[Drake] Admin: Closing the list

[Lee]

When I was a Novice back in 1953/54 I used an Eldico TR-75 as my main 
transmitter.  (My other transmitters were an Eagle kit made by Gross 
Radio of NYC.  It was discontinued and the remaining units sold by 
Burstein-Applebee out of Kansas City.  Later Philmore took up an almost 
exact design and sold it as their Novice transmitter NT-200.  To this 
day I have a deep love for the Philmore NT-200. You can still build them 
up as a clone.  It's a much better design then the single tube Ameco 
AC-1 Novice Transmitter.  The NT-200 not only has the oscillator but a 
6L6 amplifier behind the oscillator. I also had a home made slat board 
transmitter made from plans out of Boy's Life Magazine.)  I thought I 
was King of the Hill running my Eldico TR-75TV with an 807 final running 
75 watts input.  The Eldico was large, had a steel chassis with a sawing 
machine cover or lid. The thing was almost entirely made out of WW2 
surplus parts.  I didn't think of it at the time but the dual link 
coupled output tank circuit was weird and made that way to suppress 
TVI.  Or at least that is what Eldico said.

Today with a collection of old ham gear including a sub collection of 
old Novice gear, I have come to appreciate the following Novice 
transmitters.  They are the Heathkit DX-60, the Eico 720, and the Drake 
2-NT.  Those are some really nice Novice transmitters.  No longer is the 
Eldico TR-75TV King of the Hill in my estimation. They are fairly small, 
fairly light weight, good design, and easy to work upon.  They all run 
an easy 75 watts input.  Almost all the parts can still be purchased on 
the open market.  If anyone is thinking of reliving the past, you might 
think of setting up a Drake Novice station using a NT-2 transmitter and 
2C receiver.  Talk to the CW QRP crowd as well as the guys on between 
7100-7125 khz using old Novice rigs.

Lee, w0vt