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Post by drc on May 8, 2011 12:26:18 GMT -5
Anyone use a Gonset G-11? What kind of power output are you getting on your radio?
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 9, 2011 13:48:40 GMT -5
hello drc,
This ratchet jaw won't help you but I just had to jump in here. I have a G11 but it's probably not been powered up for about fifty years. I would think, that with the tubes and all, the radio shoud bark with a power mic on it. I haven' powered mine up because I don't know if the input is 6V or 12V. This info would be greatly appreciated. I also hope that you find the info that you're looking for.
Tombstone
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Post by drc on May 9, 2011 23:14:35 GMT -5
Thanks for the reply Tombstone. Does your G-11 still have a sticker on the back of the radio?
It should have 3303, 3304, or 3305 printed on it.
3303 is 110 AC
3304 is 12 Volt DC
3305 is 6 Volt DC
drc
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 10, 2011 7:20:53 GMT -5
Mine's under my bench and I'll have to dig it out and see if it has those numbers. When I finally fire it up I'll wear a face protector. Chances are that the capacitors will start exploding, ha, ha. Thanks a million for the information!
Tombstone
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Post by doctor on May 10, 2011 8:28:05 GMT -5
I had one of those when I was a kid<a few years ago plus 50>, It must of been 4 watts because at that time I did not acquire knowledge to tune it up, I remember using a long wire antenna<swr must have been out of sight>, and I talked to Shelby, Ohio about 18 miles from my parents home, and they could barely read me, but as a kid I was communicating.
If I remember you had to get a license but had to be 18, so I made up a call<I was learning>.
DOCTOR/795
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss 
Posts: 6,250 
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Post by Sandbagger on May 10, 2011 11:51:16 GMT -5
I had one of those when I was a kid<a few years ago plus 50>, It must of been 4 watts because at that time I did not acquire knowledge to tune it up, I remember using a long wire antenna<swr must have been out of sight>, and I talked to Shelby, Ohio about 18 miles from my parents home, and they could barely read me, but as a kid I was communicating. If I remember you had to get a license but had to be 18, so I made up a call<I was learning>. DOCTOR/795 And I'll bet that that was one of the best times in your radio career.  |
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Post by railroader on May 11, 2011 23:25:56 GMT -5
well I have a operational G-11 I get 1w to 3w pretty stock but it is one hell of an annoying radio to talk on with the constant vibrating noise I also have a g-12- and g-14
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 16, 2011 23:13:23 GMT -5
Railroader, does your G11 have the numbers on it so that it can be run with 120VAC, 12Volts, or 6 Volts? I'm getting interested now but haven't dug the radio from under my bench. It's been awhile since I even looked at it because I didn't know the working voltage. I just assumed it's DC only because I can see through the cover enough to be able to see the vibrator. I never looked for numbers but as I remember, it has only one or two power wires. I don't even know yet if it has a plug for power or that the power wires are hard wired in. If it will run on house current, that would eliminate the vibrator. I can see that if yours is DC only, that the vibrator would be a problem and with a sensitive mic it will pick up the vibrator noise making things really difficult as you say. They may have come in a couple of models. If the thing will run on house current, that would make the radio quiet and a sensitive mic could be used, Will yours run on house current as well as DC? Or is the radio just DC? If it's just DC, is it 6 or 12 volts. If that's the case, the vibrator will make the radio not worth even running it. If it will also run on house current, that would solve the vibrator noise problem and a slider or VFO could be connected to it for plenty or more frequencies. I'm going to get mine out and look it over and find answeres to these questions. Take care.
Tombstone
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 17, 2011 2:09:39 GMT -5
I dug out my G11, what stickers are left are mostly peeled off about half way and unreadable. Stamped on the rear in large letters in ink is 6V. One red wire comes from the chassis, so obviously the chassis is the negative connection. The radio features two crystal sockets which will result in one channel. I could use the correct value resistor rated at about 4 to 5 amps to be safe. Then the radio can be run on 12 volts. It's time to find two crystals that are correct for transmit and receive, check the tubes, use safety gear that covers the face in the case of exploding capacitors, and apply power. I saw that I'll have to make up an antenna harness that has a Motorola plug on one end and a PL259 on the other. This will take me awhile to finally get to but I'll report the results here. When I fire up the radio (literally) I'll replace capacitors that blow. All of this depends on if the vibrator is still good.
Tombstone
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 18, 2011 8:25:38 GMT -5
Well, so much for my G11. They must have made different models of it because mine has no evidence of it being able to run on house current. I connected a variable DC power supply to it and set on 6 volts. I didn't connect an antenna. The thing came on and no capacitors blew. Trouble is that the vibrator is so noisy that I can't see how you could use anything except a noise cancelling mic on it. It's pretty clean so I'll shine it up and set it somewhere for display.
Tombstone
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Post by cbrown on May 18, 2011 9:03:53 GMT -5
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 18, 2011 16:21:32 GMT -5
Yes, cbrown, I've seen the solid state replacement vibrators. I think that Antique Electronic Supply handles them. That would be a way to make the radio quiet. Then you're getting into replacing all of the caps, whatever tubes that it might need, figuring out how I would want to get more than one channel. More or less a complete restore and I'm really not into building up another radio, what with all of the working vintage stuff laying around and more modern equipment too. But thanks for the thought!
Tombstone
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Post by cbrown on May 19, 2011 9:27:09 GMT -5
No problem! Just thought I'd mention it and throw out the link in case someone may need it.
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 20, 2011 11:32:06 GMT -5
Thanks, cbrown, It would make a great project to bring it up close to modern, but I'm going to use it for display purposes. Talk about your basic radio! It does have a squeltch control and even a big red light to let you know that you're powered on. I inherited the radio when my best friend passed away and left everything to me, Brownings and all! His story was that the Gonset was his first radio and it was made sometime in the late 1950's when the FCC dropped eleven meters from the ham bands and turned it into the citizens band. I guess that back then eleven meter antennas were rare and hard to come by so you made your own by using a 36 foot piece of wire making it a full wave antenna. There was another method for making antennas that I don't know if it's true or not. Back then box springs for beds were just starting to be popular so most people still had the old coil spring set up with metal frames around the outside edges holding the whole thing together. Some people would connect the center conductor of the coax to bed springs that were usually put out on a porch or layed on the porch roof. The coax shield would just be grounded using the easiest metod possible like a cold water pipe. Back then, swr meters for cb were rare and most people didn't have any way to check their match. This was all that was used for the antenna system. I'll bet that the actual standing wave ratio's were sky high and would have blown up a transistor rig. He told me that cb hadn't caught on yet so there were very few people on the air. He said that if you made a contact that it was a big deal. He also said that late one night that he talked to someone in the town directly across the Ohio river from him, wich was probably about one mile. He said that he was really proud of himself. I guess that he was using my Gonset and the bed spring method. Also, back then, you had to have a license and I guess that the first call sign designation started with the letter "Q", or a number, with the "Q". I just had to throw all of this trivia in here, don't know how accurate that all of this is?
Tombstone
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Post by cbrown on May 20, 2011 12:23:58 GMT -5
That's a few years before my involvement in radio.  I didn't get into CB until 1973-74 and then amateur in 1978-79. I'd like to hear some stories too. |
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Post by drc on May 21, 2011 10:52:04 GMT -5
That's a great story Tombstone. I do like the big pilot light on the G-11s. Does yours also have the 6M-E5 magic eye tube?
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Post by Tombstone (R.I.P.) on May 21, 2011 16:57:31 GMT -5
No Majic Eye on mine.
Tombstone
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Post by drc on May 22, 2011 0:45:50 GMT -5
I would be very interested in finding out how many G-11's had both the 6M-E5 AND the pilot light you mentioned. I know of only one........
Perhaps rare?
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I didn't get into CB until 1973-74 and then amateur in 1978-79.