It said that on one vent window. The other said "If you value your life as much as I value this van, dont F@#* with it!
In the true diyAudio spirit I did have 8 audio amps feeding 8 speakers all fed by either a Craig Pioneer quadraphonic 8 track deck or a Motorola cassette / FM deck. All the amps were clones of the SWTPC Plastic Tiger. The power supply was a home made switcher generating +/- 35 volts. I still have some of the amp boards.
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Here too, but I have not been approached by one of these fellows in nearly a decade.. I just say no to malls!
Brings back great memories, I had several friends with vans in various colors all similarly equipped, and marked. A couple of them even had speaker systems in them that I designed - not very good speaker systems it should be said..
Back then there were only two criteria, good solid bass (not the license plate rattling stuff you hear today) and LOUD. I had the bass covered with two 12 inch woofers under the bed in the back (all custom vans had a bed and captains chairs right?) and 6X9's in the rear doors and side walls. The front doors had 6 inch round speakers. Each speaker had its own amp that made about 30 watts.
I probably have some printed pictures in a box from my previous life....somewhere. Most of the time the van trailered my Hobie Cat to the beach where I hung out for about 10 years of my life.
The picture of the speakers was recent. I have been cleaning out all the "stuff" that I have collected over the years. I have found some things that I have saved for far too long. I photographed and tossed things that I found that I built as far back as high school. The speakers were built in the early 70's and tossed last year. I hooked them up to a guitar amp and blew them up before trashing them.
I found some of the amplifier boards from the van amp. I offered them for free here and got takers for the big ones. A bunch of us made these for home amps and for our vans in the mid 70's. They are clones of SWPTC boards. The magazine with the plans is dated 1973.
Attachments
Those popular electronics are all available online...
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Jul1969/PE_Jul1969.htm
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Oct1971/PE_Oct1971.htm
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Jul1969/PE_Jul1969.htm
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Oct1971/PE_Oct1971.htm
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You guys are all giving me concerns...... You mean, if a guy in a white Yugo van stops me along the street and offers me a First Watt F5 amp, new, for $250, maybe--JUST MAYBE--it's NOT the real thing???
P.S. As for those SWTP 175A Universal Tiger amps, I'm still running two of them--one in my garage, and one in my basement workshop(!)
P.S. As for those SWTP 175A Universal Tiger amps, I'm still running two of them--one in my garage, and one in my basement workshop(!)
I just hit that link......
Interesting...... they actually used the term "indestructable" on the cover of Pop 'Tronics to describe the amp......!
That must have been before they plugged it in, for the first time..... or before they connnected it to any speaker.....or before they looked at it cross-eyed......!
I had far, far less luck in my early SWTP UT experiences.....
The bigger Tigers did have a reputation for blowing up.
Back in high school I made a few of the LiL Tigers. I think they were 15 or 20 watts. I used them for small guitar amps.
In the mid 70's, several of us who wanted tunes for our vans decided to build some amps. We tweaked the design to fit parts that we could get (we all worked in the Motorola plant). They were the closest thing to an indestructible amp that we could build back then. There are some boards in the picture that had TO3 output transistors mounted off board. This allowed 2 ohm loads for about 50 watts, and they still didn't blow up. A few of us experimented with the UT for subwoofers. They blew up.
Back in high school I made a few of the LiL Tigers. I think they were 15 or 20 watts. I used them for small guitar amps.
In the mid 70's, several of us who wanted tunes for our vans decided to build some amps. We tweaked the design to fit parts that we could get (we all worked in the Motorola plant). They were the closest thing to an indestructible amp that we could build back then. There are some boards in the picture that had TO3 output transistors mounted off board. This allowed 2 ohm loads for about 50 watts, and they still didn't blow up. A few of us experimented with the UT for subwoofers. They blew up.
I was given a couple old Tigers a few years ago - the large ones, their reputation being what it was I passed them along to someone more courageous than me without ever plugging them in..
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