A Complete "Crystal restoration" project - final results

[W7UUU]

[dupe post from another site but wanted to share it here too]

I've wanted to do something like this for YEARS. But building a MOPA CW transmitter
for 80/40 CW (6C4 to 5763) really got me to finally "just do it".

All my crystals work - some hotter than others - but they all work well. I can cover most
of the 40m CW band at 5 KHz intervals, and all the "biggies" on 80m CW from Extra to
Novice. But they all looked like CRAP. Redo of redo of redo in labeling over the years,
ancient cellophane tape, no label at all, etc. etc. Along side the new transmitter, they
just didn't look good enough for me.

It was a bit of work but not bad. Hardest part was cleaning GOO off of them! Then they
were all sanded and spray painted a gloss "FT-243 Brown" before affixing the labels. I
modeled the labels very closely on the Fort Myers "Texas Crystal" design as I just like how
it looks. I did a thread on the labels, and it's all described there. But short answer: art
was done in MS Publisher 2007 and printed on gloss card stock at Office Depot. Free
template emailed to anyone who asks.

Then just had to drill holes in the oak blocks and stain the wood.

I think they look just AWESOME next to the new transmitter... I will have a thread on the
transmitter at some point (built into an old Heathkit SB-600 case) - there will be a matching
Regen receiver also in an SB-600 case, a matching speaker/filter, and a matching "light bulb
dummy load" just for the fun of it. But I'll post all that up later.

Anyway - betcha never heard of a complete crystal collection restoration before LOL!!

Dave
W7UUU

[NQ6U]

Nifty.

I like the front panel on your transmitter—very professional. Publisher is pretty limited, though; you'll want some better drawing software eventually. I use Adobe Illustrator myself but it's pretty expensive and not exactly user-friendly.

[W7UUU]

Nifty.

I like the front panel on your transmitter—very professional. Publisher is pretty limited, though; you'll want some better drawing software eventually. I use Adobe Illustrator myself but it's pretty expensive and not exactly user-friendly.

Well, it works fine for me. I guess I've leaned to be quite a power user with it.... it has some
silly things to overcome but I get pretty good results.

Not just the transmitter panel but also the "Texas Crystals" art & block art were done with it.

Works for me. I own it - and it isn't an Adobe $5000 product or whatever.... ;)

Dave
W7UUU

[KC2UGV]

I think it looks sharp! Good work!

[w2amr]

Nice work Dave.

[AE1PT]

That is a really nice project. Looks sweet!