[K3PZN-List] Boat anchor restoration

[Curt Milton]

Yes Phil had to ask the philospher's question 'why?'  Why do old guys/gals seek to restore and operate old rigs (when likely they already have a new rig)?  
 
Perhaps revisiting our youth when we had (or wished we had) one of these rigs?  
 
Some is nastalgia - kind of like owning an antique car.  (An antique rig certainly sounds much cheaper to me!)
 
I can imagine with a little artificial intelligence one could operate a rig in a CW contest all weekend without doing any personal operating (CW skimmer, algoriths to determine how to pounce on each signal, listen for own call-sign and log exchange).  
 
Operating a rig from a much-prior decade is a much different experience - yet the same actions to receive and transmit as required for a modern rig.  
 
A few years back I had my HW16 collecting dust.  It was time to throw it away, give it away or restore it.  Since I had once used this rig as a youth, I decided to restore it.  I chose not to keep in completely authentic in rebuiding the PS with only single section capacitors.  With the cover on it looks and works the same.  I put this rig on the air a few times each year - to keep it healthy.  I can't imagine acquiring other vintage rigs, since this one is used so scarcely.  Still it is rewarding to fire this thing up (sometimes with a straight key, but I can also plug a modern paddle/keyer into a vintage keyer).  
 
May everyone have a blessed Christmas or other holiday season.  
 
73 Curt
 

From: Philip Karras <ke3fl at yahoo.com>
To: "k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net" <k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net> 
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: [K3PZN-List] Boat anchor restoration

Popular Communications has a feature every month on boat anchor restoration, receivers and/or transmitters. I'll have to look up the author's email address for you.
 
here are the general contacts:
 
http://www.popular-communications.com - Popular Communications
http://www.popular-communications.com/pc_contact.html
Contacts:
EDITOR: Richard Fisher, KI6SN, Editor
@: editor at popular-communications.com
As to if it is worth it or not, that is entirely up to the person doing the job and what they want. The guy here will even clean out old electrolytic caps put new cap(s) inside and then put wax in to make it look like the original.
 
there are two main camps with all grades of restorers between:
 
Camp 1: Clean it like new, restore all dead parts with originals if possible, if not, use the old part's case with a new part inside so it still looks like the original.
 
Camp 2: Clean it like new, restore all dead parts with new available parts. In this case you can even replace old tube diodes with solid state replacements and even replace an old tube that's no longer available inexpensively by building a replacement.
 
I've even read about guys who will break a tube open, replace the filament re-vacuum out the air and get the old tube up & running! Now that's some VERY serious restoration!
 
I'd probably be in camp #2 if I ever decided to do this but then the bottom line is, why are you doing this?
 
Let me know if you want the guy's email address or I'll probably forget ;-)
 
73 de ke3fl
Phil
 

From: "k3pzn-list-request at mailman.qth.net" <k3pzn-list-request at mailman.qth.net>
To: k3pzn-list at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 12:03 PM
Subject: K3PZN-List Digest, Vol 95, Issue 12

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: Boat anchor restoration (Curt Milton)
  2. Tim Allen - Ham On New TV Show (Bill Mellema)


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