[Elecraft] How "clean" is a clean signal?

[Mike Morrow]

Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

>Frankly, operating some of those old rigs and simple rigs is a lot more
>challenging that twirling the knobs on the newer stuff. And it is, in the
>minds of a lot of us, a lot closer to the heart of what "radio" is all
>about. 

Absolutely!  Just a few weekends ago this year's "Classic Exchange" ("CX") was ongoing.  It's fun to hear some of the older gear and the less than perfect signals, including a few that should have been less than T4 on the RST scale (but T8 is the lowest actual report I heard anyone give).  Then there's the several vintage military radio ham nets each week, where you can hear 60 year old British No. 19 Wireless Sets and 50 year old US RT-77/GRC-9 sets and what have you.

For practical purposes one can't beat the modern solid state rigs.  But real romance and magic are found in rigs with glowing tubes, even if it's a recent (20 year old) mostly solid state TS-830S.

73,
Mike / KK5F