[Lowfer] Longwave Boat Anchors....(continued)

[Michael Sapp]

& Tom wrote
>One aspect of those old radios that often goes unappreciated (IMHO) is the way they smell when you turn them on.>Kind of warm and musty - brings back many memories of being in Grandpa's living room in the 50's and 60's. >Just ask   >>ANY<< Audiophool and they will assure you that tube radios have unparalled performance. >One thing I bet they don't know is that old radios were manufactured in days when there wasn't any QRM>from all this high tech we have now days. Hash from CFL lights, Switching Power Supplies and computers.>. have it on the highest authority that those old radio's don't know what all that crud is and as such just >ignore it when they receive it. That makes these old receivers very good performers.  Cross my heart and hope to die.

>Hmm..  April 1 is just around the corner.  I think I need to expand on this for the club newsletter>as it is too late for the March edition...     Yes, I spent a few hours this afternoon with an artist's brush and shop vac gently removing the "roasted dust mites" from the top of the S-51 chassis. So far only an occassional light "pop" or "tick" most likely from one of more bypass caps. Keeping the AC in to 105 ~ 110 V range. Realigning the 455 IF transformers tightened up the tuning bandpass and brought back 7~10 dB of gain, then I reset the BFO zero beat. BFO output seems slightly down, but not uncommon to require turning down the RF gain todemodulate an SSB signal well in these old radios.  Heard Radio Iceland on 189 kHz last night Q5 for awhile, plenty of NDBs. Used one of my T-77 9:1my T-77 trifilar transformers at the antenna input to voltage drive the first RF stage as a quick test.  Time to wind another Hi-Z RFisolation transformer for matching, noise suppression, and (most important) electrical safety purposes.  Hi-Z matching to the balanced antenna input on the oldradios really makes them come alive....     Thanks for the bandwidth gentlemen....73.   Mike wa3tts