIA

' R a d , i , ,S , r l i a "

d i r e c t s p r o g r a m m e si n E n g l i s h r o
,
r r e r . t r . a n r t L l r e l r o m l 9 l 0 l o 2 0 0 0o n 6 O i O a n d
r y y7 7 0 a n d f r o m 2 1 3 0 t o 2 2 0 0 o n b g l b a n d o n
7115.
.IRAQ
"Radio
B a g h d a d _l i s t s a p r o g r a m m e i n E n g l i s h
.l , ) r
r , r r r o l ' et r o m 2 1 3 0 l o 2 2 j J 0o n g 7 4 b .
. POI,AND
- lo.di" Warsaw" hroadcastsprogrammes in
r , n g l t s h t , , F , u r o p el r o m 0 6 3 0 r o 0 ; 0 0 n n 6 1 3 F .
727O and on 9675: from 1200to t230 on 609o
anrl 7285: from trj0o ro I630 on 6l3b and 9840:
l r , , r n l ' ] l r r I , r l 9 ( 1 0o n 6 O 9 5 a n d 7 2 8 5 ; f r r r m 2 O 3 e
to2100 on 6O95 and 728b and from 2i30 to 2300
on 5995, 7125 and on 727(J,
. MONGOLIA
, I ' h n _ l l a t o r r r a n s m i l s p r o g r a m m e si n E n e l i , h t o
r \ , r u hl t - , a : -A
t sra and the Far East from 1220 to
l : i 0 i n o r S u n d a y s r, , n 6 3 8 b a n d o n 1 2 O 7 0 a n d
l r , , r nl ; 1 . - ,t ( ' 1 7 4 5{ n , , tS u n d a v s t o t h e s a m et a r g e t
a r e a so n 7 2 6 2 a n d o n g b 7 b l
AROUND

THE DIAL

I r t s h i c h l r e r e p o r t e d. , , m e r r l t h e i n l . r { . : l i l l !
. l_ r l l , , n . l ( , s g e rrle ( . p n t l vt.h c l i r , r h e i n r :
. CLANDESTINE
"\-,,ice,,f
A r a h S y r i a " o n 6 0 6 0 a r l g l 9 , O M w i rh
e x h , ' 1 1 . 1 l i oi nn A r a h i c . T h e s c h e d u l ei s f r o m I g 0 0 t r r

rlurifs Winrer& Sp.ring

and from t?00t,,
llllll
l r ! , , ' r n ) u m m e r . t s r o a d c a s l sa r e a n t i _ S v r i a n

r e s r m ea n d t h e i d e n t i l i c a t i , , inn A r a b i c i s . i S a w t
: r l r r v a a l - Ar a l ) i v a".
"Voice
of l,ebanon" on 6bbo at 1946,OM in
.
Arabic interspersed with short excerots of local-fhis
r\pe mu-ic.
p r o - P h a l a n g i s r r a n s m i t t e ri d e n
"Huna
tifies as
Sawt Lebnan, Sawt al-Hurrivah
wa al-Karamah" ("This is the Voice of Lebanon,"the
\ o r c e o t t r e c d o ma n d l j i g n l t y " ) . l h e s c h e d u l eo f
l h r . t r a n s m i s . i o ni s f r o m 1 9 0 0t o 2 1 0 5 .
"Popular
Front lor the Liberation of Oman" on
96_5-0qt 2008, OM with world news in Arabic,
p n lj t i r ' r l h r r a n z u e2 0j 5 r o 2 U 2 0w i r h - " n v - " n l
l r o n \ , , 1 ( ) m a n . I " r ' a l - t v p em u s i c . T h e . i h e d u l e
would aJ)pearto be from 2000 to 2025.

. SWEDEN
S t o c k h , , l mo n I 1 9 5 0 a l 2 0 3 6 ,O M i n S w e d i s hi n
t h e l . ) i , m e s t i cS e r \ i c e l s t P r o g r a m m e r a d i a l e d i n
I n p l s f t m o d e l o e m b a s s i e s ,f i r m s . s h i p s a n d
5 \ v F d e sa h r , , a d .r h i s r r a n s m i < s i o nb e i n g t r o m l x { r 0
to 2130.
S t o c k h o l m o n 2 1 6 9 O a t 1 2 3 ? ,O M w i t h w o r l d
n e w { i n E n s l i : . hi n a p r o g r a m m ef o r A f r i c a , t h e F a i
E r s t a n d N o r r h A m e r i c a s c h e d u l e df r o m 1 2 3 0 t o
tll00.Also in parallel on 9715 and lbBOb.
. l t i N E1 9 ; 8

. U.S.A.
e l.o r i d a o
, n I lZg0 ar2048,
. . y Y q R U k e e c h o b eF
u r v r w t l h a r e t t g r o upsr o g r a m m ei n E n g l i s h .
. JAPAN
T , ' k i oo n I 5 3 2 5 a r 0 8 0 0 O
. M w i r hi d e n l i f i c a r i o n
I n f , n H t r s ha n d a n e w s c a s t .L i s t e n f o r t h e
programmein French then musical box interval
signal prior to 0800.
.AUSTRALIA
_ Melbourne on ll770 at 1840, OM with the
E r r r l i , . hp r o g r a m m e ^ t o
E u r o p er C " * r " t S . i " i . " )
\che.tule.itrom 11100
to 1900.
_.,Melbourneon9b8O at 2000,identificationand
\ - L w i th w . r l d n e w si n E n g l i s hl n a G e n e r aSl e r J i c !
l r a n s m r s s l osnc h e d u l e dt r o m 2 0 0 0l o 2 0 3 0 .
L v n d h u r s tn n 1 1 8 7 0 a r l 8 + 0 . y L w i t h a
- poo
- ' n g i n E n g l i s hl r a n s m i l t e idn t ' S B m o d e . ' " '
. PHILIPPINES
. R a r l i o , V e r i t aMs a
. n i l a .o n I l g b b a t t 4 1 0 ,y L
w r lh i i t a l k a b o u tt h e M o s l e mf a i t ha n da f o r t h c o m _
ing flower festival on Mindanao, a larse isia;d
s , , u l hn n d p a r r o f t h e P h i l i p p i n e si n. t h F E n g l i s h
i ) r , ' H m r n m5ec h e d u l e df r o m 1 , 1 0 0l o 1 5 0 0 .L i s t e n
lbr the identificationand variousadar""""i i- .t"_
t r o n r e p o f t sa t 1 4 0 0 .
INDONESIA
.,Voice
of Indonesja.,
..hkarla ,'n I l79O at l)830.
r d e n r r l l ( a l i ,rihne nY L w i t h w o r l dn e w si n E n s l i s h
a r d ; r p r n g r a m m ien l e n d e df o r S o u t hE u . i n . i l % n J
r h e I , j r c r t r (s. c h c d u l e df r o m 0 R 0 0t o 0 9 0 0 .
. GUAM
K ' l \ \ R , A g a a ao n I I Z 3 O a t I 1 0 0 , m u s i c a l
( l,) l m e s l.. l c n l l l i c a t i n n
i n E n g l i s h o. r g a nm u s i ca n d
h v m n s . .l h r s , i n e m a y h e h e a r d a T t e rr h e V O A
t r a n s m t t t ecr l o s e sa t 1 0 5 9o n t h i s c h a n n e lA. l s o o n
9 6 7 O a l l t t 5 9 .m r r s i c acl h i m e si.d e n r i f i c a r i oann i a
l l e l r ts ( i t \ [ l n E n g l l q h .

. CHINA
, , . R r d i o I ) e k i n g( r r n 6 b b 0 a l 1 6 0 5 .C h i n e s em u s i c .
l . ! n l n * i n g l n h t n e s ei n t h e E n g l i s h p r o g r a m m e
.r
r , , r l . . a . t . a n ds o u l h A l r i c a . s c h e d u l e df r o m I 6 0 0 t o
no,,,nt"O rn the suppresredcarrier LSB
J,,nl".
O TAIWAN
'faipeh ("'fhe

Voiceof Free China") on I lglb

: ir . r l { r ; . I i v e . c h i m e si n t e r v a ls i g n a l .c h n r a l a n t t r e m l
r l v t r n , U l e - A m o vp m g r a m m e t o S o u t h E a s t
Asia,
\ ( h e r i | | l e d t r , r r nQ a f , 1t1e 1 p 6 1 1 .
. EGYPT
C r i r " . o n 6 2 3 O a 1 0 2 1 7 ,y L w i r h a
n e w s c a sitn
..
r . n g l s n l n t h e \ o r t h A m e r j c a n S e r v i c e ,s c h e d u l e d
trom 0200 to 0330.
.IRAQ
R , r d i . , , B a s h d andn 9 7 4 5 a r 2 t 4 9 . A r a b i c _ t v D e
r r r l l s l c .y L w r t h a n n o u r c e m e n t st h e n a t a l k a b b u t
n a r ) v r o na n d r e c e n t . l r n d s i n t h e a r e a . A l l i n
the
r , r f g l r . hl . , r n g r a r n m e
.cheduled frnm 2130 to Z23O
on this channel.
NOW HEAR THIS
SRS rStichrrng Radio Omroep Suriname)
^
l ' i r r r m a n n , , . s. u r r n a m o n 4 8 5 O a t 0 1 4 4 . G I e n
. \ l l l l c r r c c o r d i .t ) M a n n o u n c e ri n D u t c h .

THE
..MAINS
MICRO-AMP''
B y S i r D o u g l a sH a l l , K . C . M . c .

Part 2 (Conclusion)

Concludlng

In Iast month's issuethe circuit of the "Micro{mp" smplifier was described,as also were the
firsf conetiuctional steps. We proceed next to the
wiring.
WIRING UP
The wirine for the sinele innut version of the
amplifier is ihown in Fiq:4(8).'Thewiring of the
dodble input version is ihe same apart f;om the
on the panel shownin Fig.2(c),which
componenis
'published
was
last'month, Also, VR"1requires a
modification before wirins commences with the
dual input versionof the amplifier,and this will be
describedshortlv.
At this staseihe sectionof Fie.2(a)will now be
assembledto-that of Fig.z(b),thls beingdesirable
to ensurethat the parts fit togethercorrectly.It is.
however,necessaryto remov-ethe Fig.2ta)iection
whilst wiring is beingcarried out, as ihis easesthe

process. The wiring is then completed as in

F i -eI.n4 ( a ) .
this diagram, both VR2/S1 and the
valveholder have been turned through 90 degrees
Pin 4 ol
to illustratethe connectionsmore clearly.
to an "NC" pin
the valveholder.which corresponds
of the valve, is used as an ;rnchor tag. Confiim,
with the aid of an ohmeteror continuitt tester,the
tassof S1 which correspondto the two switchDoles
beTorewirinc in the mains lead.This is becausethe
tas positioningmav vary with someswitches,with
th"e'resultthi't thir ma-insinput could be shortcircuitedwhen the switch is closed.Similarly confirm the mains transformer tags aBainst the
maker's information to ensure that connections
here are correct. Note that the mains transformer
clamp is earthedby way of the solder tag under
one oTits securinsnuts. When the 120(rspeakeris
used. a wire nailes from this solder tas to the
sDeakerframe t g. The mains lead is securedinside the casebv i small plastic or plastic-covered
clamp fixed bvl 684 bolt and nut it holeT ofthe
sectidn of Fii.2(a).
-3-coreThis clamp is not shown in
mains leadihould be correctly
Fie.4(a).The
terminatedin a 3-way fused mains plug.

D U A LI N P U TV E R S I O N

lntefnal

appeafance of the dual input version of

the amolifier

If the dual input verSlon is to be made, a

different assembly is needed on the panel of
Fie.2(c).
The type P20 potentiometer recommended for
VRI has a Dlasticextensionof the spindlepassins
throush a cinnal hole in the rear. This exiensioi
shoulii be filed flat. A piece of thin tinplate is then
cut out with scissorsas illustratedin Fig.5(a),and
this is bent along the dotted lines to form a clamp
for transformerT2. This clamo is then solderedto
the caseof VRl in the mannei shownin Fis.5(b).
The orientationof the transformerwith resfect to
RAI)IO ANI) ELI]CTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

s k 2 ( L o - Z)

sKt(Hi-z)

VRt

12

Fig.4(a). whing up the amplifier. The connections around SK, are for the single input vetsron.
(b). lf the dual input version is being built, two
hput sockets afe fifted and are wired as shown
here

the potentrometertags can be seenin Fig.4(b).

and "small" windings indicated in Fig.4( b ) are
The secondjack socketis then fitted and wirins thosewhich have higlr ano low reslstances
respec,
i s c a r r i e do u t a si l l u s t r a t e di n F i g . 4 ( b )T. h e . . l a r e e " tivelv.

'i---,

3ta'

a-

slA"

tt4" -

sora.rcd
to.os. or VR

.._______j_

t\___l

l f -

I I '.1| ," l-r

i

t t

t/___4
(b)

Th.ee-quaner viaw. Here tha two input jack

sockets of the dual input vdrsion may be seen
on the control panel
.JtiNFjl9;8

Fig.Sla) A piece of tinplate is cut out to fom a

mounting clamp fot T2
(b). After bending. tha ends of the clamp arc
soldered to the body of VBt

3ts'
t5A6"

(.)

ett{ lt^.

I
r

5ro

3la"

lh'

hoc

z3la"

t
tTle'

st{'
l3ro

3tao

3ls'

t5ro"

Fig.6 A case may be made up in the mannet shown here with items la) to ld inclusive
assemblv appeers as in (fl. Dimensions are for guidance only

TESTING
After completionin either singleor dual input
form. the amolifier is readvto be tried out. No set'
ting up adjus'tmentsare req.uiredand it is simply
necessaryto plug in the valve, connectup to the
mains and switc-hon. It should be remembered
that at this stagethe amplifier is not fitted in a case
and that connectionscarrying dangerousmains
voltagesare accessible.All precaulions against
shocli must be observed.
T h e h i e h i m p e d a n c ei n p u t c a n b e c o u p l e dt o a
in Part 1. or
crystalca;tridgeof the type.described
to a tuner unit havinga mediurnor high impedance
outout. The connectionshould be via screened
cablewith the braiding connectedto the amplifier
e a r t h ,i . e .t o i t s n q a t i v e s u p p l yr a i l .T h i s w i l l m e a n
t h a t a n v t u n e ru n i t u s e dw i l l a u t o m a t i c a l lby e c o n nectedio earth via the braiding,a fact which mav

The valva is positioned

on one side of the
speaker magnet with the 'xtended
spindle of
VR2|S| on the other side
til ll

The rinished

modifv tuner operationshouldthis be a simple

t.r.f. desim.

L o w r m o e d a n c ien p u t sc a n s i m i l a r l vb e a o p l i e d
t o t h e l o w i m o e d a i r c ei a c k s o c k e t . A Z N 4 l 4
r e c e i v ew
r i l l m a i c h i n t o t h e l o w i m p e d a n c ei n p u t
nicelv, thoughit may not fully load the amplifier.
Wheie it ii necesiarv to Tit a d.c. blbcking
caoacitorbetweenthe 6utput of the tuner and thi
low imoedanceinput. an electrolvticcapacitorof
around l00uF will be satisfactoiv. It ihould be
connectedwith a polarity suitable for lhe particular d.c. conditionsexisting.
CASE
and this may be made up as
A caseis necessary,
s h o w ni n F i e . 6 .T h e - s e c t i o nosf F i g s . 6( b ) , l d ) a n d
, h i l s i t h o s eo f F i g s . 6
t e ) a r e m a d i o f * i n . s . r . b . p .w
can
(a) and (c) are +in. plywood.The latter piece-s
be coveredwith Fablon, or painted to match lhe
s.r.b.o. sections.The assemblv is held together
with imall thin woodscrewswhich paT, through
holes in the s.r.b.p.pieces,into the edgesol the
plvwood.There shouldbe room for a pieceol melal
"chassis"
ioiaker eauzeto be placedin front of the
"chassis"
is
bifore it'is slipped into the case.The
h e l d i n p l a c e ' b y t h e t w o k n o b so n t h e p o t e n l i o meter spindles.More securemethodsmay readily
be devised.if preferred.
The dimensionsshown in Fig 6 are intended lbr
zuidanceonlv.
as thev assumettat lhe receiverhas
-exactlv-to
size, and they offer no
Seen made
clealances.
The actiralcaseshouldbe made to suit
the "chassis"as built. At leastsomeof the dimento allow this to be
sionsin Fie.6 will need revision
"chassis"to be a comfordone and to enablethe
table sliding fit.
(Concluded)
IiAI)I0 ANI) IiI,F]C'IRONICSCONSTRT]CTOR

rr

A DEMONSTRATIO
CONTROLSERVO
B y E . A . P a r ra n d J . A s h
A comprehensive demonstration system incorporating controllableoptions for servo gain, inertia,
tacho and tacho gain.

'fhis
unit was designedas a visual aid lbr a lecture on elementaryservosystemsand positioncontrols. It containsihe maioiitv of featuresfound in
a n i n d u s t r i asl e r v os y s t e mt s u c ha . e r r t , rl i n r i t a n d
t a c h of e e d b a c ka) n d i t c a nb e m a d et o d e m u n s t r a t e
the idiosyncrasiesof a real life system (such as
hunting, sluggishness
and generalinstability).

G E N E R A LP R I N C I P L E S
'['he
requirementsof a simple position control
are shownin Fig. 1. We havetwo dials; the "user"
turns one to a desiredangle and the "black box,,
turns the other to th same angle.
The first building block we need is somedevice

I
620

Tho complete seNo system. The transmittet pointer and diat are in tha separateunit coupled by a tength
ol wire to the main rcceiver section

RAI)IO ANI) I.]LEC'I'RONICSCONS'IRUCTOR

Fig. | . Block diagrcm illustrating a simple posi

tion contfol system

to rneasure the position of the hand-turned dial

(called the "transmitter" in the jargon) and the
"receiver"). There
motor-turned ciial (called the
are many forms this position, measuring device
(or p.m.d.) can take; common ones are synchros,
shafi encoders and the homely potentiometer.
Our simole servo uses a potentiometer. If the
r r o t e n t i o m e t e irs c r r n n e c l e dw i t h i t s t r a c k a c r o s sa
. l 2 v o l t s u p p l y , t h e v o l t a g eo n t h e w i p e r w i l l b e
depende4t on the shaft angle and. moreover.
s h o u l d b e r e a s o n a b l vl i n e a r ,
We thus have two voltages,one representing our
desired oosition and one our actual position. A subr r a c t i n nw i l l g i v e u " a r n l l a g ew h i t h r e p r e s e n l tsh e
e r r o r i n ^th-e
n o s i t i n na n d t h e ' i s n w i l l t e l l u s u h i c h
error is in (i.e. more lelt or right).
direction
A verv simnle servo svstem could then be built
along thi line.sol Fig. 2. The voltage error signals
e r . f e d t U t w o c o m D a r a l , r r Sw h i c h ' i p e l a t e l w { ,
r e l a v s :d r i v e l e f t a n d i l r i v e r i e h t . T h e r e i i s t o r c h a i n
a t l h e c o m D a r a l n ri n p r t l s n r o v i d e sa d e a d b a n d s r r
rhar at the h'med poiiti,'n the left and right relay.
c r c n o l c o n l i n u a l l l ,r ' h a t l e r i n g .T h i s t y p e o J s e r v oi s
'hang hing" svstem. lr shi,uld be noted
callerla
t h a t R l a n d R 2 a r e l a r g e c o m p a r e dw i t h R V 1 a n d
R V 2 t o r n i n i r n i s el o a d i n e . R 3 a n d R 4 s e t t h e d e a d
b an d .
f l i . . i r n p l e s e r \ , , h a s o n e t p r y s e r i n t t ss h . r t
e'rrninsT
. h e r n o t o rd r i \ . e st h e p o i n t e r a t a c o n s t a n l
s o e e du n t i l - h o r t t v h e l o r el h e a l e s l r e pd o s i l i o nl t h c
. i r r t , , 1t h e d e a d 6 a n d t .I f t h e s p e e di i t o o h i g h t h e
d i a l w i l l n a s . l h r u u c hl h e d e a d b a n d a n d o u t t h e
other side. The dial-will then hunt back and lbrth
a b o u t t h e d e s i r e d o o s i r i o n .O b v i o u s l v l h i s c a n h e
p r e v e n t e do n l y h y l r a v i n g . a w i d e d e a d b a n d ( p o o r
a (c l t r a c \ ' )r r r a . l ' r w s p e e d ( p o o r r e s p o n s e ) .
.ltr\Fl r 9?fl

PROPORTIONAL SERVO SYSTEM

Instinctivelywe want the motor to go fast when
we are a longway from the correctpoiition and to
slow down as we come near the cotrecl Dosllton.
This can be done by making the motbr volts
proportional to the error voltage.A servo along
theselines is shown in Fis.3.
The substractionof the two posilion signalsis
c a r r i e do u t b y I C 1 . T h i s i s , y o u w i l l s a y .a n a d d e r .
b u l t h e t w o p . m . d . ' sa r e a r r a n g e ds o t h a l t h e t l 2
volts are reversedon the rece-iverpotentiometer.
T h i s m e a n sl h a t i f t h e f a n s m i t l e r i s s i t t i n sa t s a v
' 3 volts,the receivershouldbe at -3 volts and th'e
sum (error) is 0. The error signal then feeds a
'pTrhr w
e e ra m p l i f i e rt o d r i v e t h e m o t o r .
o o w e r a m o l i f i e r c o n s i s t so f t h e l h r e e
amplifiei's, IC3 td IC5, and the four emitter
f o l l o w e r sT, R I t o ' l ' R 4 . T h e a m p l i f i e r so p e r a t ea s
s i m D l ei n v e r l e r sw i t h u n i t v e a i nt o s i v ea p u s h - p u l l
on
outout acrossthe motor. Noie that ihe feedbacl<
IC3 and IC5 is taken from the transistoremitters
for the 0.8 volt base-emittervoltage.
to compensate
(The FNP3055 specifiedfor TR3 and TR4 is a
p.n.p. power transistorhaving virtually the same
characteristicsas the 2N3055.lt is availableliom
R.S. ComnonentsLtd.. and readers who do not
haveaccesito this companywill have to order the
transistorthroush a retailer.- Editor).
T h e e a i n o f [ h e s v s t e mi s s e t b v V R l , w h i c h
determilnesthe relationshinbelween motor volts
and error volts (i.e. positioirenor). The settingof
the eain is importait. If it is too low we havi a
s l u g i i s hd r i v e i h a t d o e sn o t r e a c hp o s i t i o n I. f i t i s
l o o h i g h w e w i l l h a v ei n s t a b i l i t ya g a i n .
A sihple servolike this will work, but its perfor-r.,"" i'" limited bv the -The
eain that can bi used
standard way to
before instability r6ts itr.
overcomethis is to measurethe motor speed,compare it with the desiredspeed(i.e.the erior voltage

+ 1 2v

_t?v

(-+t2v

---t2v
RLR

"bang bang" seNo system fh.

Fig. 2, A
trrows alongside the potentiometers indicate
clockwise rctation

.t- t2-

vR3

NC,

R t -R t o r o o k n
R||-Rt6 47ln
vRt 5OOkn
VR2-VR3 lko

Nc.

Olls.t null Nl

NC

2N3O55,PNP3O55
741

Fig. 3. A ptoportional

seruo system. (No connections

Resls/r.rrs
(All fixed values ] watt 5% unless
otherwisestated)
Rl 68ko
R 2 - R 4 1 0 0 ko
R 5 1 0 ko
R 6 - R 1 71 0 0 ko
R 1 8 - R 2 44 7 ko
R 2 5 - R 2 71 0 ko
R28,R29 5.6ko
R 3 0 ,R 3 l 1 0 0 n , 2 w a t t s
VR1 500ko potentiometer,wire-woundor
celmet
VR2 500ko pre-set potentiometer,wire'
'woundor cetmet
VR3 500kn potentiomer,wire'wound or
cetmet
VRl-VRO 1ko potentiometer,wire-wound
VR7 100ko pre-set potentiometer,wirewound or cermet

are made to the offset null pins of the 741's)

Capacitors
C1 0.1rrFpolvester
C2'C4 l0rrF polyesteror polycarbonate
C5 0.01pF polyester
Sem[conrluctors
ICl-IC8 741
TR1, TR2 2N3055
TR3, TR4 PNP3O55
ZDl, ZD2 zenerdiode, 5.6V 400mW
D1, l)2 seetext
Sultches
S 1 , 5 2 s . p . s . t .t,o g g l e
S3 s.p.d.t.,toggle
L S 1 , ' L S 2 m i n i a t u r e s . p . d . t .m i c r o s w i t c h
(seetext,
Meter
M 1 1 5 - 0 - 1 5 Vc, e n t r e - z e r o
Misce aneous
Drive motor (seetext)
Tacho generator(seetext)
Heat sinks
Hardware for dials, gear train, etc.

RAI)IO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

Foiitio. c.roraip@d)

Fig.4.

8Io*

ditgt m sho*ing a tarya syswt,

with ttcho &.adback

R.c.iv.r

after the gain is set) and either add or subtracl to

the motor volts if there is an error. The hl,,t.k
dtaFram ol this system is shown in l ig. 4.
: \ u p p o s ew e a r e a p p r o a c h i n gl h e c o r r e c l p n s i l i n n
at hrgh speed with positive motor volls, and ue
overshool. I he speed referencecalls Ior small
( b e c a u s et h e e r r o r i s . m a l l 1
l n e q a t i v em o l o r v o l l s
b u t l h e t a c h o s e e sa l a r g e s p e e de r r n r b e c a u s er h e
m o t o r l s t r a v - e l l l n gI a s t i n t h e w r o n g d i r e t . t i o n . ' l h e
s p c e de r r o r s i g n a la d d s l o t h e s m a l l i p e e d r e l e r c n c r
I n g r v e . t a r g en e g a l l v ev o l t s t o s t o p l h e m o t o r q u i c k l\'.^| nls technlquels called tacho Ieedhat.k.
s e r v o m e c h a n i s m sc a n b e a v e r y m a t h e m a t i t . c l
s u h j e e t .b u r i r i s h o p e d t h a r t h e c i i c u i t s d ; " ; i , , n ; l
a r o n gl h e a h o v e l i n e s w i l l g i v e a n i n r u i l i v e f e e l l o r
t h e b a s l c .p r i n c i p l e s . I t i s y e a r s . a n ] . w a ) . . . i n c e
e i t h e ra u t h o r d i d a N y q u i s t " d i a g r a m .

P R A C T I C A LC O N S T RU C T I O N
There i:" much mechanical as well as electrical
wnrk in huilding th demonslration i"ir"-.'on.i
mosr peoptewtlt probahly use what thev hare in
thelr-"comein handy" box. The merhanicalnotes
a r e t h e r e t o r ea g u i d e . n o l a s h o p p i n g l i s r .
I n e p r o l o l y p e u s e da s l o l c a r m n l o r l i r r l h e m e i | )

drive motor. It was lbund bv trial and error thal a

gearbox ratio of about 1,000 to 1 rl,as rrceded. *e
were lortunate in that we were able to obtain two
30 to 1 gearboxesfrom some scrap industrial posi_
tion controls,_brrt he initial layout u.ecl "impie
Meccano gearboxes.
T h e t a c h . - w a sa s m a l l R i p m a x m , , l o r u l . p da s j l
s e n e r a l o r .l h e l y p e i s . n o l I e r l i m p n r r a n ta n d a
rIolor trom a .vlalchhox car game \aai u:ed
o r i g i n a l J yt .h i s b e i n g c h a n g e rd, ,r h e R i p m r x m n d o l
D e c a u s leh e l a l l e r $ a s e a s i e rl o m , , l l n l .T h e t a r h u
i s c o u p l e dt o t h e m o l o r s h a I h y a p i e c e , , fl l c x i b l c
f l r l ) l ) e lru b r n ga n d q i \ e sa h r , t l l1 r ' n l t .w
r h e nt h e " l r r t
c a r . r n o t o r , i sr o t a l i n g a l I ' , p s p e e d .F ' i g 6 " h , , u . st h e ,
D a s r cm e c n a n t c a lj a y o ut .
.. The mechanical construction should be maclc as
l r e e . a .pr n 5 5 i b l sa. n d w h e r e m i s a l i g a m e n tc a n i , . ( . u r
l l e x r h l ec , , u p l r n g sr h o u l d h e u . e d . A n e x { , e l l c n u
r nr v e r s aJl n i n t c a n h e m a d e w i t h u i n r l , ,r | r . n t r l r s h e r
jet tubing.
T h e . t w o p . m . d . ' s w e r e o r d i n a r - "1- k o w i r e - w o u n d
potentiometers. To allow for misalignntent. only
l 3 0 d e g r e e so f t h e 2 ? 0 d e g r e em o r e m e n r , u a * u r e d .
a n . l a l e r o ' n gc o n t r o la d d e d i n t h e I n r n r , , l a t h i r d
potentiometer.

The receiver potentiometer is mounted in froht of the receive,

diar. At the rcat ot the .eceiver boad is
the power supply' with the output transisto.rheat sinks to its
right. ini positions or otner parts ot the
receiver section are desctibed in the text

E 1971r

l. t r a s s l vl a v o u t .T o p r e v e n li t t a k i n go f f i n w i l d o s CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
c i l l a i i o n s a t h i g h f r e q u e n c i e st,h e r e s p o n s eo l
is
The final circuit is shownin Fig. 5. The circuit
a m p l i f i e r sw i t h i o n g l e a d sa t t a c h e di s s l u g g e db v
somewhatpedantic and uses far more op--amps caoacitorsin the feedback.
The circuit wasdesignthan are strictly necessary.
The t12 volt supply is derived from a single24
ed. rhouqh.to siparateout eachstage.ln a realserv
o
l t s u p p l v .T h i s i s s p l i t i n t o l 2 v o l t sb 5 t h e t u , '
gain
lnr
slage
vo svste"mthe eiror amplifier and
r
e
s
i ' t o i i R i o a n d R 3i . I n c h o o s i nag s u i t a b l es u p p examrrle,would be all one stage.The separationof
motor current shouldbe taken into account:
lv
the
stagesdoes, however,make the system easy to
ours takes about 1 amp.
exolain
' l h e and demonstrate.
e r r o t s u b l r a c l i o ni s d o n eb y I C l A s h e f o r e .
the voltagesare invertedon the two potentlometers C O N S T R U C T I O N
. h e z e r op o t e n l t o m e l et sr
The orieinal circuit was built on R.S. Com
s ot h 3 r t h e i r s u m i s z e r o T
s
e
r
l
i
n
g
i
n
i
n
i
t
i
a
l
e
r
r
o
r
f
o
r
a
n
y
o
o
n e n t s i i . s t r i o b o a r d ,h u l t h e l a S o u t i s r l n t
t
o
c
o
m
p
e
n
s
a
t
e
used
c r i t i c a l a n d o t h e i m e t h o d su f a s s e m b l yc o u l d b e
the physicai position of the potentiometersand
pornters.
used, As can be seen from the photograph-'.the
'
T h e g a i ni s s e t b y I C 2 i n t h e r a n g eI t o 5 0 T h i s
controlsand motor voltmeter were mounled on a
. he rariable
rs e c t i o n T
rvasfoundadequatefor our systemand cn\ ere'l t he
f r o n t n a n e l o f t h e r e c e i v e" Z
ero" tVR5t. "Gain"
t h i s p a n e la r e
e u n t r o i so n"Taclio"
w h o l er a n g ef r o m t e r v . l u g g i . h l , ' d o u n r i l h t u r t
(VR3). The threeswitchesare
(VR] ) and
stable.
"Tacho"
"
E
r
r
o
r
in(
S
1
)
," I n e r t i a " ( S 2 ) a n d
to
be
lnertia
mechanical
l
,
i
m
i
t
"
IC3 allows the
(s3).
c r e a s e de l e c t r o n i c a l l yb y d e l a v i n g t h e . . p e e d
lhe low lnertra
Behind the front panel is the circuit board and
r e f e r e n c eT,h i s w a s a d d e db e c a u s e
oi our svstemmeant that the oscillationsobtained behind this the fouf output tlansistors. These are
with thd high gain weretoo rapid to observeeasily' mounted on heat sinks 6 protect them should the
m.)torstall.
T h e p s e u d 6i r i e r t i ag i v e sa n o s c i l l a t i o no f a b o r r t1
To the Ieft of the front panel on the main
seconoDerloo.
. ith
I n t h ' e a b s e n c eo f t a c h o f e e d b a c k .t h e s p e e d r e c e i v e rb o a r d i s t h e r e c e i v e rd i a l a n d - p o i n t e r w
t h e r e c e i v e rp o t e n t i o m e t e ri n f r o n t o l t h e p o i n t e r .
r e f e r e n cies s i m p l ya p p l i e dt o l C 4 . I C 7 a n d I ( ' 8 t o
as before.
drive the motof in push-pull
D i r e c t l v b e h i n d t h e r e c e i v e rd i a l a n d p o i n t e r i s l h e
'is
T h e t a c h os i g n a l a m p l i f i e db y I C s w i t h g a . i n s e a r b o i , t h i s b e i n g c o u p l e db y a r u b b e r b a n d d r i r e
ib the motor, which is on the right. AIsu on the
set bv VR2. The eain is set such thal. \'\rlhlhe
m o t o i r u n n i n sa t t o p s p e e do f f l o a d .t h e v o l t a g eo u t r i e h t . a n d c o u p l e d t o t h e m o t o r , i s t h e t a c h "
in siEn,to seneratorA
eu t o p P o s i l e
. l l t h e s ep a r t s a r e m o u n t e d o n I h e i r o w n
o f I C 5i s e q u d li n m a g r l i t u d b
t h e v o l t a g eo u t o t l ( 2 , t h e s p e e dr e l e r e n c e l n e i h a s s i s w h i c h i n r u r n i s m o u n t e d o n t h e m a i n
voltaeeorit of lC6 will then be a speederror signal receiver board. Connection to the electronics is
( s u j t ; b l v a m o l i f i e d )q h i c h i s a d d e di n t o I C 4 a n d m a d e b v w a v o f p l u g s a n d s o c k e t s .B e h i n d t h e
r e c e i v e r - d i a l .m
- o t o r a n d t a c h o c h a s s i si s a m e t a l
iC? to buck or boostthe speedreference
Note that the error signal is derived from IC2
c a s e c o n t a i n i n g t h e p o \ t - e rs u p p l y . . .
,.
The transmitter, with its own dtal. adJusllng
sneedreference,not IC3. The tacho feedbackwill
d 5 ' knob and ootentiometer, is constructed on a free
i h u i " o r r e c tf o r t h e e l e c t r o n iicn e r ti a i n t r o d u c e h
chassis and connected to the receiver by about 3
IC3,
T h e m o t o ru s e di s a 1 2 v o l t t y p e .b u t u n d e rl o n g metres of cable.
m o v e m e n tist c o u l db e f e dw i t h 2 0 v o l t s l h e m o l r ' r
v o i t a e es i e n a li s l i m i t e d l o . 1 2 v o l t s b y Z D I a n d
Z D 2 . " T h e ; lei m i t t h e o u t p u lo f l C 2 t o + 6 v o l t s .a n d S E T T I N GU P
hencethe motor volts to i12 volts (it is driven in
of the systemshouldbe donein
Commissioning
e rr )T. h i s c l a r n p i n go f t h e e r r o r
o u s h - p u l lr, e m e" m
manner.
e rbr o
the
following
Iimiting"
i i s"The
n a l 'i s c a l l e d
I . D i s c o n n e c tt h e m o t o r e l e c t r i c a l l ya n d s e l t h e
errot limit, tacho and electronicinertia are
g a i n f o r m a x i m u m . S e t b o t h .d i a l s b y h a n d l o 9 r l
all switchablefor demonstration.
l . i r n i t s w i t c h e sL S I a n d L S 2 a r e o v e r l r a v e l d e g r e e sC
. o n n e c la m e l e r t o l h e n u l p u l . o l l . ( z a n ( l
t h ee v e n l a d i u s t t h e z e r o c o n t r o l f o r z e r o . S e t t h e . d l a l s h l
t a m a g et o l . h ep u i n t e r . i n
l i m i t st o p r e v e n d
o f z e r o m i s - s e t t i n qo, r w l l d o s c l l l a t l o n s I. n e s e hii d to O degrees.Adjust the span conlrol for zero'
s w i t c h e sw e r e R . S C o m p o n e n t s . t y p e3 3 i - 8 7 9 C h e c k a g a i n - w i t h b o t h d i a l s a t 1 8 0 d e g r e e s N ' ' l e
. i c r o s w i t c h ewsi t h t h eo p (r a t l n g t h a t l h e i p a n c o n l r o l i s a p r e - s e t .w h e r e a st h e z e r o
m i n i a t u r es . p . d . tm
c o n t r o l i s u s e r a c c e s s i b l eI.f a z e r o i s n o t o b t a l n a h l e
l e v e rt e r m i n a t e di n a r o l l e r ,a n d o p e r a t eo l l l h e
a
r
e
c
o
n
l
a
c
l
s
p
o
i
n
t
e
r
.
c
l
o
s
e
d
n
o
r
m
a
l
l
y
T
h
e
ui-O'i.-gru". ""d 180 degreescheck the wiring to the
receiver
potentrometers.
u s e d ,s t o p p i n gt h e d r i v ew h e nt h e . p . o i n l e r - h il lhse
s w i t c h . { T h e s w i t c - h e sw e . r e a d d e d 3 t l e r t n e
2. Hale error limit, inertia and tacho out Set
o h o t o c r a p hw
" e r et a k e n . lT h e d i o d e sD 1 a n d D 2
and
**
i" -ia-p"lnt Setuort'dialslo 90 degrecs
i t t n * i t r d m o t o r t o d r i v e o u t o f l i m i t i n t h e . . r f e i h . e r v e m n f o r v o l t s . M o v e I h e t r a n s m r t t e ro l a l
direction.Thev are silicon rectifierswith foruard
" i i ' r ' " t . ; a " i i g o d " g t " e s .T h " m o t o r v o l t ss h o r r l d
cunent ratinqi suitable for the motor.
dite.tion tpositiveand
ii.l,' ".a'frit-i"-e?ih
t t r . t o r f - c a p a c i t o r sC 2 , C 3 a n d C 4 a r e
zero.
negative)from
p o l v e s t eor r p o l y c a r b o n a taen d n . , te l e c t r o l v t 'i r( A
b
y
H
o
m
e
3. Connect the motrrr elecrricallyhut n.ol
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l
i
s
t
e
d
c
a
p
a
c
i
t
o
r
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i
n
o
b
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e
c h a n i c a l l yR. e p e a tS t e p 2 a n d o b s e r r et h a t t h e
R ; d i o i . D i f f i c u l t t ,m a y b e e x p e r i e n c e d
Set both dials
the 500kn wire-wound or cermet potentiometers -oioi atiu"J u"d ieverses'correctly.
c
o
n
n
clth e m o l '' r '
m
e
c
h
a
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l
y
a
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d
potentiometers
d
e
g
r
e
e
s
t
o
9
0
reouired for VR1 to VR3. Carbon
s
H a v ea F a n dp o i s e do v e rt h e O n - O f f w i t c hi n c a ' e
can be used.but it is slightly bad practicetn u'e
lnop'
potentiometers
o
i u t u n " t u u ! . M o v e t h e l r a n s m i t l e rd i a l b y 4 5
in
a
feedback
carbon 'circuit
i " * " " r , l t t i r e c e i v e rd i a l s h o u l d f o l l o w i n t h e
The
operates with long ieads and a
624

RADIO AND ELFJCTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR

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P A N T E C T R A N S I S T O RT E S T E R

F;9. 6. fhe mechanical lawut a, the rhotot,

tacho and drive to tha rccoivea poin,e,

sarne direction (do not worrv abotrt oscillalion

a l ) o u t t h e f i n a l p o s i t i o n ) . i f i h e d i a l m r r v e st h e
w r o n g w i t v r e v e r s et h e l n o t o r c o n n e c t i o n s .
. 1 . \ \ r i t h t h e m o t o r c o n n e c t e dt h e c o r r e c t
wav.
, l i - i , , n n e c jtt m e , h a n i c a l l ra g a i n .M . v c e i t h e rd i i l
r i t t l t l h c t n ' , l r r ri . rr u n n i r r gt l t , , p c | e c d . a n d c h e t . k
I l r r t I l t c r ' , , h r g e os u t o f l C 5 a n d I C 2 a r e o l ' l ) p i , s i l e
l ) , , r i n r r ( \ .l t l l t e v j t r e n l l l , r e v e r s et h e t a ( , h 1(,. o n
r | c l i " r ) . I l . r . h e ra r o , , 1, , p p o s i r |eo l a r i t y . r r r r n t h e
l . r . h hg j l l l lI \ H j { ) I ' r m a x i m U m .r r b s e r \ 'leh e r r t r t o u t
o f I ( l { i a n d s e t V R 2 t o g i v e z e r o .N o t e t h a t V R i l s
n r ) l L t s e ra c c e s s l b l p _
5. \Ye noq chcck that the tachoworks.With the
n t o t o r s t i l l r n e c h a n i c a l l vd i s c o n n e c t e d s. e t e i l h e r
, l i r r ls " t h , rt . t h cm , ' t ' , ri c ; u n n i n gr t a h n u ro n p . 1 h i r d
<l',,r'(1
\ \.l l h I l r e t a c h o . $ i t ( . h p d ( , u t . a p p l ! l i g h t
f i l r f c r p r e . : . l r r n1 , ,t h r . l n o t o r s h a f l r , , s l r , , , r ' irt l , , w n .
o
' l 'bhscc n c t h c r n o t o r v o l t s a n c l s t v i t c h t h e t a c h o i n .
r n o t o r v o l t s s h o u l d r i s e t o t o m p e n s a t ef i i r t h e
l " r r r lr r n , lt l t t -l l , , t , ) rs l ) e e dr . r pa g a i n .T h i s m a v r a k e
: - ' , r n or ' \ l ) ( . r i r n e n l i l i o un i r h r h e t a , . h , g
, ain ;,rtenr j , , l l p r , , rt , , l i n d t h e c , r r r e c ts e r t i n g .M n r e ' e i t h e r
clial uith the tacho in and out anii cu-par" iho
s l r r r ln r n n i n g ' c h a r a c t e r i s t i cosl t h e - u t n r . i t " h u , i i l
bc 1arlrclter uith thc tacho than without. Il there
i s a t e , n d e r c vf i ) r t h e m o t o r t o ' , c o g " ( i . e . l i r r i h e
r r r " r , , rl ,. ' l t r r r r lh r : . p e e d i n g
r r p a n d s l , , u i n gd , , u n
r l r r r r ' k l '. l t l . r , \ n l c c , r r d lt h e t i l . h ue a i n i : -r , , , h
, ieh
: r n , i - , , r r l d l r e r p d r r c c d J) , , n o l c o n l u s c t h i . \ a . i 1 h
, , . r ' iL , r i , , r r,., r ' u
r r r i n u l r e c a r r "lch e p n s i l i o n( . , , n t r , , 1
t : r t t ri - ' , " ' h i g l r :, , , g g i t r w
g i l l , , c c r rw
r irh thr mrrtor
rnlthr nicrlll di"' i,nnccted.
6 . \ 1 t ' c h a n i c a l l vr c c o u n e c tt h e m o t o r a n d c b e c k
r h r r tt l r ve r r , r rI i r r r i tk e e 1 rr.h e n r r r t r ,\ r' , , l l sr l a r r u n ( l
l l r , , l t - . . r r rr,l lr r r t l r pi n e r r i rg i r e . ; r- l r r g g i sdl rt i t r .
p r ) n e t o o \ e r s h i ) o ta n d o s r . i l l a t e . ' l ' h ien e r t i a s h o u l d
l ' , L , ' r r c t, e , l l , \ l h r ' t r c h i , l e e d h r r c k . T h e o \ e r t r l \ E l
l' l. '-lrr.or i r,-r n , l, l i , , d e sI t l , r n d I r ! . h , , u l d l r e c h e rk c r l .
d i , , r l ed i r c c r i , r n si . c . p o l r r i r i c * .r r " h e l . rt , , i r n , i
r ) \' 'l I n i t I o r t r l e r r ( r r .
l r , . . - n r v ' : \ ' s t . n r i - n , , \ a\ o t
.uI anri rcarjt Ii,r
're
,1-r..
I

7ort.. t,n,lt (rtn

llr(l

ta( ho

gflin

lusllncnls i'un be altered for demonstration.

il{l
I

h:{i

Precision Instrument Laboratories, follow,

ing their recentappointment as main agents
{1rr the Pantec ranqe of Portable Test
Instruments, have released details of the new
range of Pantec multimeters etc, specifically
d e s i g n e dt o m e e t t h e r e q- u i r e m e n t so f " E I e C tronic Ensineers".
The Pantec transistor and diode tester
p r n v i d e ss i m p l e a n d w i d e r a n g em e a s u r e m e n t
! ! x a i n a n d l e a k a e eb o t h f o r p - n - p a n d n - p - n
clevtces.
Price t26.50 plus carriageand VAT. For
l u r l h e r i n f o r m a t i o n c o n t a c t :P r e c i s i o nI n s t r u _
ment _L_aboratories,
212 Ilderton Road, London. SE15 lNT.

EMI WIN BBC ANTENNA

EOUIPMENT CONTRACT
EM-l Sound & Vision Equipment, a division
n t l l M I I n d u s t r i a l E l e c t - r o r i i cL
simited. has
wirn a contract worth 1438,000 from the
flritish Brnadcasting Corporation for the
design. supplv and lnstallarion or anrenna
I l l n r n g e q u i p m e n t .T h r e e o f t h e C o r p o r a t i o n ' s
high power M.F. transmitting stations are
covered bv the contract.
'l'he
new tuning networks are required to
,,peralewilh a variety of new and existing
mast radiators and main feedersat the BBC'i
tr_ansmittersites at Burghead in Morayshire,
Westerglen in Stirlingshire and Broo'kmani
I)ark in Hertlbrdshiie. A larse scale ree r r g r n e e r i n gp r o g r a m m e a t t h e s e a n d o t h e r
B B C r t a t i r ) n sh a s b e e n i m p l e m e n t e d s o t h a t
the Corporation can accommodate the
c l r r r n c e sw h i c h * i l l r e : u l t f r o m a m a j o r
r c r l l , i c l t i o n o I f r e q u e n c i e si n t h e M . F . a n d
i . . f . b a n d s s c h e d u l e df o r E u r o p e l a t e r t h i s
VEAI.

II.\I )IO A\I)

I]I,F]("fRONICSCONS'fRT]CTOR

STER E O
n
y0ut: A M P L I FI E R
u|0H RE P A IR
l-zn.'lf*l

["'ry11"."1

$[!r

"Ah, this will

makea pleasantlittle job to finish off the dayl"
Bearning,the Servicemangazed
down at the small stereo ricord
plaver and its two speakerswhich
he had lust carriedbver from the
"For Repair"
rack. As he fitted the
2-wavDIN speakerplugsinto their
socketsat the rear of the plaver he
heardhis assistantwalk to;aids the
coftDlementary"Repaired" rack.

" H1a1vaev e

n n ishe
r s n edd t h a t TI V
V o u fin
then?" calied out Smithv over his
shoulder.

"Yep."
responded I)ick deiected,
lr a* he deposited a m"nuChrt,me
television receiver on the rack.
Smithy glanced at his watch.
" T h e r e ' so n l y
half an hourtn go,'
h e r e m a r k e d ," I f v o u l i k e y o u c a n
s p e n di t h e l p i n gm e w i t h t h i . sr e c " r d
IrlaYer,

"As vou like," replied {)ick

li'tlesslv.
S T E R E O P L A Y ER
A dispiritedDick carriedhis stool
a v e r l i , S m i t h ys s i d e a n d f l o o o e d
dnwn on it. Smilhv had alriadv
pickedout the serviie sheetfor thi
recordplayerand had it openat the
circrrid
t i a g r a m (. F i g . 1 . )

RH CHANNEL

2 gJ)tF

4jk^

O a47pF

Fig. | . One channel of an inexpensive stereo record player. The tone and votume contrcls of the left hand
channel are ganged with thd similar contrcls in the ght hand channet. Component values are representative of commercial Dractice
JL\E 1978

"There
doe.n'r appear rn be
anvthing verl' complicated there,"
cornrnented l)ick in a despondenl
tone as he glanced at the circuit.
"What's
supposedto be the snag?"
Smithv glanced at a small tickel
attached to the record player.
"According
to this," he remarked. "there's distortion in the right
hand channel."
"Fair
'
enough. responded Dick.
He gave vnice tn a heavv sigh.
Smithv glancedat him shirply
t h e n p l u f g e d t h e r e c o r dp l a y e r r n t o
the mains. After this he switched it'
on and reached up to the shelf over
his bench lbr an l.p. test record. The
c h an g e r m e c h a n i s m c a u s e d t h e
record to clatter down onto the
rotating turntable and the pick-up
stvlus to descend into the-outsid-e
lead-in groove. There was a slight
hiss from the speakers,after which
both channels were reproduced at a
comlortable volume level without
anv noticeable distortion on either.
Experimentally. Smithy reduced
the vrllume. As he did so a
noticeable and increasing distortion
hecanle evident in the right hand
channcl. and the sound from its
s p e n k e rd i s a P p e a r e da l m o s t l y c o m
i,letel\ $hen therewas still a small
volume level aLrdible from the left
hand channel speaker. Smithy
rotated the balance control to
favour the right hand channel,
whereupon its volume level, still
distorted. increased by a small amm o"Well,"
unl,
he remarked contentedlv, as he operated the changer lever
to return the pick-up to its rest and
then switched off the amplifier,
"there's
nothing very mysierious
ahout the svmptoms here.Riqhtvh n , [ ) i c k , p e r h a p sy o u ' d l i k e t i , g e t
t h e l ) r i n l e d l ) (' a r d n u l . "
"Huh!" grumbled
Dick as he
Dloved tr)wards the record plaver
nnd picked up a screwdrivei from
Smithv's bench. "I thought you'd
get me over to do the donkey work."
"Here. what's getting
into you
these days?" queried Smithv
irritrblv. nl'or the last few week-.s
vou've been getting more and more
miserable all the time. You're
lxrsitivelv insufferable this a fter''It s
m v l u c k , " c o m p l a i n e d[ ) i c k ,
renroving the bottom cover of the
record plaver amplifier. "There's
nobodv, nobody, who could have
l L r c kw h i c h i s a s b a d a s m i n e . "
" l h ad n ' t
"
noticed, stated
Smithv. "lncidentallv, isn't it vour
birthdav in a ferv davs'time? That
should be something to look forward
''It's on,thc
scventhof April. if
vou nlust know.
Bv nou. I)ick had removed the
knobs from the volume, balance
and tone controls.
"Ah
ves.' commented Smithy
knowledgeablv. "That makes vou
a n A r i e s . d o e s n ' ti t ? "
"I'll sav it
does,"said Dick unhappitv. "And, what's more, I'm
62tl

Fig.2(a).
F irst, Smithy
measu ted
the supply
voltage applied to the output transistors
(b). He next measured the
vottage at the upper end of
the 2.2!l
rcsistot between
the output emitte6
(c). As was to be expected,
the same voltage reading
was given at the lower end
of the 2.2 A resistor

dre:rding mt hirthdav. When is

vour birthdav?"
''I ir'r ,,i 5q1l1prnL.r."
respnnded
slnrthv l)rom[)tlv. I'm a Virgo."
''Then
rnu re the one who. get
ting all the good luck whilst I'm the
, , n e w h o ' s g e t t i n ga l l r h e b a d l u c k .
Oh well, Iet s iet on wilh lhis
printed
' I ' l r e board."
pair fell silent fnr .ome
n l , r ) r e n t :l : I ) i c k s t r u g g l e dw i t h r h e
l r , ' : r r d .l " l c n r L r r l l v . h e \ a a s a h l e t o
l . , r ' i t , " 1 1, , n t h e b e n c h ,c , ' u p l e dt , ,
r l r e p r , k - L l g hr v w a y o l a _ , t e r e n
- r ' r e e n e dl e a d . n n d r n l h e r p e a k e r
- , r ' k e t - h \ 2 - w a v f l e x i b l el e a d " .T h e
t r r r n , ,c , , r r r r r ' 1w. e r e s e c u r e d t o t h e
l,':,rd and l)i,k retitred rheir
VOLTAGE CHECKS
''Shall
rve trv tbe record again?"
r t s k e dI ) i c k
''.\_ot
for the moment," resDond,
ed Smithy. "l think I'll do a few
d.c. voltage checks first,"
He switched on the amplifier,
lurning the combinedvolume control end on-off switch to a central
volunre setting. pulled his testmeter
torvards him and set it to a voltage
range. lle clipped its negative lead
t() the record player chassis, then.
atier consulting the service sheet,
l i , L . r l e ( lt h e , , u t D U t s t a g e ( , f t h e
, rl l e n dr n g r i g h i h a n d c h a n n e l
anrplifier.
''l'irst
cfreck." he called out, "is
r l | n r p - r \ r l r et h e s u p p h l o l t a g e . T e l l
me what the meter reads "

H e : r 1 r p l r eldh p p o s l t r ! e t e s l D r o o
r , , r h e , , r l l e c r o,r, f l h e A c l ? r i . i F i S .
U(il).)

"About 21 volts."
said l)ick.
Srnithv applied the meter to the
emitter ol the A('l?6. (Fic.2(b).)
"And now?"
' ' 1 1 )\ ' o l t s . "
"Good," remarked
Smithy. "Tha1
n r e . r r ) l: h , r t l h e ' , u t l u t e m i t t e r s a r e
.rtting .rt rh,'rrt half the supplr
r,'lrirgc lho 2.2n re-i.rnr herwieir
thcm is elmost certain to be all
r i . ' ' t t . l l r t I l l 1 r 1 - t1 r ' 1 1 1 i 1 p, 11 5 ,
r n . r - r r r i g t h e ' , . , ' l t a g en n t h e
e r r r i t t r r , , 1 r h { ' A ( - 1 5 : 1 .\ \ h a r ' s r h e
nrelersav now, Dick?"
Srnitlrr tnrrchpd rhe te.t proc
rtglinsl the ACl53 emitter. iFig.
l(c).)
''l()
volts again."
''llight."
cornrnented Smithy.
' ' S i r rc, t h l
d i - t n r t i o n , ' r r l va u n e a i ' .
a l l o w v o l u m e l e v e l s .l e t ' i s e ei f t h e
r)Lrtl)Le
l 1t n l t t e r v o l t a g e v a r i e s i f I
rdjust the,,olume control."
Slowlr'. Smithv rotated the
v o l u m e c o n t r o lk n o b a n t i c l o c k w i s e _
'''l'hevoltage
is still steadvat 10
volts.' announced I)ick. "Wait a
l n i n u t e .t h o u g h .i t ' s s t a r t e dt o g o u p !
[Jlinrer'. it's going up all the tim-e;
rt's right up to 20 volts nou!"
,{n,l rhrr." said Smithv, taking
hir lrarrd ,,ll the volrrme controi
knob and removing the positive
tcstnreter lead from the printed
hoard. "is the output emitter
voltage given rvhen the volume con
trol ls at the minimum volumeposi,
tion. I hardlv need to tell you what

l i i \ l ) t o A \ j t ) E L F t ( 'R
f o\ t(.sco\s.t RtrcToR

Fig.3.

Checking the electrclytic capacitor coupling

contrcl slider to the base ot the 8C108

f r ) n r l ) ( , n e nwt i l l b e t h e m o s t o b v i o u s
crrrrse
o i t h i s s n a g ,d o I ? "
''l)on't
vou? I'm darnedif I can
''Lrxrk
at the circuit and think
: r l r o r r ti t . f h e s l i d e r o f t h e v o l u m e
cr)ntrol I)i)t has no d.c. connectionto
t h e l o l l o * i n g s t a g e si n t h e a m p l i f i e r ,
ilnd vet it is altering the d.c. con,
d i t i r r n si n t h o s es t a g e sH
. ow canthjs
hal)D{,n
w h e n t h e o n l v c o n n e c t i o ni s
v i r a n c l e c lr r r l v t i cc a p a c i t o r ? "
"1r,,
\ ' i r L t r r t e a n t h e 4 7 r lF o n e
l r n l $ e e nl h e t ) , , rs l i d e r o n d t h e b a s e
ol the B(lt {)8?"
' ' l d , r ".
''Oh." said
I ) i c k . h i s i n t e r e s tr i s
ing rlesgrith
e i s g l o o m _" P e r h a p s i t ' s
gir')e-\h{rrt-clrcultor low tesistance,
lnen
"Flxactlv.
Sucha fault is the mosr
probable be<rause
it's obvious that a
\hi)ri herc would provide the un,
\ r ; ! r t e d d . c . c o n n e c t i o n I. f t h e e l e c
l r o l ! t i c . \ s h o r t - c i r c u i t e d ,t a k i n s
l h e v o l r r n r ec o n t r o l s l i d e r d o w n t o
lhc nrinirnum volume end of its
treck u.ill cause the base emitter
t . o l t a g eo i t h e B ( 1 1 0 8t o f a l l b e l o w
the 0.{j volt level rvhich js needed to
t L r r na s i l i c o n t r a n s i s t o ro n . S o t h e
lt('ll)tl .,rili cLrt off. And that,s ex, i rr l v \ r h . i t i r h a p p e n i n gh e r e . '
srnrlh\ .$itche'l ,,ff the recrrrd
l ) l i v c r . s e l e c t i n ga r e s i s t a n c er a n g e
on his testmeter and adjusted its
selzerr) (r)ntrol. He then aoolied
the test prods to the ,1.?!l ;leclri)lvtic capacitor.The meter in
d , i i - . r t erd\ ( r v d r l j n i r e s h , , r t . c i r ( u i t .
rfrl {.)
''\\'hat
clid I tell vou?" said
Snrithv triurnphantlv.,,A dead
r h i , r t .n o l e s s ll ) e r h a p sy o u ' d l i k e t o
l i t e n e r r c a p a c i t o r ,I ) i i k . "
''Oh.
u l l r i g h t . " r e s p o n d e dI ) i c k
g r L r n r g r i lavs. h e w a l k e r lt o w a r d st h e
. l ) r l r e \f l l l ) D r ) a r 1 1 .
''\'f g,,d.."
snrrted Srnjthy,
''dr)n sllv
t
v o L r ' r es t i l l a l l c h e e s e d
r i l . \ \ ' h r r l r r ne a r t h j s i t t h a t ' s g e t t i n s
lorr d,r\.'n)'
''I{
\'ou ntust know," said I)ick
f cl u c t en t l v , " i t ' s t h e l ) i s f ] " i c f
.JL\ll lt,;l.l

the votume

Clarion and WeehlyAduertiser.

A g r r r r D a - s e df l e e t i n g l v n v e r
Snritlr\ . l:1ce.The Districl elarion
oncl IXechlyAduerrlserwas a local
i , , rrln dI , , f * t r r r g g l i n gc i r c u l a l r o n ,

e r r . r t l r 'I n . i k e - u t ' l n d i d i o s v n c r a t i c
, " ' , c r r g , , w h i c hs u h s i . t e dm ; l n l v n r ,
r r " i g h h" r r h o n d c l u h n e w s t o e e i h e r
u i r h p h n t , , 5 t a p h so f w c d d i n g " .a n c
other local events (credited. unpaid,
to the photographersconcerneci)occlslonal poems (anonymous and
s r r n i lrr l v u n p a i dI a n d a i e m a r k a b l l
r.rried selectinn of small adveitlscments for second,hand
household goods.
"Ah
ves," sLqtedSmithy. "A very
I i n e p r ,' g r e s . i v e p u h l i c a t i o n , i
ilrrln't kn,,w vou read it_"
"1\{v old
maid aunt, Ineffihle Eff.
r : r k e ,i r I r r , e dt , , q u i t e e n j o v g l a n
|lng rhr,,u(h it unt'l thev started
t his nervastrologv feature of theirs a
couple ol months ago. It's written
by, somei'ne cailed Gipsy Esmeralda.
"Well?"
"l)o
von know, Smithy, that
r t s t r r ) l o g vc o l u m n i s s e n d i n g m e
. r : r r : r r r r i nugp t h e w a l l ! E v e r y \ r e e k .
s h e p r u p h e s i e sm i d d i e o f t h e r o a d
. l L r f l 1 o r a l l t h e s i g n so l t h e Z o d i a c
excel)t for Aries and Virgo. She
gives marvellous forecastsfor Virgo,
ancl she foretells nothing but misery
and disaster for Aries. And this is
g{rlng on continually week after
week....I tell vou, it's driving me
"\'oLr shouldn't
let a thing like
t h e t g e t v o u d o w n ," a d v i s e d
Slnithv. "Anvwav, have you got
t h r l r c l ) l a c e m e n.t1 . ? & Fe l e c t r o l v t i c

E M I T T E RF O L L O W E R S
(irimlv, I)ick tore his thoushts
ewav Irom his fbrebodings for'thc
l u t r r r ea n d c o n c e n t r a t e do n t h e l m ')te(lritte present.
''l'\'egot
i t h e r en o w , " h e r e p l i e d .
hrnciing the component to tha Serlrcenran. 'Incidentally. 1ou seem
to be trafiicking in the occult today,

too. What led vou from the output

e m i t l e r v o l r i i g eg o i n g h i-g h t o t h a t
1 .i g F e l e c t r n l v t i i ? '
' ' J u s te x a m i n e
t h e c i r c u i t , "s a i d
Smithy in replv. "There's onlv one
amplifying device,so far as iimal
voltageis concerned,in the whole
amplifierand that'sthe BC108.The
threetransistorswhich follow it are
all emitter followers.This means
that the voltage at the outDut
e m i t t e r sw i l l b J t h e s a m e ,q i v e o r
take a fractionof a volt dropped
-as in
the hase-emitterjunctions, that
a t t h e B C 1 0 8c o l l e c t o r . ("F i s . 4 . )
"Yes?"
''So,"continued
S m i t h y ," i f t h e
BCl08 cutsoff its collectoieoesfully positivevia the resistori which
cc,upleit tU the positiverail. Now,
the business
of the BCl08 is to hold
the output emitters at a central
voltageunder quiescentconditions
and it is assistedin doinsthis bv the
d.c. negativefeedbackiesistori."
"Which ones
are they?"

Fig. 4. The only vottage

amplification
in the
amplifier
is given by the
BCl08.
The thtee tranststors which follow are all
emitter followers

" lhey're
the 750ko and 330ko
resistorsfrom the emitter of the
B C 2 I 4 L b a c k r o r h e b a s eo l r h e
IlCl08. In companywith the 68k o
r e 5 i s t o rI r o m t h e B C l 0 8 b a s e r , ,
chassisthey keepthat baseat about
0.6 r'nlt abovechassislevel."
Smithy traced out the circuit
p a t h w i t h h i s f i n g e r .( F i g . 5 ) .
"Hang on a minute,"
said Dick
e x c i t c d l y", A m I c o r r e c ti n s a v i n e
t h a t i f t h e u p p e re n d o f t h e 7 5 d k d
resistoris at l0 volts positivethe
baseol the BC108is about 0.6 volt
positiveof chassis?"
"Ynu are. If you
work out the
v,'ltagesfrom the resistor values
you'll find that that is the case."
"Right,"
said Dick decisivelv.
"What happens
after you switchon
the arnplifier, then, is that the
emittersof the BC214Land the two
ti29

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Fig. 5. The d.c, feedback loop consists of a potential divider given

by the thrce rcsistors ftum the BC2!4L ernitte. to chassis. Their
values cause about O.6 volt to appear at the BCt 08 base when the
8C2l4L
emitter is at 1O volts

{ B O O KE N D C H A S S I S )

Tbe DUETIE Ste'.eoAmp ifier irses o!r cA l

be slop ied punched or !n.
punched The P C Eoards fo. th s project are
also avdilaber For deta s of this an.j oL,r
sland.rd ranqe ol cases s-"nd 15D
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275a Fulwood Rosd
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O D O SA N D E N D S
Mechanicat

Elactrical

output transistors all start to go

positive.When they reach 10 volts
or so the base of the BCl08 has
risen to 0.6 volt above chassis,
whereupon it stsrts to conduct and
prevents the emitters from going
anv more Dositive."
i'You've'gotit exactly.The 0.1pF
capacitorbetweenthe junction of
the 750ko and 330kO resistors
and chassis is an a.f. bypass
capacitor,and it kills any a.f. that
would otherwise be fed back to the
BC108, making the feedbackloop
purely d.c.only. And, of couise,the
shnrted4.?4Fcapacitoryou'vejust
replacedcausedthe BCt08 baseto
go well below the 0.6 volt level at
low volume control settings."
"So that's the d.c. Teedback
Ioop," commentedDick musingly.
"Now, when a signalis applied to
the baseof the 8C108 its collector
will go positive and negative of the
centre voltage as it follows the

signai,and so aiso will the emitters

of the emitter followers after it.
Hallo, there's another feedback
looo. It's the one from the outDut
emitters via the 0.04aF capacitor
and the 4.?ko resistdrto the bottom of the volume control track."
(Fig.6.)
"That's the a.f. negative
feedback circuit," stated Smithv. "Now.
how about wiring in that new electrolytic?"
ANOTHEF FAULT
''All right, said Dick brightly. as
he seatedhimself in front ol the
amplifier printed board.
'"Thank-goodnessyou've started
to cheer up a bit," commented
Smithy. "You werebeginningto get
risht up mv nosewith all that stuff
au o u t 'u i d l u c k a n d G i p s y
Esmeralda."
Dick's hand. reaching for the

CATFREE
W H I S T O ND E P TR . E . C .
N E W M I L L S ,S T O C K P O R T

47k^

a Q47)rF

Also a Dostalscrvice

Fig. 6. A.C. negative feedback is provided vie the O.O4!!F capacitor

rosisto.
and the 4.7kO

RAI)lO A.\'.l) ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

soldering iron, ialtered.

"
''l)ash it
all. Snrirhr he c'rm
p l a t n e d .' w h r t d i d r ' , r r h n r c t o r c
nrind rne ,,1 her agairrI"r" lt .
nothingshort of lraumatic picking
up a paper each week and linding
l h j r l \ ' " L r ' r e h n , , k e d t , ' r p ' ,e ' r
calanit]' that's going. I'm dreading
tbe latest issue."
"Why
s that?"
"Wcll.
vou knr,w that alter the
,rrdinary hor'.-,,'1,.'.h" ha- ;,
special section on birthdavs during
t h e { o l l ' , w i n gw c e k . n h o r e . h c . a l c
w h a t s g o i n st , , h : r l , p e rnn t h r 't w p l r .
r i " n t h - t r ' ' , r r r e\.l v b i r t h d r r r .
n r x l . ! e e k .a s \ 1 ' r r k n , , $ . i r n d I m
t p r r i l i e r lo f * h r r r - h e - p u r r n r l . c
,ldr|rtijl r for rr\ next Year.'
I)ick moaned unhappilv.
''l supp''se
t h e r es i l l , t h i n g e l s e
lnr me to d,' hur s,,ldicr,,n. he
stated moroselv.
' ' A n r , x r ' e l l e n t . e n r i m e n l ,j 3 i c
S m i t h y a p p r o v i n g l l - ". l n l a c t , i l l o u
g e l a I n , ' \ ' eo n p r r t t i n u r n r h a t n e u
c a p a c i l , , rw e . h r , r r l d h c a h l c r ' , B e l
this re,,'rd plarcr linisherlLrl',re
we pack up tonight."
Clumlr. I)ick lrusied himsplr
with Smithy's soldering iron and
s n i p s .a r r d i t w a . n r , t L ' n g h e l ' , r et h e
new capacit,,r was installed. A.
Dick returned the soldering iron t(l
its rest, Smithy leaned over and
switcherlr'n the arnlrlilier. He
quicklv r:hreked the r,,llagt
between the outpllt emitters and
chassis,to lind that this was now a
s t e a d v 1 0 v o l t s a t a l l s e t t i n g so f t h e
volume control. Putting his
testineter to one side he started the
'fhis
rec<rrd again.
time the rieht
hand channel produced an outDut
w h i c h m a t c h e dt h a t o f t h e l e l t h i n d
channel when the '"olume control
was taken irorn its zero sr'ttins to
. a b o u ta q u a r t e r o f i t s l u l l o u t p u t .
" l hat's
c l e a r e du p t h e d i s t o r t i o n
farrlt," said Smithv triumphantlv.
"l must
c o n l e s sI ' m q u i t e s a t i s l i e d
rvith this record plaler now. Let s
just turn the wick up a bit more
b e l b r ew e f i n a l l v d e c l a r ei t o l l i c i a l lv repaircd.'
He a.l\.iared lhr' \,rlllmc r,ntr' I
l i r r t h e ru r r t i lr h e \ \ ' , r k - h , . Iu a - I i l . e d w i t h t h e s r r r r n dl r o m t h e t w r ,
. 1 , g e k e r {- - 1 , , l i - r " n " , il r i . e r t . p s
. i , , n , h c n B r . 'lir , r ' r " n " ' . t I ' 1 , ; r . r . r '
l , r , , n p . , 1 p r a . l ) e 'r t i , n I ' h . . r l m , .
qhilst the lelt llnd rhannelue.
h a l l r r i r h e n d l i n g I r g h l e v e l- r 6 ' n a l s .
the right hand channcl was quite
clearly overloading.
' ' 1 3 1 , ,i-rr . r r " r l c d\ ' r u r r , ,
trarr
l r . ; - h e t r . r r e dl ' ' , I r h r L , l r r r ' r .
c o n t r o l . " j ' h e r es a n o t h e r l a u l r
h e r e \. \ ' e r e [ ( l I i n f ( 1 . . , . , r ' i , , r : , r r ' l - , ,
right hand channelat high rclumc
Leveln
s owl"
'''fhar'. l'",:r
"em.rrktrl
r.,.
I ) i c k d a r k l v , " r ' o u a s k e dm e t o h e l p
v n u , ' r rt h i s i , , h .\ \ ' l r a t . h a p p e n e r rl .
t h a t m r l , a d l r r 'I h r . - l ' r c r d , . r r
o n t ot h i s a m p l i l i e r . '
''N"nrenre.
r p ( , , r l r I' i S r ni r n \ ' .
''Thi. .ec"nrl
l , , r n l d i s r , , r r . r, r i . n t
h r n r l m o l r r . a . n , . r re' a h l ee - r h n
.ll \t.t |,;.r

one we've just cured and I would

guess that the chap who owns this
record Dlaver onlv plavs it at fairlv
l , ' w l e v i l s a n v w a v . ' I t i a l m , , s tc e r ' tainly the first distortion snag
which caused him to bring it in 1br
service. Oh well. we'd better see
what's causing this second Iault."
[{ow do you intend to do that.
Smithy?"
"l'm going
to follow a hunch,"
replied Smithy. "I'm going to
rneasure the voltage on the output
emitters all over again, but fhis
t i r n e w i t h a s i g n a lf r o m t h e p i c k - u l r
g,'ing through. l ll start oft by
c h e c k i n gt h e , r u t p u te m i t t e r v o l t a g e
L,r the left hand thannel."
"liut
the lelt hand channel isn't
faultyl"
"I know it
isn't. But one ofthe lit tle benefits which are given bv
carfying out voltage ciiecks iir
stereo amplifiers which have only
one channel bad is that you can
first see what the correct voltages
should be with the grrrrrl channei.
Right, keep an eye on the meter.
I ) i c k ."
'fhe
record was still playing as
S r r r i t h ya p p l i e d t h e p n s i t i v ep r . d , , 1
h i s m e t e r t ' , t h e n u t p u t e m i t t e r so f
the left hand channel.
"The meter," pronounced
l)ick,
"is
reading about 10 volts again."
Smithy advanced the volume to
its maxirnum level.
"It's still reading
about 10 volts,"
called out l)ick above the music
{rorn the speakers, "although the
voltage is jogging a uee bit on loud
passages.Nevertheless the general
value is still around l0 volts "
"Right,"
said Smithy. He reduced the volume level once morg, and
. r p p l i e dt h e t e s t p r o d t o t h e o u t p u r
e m i t t e r so f t h e r i g h t h a n d c h a n n e l .
"lt's 10 volts
again," stated l)ick.
Smithv advsnced the \olume to

maximum.
"There's

quite a noticeable
difference on this channel," sang
out l)ick. "The meter needle goei
dorr,rr on loud passages, and it t}ten
hovers around the 6 or 7 volt mark.
It's still sitting at 1t, vnlts durins
the quiet bits, th{rugh."

B O O T S T R A PC A P A C I T O R
With a satisfiedgrunt, Smithy
turned back the volume control.
" ' [ ' h ' r s er e a d i n g s
are quite inlorn r a t i v e , "h e r e m a r k e d . " W h a t t h e y
tell us are the at'proge voltages on
those output emitters. If the two
output transistors are handling
positive and negative signal halfcycles at equal level the meter
reading should stay steady at 10
volts. The fact that it wobbles
around a little with the left hand
channel means that the channel is
clipping a bit at high signal levels.
But with the right hand channel the
meter reading changes by a much
greater amount. Since the average
voltage drops, it follows that the
output stage is giving less
amplification to positive half-cvcles
thah it is to negitive half-cycies."
"What could
cause that,
Smithy?"
"0ff-hand, several
things. But
since we found that the fiist snaq
g a s d u e t n a n e l e c t r o l y t i cI ' m g o i n g
t ' , c h a n c e m v a r m a n d s e ei f t h e s e cond snag is also due to an elec
trolvtic. See if you can find me a
l()01rFelectrolytic, Dick. Any working voltage above l5 volts or so will
"
clo.
l)ick soon found a suitable com,
ponent and handed it to Smithy. By
now the record was nearing its end
and Smithy recycled the changer so
that the pick-up was once more at
the start ol the disc.
''You hold
the test prod against

Fig. 7. Smithy experimentally bridged the loopF capacitor in the

atrlplifier by anothe. of the same value. This capacito, provides the
bootsttap coupling to the top ol the 680{> resistor, causing this to
go positive as the signal output voltage goes positive

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on
thb rieht.hand outDut emitters
"I'm going
this oicasion," he iaid.
to t.y a little experiment."
Onceagain, he turned the volume
to full as Dick held the testmeter
lead in position. After bending the
100rF capacitor leade to sive a
suidablesbacing,he applied them
acrossthe lead-outsoi-the 1001F
capacitor on the board which linked
tha output emittersto the iunction
of the i20o and 660o resistors.
(Fie.7.)
At once the overloadingin the
right hand channelceased,and the
two speakersboth handled high
arnplitude signals at the same
quality level.
"That's itl" shoutedDick. "The
rneterneedle'snow goneback to 10
volts all the time, with only a little
waggleon the loud bits.Just like the
lefi hand channel."
the
Pleased.Smithv took awav
-back
100/F capacitorind turned
the volume control of the recordplaver.
- "And
that's our second snag
located," he grinned. "The first one
w a s a s h o r t - c i r c u i t4 . ? l F e l e c trolytic and the secondone was an
100!F electrolvtic."
rroen-circuit
'"But
I don't understa;dit,"
wailedDick. "How couldthat openc i r c r ri t 1 0 0 p F c a p a c i t o r c a u s e
positive half-cyclesto be handled at
reducedlevel by the output transistor?"
"Because,"statedSmithy, "it's a
bootstrapcapacitor.It providesthe
bootstrap coupling back to the
680o load resistorfor the BC214L
emitter and the AC176 base."
"I still don't get it."
"Look," said Smithy. "On
oositive-eoinghalf-cvslesthe outnur emirter lollowerwhich is doins
ill the work is the ACl?6, right?'r
"Well, yes."
"Then, if the 100;rF bootstrap
capacitor is oDen-circuitthe base
crrirentfrom the ACl76 has to llolr
from the positiverail throush the
22Oo and 680o resistors.Okav?"
"Yes." reoeatedDick euardedlv.
''So, for fiigh positive-signaleic u r s i o n sw h i c h w o u l d n o r m a l l l
r a k e r h e A C l 7 6 b a s en e a r l yu p t o
rhe positive rail, the current
availdhle fnr rhat base through.
t h e s e t w o r e s i s r o r si s n o t h i g t ,
enoughto enableit to go as positive
as ir should.That s why the output
stagewasnt handling the positive
l . i e n a l h a l f - c v c l e sa s w e l l a s i t
h;dled rhe negativeones. Wher
we have a serviceable100pF
bontslrapcapacilor,though.the upper end of the 680o resistor i.
causedto go positive,even above
l f r h e p o s i t i v es u p p l yr a i l .
t h eI e v eo
"n positile signalha)I.cycles.This
meangthat theres alwavsDlentvol
positivevoltageavailabl'eai the uppar end of the 680Q resistorto give
rhe required base current for the
A C1 7 6".
()osh, I can see it now! The
A f l ; 6 c r n i t t e r p r o v i d e se n o u g h
positive voltage via the 100uF

caoacitor to guoplv its own base

thiough the 680i'i iesistor."
"That's exactlyright, 'confirmed
Smithy. "Well, I see it's past
packing-uptime so I'll leave it to
you to decidewhetheryou put in a
new I00l]F capacitornow or leaveit
until tomorrow."
D I C K ' S F U T UR E
' ' I ' l l d o i t n o w , " s a i dD i c k h a s t i ly. "Anything to put off the evihour."
"What evil hour?"
''l'm due to go to Auntie Effs
after this, and when I get there the
latest issueof the Distrirt Cloriun
and Adr', 'tis"r will be waitinglurking for me."
''l t bo happens." remarked
"thal
Smithv in an off-hand tone,
I've already picked up my copy of
the latest Adtertiser go I can save
you the waiting."
He reached to a drawer in his
bench, pulled out a newspaperand
f'r'ho.l

rha

narae

"Hele we are," he remarked

to his apprehensive
cheerfully"This
is the astrology
assistant,
feature.What day did you say your
b i r t h d a vw a so n ? "
"April the seventh," groaned
Dick.
"Right," said Smithy. "Gipsy
Esmeralda says: 'For those born on
the seventhof April the next twelve
months will be bleak indeed."'
Feverishly, Dick snatched the
paper
from him.
- i' 'Be
warned'," he read in a
trembling voice, " 'that business
ventures will inevitably end in
bankruotcv.mattersof the heart in
betravai. iournevsin unfulfilment
and ambiiions i; total failure. Ye
gods, how bad can things get?"
"Is that all?"
"There's more. 'Beware of legal
entanglements.On the bright side is
lhe fact that you may well seeApril
rhe seventh for 19?9 but, refettablv. with a personalitvso degraded rhat formei friendsand
" acqiiaintanceswill shun you.'
Smithy's stricken assistantreel.
ed back againsthis stool.
"It coulil be worse,"said Smithy
s o o t h i n g l y".l f o r g o tt o p u t i n t h e
bit aboul your expendituregoingup
severalhundred per cent."
" l'ou forgot?"
''A creativese\ser like me.'
stated Smithy, ai he stoodup and
startcd walking hastily towardsthe
Workshop door, "needs an outlet
other than servicinssetsand things.
EventhoushI havent beenpaid for
it, I've enjoyed writing thal Gipsy
Esmeraldacolumn over the last few
months!"
With which words the erstwhile
Gipsv Esmeraldarelreatedrapidly
thioigh the door, thereby^deliying
anv retallatorY Sctlon lrom nls
fuiious assistarituntil the following
rnorning.
After all, a day is a long time in
astrology.
I

ItAl)I() ANI) F]I-E'TRONICS CO\51'RITCTOR