Rewarding

Most emails are purely transactional: “Payment made, please ship. Received.”

Others, educational: “If you continue to sell below wholesale, you’ll go broke.”

A few are just childish: “I’ve bought two radios from DXing, and I was a happy customer – until your last post. You’ve offended the entire [insert here] community. No need to reply, exactly two seconds from now your email will be blocked and I’ll unsubscribe.

But they don’t – DXing is addictive. The good news is that unlike other disputes and unpleasantries, this kind causes the least concern.

Yet every now and then a true gem worth sharing hits the inbox. Those who spent their entire life solving problems, making, repairing, restoring and collecting are great contributors to our hobby, worth listening to and learning from. Forwarded, for your enjoyment.

“Something for lovers of beautifully made old radios.

While I am not for one moment suggesting anyone throw away their state of the art transceiver, there is one aspect of amateur radio that I particularly enjoy. Restoring old transceivers and radios.

Back in the 50’s and 60’s solid state technology was still in its infancy, and valves still ruled. The warm glow of tubes and the warm sound that came from these receivers was something that many of us fell in love with. I have to admit that I am still in love with many of these bits of equipment, and finding one of these languishing in someones shed, covered in cobwebs and dust, gives me a thrill. Of course it takes some effort to get these going again (sometimes several months), but when you finally apply power, and it springs into life, it is a bit like resurrecting something from the dead.

My personal favorite is probably Collins, as they were extremely well made and had a “military” styling about them that is quite appealing, however I have also restored a Hallicrafters receiver, Kenwood Hybrids, an FT101 and even an old AR7 receiver from WW2. They all have solid Al or steel front panels, big weighted tuning knobs and are a joy to use. Many people collect these, and carefully place them on a shelf to be shown off and admired, however, not for me I’m afraid. I love to use mine regularly.

Using old valve rigs is a bit like driving a manual car. The automatics might be quick and efficient, but the manual gives you absolute control. Using my Collins KWM-2 involves adjusting the exciter tuning, dipping plate current and adjusting loading to get the maximum power from the tubes, all good fun and very quick and easy once you get the hang of it. It is a fantastic “rag chew” rig and I use it most mornings on a regular net that we have. While there is no automatic notch filter, and high res band scope, there are some advantages. Your antenna can be badly mistuned, but the valve rig will quite happily tune up and run into it anyway.

Restoration of these rigs is not as difficult as you might think, nearly all the tubes and other parts are still available, and there is no SMD soldering techniques and high power magnifiers required – just use your regular 90W iron with the big tip on the end.

removed, and replaced as per original from a blurry circuit diagram that Bernie (VK2ABN) was kind enough to give me. After 6 months or so, the moment of truth arrived – I turned on the power and nothing! Damn… another few minutes and I discovered the headphone jack was shorted – finally I could hear shortwave stations and the old receiver lived again! Sometimes I imagine the last time this receiver was used, it might have been to listen to the chatter of Japanese pilots attacking Darwin.

Anyway, if you think you might enjoy this aspect of the hobby, give it a go. It can be lots of fun.

Cheers,

Peter – VK2AN”