Why old radios are fun!

[N8XE]

So my dad (N8WXE) and I got a Drake TR4 running. Being together working on it reminded me of when he would get radios working in his radio shop (he worked on TVs and CB radios). I have been enjoying using it here down in the dark shack with it glowing blue (I put blue LEDs in it) and lighting up my oil lamp. It is one of my favorite activities.

Why is it that newer radios just don't give the same satisfaction?

Tubes got soul...

Jason N8XE

[NQ6U]

I like working on tube radios because they have voltages inside that can kill you. Nothing like incipient death to crystallize the moment for you.

[N8YX]

Because the average ham could repair, tune and troubleshoot them. Rigs utilizing point-to-point and low-density through-hole construction usually don't require a high end SMT rework station to facilitate component replacement, and the non-microprocessor designs are fairly easy to diagnose.

There's just something cool about an SB102/SB640 and an SB401/SB303/SB313 plus all accessories lined up together on an operating desk.

The old stuff readily lends itself to performance improvement hacks.

Those rigs are also time machines. They take many of us back to a place where ham radio was a new and relatively unknown territory. One of my latest efforts involves rounding up all the transistorized SB xx4 series stuff along with the matching SB230 and modernizing the gear to the point it's on par with, say, my Astro 103 or an FT-902. The 104 and accessories is the station I always wanted when I first discovered ham radio. The late-day engineer in me now knows of its many warts and thinks he can fix them.

[kb2vxa]

"Why old radios are fun!"
In a word... KNOBS. There, I said it. The more the merrier, tuning each transmitter stage individually and when you get to final plate current DIP is part of the dance. Yep, you didn't need an expensive work station and a microscope to repair them and every ham worth his license knew how, no plug 'n play stuff. Some say real radios glow in the dark, some say 12V is for wimps, real radios can kill you, but the real challenge is assembling a station without getting a hernia in the process. Why do you think they're called boat anchors? I really miss mine even if tubes are rare as hen's teeth and twice as expensive, some made of unobtanium. I miss my tube collection too, a dresser and two caddies stuffed with them, everything from the humble 6AU6 to the mighty 4X500A.

"Being together working on it reminded me of when he would get radios working in his radio shop (he worked on TVs and CB radios)."
So did I in a shop downtown with a boss holding an FCC P2 who signed off on CB repairs making them legal and helped with a few TV repairs that had me stumped. I had a business on the side repairing anything electronic in my basement shop/radio room/man cave so I'm no stranger to boat anchors. I had a couple of 19" table top color TVs (Zenith and Motorola) metal boxes stuffed with tubes and heavy iron nearly impossible to lift, yep, TVs were boat anchors too! Oh, I had an Atwater Kent model 40 and repaired a number of antiques too, oh yes I had tubes for them like the 201A triode that looked like a 4 pin light bulb with a tit on top from before they started evacuating tubes through the base stem.

In the words of Bob Hopeless, "Thanks For The Memory."

[WX7P]

Why is it that newer radios just don't give the same satisfaction?

Jason N8XE

Probably because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

[NQ6U]

Probably because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

I don't know why that would be the case. It's never stopped me.

[WØTKX]

It took me a while, but I'm pretty comfortable with my Flex 3000.

No knobs, but lots of fiddly bits.

[HUGH]

Knobs of all sizes, big variable capacitors, moving-coil meters and "hands on" operation.

[N8XE]

Worked W1AW/3 on it over the weekend so it is getting out. It delivers about 130W according to the W4 wattmeter.

Just ordered the replacement relay kit for the other TR4 we need to get working.

I agree about the knobs, you actually feel like you are playing radio and not pressing buttons. You have to understand some things about how the radio works in order to make it work properly. Like tuning the finals.

I plan to be on the air throughout the week on it in preparation for SKN.

Jason N8XE

[kb2vxa]

Soon it will be Silent Key Night so here's wishing you all a Hammy Halloween.

[KG4NEL]

I think there's a time and place. I love tube amplifiers for audio, but other than the vastly different price tags and physical size/weight differences, there aren't really a lot of disadvantages for a stereo rig. Versus trying to use a Hallicrafters in the CQWW...

I don't plan on owning any tube-based ham gear for the time being, but I could see owning something like a Viking 2...

[N8XE]

I think there's a time and place. I love tube amplifiers for audio, but other than the vastly different price tags and physical size/weight differences, there aren't really a lot of disadvantages for a stereo rig. Versus trying to use a Hallicrafters in the CQWW...

I don't plan on owning any tube-based ham gear for the time being, but I could see owning something like a Viking 2...

Oh don't get me wrong, I am not selling my modern gear anytime soon. I only use the old stuff for SKN or other SKCC events. If I am contesting or chasing DX, I am using a modern rig. But for good old fashioned straight key/bug contacts, I am using the TR4.

Jason N8XE

[N8YX]

Vintage stuff, you say? In my book, anything which doesn't have a digital readout qualifies. Like the setup shown below.

Note the DDS VFO at lower left. I'm going to set one of my two HR1680s up for use as an external VFO for the HW-104 that will be paired with it and the other is going to be used with an HX1681 transmitter. That is, if I can find one.

All of my project rigs are getting WARCed and it'll be interesting to see if the '1681's band switch and tuned circuits can be modified to accommodate three extra bands.

13492

[K7SGJ]

Nice job on the VFO, Fred. I have to get mine into a case one of these days. However, I've decided to sell off my TS530 station and accys which is what I had planned to use it with; so, I guess it will go in a generic enclosure for now. Or for people like Carl and I, a geriatric enclosure.

[KB3LAZ]

Because the average ham could repair, tune and troubleshoot them. Rigs utilizing point-to-point and low-density through-hole construction usually don't require a high end SMT rework station to facilitate component replacement, and the non-microprocessor designs are fairly easy to diagnose.

There's just something cool about an SB102/SB640 and an SB401/SB303/SB313 plus all accessories lined up together on an operating desk.

The old stuff readily lends itself to performance improvement hacks.

Those rigs are also time machines. They take many of us back to a place where ham radio was a new and relatively unknown territory. One of my latest efforts involves rounding up all the transistorized SB xx4 series stuff along with the matching SB230 and modernizing the gear to the point it's on par with, say, my Astro 103 or an FT-902. The 104 and accessories is the station I always wanted when I first discovered ham radio. The late-day engineer in me now knows of its many warts and thinks he can fix them.

Particularly for those of us who did not live through it the first time around.

[kb2vxa]

That's where grumpy old bastids have an advantage. I did so Pepperidge Farm isn't the only one that remembers Cortlandt Street NYC aka Radio Row. KNOBS! <drool>

[n2ize]

Vintage stuff, you say? In my book, anything which doesn't have a digital readout qualifies. Like the setup shown below.

Note the DDS VFO at lower left. I'm going to set one of my two HR1680s up for use as an external VFO for the HW-104 that will be paired with it and the other is going to be used with an HX1681 transmitter. That is, if I can find one.

All of my project rigs are getting WARCed and it'll be interesting to see if the '1681's band switch and tuned circuits can be modified to accommodate three extra bands.

13492

I am just the opposite. I consider radios like the FT-101 and the TR4's to be "new".

[kb2vxa]

If it isn't spark it's new.

[N8XE]

Here is a picture of the first TR4 that we worked on in action.

13515

Also, dad and I got the second one working yesterday. Replaced the relay in it. The blue LEDs are on the way. Next up, the T4XC which has no drive at all.

Jason N8XE

[n2ize]

I think there's a time and place. I love tube amplifiers for audio, but other than the vastly different price tags and physical size/weight differences, there aren't really a lot of disadvantages for a stereo rig. Versus trying to use a Hallicrafters in the CQWW...

I don't plan on owning any tube-based ham gear for the time being, but I could see owning something like a Viking 2...

Well, as a long time owner of a Viking 2 I can say this much. It is probably one of the most reliable of the old plate modulated Ancient Mary (AM) transmitters of its class. It is easy to fix, to modify and quite straight forward. Far less quirky than the Valiant.

[KF4ZGZ]

Yep ... the knobs and the lights.
My 101 ZD doesn't glow the same way my original, older 101EE did tho'.

I occasionally run dark.

13518

Matt

[kb2vxa]

"I occasionally run dark."
Maybe you have a different definition of dark. But on the other hand if the readout were displaying 14.303 day or night it would be...

[KF4ZGZ]

"I occasionally run dark."
Maybe you have a different definition of dark. But on the other hand if the readout were displaying 14.303 day or night it would be...


LOL

[n2ize]

Why run dark when you can run undark ?
http://cdn.damninteresting.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/undark_ad_large.jpg

[N8XE]

My first HF radio was an FT101EE. I have great memories of working 40M CW in the dead of winter on that rig.

Jason N8XE

[N8YX]

My first HF radio was an FT101EE. I have great memories of working 40M CW in the dead of winter on that rig.
My first HF setup was a Gonset GSB-100 paired with a Hammarlund HQ-100AC. Since the whole shebang required a bit of time to warm up until stabilized, I used the receiver's alarm clock feature to turn it and the transmitter on about half an hour before I got home from school each day. I have memories of 80 and 40M CW contacts as well along with numerous QSL cards.

My first real HF radio that had decent sensitivity above 20M was a TS-520S. I got the thing early in my senior year of high school, discovered 15 and 10M DXing and never looked back. Fortunately for me, the sunspot cycle was peaking around those years so there was always something to work on the upper bands.

[kb2vxa]

Ah the wonderful goony box. CW wasn't too bad but SSB was another story, they didn't have the phasing adjustments on the front panel for nothing. It had FM too just for giggles, thanks for the memory.

[N2ADV]

I have been using my FT101E on 15 meters the past several days and having a great time. Some great conversations have been had on that radio as of late.

[n2ize]

Ah the wonderful goony box. CW wasn't too bad but SSB was another story, they didn't have the phasing adjustments on the front panel for nothing. It had FM too just for giggles, thanks for the memory.

I remember modulating the model 122 VFO of my Johnson Viking 2 to produce FM. The deviation was controlled entirely by adjusting the audio levels and was highly unstable.

[kb2vxa]

Mine had a varactor for RTTY/FM and was stable as a rock. So where did you go wrong?

[K7SGJ]

Mine had a varactor for RTTY/FM and was stable as a rock. So where did you go wrong?

Taking his first breath. :stickpoke:

[WØTKX]

It's the Radium.

[K4PIH]

RADIUM, the undark of the future is here today!
Why run dark when you can run undark ?
http://cdn.damninteresting.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/undark_ad_large.jpg

[kb2vxa]

There's no shortage of sharp poking sticks around here! We can excuse Mme. Curie's ignorance, but John... that's not how you make a Green Dragon even if it is a novel approach.

[n2ize]

Mine had a varactor for RTTY/FM and was stable as a rock. So where did you go wrong?

Probably with the vfo itself. Or the power supply. The 6n2 (model 122) vfo was designed for 6 & 2 meter AM and it would tend to drift considerably. Unless I monitored it and corrected for drift it would eventually drift far enough away to become problematic. Otherwise it worked quite well and I am sure if I improved the regulation of the power supply I threw together for it , it would have been more stable. I didn;t run the setup for very long so I didn't get to do much else with it.

[n2ize]

There's no shortage of sharp poking sticks around here! We can excuse Mme. Curie's ignorance, but John... that's not how you make a Green Dragon even if it is a novel approach.

Unless you enjoy setting off radiation monitors.

[N8YX]

The hits keep coming, I tell ya:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Heathkit-Ham-Radio-DREAM-PKG-HR-1680-HX-1681-HS-1661-PS-23-Some-Assembly-Reqd-/171650491157?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27f72aa315

More like a "Nightmare Package".

There have been two HX-1681s offered for sale recently. One fetched $99 and was in very nice cosmetic shape. I got the other for $240 including all the cables and a PS-23. It needs a case repaint but I have a lot of those Heathkit covers to shoot come spring - and I buy my paint by the gallon.

I also have three of the HR-1680s. Average is $110 apiece. Two are getting custom front panels and a good amount of electronic redesign. The last one i bought - S/N 00551 - is a proof build unit and was obtained from an ex-Heathkit engineering manager. It's not going to be modded....but I think I'll build and letter another front panel for my 1681 to match:

13560

[suddenseer]

The hits keep coming, I tell ya:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Heathkit-Ham-Radio-DREAM-PKG-HR-1680-HX-1681-HS-1661-PS-23-Some-Assembly-Reqd-/171650491157?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27f72aa315

More like a "Nightmare Package".

There have been two HX-1681s offered for sale recently. One fetched $99 and was in very nice cosmetic shape. I got the other for $240 including all the cables and a PS-23. It needs a case repaint but I have a lot of those Heathkit covers to shoot come spring - and I buy my paint by the gallon.

I also have three of the HR-1680s. Average is $110 apiece. Two are getting custom front panels and a good amount of electronic redesign. The last one i bought - S/N 00551 - is a proof build unit and was obtained from an ex-Heathkit engineering manager. It's not going to be modded....but I think I'll build and letter another front panel for my 1681 to match:

13560You apparently have too much free time on your hands. Perhaps the boss can assign you more opportunities. I have something that looks similar in storage.

[N8YX]

I now have four things in the shack which the Crest Radio Museum doesn't:

The HR-1680 shown above;
An engineering proof build SB-230 (RCA RF Input connector instead of the production unit's SO-239);
A prototype SB-644 synthesized remote VFO;
A prototype SB-670 2KW antenna tuner.

Some of them need cleaning before picture-taking commences but it's a lot of cool Heathkit history.

[WV6Z]

Very sweet indeed!