[Boatanchors] Beautiful Gonset G76 AM Transceiver

[Glen Zook]

I had a G-76 for a while.  Then, a friend of mine wanted it very badly and traded me an RME-6900 in excellent condition for the G-76.  Frankly, I believe that I got the better end of the deal!

The RME has the best sounding audio, on SSB, of any radio that I own or have worked on.  I attribute that to RME being owned by Electro-Voice when the receiver was designed (1958).  Electro-Voice was manufacturing high end speakers, microphones, and so forth at the time and I believe this carried over into the design of the RME-6900.

One thing about the RME-6900 is that the advertisements, in the various amateur radio magazines, made use of the fact that W9IOP set a new record in the Sweepstakes CW contest using an RME-6900.

W9IOP was the vice president of Electro-Voice and RME-6900 serial number 1 was readied just in time for the contest and he used it during the contest.  W9IOP lived in South Bend, Indiana, and I lived in LaPorte, Indiana, just 26-miles away.  W9IOP had one of the best contest stations in the country in the late 1950s and another amateur radio operator, Harold Brooks, W9VW, was a good friend of Larry LeKashman, W9IOP, and often operated that station during DX contests.  As such, he knew W9IOP very well.

After the advertisement started appearing in the magazines, W9VW told me that W9IOP definitely used the RME-6900 during the contest.  The receiver was used as a "keying monitor", not as the primary receiver.  A Collins 75A-4 was the receiver actually used for making contacts.  Being a very serious contest operator, W9IOP didn't want to take a chance using a new receiver during the contest.  He did use the receiver for a few minutes and then went to the 75A-4, using the RME-6900 for a keying monitor.  As such, the advertisements were correct, W9IOP did use the RME-6900 during the Sweepstakes contest that year.  But, the implication was that the receiver was used for all contacts made although the advertisements did not specifically say it was used for all contacts!  As such, the advertisements were technically correct, the receiver was used during the contest.
 Glen, K9STH 

Website: http://k9sth.net
      From: Dennis DuVall <duvallddennis at gmail.com>
 To: Bry Carling <bcarling at cfl.rr.com> 
Cc: BOATANCHORS2 LIST <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
 Sent: Saturday, December 5, 2015 11:30 AM
 Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Beautiful Gonset G76 AM Transceiver
   
Very nice!  First one of these I’ve seen come up for sale in quite some time.

Only all-band AM Transceiver ever commercially produced.  Includes 6M too but xtal control only on the transmitter side.
The VFO works on 10M but one is advised to go xtal on that band as well.  Haven’t fired up my -76 in some time; now
now I’m inspired…  :^)