Around the Shop
Some photos of various odds and ends in our shop.
 1 A new Bill Cheb SSQ-BAT plasma tube during inital testing. When a new tube is first turned on, it often exhibits interesting moving patterns of glowing gas in the discharge column. |
 2 Type L4 tank inductors for SPA5 amplifiers drying after being dip coated. These L4 inductors have been dip coated and are waiting to dry before the next manufacturing step. |
 3 Type L4 tank inductors for SPA5 amplifiers ready for processing and assembly. These inductors will have their leads trimmed to the proper length and the insulation on the end of the leads will be removed. The bare wires will then be coated with lead-free solder, after which the finished inductors will be ready for assembly into the amplifier. |
 4 Type L4 tank inductors for SPA5 amplifiers ready for assembly into the amplifiers. A pair of finished L4 inductors ready for use. |
 5 Looking end-on into a Bill Cheb SSQ-BAT plasma tube. This is what you see if you look directly into the end of an SSQ-BAT plasma tube. The central discharge core is quite intense. |
 6 Helium gas afterglow. Helium will continue to glow faintly for some time after power is removed from the tube. This photo was taken 15 seconds after the power to the tube was turned off. Although the Helium aftrglow is faint, the camera captured the glow in a short time exposure. |
 7 There are 24 of type E2 electrode blanks mounted in this drilling clamp. After the electrode blanks are correctly positioned, they will be stack drilled. Then they will be edge trimmed before being bent into the correct shape. |
 8 E4 electrodes after cutting and drilling. These electrode blanks will be formed into the correct shape, cleaned, and then coated. |
 9 Multiple sets of E2 electrodes after forming to shape. These electrodes are ready for their heat emitting coating to be applied. |
 10 Winding an experimental coupler coil. As part of our product improvement system, we are always working with new designs. This coupler is designed to handle higher power levels without overheating. |
 11 Cutting LC31 coupler coil forms. This is a batch of raw coil forms for type LC31 couplers. They will be cleaned and then undergo the further manufacturing steps before being turned into finished LC31 couplers. |
 12 Testing a really low-end USB sound card adapter. Just for fun, we tested a really inexpensive USB sound card adapter. Because it is only an 8-bit resolution device, the resulting signal output is pretty poor. Music sounds pretty bad - in fact, terrible! But the SPA5 amplifier is happy with this signal. |
 13 MOPA driving a Bill Cheb SSQ-ST plasma tube. Yes, the MOPA amplifier will drive the SSQ-ST plasma tube quite nicely. This tube is a good choice if you need to replace the tube that came with your MOPA. |
 14 MOPA driving a Bill Cheb SSQ-baT plasma tube. While the MOPA will drive the SSQ-BAT plasma tube, this tube is a bit underpowered when druven by the MOPA. |
 15 Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy nature. |
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