[ARC5] Modifications...

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 6 Jan 2011 at 11:22, J. Forster wrote:

> Frankly, contrary to much "ham lore", I firmly believe the original
> designers of these (and virtually all other) military radios knew
> precisely what they were doing. They were at war, and lives depended
> on the stuff working.

John:

I most emphatically agree with you. 

Those folks were no dummies, and in most cases, were thinking of things 
and situations that would never, ever even enter the modern hams' heads.

In my somewhat limited experience, most "ham" mods do far more harm 
then good, unless VERY carefully thought out. One of the FIRST criteria 
before contemplating a modification is to clearly and completely understand 
what the original designers' ideas were, and WHY he/they did what they did.

While it is true that the situations in which the original equipment operated 
were different from why we use the gear now, and that some modifications 
can enhance our uses in the present situations, we BETTER think things out 
very carefully before hacking into any piece of gear, ancient or modern.

As an aside, I know for a fact that most hams "know" that the gear used in 
the early days of CW was "crappy" and "sounded terrible", etc., but they are 
dead wrong. 

All one has to do is entice Jack Meadows W7QQQ to put his push-pull pair 
of 809s in an open bread-board 1920s TPTG configuration on either 80 or 40 
meters. I defy anyone to hear any chirp, click, drift or other than a perfect 
sounding pure-DC signal.

As one fellow used to add as his tag line at the end of his e-mails, "It may be 
OLD technology, but it is GOOD old technology."

Ken W7EKB