Heathkit chart recorder

[Dave Cohen]

Hi group,

I bought a Heathkit IR-18M chart recorder on ebay for cheap, and I recall some reference in our group about someone else here owning one of these.  I am looking for paper that will fit this unit, and I wonder if anyone can give me some advice on finding some - i.e., what paper will work with this unit.  Heath Co. is out of business, of course, but maybe another manufacturer's paper is close enough to fit.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Yes, I am aware that chart recorders are completely obsolete, and Heath model especially, but I have a soft spot for Heathkit and antique electronics.  I have vacuum tube equipment that is still functional to this day, some of which was build years before I was born.

Thanks,
Dave

[Marcus D. Leech]

http://www.chartpaperstore.com/

Might help.

It was getting hard to find chart papers even 25 years ago when I bought
a couple of chart recorders.



--
Marcus Leech
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org

[bruc...@gmail.com]

I have a supplier who can make just about any paper. Do you have a sample of what you need?
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers" group.
To post to this group, send email to sara...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
sara-list-...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sara-list?hl=en

[wezelball]

Hi group

[wezelball]

Marcus,

Thanks, you may have hit the target on that one, they list 2 styles of paper for Heath recorders, I'll call Monday and verify.

[wezelball]

Bruce,

Thanks, sounds like an option.  I don't have the unit yet, but I should have a sample of paper when it arrives.  I'll post update then.

On Saturday, September 8, 2012 12:17:46 AM UTC-4, bbrout wrote:

I have a supplier who can make just about any paper. Do you have a sample of what you need?
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

-----Original Message-----
From: "Marcus D. Leech" <patchv...@gmail.com>
Sender: sara...@googlegroups.com
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:44:33
To: <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: sara...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [SARA] Heathkit chart recorder

[wezelball]

Hi group,

I got my chart Heath recorder in, and I identified the paper as Heath p/n 445-17.  It is still available at chartpaperstore.com (thanks Marcus), a little pricey, but I already figured that.  The guide rod for the the pen carriage is squeaky and needs lubrication, and I need a new O-ring for the servo drive.  The o-ring's no problem, McMaster Carr to the rescue.

Can anyone suggest a safe lubricant for this thing?

Thanks

[Don Latham]

powdered teflon.
Don

wezelball

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers" group.
> To post to this group, send email to sara...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> sara-list-...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/sara-list?hl=en

--
"Neither the voice of authority nor the weight of reason and argument
are as significant as experiment, for thence comes quiet to the mind."
De Erroribus Medicorum, R. Bacon, 13th century.
"If you don't know what it is, don't poke it."
Ghost in the Shell


Dr. Don Latham AJ7LL
Six Mile Systems LLP
17850 Six Mile Road
POB 134
Huson, MT, 59846
VOX 406-626-4304
www.lightningforensics.com
www.sixmilesystems.com

[Marcus D. Leech]

K-Y? :-) :-)

The other issue you'll have is pens. There were no standards. But
perhaps that's already covered by the paper store I sent you to.

[Don Latham]

The Heath pen holder is truly simple. Very fine tip marker pens work, as
well as rollerballs with very liquid ink. A little experimentation will
be reasonably inexpensive and worth doing. Put a little torque on the
string to make a positive trace, but not so much that there is excessive
drag. Test with your very slow triangle function generator.Run the loop
gain up until tremors start, then back off just a little. BTW, I still
have one of these, and did have to replace the drive motor once. It's
cranked out a lot of paper, with not very much on it :-). The neatest
thing is to go to bed and come out in the am to find a nice curve!
almost as good as Christmas morning. Until the Heathkit came along, the
Rustrak was the only reasonably inexpensive reorder and that not
satisfactory.
I come from an era of research when you could tell a theoretician from a
lab rat by the absence or presence of stripchart ink on their hands.
I still have 4 or 5 Brush penmotors if anyone wants them...
Don

Marcus D. Leecha

[Bruce Rout]

Sorry this took so long to get to you. These people have paper for
everything and may be able to help:


Barbarra Schaafsma
Service à la Clientéle
Customer Service Canada
Graphic Controls Canada Company
23 Mill Street,
Gananoque, Ontario
K7G 2L5
Toll Free: 1-800-267-9498 ext 1
Toll Free Fax: 1-800-267-4521
PC Direct Fax: 1-716-961-2584
gcca...@graphiccontrols.com

www.graphiccontrols.com

-Bruce

[Marcus D. Leech]

> Sorry this took so long to get to you. These people have paper for
> everything and may be able to help:
>
>
> Barbarra Schaafsma

> Service � la Client�le

> Customer Service Canada
> Graphic Controls Canada Company
> 23 Mill Street,
> Gananoque, Ontario
> K7G 2L5
> Toll Free: 1-800-267-9498 ext 1
> Toll Free Fax: 1-800-267-4521
> PC Direct Fax: 1-716-961-2584
> gcca...@graphiccontrols.com
>
> www.graphiccontrols.com
>
> -Bruce
>
>

Oooooh. I remember them! I bought chart paper and pens from them 25
years ago. Didn't know they were still in business!

[bruc...@gmail.com]

That's because I'm very old.

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

-----Original Message-----
From: "Marcus D. Leech" <patchv...@gmail.com>
Sender: sara...@googlegroups.com
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:13:43
To: <sara...@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: sara...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: [SARA] Re: Heathkit chart recorder

> Sorry this took so long to get to you. These people have paper for
> everything and may be able to help:
>
>
> Barbarra Schaafsma

> Service à la Clientéle

> Customer Service Canada
> Graphic Controls Canada Company
> 23 Mill Street,
> Gananoque, Ontario
> K7G 2L5
> Toll Free: 1-800-267-9498 ext 1
> Toll Free Fax: 1-800-267-4521
> PC Direct Fax: 1-716-961-2584
> gcca...@graphiccontrols.com
>
> www.graphiccontrols.com
>
> -Bruce
>
>
Oooooh. I remember them! I bought chart paper and pens from them 25
years ago. Didn't know they were still in business!


--
Marcus Leech
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org

[Rodney Howe]

The world’s most powerful astronomical instrument is currently being built in South Africa and Australia. A growing consortium of countries, soon to be marshaled by incoming director-general Phil Diamond, is laying the foundation for some unique science. When it comes online next decade, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will observe diffuse hydrogen ionized by the first stars and galaxies, use pulsars to explore general relativity, and detect the imprints of dark energy on the distribution of matter in the Universe.

 

There is one country notable by its absence in this endeavour: the United States. And its absence threatens to hinder the SKA’s pursuit of its scientific goals. After nearly 20 years of participation, US astronomers last year dropped out of the SKA collaboration as the result of disillusionment with the project’s planning process and budget pressure from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

 

This cannot be allowed to continue: the United States must eventually rejoin the SKA. We call on the NSF to plan for a US role in the SKA, and we urge the SKA consortium and Phil Diamond to review the programme’s goals and produce a realistic plan for achieving them.

In late 2011, the NSF ceased to fund any US participation in SKA development. This blow could be compounded if the NSF adopts its panel’s recommendation to stop supporting — and so potentially close — the Green Bank Telescope and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), both state-of-the-art and cost-effective telescopes with which SKA technologies could be evaluated.

 

Our experience in building large telescopes on the ground and in space leads us to believe that these decisions are short-sighted. They leave US astronomers and engineers unable to contribute to the SKA design or to participate in its science. The global astronomy community will press ahead without the United States. But without US scientific and technical input, and the ability to test SKA technologies at our facilities, the array’s development will be slowed down by many years.

 

A lack of clarity on technical details and costs were the main criticisms of the SKA in the US astronomy community’s 2010 decadal survey (go.nature.com/4qyqle), which considered the project scientifically exciting but only partly defined. We agree. Satisfying all the telescope’s ambitious goals will require several different types of technology (such as receiving dishes, dipoles and tiles) and the consortium has yet to decide how to adapt and integrate them. Participation of US astronomers will be crucial in the firming up of those plans.

 

The scientific community recognizes that seed funding and development work towards the next generation of facilities is important, and that gaps in funding only add cost and delay. The NSF should continue to support the operation of existing radio-astronomy facilities in the United States, maintaining core capabilities that will also be necessary as test-beds for SKA technology in the coming decade. The US$10 million to $15 million per year needed to retain Green Bank and the VLBA is small relative to the billions already invested in US radio astronomy, which draws upon one-third of the NSF’s annual $230 million astronomy budget.

 

THE WAY FORWARD

NSF funding for SKA development should be re-established. Even low initial levels (around $100,000 per year) would support planning activities, travel to meetings and some basic technology research. US facilities and university astronomy groups should together develop a strategy for participating in SKA planning and prototyping. By 2015, the United States should rejoin the SKA as a full partner.

In the next 1–2 years, Phil Diamond and the consortium should decide the technical requirements for the SKA (including frequency range, field of view, angular resolution and sensitivity), and should clearly define the technology developments necessary for a realizable instrument. This will be tricky because the ambitious goals of the SKA hinge on continual ‘Moore’s law’ improvements in digital technologies.

 

Components available now will be obsolete by the time the telescope comes online, so a gradual updating process needs to be worked into the plan. Planners must project what technologies will become available in the next decade, and pick those that are feasible within a reasonable funding envelope.

 

Progress must be synchronized with projections of funding, so that partner contributions can be integrated steadily. To maintain project momentum, detailed design and development efforts should be paced and not completed long before construction money becomes available. With US involvement and careful planning the global radio-astronomy community can drive an evolutionary path towards the SKA, one that builds on current investments while enabling major discoveries as we advance. ■

 

Anthony J. Beasley is director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Ethan J. Schreier is president of Associated Universities Incorporated.

e-mail: tbea...@nrao.edu

The United States

must rejoin the SKA

Plans for the radio-telescope array must be firmed up to help Americans get back on board and ensure its success, say Anthony J. Beasley and Ethan J. Schreier.

 

[David Fields]

Rodney,
Thanks for posting this article from Nature. It is a reasonable and well-stated position, and I'd like to see support expressed by SARA. This support might be a letter from the SARA president to NSF, with copies to the writers of this article. We could send copies of that letter to our representatives in DC when they decide to get back to work.

Of course it's up to our President to decide whether he wants to send a letter, but he probably would like to see support from SARA members for/against the idea.

I am in favor of increased funding for NRAO (for the GBT and VLBA), and for NRAO leadership in the SKA project.

Cheers,
David Fields
N4HBO

[WILLIAM & MELINDA LORD]

Hi Folks,

I am working with input from folks at NRAO and other officers on a letter to support Green Bank NRAO and the VLA to continue funding. Right now the discussion of closure is in a National Science Foundation (NSF) report, Congress has not specifically targeted either of these facilities for closure.

As US citizens, you can write your representatives and senators to encourage them to support full funding of the NSF which will benefit NRAO.

Bill

SARA President

 

Bill & Melinda Lord
www.tnSkyNet.com
www.radio-astronomy.org

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :-)

---

From: David Fields <fiel...@aol.com>
To: sara...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 4:19 PM
Subject: Re: [SARA] interesting nature article (comment) about the SKA