info on Northern Radio Co. N542 HF amp

[Hue Miller]

-----Original Message-----
From: Lane Zeitler <Ku7i at WORLDNET.ATT.NET>

|I am
|looking for a technical manual, schematic,

--good luck!

| or anyone who knows anything
|either abt this amp or even the company
|Looks like a mid-70s era design.


--At first i thot there might be a question over Northern Radio Co.
of somewheres east, which made RTTY demodulators and such,
and Northern Radio Co. (RIP) of Seattle WA.  The giveaway for
me is the N-nnn, Northern Seattle began all there nomenclature
with N, from the 1940s at least. I do not know when Northern began,
but i have a Nat'l Park Dept. radio type SP contracted by Northern
but built for them by National Electric or something such, ca. 1936.
I haven't seen any equipment built by Northern from WW2, but they
seem to have come into their heydey in the 1950s-early 1970s.
Their equipment is really built, like bulletproof heavy metal, especially
compared to some light sheetmetal construction boatradios such as
Apelco. Most Northern radios were over & under, rec. & trans., with
a wide variety of operating voltages into dynamotor supplies, 12, 24,
32, 110 dc. They also built some for 115 ac mains. At the end of the
AM era, Northern did get into ssb, and made at least 4 ssb radios,
hybrid to all solid state. Other products a little off the main were
a direction finder, and aircraft LF beacon receiver, and a handheld
solidstate ssb walkie talkie ( N888 if i recall ) for police use in the
Philippines. Northern was a big supplier to the Alaska fishing
fleet, tug boats, ferries, and such customers, for around 3 decades,
rather than making products geared to the pleasure craft market.

Northern had a plant down near Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle,
on the lowlands on the road from lower Queen Anne area to
Magnolia / Fort Lawton. I heard in their last years they moved
to the northern suburbs. I also heard something vaguely about
the last owner running it into the ground. I believe they finally
failed in the early 1980s. This was recent enough that someone
in the area knows alot of good history on it. I need to find some
of those people, as i'm real interested in the Northern story.
(also own several hundred lbs. of Northern metal).
I'm thinking that your PA is kind of a 1-off Northern project - i
never heard of one of these before - and maybe you might
hafta write your own manual. Sorry.
(Gee, i hope i picked the right Northern Radio Co. )
Hue Miller