maybe simpler is better?

[k5njp]

As I sit in my shop, glaring at the display on my penntek spectrum analyzer converter on my TEK2465A in X-Y mode, and calling on 10M as I see the ‘grass’ rise up periodically in my drifty, noisy 5MC “window to the world”, I'm reminded of a different time. A time when the hobby was new to me—when all I had was second hand JUNK that I managed to repair well enough to get it on the air. Since then, I’ve had LOTS of radios. I installed crank up towers, halo ground structures, and multiband beams. I worked lots of stations on that gear, but something was missing….and I never could figure out what it was. Today it hit me.

I was talking to a kind old dude on 10M. He was in NC, I in Chicago. In the background, I had on my satellite radio on the hippie channel (or whatever has become politically correct for 80’s hair band tunes). The song came on “momma we’re all crazy now” from quiet riot. Just then the magic started. Even though I sold all of my “good stuff”, I just finished aligning my HR2510 and replacing lots of dried up electrolytic devices. As I tuned around on that little 2510 it was like a whole new world --or maybe the same world that I knew 20 years ago when that hippie tune first struck me. Maybe I’m deaf or just flat stupid, but roofing filters, IF dsp, AF dsp, and all that hooey just doesn’t do it for me. I don’t like it. It doesn’t sound right. As the reproduced source material (likely recorded on seran wrap..) from quiet riot rolled into my McIntosh C28 I turned it up slightly and found a few more contacts while I reminisced. I was reminded of a time when 10W was all I could afford and cutting that antron99 to 10M was a SLOW project that took careful nips with a hacksaw, rtv and a tire valve cap as a ‘hermetic’ seal. And that’s precisely what was missing. Back then, I put my soul into my gear. The last high dollar rig that I bought, I simply put my checkbook into it. The soul wants to get out, the checkbook couldn’t care less. Again, maybe I’m plumb stupid, but It seems like that little 10W rig can get out way better than that 200W showboat. Maybe it’s just the operator.

If my reminiscence has somehow violated good geekwod policy, please by all means write a nasty response, call me stupid, ugly, insane, or whatever else you want, but I’m going back into the shop, cranking up the hippie channel on Sirius and breaking out my 10M log book. Hell, I might even order a new Snap On calendar as décor. And this time I’ll pay for it!

[KB5DOH]

:eek: Thats it you hit it on the nail head same thing here I have all these radios from old CB classios & HF ham even old VHF 2m and they all seem to do better than the Fancy High dollar stuff of today, oh heck do not get offended because I like 11m/CB I got started by my uncle he was extra and would come by once a year with his gear and he had a SW Reciever he would let me listen to, well that took me to 11m mom and I did not really have the resources for the high dollars back then so we went CB license and all well I am a tech now and plan to go get my general by the way thats as high as I want to go but you keep going and do as I do indulge in the back-when trips and break out the old stuff and keep them going it is not only good for the old radios its good for the soul.

73 & God Bless You and Yours
Allan=kb5doh

[k3wrv]

I've got really fond memories of my Central (Zenith) 10-B rig, witrh the 2N6AG7 in the final and coils for 80 and 20, and even my crystal controlled DX-20, but don't miss my 10 tube homebrew RX at all.

Currently listening to an am station over in Crisfield/Patamoke, MD playing old Country Music - the three Hanks (Williams, Thompson and Snow) on a BC-453 that somebody butchered to cover the broadcast band. Don't have "'Serious' radio" here.

Traded the 10-B plus some cash for an NCX-3. No fond memories of that Pile of Manure.

Couple of years back, I saw a really pretty CE 20-A for sale cheap, but didn't want to lug it around all over the hamfest. When I went back, the guy was gone. So I made do with a TenTec Argo 509 (plus the linear) (50 Watts going down hill with a tailwind).

Low power is fun, but what was really fun was knowing that if your rig broke, you could fix it yourself!

[W5HTW]

The CE-20A was a great rig! Mine was teamed with the Lakeshore Phasemaster VFO (a unit Lakeshore made from the 5 mhz ARC 5 transmitters.) Later I used it to drive a Johnson Courier amplifier, though the Courier actually required more drive power than the peak output of the 20A. But I got typically about 250 watts input on it, more than the 20A's 20 watts output! Receiver was a "poor man's Drake 2B" - the Mosley CM-1. I do miss the 20A, certainly. I ran it barefoot in the evenings on 75 meters, and made SSB contacts all along the East Coast, from my home in Virginia. Didn't need no stinkin' KW! It was also a decent CW rig, and I worked a lot of CW across the US and some DX, almost all of it on 80 meters.

[wy6k]

Nice post.

I share your memories of it being magic. And I empathize with what you've been feeling.

I've recaptured some of that magic for myself by restoring boatanchors - which includes fixing them, of course. But instead of just rushing to just get it working again as fast as possible, I study each design and try to understand why the designer did what he did at each stage.

This has led me to go back to basics. I've gone in search of the best crystal set and have built dozens of versions. Then I moved on to superregenerative designs and studied some of the old superregen designs and made some of my own. Then I studied, fixed, and built some simple superhets. What I have been trying to do is to put myself in the shoes of the designers at each point in the development of radio technology and try to understand what their goals were, what problems they were facing, what they were building upon, and what parts were available. Why was each step taken?

This has been very gratifying to me and has made the simplest of radios exciting again. In a way, I've been able to go back and share some of the excitement experienced by the designers at each step in the advance of radio technology - almost as good as having been there at the time.

I really enjoy my boatanchors, But one other effect of this process has been to heighten my appreciation of the modern designs, which isn't a side effect I expected. This is not a state of mind that I think would ever have been achievable simply through the use of the radio, or reading the specs, or the reviews, or looking at the block diagrams or the schematics. I had to go back and remind myself where we came from and how we got here.

Anyway, enjoyed your post.