[Milsurplus] Use of radio "relics"

[J. Forster]

Amen,
-John

============


> Ray wrote:
>
>>I challenge anyone to prove how my use of the radio can be improved
>>by using original non regulated and often difficult to maintain
>>dynamotors...[I] see no advantage to the noise, ware and vibration
>>of using all original systems.
>
> I think the approach that one takes depends on one's outlook and
> purpose for acquiring this gear.
>
> If the purpose is communicate or play ham radio, the cheapest
> ham rig made any time in the last 50 years will likely run circles
> around WWII stuff, generally by orders of magnitude overall.  (And
> yes, using or listening to AM today illustrates why SSB easily won
> out for effective voice communication needs.)
>
> If the purpose is demonstrate and honor the technology and engineering
> used to produce the gear, with the military operators who used it,
> then I want the set operating in exactly the same configuration
> as the military operator used it, without any improvements of even
> easy fixed minor design flaws.  Otherwise, one looses what the
> military operator had to confront.
>
> Generally, I don't operate any gear that pre-dates the late 1950s.
> I got tired of hearing the sound of a dynamotor slowing down
> after yet another capacitor gave of the ghost.  Like most, I did
> modify and use some of this stuff 45 years ago, but that was when
> it was common and provided capability that I didn't otherwise possess.
> No one can accurately claim that now.  Realistically, operating
> 65-year-old gear today ultimately requires destroying its original
> internal configuration (i.e., replacing many of the components with
> **modern** equivalents).  I don't ask anyone here to accept *my*
> definition in this context, but a set that has been re-capped and
> re-resistor'd is IMHO no longer in its original configuration.
> If my estate doesn't dump everything in a landfill, those taking
> possession of almost any part of my collection will get an item
> that has been un-altered since the military released it.
>
> That's just my personal outlook.  At odds with that outlook, though,
> I really enjoy seeing operating displays of vintage gear in total
> *original* configuration except for the necessary capacitor, resistor,
> tube, and vibrator replacement (but dynamotor replacement only if the
> military sets used such replacements...the AN/GRC-19 and the A.R.C.
> Type 12 come to mind).  I love those YouTube videos, and it is a
> treat to come across these sets on the air.  I know it took a lot of
> work to get there.
>
> Mike / KK5F
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