[AMRadio] Ranger vs T-150 vs Elmac vs DX-100

[JAMES HANLON]

If a Ranger is a little pricey for you, consider an Elmac AF-67 or AF-68.  They are both single 6146 rigs like the Ranger with high level plate modulation and a built-in vfo.  The AF-67 covers 160 through 10 meters, bandswitched of course, and the AF-68 covers 80 through 6 meters.  They were both targeted for the mobile rig market, so they do not have a built-in power supply.  Elmac power supplies are available, however, or they operate handily from a home-brew supply or something like a Heathkit HP-23.

Another rig you might want to consider if you have a little more room would be a DX-100.  It has a pair of 6146's, push-pull 1625 high level plate modulators, a built-in vfo, and it is bandswitching from 160 through 10 meters.  Heath made a large number of them and they cost only $10 more than a Ranger, so there are still a lot of them around.  I have a DX-100 and several Johnson products including a Valiant, a Viking 1 with a Heath VF-1 vfo, a Viking 2 with a Johnson vfo, and an Adventurer with a Johnson vfo.  In my opinion, the VF-1 vfo and the vfo in the DX-100 have less long-term drift than the Johnson vfos do.  The Vikings are also good AM transmitters.  The Viking 1 was designed with a 4D32 in the final and modulated by a pair of 807s.  (The 4D32 was hard to find during the Korean War when many Viking 1s were sold, so many folks substituted an 829B or a pair of 807s instead.)  The Viking 2 uses a pair of 6146s modulated by 807s.  

73,

Jim, W8KGI