Hello from Luxembourg

[elctrifrier]

Hi, I am 57, was born in Exbury, then in Hants, UK and I went to Zimbabwe from '55 to '61. I returned to UK, finished school and joined Her Majesty's Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth, as an elecrical fitter apprentice in Jan 1963. I Transferred to Technician Apprentice and finished up as a computer programmer in 1968 working on a LEO III 326 computer. I have been in or around computers ever since. I left the Dockyard in 1984 as a senior systems analyst, to follow my wife to Luxembourg, where we both work for the European Parliament. I now speak reasonable Greek and French and can make myself understood in German.

I am interested in strange audio circuits, mostly using valves (tubes to our friends across the water) and some discrete transistors, valve test gear, old valve radios and (mainly guitar) amplifiers, since my son plays guitar and has a healthy appetite for bottles with lots of volts on them.

We recently repaired a Dynacord Eminent 50 Watt amp., but even when it was back to its original spec, he didn't like it. We repaired a London City 70 Watt last weekend, but he was only satisfied when we replaced 98% of the circuit with what they have in a Marshall "Plexi" amp. He was grinning for 3 days afterwards and he wants to put a "MehrSchall" logo on it ("more noise". for those who don't speak Germing...).

We will be building a few Marshall/Vox/Fender copies over the next few months, and I will be repairing a 1950 Novak (Belgian) radio and probably a juke-box amp from about 1960 for a friend.

A long term project is to repair a 1950 Vortexion amplifier using all octal valves except for a pair of 807s. It is long term because I can't find a schematic for it and someone appears to have replaced a lot of components around the driver bottle, which makes me very unsure that the one that's in there is the one that should be there. Any help with this one would be appreciated.

[mwmkravchenko]

Welcome to the forum the more the merrier

Mark

[planet10]

Welcome... looking forward to "weird tube cicuits"

dave

[SY]

Bonjour et bienvenue!

Is Gonderange the town near the RTL towers?

[elctrifrier]

Gonderange is 2km from Junglinster, where there are 3 tall red and white painted aerials (antennae) which were used to beam Radio Luxembourg to the UK, however, as they are on a sandy hill, the earth wsa bad so they built 3 more in a valley about 7km away at Bech. I used to live in the house opposite these aerials and I can tell you that they were only used for about 30mins at night. The big problem is the shorter Short Wave aerial, which is about 50m from the road - this one operates all the time with 600kW on 6.09MHz and we could hear it on the cooker and the drain-pipes when it was dry ...

Ciao, Luxemberry

[adam2a3]

Hello,
I also have one VORTEXION CP20A amplifier for restoration. What is the model of your amp? Many models used similar enclosures, this one is all octal and I can't find any schematics. The output tubes were missing and I can only guess that originals could have been EL34's as g3 at socket's pin 1 is grounded, leaving out KT66 and 6L6/6V6. You can check if the 807 sockets are retrofit, also check the way anode cap cable is passing through chassis. Check the chassis anode cable holes by a magnifying lense to determine if are factory made or just drilled by someone who installed the 807's. Is this cable of the same manufacturer as all other cables inside? Normally the caps should be connected directly to the output transf whithout going under the chassis. In my amp all insulation is brittle and falls apart if you move anything. Also all transformers except power have been destroyed by humdity. I have removed the core from the output transformer and it will be rewinded and reassembled using the original special core's T and C pieces (not E and I !) The driver will be replaced as it uses super thin wire and wax molded in the original can. Another issue is the electrolytics, that could not be reformed, so were left in place and a neat board with replacements has been installed under the chassis.

Originally Posted by elctrifrier

Hi, I am 57, was born in Exbury, then in Hants, UK and I went to Zimbabwe from '55 to '61. I returned to UK, finished school and joined Her Majesty's Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth, as an elecrical fitter apprentice in Jan 1963. I Transferred to Technician Apprentice and finished up as a computer programmer in 1968 working on a LEO III 326 computer. I have been in or around computers ever since. I left the Dockyard in 1984 as a senior systems analyst, to follow my wife to Luxembourg, where we both work for the European Parliament. I now speak reasonable Greek and French and can make myself understood in German.

I am interested in strange audio circuits, mostly using valves (tubes to our friends across the water) and some discrete transistors, valve test gear, old valve radios and (mainly guitar) amplifiers, since my son plays guitar and has a healthy appetite for bottles with lots of volts on them.

We recently repaired a Dynacord Eminent 50 Watt amp., but even when it was back to its original spec, he didn't like it. We repaired a London City 70 Watt last weekend, but he was only satisfied when we replaced 98% of the circuit with what they have in a Marshall "Plexi" amp. He was grinning for 3 days afterwards and he wants to put a "MehrSchall" logo on it ("more noise". for those who don't speak Germing...).

We will be building a few Marshall/Vox/Fender copies over the next few months, and I will be repairing a 1950 Novak (Belgian) radio and probably a juke-box amp from about 1960 for a friend.

A long term project is to repair a 1950 Vortexion amplifier using all octal valves except for a pair of 807s. It is long term because I can't find a schematic for it and someone appears to have replaced a lot of components around the driver bottle, which makes me very unsure that the one that's in there is the one that should be there. Any help with this one would be appreciated.

[janneman]

Originally Posted by elctrifrier

Hi, I am 57, was born in Exbury, then in Hants, UK [snip].

Hi Adam, you were born twice? Wow! Just pulling your leg..

Nice to see someone from Lux. I spend some years in Strassen, Route d'Arlon, working for NAMSA. Had a great time. I'm more in SS really, but interested in 'strange circuits' always!

jd

[elctrifrier]

Hi Adam,

I now have 2 Vortexions, the one with the 2x807s and another that is powered bt 220V or 12V with a vibrator. I think this one is similar to your CP20A. Mine has 2x6V6s in the output (one GT and the other, a G...). I have not powered it up yet. I still have very little data on these amps, except for the cirtcuit of a 50W version using 2 807s, but a lot of EF86s and an ECC82. I can send you what I have if you give me your email. I note that you are in Greece: my wife is from Lasithi, Crete and I will be passing through Patras, Athens and Piraeus on my way to Crete in September (2010). If you are on my way, I can stop and pay you a visit.