[Boatanchors] Rangers, Elmacs and other BA's

[Philip B Atchley]

Hi all,
Last night I was talking on the phone with a friend of mine.  The same
gentleman who loaned me the Viking Ranger Transmitter (the one  I'd
overhauled previously) and Hammarlund HQ-100 late last year.  I'd taken
them back to him when I "tried" (unsuccessfully) to "retire" from radio
('tis a terrible addiction, 'tis).

Anyway, he has asked me to come and pick up the Ranger again as he isn't
using it (he has several stations, old and new on the air).  I think he
has more radios than room for them.  So, I'll be picking it up later this
week and I plan on mating it, primarily for CW, with my Hallicrafters
SX-71 receiver that I overhauled a couple years back.  On CW this
receiver is NOT the most stable critter around, but with the Xtal filter
it has pretty good selectivity and otherwise performs very well.  To
hopefully help stability I may put a couple fans over it with a
homebrewed thermostatic speed control (with the A/C running it doesn't
seem to take a lot of temperature change to cause a shift in frequency as
the A/C cuts on and off). Even after a lengthy warm-up, if I monitor a
long term CW signal (like W6ADO's code practice sessions) I get to chase
the signal back and forth.  How did "old timer's" do it, one hand on the
key and one on the tuning knob <grin> ?    

SX-71:  I plan on opening up the line to the RF gain control and put an
"auxiliary" RF gain control in the spot now occupied by the Tone control.
 This control to be switched in by the TR relay when transmitting to
allow separate adjustment of CW transmit monitoring.  This causes no
"extra" holes to be drilled and is easily reversible.  

Elmac AF-67:  This transmitter also belongs to Don (W6LRG) and hasn't
been put on the air since he acquired it, primarily due to lack of a
suitable power supply.  He has an extra Heathkit HP-23A (he has lots of
Heath stuff) that I'd considered trying to modify for use with the AF-67.
 After lengthy consideration I don't think that's the way to go.  It
would require a bucking transformer to lower the 750-800 Volts down to
600 or less, THEN an additional transformer for the AF-67 filaments.  I
will probably try to acquire either a Heathkit HP-20 (which has ideal
Voltage rating for the AF-67) or the Elmac PS-2 supply , any condition
and overhaul/repair as required.

THEN, after getting the Elmac up and running I'll be a position to do
actual comparison tests between the two transmitters for things like
stability, key clicks, ease of tuning, audio etc.  
   
73 from the "Beaconeers Lair", 
Phil, KO6BB

DX begins at the noise floor!  Merced, Central California

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