[ARC5] "Junk" M y Foot (Was: PT boat....)

[Bob Macklin]

And in most case you can repair those old tube radios! Not most of the new 
SS stuff.

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ
Seattle, Wa.
"Real Radios Glow In The Dark"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Cromwell" <wrcromwell at gmail.com>
To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 29, 2013 3:58 PM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] "Junk" M y Foot (Was: PT boat....)


> On 06/29/2013 05:17 PM, David Stinson wrote:
>> OK.... I've been biting my tongue.  And biting.  And biting.
>> But I've had just about enough of people scoffing and calling the early 
>> WWII radio equipment "junk."
>> The engineers deserve more respect than that.
>> I have this equipment and operate it as originally designed. GF/RU. 
>> SCR-183. SCR-274N.  ATA/ARA.  AN/ARC-5.  ATB/ARB.  TCS. Australian 
>> AR8/AT5.  Half a dozen others.
>>
>>   In the missions for which they were designed,
>>  * which was NOT DXing on the ham bands, *
>>   they were expertly engineered, superbly crafted   and performed with 
>> excellence-   better than anything anyone else   in the entire world had 
>> to offer at the time.
>>
>> They were never designed to be "ham" rigs and comparing them to such is a 
>> stretch.
>> But I'll tell you this- You take your pick of 1950
>> and 1960s mid-range commercial "ham" gear-  Halliscappers, Hammer-on, 
>> Greasekit, Swan, Johnson etc. and compare any of the above radios
>> *run as they were designed*,
>> watt-for-watt and frequency-for-frequency,
>> by stability, audio quality, reliability and durability and these early 
>> Mil rigs will run rings around the commericial "ham " stuff available in 
>> 1950.
>> I like my National receivers, but in their "stock" condition, I've got to 
>> chase stations all over the dial.
>> Put a *properly run* BC-348 or TCS on WWV
>> and leave it for a day.  Come back and it will still be
>> within a KC of where you left it.
>> Put a book on the key of a stock DX-100 and walk away for a day- see 
>> what's left in the smoking ruin.   I could key-down a BC-375 and walk 
>> away for a week.
>> And unlike the DX-100, the 375 will stay somewhere
>> close to where I put it.
>>
>> "Junk" my foot!  Hmph!
>>
>> Dave S.
> Gosh Dave,
>
> Tell us how you *really* feel...
>
> I don't have all the mil surplus toys you have. But I put my RAK on a 
> nearby NDB at 359 kc (GYG) one night after it had been on several hours. A 
> short while later I turned it off. Two days later I turned it back on and 
> after a few seconds...there was GYG! It takes a few seconds for the tubes 
> to warm up. My solid state fancy radios can match that. But they can't 
> really beat it. The RAK isn't really ON until the heaters heat.
>
> Playing with "Junk" is too cool. I wonder where the pretty radios with 
> their proprietary parts will be in 70 years.
>
> 73,
>
> Bill  KU8H
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