Original tube-type neon-bulb Tweety Bird. Honest.

[nomadradio]

Spotted a Sonar FS23 tube-type CB base in the Ebay ads below the post I was reading. Clicked on the link and found this among the internal pics. The radio was incredibly crusty, but I spotted an original neon-bulb "tweety bird" built on perf board in one pic.

Takes two "NE-2" neon pilot lamp bulbs. The upper lamp has the large brown capacitor on it to oscillate once or twice a second to pulsate the tone, and the lower bulb has a smaller capacitor to make the audio tone.

Built one of these that borrowed the 200 Volts to run it from my radio in high school fifty-plus years ago.

Haven't seen one since, pretty sure.

73

 

[unit_399]

I posted this back in 2011. Pretty much the same circuit as Nomad's, but uses an NE-2 and an NE-51. This one has two circuits for different sounds. The pot allows the repetition rate to be varied. Great sounding TB.
- 399

I was reorganizing my files when I came across this old school tweety bird circuit (circa 1969) for tube-type rigs.



S1 should be SPDT Center OFF (Radio Shack 275-654 or equivalent). Circuit shown has two different sounds selected by S1. VR1 controls the repetition rate. For best results, VR1 must be LINEAR TAPER. All capacitors should be disc-type 200-volt rating or better.

Output of the T.B. circuit should be connected to the input of the audio amp stage that just preceeds the output modulator. For instance, in a Robyn T-240D (Yellow), it would be connected to pin 2 of V5 (12AT7). DO NOT CONNECT DIRECTLY TO THE MIKE AUDIO INPUT.

This old analog T.B. is easy to build and sounds great, especially when compared to the digital BS available today. For you guys who don't like noise toys, I apologize for posting this. 73s.

- 399

 

[Enterprise312ok]

I will have to try one on my d201 a when I finaly get it finished, I have a few neon bulbs in a parts drawer. Tube time has been spent on sweep tube linears lately..
I wish I could come help out at the Nomad Radio shop for a couple weeks, my brain would probably explode from knowledge overload lol.

 

[TM86]

I will have to try one on my d201 a when I finaly get it finished, I have a few neon bulbs in a parts drawer. Tube time has been spent on sweep tube linears lately..
I wish I could come help out at the Nomad Radio shop for a couple weeks, my brain would probably explode from knowledge overload lol.

I have a feeling the interview process is probably pretty tough. Along the lines of:

"Here's all the parts needed to build a D201A, a Golden Eagle Mark III, and a sweep tube amp. Here the schematics for each. You have 30 minutes. Good luck."

 

[Enterprise312ok]

And you better be able a resistor value in 5 sec or less without the use of a chart. O well thankfully we have wwdx fourum