[Lafayette] Me and my HA-63

[bonddaleena at aol.com]

(long post), as usual

Hi. Not too long ago, I purchased a EXCEPTIONAL HA-63 off of ePay, er, 
eBay. I paid all of $.99 for it. Yep. less than a buck. The seller was 
not too distant and the shipping was cheap, and the radio was well 
packed.

The radio had all of the original tubes and the condition was 
excellent, including the chassis.

However, sometime in it's life, a previous owner made a LOT of bizarre 
modifications to her. I still can't figger out what he was trying to 
do. As a result, the radio was deaf as a rock. Knowing all the tubes 
tested good, I began to 'undo' his 'modifications'.

Finally, she came to life and I aligned it according to the Manual and 
it played VERY good. I re sprayed the covers and touched up a couple of 
small nicks in the front panel.

I noticed that the INSIDE of the dial glass had a lot of 'haze'. I put 
a damp rag on it (gently!) and you guessed it! The lettering came off. 
!@#$%^&*()

I have tried to locate a 'junker' '63 or someone to redo the dial glass 
without success.

Recently, I found an ad for a Digital Dial by N3ZI. Doug offers a 
complete (!!) kit for $29.99.

Yes, I know this is a sin, mixing digital with a 1960s boatanchor, but 
the radio was useless, in it's present state.

To make a loooong story shorter, I fabbed up a new front bezel and have 
the digital dial working.

Doug makes these dials for direct conversion, QRP radios, so it took 
(more hours than I will admit to) a little 'fiddling', to get it to 
work on the Lafayette. However, he has just announced he is about to 
release a 'vintage radio' version.

My radio looks awesome! If you are interested in seeing the result, or 
having me convert one of your radios to a digital format, let me know. 
Please reply off-line. I have several (!!) HE-80s that the lettering 
has been missing on, and they are next in the queue.

By the way, in addition to general repairs, alignment, etc, I can 
repaint the covers to the original color.

I have 30+ receivers here and about 10 are Lafayettes. I just love 
these radios for their 'bang for the buck' appeal. Of course, having a 
new HE-80 during my Novice years is also a factor! ha ha


73

ron

N4UE

bonddaleena at aol.con or

n4ue at arrl.net


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