I honestly don't understand why this keeps coming up, or what it has to do with Elecraft.
I'll operate my DX-40, or Viking II, or 100V or other vintage rig anytime and anywhere I please, thank you. These radios don't generally chirp wildly or have substantial phase noise. If phase noise is a concern, be concerned about some of the infamous 80's import all mode solid state, with a hundred tiny knobs, impressive looking expensive radios that could well clear out a band. Fortunately that junk doesn't show up very often. A well built tube transmitter, vintage or not, is a good thing. A modern receiver is a great tool and we wail when it's S-meter reading is off by .01dB or it drifts 2 HZ or there's something wrong with a Windows driver or whatever. A vintage one with a pair of 6V6s driving a large loudspeaker and an operating manual that doesn't require a search engine has character, soul, and audio that has to be heard to be believed, even if it can't read freq out to a few milli-hertz :) And other than contest weekends, I keep searching and searching for crowded bands ... Grant NQ5T Sent from my iPhone > On Dec 31, 2015, at 8:22 PM, Don Wilhelm <[email protected]> wrote: > > Being New Years Eve, it is nostalgia time, and I think it appropriate to > discuss those antique stations. > > If you want to hear how bad some of those antique transmitters were, do > listen tonight for SKN. > Bad chirps, bad keyclicks and lots of phase noise that spread the signals out > over a large portion of the band. > The bands today are more crowded than they were back then, and while it is > legal to use those antique transmitters and receivers, I do not think it > should be an everyday event. > > Yes, I know several hams who are into 'boat anchors', particularly those old > AM transmitters. Fortunately, that crowd concentrates on 80 meters when the > band is not full of signals, but listening with today's more selective > receivers and hearing signals in a 'net' so spread out and off frequency, it > amazes me that we were able to communicate easily back then. BUT we did, and > had fun doing it. > > I would not advocate using those transmitters and receivers in a contest > today, but they did work for us back then. BTW, I was first licensed in > 1955, so you can perhaps understand the advances in technology that I have > seen over the years. There has been a LOT. > > I have often considered building again my Novice transmitter which I > assembled from the article in the 1955 ARRL handbook (a 6CL6 xtal oscillator > and a 6146 final), but obtaining the parts is almost impossible. Can you > find 1 1/4 inch diameter, 4 pin coil forms these days? Maybe, but they are > prohibitively expensive, and the power transformer is almost impossible to > find although back then, they were quite common because they were used in TV > designs. > > I pass by the flea market areas at hamfests and get enough of my nostalgia > satisfied by looking at those old transmitters and receivers that I drooled > over 'way back then' knowing that as a teen with limited income I could never > afford them. I don't have time nor energy to restore any of those 70 pound > radios, nor does my hamshack have space for them, so I look and marvel, but > do not take any of them home with me. > > I do have my homebrew receiver, a version of the HBR-16 and an old NC100 > receiver that I may someday bring out of the attic and bring back to > operational status, but that is pretty far down on the priority list for me. > > Enjoy SKN and listen to those old transmitters (and even listen on your > vintage receiver). It is a telling story of the history of ham radio and the > gear available in the years gone by. > > Happy New Year. > > 73, > Don W3FPR > >> On 12/31/2015 7:30 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: >> Sure the rules apply, and rules for spectrum bandwidth provide no numbers, >> saying only "... in accordance with good amateur practice." >> >> Right now, New Year's eve, there is an on air event taking place, Straight >> Key Night, that encourages the use of antique rigs on the air and is >> sponsored by the largest association of Radio Amateurs in the USA, the ARRL. > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
