** A Brown Ampliphase **

And it's cold and wet. This was about the only time I managed to see the whole mast out of the mist.

Until this time I had naively assumed all Ampliphases were blue (like this one), but here was a brown one. As it turns out, RCA changed colours from brown to blue in 1966, but that doesn't explain why the one I was familiar with is a blue one from 1963. Perhaps they were sprayed whatever colour the customer asked, or possibly the Canadians adopted blue a couple of years earlier the RCA in the US. All will become clear one day.

Here I am, many miles from home, in front of a brown Ampliphase.	And here are Don and John alongside.

This one appeared a bit older than Carolines, and from subsequent investigations it would seem this was the first 50H shipped by RCA back in October 1960. It was the main transmitter until about 1978, when it was semi-retired into a standby position. It was switched off for the last time round about 1986. Many items had already been stripped, presumably to keep other Ampliphases living just a little longer. A solid state modulator had been fitted at one time, but subsequently found a new home along with the tubes and other parts. All the wet electrolytic capcitors had also gone, mainly due to concerns over their electrolyte (pcb's).
It was kind of sad to see the cabinets already partly stripped, with wires hanging out, and in a way it reminded me of how Carolines looked just 18 months earlier.

The power supply cabinet looks very bare with no capacitors.	The Filter/combiner though is intact!
The exciter cabinet, less modulators.	One of the PA's.

The main 15,000 volt rectifier choke.	A small but growing collection of bits!

Serial number BC 00625, but it is 3 years older than serial number 101 from Canada ! It is almost certain that the two divisions of RCA operated autonomously and therefore issued their own serial numbers.

Two unopened large boxes on my living room floor!.

A big thanks to Don and John for all their help, courtesy and hospitality.

Feel free to email me at : ampliphase [at] radio [dot] fm

The Ampliphase page.

The TX room page.

The restoration page.

The modulation curves.

The five and ten page.