Homebrew help II

[Dave A]

Time for battery school for me...and some fun guessing while ARF is down. Gotta have something to talk about. I had this battery homebrew for many years and just got it refinished. The original was beyond exhibition and had many layers of added finish. Better this way.

Now for the school. Time to figure out the circuit. I know that pix are not the best way to guess, but that is what I have. From the rear, 2 variable conds with no markings, 3 variometers with no markings, one rheostat between the conds marked "Chas. Freeman, NY", AK tube bases with 01 tubes, AK Type L xfmr (both sides open...for later). Looks to be filament and B voltages only.

Very neat construction and wiring in a box made from spare pine. Not sure what the front panel is but about 1/4" thick. Even the filament viewing ports are countersunk for display. Very skilled pencil markings for drilling the ports on the back side. Most items have brass ID plates on the front and back.

Most solder joints need re-working. Not done well to start with or aging. Open xfmr. Not a candidate to fire right now but just for discussion. All references are from the rear view. Some of the ID plates are visible in the front pix. B+ does not have markings for voltages. Help here!

Now we work backwards. Viewing from the rear, what is marked as the antenna goes to the large cond on the right marked "primary cond". Out of there to the right side adjustable taps to the center vari marked "coupling". Out of there to the second set of taps on the left, then through the left cond marked "plate" and on to the "detector" tube. The left vari is tied directly to the "detector".

From the marked "detector" tube on the right wiring continues to the tube marked "1st step" on the left with wiring passing through the headphone connectors.

Headphones on the "detector" and a speaker on the other "1st step" tube"?

More than I can describe or draw. Are you still with me?

From the "detector" tube, one wire goes back to the Freeman rheostat and to the right side vari marked "grid" via the mounting plate and then to the mounting plate of the middle vari.

Regeneration at this point?

Now my questions. How do the two sets of adjustable taps work? What B voltages should I look for? Does this circuit have a name?

I gotta go back to my tv's. I understand them.

Dave A

[Reece]

Wow, some fella back in the early '20's went to a lot of trouble to build this, and did a heck of a good job for a home brew, labels, squared-off wiring and all.

I think what I would do to get a grip on it is sit down and start drawing the schematic. I've done that with orphan sets. Your first sketch will be full of erasures and lines scratched out. Then you copy it over neatly and double check against the radio. Then what I've done (since I like doing it) is make the final copy using a drawing program like Paint. Once you have a schematic it should explain itself.

Reece

[Bob E.]

I think it is probably Charles Freshman, not Freeman. There are a few copies of Rider's pages over at Nostalgiaair.org, but yours may pre-date them. Take a look, however. I am getting ready to fire up a Freshman "Masterpiece" with a battery-eliminator, and see what TRF on a three-dialer is like!

--Bob