[Milsurplus] Vintage Radio on Field Day

[Robert Nickels]

On 6/26/2013 8:53 PM, Bill Cromwell wrote:
>
> All of this talk about the lack of vintage viability has me wondering 
> just how well a determined operator could do with some vintage gear.
In my experience, CW success depends on the operator, and not the 
equipment.   I've logged on FD for one of the top DX/contest ops in the 
midwest and he always ran the receiver with normal SSB bandwidth and 
used a loudspeaker - no DSP, no narrow filters, no headphones. His 
explanation is that the human brain is the best filter and discriminator 
and I've seen him turn his head to change the "balance" between L-R to 
pull out a weak signal.    His preferred radios are the old Drake B line 
twins, but he always claimed as long as it had a tuning knob and a place 
to plug in his keyer, he didn't care much what it was because he didn't 
touch any other controls anyway.

Granted, "determined" is not quite the same as "elite", but I think the 
principle still holds.

73, Bob W9RAN