[ARC5] [BoatAnchors] Heathkit Folks: Early "Heath Company" AircraftTransmitter.

[Sandy]

Goodness gracious, this IS nostalgic!  I have never actually seen one of 
these but I did have, at one time, one of it's competitor's!

What I speak of was made by Motorola and called the "Airboy Senior"  (I 
think!)  It was a battery operated receiver transmitter for light planes 
with NO electrical system.  Airplanes like the Piper J-3 "Cub", the Aeronca 
Champion, and the Taylorcraft.  All powered with the Continental A-65 four 
cylinder engine.  All these aircraft had to be cranked by hand.  Flipping 
the prop just like an old model airplane engine!

The "Airboy" received on 200-400 Khz. and transmitter ran about a watt input 
power.  I forget the tube line up now.  The transmitter originally operated 
on 3105 Khz. (later changed to 3023.5 Khz for some reason which I don't 
know)  Lakefront Airport New Orleans (NEW) used to transmit on 382 kHz and 
receive on 3023.5 kHz.  This before the transition to VHF aeronautical band 
around 120 Mhz.

I remember you couldn't talk to the tower with a small antenna unless you 
were in the traffic pattern.  The tower operators knew it when you were 
using one of these and sometimes they would talk to you "one way" which you 
acknowledged by rocking your wings back!  You could rent a J=3 Cub then for 
around $6-8 an hour "wet" and buy a good used J-3 Cub or a Taylorcraft for 
$500!

73,

Sandy W5TVW

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Stinson
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 5:24 AM
To: boatanchors at theporch.com ; ARC-5 List
Subject: [BoatAnchors] Heathkit Folks: Early "Heath Company" 
AircraftTransmitter.

I've recently got this little gem working, though it
was pretty much operational from the start:

http://home.netcom.com/~arc5/HeathHT4B3.jpg

It's a Heath Company HT-4-B3 HF aircraft trasmitter
and is in excellent shape.
Designed to work with one of the 90V - 1.5V
battery packs, it puts out a mighty .6 watts and
sounds great.  I've got a 3890 KC xtal in the "AUX" slot.
You wouldn't think you could light that "Output"
indicator light with .6 watts, but you can.
And it even tunes a 50-ohm load ;-).

Does anyone have any documentation on this little rig?
Is there a "correct" receiver that mates with it?
I'll put my 100W "footwarmer" behind this and
check into the local AM nets.  That would be a hoot!

TNX ES 73 DE Dave AB5S


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