[Johnson] Keep it old

[Sherrill Watkins]

Dear Ed: Your comments and observations can only be described as brilliant!
Your comments rank in the nature of classic critical thinking and analysis
and should be recorded for posterity in the archives of amateur radio
literature! I really appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts!
- 73- Sherrill W.k4own.   

-----Original Message-----
From: W5HTW at att.net [mailto:W5HTW at att.net] 
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 6:22 PM
To: johnson at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Johnson] Keep it old


Many years ago I thought a hole in a front panel had to be covered to keep
its edges from rusting!   Huh?  I was going to use the radio in the sink?
But I covered holes with colored - or black -  pieces of tape, etc.  And then
I got this philosophy that, "It's used.  Let it look used."   I'm not against
covering holes, really.  I just wouldn't do it on my own radios unless I was
bored and had a pile of 'Stick-It" hole covers to get rid of.  And probably
not then.  So in your case I'd just leave it there uncovered.
What happens to the hole?  It goes on to another "new" old radio, decorating
someone else's front panel with questions we can't see, answers we can't
hear; a thing called character.  Like doughnut holes, they are difficult to
follow, and their value hard to access.  But when you find them, as you did
on your Adventurer (I wonder if that could be MY old Adventurer!) you know
your radio has had adventures (how appropriate) you can't witness but to
which you can and should become a contributor.  That's kind of how I see it.
My desk is just one stop on the long road this old Viking has roamed, and
hopefully has yet to roam.  I am a few pages in its life, and I'm glad to be
of such service.

Enjoy your Adventurer.  I had two of them, actually, one nearly new, back in
about 1958.  I didn't build either of them.   I honestly can't recall how I
disposed of them, though probably as I was departing for the military I put
them in with other stuff for my parents to sell.  .  They both worked
wonderfully, at least to a 18 year old kid.  I didn't own a SWR bridge, or
even a field strength meter.  If the rig "dipped into" the wire I had strung
up, then it was going to make contacts, and so it did.
73
Ed


Sherrill Watkins wrote:

> Ed: I really think your observations about gear with a worn, 
> scratched, rusted or heavly used appearance is quite valid. I have a 
> Johnson Adventurer that someone has drilled a hole in the front panel. 
> I am thinking about covering the hole with one of those decal/stickers 
> that looks like a bullet hole. I have seen these on the back of 
> trucks, suv's and car's. That is the only way I know to cover the hole 
> in the front panel? However, I could also just leave the hole there 
> uncovered and not worry about it. What would you suggest? Question: 
> When the equipment dies, what happens to the hole? -73- Sherrill W. 
> k4own -----Original Message-----

>
>
--
Ed Brooks, W5HTW
http://w5htw.home.att.net/index.html
Active since June 1956 Extra since
Jan 1970
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