[K3PZN-List] Was Your First Transmitter Homebrew?

[John Chesley]

Curt,

I did not homebrew my first transmitter but was close.  I was first licensed
in 1976 and a teenager at the time.  I built a Heathkit receiver and then my
Elmer took me to a hamfest where I picked up an  old Heathkit Apache
transmitter from the late 50s.  The cost was $75 and got me on the air as a
Novice for about two years.  The frequency stability was not very good and
it did tend to drift.  But provided CW operation which was all I could use
at the time. Even in those days, the transmitter dwarfed the size of the
receiver (which was a Heath HR-1680 solid state unit).  The transmitter
would work on SSB but you needed an accessory adapter to work with it which
I never had since I did not need it.  One day, something failed in the
transmitter and it caught on fire on my desk.  I tried to salvage some parts
but ended up throwing most of it away.

John, AK3Z  

-----Original Message-----
From: k3pzn-list-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:k3pzn-list-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Curt Milton
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 4:41 PM
To: Carroll County Amateur Radio Club
Subject: [K3PZN-List] Was Your First Transmitter Homebrew?

I am interesting if any of you all used a homebrew tube transmitter when you
were first licensed? (presuming by now that we all currently use a rig from
Japan, that company on Dolly Parton Pkwy or Elecraft).  If you used such a
rig, did you construct it yourself and did you make use of parts scrounged
from a dead TV set?  
 
I know that 'slightly before my time' this practice was common, based upon
articles in QST and in books in the library.  My own first rig was a used
heathkit, but I remember asking the advisor of my high school club 'what is
this 807 transmitter' the other guy was using.  
 
Some of you folk can't relate at all, as your first rig may have been 2m
FM!  
 
73 Curt
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