[ARC5] Oscillator Stability and Old-Time gear. (Was OT: Hally Instability)

[Glen Zook]

There are times that I really wish newcomers were required to use equipment like the "average" amateur radio operator had to use in the 1940s, 1950s, even the 1960s and into the 1970s, for like 6-months to a year.  Transmitters with VERY few features and receivers that drifted, were "broad as a barn" in selectivity, and many were almost deaf above 10 MHz.  However, no one told us how bad the receivers actually were.  As such, we were "fat, dumb, and happy" and made thousands of QSOs despite the shortcomings of our equipment.
If newcomers had to use such equipment, complaints about adjacent frequency interference and a lot of other so-called "problems" would disappear because, when they got newer equipment, the operator would see how far things have come in the space of a few decades.
"Modern" equipment, even the bottom tier of SSB transceivers, is light years better in so many ways than the vast majority of equipment that was available in the "goode olde dayes"!  Then, taking into consideration inflation over the years, "modern" equipment is dirt cheap! Glen, K9STH Website: http://k9sth.net
      From: Phillip Carpenter <carpenterpa at tds.net>
 To: Bruce Long <coolbrucelong at yahoo.com> 
Cc: "arc5 at mailman.qth.net" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net> 
 Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 8:32 PM
 Subject: Re: [ARC5] Oscillator Stability and Old-Time gear. (Was OT: Hally Instability)
   
This Hallicrafters receiver stability (or lack thereof) discussion is actually very useful. Especially for those of us who have such rigs currently undergoing restoration.

I wonder if building an aluminum shroud around the tuning capacitor would help to stabilize these drifts of Hallicrafters receivers? Like the shroud used in the ARC-5 receivers.

Also, could adding aluminum stiffeners to the variable capacitor sides help with the drift caused by operator control vibrations?

Let's discuss some real ideas for stabilizing these old rigs so as to make them better and more usable.