[Milsurplus] Antique gear.

[Mike Feher]

George, this really brings back memories. I only lived in the dorm for one
quarter in the fall of 1965 prior to moving into a fraternity house. During
the time I lived in the dorm I built a totally solid state rig for the HF
bands. It only put out about 5 or so watts but was VFO controlled thanks to
a variable cap from an ARC-5. Regardless, I worked the world with that rig
and a piece of wire out of my window. This was also around the time when RCA
came out with the affordable 40673 dual gate MOSFET. I used those in the
front end and the mixer. Hard to believe that was over 40 years ago, HI. 73
- Mike

 
Mike B. Feher, N4FS
89 Arnold Blvd.
Howell, NJ, 07731
732-886-5960
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of gl4d21a at juno.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 10:51 PM
To: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Antique gear.

Hey, wait a minnit about them BC-669s.  I had one of those in my dorm 
room in college and worked a lot of both 160 and 75 phone contacts. 
NVIS hadn't been invented yet, so I just put up a low wire out to a 
tree from the window and had a ball, not knowing what I was doing 
hadn't passed muster by the experts.  Of course, that was before SSB, 
but nevertheless, I wouldn't mind having one on 3885 right now.

Now, here's my idea of a real museum display.  Typical young or new 
ham's shack of the late '40s.  Room full of heavily modified WW2 
surplus.  Only way you could afford to get on the air, but ham bands 
are much more crowded than the assigned channels of wartime, so lots 
of mods and hacks to the gear to make it useful.  The rarer the 
piece, the more heavily modified.  ARC-5s, ART-13s, couple LMs or 
BC221s, you get the idea.  Lots of photos of just such in the CQs and 
QSTs of the time.  Take a look.  It makes me much more nostalgic that 
the sterile, repetitive output of a couple hundred radio, tank and 
aircraft factories.

73,
George
W5VPQ