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Seen this strange part in the powerstage of a RF transmitter ?

Ah Yes...

That is the Pinball Launcher. It was designed into the transmitter by the design engineers to help sell replacement parts and keep local engineers employed. Every 6 months the launcher shoots the pinball and it bounces around the transmitter until something breaks. Then, the engineer replaces the broken part and resets the pinball on the launcher.

See you in 6 months! :D
 
Well, that explains the thing that looks like a pressurized air line leading to it.

I would have figured sparks shoot out of the ball ( a la Dr Frankenstein) to make carbon tracks all over the inside of the chamber.
 
Tom Wells said:
I would have figured sparks shoot out of the ball ( a la Dr Frankenstein) to make carbon tracks all over the inside of the chamber.
Click to expand...

Ha Ha Ha... I guess it does look like a little Van De Graaff generator doesn't it...
 
Lazy J said:
Ah Yes...

That is the Pinball Launcher. It was designed into the transmitter by the design engineers to help sell replacement parts and keep local engineers employed. Every 6 months the launcher shoots the pinball and it bounces around the transmitter until something breaks. Then, the engineer replaces the broken part and resets the pinball on the launcher.

See you in 6 months! :D
Click to expand...

Ah that way. "...we are very happy to supply you every month with our eggtimer-device which activates sleepy components. All this at a salesprice of only $ 13,859.00. Our helpdesk will always
be glad to receive your faulty equipment from members at an extra rate of $41,000 a month...''
 
Flux Capacitor, Good to see they took the adjustor off of this unit, Or we would all be in 1935. Wait a min, That might not be a bad thing. At least Corp radio would not around. Seriously, Looks kinda like an arc gap.
 
What transmitter is this in?

Maybe somebody has a schematic for it and they could look it up.
 
RFGuy said:
Seriously, Looks kinda like an arc gap.
Click to expand...

I agree. In the picture it looks like an AM feed line going through a green insulator. The ball looks like an arc gap from the feed line in case of a lightning strike. I know the little BE AM transmitter have a similar glass arc gap that can burn if it takes a serious direct hit.
 
RFGuy said:
Flux Capacitor, Good to see they took the adjustor off of this unit, Or we would all be in 1935. Wait a min, That might not be a bad thing. At least Corp radio would not around. Seriously, Looks kinda like an arc gap.
Click to expand...

So I assume time travel happens when the output reaches 88 percent? The only downside is the station goes off the air when the transmitter travels through time.
 
Seriously, the Green thing is a current-sampling transformer, probably for measuring RF current. I'm assuming the "porthole" looking thing behind it is the output to the transmission line.
The glass thing looks like it might be a sampling transformer for feeding a modulation monitor, since it appears to have a small coax coming off it.
 
I've only seen one of those things, but it looks very much like the spark gap that was used in the Harris MW-1.

I forget where it was located in the circuit, but I think it was supposed to protect the outputs from static/lightning damage.
 
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