[Milsurplus] Mods and hacking of NOS gear

[w8au at sssnet.com]

At 01:53 PM 6/22/06, Falls, Jim wrote:
>If it's NOS, I leave it alone. I want to align it and optimize it 
>per spec. I like to work w/the gear as it was, even if that means 
>marginal performance. It makes me appreciate all the more what the 
>ops had to contend with back then. Not so sensitive or selective? OK 
>by me. Not everything was a "Ferrari".

Have mixed emotions about some WW2 gear, and it pertains to CW.
Our TDE aboard USS LST325 works wonderfully, but the keying is
very hard on "make" and has sidebands out much further than
allowed by todays regs. (Key Klix)

Viewing the circuitry shows that keying is basically cathode style
on each stage including keying the filament xfmr center-tap of the
final (803) amp.  No L/C conditioning is added.

I tend to lean to keeping it authentic despite it's shortcomings, but 
this probably causes grief to those listening nearby.

Of course our TCS (and most everyone else's TCS) has hard keying, but 
at 40 watts output, it's probably not as objectionable..

Consensus?

Perry   w8au   (WW2LST)