[R-390] Re: R390/Squalid State

[Thomas W Leiper]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002 17:28:08 -0700 (PDT) Joe Foley <redmenaced@yahoo.com>
writes:
> Correct me if I'm wrong here

You're not wrong there, or here either, but I
am going to "correct" you anyway...just like
I had to "correct" my two little girls...and when
my wife tried to stop me, I "corrected" her too.

As to the folks who want to sand-state their
rigs...perhaps they need a good talking to, if
you don't mind my saying, perhaps...a bit more.

Then only thing I know, Mr. Torrance, is that
I have many pieces of hollow state gear that are
still in good repair and serviceable after fifty years,
and I cannot claim the same, or even thirty or
forty years service life for any sand state stuff
except my HK Citation 11 & 12 stereo. But it
took me longer to find a replacement output
transistor pair for that amp then it ever took me to
get a replacement KT-88 for the Citation I. Most
old solid state stuff gets thrown out, but the hollow
state lives on, so why convert? The only acceptable
reason is simply because you want to try it...and
that certainly is a good enough reason for any
experimenter.

The only R-389 I ever owned was what I would
now call quite restorable, but at the age of thirteen
it was on a useless band and simply made a good
prop. We used it in a mock-up space ship we built
in the woods, and then the old oil burner we were
using as a rocket engine set the whole thing afire and
burned a couple hundred pounds of BA equipment
in the "command" module. We were dancing around
with glee as it all went up in flames, and I am still glad
it happened that way...it was a riot.

We laughed so hard... in fact I think I am going to take
my CV-157 out back and torch it just for kicks.

Twit