[Boatanchors] Central Electronics 100V ?

[Eugene Hertz]

Hi Jim,

If I were to obtain one that has been restored (professionally), do you think this Tx requires much upkeep? Or do you think it would last me a long time without much work? I can certainly change tubes easy enough, but are there other things that go wrong with them periodically that would require special (hard to get) parts? For example, are the tubes fairly common? I don't expect to use it that much, just from time to time.  For me it would be half museum piece half used type of thing.

Thanks for the reply!
Eugene


 


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jim DiMauro [mailto:jfd at warwick.net]
>Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 03:26 AM
>To: 'Eugene Hertz', boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
>Subject: RE: [Boatanchors] Central Electronics 100V ?
>
>Eugene: 
> 
>I've had my 100V for about a year and a half. It's a wonderful radio. It's 
>built like a tank and gives you the best of both worlds: it glows in the 
>dark like classic boatanchor, but you don't have to tune it. I use it 
>weekly for nets on SSB. 
> 
>Good: broadband design, quality construction and materials, easy to operate, 
>all mode, variable output power, excellent tx audio, very stable VFO 
>(subjective assessment of stability, by ear on SSB; I don't have the 
>stability spex handy, so I don't know how it would do on RTTY), very pretty, 
>and if it matters to you, you'll probably be the first on your block to have 
>one. 
> 
>Bad: this is a very complicated radio that's not very "service friendly" 
>IMO. Unless you have lots of time, patience and service experience, I'd 
>advise you to get one that's been restored or that's otherwise in proper 
>working order. There aren't many of these around, and there's not a lot of 
>service information out there. Unlike Drake, Collins and other makes, there 
>isn't an abundance of service mentors, and there are no technical nets and 
>the like to get you through the tough problems. You can get some good 
>information from Nick Tusa's website: 
>http://www.tusaconsulting.com/ce.htm#info. 
> 
>Indifferent: it's bigger and heavier than you'd expect for a radio of it's 
>vintage, but that's one of the tradeoffs of building a broadband transmitter 
>in the 1950s. Also, nothing transceives with it, so it's not very 
>convenient to use if you're going to answer a CQ. The spotting function for 
>SSB is very clever, so it can make the process a bit easier. 
> 
>A good one can be expensive, but definitely a keeper. If you're looking for 
>a unique, historically significant radio that you can also make good use of, 
>then the 100V could be a good choice. If you just want a boatanchor for 
>RTTY and the rest of the stuff isn't important to you, then you could 
>probably do better elsewhere, at least with regard to price and ease of 
>acquisition and service. 
> 
>BTW, there's a Central Electronics e-mail reflector at qth.net: 
>http://mailman.qth.net/. You might poke around there for more information. 
> 
>Jim 
>WA2MER 
> 
>-----Original Message----- 
>From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
>[mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Eugene Hertz 
>Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 9:38 PMt 
>To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net 
>Subject: [Boatanchors] Central Electronics 100V ? 
> 
> 
>any one have experience with this transmitter, good, bad or indifferent? 
>My interest is in rtty primarily...is this stable enough after a warm up? 
> 
>Anyone use this as their regular boatanchor Tx? Thoughts? Memories? 
>Eugene 
> 
> 
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