If it's slide rules you want Collins and a load of other boat anchors have them, the classic slide rule dial. The pictured 75A4 is the tube equivalent of the Drake R4C with the T4 and R4 analog dials. That makes it a Drake 4 line station incidentally. Unfortunately hams who have cut their teeth on today's digital readouts look at analog dials with wonder and amazement. I cut my teeth on a metal 6SK7 avoiding glass tubes that would have broken, I fell right into analog dials.

Collins 75A4.jpg

I lived in West Creek, NJ during the 1999-2000 sunspot peak and spent my days at the K2PG DC to light station working the world with his Drake TR4. Phil had the external VFO for working DX operating split frequency. With dual VFOs splits are easy and sneaky when you want to break the dog pile. With the RX VFO on the DX I'd find the station he was working with the TX VFO. When he signed I'd pounce, it's called coat tailing, the DX heard me before he had a chance to tune away for another station to work. Although I only missed one on 20M and a rare African on 6M using every trick in the book and a few I wrote, the best way is tuning around for a rare station calling CQ before the dog pile starts. Call it the early bird gets the worm trick. Obviously that makes the DX clusters on the Internet quite useless, by the time the spot is posted the dog pile is well underway.

Unfortunately for DX hounds we're in a prolonged solar minimum with the bottom next year. If that's your bag George, now is the time to search for an RV7, if failing that there are others that may be fitted with slight modification. Just don't ever forget Boat Anchor Rule Number 1, NEVER irreversibly mod a classic, for if you do it's ruined. That means full documentation so it may be returned to original condition for resale and collector value.