The T-368 series of HF CW/AM/FSK transmitters.
I’m very happy to report that thanks to a NOS pair of Eimac 4-125A modulator tubes from Antique Electronic Supply, my T-368C is back on the air for the first time since I got it! I’ll still have plenty of tinkering to enjoy on it, and plenty of work integrating it into a full system with my R-390A receiver. I’m also happy that my antenna BALUN didn’t burst into flame upon encountering the hefty output of this small monster of a transmitter.
My T-368C transmitter uses three impressively large transmitting tubes. The power amplifier (PA) uses an Eimac 4-400A, while the modulator uses a pair of Eimac 4-125A tubes. These big tubes are beautiful in my opinion, especially when they’re operating with the plates glowing red. Sadly, they’re not normally visible in operation due to the transmitter’s opaque steel cabinet, studded with interlocks to keep folks away from the lethal high voltage that lurks inside. Even with the interlocks bypassed for debugging purposes (which is dangerous, and should be avoided when possible!), the big 4-400A tube is further obscured by an opaque metal chimney which ducts cooling air around it.
I’ve made some good progress on my T-368C transmitter already. The arcing problems have subsided on their own, though they may come back later. I traced down the modulator problem to a single resistor in the speech amplifier which failed open, thus removing power to the clipper tube’s plates and breaking the audio path. The transmitter is now working on CW and AM at full power into a dummy load! I also replaced another resistor in the same speech amplifier circuit, but I think it was actually OK and I just had a measurement error due to residual charge in the circuit.
There are still some kinks to work out…
I bought a T-368C HF transmitter project back in October, 2007 for $1575.42, and finally started seriously working on it a couple months or so ago. This evening, it got its first taste of power in many years! It’s semi-alive, but needs more work:
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