[Radioroslyn]

I cut the vibrator can and the contacts were not welded but they were corroded I cleaned them up but I still couldn't get any voltage so I played around with the contact arms for the outside contacts and really got this thing vibrating and got it up to 60vdc across the filter cap and around 90v on the plate of the 7A7 about half what I need.  At least I'm seeing some voltage so the transformer should be ok, I've been playing with the gap and that really varies the output. I suspect some of the spring has gone from the contact arms I might replace this with solid state  unit that I mentioned earlier.

Eric;
 WJOE radio sells DIY Solid State vibrator kits for less then half what the ready made ones sell for. I bought one for the 1954 Chrysler car radio I need to restore. In any event, from what I heard, the main issue with the solid state vibrators is that they don't really use large enough heat sinks on the switching transistors, in fact some rely on just a copper pad on the P.C board to take the heat away. It would not take much of a heat sink to do the job, just a "U" shaped one that would fit a TIP 50 style transistor, you could probably make one out of some aluminum or copper sheet if you didn't scrounge one from some piece of scrap electronic gear.
Regards
Arran

Hi Arran,
How are they rf wise? Do they generate rf noise and or harmonics? Dad use to service 2 way radios back when I was a kid in the 60's so I always had a good supply of mechanical ones. Nowdays I try to stay away from as they are a pitb!