Amateur Radio Station W1UJR

The W1FPZ TX Project

John Rollins. For some of you, this may be the first time you’ve heard of W1FPZ, but many others will recognize his name right away. The first time that I met John was admittedly with some trepidation. After all, he was a wonderfully skilled radio builder, known throughout the Antique Wireless Association for wonderful creations, and I was just a former Johnny Novice who had restored a few radios. I had never yet scratch built anything of consequence, most of my radio experience related to things from the 1950s onward. Here was John, some 80 years old, most renowned for his construction of transmitters built on slabs of cherry wood, wonderfully finished, with arrow straight buss wire, perfect 90 degree wire bends, polished brass...building radios that were admittedly, a work of art.

Yet within a few moments, John put me and my fellow visitor, Larry NE1S, right at ease. His warm smile, easy laugh, and kindly nature had us all shortly relating like old friends. While we were in awe of John’s handiwork, rather than being intimidated, we were both fascinated and encouraged to go build our own works. Our visit, as it was to be with subsequent visits, concluded over tea and cookies, compliments of John’s most gracious wife, Elizabeth.

So it was that John later returned the favor, and paid me a visit, in the company of Lou VA3AWA, on May 8, 2007. Lou graciously drove the now ailing John over to my home, to visit my hamshack. The visit went too quickly, but I was able to show John my recently finished Collins 30K restoration project, along with some National receivers which I had restored over the years. Every now and then he’d let out his trademark “Oh boy”, and I knew that he was pleased.

The Rig
A few months later, during one of our talks, John mentioned that he had a transmitter which needed a home. This was a most special transmitter for he had built it some twenty years ago for his good friend Marshall W2ER. With Marshall’s passing, he’d like to see it placed in a “good home”. John described the rig to me; it was roughly based on a series of transmitters sold by the Gross Company from New York City. Jerry Gross, the founder and namesake of Gross transmitters, listed a number of moderate cost offerings for the radio amateur during the 1930s. As I was to discover during the restoration process, John’s use of the name “Gross” was a quite an understatement, and yet another example of his humble nature, for Gross never built anything quite so substantial or polished as John’s creation.

John’s interpretation was quite straightforward, starting with a type 47 tube in the first RF stage, a type 46 in the second stage buffer, and finishing up with a pair of Taylor TZ40 tubes in push pull for the final amplifier section. John told me he had originally employed TZ20 tubes, but had later changed to the TZ40 after tube failures. Band changing was provided by a set of plug in coils, and the frequency was determined by either a plug in crystal or the wonderful little outboard Electron Coupled Oscillator (ECO), also built by John, which matched the transmitter. The construction was quite typical of the era, a small desktop rack, finished in black wrinkle paint. The power supply deck, heavily laden with transformers and chokes, completed with a pair of lovely glowing 866 Jr. rectifier tubes, was on the lower chassis. No less than nine transformer and chokes were used in the power supply, to handle the various filament, bias and plate voltage needs.

The upper chassis housed the RF deck with its three matching National Type A Velvet Vernier dials. Power output was via two sets of binding posts on the rear of the power supply deck, and interconnect wiring for the power supply and RF deck was provided by two wiring harnesses located on the rear of the chassis. The first harness contained the filament power and lower plate voltages for the 46 and 47 tubes, while the second harness carried the high voltage for the plates of the TZ40 tubes. As with the wiring under the chassis, John had used lacing cord to bundle the wiring harness, and even carefully fabricated four clamp mounts out of aluminum stock to secure the harness to the rear of the rack. RF output was balanced, and connection to the antenna was provided via two insulators on the top of the cabinet panel, much like the original Gross design.

The metering panel, directly below the RF deck, used two old style Weston 301 panel meters. Typical of early construction, when meters were expensive to the average ham, a series of jacks were installed at the bottom of the RF deck. Metering could be plugged in for each stage, reducing the total number of meters needed, while allowing full measurement of each stage. No modulator was built, so the rig was strictly CW, further adding to its old time flavor.

The Gift
With such an offering dangled before me, what was a good ham to do but to pipe up and say, “Keep me in mind, I’d love to have that in my shack.” A few months later, exactly that happened. Thanks to the efforts of Tim W1GIG, the rig made the journey from the former home of W2ER, all the way up to my location on the coast of Maine. It was like Christmas in July so I thought, as I helped Tim carry the rig in from his car.

Despite being built some time ago, it was in very nice mechanical condition, needing only a 866 Jr. rectifier tube to return to the radio aether. Yet time had taken its toll, a thorough cleaning was called for. In addition, the sheet metal and aluminum panels, finished as they once were in black wrinkle paint, clearly needed attention. The little ECO, which John had carefully crafted for the transmitter, had perhaps faired worse of all. The paint was chipping off the front panel in large pieces, and it appeared that someone had attempted a refinish with spray paint.

The Project Begins
Such a rig really deserved to be placed in, and kept in first class condition, so I began to consider my restoration strategy. First on the list was the finish, and I began to make inquiries about the refinishing of vintage black wrinkle paint. Traditional black wrinkle paint, once so ubiquitous with gear from the 1920-30s, has all but disappeared. It seemed the only real alternative offering both durability, and a reasonably authentic appearance, would be powder coating. Powder coating is a modern, and quite durable method to finish sheet metal. During the powder coating process, the sheet metal is electro-statically charged so the aerosol powdered paint will adhere to it, and is then baked at high temperatures. The result is a most resilient finish, and a close match to the old black wrinkle finishes. Numerous inquiries were made, until the trail pointed me to the door of Wayne Spring W6IRD in California. Wayne’s reputation preceded him, and though he is most known for his Collins restoration work, I called and asked if he would be willing to take on the challenge. Wayne is quite a gentleman, and most graciously said “just send it out”. With the refinishing tasked out, I began the long process of documentation and disassembly of John’s creation.

Since I planned a complete tear down and restoration, it was critical to properly document the layout of the rig for reassembly. Herein was the largest challenge I encountered during the entire project. Like most home brew rigs, John’s rig came without documentation, or even a schematic. Unlike rigs built from kits or handbooks, home brew rigs are often quite unique, and have often been through many iterations, so that even if the initial build was documented, the current design is not. At this point John had fallen into ill health, and despite his offer to wind up coils and provide a schematic, he simply was not able to do so. After attempting to create my own schematic, I soon realized that my own drawing and drafting skills left a good deal to be desired! So the next best thing was the digital camera.

The Process
John’s transmitter really consisted of two separate decks, an RF and Power Supply. A third unit, which he called the “Rollins ECO”, also on the agenda to be reworked, merits special mention. John built three of these wonderful ECOs, which were designed to cover 3500-38325 Kc. Housed in a home brew metal case, with a National Velvet Vernier tuning dial on the front, the unit uses a pair of 6F6 tubes, and a single 6AG7. A single National air variable capacitor was used for tuning. John had a number of these capacitors, obtained from his friend W2ER, and they featured prominently in his work. W2ER was a former engineer at the old RCA Riverhead station, and removed these capacitors from equipment when the station was decommissioned. John widely utilized these capacitors in many of his home brew projects, as he had found these easy to adapt to different uses. Since the rotor plate retention and spacing were with set by a threaded rod, it was a simple matter to add or remove plates, or even change the plate spacing. In this way, the capacitor value and voltage rating could be customized for use in various transmitting and receiving circuits.

So armed with my trusty camera, I carefully photographed the RF, Power Supply and ECO decks from every angle, to assure that I could properly disassemble, and then reassemble the units when the sheet metal came back from Wayne’s shop. This idea worked like a charm, and soon I had a better record of the transmitter than if I had only a schematic, for the photos showed not only where various wires were connected, but also the lead dress and layout.

During the powder coating process, I had one further request for my new friend Wayne. John had made the meter panel out of plywood, an odd choice given the high level of craftsmanship otherwise used in the rig. As wood is not conductive, it can not be powder coated like sheet metal, and it was important that all panels matched. So I asked Wayne to make a replacement panel in aluminum, to match the other panels, using the plywood template. Wayne again exceeded my expectations, and the replacement panel would have made Art Collins proud, with its sharply bent edges, rounded corners, and polished appearance. One challenge I did encounter with the metal panel was the insulation of the meter leads. Like many old panel mounted meters, this unit used meters which were secured to the panel with their 3/8” mounting studs. Since plate voltage for the lower stages, as well as the output tubes, was present on these studs, it was imperative they be insulated from the metal panel. My trusty local hardware store came to the rescue. I found the perfect solution, nylon bushings with a thin shoulder to insulate the meter studs from the metal of the panel. After a little attention with a file, the bushings were a perfect fit, and the meter panel looked quite authentic.

Details, Details, Details
I made one mistake on this first phase, a mistake which would soon be apparent when the sheet metal came back from the powder coater. In the interest of simplicity, and project ease, I originally had decided not to refinish the horizontal section of each chassis, but only the front and rear panels, along with the cabinet rack structure. I soon realized that this was a bad idea. Wayne had done such a lovely job on the sheet metal, my old panels stuck out like a sore thumb.

So it was with some trepidation that I made the big decision, and pulled apart the entire power supply, lettering and tagging each lead with paper labels. I used the digital photos I had taken earlier to label each component, assigning names such as “T1” and “R3” right on the photo. In this way, with the part names now noted on the paper tags, I could unsolder multiple component leads and still readily identify each connection point.

The RF deck, unencumbered by transformers and chokes whose leads extended through the panel, was a much simpler process to disassemble. After several hours of work, I was left with a pile of parts, dozens and dozens of Ziploc baggies affixed with labels such as “RF Deck Knobs”, “Power Supply Hardware”, and “National Vernier”. Another set of panels were soon heading west to Wayne to work his magic on. In the meantime, the pile of parts lay on the workbench, reminding me during each visit to the hamshack of the project which lay before me.

At the same time I sent off the panels, I placed an order with the good folks at McMaster-Carr for an assortment of stainless steel fasteners. I was quite impressed with McMaster-Carr’s selection, and I was able to find some period looking hardware. Most early radio gear uses slotted rather than more modern Phillips heads, often with a countersunk design. Where John had painted the panel and fasteners after assembly, I decided to leave them unpainted, and found the stainless steel looked great with the freshly painted black panels. I learned a trick some time back about using the countersunk washers under the front panel screws. You’ll often see these washers used on old Collins gear, with a small cork insert underneath to prevent marring of the front panel. Those cork gaskets are long gone, but you can also buy nylon countersunk washers as well, and they will fit right inside the stainless steel ones. By using this method you provide an authentic look, slotted head screws, metal countersunk washers, with the black nylon washer inside protecting the front panel.

In a few weeks, the sheet metal panels came back from Wayne, looking every bit as nice as the first set he did. I was tempted to jump into the project right away, but I really wanted to make this the best that I could, so I waited until the weekend.

While the rig was torn down, I took the time to inspect and clean each component, and repaint some of the transformers and capacitors. This was the ideal time to carry out cleaning and refinishing, and the results were most rewarding. Assembly of the unit took a little over 1 month, working 2-3 hours of time, then taking a break. I made one change during this restoration, and it was rather profound. In the past when I would restore a rig, I’d frequently work on it non-stop over the weekend until it was finished. Often, when I was done, the process had become more of a drudge than a joy. This time, armed with my new work strategy, I enjoyed the entire process, and found plenty of time off to solve challenges which came up. Lesson well learned, it's a hobby, not a job, and the joy is in the journey as much as the destination.

Despite my best efforts at labeling, I later found I made a total of two wiring errors, both easily corrected, and both fortunately did not damage components. I replaced all the hardware with stainless steel, and took a great deal of time to clean the countersunk screw holes of the powder coat material, allowing the screw heads to set even with the chassis.

With the power supply and RF decks now assembled, I took time to check the power supply voltages before mounting the rig in the sheet metal cabinet. This is how I found my errors, a incorrect connection on the primary of a filament transformer, and an error on one of the terminal strips. Otherwise, all worked flawlessly. As John had fabricated the interconnect wiring harness for use in the rack, I did not have enough cable to run the transmitter with the decks side by side. Confident of my work, I installed both in the chassis for final testing.

Live To Air
On April 16, 2008 at 9:17PM EST the 1FPZ transmitter returned to the air. My initial testing consisted of using a 40 watt and then 60 watt light bulb as a dummy load, as I peaked and dipped the various stages. I did make one accidental and rather painful discovery. It seems the jacks located on the bottom of the RF deck, used for switching the meters from stage to stage, were hot with plate voltage. Apparently this was a common design in the days of old, and something that the builder knew to be careful of. Much akin to the way that most controls on home brew rigs are likewise not labeled, the builder just knew and didn’t give a second thought to voltage on the meter jacks...oh, the joys of home brewing!

Operation of the 1FPZ rig is quite straightforward. To operate the transmitter, one turns on the small switch located on the left lower panel energizing the filament transformers. While the transmitter filaments are warming up, the ECO is turned on, and after allowing a few minutes for warm up, it is then keyed to spot on the receiver. While the plate voltage on the TZ40s is off, you can tweak the first stage of the transmitter, then throw the large switch located on the right of the lower panel to switch on the high voltage. With the 866s glowing a bright blue, you can now tweak the second and final stages of the transmitter, switching the meters in and out of circuit for each stage, until the final stage is loaded to about 150 ma. All told it takes perhaps 5 minutes to tune and fully load the transmitter.

When fully loaded, the 1FPZ rig puts out a solid 60 to 80 watts of CW carrier, and is very stable, thanks in large part to the design of the Rollins ECO. I can make the unit chirp if it is improperly loaded, but when correctly set up, it is, as the old timers would say, “T9X”, indicating a Tone quality of 9, and the X indicating crystal stable sounding signal. Thanks to John’s handy ECO, frequency coverage of the entire CW band is just a turn of the dial away.

Having had the unit working on the bench now for just under a month, I can say that there is truly little I would change in the arrangement. I did add a pilot light to the front of the ECO, but that is about it. John’s execution and layout are superb, and operation is much like rigs of its day, stable once properly warmed up.

My one regret with the entire project is that my friend John was not able to witness the rebirth of his creation; he passed away on March 18, 2008.

I’ve said in the past that I feel I am not so much the owner, as I am the caretaker of these wonderful icons of our radio history. I’d like to think that I am also the caretaker of the memory of good folks like John, and those who have gone before him. For without their efforts and creations, radio, for me, would be decidedly less interesting. Hardly a time goes by when I don’t hear John’s excited call of “Oh boy” when I turn those filaments on.

With Thanks
In closing I’d like to thank my good friend Larry NE1S for his technical assistance, Wayne W6IRD for his masterful sheet metal work and powder coating, Bill W2DGB and Mark W1EOF for their care packages of parts, and finally my good friend John W1FPZ, who reminded me again of the true magic of radio.


73 Bruce W1UJR
May 2008
Woolwich, Maine