I'm on the hunt for Stoner Stuff

[N8YX]

If anyone reading this comes across the following pieces of equipment or components thereof I'm interested in buying it.

First, the SOC-40 Station Console:

13506

[N8YX]

Next, the OSC-40 scope:

13507

[N8YX]

The HAM-40 Receiver:

13508

[N8YX]

The AM Rack (on left):

13509

[N8YX]

Lastly, the SWR-40. If you know of a meter movement with the same dimensions (or are familiar with that model of meter), I can print the scales:

13510

[NY4Q]

Whewee; good luck on finding those. I'm sure they're out there summerz.

[N8YX]

Whewee; good luck on finding those. I'm sure they're out there summerz.

I just snagged an SPK-40...and if I had those meters I can build the other pieces. The scope is a copy of a Wawasee Labs "Catalyzer" and there's one of those sitting upstairs in a closet. Scope/SWR bridge/antenna switch in one donor full-size case; transverter/phone patch/auto-tuner in the other. Just need to find the cosmetics and figure that throwing a request out here wouldn't hurt either.

[K7SGJ]

Sorry Fred, the only Stoner stuff I have left is a roach clip and a half pack of Zig-Zags.

But I'll keep an eye peeled as I peruse the various sites.

[WX7P]

I actually had a Stoner 10-80 HF radio I bought at hamfest in the 80's for $140. I had no idea what it was at the time. It worked find and was relatively small for an all mode radio at the time.

I sold it for $200 and I couldn't figure out why the buyer went so gonzo over it...

[VE7DCW]

Fred...... I know that anything Stoner labelled is the most scarcest and most sought after collectible CB stuff on the face of the planet Earth! ....... I remember seeing one that my neighbour had just got his hands on after paying a hefty price for it in the late 1970's. Just curious if they marked every component in the system parts with those unique transceiver registration numbers?

Reading all the official online stuff about Stoner transceivers and all the accessories, they make it out to be rarest of the rare! :chin:

[N8YX]

I have three of the Pro-40 transceivers, Gerry - #367 is doing its thing at my operating position and a couple more are in pieces upstairs. One of them is going to end up in an SB-104 case and the other shall serve as a parts donor, as the OEM S-meter was missing when I got the rig. The top and bottom covers, wood sides, knobs, buttons, trim...I'll use the parts to make full size accessories rather than the half-width units. All changes can be reversed if desired and the rigs restored to "stock".

Janet, the Pro80-10 is a rare rig...and I would love to lay my hands on a Pro-10, a 100w monobander.

A Pro-40 drifts a bit during warmup owing to its reference oscillator design. There, the nod goes to CPI. Either of those radios are better in terms of RX than anything available then or now.

I know 'TNS would roll in his grave if he read this, but the Stoner rig is paired with a CP-400 for AM duties - and the CPI works just as well on SSB. Moreso if I route the speaker audio to an active filter which features auto notching. Various heterodynes automagically disappear, whereas the Pro-40 requires me to manually notch carriers or peak the received audio with its "Whistlestop" control.

Both have a permanent place in the lineup. Now if all of my buddies from back in the day would somehow show up on frequency again...

[NQ6U]

Like, here's your stoner stuff, dude.

http://animalnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/bongs.jpg

[N8YX]

Like, here's your stoner stuff, dude.

http://animalnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/bongs.jpg
Unfortunately not, Carlo...we have those piss tests @ work...

[NQ6U]

Unfortunately not, Carlo...we have those piss tests @ work...

Yeah, same here. I'm a CDL holder which means I can be called up at random to go piss in the cup—and I only have four hours to do it, too.

[VE7DCW]

Interesting article on Don Stoner W6NTS the father of the Stoner Pro-40 and the Pro-10 ....... he seemed like a person who was in the wrong time with the right product.....

http://www.cbgazette.com/Donaldstoner.html

Interesting as well that one of the links on that page state in 1978 Stoner had developed an early computer interface for the home computers of the time to link with his Stoner tranceivers! :shock:

[N8YX]

As with most other things, Gerry, co$t is king. Hearken back to the mid to late 70s and think about what was being offered in terms of communications gear - in both the CB and amateur spaces.

CB equipment

Tram - the D201/A. Browning - the Mark III and Mark IV. All of these sounded very nice when running AM but were poor on SSB due to receiver instability issues. They were priced at $1k and up. 12W PEP; 4w AM and so-so receivers is what you got for the money.

CPI - CP300/400 and CP2000. Stoner - the Pro-40. Both built to commercial standards and both rumored to come from the same assembly house. Double-sided glass epoxy boards, high-quality interconnects. Pricing in line with the Browning and Tram sets but much better performing on SSB.

Cobra/Uniden - 148/2000 GTL and Madison - the next best performing sets, and the highest price of the lot was still several hundred dollars cheaper than anything previously mentioned. Phenolic PCBs and hard-wired internal connections for the most part.

After "peak CB" in the '78-'79 time frame, only the Cobra and Uniden lines survived though CPI lasted into the mid 80s.

Amateur equipment

Drake - 7 line. Transceiver and companion receiver were built to near mil quality; filters, cooling fan, noise blanker and many other accessories were optional. Used the same type of front-end design as Stoner's equipment and was crunch-proof for the most part. Double-sided glass construction throughout. Well shielded. A complete 7 line station would set you back $6-8k.

Cubic - Astro 103, 150 - modular construction, though not of the TR-7's "motherboard" design. Same PCB stock. They were single conversion but the receivers worked well considering their active front ends. An Astro 150 station set the buyer back $1.5-2k and a 103 could cost double that, what with the matching PSU, amplifier and 2KW antenna tuner.

Kenwood/Yaesu - the TS-520S and FT-101 lines appeared on the scene about the same time as Cubic's and Drake's offerings. Active front ends, the '520 series was SSB/CW only and their PCB construction resembled that used in the CB rigs coming out of Japan at the time - but for the most part they were ready to go out-of-the-box. An "E" model FT-101 or any TS-520 offered a built-in noise blanker, speech processor and other niceties which Drake sought to charge the purchaser for. The rigs cost roughly 2/3 the price of an Astro 103 and half the going price of a TR-7.

The overall winner in both circles? The FT-101, of course. For several hundred dollars less that a Tram or Browning you got the entire CB band via VFO control with AM/SSB modes - very good frequency stability - and 100+w PEP output to boot.

I did know at least one family which bought a TR-7 station for use on 11M. Even at 100w output it sounded cleaner on the air than most "peaked and tuned" CB sets of the period.


Interesting as well that one of the links on that page state in 1978 Stoner had developed an early computer interface for the home computers of the time to link with his Stoner transceivers!
Stoner and a number of others were lobbying the FCC to allow digital modes onto the Part 95 Class D allocation. In a rare moment of lucidity, they rejected that notion as well as another push for band expansion and VFO control of transmitter frequency. While such flexibility would have delayed the subsequent decline in popularity of the CB service, the misbehavior risks were apparently viewed as too great.

[K4PIH]

There's a Stoner PRO over on ebay for 450$ right now.

[N8YX]

There's a Stoner PRO over on ebay for 450$ right now.

I bought mine from that guy - DOA - and fixed it.

[WX7P]

I used to joust with Don Stoner W6TNS on CompuServe back during the 92 election.

The guy was yer basic ham, if you know what I mean.

[wa6mhz]

Somewhere in the East WIng is a STONER HF Rig, using tubes. Haven't seen it in awhile, if I can find it I will snap a pic of it. It was incomplete, just a parts chassis, but I grabbed it because of the STONER name. I also have an RTTY Unit homebrewed by Don Stoner W6TNS

[KG4NEL]

The guy was yer basic ham, if you know what I mean.

Old, white, set in his ways, iffy hygiene? :mrgreen:

Didn't he try to make an ARRL replacement org? This was all way before my time, but I remember reading that callsign before, think that's where it was from...