|
We're back just in time for the holidays. For those who wanted PDF's of the this journal, not yet is the quick answer, but we are still working on it. If you haven't gone to netmind.com, please do. For free they will notify you via e-mail when there is a new issue of this journal.
In this issue, "Just What Are Maximum Ratings?" is covered nicely by John Atwood and I touch the audio third rail for the third time or is it the fourth time? The Circlotron / Atmosphere circuit is the certified winner in the what is the most widely misunderstood topology contest. But to be honest, since my last mention of this circuit, not one flaming e-mail was sent my way. Maybe we need a recount to see if maybe the SRPP is the true winner.
Even if the Circlotron circuit is of no practical importance to you, the article is worth reading for the mental stretching it requires. Like the teacher in Pay It Forward, I will write the new big word on the blackboard: flexanimus. This word means mentally flexible. And all of us who think tubes worth looking into, even in this solid-state era, are at least partially so.
Remember, if you have a request or suggestion of your own for either an article topic or circuit explanation, please e-mail:
Editor
|
|
|
|
|
Dear JRB,
I love your webzine and print every issue that comes out and then eagerly wait for the next issue. The best things in life are free. That was the sugar...here is the medicine. You will not qualify for a Macarthur Grant, i.e. the Genius Grant, until you achieve a better understanding of how the Circlotron/Atmosphere circuit works. I am amazed that you just are not getting it, as everything else you have written has been deeply penetrating and on target.
This circuit must be a class A amplifier period. It cannot work otherwise. In other words, whatever output wattage it is capable of delivering to a load is class A wattage. A bold statement isn't? I wouldn't be making it if I hadn't thought this over and over and over, as I do not have your grasp of tube circuitry or the maths involved and I do not want to look too much the fool. But the proof is so elegant that I believe it does not allow for refutation.
The name of this circuit gives away the fact that the this circuit's creator, Wiggins (I believe), understood the nature of the circuit perfectly. Circlotron comes from either Circular or Circle. The circuit defines a large current circle. I know it does not look that way. Sometimes the circuit is drawn as square stood on one corner or as a figure-8, but the current path always remains the same. Current flows from one triode to one power supply to one triode to one power supply and then back to the first triode. One big circle. Take one element out of this loop and all current flow halts.
|
|
|
