[Milsurplus] Mods and hacking of NOS gear

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 6/22/06, w8au at sssnet.com <w8au at sssnet.com> wrote:

> Consensus?

I agree with what Ken, Dave, and others say: if it's reversible and
makes the unit useable (or more practical to use), do it. Adding to
what Dave says about making sets 'air-worthy', I believe that having
them actually *function* so that non-radio types can identify with
them is a critical piece of their future preservation.

As a point of reference, I have one of those big, gray AM/CW boxes
like you once had Perry. It also 'worked', but didn't sound very good.
I made some simple, reversible changes that involved removing some
wires and hooking them together to bypass certain components (all
screw terminals, piece of cake), changing mod transformer taps, and
swapping out a cap and a resistor in the grid of the mic circuit. A
few of the collector-types were outraged that I'd so such a thing to
my own transmitter. But the folks on the air (a much larger majority)
were glad I did.

I bet you'd get similar results with the TDE, the actual radio ops
will love it and thank you for giving them the opportunity to work
such an interesting piece of history. Removing the 'klix' shouldn't
change the on-air voice of the transmitter and, if reversible, can be
changed back if key clicks come into fashion at some point. (o:

Dave is dead on: doing so in a way that doesn't seriously change or
otherwise affect the rest of the unit is part of the fun.

~ Todd  KA1KAQ