-\--#

o c T o B E R1 9 7 8
Vo l u m e3 2 N o .2
Published Monthlv
(3rd of precedingMonth,
First Published | 947
lncorporating

fhe Radio Amateur

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Pto d u ctlo n.-Web

R E M O T ER E A D - O U TT H E R M O M E T E R
78
by R. A. Penfold
A Simple ElectronicMeter with many applications
CIRCUIT TESTER-

Trade Note

83

NEWS AND COMMENT

84

P I N G I N G B E L L C | R C U | T Sby G. A. French

S u g g e s t e dC i r c u i t

R E C E N TP U B L I C A T I O N S

89

H I G H P O W E RA M P L I F I E RM o D U L E S
by A. P. Roberts
Low DistortionA.F. Outputs up to 14 watts into
8 ohms D.C.and A.C. coupledversions

90

N O I S E R E D U C T I O NA M p l t F t E R b y p . R . A r t h u r 9 6
Dynamicunit improvesand boosts the performance
of portablecassetterecorders
SHORT WAVE NEWS by FrankA. Baldwin

For DX Listeners

Ebctmnhs
lhelaqb_A
by Swale Prss Ltd.

Cot ttn ctorls wintfd

r 03

NEXT MONTH

105

ULTRA-SENSITIVEOP-AMP METER
by J. B. Dance
Measuresvery low currents,voltagesand
resistances

106

3 B A N D S H O R T W A V E S U P E R H E Tby R. A. Penfold

paft.2

109

BOOK REVIEW

113

CASSETTERECORDERFAULT
- In Your Workshop

114

RADIO TOPICS by Recorder

119

ELECTRONICSDATA No. 38
For The Beginner - THE SCHMTTTTRTGGER

Offset.

Publisheo in Grat Britain by tho- propriotors and

Pubtishors, Dcta pubticati6rn t_tO,- S7'-irt
Valo, London Wg lSN
"]lil

96

T H E N O V E M B E RI S S U E
WILL BE PUBLISHED
ON 3rd OCTOBER

ii

A multitude
of usesin
Home,Goroge,Gord"ry
etc.
Horticulture,

RETilOTE
.READ.
OUT'
THERTilOTilETE

bffi'fldw
R. A.bJenrola

DIRECT READINGS FROM O TO lOO DEGREES

CENTIGRADE.
The subiect of this article is a simple electronic
thermometerwhich has a measuringrange of 0 to
100 degreesCentigrade. The temperature is indicated'ona 0-100p-Amoving-coilmeter and, as the
scalinsof the thermometeris linear, there is no
need 1o bother with the difficult problem of
recalibratingthe meter scale.
An electronic thermometer has the advantage,
overmore conventionalforms of instrument, of being capable of making measurements-with the
temperature sensor remotely located from the
metbrread-outand accompanyingcircuitry' Thus,
for example,the unit can be used to monitor the
temperatureof a greenhouse,cellar or water tank
from anv conveni6ntpoint inside the premises.
Of corjrse,the unit is also suitable for the many
applicationswhere the remote read-out facility is
The accuracy of the unit is
of'no consequence.
equal to that of most ordinary wide range thermometers.
DIODE SENSOR
The obviouschoiceas the sensorfota unit of this
tvpe would be a thermistor, but these devices
s-eirerallvhave comparatively poor temperatureiesistan6elinearity,-especiallywhen used over a
wide temperaturerang6.The poor linearity-would
make it necessarveither to accepta relatively poor
accuracv or to- individually calibrate all the
temperaturegradationson the meter scale.

An alternative and in somerespectsbetter form

of temperature sensoris a forwaid biased silicon
diode fed from a constant current generator,as
shownin Fig. 1(a). As many readerswill be aware,
when forwar*dbiaseda silic6n diodeoperatesrather
like a zener diode, but with a voltage acrossit of
will deonly about 0.65 volt. The precise--vo-ltag.e
pend upon the current fed to the diode, the type of
iliode ehployed and its junction temperature'

Constont
currcnt
generotor

(o)

(b)

Fig. l(a). ln this circuit the volt.ge acloss thc

silicon diode varieg ln llncat fashlon wlth thc
diodo temPerature
(b), ttsing the varying vohagc across the diode
to make up an elactronic thermometer
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

Since the current fed to the diode is constant, for

anv particular device the exact voltage appearing
across it will be only dependent upon its
temperature. The voltage will fall with increasing
temperature and will rise with falline temperature.
The voltage change is quite small. Moit silicon
diodes produce a voltage change of onlv about 2mV
per dcgree Centigradd, and no diodei produce a
change of more than some 3mV per degree Centigrade.
However, the voltage change per degree Centigrade remains virtually constanf over a very wide
range of temperatures and it would be an easy
matter to amplify the voltage swing if this should
prove to be necessary.But for a thermometer havi n g a w i d e t e m p e r a t u r er a n g e i t i s b y n o m e a n se s sential to use any amplification at all since a
voltagechange of 2mV per degreeCentigrade over a
100 degree range correspondsto a total voltage swing of some 200mV, which is more than adequate to
drive a moving-coil meter.
Provided the meter has a full-scale deflection
sen.sitivitywhich is reasonably low in comparison
with the diode current, the simple bridge arrangem e n t ,o u t l i n e d i n F i g . 1 ( b ) w o r k s v e r y w e l l . W i t h
the diode at a temferature of zero degrees Centigrade the potentiometer VR1 is adjusfed so that
the voltage at its slider is exactly the same as the
voltage at the anode terminal of the diode. There is
then no voltage developed across the meter and it
reads zero in consequence.

Resistors
(All fixed valuesf watt 5% unlessotherwisestated)
R l 3 . 3 ko
R2 4.7k o
R3 560 rr
R 4 1 0 0 ko 2 %
R 5 2 . 2 k O p r e - s e pt o t e n t i o m e t e0r . 1 w a t t ,

With the diode at a temperature of 100 degrees

Centigrade, variable resislor Rl is adiuste? to
produce f.s.d. in the meter. The desired range of
zero to 100 degrees Centigrade is thus provided,
and as there is a lineai relationship'between
temperature change and voltage change acrose
the diode the unit will have a linear scale.
Note that negative meter terminal is connected
to the diode anode so that, when this point in the
e i t h i n c r e a s i n gt e m p e r a t u r e ,
< ' i r c u i tg o e s _ n e g a t i vw
t h e r e q u i r e d p o s i t i v e d e f l e c t i o no f t h e m e t - e rn e e d l e
is produced. 'Ihe suppfy to the circuit must be very
well stabilized as a voltage change of only a few
millivolts at the slider of VRl due to a fluituation
in supply potential would obviously significantly
upset lhe accuracy of the unit.

THE CIRCUIT
Fig..2,shows
the full circuitof the thermometer,
and th.isis very.much along the lines of the arrangement in Fig. 1(b).
The diode used in the prototype is a 1N914, but
other silicon diodes thaf were- tried, such as the
1 N 4 1 4 8 , a l s o w o r k e d s a t i s f a c t o r i l v .A l l t h e 1 N 9 1 4
and 1N4148 devices that were checked had rather
low bu.t adequate sensitivity. Various cheap surplus silicon diodes that were tried experimentally
seemedto be better in this respect. No'silicon diod-e
that was used failed to operat'esatisfactorily in tiie
circuit, and this has been given wide adjustment
ranges so that it can be set-up to suit any normal
diode.
'fhe
diode sensor, Dl, is fed with a consrant
current from TRl collector. TR1 is used in a quite
conventional constant .current generator -'ode,
with R1 and R2 biasing its base a little more than I
volts. below
^the positlve supply rail. With appro.ximately0.6 volt being dropped acrossthe bas'eemitter junction of TRl-this'broduces about 1.b
v.olts across R3, and with the'specified value for
thls component an emitter current of a little less

horlzonta I

R7 820 ()
R8 220 {t pre-set potentiometer, 0.1 watt,
horizontal
l(G 2?o -nRg 56 o
Capacitors
C l 0 . l p F t y p e C 2 8 0( M u l l a r d )
C2 0.1pF type C280 (Mullard)
Semiconductors
ICI pA78L05WC
TRl 8C179
Dl 1N914
Switches
51 2-pole2-way rotary (seetext)
52 s.p.s.t.rotary
Meter
Ml 0-100pAmoving coil (seetext)
Miscellaneous
Case(seetext)
Materials for probe (seetext)
3.5mm.iack sbcket
3.5mm.jack plug
2-wavcable
9-voli battery type PP3 (Ever Ready)
Batterv connecior
Veroboard,0.1 in. matrix.
2 controlknobs
Bolts,nuts. wire. etc.
OCTOBER1978

i,,
2f t,.

t32

Lcod-outs

)/t,o

G
B Ct 7 9

-f

S l p o s i t i o n s .-l t c m p c r o r u r c
2-chcck bottery

t Cr
Lcqd -outs

Fig. 2. The circuit of tha remota read-out ther_

mometer.
In the lead-out
inset for lCl
the
loads are pointing
at the reader

degrees CentiThe meter gives direct indications' in

Front panel taYoutof tho thermometer'
sensor
remote
the
of
temperaturc
grade' of the

TheBCIZgusedtn theTR1
than3mAis produced'
g"in
ttansistor,and its emitter
;;:iffi't.';'ttigtt
virtuallv equal',Aconsare
fiJ;;ii;;
"u"r.e"nt.
than 5mA is therefore
t"s
J"-iiitt"
;;il;;;il
fedto Dl.
^"hil
network
flti utd R9 form a potentialdividerM1'3an
;" that the mejgr'
Cen";;l!ift;;;;ii;il. itt" ."*" G at zerodegrees
fil^i"hrlitr*l'.fi
to

circuitsensitivitv
ffi;A;. Hd';;;ii; tt'" '*t"'
-i"level'
the.correct
U3^uJ:u.i.a'to
ia
the prototyprcunit
The meter .*proyua
front-This hasa
squar-e
*-itlt-aa.z-m' g00-o.'which
H#iJil;;
means
nominal internal r".tJ"tt""

oT

it at full-scaledefleci;diopp.J
il'JgilV
"tiois
meters,are not as
mounting
panel
ii".*.-ff.""f"c
several years ago'
were
they
.LuJitv utuilable as
with an inmovement
t""t'ttt
o-iool'e
;",ft;ily
o can be
1'000
"iil"t
st;"i"1-than
ternal resistance
internal
""i
with,
it' pri""l, Vg""
;;;i;;;d"1;-';"ii-

ranges'
for
'" full-scale deflection on the.current,
to have
important
is
it
d;;;entioned
is.nosignifi""tti"t'

;;i';;i;iiir"a '"pprv''o lpt t1"ie

meter
ttre-9911t]ye
";^;i;""ti^tion in th6p6tential.at
alsorelies
gq":,t-1tor

terminal.The constani""tit"rvariationln the suppl" Irliuitirlh supplyasany

ges
iri urf"tf t[" ba"seand emitter,volta
i;' ;il;;;
current
of
level
the
-A-.-"ri
:if i"ii:";";;iiliih"';i;'
i'c' stabilizes
regulator
s vtlt"tt.'
;;iilifiDi.
providesa
inl-tit"""it'.and.it
tot
volmge
supply
the
the input
verv high Ievel ot p"rfot*utt-t-"'-Vay!ng
g's.t"

volts'which
'ii;fv ?,iri&;-";;i";;;e' "i bv?-'5
v.oltbatterv
e
a
po[""tiur'"offered
iJili;i;;;;8i
causei u j11:t barely
durins its operattng ti1",
oerceptible-o.'"-"'it ;T t'ht;;"r

6i;;: ;;;a"6;;.;;;

needle'C1 and

i'c' does
tt'"1tt'" resulator

is available
not become,rn.tuo,"'-Ti"- t"s"tutoii'c'
Supplies'
ir"tti"tvtipiin Electronic
ar

3
i:"1"$:l:;'"
:: j, nl^Li;*lx$":"J'?*'i':"'ltf,

operating51
#i;;- 1,000.q will .be quite
;;JiU";;;. 'ii.'.tt",ita
that a iili"tii"t"i: r"ttn u olr'ov
"ottmeter'
be notedir.rpassing
tb be checku"ttttv
Uli:H;1.ty
th;
lil';,b";;;;i;;
multimeter .*rt.n"dlo-"

O-fOOp'l'iange will not

"onditioncurrent con;il'Hd i;'ti.'.;-*-gff swilch' The

9 volts'As
lffiTil;"i;tii.'i,-i'.,iiti"-"liimedershav6universal
sumptionot the u"tiltl'Uo"i 1{-Anotatbe switched
.*tt"nittl-"iicuits. yfric\,necessitate
shunt range
the provisionot vortag'et;iltt

higher than 100mV

the thermom"t",*'it itiiu-^Uiv

ffiMr4ry

'.
l'.,,
: , 1 :i ,
: ' : : : , : : : I

Cd}{ilrfltlffit,

r*t/ly0fi

thlpb- ffii',mo{il':d

oiffiwnrt#trel

&

,'Y

thl

"i[Cltll']

:
'',

RADIO AND ELECTROI{ICS CONSTnirtro

on for.longperiodsbut will only be turned on when

are assembled
. Most of the.compo-nents
on a 0.1
a readln-g.ls
to be taken, a small g volt battery such
ln.
matrlx strrpboardpanelwhich has 16 copper
as a PP3 is a perfectly suitablepowercou."eior the
strips].v2_0
hoies.Detdih ;f thfi;;il;ie
providunlt.
ed in Fig.B..Start!y cuttingo"t a'p"n"foi dh;
in
the
way as the voltage recr slze and then tile up
__llclden,tally,
any rough edges that ";;_
p r o d u c e d a c r o s s D 1.same
are
_
v
a
r
i e s w i t h a p p l i e " d produced_.
mouirting MG;re ii;" arifr"d
temperature the voltage dropped
acrossthb base_ 684 or Thetwo
junction of TRf doei'as *"[. Ho*"u"r, u
in the
.MB clear,-and thE ;ftt;-b;;k
cop,per
:li!t".r
snlps
rg_
varratronof a few millivo-ltsor so at TR1 emittbr,
ryade-using either the specialVero
tool or a small hand
drill bit. fire ua.ious
which is all that is likely to oCcui wilh .,ormat
componentscan then -helil
be solderedinto position
ch^anges
in room temperature,h"r-"o-"oticeable
,, rne.completed.panelis wired up to the rest of
effect on the circuit whatever.'I. f""i, .iiit, i"re"
rne unlt anctthen it is mountedon the basepanel of
in thetemperature
of Tnifiaielioff;in:
the casebehind St and Sz lv meln. Jr?ge or MB
:!"F"":
cant
ettect..'l'he regulator i.c. is largely unaff6cted
bolts and nuts. Spacing *"6t,ei.
."qrir.a-on
D{ gnaqqe,srn temperature, and there is no problem
the
bolts to space'theU-oa.a-u"q!;i;;;;y
"r"
wrrn setl heattng of the sensor as D1 consumes a
fr";
the.bottom_
-stirfaceof th." ;g.;: T[;';"iili_t.i_p"iri
power ol only about 2mW.
wiring is all illustrated
in FE. t.---'""'"

CONSTRUCTION
. The prototype,with its Henelecmeter, is housed
rn a Verob^o_x
type 75-l2J8D, which meisures 1b4
Dy bu.by E-5mn.deep.Any other instrument case
capaDle or taking the parts and the particular
meter to be etnpl-oyedcan, of course,be used.The
meter rs mounted at the left hand side of the front
panel.and will require a circular cui-out. Thr;;;:
out clrameterdependson the meter, but with most
small types.wilf be 38m. (l]in.) The cut-out can
be m.adeusing a _fretsawor a ireedlefile. There will
arsoDe tour small mounting holes,whosepositions
callg found with the aid"of ttrJ'meter ifJeff.52. is mounted towards ttt"
t[e-]ro"t
panel and S-l is situated to ttre righio?
"J"t""-oi
5i. ft o"o"_
nection to the diode sensor,whidli is mountea in a
probe,
::!,lTtumounted is made by way of a g.S;m. j;c[
soc[er
on the rear panel of the case.The
jack socketis \dred so thad the sGeve Jontact
is
commonwith the diode cathodeand the tip contact

is commo-n
with ttrediodcanJde.iti;l;;dilk;;
" *hen ili"
was.inadvertentlywired incoi.i.tlv
pnorographs

of the unit interior.wereiaken.) Sf is

a z-way 4:pol.erotary switch with 2 poles uiused.
or.Flrernatlvelya B-way 4_polerotary switch with
adjustableend stop sef rof i:ia;;de"ili;..
OCTOBER
19?8

PROBE
- Thediode aensoris solderedto a twin lead of the
desiredlength and then it is mounted in somefoim
to protect it against moistureand any
:1
:,o11"t"9..
llqulcl
rn whrch it is to be immersed.The prototyp6
uqelsa small test tube as.the housing_fortire prrife,
with its cork stopperdrilled to take"theconnectins
wtre.,Any other .small glass or plastic containei
capapleor Del-ng
rmmersedin hot water shouldbe
equaily surtable. It is advisable to use some

t';ff*?ffiffiaT
#t'tff,llH::
#,f""..1*
frii:

yill help- to provide a good theimaf contact

betweenthe outsideof the-containerand the diode,
so that the latter respondsreasonablyq"i"kit;
temperature changes.
, A.3.5mm. jack plug is fitted to the other end of
llre tgag connectingto the probe. Make sure that
the cuocleconnectsto the main circuit with the cor_
rect polarity. Should it be connectedincorrectiv.
excessivecurrent can flow through the meter. If
the twin lead to the diode is to be"relall;"ty t;ili;
should consistof fairly low resistan.. *ire.".iil,ti"J
S qTnplighting.flex.The twin lead should6e in cii_
curt betweenthe main thermometer unit and the
diode sensorduring the setting-upof nA and n6.
8l

o/o

o
o

d"

"

o o o

,';'.at'

o
R;

i'+r:W

fTo

llll*z"ofo

::'W:
T:

o
o

ll

13

15

19

17

aloooaooo{oooooooo"
oTto
oato
ao

o)-

o--\

Fig. 3. Wiring details for the thermometer

o
oO
aaa
oaa
oa

aa

o
o
o

\JO

o f-)

SETTING-UP
-;;
ih; outset the slider of R8 should be at the
ii.lt""t a"a R5 shouldbe.adjustedto in".;i;;i
resistanceinto circuit, i'e' adjusted
r.ii-"ii--"clockwise.
fullv
^-f,ftJli.i.J
*"v to set up the unit is to first add
gl"t. of cold water.and.thenstir
.";;;;b;*lo'"
it"iii'.o *ot" ice. can be dissolved'
;ilil";;;f

tfi il;fi

itt ttt""-u" at-zerodegrees.Ce,ntisrqdg'.

to
iii; ;;;be is placedin the water-and allowed
whichshouldtake no
;;;i 6';h;.;*;i"*p"iit,t'e,
ilJi,i"trtiit"iii"iriG-.e""nas. The unit is switched
i--"aialetv adjuste$to. zero the
il;"['Rtii
piobe
shouldfhenbe placedin some
-Ltit. tti.
and it is
-a
iiitr"'nii'*-"i"t- of L"own-temperature,
therstandard
calibrat6d
tt"".
i"
;;;"r;;;
of .o-" kind availablesothat the water
;;;A;
82

Detaited itlustration of the Veroboard layout

RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

temperaturecan be measured.It

is not too impor_

tant whattheactualtemperaiure-I.
;;";ft;Jili;
of the.orderof b0 a.gr"6.C."iffi{."#a
c,uratelyknown. A-ft-erthe seqsorhas heatedi, "._
up to
the

temperatureof the water R5 is ;A:ii.trti,iifi"

appropriate.meter reading.
p-1.-.1!l..to set yp.thq unit with any two
Known
-[.iirange whrcn are
"-t^l..rj temperatureswithin its
wellspaced
*iit,'il,u to*",
Ig3-.9n"!lv
remperature.not being "p".t,
zero degreesCentigadl.
Ho_wever,the..progqsq is mujh- .1";;;. "It
is
necessaryto adjust R8 for the correci i""ai"g
*i*

Or:*".11thelower.temperatgre
and then adiust
S"" ror rhe apDroDria_te
no
reading at l[;'htd,il;
t-em.perature..
This- procedure ha5 to bJ-iepeated
until no further adjustment i, ;;d;d;o
produce
the correct readings.
r ne thermometer will work satisfactorilv
with a

'Plll:tt
voltage-as..low.as-.6
volts,
whenthe
battery checkfacitity inli_cqtes[h"tbut
td
voltageis d.ownto aui,uCislffi il;i.#i";;;;;ffit;;;
Thereis otherwisea ;i.ili deb;tt"ru.
L9_lone.
even
whenit is of the steel_clad
atb;; i;;ki,;;;rd
damaging
the unit.
neverswitchqn thq unit withoutthe
,,1tl1l1y,
olode
sensor
connec_ted
to.it asthis couldcauseex_
cessrve
currentto flow.throughthe ;;;;nn-;
consequentrisk of, damag"e.ia a;;i;;d;-li;

inputcircuit."f
m& u
lfl_{:9
{ie,;
In whrchan internal added
",riprov"a,
s"iticon
a"ioae"_rint"ir,.

the.collector of TRl, at about-0.65 volt

positive
of the nggativerail when th"l;;k
;"t;g'ii'out of the
socket. Even with this modific"ti6.l"fr"*"ver,
unit should alwavs ne ,*itcr,-e-a"oii';i;;;iir; j;;ithe
plug is being fitted o. ."--ouud.-Th;
ile;
wired acrosi the tags th; j""k^."J["'t." diode is
r
"f

T R A D EN O T E

CIRCUIT TESTER
The neat little item of test equip_
nlelt yoq can see in the
iir'st
gngtggranh
is.theModelCi.o Cli:
cutt I'ester,which is manufactuied
Dy
rl.jlectronic Ploducts Coventrrr.

,:q,rp1ilc.loaded hook grips

and
gotctp.tatedsurlaces.
rn th.e.range
the Model CT.l is a
,
row,
reslstancetester,the maximum
parn reslstancefor audible
signal
De,rngapproximately 200o. Ttre
vormgeon the probesis g volts and

,,,nt+?
evord
Hfiilti,Hfi
#,6sr
t,nls ls one- of a range

of six
_
models,eachof which is tr6ured
ii'i
l:?9p_."... casemeasuringZb by Zb
pI 49Tm. containing a ielaxalion
oscillator
mi"iatuie
fll:trto1
toudspeaker.
"na ._it"
The speaker
audlblelone when i, circ"itls-com*_
"n
ptetedvia the test probes.
Tii";;i;
in tone when a
i^.:,1._r.ctrtt'erence
rgw resrstance.
is presentediii-ini
crrcurtbeing chq4ied, and the-unii
rsgowcredby a pp3 g_uoti
Uaiteiv.
L^ruotmentay c-hecksof wiring
printed circuit trac[s]
f"t:.r1.:t
'-1*t,
1"-OU'.Inductors,capacitors,
cable terminations and
99l.x1at
s-wltches
can_
be quickly ,naae u.ini
of rest-ers.
Al _"aercarE
:1,_r_{?."F.
supptr.edwith- extra-flexible--tiJ
leaclsI metre long, the pr"U..
h*_
0CTOBER
1978

f^i i[:gigillilr.::,ll#;
ffi'*'x%ii?
"u!'iti
J:fi:tJi:'
r ?hd
!fiF:
ano
probe current 40uA. Next

Circuit tester tWe CT.6,

manufactured by Electronic
Products, Covcntry. This
contains a miniature
speaker which emits an
audible tone whcn the tcst
prob* couple to a circuit
path
_of less than a specified
maimum icsistancc

comesthe Model CT.B, ,ii,i.t-iJ

as the CT.l 6"t ;ili, ;
l.l?. -'"-. control
added.
:oj!f"
ai
m r n r m u m v o l u m e t h eAlso.
prbbe
cgrlent redu-ces
to ?mA.itibfi
wrth an added volume

control

Modjl cT.4.Th;-ef,.b
lppgq..asthe

Models CT.l ;;
:oJnnines,
\, r .2, ano ls lttted with a switch
to
select-low.or high
..rirt"n"u]
_path
Ano, trnall;', the lVlodelCT.6
com_
bl!.: tf. CT.3,.CT.4 and CT.b'in
pq.Lugt,
it has a switch forlow
91..
or
tlrgh resistancepath selecti;n;E
well as a volume cbntrol83

NEWS

AND

EASY Tv PROGRAMME RECORDINGAT HOME

The British consumer'schoiceof video recorders
for taping TV programmes has been extended
significantlywith the arrival in the shopshere of
National Panasonic'sVHS (video home system)
TV programmerecorder.
Priced at 1750 including VAT, the National
PanasonicVHS, model number NV8600,arrives in
Britain with the track record of being the most
widely sold TV programmerecorder in America.
You can record a TV programme when
everyone'sout of the house,a programme on one
channel when you're watching another channel,
and a TV programme as it's screened,for enjoyment again later. You can also record your own
home-madeprogrammeswith a handy TV camera.
The NV8600 gives up to three hours uninterruptedrecordingand playback time.
A three-hourtape costsel3.50; a two-hourtape
sl0.50;and a one-hourtapee8.00.The tapescanbe
re-usedagain and again - so that over their life
span,their cost per minute of playing time is fractions of a penny.
A key componentin the VHS recorder is a unioue 'direct drive' video head cvlinder motor that
guaranteesthe rock-steadyrunning speedneeded
to ensurea stable,sharp picture.
With the National PanasonicVHS, the amateur
cameramancan record his own programmesin the
home,and play them back instantly - no processing delay, no processingcosts.All it takes is the
WV460 black-and-white TV camera, an optional
extra to the VHS. It will cost approx e250including

National Panasonlc's VHS (vldco homo

system) recordar, model NV86(N, ls plctured
above. Equipmont also ln the photo ls: on lcft,
the new National panasonlc 22-lnch colourTV.
model TC-22O3; and a stand to show off the TV
and the recorder

VAT, and incorporatesa built-in microphone for

simultaneoussound recording.
Intbrmation on local stockistsmav be obtained
from: National Panasonic,Whitby Road, Slough,
Berks.

SOPHISTICATEDOUTSIDE BROADCAST UNITS

Two of the world's most sophisticatedoutside broadcastunits,
worth over 2m, and producedby Dell Technical VehiclesLimited
of Southampton,havb been supilied
-wereto the Mainz based German
recently used in London for
broadcastn'etwork,ZDF. Thei
video and sound ricording of a James Last TV spectacularat the
Royal Albert Hall.
The two vehicles,a 5 camera/soundunit and a complex sound
recording van, were produced for ZDF by
-in specialist vehicle
builders," Dell, and recently commissioned Germany. They
feature a unique air-conditioning system.
The ZDF camera/soundunit was consttuctedby Dell on al-624
Mercedeschassismodified with a third axle to give an uplift in
weight carrying capabilitv from 16 to 22 tons.
The ProductionControl compartmentis manned by the director,
mix operator and technical controller. It contains four colour and
four black gnd white monitors and tgn small black and rvhite
monitois. T-hevideo mix desk controlsthe 20 channelinput and 10
'-thereare two specialmixers for feedingand selecchannel mixer.
tion of 22 special effects; five ihroma key systemsare available.
The cable rcel comp.rtment ol th. n.w
tl .5m ZDF, Germany, outside broadcast
unit which was manufactured by Dell
Technical Vehicles Limftcd of Southampton. All major cable drums are powcr
opcrated and the termination pancls arc
also located in this arca,
84

The sound recordine vehicle contains a 36 channel Telefunken

sound svstem,which irakes the vehicle probably one of the most
soohistii:ated'mobile sound studios ii the ivorld. Recording
fai:ilities include a 16 track recordercapableof 15 tracks with synchronisationpulse and three two channel tape recorders.Air conditioning givds an ambient noise level of only 38 Db(A).
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

COMMENT
O LEVELEXPERIMENTFOR
ELECTRONICS
We were interestedin a report. under the above
heading,
which recently-appiared in The Sunday
"written
Times
bv theiiEddcation Corresnondenl.
If the appropriate examinrng board approves,
there is to be a new O level coursein electronics
tried out in schoolsthis vear. The writer said "The
experiment reflects groiving concern that schools
are failing to preparechildren for a world in which
electronicswill be a dominant part of their lives".
It appearsthat of the 40,000children in London
who took CSEs only 461 took a paper in electronics!
One lecturer said that in his opinion children
should be given plenty of electronicsprojects to
build as an aid to their learning. In this magazine
we have always borne the needsof the beginnerin
mind and some of our constructionalprojects are
therefore quite simple to build. It was with the
learner in mind that, just over three years ago,we
started publishine the popular feature Electronics
Data - For Thd Beginier. Incidentally, in case
you have not noticed, the feature now appearson
the inside front cover.
We are alwaysinterestedto hear from readersas
to their wishesas to editorial content, and, if you
are a beginner,do not be shy let us know what you
think would be helpful to you and we will, if possible, try and oblige.

NEW MINIATURE TOOL SET

A new miniature precision tool set from Light

SolderingDevelopmentscomprisestwo crosspoint
(Phillips) screwdrivers, three hexagonal key
wrenches(allenkeys),1.5,2 and2.5mm A.F. and a
tommy bar in a pocket sizedrigid plastic case.The
screwdriversand wrenches are all hardened and
tempered and are fitted into easy hold chromium
plated handles.
This new tool set (Ref. 37305)is addedto the existing range of precision tool sets available from
LITESOLD including screwdrivers,box spanners
and open ended spannersto metric sizes.
Full details are available from Light Soldering
Developments Ltd., 97199 Gloucester Road,
Croydon,Surrey CRO 2DN.

,,SATELLITESFOR BROADCASTING
A further volume - "Satellites for Broadcasting" - has been
published by the Independent Broadcasting Authority as the
bleventhin t6e seriesofoicasional engineeringiexts initiat6d inl972
under the generaltitle of "IBA Technical Review".
This ?2-page book with 73 illustrations, mostly two-c-olour,
providesan-introductionto the practices,possibilitiesand problems
bf using artificial earth satellitei for televisionbroadcsatingand for
national and iriternational distribution of progtammes.
These are examined in relation to the 1977 Region 1 PIan and
World Agreementof the International TelecommunicationsUnion
and to current experimental projects including the Orbital Test
Satellite of the European SpaceAgency.
Written by IBA and ITN engineers,the book includesa detailed
descriotion of the compact satellite receivins terminal built at the
IBA's EngineeringCentre at Crawley Court, Winchester,for 12 GHz
propagationresearch.
Contentsinclude: Developmentof Communicationand.Broadcasting
Satellites;
The ITU Plan for SpaceBroadcastins:
Fundamentals
of Satellit6
Broadcasting;
Low-costSatelliieReceiving
Tecf,niques;
IBA Earth Station
at Crawleyeourt; SatelliteRelaysandDis[ributioniandDigitalModulation
for SatelliteSvstems.
The book is intended for engineersand studentsdirectly involved
in the field of broadcastingand is availableto technicallibiaries and
educationalcentres,in the UK and overseas.
Enquiries to IBA Engineering Information Seruice, Crawley
Court, Winchester,Hants.
ocToBER1978

THEWORLDOFWIRELESS
A catalogue with a difference has now
been introduced bv Ambit International, 2 Gresham Road, Brentwood,
Essex. Priced at 45p, it infuses an informal magazine-style approach into its
descriptions and specifications ofthe extended range of products available from
this firm.
Containing 67 large pages 11f x 8fin.,
the publication gives full details of Ambit stock, including an exceptionally
wide and diverse list of coils, chokes,
filters, r.f. transformers and other
wound components. Also to be found are
integrated circuits, ceramic filters, tuner
modules and all the other componento
and assemblies which are associatd
with - to quote the catalogue title "The World of Wireless". There are,
again, many items, such as function
generator i.c.'s, etc., which do not
necessarily fall into the "wireless"
category.
The catalogue is packed with circuit
diagrams and engineering drawings, all
accompanied by helpful and often
humorous information on use and
application. Not all the cataloEre is concerned with products. One page, for instance, is devoted to the subject of impedances and the matching of tuned ciriuits. With its attractive-presentation,
the
International
Ambit
catalogue/magazine should hold the interest of anyone concerned with radio
and general electronics.
86

PINGINGBELL

crRculTs

uD once more via Rl and is then

tionally high charge.The modificaYes, the word in . the title is
readv to operate the bell when the
The
out'
carry
fo
easv
iion is"ueiv
-and
"pinsine" and not "ringing"l The
push-button is pressed again' The
gong
of
t}te
the
thin base ilate
ailth6rhas noticedthe provistonot
push-button can be Postttoned
tne,lnwhereupon
removed,
are
bell
s
o
m
e
i
n
pinging bell devices
iemotely, away from the remainder
reacllly
be
can
contacts
terruptor
miclo*aue ovens to give warntngs
i9
of the components.
cgntact
fixed
The
identified.
i-ttuiitt" ttt. cookingperiodhasbeen
it
470() lt
Ri has a value of 470t2
When Rl
*""iiii,a-*ittta screw,and one end
the
with
wasitruck
and
;;;i;t;d,
seconds
several
wait
is
to
necessary
wire
is
piece
insulated
thin
of
a
of
nature of the sound as
;i;;U;t
h e -push-button
e l e a s l n gtthe
after
a
f t e r rLeleasing
Pusn-Dutron
careiullv soldered to this contact
io-put"a with the moreusualconbeforeC1 acqulressufficient charge
conmoving
The
screw.
to'the
close
bell'
;i";;f-;fu"g" t h e of an electric
+
n o r q t o fthe.bell
h ; h p l l once
n n c e more.
m o r e . Wi
With
ton noperate
tact, actuatedbY the armature,conetth"ueh
Pinging sound is
becomes
capacitor
the
100fi
Rl
;t
terminal
two
the
oi
one
nects to
reoeate-dat intervals of several
adeouatelv charged almost im..r.*t on the upper sideofthe bell'
it is still verY noticeable
il;a;
mediatelyifter the push-buttonhas
confixed
the
liom
wire
The
thin
attention'
,nd iartubl" of attracting
been released.Inteimediate values
hole
passed
the
through
is
tact
number
This article describesa
in Rl give corresponding^waitiJtB
wires
supply
bell
the
rlvhich
through
;i r;;it;';hlch-enable a standard
times. The current drawn lrom tne
oass ind its end is securedunder
pings'and
"f
give
single
to
U"tt
.i..lti.
with
9 volt battery is aPProximatelY
in
comPanY
screw
terminal
lhe
grven
actton
the
theseall relY on
18mA when the Push-button ls
second
The
wires.
supPly
one
ofthe
when a charged electrolY.ttc
pressedwith a 470o resistor,rising
normal
in
wire'-connects
supplv
ot
capacitordishargesinto the cotl
to 90mA when R1 is 1000. These
faslii<into the remaining screwterth6 bell.
are alsothe initial chargingcurrents
bell'
of
the
side
uPPer
minal on the
in Cl which appear momentarlly
base
the
after which th6-gongand
after the push-button is releasecl.
THE BELL
olate are refitted: The link wire can
Althoush' relativelY high' the
in the circuits
be easilv removedwithout damage
The bell emPloYed
currentJ are much lower than those
use
the
to
required
is
"Underdom-e''.type
if
it
b6ll
the
to
is a Friedland
which flow in a standard electric
a
at
oPeration
available-in
normal
Iatter for
Z"gi. *tti.tt is widely
bell circuit and are well within the
later date.
--Setoie
.f,oir.-..i^iti.g electricalgoods'The
capabilities of the type of battery
lor
continuing to the circuits
bell designis particularly.sulted
*5ich is intended for bell use. As
slnce
mentione4
plngs
be
should
it
provlsion
single
of
themselves
the
soonas C1 has becomefullY chargtne
bell
lnto
Friedland
the
of
coil
is
attracted
the
that
the hrmature
and
the
is
of
which
solenoid
a
has a low resistance,
;;il ir'iit;;;nner of
only. If the bell, in its
a wide travel befo-re
order of 3o
i.,;; ;i';;;f-;
-state,
the
of
were connected
modified
;fidil;h.-to.ng' TI. inertia
directly across a batte-ry gr o.tfe,r
armituie enables it to continue
s u p p l v , a c o r r e s P o n d l n g l Yh l g n
i"'ir"ia-. ttt. gongafter a sh.ortpulse
cuiierit would be drawn.
of current has been Passedthrougn
irr.'""ii. itt. author has not check.J"p..Lti.t with anY other model
SIMPLE CIRCUIT
Uitl- ^ti cannot guaranteethat
A simple but neverthelessverY
in
function
wi-ll
"f
types
bell pinging circuit for
effective"it.*"ti".
circuits.
the
'--itrJ
operation from-a 9 volt batterY is
f'ri.aland bell has to be
shownin Fie. 1. In this diagram C1
r"odiiita fot the circuits by shortchargesvia-Rl until the potential
contacts'
interruptor
its
circuiting
acrossits platesis closeto or equals
b
e
c
a
u
s
e
o
n
l
Y
n
e
c
e
s
s
a
r
y
fnir i.
Fig. l. A simPle battary
the supplv voltage. If push-button
Inthe
when
there is a tendencY
discapacitor
operated circuit. The ball
the
is
thinclosed,
Sl
i.tiupto. contactsare in circuit-for
gives a single Ping when the
charsesinto the coil of the modified
irt. u[iiitglve a double Ping.*\S"
push-button is Pressed
bell.'hvine a sinsleping. When the
the electrolyticcapacitorwhlcn olscharges
released-C1
is
oush-"butt6n
excepan
has
coil
charsesintb its
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR
86

ed after operation of the bell the

only current which flows is leakage
current in this capacitor. Wi[h
modern electrolytic iapacitors this
should be of the order of a fery
microamps only, or even less.The
circrrit functions with suoolv
voltagesdown to some6.5 volts, bui
the waiting time, as Cl charees
after releaie of the push-butt6n,
becomes significantlj, longer ai
these low voltages.
Rl shouldbe-ratedat I watt for
resistance values between 100 o
and 300 O , and at * watt for
'raluesbetween300 o
470gr.
"trd with a
Fig. 2 illustratesthe circuit
mains bell transformer insteadof a
9 volt batterv. The 8 volts from the
bell transformersecondaryis rectified bv Dl and appliedto-theelectrolytic-capacitor'viaRl. The circuit functions in the same manner
a_sdoes that of Fig. 1, except that
the capacitor is now, of bourse,
charged by the rectified
transformersecondarvvoltaee.The
circuit is ready lor usi again"almost
imediatelyafter the pustr-buttonis
releasedand the running costsare
negligiblylow. The rectifredvoltage
appliedto the electrolyticcapacitor
can riseslightlyabove10 vofts,and
so its working voltage
- rating is inc r e a s e dt o 1 6 . v o l t s .

2,ooO!F
l6vwkg

6|
. P "'

Fig. 2. Running
costs are
reduced to a negligible leval
if the single ping circuit is
powered
bV
a
bell
transformer.

C O N T I N U A LP I N G S
A battery operatedcircuit which
gives a. seriesof continual pings is
shownin Fig. 3. Here, the capaiitor
which discharsesinto the mbdified
be-ll-coilis C2, and it chargesup via
R5. Insteadof a push-buttonsri,itch
the coil of the bell is coupledacross
the capacitor by turning on transistorTR2. Diode D1 is now added
acrossthe bell to suppressanv hieh
back-e.m.f. voltagds which' miy
appearacrossit.
^ The remaining transistor,TR1,
functionsas a standarduniiunction
oscillator. When 51 is closed.
capacitorC1 commencesto charse
via Rl. As soonas the voltaseacrois
C1 reachesthe unijunctiori-triggerocToBER 197s

S.--tv
R1

R5

:H2

'22O^

33kn

62

rRr $

BI

2N2646

R3
47n

a.

B el l

Icz
Pr
i zOoo
IOV wkg

ll:pe

D1
tN4002

TR2

IOV wk9

BDI24
R4
zzvi

3:

E/6-;\B I
(t

",V
2N2646

;<){
oY
B DI 2 4

Lsod -outs

Fig. 3. A circuit

which causas a series of pings to be sounded at

apprcximataly
3 second intervals

ing level the capacitor discharges

through the emitter-base1 junction
of the transistor and through R3
into the baseof TR2. This pulse of
current turns TR2 on and the bell
givesa ping. C1 then commencesto
rechargevia Rl and C2 to recharge
via R5.
The circuit producesa seriesof
pings from the bell at approximately 3 secondintervals,the soundbeing
very
noticeablebut not irritatingli
-Although
so.
both the electrolyiii
capacitorspassquite high dischdrge
currents neither of thesecurrents is
derived directly from the supply.
The average current drawn iiom
the 9 volt-batterv is about 10mA
only.
Transistor TR2 is maintained
fully turned off, between pulses
from TRl, by the resistor R4
betweenits base and the negative
supply rail. Since the current TR2
passeswhen it doesconductcan be
in excessof several amps, a small
power transistor is employed here.
It doesnot needto be mountedon a
heatsink, as its dissipationis quite
low.
The circuit of Fie. 3 could be
usedas an audible allrm to warn of
the end of a timing period, or for
similar applications.It has to be
rememberedthat it is necessarvto
wait for some 4 secondsfollori'ing
the applicationof the supply for the
first ping to be sounded,after which
the circuit continues with its
regularpings spacedat 3 secondintervals. The frequency.may .be
decrearqed,
if desirid, by rncreasrng
the value of Rl.

All the resistorsin the circuit can

be I watt types. This includes R5,
which required a l watt ratine in
the circuii of Fig. 1. It can be I iatt
in Fig. 3 becauseit does not now
have to pass the continual current
which flowed in Fig. 1 when the
push-button was pressed.

DOORBELL
The circuit of Fig. 3 can be
adaptedas a unique door bell for a
small house or flat by adding two
push-buttons and several other
components,as in Fig. 4. In this
diagram 52 is the bell-push,and is
situated remotelv at the door. C3 is
normally dischirged, whereupon
the base of TR3 is at the same
potential as the neeativerail and no
"available
3upply voltage is
for Rl
and R2 in the unijunction oscillator
clrcult.
When 52 is pressed,capacitorC3
becomeschargedto the full supply
voltage,taking with it the base of
transistor TR1. This functions as
an emitter follower, providing a
positivevoltageat its emitter for R1
and R2, whereuponthe unijunction
circuit commencesto oscillate. A
seriesof pinss spacedat 3 second
intervals is iroduced bv the bell.
and these iontinue foi about a
minute and a half as C3 discharges
slowly into the baseof TR3. At the
end ofthis period the voltageat the
upper endsof Rl and R2 is too low
to allow the unijunction circuit to
pass pulsesof adequateamplitude
to the baseof TR2 and the pinp stop
(although the bell armature may
operateweakly for sometime at the
87

TRANSFORMERS
Twin Primaries, Twin lsolatod Secondaries 6VA O-4.5-O-4.5. 0-60-6, o-9-o-9, o-1s-o-15, ft.70,
other slzcs availablc.
Rosistor Packs 1O/value 10R10M 730 pieces
|w, 5% pack
half
QE.5O,
f3.3O.
Electrolytic Cspacitor Packs 2Svw
1p-1OOp, 35 pieces S/value 2,1O,
70 piecesf4.
Ceramic Plate Capacitors Pack 5/
value 22pF-.O1p 165 piecos,
f4.96.
Sgmlconductors
BC 107/8/9
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BC 182/3/4
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BC 212/3/4
ln 4148 269/1A, f23O/1OO
Special Offer:
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CMOS - Low Pdcor -TTL
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Built-in 1.S.,12v DC oporEtion.CE4.OOIni,
VAT. Cryetals,if required: 2.6O each. All
popular2m. channelsin stock. Cr6dit torms
avallable,s.E.o. dt6ils. Mrrlna B!nd Rx
( 15 6 - 1 6 2 M H z ls i m i t a rt o N R 5 6 . . . . . . . f 5 9 . 4 0
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ffclaye 6v coil, 25A contacts.Sp make gop,
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Neonl min.wire end.
66p/1O; E4ll(Xl
Slldc Swltchcr mln DPDT 18p ca; 6+: i4p
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phy55p; 5+: 45p Nlcad rlchrrg.lblo
sically equiv. to zinc-carbon typos: AAA
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D(U2) f4.94; PP3 e5.20 Any 5+: less
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Wa rtock tmataur V.H,F. aqulpmant and
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UKPO8TP
, A C K I N O& V A T
M.ll ordar only
8ol. Addr.$:
OAREX ELECTiOIUIC!
t NoRvtc RoAD. LARSWORIH.
TRINO, HEiTS HF23 IILS
Chrddlngton (8TD O23C) COlt?t

88

C3
2OOpF
IOVwkg

BC tO7
Lcod-outi

Fig, 4. The circuit of Fig, 3 adapted as a door bell. Thc pings continue to sound for about lt minutcs aftcr 52 is prcssed

3 second intervals without striking

the gong).A new 1* minute period
can be fnitiated by pressing52 once
more. As with Fig. 3, it is necessary
to wait some4 secondsfor the first
ping to be heard.
If the occupant of the house or
flat wishes to silence the bell he
presses push-button S3, which
causesC3 to be diecharged.Resistor
R6 prevents a short-circuit across

some7.5 volts, brrt the.len$h of the

period durinc which the pincEcontinue after S/ is releasedie oSviously then shortened.
Both the circuits of Fige. 3 and 4
may be poweredfrom the maine,all
that is required being the simple
half-wave rectrifier supply shown
in Fig. 5. Since this pioduces a
voltagea little higher than 10 volts
both C2 of Fige.3 and 4, and C3 of

rN4002

iJil,

lllE--l

BVfllll ll-F

24Ov

Ac

illLj
Bcll
tron3totmcr

the supplv if both the push-buttons

Fig. 4, require working voltages of
should }ipen to be piessed at the
16 volts instead of 10 volts.
same time. It requires a wattage
In all the circuits, the 2,00@rF
rating of I watt.
capacitorwhich discharcesinto the
The unit may be battery
bell coil may alternatively be
operatedand the Eupply current in
2,20WF or 2,6001F if thegevalueg
the quiescent state is leakage
are easier to obtain. Alternative
current in C2 and the transistors.
values for the 200pF capacitor of
With the DrototvDe circuit this
Fig. 4 are, similarly, 220pF and
measured ai 4pA.'operation con250pF.
r
tinues for supdly voltagesdown to
RADIO AND ELECTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR

R A D I o c l R c u l r s u s l N G l c ' s . B y J . B . D a n c eM
, . S c .1 2 g p a g e s ,
180x 1O5mm.
17x 4in.lpubtished
by Bernard
Babani(publishing)
itO.
P r i c e f 1.3 5 .

J. Brian Dance is a prolific writer on electronic and constructional matters,

and has contributed to
many magazines, including Radio & Electronics Constructor. In this
book he turns rris atteniion to
integrated circuits, including in particular those encountered in radio
applications.An introductory
chapter discussesgeneral fa-ctorsconcerning i.c.'s,including constructionalhints
on wiring i.c.,sinto
working circuits and the difference between linear and digital types.
The second chapter carries on to a.m. radio receiverr uid giue" information
on several 7;N414
receivers,a superhet tuner inco.rporatingthe pA720, a car r"iio superhet
using the 1/,A120and a
1 t A 7 O Ga u d i o i . c . ,a n o t h e rs u p e r h e te m p l o y i n gt h e L M 1 8 2 O N a n d r h e L M 3 8 6 N , a n d a v a r a c t o rt u n ed circuit in which the intergrated circuit is a TCA44O.
-. In the third chapter, on f.m' receivers,circuits are given for use with the double-f.e.t.SD6OOO.
There is also a 1O.7MHz 1tA753 i.f. amplifier, a CA3O8-9Ef.m. limiter
and demodulator circuir and a
s i m i l a r c i r c u i t a p p l i c a t i o nt a k i n g i n t h e C A 31 8 9 E . T h e c h a p t e r
ends with a 4okHz ultrasonic
generator and detector.
The fourth chapter continues the theme by giving circuits for stereo
and quadraphonic decoders,
and is followed by a final chapter concerned with voltage regulator
i.c.'s.As can be seen, the book
ranges widely within its chosen subject_matter.

M O B I L E D l s c o r H E o u E H A N D B O O K .B y c o l i n c a r s o n .1 z B

p a g e s , 1 8 O x 1 O 5 m m . ( l x 4 i n . ) p u b l i s h e db y B e r n a r d
Babani
( p u b l i s h i n g )L td . P ri ce f 1 .3 5 .
Setting up and running a mobile disco is not simply a matter of luggingaround an amplifier,
a
couple of speakers and a turntable, and of then hooking these togethei at tn" chosen site. There
is
c o n s i d e r a b l ym o r e t o t h e o p e r a t i o nt h a n t h i s : a s e c o n d b a c k - u p a m p l i f i e r i s v i r t u a l l ye s s e n t i a l ,
as
also are monitor headphones, mixers, cueing devices, presentation fronts and many other
items.
The person running the disco has to be capable of providing optimum conditions for the particular
temporary venue in which each performance is to be held and of coping with any faults which
may
s.uddenlyarise. Finagle'sLaw states that if, in a system, anything can gowrong it inevitably will,
and
the Law is liable to make itself particularly felt in the rough a-ndtuilbt" world of the
mobile discotheque.
"MoNle Discotheque Handbook" starts with a short
section on basic electricity then proceedsto
disco equipment and operation in considerable depth. Much common-sense advice is given,
this
taking into account practical factors as well as the cost of equipmerrt.The approach is informal
and
lively, and any budding disco operator should find the book excellent value at its modest
orice.

J o H N L o G I E B A I R D A N D T E L E V t s t o N .B y M i c h a e H
l a l t e t t9. b
pages,235 x 195mm.(9 x 7{in.) publishedby priorypress,Ltd.price
f 3.95.
This book, which appears in the "Pioneers of Science and Discovery"
series published by
Priory Press,deals in a simple manner with the life and achievementsof John
Logie Baird. Coverrng
the subject mainly in chionological order, the book starts with Baird's early days,
during which he
was continually dogged by ill fortune and poor health. Even the triumphant period
in 193"6when his
high definition television signals were being broadcast from Alexandra paiace proved
to be shortlived; his intermediate film $/stem was runln tandem with the all-electronic
Marconi-EMl 4o5 line
system and the latter was ultimately chosen as that to be permanently
adopted.
Of great attraction in the present book is the selection of large clear photographs
and illustrations,these highlighting some of the historic moments in Baird'i
enterprisingaid
career and depicting patent drawings and the like from the early days of
the incept-ionof"orrrg"ous
television.

HIGH POWER
Amplifier Nlodules
by
A. P. Roberts

LOW DISTOFTIONA.F. OUTPUTS

UP TO 14 WATTS INTO 8 OHMS
D.C. AND A.C. COUPLED VERSIONS
This article describesa high quality audio power
amplifier module which should be of interest to
anvonewho is contemplatingthe constructionof a
hi-fi amplifier, or who requires a high quality
power amplifier for any other purpose,such as a
lransmitter modulator or a public addresssystem.
The circuit is provided in two formsr a d.c. coupled
version and a conventionala.c. coupledunit. Both
versionshave a high and virtually identical level of
performance,which is understandableas they are
basically the same. However,the d.c. coupledcircuit do6s have certain advantagesover the a.c.
coupled one, and it has possibleuses outside the

field of audio (in servo systems, dual balanced

power supplies,etc.).
When poweredfrom a dual 15 volt supply (d.c.
amplifier) or 30 volt supply (a.c.amplifier) the circuits will supply a maximum unclipped output
power of approximately 14 watts into an 8O
speaker.The level of t.h.d. producedis very low at
power levelsbelow 14 watts, being only about 0.1%
or less.and is too low for the author to measureaccurately usingthe equipment availableto him. The
unweightedsignal-to-noiseratio of the circuit is excellent, at slightly better than -80dB.

The d.c. coupled ampllfier module. The two output transisto6

extrema ilght

appear at the

c1

c4

Fb. ,. 7h. *B&

dftt'[ d.c.
tt*&rro/thcanpffi*.fh&
re qalttt
poeitlvo
and
n gdw
rlrytf
nk ud t
etd
t*o
dbgo
*tr
rdl

G.d

O . C .A M P L I F I E R

DC

ocq

BCY5t BC tO9
Leod -outs

D.C. AMPLIFIER
Th.e.circuit diagram of tLe d.c. version
the
amp.lifierappearsin Fig. t. To anvon-eivio of
is un_
ramlllar wrth d.c. coupled cirCuits based
on
operational amplifiers this probablv loo[. a little
al.tno"usnthis type- of power amplifier
::^Yi_q!
qeslgn
rsqurte.trequentlyusedthesedays. It would
pernaps be.helptUl to examine a basicbperational
ampllrler crrcurtbetbrel_ooking
more cloiely at the
prlqtical circuit of Fig. l.
. Fig. 2 -showshow antp-amp is usedin the inver_
ting mode, which is the confi[urati;
of Fig, ,r. Circulisoi-[n]r'Tvp"
"-;i;t;a; ur.
l!:-.._'lSq!
poweredtrom a dual,balanced
powercuppfy *itti
the central junction oerng usecras the
#i:
r ne,non-lnvertlng
rnput of the op_ampis "#t
connected
to this earth rai[

BFR4I BFREI
Lsod-outs

- ..TlP3lA TtP32A
Lcod - outs

AMPLIFIER
Resistors
(All fixed valuesI watt t0%)
Rl 15ko
R2 330ko
R3 lko
V&l 25ko potentiometer,log
VR2 4.7ko pre-set pofent-iometer,0.1
watt
norlzontal
Capacitors
91 9.1pI type C280 (Mullard)
9? I Ve type C280 (Mullardi
C3 lpcF (seetext)
C4 10pF ceramic
9! 1,{9gp! ceramicplate
C6 1,500pFceramicflate
Semiconductors
TR1 BFY51
TR2 8C109
TR3 BFR41
TR4 BFR81
TRs TIP32A
TR6 TIP31O
IC1 CA314OT

I
Fig. 2. The basic d.c, couplcd invertlns
inout
operational amplifier configuratlin

Heotsink
surlocc

Miscellaneous
Control knob
Materials for printed circuit board
fleatslnk tor output transistors
Insulating sets for output transistors
wrre, solder.etc.

+r,

are basically differential amPlifiers

Op-amps
-"*plify
the voltige.presentacrossthe two
,"ain.y
words, the difference between
in
other
innuts or.
p"tentials. Theoreticallv, an operational
lii;l;;;t' -has
infinite voltage gain so.-that -atly
ampliiier
aiiT.t.n.. in voltageacrossthe inputs will result in
of th"e amplifier gding either {uflv
;#-ou6tt
p".iti*li
fully negativ6.ttre outoul-goesposlliv,e
if the non-inveitinginput is at the higher potentral,
ii ttid ndn-inverting inpgt ls at the
;";;;;ti";
io*.."oo1."tial. Practical operitional amplifiers
have finite voltage gain, of course' but- the ^garn
oi -oti- i""cticai it"ptifiers is typically of the
Ioo,ooo times. Thus, only- an extremely
"iali""i
il;tt aiff*ential input voltage will be. sufficient
6-;;;d lh; output ot ttte amplifier fullv positive
or negative.
R1 and R2 in Fig. 2 form a negative feedback
r""r], ila ii-is itte falues of these-resistorswhich
R1 also
vottage gain of the c.i.r^.cuit'
e.dilffi-the
i*peda""c6 of the amplifie.r whilst R2
;,iliili;;r.ii
the outprit to.be at earth
;;ilffi-tGsi"g,-causi"g "no
input-signal-voltage'Lf
is
*[""1tt"."
;;;;;i"1
^the
output should tend to drift away trom eartn
.tigttUv positive for. example, this
il.;;ii[;"v
would take the inverting input slightly posrtlveoI
iirr i"tlft.a non-invertirig input' T}e ihputs would
whi6h ri'ould causea negative
;ililil;;balanced,
The output would
-again
swins i" the output voltage.
and the input
to earth botential
ilfft
restored.
balancewould be
The voltage gain of the circu-it is equal to R2
aiviaed Uv htl This is termed the closed.loop^
voltasesain. The voltagegain of the-op-amp itself
without- anv feedback is called the open looP
;;[;;;
s;i.1 The wav in which Rl qnd R2 control
;lie;Stdge-tain is pr6bablv best explainedwith the
aid of a simple mathemafical example'
-'H;ft;
tii"t nt has a value of lkttand that the
i. 1gtso,If a negativeinput potential of
oi-nZ
uui".
to be applied to the-ciriuit at the lefti;;ltil;,
ft""a-."a of R1, thiinputs woull-obviouslyFu q:
balanced and the output would go posrtrve' rt
would onlv swing positive by 10 volts' howevet'-as
flow Thiough R2 would !!re.n!e equal to
iir;;;;tit
that throush Rt, and the two would-balanceeach
6;dsi"g dtte inverting input.-back to earth
;[;t;
;"i"ritilt. fhe"eain of the ciicuit will obviously be
ioii-..
tiot o?ivided bv !ko) si-ncean input of 1
producesan output of 10 voltF'
volt
''ii;itfb;;-pp"ret
t that the feedbackcircuit has

or'iii"tai"i"s tl'.
tr'eei'rect

at earth potential. Therefore the in-vertinginput is

aiso tteld at earth potential, and what is termed a
iiii""i *ttn-is iottted here' As the input signal is
connectedto this via Rl, the input-impedanceof
musi obviouslvbe virtuallv egual to Rl'
;h;;iilit
piu"ti.",
stray capaiitances.-aldother circuit
ii"
have some slight effect on the
i;;tf";;1;t-t""v
infut impedance.)
RACTICAL CIRCUIT
'P 'G;t;ii";;l
i'c.'s are not designedto
i-ptiri".
in order-touse them as
so
poweri,
and
high
trandle
it is necessaryto add a highpow-er
""*"r
stageat the output. By bringing the'butter
buffer "-?itifters
stasewithin the feedback network, the-bastcconFie. z can still be retained' Furtherifi;;"ii;;;i
feeiback is applied to the circuit as a
-"ot.l
it ;iit counteract diifortion in the entire cirffi;i; ""-ltt"
;;1lust distortion contributed bv the op;;ii;;d
-^-ii"tutnitts
amp.
to the circuit of Fig. 1, Rl and R2 set
of the circirit at 15ko and the
th; i;;;;l;p"a""""
-ai
atelv 22 times' This^gives
approxim
;;ft A; ;;il
ttte-c"it"luitan iniut sensitiiity of about 480mV
i; f"tl oritput. The giin and. input, im;.;;.
nedance can be altered to sutt lndlvrdual reif tt"c".*aty, but it is advisablenot to
["it.-""t.
ittl sain of the iircuit much aboveits prei*t.r..
noise and
u.ittit will result in incre-ased
.""it"*i
suffer'
also
could
stabilitv
teveis.
ei;;i;;Sill'Lrl"; t"i.it g the input impedance geatly
.n"ta aftb resuli in instability and a signiticant
in the signal-to-noiseratio'
reduction
- -frt"
U"ff"r stageivhich is used at the output of the
cir.cutt
i.c. is a fairly co-nventionalcomplementary
'r'he emltter
stage'
follower
emitter
an
bv
driven
not iequired for the gain it provides,but
f;ll;;;i.
i;-;;"4;d in ord6r to permit fhe usual quiesggnt
bias voltase to be applied to the output stggg' r nts

with TRz funcbi;; i' il;;iaea uv Vn2 andT$-2-,

so
is.adjusted
VR2
diode.
;i;;ils;"" "-ritin"d
of a'bout1.1 volts isieveloped across
iii"f

and emitter of TR2. The voltage is not

iii" ""uott"ge
""ti"ii"i
sufficient to turn on the transistors in the outouite
ailirst it might be thoughtthat quite
;;;;;;:-;;d
iiistortion y99ld b.epeI ttiefT"i,;i of
"to..-ouer
level,of distortion on
the
ttt
fact,
;;..ttt.
;
;";";;
is stigtrtiv highe-rthan thatproduci;;i;i"is";is
ed at medium and high output l9ve.l9'but rt rs stru
is noi of significance'This is
;f ;;;i;;ota"i""[
ttigtt t"tel of negativefeedback used
;;; ;i'h;;L.v
largely ellminates what crossi" itt"
"It""it"*ttii,h
exists.Tf,is method of counteracting

article in this magazine ("CMOS Audio Amplifier", R. A. Penfolii, in the issue for April lgi7).
The main advantageof the system is that, with
only a fairly low bias on the oulput stase.there ii
very little chance of thermal rrjnawai occurrins
here, especially when it is consideredthat TRf
provides a degreeof thermal stabilization in the
conventionalmanner anyway. VR2 could be adjgsted to permit a quiescent-biascurrent throush
the output stage, but the circuit would then be
more vulnerable to overloading, and good heatsinking of the output stagewoulil-becom"e
more important.
A well-known arrangementis used in the output
stage,with all four transistorsbeing connectedin
the common emitter mode. Alth6ueh common
emitter slagep.normally provide a high level oJ
voltagegaln t$s rs not the casehere as eachpair of
transistors(TR3 - TR5 and TR4 - TR6) are connectedwith 100%negativefeedback,andiherefore
provide unity gain. There is in fact unitv voltaee
gain..all the way from the output of ICl to tf,e
ampllller ou@ut, but the current gain between

these two points is extremely high. This gives the

circuit a very low output impedancewhich is a
matter of a few milliohms rather than ohms. The
combinationof the very low output impedanceand
the fact that the CA31,i0Ti.c. uied in tlheIC1 position is capableof an.output voltageswingvirtuallv
equal to the supply rail potentia'l meani that th-e
peak-to-peakoutput voltage swing which can be
fed.to the speakeris alsonearly equal to the supply
rall.voltage.ln consequence
tfe circuit can provide
optimum ou@ut power from a given combination
of supply vol-tage-andspeakbrimpedance.
There is no need for a d.c. blocliins capacitorto
be. used.at the output 4q lbe quieicent output
voltage is extrem-elysmall. The iro-signaloutput
current is probably no more than that which flows
in a conventionalamplifier due to slight Ieakage
through the output capacitor.
Similarly, there is no need to use a d.c. blocking
capacitorbetweenR1 and the slider of the volum6
control, but it is essentialthat such a capacitorbe
included in series with the volume control.
Otherwiseany d.c. potential which is coupledto the

"0
fi.. ..0.'0
#'
lfiffi".il
u.rf:)

'l
291t6"

_l
Fig. 3, The printed circuit tayout for thc d.c, couptcd anplffier

input will be amplified 22 times and ted to the

sp-eaker.
speaker.This could easily
easilvdamage
damaseboth the speaker
soeaker
and the amplifier. Iff the input of the amplifier is to
be connectedto a sourcew}ich containsa d.c. element of known polarity, then C3 can be an electrolytic type suit-ablyconnected.If not, then a nonelectrolytic type suih
eleclrolyti-c
such as a Mullard C280 compocomponent
r l L must
r r l u s L be
uc e
employed.
urlJruyeu
The circuit has an extremelv wide bandwidth
unless steps to reduce it are taken. A wide
bandwidth which extendswell beyond the upper
audio frequencylimit is undesirableas it is li}'ely
to resultin pick-up of radio frequency,and can also
resultin variousforms of instability. C4,C5 and C6
are thereforeincludedto roll off the high frequency
r-esponse
of the circuit. Cl and C2 pr6vide iupply
decoupling.

A.C.AMPLIFIER
Resisfors
(all fixed valuesI watt t\Vo)
Rl 15ko
R2 8.2kCI
R3 8.2k0
R4 1ko
R5 330kf)
VR1 25ko potentiometer,log
VR2 4.7ko pre-set potentiometer,0 . 1 w a t
horizontal.
Capacitors
Cl lpF electrolytic,25 V. Wks.
C2 10pF electrolvtic.25 V. W[e.
C3 l,500pF ceramic'plate
C4 1,500pFceramicplate
C5 2,200pFelectrolviic,2S V. Wke.
C6 100pFelectrolytic,
40 V. Wkg."
C7 10pF ceramic

C O N S T R U C T I O NA N D S E T T I N G U P
A suitable printed circuit board layout for the
amplifier is shownactual sizein Fig. 3. This is constructedin the usual manner. TR5 and TR6 must
be mountedon a substantial heatsink,and in manv
instancesit wiil be possibleto usethe metal caseoi
chassisof the equipment as the heatsink. In instanceswherethis is not practical a large sizecommercially producedheatsink can be employed.The Semiconductors
As for d.c. amplifier
output transistorsmust also be insulated from the
heatsink,usingmica washersand plastic insulating
bushes.Use a continuity tester to ensurethat this Miscellaneous
As for d.c. amplifier
insulation is completely effective.
positioned
The holesin the board for VR2 are
to
take a component having 0.2in. spacing between
track tags and 0.4in. spacing between track and
slider tags.
Beforeapplying power to the circuit ensurethat
A.C.VERSION
VR2 is adjusted in a fully anticlockwisedirection
The circuit of Fig. 4 is_providedfor consbuctors
so that its slider is at the track end connectingto
who prefer an a.c. coupledamplifier.This is much
TR2 collector. Connect a multimeter set to read
the same as the circuit of Fig. 1, exceptthat d.c.
about50mA in serieswith one supply rai!, and then
blocking cap4citorshave been added al the input
switch on the power. A current of abbut 20mA
and output. R2 and R3 bias the non-invertinginput
shouldbe drawn by the circuit, and if VR2 is slowly
of the i.c. to half the supply rail potential, and
adjusted in a clockwisedirection a setting should
C2 smooths out noise which could otherwise be
be reachedwhere any further advancementresults
coupledto this input from the supply lines via R2.
in a large increasein current consumption.VR2
The supply line iipple rejection-6fihis circuit is
quite good, and it is not necessaryto use an elecslider should be slightly backed off from this setting. As explainedearlier VR2 can, if preferred,be
tronically smoothedpower supply. However, this
adjustedfor a small quiescentcurrent through the
circuit is not as goodin this respectas the d.c. veroutput stage,and this could consistof an increase sion, and circuits of the type shown in Fig. 1 and
in current of, say, 5mA. However, this quiescent Fie. 2 have inherentlv hieh suonlv rinole reiection.
current will certainly not improve performance
Another disadvantige'of *r'e^ciicu'it of Frig. + is
noticeably.
that it is slightly more expensivesincea large elecIt is worth noting that if the circuit is operated trolytic capacitor must be used at the butput. The
with one supply rail absentthere,will still be only a
gapacitor also reduces the low frequency power
small quiescentoutput current, and the amplifier
bandwidth of the circuit, although in praclici this
will not be damaged.
may not be of any consequence.

ill;,.,

'*#

Illttlwstf*g :iow dtt r,t.

et**fu
oottpgf'rorr'F n
Ut yt w {*
pmd
eartt fuutt

:_n
A suitableprinted circuit board desim
the
a.c.velsionof the amplifieri. ;6r;Jff;a for
actuai
The constr""tioou"i-."itii"up of the
:i::.il Tje;,bcrrcult
rs the sameas for the d.c.amplifierexceDt
thal dueto the differentlat;ut,-VHtii;illd f;;fi:
itially-setfully clockwise
if"iis siiae.-is'iiie at tte
end of -thetrack
;; inZ
It is
then adjustedin "otttr"ctirrg
an anticl8clwise
""fi""tor.
i;;il".

more than 1b-0-1bcr 30.volts under quiescent

con_
ditions.Transformer.*itnio-o:i-0*;"lilA"ndaries
are not listed by the rarger component
-uofi"i"r'*rvmail_order
but theie .."o"d"ry
fro.use-s,
b. oU_
tained from transtol1ngt. having secondaries
tapped at 0-5-20-SO-aO_OO
votts.""CJririectionis
made to the 20, 30 and ao vott;;;;. i;;:iight
loss
in supply voltageanct-auclro
power, the more com_
mon transformerswith 9_0-9;ii;L"d"diii..
_iv
PO^_WER
S.gPPLY
be emploved.
'I'he
amplitigls should not be poweredfrom a
In. oider to supply a single amplifier
ttre power
morethaniS voltspositive supply-transformir i""ond"'ry -air;-;";;;-;ti;;
::Bp]{_"^t,:ign"ificantly
.t;;ilffi;
irt"a
ano
t
negatlvetor the d.c.,versionor 30 volti single amp. For a
stereo applifirir
"t
rail for the a.c. version.Using th; p;;;r;;pit;i;:
shouldbe increasedt" til;;;"iia'ti"i"ii"gof
the
thesevditag"i,
f99esshoutdbe similiiiy-;i#il. iE",-;i;;
to
Iig:6
:rjl*:::
!y9.
maxlmum marns transformer secondary
"o.i".pl,i,d
1N4001rectifiersshouldbg_'.";i;"";i'ty nigne.
voltage "
10-0-10 volts. With a practical ir""rfi,rir".,'if,i. oi
current types,such as the tNb+bO.
power supply will normally provide-j;;t
J,id;iil:

A.C. AMPLIFIER

Fig' 4' The a'c'-ucrsion-.of

.thc amplfficr. requirc only a single suppty rail. Thera are d.c, blocking
capacrtons at thc input
to thc integntad ciiuit tni
th" output to the speaker
OCTOBER

Supply pog.

:ilR;
Supply neg.

4'too
Fig. 5, The a.c. couplad amplifier is assambled on its printed board as shown here. Like Fig. 3, this is
reproduced full size

*=ni
Fig. 6. A suitablc powcr
supply for the d.c. couplcd
amplif ier.
Transformar
ratings are discussed ln thc
text. With slight modification the power supply may
also be used with the a.c.
coupled amplifier

Amoins
i

llll

_t_Jlll

Cq
4TOOlrF
l6V wkg

C2
47OOyF
l6V rkg
FSa

N.9

IA

As shown, the power supply of Fig. 6 offers the

positiveand negativerails for the d.c. versionof the

output is ignored. Also, the mains earth can be

transferredfrom the centrerail to the negativeout-

SeveralcomPlete
new Proi*ts for You to
buildwith full constructlon
deJils in the catalogue including:
hi-fi steteo
A suoerb4OWper channel

lT#
?:""fi
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, ilJ,'""li'n::""il,:'lFtii:3lJ
SuPerb specitlcatlon'

t-wgla'."-l'jlil""'
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i A omplete
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A model railway train
with inertia control Ior accel'
erating and breaking

tI
t

t
tI
I

I
By
P. R. Arthur
D yn a mi c u n i t improves and boosts the
p e r f o r m a n c e of portable cassette

recorders.

Probably many readersof this magazineown a

portable cassetterecorderor cassette/radiounit,
and have wonderedif it is possibleto improvethe
reproductionquality providedby suchunits.While
it is likely that this can be achievedby modifying
the recorder,a morepracticalsolutionis to feedth6
output of the unit to a separatenoisereductioncircuit, amplifier and speaker.
The amplifier which formsthe subjectof this article is intendedfor usein suchan application,and
it incorporatesnoise reduction circuitry of the
dynamic noiseIimiter (d.n.l.) type. The circuit is
very simple and usesjust two activedevices.It is
mains poweredand providesan output power of
about2.5 watts r.m.s.into an external8 o speaker.
The total harmonic distortion is typicalfy only
about 0.21r0
at all output powerlevels,and the unweightedsignal-to-noise
ratio is about-72dB. Thus
the unit does not significantly detract from the
signal it processes.In fact, provided a reasonably
good speaker is used, the combination of the increasedoutput power the unit offers plus the effect
of the d.n.l. circuitry resultsin a remarkableimprovementin audio quality.
D . N . L .P R I N C I P L E
The d.n.l. systemrelies on the fact that the most
noticeable noise on the output from a cassette
recorderis the familiar high frequencytape hiss.
This hiss is only significanfat low recordinglevels
though,as it is maskedbv hish level simals. It is
more readily masked by hig:h frequency signals
f.han hv

miridla

nr lnrw fio^rrl-..,

^ioo

Basicallythe d.n.l. systemconsistsof a low pass

(or treble cut) filter which attenuatesthe tape hiss
in the presenceof low recording levels.At higher
recording levels the treble cut is progressivelv
reduced,-4nd
it is completelyremovedat very high
recordingIevels.
A slight flaw existsin this system,in that there is
some loss of treble responseexcept at very high
volume levels.However,the reduction in the tafe
hiss Ievel tends to be much more noticeablethan
the loll of high frequencyresponse,
and.adynamic
noise limiter can produce a large subjectrvermprovement in the quality of a signal.
Also, many pre-recorded cassettesas well as
home producedonesare recordedusing someform
of noise reduction encoding,such as the popular
Dolby B system. Most of these systems are
somewhat similar to the d.n.l. one so far as the
decoding is concerned,but during the recording
processthe cassetteis encodedin thb form of treble
boost on low level signals.This enablesboth noise
reduction and a flat frequency responseto be obtained.
It must be emphasisedthat the unit described
here is not a Dolby decoder,nor will it properly
decodeany other form of noisereductionencoding.
As one would expect, though, results are better
when usingthis type of cassetteas the low leveltreble boost which is applied during the recording
processtends to compensateto someextent for the
treble cut which is applied to low level signalsdurqvhqnlr

,J

Fig. l. Tha basic manner tn whlch thc nolsc

reduction omplifler functions. The rcslstcncc of
VRA reduces wlth increaslng input sign;t
yoftage. causing less high freqicncy conteitto
De presont at the inverting input of the',mptificr

BASIC OPERATION
Iig. t- illustrates the basic arrahgementof the
noise red.uctionamplifier. The
itself is a
differential type wh'ichhas the u.uii
"-piTn".
no"_i"vertins
rl9
(.__)
inputs. It is not a high gaifr
11]
l"tertrng
type such
as the 7 L-and similar types,bul his a
glin of only about 2 ti-u.. itie ii,put signal
y_ol"!u,gu.
rs red ro the non-invertinginput of the implifier,
and the boostedsignalwhich dpp""r. il th";;tili
rs Iectto a loudspeaker.The input signal is alsoTed
to-!h_ernvertrnginput via low value capacitor CA
Xhiglr, togetheiwith VRA, for-s t iehiass filter.
"
signals at the non_inverting
input
5:::llu,"_--Corng.
rn,positive-g.oing
excursions
at the ofrtput of
If:ult
rne amptttler, and negative-going
inputs produce
negative.output excuriiorrs.As tfie
il;Iil;
the.rnverting.input
";*;signaltif opi
producesan output
p9sltg polanty to that applied to the input. The
nrgnrrequencvsrcnalspassedto the inverting input
via CA there?orj can6el ;"i il-;;;e-dlsee
the
samesignalsat the non-invertingi"pu1,
reqqiredtreble cut is acnreved.
"n?;;ifi;
,e.i.tor, but is a device
.VRA is not an ordinary
"contiol-leri
whoseresistanc'ecan
t/;;
applierJ
!e
voltage.Th-econtrol voltage
i. aurir"a'fro- ift i;:
put signal by means of a'rectifier and-Jmoothins
and rs proportional to the input signaT
[""ri:r*,
Th" _circuitis arrangedso that the larger the con_
trol _voltage,
the lowei the resisian-c;;?tRA.-aA
1n$ !\{ form a high p"., fiit". Uy ioi." ofpot*_
tial divider action.Ttr'eimpeaa-rrc'er
" C.q'f"ffr *iii,
risingfrequency,
"f
and so.liEffi };"i*:ri",
;r*";r;
are.coupled.to the.inverting"input *'itt, t"i,. arten_
ruauon and are thus cance_lled.
-vna-r.iair."l
out to a greater

THE CIRCUIT
Fig..2 showsthe completecircuit diagram of the
unit, including the r:lgi". power .upfly section.
u:tv, versatile LMg80 i.c. u"di6-"u--pllii;;
I!"
Iorms the basisof the unit, and this devicehai both
non-invertinC
lld inv.ertinginputs with a pre_set
-gain
y_ol3C"garn of tVRicallVb0 times. Such a
is
than
is required in the piresent
llllgt
,htgher
appllcatlon,and soan attenuatoris usedat eachin_
put_,lhat at the non-invertinginputconsistilt;iR2
alg F4, and that at_!h_einv"ertingi"il;;;"'.irtil;
of R3 and Rb. The LM380-ope*i..
i,"rf!"llv ,iiijT
without the necessity of using d.".
Uto""ti"e
capgcitorsbetweenthe-attenuatori and its inpuisl
input signal.is coup]edto th; ;;;_i;;;;ti;;
, --T!" tjrggrmplifier
via C4, _andit is alsocoupled
Inpulof of
Li3 to a rectifier and smoothinsnetwbrk.
lV^y"V
uJ rras beengiven a fairly low value so that this
part of the crrcuit r.espondsm_o_re
readily to high
freguenciesthan it do6sto middle u.rd bu.. orr"..
. The electronic variable resistor G
;;_
channel.JUGFET,TRl, and its source
";tr;ny
_ drain
termrnalsprovi9ethe variableresistance
path.The
negattvecontrol voltage
whic.his formed by the rec_
*network
is fea 1o tli" gate of
li{lqr and smoothing
TR1. VR1-superimfbse, po.itiu" Lir."uoti"g" o.rto
th.e control voltage.This biasesTR1 to a point
where it exhibiti quite a t rgt, *ur"" "_ draln
bu,t where only a fairly small negative
ItT13.t*;ot gate
cnange
_voltageis needed to reduc6 this
resrsranceto about_100
Thus the
-th" rectified
negative control voltage produced
d;;;d
result.
couplingbetweenthe two inputs
^" TJqh-l"qgf,ncy
oI
tne,amphtier is provided via either Cb or'C6.
upon which of these is selectedbV 52.
l"^p,"_n!l"q
useo when processingordinary tapes,ana CS
!o, 1s
twnlcn pro.vlclesrncreasedtreble cut) is used on
tapeswhich have a high treble outprit. hlese i"_
clude Dolby.encodedufra
iurnil"iii"
i"r"..
, h" c.oupllngis rerhoved
"r,ioin position I of S2-,and
.,
rne ,u-nlt then operates as a straightforward
amplrtrer.'l'hrs enablesthe amplifier to-beusedto
gytput,f'o.- poriuUrii"ii". N"tl,,
P:::l ,1..,
nowever,
". can often be used
that the d.n.l.
action
to
improve noisy radio reception.
rne
power
suppty section emplovs a conven_
..
uonat, brrdge rectifier. It is unrCzulated and
provldesan output potential of.approximately1g
volts..The two 6 volt secondaries'6i-fi-u." .or,_
nected in seriesto pro-vide.12 volts-lor lt" [rijg.
rectifier. T1 is a' ..Miniature OVA, Sivte l-,;

degree.Th-eresista""" of

H t-i;
presenceof high level.signals,and liiis r"ir".
if,"
trequencyat which a significaht amount o?roil_oli
rs producecl..With very high input levels there
ii
amount of roll_off at frequencies
:1,^y.^"^*qlrrcant
aDoverhe upper limit of the audio range,and so the
'f
treble signald receivefu [ ;mplifi;"Iffi
ir"r"io.",
i1 effecJ,the higher
amplitld-e-oi iire input
-the
signal the lower ihe degreeoi treltl ;i;iic'f;;
applied to it.
98

Th.e.rear panel. The input socket is to thc loft,

with the output socket appeaing bc'|yycen thi
and tho malns lead
RADIO AND ELECTRONICS

u:iJ

240V
A . Cm o i n s

dgs

2N3820
e o d- o u t s

Fig'

2' The complctc

N4l

clrEult

of thc nolsc rcduction

.mpllllu
considcnbty

Resistors
(All fixed values I watt |Vo)
Rl 120k o.
R2 5.6k o
R3 5.6k o'
R4 220 0,
R5 220'o
VRl 100k o potentiometer,

integrated

circuit eudio

Transforrner
T1 mains transformer, secondaries0-6V, 0-6v
at 0.5A (seetext)
Switches
Sl(a)(b) d.p.s.t.toggle
52 4-pole3-way rotary (seetext)

Capacitors
Cl 0.22ttFtype C280 (Mullard)

o.tuPty!'eCzeotMuiiaiai'
9?
q3-9p4fp{iypeC28b
tMuuaial
v a r v t 4 l ' Y r c u L f u r y L l c r It0*V.
wKg.
91 lol{ "l"ciiolvtic,U v . WE:
type-C2flO
(Muuardl
91 9 Qlsry.e

(M;il;a)
Q! prot4r.tyir^e
_czao
elecirolytic,

2bV: \i,*.
Q! lorF
electiolytic,16
ro V. Wkg.
9q
l,00EF electrolytic,
99 0.lpF
1,90PF
type C28d(Mullard
rd)
Qg
UlO 1,000pF
C10
l,000rzFelectrolytic,
electrolvtic.
25
ZS \V. Wt g.
Semiconductors
IC1 LM38O
TRl 2N3820
D1-D4 1N4001

amplifier.
Thc use of an
reduces complexity

D5 0A91
D6 0A91

Indicator
NEl neon indicator (seetext)
Sockets
SK1 3.5mm.jack socket(seetext)
SK2 3.5mm.jack socket(seetext)
Fuse
FSl 500mA fuse,20mm.
Miscellaneous
Instrument case,8 x 5| x 2in (seetext)
20mm. fuseholder(seetext)
2 control knobs
Materials for printed circuit board
3-coremains lead
Grommet
Nuts, bolts, wire, etc.

fooftfAt:

,,,

".fu:iffi
strr.
bo&,|d|,,#,.'M,r'

,'

.,.

t cafti Eh t! Ciitl.:."
;:mtyr:., 1gl',
nqgatffi, io WWffiW,,
ragrrdbrra d:rrctlarrfl{. _

x
transformer. and is
-availahle from Doram Elec_
tronics Ltd. It has the unusu.al f""t"r"-"iirrri.,S
two. primary windings, and these u." .u-r,",
ao._
necrcd tor use wrth the normal U.K. mains voltage.
^ Fuse FS1 is a 20mm. b00mA type and it fits in a

?01n-. chassismounting fusehollir-,iiiu iuttu, utro

being available from O6.am Eiecirl"i".'ita. fn"
unit is assembledin an instru-""i *.u *"asuring

8 by.s{pv lin.This is a caseTtttBVi;';,r;i"d'i:

retailed by Bi-Pak Semrconductors.

.. 52 is a.4-pole 3-way rotary switch, with connec_
trons made to one of the poles only. NEI is a panel
mounting
.neo.n indicalor with intesral- s'erie;
reslstor surtable fbr connection to 240 volts a.c.
mains.
CONSTRUCTION
Apart from the controls, neon indicator and input and. output sockets, itt ttre
-which ur"
mounted on- a printed circuit board
"o-ponenm is il_
tustrated tull size in Fig. B. It is not recommended
that.any, other.form of ionstructi"; b;-;;;a ;ih;
pnnr,eo boarcl has a large area of copper laminate
which.acts as a heatsiik for the iM5gd. Inade_
quate heatsinking would not result i" ah; i:..
b;i"g

W,

**,:

i.tii\

I.

damaged,since the LM380 incorporatesthermal

short-circuit protection'circuiirv, Uutii
S19,qutpul
woulct reduce the maximum available- output
power.
-Jn-u pOmm. fuseholder is mounted by a sinele
68A bolt and nut. It is advisedtdttdbBA";H;;
hole.for.this be drilled.nrst, followiiri Fii. g, after
y\ich the preciseposition tt
t"l"ti,ii
hole is maiked ofi wirtr-the
"f ;i;i" ;iih;il.it;;td";
"dJi.rir?
itself.
The prototype-is-constructedin the metal instru_
ment case which has just been referred to. the
gener.allayout of the unit can be seenln itre accom_
p3l,{,_tlC.,photographs,.
gnd .is_not particularly
crrtrcal.Working trom left to right,
the iomponenrc
on rne^Irontpanel are the-neonindicator,51, VRI
and sz. Un the rear panel, the mains lead passes
through^ahole behind the rirainsiianslo.-ei. ff,i,
nole,lstlttecl wlth a grommetand the mains lead
should be securedinside the casewith a plastic oi
plastic-facedc-lamp Next to tli; m;il; [ia f,ifl i,
:l:,_9ytput lack socket,followed by the input jack
socKet.
The p:inted bgqrd is securedto the bottom of the
casewith three 684 bolts and nutr, meiai rp""ine
washersbeing employedto .p""" iii"-fo;;d il;;:

tr.'.'o
HI
I

r-vl

(i_-:-f:l
Q

oea.t"ot

p
4BA clcor

LJ

a\

S9
.:
/.:-l\

-/

(A-r----!)

\q

4 BA clcor

6 BA cleor

O oBe.t"o.

oO

684 clcor

Fig' 3' Dctalls of the pinted

cltcuit board. which is rcproduced full size. The large copper area af ct asais
potontl.l ptovldcs hcatsinking for tCl

side clear of the inside metal surface of the case

and.thereby prevent short-circuits.The casetales
up its earth connectionfrom the printed board via
these spacing washers. Single urrscreened*ire.
connectto the tip contacts.oithe input and outpui
jack sockets.Th-eseshould be of th6 no.,-i.,sul"ied
type,and they take-uptheir earthyconnections
via
tnelr mountrngbushesand nuts.
U S I N GT H E U N I T
The input.socke^t
of the amplifier is fed from the
earpnonesocketof the cassetterecorder.At the im_
neda,ncgand signal voltage levels involved there
snoutdbe no needto usescreened
cable,but the in_
terconnectionshould be such that the chassisof
both-unitsare at the samepotential. A1th""g[1[;
earphoneoutput of ttre recoider is intendeat"offea
rnto.a low imp-edanceload, there seemsto be no
neeclto add a dummy load_resistorat the input of
the amplifier. The efi'ectof a aummy toad resistor
wastried in practice,but it merelv iesui[edin in_
creased distortion both with Iransformerless
recorderoutputs and with the older typeshavini an
output transformer.
The outp.utof the-amplifierconnectsto an g o
gpeaKer
whtchshouldbe mountedin a cabinetand
be_c.apable
of handling at least g walts-i.m.s.
The volume level is adjusted bV means of the
volume control on the recoide.. Ca-ssette
iecordeis
are often fitted with a simple top
cut tone control
'the
and, if this should be the case,
i.
justed for maximum treble.
"o"t.ot
"aTo gblq1n good results it is essentialthat bias
control VKI be correctly adjusted. With the
y9l.um9adjustedto a low^levetit strouiabe possible
to locatea small range of settingsoue. *t i?t VRi
operatesas a sort of top cut tone control. The
pot-entiometershould be iet at the maiimum cut
9,n.dof this rangeof settings.It may be iound that
[nls resuttsrn the treblecut beingreducedon fairly
low level,signals,with a rise ii itiu Uu.igroun&
norselevel bern-gvery apparent on such sicnals.In
tnls casert wrll be necessary
to back VRI oTfslightly from the point at which it Ueginilo lil; ;[e treble
cut.

to readjustVRl each
. In theory it is neces,sary
tlme the volumecontrolsettingis altered.This was
not found to be the casein practice,and oncethe
correctsettingfor VR1 hasb-eenlocatedit doesnot
seem to be necessaryto readiust it unless the
volume control setting is gredtly cnu"s;d.- fiie
higher the volume contlol seltine,"thefurlher VRi
will need to be backedoff.
illustrate oscillograms
, Tyo gf {h.e_nh_o_tofraphs
obtarnedwith lkHz squarewave input, the upper
waveformin eachbeingthe.signalat the inveiling
input of the LM380 and the loier wavefor- tn"t ^t
the output. The first photographshowsthe resuit
grvenwlth a low levelsignal.The squarewavehar_
monics are largely.fedio the inveiting input and
tne sio.wlng!-p ol the output waveformdue to the
cancelllllget.lectcan he clearlvseen.

Waveforms at the inverting input (upper) and

the output (lower) given with a low tevel lkHz
squara wavd input

Waveforms with a high tevel f kHz square wave

input. Only superconic harmonics are fcd to thc
inverting input and the output ,shows tittte
evidence of high fraguancy aftenuation

The printed boad is spaced away from the bot_

tom of the casc to prevont short_chcuits to its
undenidc

.The .secrrnd photograph illustrates conditions

y,tt,h g hlgh stgnal input level. This time only very
hrgh trequency harmonics outside the audro range

are passedto the inverting input

-up and in conse_
quence there is little slow:ing
of the output
waveform.
I

DX LISTENERS
By Frank A. Baldwin

fi|l?#c * stfif

ICA
Stationson the African continent can be of great
terestto the Dxer and short wave listener alike.
of the programmesare colourful to sav the
African music and rhvthms are well worth
rg for those that are so equipped. The early
ingsand mornings are the best times for loggthesetransmissions- why not try an African
ri tonight?

ZAMBIA
Lusakacan be found on 4gll wherethev were
ged
at 1950
ryou wnen
whe-n raolatlng
radiating aa proqTamme
program'meot
igtsu ar
of
ricanmusic completewith drums and chantsin
.'HomeService.

TANZANIA
Dar-es-Salaamon 6O5O at 1903. OM with a
st in Swahili until 1910 then into A
:amme of local music and songs in the
mercialServicescheduledfrom 180-0to 201b.
te NationalServicein Swahili is alsoradiatedon
is channelbut from 0300 to 0500. The power is

okw,

CONGO
RTV 9-ongolaise,
Frazzaville, on 4766 at 1g40,
rums,_YL'swith shrill cries, OM announcer in
ernacular.
racular.This is probably
probablythe easiest
easiestof African
African
ions to receivehere in the U.K.-- if vou are a
inner then this is where to make a slart with
t.T.^T!^" power is 50kW and a sign-off weekdays
r at 2400.A newscastin English 6an be heard at
130.
. PointeNoire on a measured4848 at 2010.OM,s
iscussionin French. This one ia ;t so easy to
:ive_butis well worth a try. It often relavsBrazille but doeshave somelocal progra-ttlJ" tt
ningscheduleis from 1200t; 2i00.
"
BENIN
Cotonouon 487O at 2000,YL and OM alternate
th a,
a.newsca-st
newscqstin
English. 'l'he
tt e schedule
rctrenuli-iiere
here rs
is
-ln [ngllsh.
nd the clock and is the Home Service in
ch and vernaculars. The power is 50kW.

GHANA
Accraon 4916 at 2249,OM with a talk on local
fairs in English. The schedule is from 0bB0 to
Qf (Sundaysthrough to 2300) and from 1200to
the power bein"gLOkW.

O CAMEROON
Garoua on 6OlO at any time throughout the
evenrng(lt closesat22OO).I tend to usethis one as
an indicator for African receptionconditions.If its
goodthen so are the other Afiicans on the 60 metre
band.
If a tougher task appeals to you then trv
migrating to the 90 metr6 band. The secrethere is
to watch the band over a period of time. sooneror
later (mostly later) conditions will favour the
reception of African stations.
O TOGO
Radio Lama Kara on a measured3222 atl9t2,
OM in vernacular, light music in the Palm Court
style! The scheduleis from 0530 to 0830 and from
1630 to 2230, the power being 10kW.
O SWAZILAND
TWR Mpangela on 3.24Oat 1916, OM with a
lalk in English about the Bible. This one operates
from 0315to 0414and from 1800to 1905ac6ordins
to the schedule - and in Afrikaans and vernaculars only! The power is 30kW.
O RWANDA
Radio Rwanda,Kigali, on 333O at 1925,drums,
OM in vernacular,African music in the Home Service, scheduledhere from 0300 to 0600 (weekends
to 0?00) from 0900to 1200 (weekendsto2100)and
from 1330 to 2100, the power being 5kW.
.

LIBERIA
ELWA Monrovia on a measurcd 3227 at 213b.
YL's with chants, drums, African music. This is
the Home Service in vernaculars which operates
from 0610 to 0800 and from 1805 to 2210. The
power is 10kW.
With that we leave the African continent and
pay brief visits to someother far away placeswith
strange soundingnames.
O CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Pragueon_7346at 1916,OM with the English
programmedirected to the U.K., Eire and Mi-ddle
East, scheduledhere from 1900 to 1930.
O FINLAND
Helsinki on 11766 at 1915,OM with a newscast
of local affairs in the Enelish Drosrarnme for
Europe, scheduled from 19'00 to' 1g25. Also in
parallel on 966O. This programmeis alsointended
for the Middle East and West Africa.

O INDIA
All India Radio, Delhi, on 1162O at 1930,
featuring a programme of Indian music in the
EnelishIransmissionfor Eqsl Africg.-theU.K and
from 1745 to 1945 and
w;?-t";; E"iope,
"ctteaulecl
and on 16126.
in parallelon-7226,9626,973O
For thoseinterested,other English programmes
follows
from Delhi during the eveningpgriqd are.a-s
- from 1945to IOIS to Nortt & West Africa, the
U.K. and West Europe on 7226,9626,9766,
gg1.z,l1620 and on ifeeO; from 2045to 2230to
the U.K., West Europe and Australasia on7146,
7225, 9626, ggl,z, 11620 and on ll740.
3- EGYPT
C"ito o" L7746 at 1'230,YL with Arabic songq
in ihe 'Voice of the Arabs' programme,scheduled
here from 0800 to 1400 antl from 1500 to 1825.
O ALBANIA
Tirana on 11986 at 1535,OM with the English
programmefor Africa, scheduledhere trom 1530to
1OO"O
and also in parallel on 948O.
O NETHERLANDS
Hilversum on 2164O at 1545, OM with a
prosrammein Arabic beamed to the Middle East
indGulf States. scheduledon this channel from
1530to 1620.
O TIBET
Lhasaon 949O at 1610,OM with programmein
Hindi to South Asia. heard under a USSR
transmitter on the same channel. The Hindi
programmeis scheduledfrom 1600 to 1700.
O COLOMBIA
Radio Bucaramaneaon 4846 at 0155,commercials and announcementsin Spanish,local popson
records.The scheduleis from 1000to 0400and the
-poweris 1kW.
Ecosdel Atrato.'OM
Quibdo.on 6O20 at 0314.YL
with announcements in
song,
with love
'Ihe scheduleis from 1100to 0400and the
Spanish.
poweris 1kW.
O ECUADOR
Radio Popular,Cuenca,on 48OOat 0404,OM,in
Spanish,loial pops on records.This station has a
ower being 2kW.
2 4 - h o u r s c h e d u l e , t h e p'Amiga
Popular de
Sometimes identifying as
Cuenca'this one cin be heard after Railio Lara,
Barquisimeto,closesat 0400.
Lri Voz de los Caras, Bahia de Caraquez, on
4796 at 0349. a prosrahme of local muiric with
OM announcer.The scheduleis from 1300to 0400
(Sundaysto 0520) and the power is 3kW.
O DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Radio Mil, Santo Domingo, on 493O at 03Q7,
local pops on records, OM in Sp.anish., Tll.
schedule-isfrom 0900 to 0400 and the pouier is

1kw.

O PERU
La Yoz de la Selva, Iquitos, on 4826 at 0410,
sta:
OM with commercials'in-Spanish,lg""l

scheduleis from 1000 to 0500 and the power is

1kw.
Radio Quillabamba on 6O26 at 0318, OM with
commerciils in Spanish, lieht music background
with 'noticias'.Scheduleis lrom 1100to 0500and
the oower is 5kW.
Ridio Atlantida, Iquitos, on 479O at 0150,OM
with sonssin Spanish-,zuitar music, commercials.
The sche?uleis'from 0900to 0600 and the poweris

1kw.

O BRAZIL
Radio Brasil Central, Goiania,o-n4986 at 0216'
'l'he
OM with song in Portuguese, LA music'
scheduleis around the clocli and the power is 5kW.
Radio Relogio,Rio de Janeiro,on 49Ob at 01pQ'
OM in Portufrrese,time -pips, identification. This
station feat"ures'time pipt throughout the
transmissionsas a backcrounil addition, it is on the
to
air daily from 0800 to 0500 e4geptfrom Tue.sd-ay
Fridav-from 2200 to 2330' The power is 5kW.
songs
on 6O36 at-0220,1oca1
Radio Aparecida
-of
and music the pop variety. The scheduleis from
0900 to 0300 and the power is 1kW.
Radio Sociedad,Feira de Santana, on 4866 at
0300.OM with identification, announcementsand
local pops on records.The scheduleis from 0730to
0400ind the power is 2kW.
Radio Emisora Rural, Santaregr,on 4766-qt
Ogi2,bM with announceinentsin Portuguesewith
added echo-effect, local pops on records. The
scheduleis from 0830 to 0400 and the power is
1Okw.
O AUSTRALIA
ABC Brisbaneon 492O at 2006,pops on records
after a newscastin English. The scheduleis from
1900(Sundaysfrom 19-30)to 1402and the power is
1Okw.
O
- CHINA
i1
on 6226 at 1430,YL with gon-gsRadio Peking
-Service
1 programme, scheduled
the Domestic
here from 1100 to 1735 and from 2000 to 0100.
Radio Pekine on 992O at 1430, Chinese songs
and music in fhe Kazakh Domestic Service for
Minoritv Groups.
Radiri Pekins on 11696 at 1415, YL with the
programmeforCambodia, scheduledfrom 1400to
isob on this channel.
Radio Peking on 1166O at 1418,-YL with an
English programme beamed to South Asia from
1400to 1500.
Radio Peking on 1242O at 1440, programme of
Chinesemusicln the domesticService1, scheduled
here from 0750 to 1735 and from 2203 to 0300.
O
- CLANDESTINE
ttte Feopie of Thailond on-a measured
V"i"-"
ga'25 ;t "fGio, 6M-*ittt songsfollowe.dlv.mllttarv
the Laotion programme,scheduledfrom
;*i.ln
1430to 1520.
O
- NOW HEAR THIS
Radio Libertad. Junin, Peru, on a measured
5O41 at 041?, OM in Spanish, typical plai4live
Andean song bv YL, mournful flute music. This
one has a 24-h-ourscheduleand can vary in fre-

ULTRA-SEIVSITIVE
OP-AMP METER
By J. B. Dance

circuit allows measurement of

This low cost CA3lltO
'O.OO1pA,
voltages below l OmV and
currents below
resistances up to IOO,OOOMJII

THE CA314O
The CA3140 device employs p-channel MOS
field effect transistorsin the input stageso that input impedancesof about 1.5Tir (1.5 million
megohms) are obtained. The input currents required are typically 10 picoampswith a maximum
value of 50 picoamps for any one device.
The CA3140 is verv much like the well-known
?41 operational amplifier except that it has a far
greaterinput impedance.As in the caseof the 741,
the CA3140 has an internal frequencv compensating capacitor and is provided with offset nulling
facilities.
The connectionsof the CA3140are shownin Fig.
1. This deviceis obtainableas the CA3140Ein an 8
pin dual-in-line packagewith similar connections
io those of the 741. The CA3140can also be obtained as the CA3140Tin a circular metal can with
8 straight leads and as the CA3140Sin a similar
metal packagewith the leads bent into the 8 pin
dual-in-line configuration. More expensivetypes
METERAMPLIFIERS
are available as the CA3140A and the CA3140B,
The normal moving-coil meter can be made but generallyany of the other three types is ideal
quite sensitive, but if one wishes to measure for the present application.
currentsin the nanoamprangeonemust employ an
amplifier with such a-metCr. Numerous circuits
havebeenpublishedwhich incorporatethe 741 opamp asan implifier to producefull-scaledeflection
on a 0-1mA meter with an input current of about
Positive
TJii'
orr't
-"QAQld
-"--' nur
lpA. This is aboutthe smallestcurrent a 741 device
"uPPrY rnu..,ing
/\
can measurewith reasonableaccuracy, since the
'Y|;"sft>-&
typical input current required by a 741 iq p.2pA,
ou'pu'
**-i"'Ji,l"s
input
whilst the maximum input current required by any
Input
\f
1
741 deviceis 0.5pA.
rucaotiw
..\#o_1f:,
I
nul
(lJ
t,tod-invertir|g
High performancehybrid operational amplifier
suPPrY
inPut
N.gotivc
innicn contain irvo junction field effect indevic"es
SUPPIY
put transistorsand an operational amplifier in a
Sinele package can be used to measure much
cA3l40E
cA3l40T / cA3t40s
smiller currents, although some of these devices
TQPVIEW
TOP VIEW
are fairly expensive.However,the RCA devicetype
CA3140 is very suitable for measurementsin the
Fig. | . Pin connections for three versions of the
nanoampererange and is also very cheap being
cA3l40
price
741device.
of
a
times
the
about
three
only
r06
RADIO AND ELECTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR

This article showshow the economicalCA3140

operationalamplifier can be used in a very simple
nieter circuit which will provide a full scaledeflection with an input
-a current of only 1 nanoamp(onethousandthof microamp). Other curreht ranges
such as 0.01pA,0.lpA, liA, lDl.tL, etc., can easily
be added.The circuit can alsomeasuresmall input
voltagesand provides a full-scale deflection with
inpuis of 10mV, 100mV or lV at an input
reiistanceof 10Mo. In addition, the circuit can be
used for measuring resistancevalues up to some
100,000Mo.
The meter driven by the operational amplifier
requiresa full-scaledeflectionof lV. and can consisi of a 0-100pA or 0-1mA meter movement in
serieswith a suitable resistor.The circuit has not
beendesignedto give the highestpossibleaccuracy,
but the accuracyshould be well within plus or
minus 1Voand piobably within plus or minus 3%;
this is adequatefor almost all purposes.

+tov
I
I

ln

- IOOOOMn
I
I

positive to its other end. The current of 0.001pA

flows through Rl and producesa voltace droo of
10mV across it. The componentsRi and'C1
a,ttenuatea.nyhigh frequencysignalspicked up by
tne lnput clrcurtanclalsoreducethe effectof strav
capqcitancein the input circuit.
The input voltagg.it pi," 3 is multiplied by the
gainof the circuit.This gain is 1 + R5/RB.or ibout
100times with the valuesshownin Fis. 2.'Thusthe
10mV positive at the input is amilified to lV
positiveat the output.Thii circuit cairthereforebe
used as a voltmeterwith a full-scaledeflectionof
lOryY_and an input resistanceof l0Mo (that is
1,000Moper volt).
If the value of R5 is changedto g0hothe voltage
gainwill be reducedto i0 times;the rangesfor fuilscale deflectionwill then be 0.01pA aid tO0mV
with the same 10M,oinput impedance.Similarly
the value of R5 can be feduced further to zero.iir
yli"tr casethe s.ainof the amplifier is unity and
full-scaledeflectionis obtainedwith a curr6nt of
0.124 and a voltageof lV.

C U R R E N TM E A S U R E M E N T S
It was found that the value of Rl could be
increasedto 100Mo in order to obtain a full-scale
deflectionwith an input cgrrent of 100 picoamps,
but errors occur if one tries to measuresuch extremely low currentswith this simple circuit. The
typical CA3140input current is then 10% of the
current being measuredand zero drift can be
B A S I CC I R C U I T
The basicmeter circuit, usedbv the writer in his troublesome.A value of 10Mo was therefore
initial experiments,is shownin Fie. 2. It was not selectedfor R1.
Current rangesin the microampregioncan easifound.necessary
to employ decouplingcapacitors
lr^o4r
thg two powersupply rails to groundwith any ly be obtainedby reducingthe value6f Rl. For exof the CA3l40 devicei uied, but iT anv unwanted ample, if R1 is 100kothe currents for full-scale
oscillationsshould occur (givins pecilliar meter deflection are 0.1pA, l.uA and 10zA when the
readings)
0.14.Fcapacitorsfrom fin'? and from pin amplifier gain is respectively100, 10 and 1.
4 to ground should removethis-trouble.
. The positive and negative9V power supplies
VARIOUS RANGES
'from
shown may be conveniently obtained
A complete working circuit for a multi-ranse
batte.ries,
but-a positiveand negative1bV supply is
measuringinstrument using the princioles
gqLu.llvsatisfacto.ry.The minimum supply vdttige
-gaindiscus'se^d.,is shown in Fig. 3. The voltage
of the
is2V positiveand negative,but the maximum output swingis then limited to rather Iessthan these CA3140.amplifier c-anbe selectedb] S? to havea
values.It is essentialthat the OV line be connected nominal value of 100, l0 or 1. R6 iialwavs in cir_
to the OV of the power supply. The power supply cuit in order to avoid excessiveswitching transients.With S1 in the "100" positionthe valueof 1
current-is normally 3 to 4mA, but it can be appreciablygreaterwhen the circuit is settlingdown + R6./R4,is.actually101, but this is adequaiely
near the desiredvalue__to
prplide the accuricy for
to a_final meter regding.
which
we
are
aiming.
Wheir
R? is switchedint6 ciiThe potentiometerR4 shouldfirst be adiustedso
cuit by 52 it is connectedin parallel with R6 in
thatthe meterindicatesOV whenthe inpu[ noint of
thecircuitis connected
to the OV line.The setting order to obtain a gain of abouf 10 times with sufof.this potentiometeris fairly critical and some tlcrentaccuracy.
dritt o1'the zero occursas the temperatureof the
Closingswitch 51 caueesthe input resistanceto
CA3140siliconchip changes;R4 shouldtherefore be reduqed
a factor of 100 so that larger
be adjusted again aftei the circuit has been currents can -by
be measured.The voltageand current
operatingfor a few minutes.
ranges which can be obtained withlhe circuit of
Any meter with a full-scaledeflectionof 1V and
Fig. 3 are shown in the table.
a resistance
of 1,000cor more mav be usedacross
Further optionsare availablewith the circuit. If,
the.output.With 15V suppliesa nieterwith a fullfor instance,one wishesto measurelarger currents
scaledeflectionof 10V niav be emplovedif a 10
one may switch an evensmaller resistoiin parallel
timesdecreasein the sensilivitv is'acientable.A
with Rl; a lko resistor will provide frill-scale
meterwith an f.s.d. of lV is given by a'0-100pA deflectionsof 10pA, 100rrAand imA, whilst a 10o
metermovement and a series resistancewhich
resistor will provide ranges of lmA, 10mA and
causes
the total resistance
to be 10kn asis shownin
100mA.
Fig.2.
Another variation is to switch in a 20ko resistor
Let us now considerwhat happensif we feed a
in serieswith R8 so that the total meter and series
gullglt of 0.00lpA to the input oTihecircuit of Fig.
resistancebecomes30ko Full-scale deflection on
2..Thisryay be done by connectingthe resistorF,
whatever range is selectedwill then be increased
(showndotted) to thg input and applying 10V
by a factor of 3. Yet a further modification cou.ld
1978
ocToBER
IU'
Fig. 2. Simple
operational
amplifier
circuit
capable
of low
current
and voltage
measurements

tEs

''

Itrtq

tr

i#j

jii

al|.llr ''t*i

,t

Fil*'Tili*t;"

;:.,

consist of employing a centre-zero 100-0-10024

meter movement; the circuit could then measure
input voltagesand currents of either polarity.
It is important to appreciatethat the two inputs
of the CAgfnO are s-eirsitiveto stray pick-ui of
signalswhen the gain is set to 10Otimis. The cbmponents R4 and R6 should in consequencebe
positionedas near to pin 2 of the deviceairpossible,
whilst RB and Cl should be positionedclobeto pin
3. The sensitivitv of the cirbuit can be shown'bv
touching the inpirt with a finqer: this will usuallv
producefull-scaledeflectionifth6 circuit is switched to one of its more sensitivecurrent ranges.
Readers having access to home constructor
slrppliersonly may have difficulty in obtaining the
closetolerancelOMoresistor required for Rl. If a
Voltage Gain lnput Voltage nputCurren' nput Curren
(Set by 32)
For F.S.D. For F.S.D. For F.S.D.

(SI open)

(S1closed)

IV

0.lpA

1OpA

10

0.1v

0.01pA

LUA

100

0.01v

0.001pA

0.1pA

suitable resistorcannot be selectedfrom a batch of

wider tolerancecomponents,a 5% resistormay be
employed with the correspondingpossible small
lossof accuracyaccepted.Switch S3(a) (b) in Fig.
3 is, of course,the on-off switch, and is required
when the circuit is poweredby two 9 volt batteries.
Apart from the sensitivitv of the current ranqes.
onebf the features of the circuit is the high in"put
impedance of 10Mr on all the voltage ranges.
Thus, the circuit imposesa very small load on the
circuit to which the input is connected.
R E S I S T A N C EM E A S U R E M E N T
The circuit of Fig. 3 can also be usedto measure
high value resistors.51 should be open for such
measurementsand the unknown resistor is connected betweenthe input and a 10 volt supolv in
the manner which waishown in Fig. 2. Il witli S2
set to "100", the unknown resistor has a value of
10,000M,othere will be 0.01 volt acrossR1 and the
meter will read full-scale deflection. 100.000MO
will causean output reading of 0.1 volt.
A simple circuit of this nature forms an ideal
first exercisein the useof an operationalamplifier.
It should be remembered thit the CA3140 is a
CMOS device and that the ueual precautions
againstapplying high static voltagesto it should be
observed.Solderingshould be carried out with an
iron whosebit is reliably earthed.
I

Mail Oider Protection Schsme

The publishers of thie magazine have civen to the
Director General of Fair Trading an uni[ertakinc to
refund money eent bv readerg In resnonse to riail
order advertisementsplaced in thie maiazine bv mail
order traders who fCil to eupply codds or iefund
meney and who have becomeihe-sutiect of liquidation or bankruptcy proceedinm. The-srefunds are
made voluntarily anil arei subiect to proof that pavment wag made to the adverfieer foi coods order6d
through an advertieement in this nil'acazine.The
arrangement does not apply to anv failuie to suoplv
goodsadvertigdin a catalogueor direct mail soliii'tation.
108

- If a mail order trader faili, readers are advisd to

lodgea claim with the Advdrtisment Minace, oi tt i,
m.agazinewithin 3 months of the appeararice ol the
advertieement.
.. For .the gurp.osdof this scheme mail order adveruslng ls deltned ar:
"Direct responseadvertisements.displav or
postal bargains where cash has to be'snt in
advance of goods being delivered."
Claesified and cataloguemail order advertising are
excluded.

RADIO AND ELECTRbNICSCONSTRUCTO

3 BANDSHOBTWAVE
partl
SUPERHET
By R. A. penfotd

Building the i.f. and a.f. amplifiers.

In last month's issue we introduced this

prehensiveshort wavesuperhetdesi;;d;;.;;it com_
9d th_econstructionof itd casi and-ihl-ciicuitrv of
its r.f., oscillatorand i.f. stages.We;;G;;;rit;;
the r.f. coilpack.

C O I L P A C KC O N S T R U C T I O N
. All themixerandoscillatorcircuitryis contained
in a.coilpackassembly.
Thi.;;;;i.ir'oi"" -.t r
bracketon whichare.mounted
the coilsand the
wavechaagp
and a perfor"l"i ..i.^U.p.
nqlgh
uo"rd
carryingTR1,TR2 andtheu..o.l"ira
The boardis secured.
"oirionent..
to the meialil";"k;T
bv wav
of rwq_sotder
tagssolder"dt" ;ir;;:r.6;:i;;";i ;i.{
ing. This metf,od of constructionis employed
becauseit is necessary
for the r.f. ana os.-iifrit*
wiringto be keptshort"inth" Gte.;;;"tq.l;.;
and stability.Detailsof tt.. ;iip;il iiu" gru.n
Fig.4. In this diasram,cott,i, i. d.;;"rj the ,n
os_

H
F
E
D

c
B

iro
hh

A
B
c
D
E

II
I

43

IT

rBmm
?f
k

l S m m*

Fis. 4. Thc coilpack mlxet and osclllator stcgcs. Further datails

on these are given in the text. pin 2 of
coll 5 is used as an anchor tag

ocToBER 1978

109

cillator coils (L2) whilst the aerial coils (L1) are

shown as 4, 5 and 6. The Range5 coils are at the
front, nearestthe switch, the Range
4 coils are in
-are
the middle and the Range 3 coils
at the rear.
The componentpanelii a plain perforatedboard
of 0.15in.matrix havinc 1Obv & holes.and it is
helpful if this.is mad-e-hrst as its two solder tags
define the positionsof the correspondingmountiig
holes on the metal bracket. Th-ecomponentsar6
fitted in the positionsshown in Fis. 4-.with their
lead-outs bent flat against the un-*derside
of the
board. They are then wired together
as shown in
-is
the diagram,after which C12 wired in on the
board underside. The two solder tass are next
solderedin place.TR2 is wired into cirduitwith the
lead-outlayout shown in Fig. 3. (In some data
referencesthe drain and souice lead-outs of this
transistorare shown transposed).
The metal bracket is then cut out and drilled.
Cut out a pieceof 18 s.w.g.aluminium sheet153bv
43mm. and drill this to take the coils. the switch
and the bolts which securethe various soldertags.
The precisepositioningof the coils is nol roo
critical,but they shouldbe kept as far apart from
eachotheras is reasonablypossibleand they must
not be mountedtoo far forwrardswherethev would
foul Sl whenthe right anglebend in the bracketis
made.The coilsrequire6.-5mm.diameterholesand
are mountei Uy ttr" -plastic nuts with which they
qr9..supp!!e.d.
The holesfor the solder tag bolts ar-e
drilled 68A or M3 clearance.
The two setsof coils are separatedbv a vertical
screenwhich has been omitted from Fie. 4 for the
sake of clarity. This is made from a iiece of 18
s.w.g.alumium sheetmeasuring90 by 40mm.A 90
degreebend is made 10mm. in froin one of the
90mm. long sidesof the aluminium sheet,and this
provlcles
ides a small
small flange
tlangewhich
which enables
enablesthe
the screen
screento
be mounted to the coilpack bracket. It is secured
by a sinele
bv
single68A or M5 bolt and nut situated in a
centralpositionon the 10mm. flange.The screenis
mountedso that its rear edge
edeeis flush
fluih with the rear
edgeofthecoilpackbracket.It is advisableto place
a stlip of p.v.c. insulating tape acrossthe top-edge
of the screensothat there is no risk of wirine'shoricircuiting to it.
The componentpanel has its two tags mounted
to the metalbracketat the pointsindicated,the two

soldertagsbeing on the bracket undersideas this is

illustrated (i.e. on the sameside as the coil coreadjusting screws).It should be mounted well forward
on the bracket, and its body is alongsidethe coils
with its componentside tow-ardstheioils. When it
has been fitted the remainins wirins can be carried
out. It will probably be fou-ndeaslestto start bv
wiring in D1, R11 and the other connectionsto th-e
coil pins. The four central tags of the switch mav
then be wired up, followed by the outer tags. It ii
essentialthat all this wirins be kept as short and
direct as possible.Also, befdre conriectingup to S1
ascertainwith a continuitv tester the tlire6 outer
tagscorresponding
to eachinnertag.Their relative
positioning may differ with some switches,from
that shown in the diagram. (The same comment
applies to the other rotary switch in the receiver,

s2).

Solderedconnectionsare made direct to the coil

pins. The soldering iron must be applied verv
(uickly to these pins as the plastic riaterial iir
which they are mountedmelts readilv with heat.
The completedcoilpackis then mountedin the
casewith the coil core adjusting screwspointing
upwards.The edgeof the brackefshouldiust cleai
the edge of the front flange of the chassis.The
coilpackbracket is secured-inplaceby way of the
mounting bush and nut of the wavechinge-switch.
Short connectionsare next made to the fixed vanes
of VCl, VC2 and VC3. The rear sectionof the 2gangcapacitoris VC2 and the front sectionis VC3.
The variable capacitorsobtain the chassisconnection to their moving vanes via the metal case.
I.F. AMPLIFIER
-The i.f. amplifier stagesare constructed on a
plain perforated s.r.b.p. panel of 0.15in. matrix
having 25 by 16 holes.-Thisis a standardB.Zbbv
2.5in.panel and doesnot have to be cut down frorir
a lalger size.Details of this panel are given in Fig.
5.. The three mounting h6les are 6'8.{ or M"B
clearance and are drillid out with a bit of aopropriate size. It is also necessarv
to sliehtlv
-pass
enlarge the holes through which
thd i.i.
transformerand filter tagsand mounling lugs.The
mechanical filter consistsof two parts."thilareer
being the_actual filter and the smiller a matching
i.f. transformer.

RADIO AND ELECTRONICS CONSTRUCTOR

To product dctector
( t i 9 .l O )

il

t9

2t

23

25

Mounting holq
I

o
o

H
I

Mountinghol6

M
N

oo
oo

Fig. 5. fhc compondrt

ond wlrlng

After drilling has been completed the com_

ponentsare mounted and the undersidewirins is
carriedout. It is impoltant to keepthis wiring siiori
and d,lrect and, also, flat up againstthe panel un_
oers_lde.
I'he chassisconnectionis made bv wav of
so,\deltag securedunde-rone of the mo""ii"giui"
1
tor.theboard.Veropinsof the 0.1bin.type are-fitted

at the
at
the points
pointswher6external
to the board.
"o"""&i6ri,

rigid mounting for the transistormay fit a small 2way tagstrip at an appropriatepoint and solderthe
baseand collectorleadsof TR5-to its tass.Oneconnectionis not shownin Fig. 6: this is a ririreconnecting the negativeterminal of the meter to the solder
tag at one of its mounting bolts.

ir" *"a"

board is mounted at the extreme

. The completed_
rrght hand sideof the chassisand as far towardsthe
rear as is possible. The end with the titie, i.
towards the right. Qpacersabo-ut6mm. long are
usedover the mounting bolts to keep the pane-lun_
derside clear of the chbssis.
As lhg i.f. transformersand mechanicalfilter are
suppliedpre-alignedtheir coresmust noi be touch_
ed at this stage. They _will be aligned when the
recelverhas been completed.
,,S"
METER WIRING
There
are very few componentsin the ,,S,' meter
.
crrcurt and so point-to-point wiring is used here.
This is showniri Fig. 6. Readers*h;;;.i;;
a more
BER 1978

sidcs of the i.f. amptifier

Fig. 6. Wiing

details for thc "5" metcr clreult

1lr

Pos.from 53

Frg, 7. fb

cerxtft 6 ttn tf;

A.F.PANEL
The circuit of the audio amplifier is shown in
Fig.7. This is basedon the popular TBA800 i.c.,

lhc a.f. ompllflcr, Thls ls bascd on t TgAgOO

lntcgratod chcult

mglilio

act'on

which is the only semiconductor

deviceusedin this
part of the receiver.
VR2 is a conventionalvolume control.and R16
and C16 form an r.f. filter at the input to the i.c.
The internal circuit of the TBA800 ii suchthat no
input d.c. blocking capacitor is required. The
voltagegain of the circuit is controlledbv the value
givento Rl7, and this hasa ratherlow vdluesincea
fairly high v^oltagggain is needed in the present
application.C20,C2l, Rl9 and C23 ensurethat the
circuit has goodstability.
The audio amplifier is constructedon a plain
perforateds.Lb.p.board of 0.1in.matrix haviirg36
by20 holes.Details appear in Fig. 8.
The TBA800 is encapsulatedin a 12-pin quadin-line package.It has-two heat sink tdrbsritrlctr
serveno useful function in the presentcircuit as the
i.c. is only calle4-uponto provide a comparatively
modestoutput.Thesetabs-mustbe eithei cut off or
ben! up out of the way.
The panelis first cut to sizeand the threemounting holes. which may be either 68A or MB
clearance,
are then drillbd out. The components
are
next mounted in place and their lead-out wires
bent,overat right angleson the undersideof the
panel.Wiring is carriedout in the samewav as for
the i.f. palgl, thewariousconnections
beingshown
in broken line in Fig. 8. Note that the chaJsisconnectionis picked up by a solder tag at one of the
mountlngnuts.
The panel is wired up to the rest of the receiver
circuit beforeit is finallv mountedon the chassis.It
is positionedbehind JKI with C24to the rear and
its exact positioningis not critical. Spacersapproximately6mm. longon the mountinebolts ke6o
the undersideof the panel clear of thJ chassis.ff
jack socketJK1 is of bpen non-insulatedconstruction it takesup its "sle-eve"contactconnectionvia
its mounting bush and nut. Take care to connect
the output from C22to the correcttag ofthe socket.
RAI)IOANDIILECTRONICS
CONSTRUCTO

oooo

"P

s3

oooo

F:

ooo
xt8
o

t--I-'-!-l

0_____-'_------il-

'".^T
,i,

loo

ffil-,
+-f;
'1il[-:
],;.'
i

oo

Mountrnq holcs

o'o

='.
;+1
![lI---{:1|
::.itn:
-J
;-4r':
rl'=\y,tY- lU_---::

c24

+ under

Fig. 8. The audio amplifier

board is wired as shown

here . Wiring
line

under the board is reproducad

in broken

NEXT MONTH
We continue with constructionaldetails in the
next issue,carrying on to the product detector.
(To be continued)

BOOKREVIEW
LINEAR lC EOUIVALENTS & PIN CONNECTIONS. By Adrian
M i c h a e l s 3. 1 9 p a g e s ,1 8 0 x 1 2 5 m m . 1 7 x S i n . )P u b l i s h e db y B e r n a r d
B a b a n i( p u b l i s h i n gt)t O . P r i c e f 2 . 7 5 .
I n t h e o l d d a y s o f v a l v e sw e u s e d t o g r u m b l e a b o u t t h e u n n e c e s s a r yp r o l i f e r a t i o no f s i m i l a rt y p e s
h a v i n qd i f f e r e n tb a s e s a n d e n v e l o p es h a p e s .H a d w e r e a l i s e dt,h e n , l h e t e e m i n g c h a o s w h i c h w a s t o
come with transistors we would have kept quiet! Now we have a host of integrated circuits of widel y r J i v e r s et y p e s a n d a p p l i c a t i o n sb u t , s u r p r i s i n g l ye n o u g h , l i t t l e d u p l i c a t i o n o f s i m i l a r d e v i c e s .
P e r h a p st h e a l m o s t u n i v e r s a la c c e p t a n c eo f t h e d u a l - i n - l i n ep a c k a g eh a s c a u s e dd e s i g n e r st o r e f r a i n
from needlessvariations on basic tvpes; many modern i.c.'shave direct replacementsavailablefrom
a wide list of manufactuers.
N e v e r t h e l e s st,h e r e a r e s t i l l v e r y m a n y i n t e g r a t e dc i r c u i t s o f d i f f e r i n gf u n c t i o n a v a i l a b l ea t p r e s e n t , a n d f o r t h e l i n e a r t v p e s t h e b o o k u n d e r r e v i e w q i v e s d e t a i l s o f p i n n i n o a n d e q u i v a l e n t sT. h e
i.c.'s are listect in 137 pages of the book and, with about 25 devices per page, there are some
3,4OO entries. Naturallv, ihe number of actual types dealt with is lower than this because of
cross-referencing.
T h e l i s t i n g s a r e u n d e r t h e g e n e r a l h e a d i n g so f t y p e , p i n o u t , f u n c t i o n , l a n d o f o r i g i n , m a n u f a c t u r e r s ,E u r o p e a ne q u i v a l e n t sa n d A m e r i c a ne q u i v a l e n t sa, n d t h e t a b l e sa r e f o l l o w e d b y 1 7 6 p a g e so f
p i n c o n n e c t i o nd r a w i n g s .T h e b o o k i s a c o m p a n i o nv o l u m e t o " D i g i t a l l C E q u i v a l e n t s& P i n C o n n e c t i o n s " , p u b l i s h e di n 1 9 7 7 b v B a b a n i P r e s s a n d o r i c e d a t f 2 . 5 0 .

113

n@H
y0uril

CASSETTE
RECORDER

t||0r

FAULT

"$hu
fn0[d
I)i<'k took the srnall <:assette
r { ' ( ' o r ( l ( 'or v e r t o h i s b e n c h a n d l o o k t , r lr r t i t i v i th i n t c r e s t .n, o t i c i n gt h a t i t
h : r r l p r o v i s i o r rI o r a 2 ' 1 0v o l t a . c . i n l)ttt ils,vcll 1s:r ltlitsticll2ttery
< ' o ' , ' r ' rI.I o n ' r r i o v e d t h e l a t t e r , t o
r t , r ' t ' : t ll o t r r f . i r v o l t c e l l s n e s t l i n g
t ' ' s i l r , 'l l c t w e u r t h e i r c ' n t a c t s . p u l l i r r gl r i s l r l t t c r e r l r n t r l t i m e t e rt o w a r d s
l r i r n . h c s c l c c t e r in 0 - 1 0 v o l t r a n g e
rrnrl rrpplicrlthe test prods to the
t r r r i c o r r t l r c t so l t h e s e r i e sc o m l t i n a tion o{ cells. The meter needle inr l i t r r t r ' <sll i g h t l vi n e x c e s so f 6 v o l t s .
llt, tuitchcrl on tlre recorrlerancl
t l r t ' r ' k t ' r l: r g i r i r r .' l ' h i s t i r n e t h e
lt'rrrlirrg
lr':rs:r littlo lowcr than 6
v o l l ' . l ) i c k s w i t c h e r ol f l .
It u'rrs rlrrite uvident that the
r c r ' , r r r l t ' \r \ ' a ss e t u 1 l f i r r b a t t e r y i n s t t , l r r lo t r n : r i r . r os p e r a t i o n a n d t h a t
r l r , l i r r r r l . i v o l t t . e l l sw e r e g i v i n g
\ ' ( , r v n t ' ; r r l . vt h e i r f u l l n o m i n a l
v o l Ir r g c .
I I c s c l c < ' t e d" P l a v b a c k " a n d
s r v i t < : h errnl a g a i n . ' f h ' e l i t t l e r n o t o r
uhirrcrl :rnrl lrc heard a faint rustli r r gr r o i s t :f,i r r a l l t . h ew o r l d a s t h o u g h
s()nl(,ol)(,rvere ltrrshing their way
lhrorrgh
' l ' h e n , t h c t r n d e r g r o w t ho f a w o o r i .
l i r i n t l v , ( ' a l n et h e s o u n d o f a
birrl Iollor.vcd,rnore loudly, by
s t ' v c r a lf \ r r t h c r b i l d s . ' f h e r e c o r d e r
l r r r l p a l . e n t l vb e e n r r s e db v s o m e o n e
lvi:hing to cal)ture the sounds of
N i r lL r o .
MULTIPLE RECORDING,
Sudrlenlv t,he wood seemed to
conrc alive rvith the sound of what
rvas manifestlv a very boozv party
i n d c t ' d . A p a r l r ' , n r , i r e o v e r iw h i c i r
r l r r ln o t l t ; r v et h e d u l c e tt o n eo f b i r d _
song lrtrt was an unharmonious
: r r n l l g a m o t r n a n v v o i c e su n s t e a d i l v
p l , r r r g l r i n gt h e i r w a y t h r o u g h , ; I ; i l
114

The Case of the Missing Erasure

l;rkt' vorr home again, Kathleen".

\\'hilst tlrc birds continued with
t ornrnt'trd:rble
c l a r i t'va st o t w i t t e r i n
t ht' background
the tape
progrcsscd past the heads of the
t'rrsscl.tt'ret:order the reproduction
, r l l h e c t ' l c b r a t i n gc h o r i s t e r sc a r r i e d
r r .r r o t i < ' r ' : r bal en d u n p l e a s a n td i s t o r I l()n-

| ) i r . k l r , r w n t ' riln p r r z z l e r n e n t .
"Ht'r'.Srnithv!"
"llrrllol"
"Wh:rt do vou rnake of the racket
l r o n r t h i s c a s s e t t er e c o r d e r I ' v e g o t
l){'r('a

S r n i t l r v t h e S e r v i c e r n a ns t o o d u p
;rrrrl rvendercd over towards his
rtssrstttrrt,.
" l s h o r r l di r n a g i n e , "h b r e m a r k e d
: r l r s c n t l v ," t h a t t h e e r a s e o s c i l l a t o r
I r r r ss t o p l l e d w o r k i n g . "
I)ir:k srvitched off the recorder
;rrrd regardedSrnithv. now at his
s i r l e ,r v i t h i l l - c o n c e a l e da n n o v a n c e .
"\\'hr'," hc asked irritablv.,.do
vorr keeJl coming out with o?f-thet : r Ir f s t a t e m e n t s l i k e t h a t ? Y o u
h:rven't even looked at this darned
r ( . (r ) r ( i ( , r v c t , l l u t y o u ' r e a l r e a d v
t r ' l l i r r gr n e w h n t ' s w i o n g w i t h i t . " "
"l .was merely hazarding a
illo.:," .replied Smithy mildly.
"Sceing t.hat,as always, you have [o
h:rvc the volurne oi anything on
v , ' u r . l x ' n ( . ht u r n e d u p f u l l b l a s t , I
r ' , r r r l d r r l' rl c l l >l l r r t h e a r t h a t r e c o r rling right from the start. Those
I r ir ,l ' , , r t, 'r t ' . r t p r o d u c e dq u i t e c l e a r l y ,
. , r , r l l v i o r r s l lt'h e r e c o r d e rw a s w o r [ . irrg all right rvhen they were recordr ' r l . I - | r r tl.h e . l ) a r t y w a s n o t i c e a b l y
r l i s t o r l t d r r n dt h e s o u n do f t h e b i r d i
lradn't been erased. I should imrrgine that the birds were recorded
first, and that the erase oscillator
lrrrd Iailed when, later, the party

rvls being recorded. 'fhat explaino

r v h v t h e s o u n d o f t h e birdswasnot
r v i J l e do f f t h e t a p e . "
"(lotrldn't it have been the other
r r : r v r o r r n d ? f h e p a r t v f i r s t a n dt h e
l r i r r l st c c , r n d ?
"'l-hr' pnrtv,"
. d i s t rerreated
r r r t e d . Smithv
Iirrrrlv."wirs
This woull
t it' irr rr ith rhc eraseoscillatorbeinc
orrl ol ,rrrler because there woulil
then bc no bias for the record.
plrrvltack head when the recording
rvas.being rnade. Anyway, you can
t,:rsilv t'lret'k whethei the eiasecir.
t ' t r i t i s w o r k i n g . R u n a p i e c eo f t a m
t l r r o r r g hr v i t h t h e r e c o r d e rs w i t c h i d
to 'Rccord', and seeif what is onthe
tlJrc bcrrorneswiped off or not."
l)ick carried out Smithv's bid.
rling. He nrn a further lengti of the
lrrpt' through with the hachine
srvitched to "Record", rewoundit,
sclected "Playback" and ran ii
throLrghagain. The mixture of inno.
<'cnt birdsong and what seemedby
nr)w lo lre developing into an out.
:rnd-orrt orgv was resoundinslv
:rrrrli lrle. Whrriever rerviceablefuictions the cassette recorder posses{r.
cd, it was clear that suicessful
or:rsrlre could not be numbered
: r r n r r n g stth e m .
"Hrrmph," grunted Dick."I'm a
bit baffled by all this. I'm more
rrsedto the olri reel-to-reelrecorderg
: r r r r lI d o n ' t r e m e m b e rs e e i n gm a n v
of them in here, come to thfik of i[.
How, exactly, does the eraseos
t'illator work?"
"It applies a high level super.
\ollic sine wave signal to the eiase
hcld," replied Smithy, "which is,of
('rrIric. passed over by the tape
Irt'firre I he record-plavbackhead."
(Fis. I ).
"What does the sine wave do?"

"To answer that," said Smithy,

"it is first necessary to look at the
recording tape itself. This has a
magnetic coating which can be
regardedas consistingof many very
tiny particles of magnetic material,
eachof which can be magnetised to
exhibit a north and south pole like a
bar magret. The more technical
concept for these tiny magnetic
'domains'. The
areasis to call them
erasehead has a relatively wide gap
and, as the tape passesover this, the
domains in its coating are taken up
to saturation with continually
reversingmagnetic polarity by the
high frequency erase signal. When
the tape leaves the gap the erasing
magnetic field reduces in strength
and has gradually lessening effect
on the domains, which tend to retain the last strong polarity which
was imparted by the erase field.
The overall result is that the tape
coating then consists of domains
which have magnetic polarities distributed in completely random
manner, with the magnetic fields of
individual domains being cancelled
out bv neighbourins domains. The
overali malgnetic fi;ld is virtually
zero. Erasing the tape is rather the
same as degaussing a colour television picture tube."

E R A S EF R E O U E N C Y
"Is the frequency of the erase
signalimportant?"
"Well, it has to be higher than
twicethe highestaudio frequencyto
be recordedor you'll get audible
beatingwith the audio frequencies.
Also, it must not beat with the
l9kHz pilot tone on stereo v.h.f.
radiotransmissions.
if vou'rerecording from the radio. This applies
n o w a d a y so f c o u r s e t o m o n o
transmissionsas well, since the
BBC keepsthe pilot tone on all the
time.A very important point is that
signalmust be a pure sine
f;;:l*
"Why's that?"
"Because,"repiled Smithy, "a
pure sine wave does.nothave any
harmonicsand is, therefore, fully
svmmetricalabout its central zero

.-----------.-.Oir?ction
ol top.

Fig. l. Thc tapc ln thc

c',ssette rcoordcr potscs thc
ansc head tnd thcn thc
recordalaybcck hoad, During recordlng thc ctaso hcad
ls actuated and crases cny
signal which ls prcscnt on
the tape before lt rcachcs
the r*ord-playback
head

line. This gives true random

magnetisation of the tape domains
which leave the erase head. It is
even harmonics on the erase
waveform which can give the most
trouble here, because if present
thev would cause the composite
eraie waveform to have a d.c. component, with the result that a higher
nroDortion of domains would be
magnetised with one polarity and
there wouldn't be a full cancellingout erasure effect. The outcome
would be a noisy tape. I hardly need
to add that the erase oscillator is
only switched on during recording."
'iPerhaps we should"have a lobk
at the ciriuit of the erase oscillator
in this cassette recorder," suggested
I)ick. "Shall I get the service sheet
ottt?"
"That would be an excellent
idea," agreed Smithy.
Dick walked over to the filing
cabinet and started leafing through
the sheets.
"Did vou hear." he remarked
over his shoulder, "about the chap
who'd been out on the town one
night and who woke up next mornins to find his bedroom full of aircraft?"
Smithy groaned.
"I)on't tell me you're starting off
on those dreadful gags of yours
again."
"l)'you know what the chap
said?"
"No," sighed Smithy. "I don't
know what he said."
'Darn it. I've left the
"He said.
landing light on againl' Ah, here we
are."
Grinning, Dick pulled out the
cassette recorder service sheet and
returned with it to the shuddering
Serviceman. Smithy took it from
him, opened it out at its circuit
diagram and pointed at the erase
oscillator section. (Fie. 2).
"Here," he remarked, "is the
erase oscillator for this particular
cassette recorder. Erase oscillator
circuits vary considerably between
different makes and models of
recorder, but they all have a tuned
LC circuit which resonatesat erase
fiequency. In the simple cassette
circirit we have here the erase oscillator drives the erasehead directlv, but in more comPlicated
recordersthere may be an amplifier
between the oscillator and the erase
head. Also, for greatest purity of
signal, the oscillator may be a pushn
' ull tvne."
"Whht would the frequency of oscillation be?"
Smithv consulted the manual.
"With this recorder," he an'
nouncd, "it's 50kHz. As you can
see, the circuit is pretty easy to
follow. The oscillator is turned on
by app.lying the. negative supPly via
a sectlon ot the recoro-PlaYDacK
switch. The primarv of the oscillator transformer is tuned bY a
0.022uF caDacitor and one end connecti to tlie collector of the transistor. The other end couples, via an

THE

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cABtNErs
BEC
(BOOK
END CHASSISI

The DUEfiE Stereo Amplifior usos our GBI

case and can be supplied punchod or unDunched.The P.C.Boardsfor this project are
also available: For details of this and our
s t a n d a r d r a n g e o f c a s e s s e n d 15 p
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Radio& Electronics
Constructor Data Books
Panel Signs
Transfers

of electronks

hndSrd.frtrthlqtmilg$,2
115

r
I

To fccord-ploybock

hcod
rII

The improvement in the quality

ol speech and music from your
ponable radio or casseile recorder is simply tantastic when
you ptug an our Model 15 ex_
tension speaker.
Firted wirh
a Goodmans
loudspeaker rated at 1 5 watts
in a specially designed cabinet
ensures excellent quality.
Full money back ouarantee
if not deliohled.
Thousands already in use by
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presentattons.
Suits 4 to 8 ohms outputs
Pilce fr 5 including
post
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,tr

rt-r
lLink

5,OOO

+
+
PR
Port ol rccord-ploybock switch

O D D SA N D E N D S
Mechanical

Electrical

CATFREE

Fig. 2. The erase oscillator circuit in the cassette recorder sewiced

bv Dick

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
l J . 2 kO r t ' s i s t o r a n d a 4 , 7 0 0 p F
t ' : r p l r < ' i t r rtro t h e t r a n s i s t o r b a s e .
s itlr :r {).{}lpF capacitor to the
n t , g : ri lv r , r ; r i l l r r k e e p t h e b a s e i n p u t
r i g r r r r l; r r . j r r s tt h e r i g h t ! e v e l . T h - e r e
is l 4,7(X)1lFcapacitor across the
st'c,rn(l;rrvof' the transformer. too.
r r . 1 a 1 ' l la s : r 4 . 7 O r e s i s t o r i n t h e
t'rniltt'r r:ircuit to give negativefeedb:r<:k.All t.hcsevarious comoonents
( ' r ) s r l r ot h a t t h e e r a s e s i g n a f p a s s e d
1o thc crirsehead is both pure in
'uvrrvefirrnr
and strong in amplitude.
'l'ht,
{icld pr,rdrrced"bv th'e erase
ht,rrdhls t.o'begood anci powerful if
it is to do its job properiy."

BVTHEG3HSC
RHYTHM
METHOD
!
TlrIsP rrorrrses whicl) itavc been sold lor
rrv0r 23 years lrave treen proved many tirnes
lo be the fastest rnethod of learning Morse.
You sldrt o(lht away by learninq the sounds
ol llr, v.rrlrrrs l' tt',r\ nrl,r)l,ors pt.
as yoll
w i l l r o f a c l L r s et l l { ) l r N o t a s e r i e s o f d o l s a n ( l
( j d s l t { ) sw l l c l t l d l c r y ( } u w i l l h a v e t o t r a n s l a t e
[]lr) lellPr! anrl words
Usio(l sci{"rtifically;treprreri 3 slleed records
Vr)il n(loilrdtically learn to recognise thc
r rrrl,, RIIYTHM
wilh()ul
tfdnslatine
You
r r ' ' l " l r , i r l t . a \ a . r \ \ r \ l o . t r ' t i i l { dl t i l n e
(
l
\
t
a
k
n
t
e
.
r
(
i
l8WPM
rrr4 weeks
Tl)r' (lr)rJ)l)lIt{' C0rrr:;rt r:onsists ol three
r,'rorrls ,ts wr'll ;ts llslroction ttooks
For Complete
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Now

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inc. UK postage

Keys

T H E G 3 H S CM O R S EC E N T R E
Box 8, 45 Green Lane, Purley, Surrey.
I e n c l o s ef 5 . 5 0 o r s . a . e .f o r e x o l a n a t o r y
booklet.

Address.

BIAS SIGNAL
"'l'here's a 270pF capacitor from
t he top end of the transformer
st't:ondlrrv,"rernarked [)ick, "and it
connects to three resistors with
values of 22k O,27k o and 33k o.
Whal are thev for?"
Smithv looked down at the
caDacitoi and the resistors.
i'They're
for applying bias to the
record-playback head when you're
recordi;g,n he stated. "You-use a
link wire to connect which of the
three resistors gives the best bias
amplitude to the particular recordhead which is fitted."
'olavback
'iI thought," moaned Dick,
"that
things were going too easy. What in
heck is this bias business?"
"You need a bias signal at the
record-playback head when you're
recording," said Smithy, "in order
to get the recorded a.f. signal onto
the linear parts of tIe tape
magnetising characteristic."
tle pulle-d out a pencil, pulled

I)ick's note-pad towards him and

sketchedout the tape characteristic
on the top sheet.(Fig. g(a).)
"This curve," he wint on,"shows
vou what happenswhenyou try to
!.agnetise a piece of recordertape,
The horizontal axis represeits
magnetising force, which during
recordingis providedby the recordplaybacli h6ad, and ihe vertical
axis representsthe magneticfield
strength which is causeilto appear
in the tape magneticcoating.'Field
strength' is not reallv the proner
term nowadays,though, and'we
should mori propeily call it
'magneticflux'.
As you cansee,the
slope of the characteristicis low
closeto the centre zeropoint andit
also curves quite a 6it. As the
magnetising force increases,the
slope,getssteeper.andyou neediess
and less mametising force to es.
tablish a correspondlngflux in the
tape. Also, the characteristicgoes
into two regions, on either side of
the centre zero point, where it is
quite _straightand linear. If you
take the magnetisingforce beyirnd
the linear paits of the characteiistic
the tape coatingbeginsto approach
saturation and th"e chara'cieristic
becomescurved again."
"Well, I'm with vou so far,
Smithy. Keep at it!"
"Okay, I will! Let's sav, to start
off with, that we apply a signalto be
recordeddirect to lh-erec-ord-playback head without any precaulions
to preventdistortion.Th-emagnetising force exerted bv the r-ecordplayback head on ihe tape will
follow the signal.We'll try i[ with a
sine wave."

Smithy drew a cycle of a sine

wave below the charhcteristic,based on the central vertical line.
"We'll next see what happens
when that sine wave is converted
into magnetic.flux by way of the
tape
characteristic,Here rie are."
The Servicemansketchedout the
corresponding magnetic flux
waveform.(Fie. 3(b).I
"Blimey," siid Oick. ,.that secqnd waveform's really distorted.
The. central bits are ail squashed
uD.
.'"Which they'reboundto be,after
th_e
input sinewavehas beenchans_
ed to a magneticflux waveform b"v
way of the tape characteristic.Letis

see if.I've got an indiarubber."

smrthy.dugaround inhis pockets
ano produced-a grubby rubber
eraser_.He rubbed out the two
wave-forms and added a new
waveform.(Fie. B(c).)
"Here's tle-bias waveform," he
con^tinued.
"It's convenientlyderived from.the eraseoscillator, irra ttie
tips of the waveform are just aCihi
centreparts of the linear sectionsof
the tape char-acteristic.Now, I'll
rub out the bias waveform and
redraw it mixed with the sine *ave
tha! ryg want to record on th; ta;e.
And I'll also show the finai-resiii
you get so far as the magaetic flux
waveform is concerned."-

Mognctising forcc

Fig. 3(a). Characteristic cuwe illustratiig

m.gnetising force, pro_
vided bv tha record head' and the.o"""luiit"il-gnatic
ftux in the
(b). Apptying a sine wave inpuffinat
to the cha)acteristic rcsufts
in a highly distorted recorded signal
(c), The peaks of the bias
:ignal lake the magnctising force to the
contres of the linear sections
ot tna cnanciiriiic
l!.
thp bi?s signat and the sine wave to bc recorded
ltry
are
applled
to-the characteristic. Two rocordei iiii
_"".
sisnals are
pfOdUCed'whicfr

Smithy erased.the bias waveform

and sketchedin the combinedbias
a.nd r_1pgt signal waveform. Thii
tlme Ltlck had to wait patientlv for
several_
minutes as Smithy ca;ied
on-to draw out the flux waveform.
(Fif. 3(d).)
^ "There you _are," pronounced
smtthy at length, as he put down
his pencil. "With bias, ihe input
m a g n e t i s i n gw a v e f o r m h a e ' a n
envelopewhich takes the sine wave
nght onto the linear parts of the
chara-cteristic.Not muih of the Uiai
waveform will be present on the
tape when it leaves the recordplayback head becauseof its high
frequency, and we can safelv
essume that all that's left are tw-o
$ne waves corresponding,without
drsto-rtlon,to the magnetisincforce
envelopeapplied to the lineai parts
o.f the tape characteristic.Wd can
then take the further graphical
step of combining these two sine
waves,together, where^upon
we get
a nnat'resultant wavetbrm,centred
otl . thq magnetic flux zero line,
wntch ls also a sine wave."
"Stap me," exclaimed Dick.
"that takes a bit of absorbinc."
_"It isn't easy," concededSriithv.
"ln fact, it's a matter of historv thit
when tape recordingfirst statted it
was found experimentallvthat the
greatestfidelity of reproductionwas
achie-vedby adding a supersonic
blas trequencyto the audiosicnalto
be recorded. There were quiti a
few attempts to rationaliee
theoreticallythe practical fact that
the bias signal improved qualitv.
and.the explanationI've jusi givd;
you ls pretty well as closeto actuality. as you can get whilst keepinc
thingsreasonablysimple."
"Well, it seems reasonable
enough to me," commentedDick.
"What I now find puzzlingis that in
thrs cassetterecordera hish power
erasesignal is pumped directly into
the erase head. And yet the bias
signal extracted from lhe erase oscillator circuit is applied to the
record-playback heail-via a dirtv
great resistor of around 27kdl,,
^ "That's not entirely the caEe,"
S.mtthy correctedhim. ..The erase
srgnal,voltageis.steppedup by the
seconoary of the erase oscillator
translqrmer before it is applied to
the.27k'o resistor,or to ofi6 oi the
resrstorson either side of it. Even
so, you've-raised_apoint which is
worrn deallng with next, this being
that, ln term-c of power, a sur_
pnslng.tysmall'signal level is requrrect at the record head to
successl'ull.r.
irnpress a recoidinc
on the lirperr*it passbs
overit. Thij
ls parr;\. ,{rrr to the fact that the
.
(.Jr
record.. .
is r',i,.h ,r"rror"ii
than the t.dst. ..rrdgap, so that it
proouces a rnore concentrated
magnetisingforce on the tape. To
showyou what I mean aboutiecord
head sensitivity,let's take a look at
the record amplifier output part of

PR
++To
I
I

From preceding
sto9e

To mic
crrcutt

monltol
circurf

To boss ot ls!
ttonsistor
Eofphooc
socket

Rccord/ploybock
hsod

I
o
OF

Cr02

To erosc oscillotot

Fig.4' The d.f. driver and output stages of thc cassette recorder. The monitor circuit consists of a switch
and sdvenl attdnuating resistors which permit the earyhonc or sped,kerto monitor the output signal during recording. The three setions of the rccord-plcyhack switch are shown in the "Ptayback"bosition.
This, and Fig. 2, are slightly simplified veoions of the coftesponding sections in the Ferguson 3276
cassoftc recofder.

1
i

i,]
j

i
RECORD AMPLIFIER
Smithy indicatedthe appropriate
amplifying section of the-caisette
r e c o r d e cr i r c u i t .( F i g .a ) .
"Cosh," said Dick, lookinsdown
at the circuit. "This amplifi*erout_
put s-tageuses input and output
transformers. That's a bit oldfashioned.isn't it?"
"There's a reason for those
transformers," stated Smithv.
"Just take a butcher'sat the wav in
which the audio output signal is
applied to the reco-rd-pliyback
head when the record function is
selected.Working back from the
head you'll bumf into another of
your dirty great resistors. This
time it's a 33k O one."
"What's that for?"
"It:s common practice to insert,
in series with a record head. a
resistorwhosevalue is much higher
than the impedanceof the hea-dat
any frequency in the audio range.
118

The result is that si.gnals

o.fdiffering
the record amplifier. The recorder
rrequencyDut slmltar voltagelevel
supply voltage
" s t aisn donly
a i d 6 volts s0
cause approximately the same
th;'t.- if a
modern
current to flow in the coil of the
transformerless.outputstage
--i'iirnum
were
head. .Don't forget that- it's the
used, there;d oniv 5u
current in the head coil which does
output voltase swine
of" aboutolus
'Wh.;;r;fi;;
the magnetisingof the tape. In this
unti -ir,.r, i volts.
par-ticularrecorder we next find a
recording, the record-playback
h.ighfrequen_cy^bo_osting
circuit conhead is sinsitive, but ifs riJJo snsisting^o_f
a 180kO resiskrrshuntd
sitivie as to be operated,via the
by a 100pF gllq a.lZpnf capacitor
series resisior. in'it iJed, bv ,
rn paralrel. l nrs lltue lot grves a
signalvoltageas low as 3 voltspeak.
degreeofhigh.frequency
lift to over.
Aid so
ouiput t.ansloirfieris
come lossesin the head and the
needed".,
so"lf.
that its secondarvcan
tapej:'
step up the ;riprt";ita;;
to"ngufficiently highjei,ei. Aniiitr"iii*ly
lJ,here'. only t00pF when .the
swrtch,rnthat part of the circuit is
the aniplifier employs an output
openeo.
transformer, For conveniencethe
output transistorsthen need-tobe
. "True," qgreed Smithy, "and
that catels tbr chr.omium dioxide
fed-by an input transformer.you'll
rape.unromlum dloxrd.taphas a
noh, incidentally, that the record
greater sensitivity to high frequenoutput staeedoubiesas a plavbacl
cres.at low tape speeds.than has
outlrut st'age when ptaibaik is
rerrrc.oxloetape, ancl so lt requlres
selected.A tap lower down in the
lesshlgh trequencyboostin the feed
output transfoimer secondarvthen
to the record-playbackhead. And
feeds an go speaker arid an
now we come to the output stageof
earphonesocket."
RADIO AND ELECTRONICSCONSTRUCTOR;

"When playback is selected,"

said l)ick, gazing thoughtfully at
the circuit in the service sheet, "the
record-playback head connects
almost directly to the base of the
first a.f. transistor in the recorder.
No series resistors this time."
"There's no need for them," said
Smithy. "l)uring playback, we'r.e
intereited in signal voltage as well
as signal current from the head.
You'll see that a 1,000pF capacitor
connects across the head on
plavback. This capacitor, in como a n v w i t h o t h e r c o m p o n e n t si n t h e
hmitifier later on. heipsto produce
the reqr.rired playback frequency
characteristic."
Smithy abruptly pushed the service manual towards his assistant.
"And that's it," he remarked
firmly. "Enough natteringfor now!
I've fot my own work to do, so I'll
leave vou to find what's gone wrong
with that eraseoscillator. I'm not so
nessimistic as to think that You
won't find the snag quite easily."
being
about
"Talking
pessimistic," put in Dick quicklY,
before the Serviceman could leave

him, "what's the definition of a

nessimist?"
Smithv wavered.
"Here'we go again," he snorted
irately. "The annoying thing is that
I know I won't have any peace of
mind until you tell nre. All right,
what is the definition of a
ist?"
oessinr
'
l)it'k grinned broadly.
" A l r e s s i m i s t . "h e s a i d c h e e r f u l l y ,
"is someonewho puts prunes on his
All-Rranl"

FlNAL DEFINITION
Wearilv, Smithy weaved his waY
back to his side of the WorkshoP,
whilst his chuckling assistant turned his attention to the cassette
recorder and its unserviceableerase
oscillator. It was not long before a
I'eu' voltage and continuity checks
Ied him to the ernitter of the erase
oscillator transistor, and he quickly
a p p l i e d h i s s o l d e r i n gi r o n a n d a l i t tli' solder to the imperfect joint it
had with the circuit Print. The
result was an erase oscillator which

once more functioned correctlv.

But Dick's curiosity was aroused
to the level that he could not erase
the recording, even distorted, of
that party. He started to run the
tape through but was stopped by an
outraged Smithy, who forcibly
oointed out the ethics which should
be observed so far as customers'
confidentialitv was concerned.
"We shouldn't listen to peoples'
private tapes," concluded Smithy
sternly. "It's a question of correct
moral behaviour."
"Fair enough," acquiesced Dick
amicablv. "Then, if we're talking of
moral behaviour, let me ask you a
o-u e s t i o n . "
Inevitablv. Smithv fell for it.
"All righ[,!' he said unwittingly,
"what is it?"
"What," asked l)ick, "is your
definition of a sadist?"
"Ye gods," fumed Smithy, "you
nor". fri*.'a chance do v"out-ntt
right, what r:s the definition of a
sadist?"
"A sadist," replied Dick happily,
"is someonewho's terriblv nice to a
masochistl"
I

Radio Toprcs
By Recorder
Electronics has many sidelines,
and one which has been present for
verv manv vears now is that of short
wave li"ieiring. The short wave
bands. a.re jam-packed with
t r a n s m i s s i o n sm
, any of them using
standard amplitude modulation
which can be resolved without
the necessity for product
detectors and the like. There is a
certain escapism in being able to
retire into the world of short waves,
to dig leisurely along the dial until
something of interest is unearthed.

WHAT RECEIVER?
N a t u r a l l v e n o u g h ,t h e n e w c o m e r
to shori wa-vesasks the first obvious
ouestion: what sort of receiver is
reouired? There isn't a direct
aniwer to this question, since
everything depends uPon th.e tYpe
of listeningvou want to undertake
and the imbunt of moneY You're
to srrend.
orepared
^
Ii vou iust want to listen to the
powerful
broadcast
tno.i
transmisiions, then you might get
the performance you require flonq a
mass produced receiver of the

donrestic entertainment type which

hatlrrensto have several short wave
bands in addition to the medium or
medium and long wave ranges.
Some ,rf the sets in this categorY
have a fairly reasonable Performance whilst others are pretty terrihle. I n general.the performance improves with the price. Sets of this
iytre ha,re'a telescopic short wave
ae'rial and, perhaPs, an actual
: r e r i a li n n u t t e r m i n a l . U n f o r t u n a t e lv, it is not an easy matter to judge
the uerformance of a short wave
receiver of this nature whilst buying
it.; radio shop salesmenare not normallv short wave oriented and short
wave simal pick-up in the shoP
itsell' mav well be limited. The
rusualshoitcomings with these types
of sets are poor sensitivity, poor
selectivitv and vulnerability to second channel interference, the Iast
showing un as whistles as the set
tunes throush the stations.
If vou have a receiver of the
entertainment tyPe and You want to
increaseits short wave sensitivity, a
is to couple a long
rusefulanrrroach'l'he
aerial may conuire lerihl to it.
sist of 40ft. or more of wtre strung

un in a reasonablv clear situation.

If the set has an aerial terminal the
long wire can connect to this but, in
the'absence of such a terminal the
krng wire aerial has to couple to the
t e l e . s c o p i ca e r i a l o f t h e s e t . I n
general, it is unwise to connect the
ions wire directlv to the telescopic
aerial. It is likely that a direct connection of this- nature will both
detune and damp the first tuned
circuit in the receiver, with a considerable increase in second
channel interference together with
cross-modulation from Powerful
sisnals close to those You
want. A much better solution is to
have a very loose coupling between
lhe long wire and the telescoPic
aerial. An insulated lead-in from
the long wire can be coiled a turn or
tr.r'o.lengthwise,down the extended
telescopic aerial. whereuPon the
caoaciiance between the two maY
be'more than adequate for signal
transfer. It may even be possible to
obtain satisfactory signal transfer
bv having the long wire lead-in run
several inches away from the extended telescopic aerial and
parallel with it.
119

VALVE

SETS

I am certain that older readers

will agree with me when I say that
the short wave performance of the
old valve entertainment type sets
was a lot better than is given by
their modern transistor counterparts. This is not an example of
maudlin nostalgia but simply a
recognition of the fact that it is
quite easy to design a low cost valve
superhet having a reasonableshort
wave performance, much easier in
fact than it is to do the same with a
low cost semiconductor superhet.
As designers of communications
equipment themselves admit,
valves have a linear signal voltage
performance which almost completely defeats cross-modulation, as
well as the ability to accept a wide
range of signal amplitudes without
overloading and the capability of
being used-in relatively low noise
mixer circuits. They can also be
employed in very simple automatic
gain control circuits which have an
almost unbeatable smoothness of
operation. You'll find plenty of the
more serious short wave listeners
using valve receivers, incidentally.
What is probably the only major
designdifhculty ;ith valvei is tiat
they heat up and are liable to cause
oscillator tuning drift unless
suitable steps to prevent this are
taKen.
So far as serious short wave
listening is concerned vou mav
well decide to purchase i
communications-type receiver
which is specifically intended for
the purpose. Again, you pays your
money and you takes your choice.
However, there is the advantage
here that you will be buying the set
from people who have a good idea of
what short wave listening is all
about, instead of from commishhungry salesmen who, immediately after having sold You a
snort wave radro, wtll next be gsing
their talents to flog a refrigerator.
Don't forged that you can build
your own short wave radio if you
wish. There have been quite a few
designs in Radio & Electronics
Constructor for short wave
receivers, both simple and complex'.
If you don't want to spend too much
money, you can get successfully
started with an inexpensive t.r.f.
design having reaction. The secret
behind these simple sets is the reaction circuit itself; if the reaction
control is gentle and smooth so that
you can take it slowly up to the oscillation point you will be surprised
at the wealth of signals you can pick
up.

CLAMPMETER
of
Overrecentyears,instruments

the Clampmetertype have become

increasingly popular for
measurementson power systems
because of the particular safety
featuresthey offer. The measure-

Two Avo instruments, the Clampmeter | 2OOand thd Clampmeter

3OO. The ends of the instruments are clamped over singla conductorc carrying high altemating currcnts to obtain currant readings
without the necessity of a direct connection

ment of alternating current has

always been a problem, both in
terms of actually performing the
measurementand of the safetv of
the instrumentwhilst in the ciriuit.
With the Avo Clampmeters,alternating currents may be measured
wherever a single conductor is
availablewithout the needto break
the circuit, and the measurement
can be taken in completesafety.
In addition, the Clampmeters
have voltageand resistanceranges,
forming the instrument into a complete multimeter for the electrician
or engineer.The Avo rangeconsists
of the Clampmeter 300 for current
measurementsup to 300 amps on
the highest scale, and the
Clampmeter 1200 for current
measurementsup to 1,200amps.
Further features include an ingenious and readily manipulated
thumbwheelrangeswitch which actually changes the scale as each
range is selected.Another unusual
facility is a pointer lock. If the instrument is used in an inaccessible
position, the pointer can be locked
and the instrument removedbefore
beingread in the open.
The Clampmeter is intended for
onehand operationand can be used
in either the left or the right hand. A
wrist-band is attachedas a precaution against accidental dropping.
The instrument, complete with all
its accessories,
is suppliedin a sturdy p.v.c.carrying casewhich can be
carried either in the hand or strapped to a belt for greater portabilIty.

Further details can be obtained

from Avo Limited, Archcliffe Road,
Dover,Kent. CT17 9EN.
REMOTE CONTROL
The hearing ability of cats and

dogs extends quite a bit higher in

terms of frequency than does that of
humans. This fact makes me
wonder sometimes what our pets
make of the electronic sounds in the
domestic scene which pass relativelv unnoticed bv their owners. The
earlv 405-line fV sets used to have
line output transformers which sang
away quite loudly at the line frequencv of l0,l25Hz. 625-line sets
have line output transformers rurulhg
at15,625Hz. which must have mildlv irritated those of our pets who
liad become accustomed tb the old
lower frequencv. (That line frequency of 15,625H2 is always nice
d,ndeisy to remember, incid6ntally,
because the last three digits are
625.) In general, though, cats and
dogs seem to have what is almost an
annoving indifference to the scenes
and souids which are projected by
our domestic electronic equipment.
A friend, who is now the proud
owner of a remotelv controlled TV
set, told me that his dog seemed a
little agitated at first when he
started using the control unit, which
emils a beam of ultrasonic sound.
However, the dog soon got used to
the ultrasonic sound and, after a
week or so, simply ignored it. Which
set me to looking through some
news items for the earlier part of
this year, to find a repoit that in
Denmark two Alsatians and a boxer
dog went beserk after sitting near a
remotely controlled TV. In-ihe end
they had to be put down.
An isolated instance? Presumably so, because there seem
to have been no turther accounts of
remotely controlled TV affecting
cats and dogs. I note, however, that
there is no end to the reports on the
effects TV programmes have on us
human beings
!
I