Whippersnappers....>EEEEEESH!

[KL7AJ]

Someone just called my FT-901DM a boat anchor. How can it be a BOAT ANCHOR...it's got a flippin' handle on the thing for carrying it around with ONE HAND!

Let's get this straight. If you can pick it up with one hand, it's NOT a boat anchor. :D

Eric

[AB8MA]

Is a flippin' handle retractable?

[K0CMH]

Agreed, it is not a boat anchor. Possibly a "boat handle".:D How about "boat cleat"

[K7JBQ]

Some boats are larger than others.

Now, the old rack mounted transmitter that proudly sat in our old radio club -- that was a Ship Anchor.

73,
Bill

[N8CPA]

Shiver me timbers, a comedy bitt!

[W4RLR]

Someone just called my FT-901DM a boat anchor. How can it be a BOAT ANCHOR...it's got a flippin' handle on the thing for carrying it around with ONE HAND!

Let's get this straight. If you can pick it up with one hand, it's NOT a boat anchor. :D

EricHey Eric, maybe the person thinks you own a small boat. :D

[AC0FP]

Those with size issues may be accused of having a row boat anchor! :)

[N0SYA]

more like an ancient relic

[KJ4KDM]

I have seen some aluminum boat anchors that are pretty light.:D

[AF6LJ]

Someone just called my FT-901DM a boat anchor. How can it be a BOAT ANCHOR...it's got a flippin' handle on the thing for carrying it around with ONE HAND!

Let's get this straight. If you can pick it up with one hand, it's NOT a boat anchor. :D

Eric
Things in my shack that are boat anchors.

My water cooled P4
My 19" monitor
My TV 27"
My Subwoofer

Things that are not Boat Anchors;
All my radio gear.
Both scopes
My other two working computers
My other two monitors.
My IFR
My tool case (it has a handle and weighs close to fifty LBS)
Last but not least
My Mouser cartilage.
More stuff in the garage but not worth listing.
Except my HP-5245 which also has a handle and is not a boat anchor even though some would argue the point.

[W5HTW]

No matter how you cut it up, Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu and Alinco never made boat anchors. Except maybe for toy boats. Something to play with in the bathtub.

Collins, Drake, National, Hammarlund, Johnson, Elmac, Gonset Heathkit, Eico, all those folks. They made boat anchors. However, they did not know at the time that they were making boat anchors. And neither did I. They were "Real Big Wadios."

I know the FT101E and the TS520 are both pretty heavy. But they won't hold down a REAL boat. Tie a Viking II onto your anchor chain and you ain't going no where. Hang an Icom on there, and it will flap in the breeze.

When you carry a Viking II from the car in the driveway, into the house 100 feet away, and then into the radio room, you learn what a boat anchor truly is. And you feel like you are the boat. I can recall setting up a DX100 and an SX71. I know about anchors.

There are guys out there who can juggle a 756 and a 901 while eating a ham sandwich.

And drinking a glass of tea. And spitting out tobaccy.

I used to have the job of occasionally placing an R390A in the head high slot of a six foot rack. That is NOT a boat anchor. It is a battleship anchor. No way could I do that in my senior years. Did it too much in my junior years.

Ed

[N0DIT]

Why is it when you get a group of old geezers together, somehow the conversation always turns to comparing the size of their dinghy's? :D

[AF6LJ]

No matter how you cut it up, Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu and Alinco never made boat anchors. Except maybe for toy boats. Something to play with in the bathtub.

Collins, Drake, National, Hammarlund, Johnson, Elmac, Gonset Heathkit, Eico, all those folks. They made boat anchors. However, they did not know at the time that they were making boat anchors. And neither did I. They were "Real Big Wadios."

I know the FT101E and the TS520 are both pretty heavy. But they won't hold down a REAL boat. Tie a Viking II onto your anchor chain and you ain't going no where. Hang an Icom on there, and it will flap in the breeze.

When you carry a Viking II from the car in the driveway, into the house 100 feet away, and then into the radio room, you learn what a boat anchor truly is. And you feel like you are the boat. I can recall setting up a DX100 and an SX71. I know about anchors.

There are guys out there who can juggle a 756 and a 901 while eating a ham sandwich.

And drinking a glass of tea. And spitting out tobaccy.

I used to have the job of occasionally placing an R390A in the head high slot of a six foot rack. That is NOT a boat anchor. It is a battleship anchor. No way could I do that in my senior years. Did it too much in my junior years.

Ed
I might propose that Yaesu made a couple of boat anchors.

The FT-DX400

http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ftdx400.jpg

The FT-DX570

http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pxyCcBWwqhAtdqbO-naslV7LqpM95yONS4IUiddOg-ejpqVtiTmC0UDizXotRdGTdXhEXi9k7Nh4
And their separates.

http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/fldx400.jpg

http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/frdx400.jpg

They actually made several Boat Anchors One could probably include the FT 200 (Popular among CBers)
My Ex had one.

[K7ELP]

Speaking of boat anchors, One piece of test equipment that sure fits the catagory is the tektronix's 535 scope. It had two handles and took two men to move it if it wasn't on the cart.

[WA6MHZ]

Having those lil bitty things called Transistors and ICs in it prohibits it from Boat Anchor status. Purist anchorists say it must be 100% Tubes. But there is a grey area, which the FT-101 and a few other rigs fall into. The Swan 350 and 500 had a transistor VFO but were all tube otherwise. They were a mid 60s to 70s radio, right at the dawn of ICs and well into the Transistor era.

Hallicrafters FPM300 and FPM200 were transistorized to an extent, but they seem to be boat anchors. Same with some of the Japanese imports at the beginning of the 70s.

So, those with Transistors and ICs are DINGHY Anchors. Rigs from the 60s are Bass Boat Anchors and radios of the 50s are Yacht Anchors. Todays radios (except for the FTdx9000) are MODEL BOAT anchors. The FTdx9000 would hold down a good sized yacht! But I would like to see the person who subjects it to Saltwater!

[AF6LJ]

Speaking of boat anchors, One piece of test equipment that sure fits the catagory is the tektronix's 535 scope. It had two handles and took two men to move it if it wasn't on the cart.
I had a 454B it wasn't as heavy as the HP-851 / 8551 spectrum analyzer I had at the time.

[WF7A]

I'm always thinking ahead to prepare for an emergency: for my next boat outing I bought an inflatable boat anchor, just in case.

[N7RJD]

An FT-901 is never a boat anchor. They can become doorstops and paperweights once converted for certain out of band operation and have had the tubes over driven to the point of melting to their mountings.

[N7RJD]

Why is it when you get a group of old geezers together, somehow the conversation always turns to comparing the size of their dinghy's? :D

Keeping the memory alive? :eek:

[KA5S]

Someone just called my FT-901DM a boat anchor. How can it be a BOAT ANCHOR...it's got a flippin' handle on the thing for carrying it around with ONE HAND!

Let's get this straight. If you can pick it up with one hand, it's NOT a boat anchor. :D

Eric

Used to make the Livermore swap meet almost every month when I lived in the area. One month, on the upper lot at the Community College, there was a guy with about forty actual boat anchors spread out on a tarp. Apparently, someone had told him folks traded boat anchors there....

Or it was a subtle joke. I liked it! :D


Cortland
KA5S

[NA0AA]

"It has a handle on it"

Hm, when I was a lad of oh, about 7 maybe, my parents got our first color TV - no kidding, real NTSC color...anyway, this set was a 13-inch "portable" - you knew this because it had a handle on top. The fact that it weighed no less than 117 and a half pounds did not change the fact that with the handle it was portable.

[N8CPA]

As was said during the pileup on the Great White DXpedition, "We're gonna need a bigger boat anchor!"

[W5HTW]

Boat anchor solid state meant selenium rectifiers. Or 5R4GT. Or 866As. Boat anchor oscillators were 6AG7s. None of these little black thingies with three leads, looking like a black widow that erased its orange spot. No 12 VDC stuff. 600 VDC or better. Or for receive, 150 VDC or better.

My first venture out of boat anchors was probably in about 1973 or 74. Unless I count some modified CB SSB radios that were solid state and I converted them to ten meters.

Why do I miss boat anchors? For one thing they are impressive looking. But the primary reason is they are easy to work on. Yeah, it's kinda difficult flipping a Viking II upside down on the bench. Builds muscles. But once it is flipped, all the parts are easily recognizable, easily accessible, and easily replaced. And easily modified, if desired.

There is also the factor of tradition. Elsewhere I posted about coveting a 1937 Plymouth I can't afford, and even if I could, I could not afford to fix it up, to restore it. A lot of us like old things. Old telephones, old cars, old clocks. They are just plain fun.

I no longer have any boat anchor station equipment, but I miss it. However, I will never again go down that road. Too late in life.

But I can dream. Of that Viking I we had in high school radio club, and the Gooney Boxes we used in CD, (not compact disks!) and my 1951 Plymouth 'restorable.'

Some day my FT897D will be an antique. But I won't be around.

Ed

[AF6LJ]

The one really good thing about those old tube type gear was the fact you could look at the bottom side of a tube socket and identify the cathode, screen grid and plate leads by the parts hooked to them.

You didn't need any blueprints to fix that stuff.
You tested the tubs in circuit.

For years (at least for me) the solid state stuff was the same way. Now with DDS, Microprocessor and DSP chips everywhere it's a little harder. :)
You do need the schematic and a PCB layout.

[WA7KKP]

Back in the 50's and 60's all you could get was the big stuff, unless you played with the (relatively small) ARC-5 gear.

Nowdays, people are so used to small radios, and pocket sized handhelds, that anything bigger than a shoebox is ginormous in comparison.

I like boatanchors -- very difficult to steal. Just look for the perpetrator bent over with a ruptured hernia . . .


Gary WA7KKP

[KI4WCA]

I don't think hybrids are boat anchors either.I have a SP-600.It is a real mother-lode boat anchor.All tubes, big power transformer, monster chassis.
Horrible to carry around...it is in a cabinet for desk top use.The desk should be sturdy and large!

[KD7MSC]

Speaking of tubes and big transformer, this is what I put on the air for the ARRL CW DX contest over the weekend.





http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x1/kd7msc/HPIM2333.jpghttp://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x1/kd7msc/HPIM2337.jpghttp://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x1/kd7msc/HPIM2336.jpg

[AF6LJ]

That is really nice.

[KB2FCV]

There are some radios I don't consider boatanchors - anything by Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu, Collins S-line, Some of the heatkits in the same size range, etc. Perhaps a rowboat anchor?? A kayak anchor?

Collins 75A and 32V, Your Hallicrafters SX-101 / HT-32 size, Johnson Valiants, Heathkit Apache's.. that size - those are boatanchors..

I think stuff bigger than that should have it's own class - Ship Anchors. Your recycled AM Broadcast transmitters on 160/80, your BC-610's, anything else that fills up the better part of a rack.

[KI4WCA]

Speaking of tubes and big transformer, this is what I put on the air for the ARRL CW DX contest over the weekend.





http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x1/kd7msc/HPIM2333.jpghttp://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x1/kd7msc/HPIM2337.jpghttp://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x1/kd7msc/HPIM2336.jpg


That's the ticket!Very nice OM!