A new cryostat cooled by a closed-cycle Cryomech GB-37 cryocooler for superconductor measurements at temperatures down to 20 K is described. The sample is conductively coupled to the cold stage so as to minimize vibration and thermal stresses. AC losses have been measured calorimetrically in several HTSC coils that have been wound to simulate sub-scale transformer winding pairs. Stable temperatures down to 20 K were reached on these coils, allowing measurements at practical levels of ac current and I{sub c}. By using short ac current pulses, losses on individual turns could be resolved. Results are reported mainly to showcase the apparatus, measurement procedure and analytical approach.

The versatile dot matrix printer of the DECwriter II was modified to enable printing of symbol characters., e.g., Greek letters and other symbol for mathematical expressions and units of measurement. This development involved the replacement of the read-only memory (ROM) units with erasable-programmable read-only memory (EPROM) units.