What piece of equipment do you miss most

[AG3Y]

I have been fascinated to read accounts of rigs that were once owned by the O.T.s and how much they wished they had them back. Personally, I REALLY wish I had the 75A-4 and the CE 100V that I started my "Advanced license" phase with. Never had more fun with any setup before or since.

Adding a different slant to the topic, just the other week, I saw an Allied Knight-Kit Phono-Oscillator, a BC band AC/DC unit that could send an AM signal about a half-mile if you knew where to listen for it sell for a large amount on E-Bay!

A buddy and I started making two-way qsos with two of them and playing "ham radio" when we were still in Junior High School ! Of course, I went on to bigger and better things and have made a very satisfying career out of my love for electronics, much of which was fueled with those little Phono-Oscillators. How I wish I had even one of the pair, now ! Apparently someone else thought that as well, to the tune of $330.00 !

Well, how about you? If you had some piece of your first electronic equipment, what would it be, and what would you do with it now days? Keep it on a display shelf, use it in a "retro shack" or sell it for a princely sum?

This ought to be interesting!

73 from Jim AG3Y

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif four seperate items ...1) polytronice poly - comm 4 channel cb base station ( tube type ) with the METAL microphone ....also ....2 ) siltronics 1011c base ...also 3) yeasu ft - 2400 2 meter mobile ( good rig & easy to operate ...very few will sell them without asking NEW price , if you dont believe me, just look at the prices of those that ARE for sale )...also 4) yeasu ft - 847, just to tinker with on the satellite work. The polytronics from the old cb days, along with the siltronics...the yeasu 2400 was/is a great rig, but too big to go mobile for me and the 847 because it was fun to just go from band to band with it and listen to all the different stuff on different bands . NOW I use a yeasu ft - 840 for HF and a yeasu 1500 for 2 meter FM operation. ( non - modified for your information ). kd4amg

[WB2WIK]

For everyday use and not just a curio display: 75A4. Shouldn't have sold the one I had, it was perfect.

For curio item that I wouldn't really use: E.F. Johnson Invader 2000. Don't regret parting with that one, at all, but it was "interesting."

For item that I might try using if there was anyone to talk to on 2m AM: My old, original Gonset Communicator II. The one with the green "tuning eye" tube, and the big "CD" decals on the sides! Provided more fun than a barrel of chinchillas and got me hooked on VHF for several years.

WB2WIK/6

[K9STH]

My Collins 75A1 serial number 4 which I traded off in the mid 1970s when you almost had to pay for someone's gasoline to haul the old boat anchors off!

My Technical Materials GPR-90 receiver which was in excellent condition. Traded it and a Collins 32V3 off at the same time during the mid-1970s!

Steve:

I've got a "gooney box" that is in pretty good condition. However, it isn't a "CD" model. Come up with something to trade me for it! It works. Got it off of eBay a while back when I had a "soft head" moment!

Glen, K9STH

[KC5JSR]

I miss my mind the most! Slowly but surely, I'm getting it back. I hope this trend continues.
73'
John C.

[KC5JSR]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[KA7RRA]

I miss my 1st HF radio A ICOM 745 I sold it for 350.00 and the ones I see at the ham-fest for 250.00 are not in that good of shape It would have been a good general coverage radio for the shack.
Dave

[K7FE]

I miss my Hallicrafters HT-9 AM/CW 100 watt transmitter that barely fit on an office desk and could anchor a 30 ft yacht, (160 thru 10 including 11meters when it was a ham band), xtal controlled with link coupling, lots of 6L6's, two glowing purple 866 mercury vapor rectifiers and an 814 final. #Carl Mosley,W0FQY (Mosley Antenna's) always complimented my AM audio quality #Also miss my Pierson KE-93, wow what a great SSB/AM/CW mobil receiver and just smaller than a shoe box, not including high voltage power supply which mounted under the hood of the car. #My mobil xmtr was an Elmac AF-67. #I donated my AM gear to a high school in the early 1960's. # hummm, I wonder if they still have it?

Sobb http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Terry, K7FE

[K3UD]

I have owned entirely too much equipment over the last 38 years but the choice would be my NC-303/B&W 5100B/SSB adaptor combo and the Clegg Venus 6 meter transceiver with the matching Apollo amplifier.

73
George
K3UD

[K3STX]

I miss my Hallicrafters S-20R that I listened to throughout the 70's. I don't even remember what I did with it. I could get a "new" one, but it wouldn't be the same.

paul

[K7FE]

Paul,
Your memory is the "second" thing that goes and then you don't miss the "first".
73,
Terry, K7FE

[WA2ZDY]

I've owned both a 32V and 75A1 - 20 years apart. In both cases, I got each for a song and let them go for not much more. Oh well. Together, they'd be fun to have back.

Overall though, I'd say my brother's HQ120. It was unmodified, had no "extra" holes in the back for converters and such, and was just a nice receiver. Not the best, not the most usable, and pretty well worthless above 15 MHz, but I loved it and should never have let it go. 1938 was a good year judging by that HQ120.

[nx6d]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KA7RRA @ Dec. 09 2003,19:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I miss my 1st HF radio #A ICOM 745 I sold it for 350.00 and the ones I see at the ham-fest for 250.00 are not in that good of shape #It would have been a good general coverage radio for the shack.
Dave[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Great radio!

I had a Icom 745 that I sold to buy a Kenwood TS-940S, a radio which is a complete piece of garbage.

The only other radio I wish I hadn't sold was my late serial number Kenwood TS-930S, which completely ruled. That's why I don't understand why the 940 was so bad.

I now have a TS-950SDX, which is tremendous!

WX7B

[ac3p]

Guess I miss it all.

I miss my HW-29A that got me started. It was the first rig of my own after borrowing others. Also my first kit-buiding project.

I miss my HT-32B transmitter and Lafayette HA-350 receiver with DOW-KEY relay, my first HF station when I went from Tech to Advanced.

I miss the TEMPO ONE, my first hf transceiver, ran almost 250 watts. Today's rigs don't have the same punch.

I miss my TR-22 that got me on 2 meter FM.

I miss my HW-7 that I played QRP with. Another kit-building project.

I miss my FT-101ZD with built in AC/DC supply.

I'd get them all back but I wouldn't have room for them.

[DocRF]

I miss my elmer. I loved him. He was kind and generous with his time, always patient with me as a newcomer.

I miss the deeply technical discussions that I used to hear on the bands, particularly 2 meter FM.

I miss the days when people competed to have the most gorgeous QSL card. Spectacular photographs of their QTH, humourous hand-drawn cartoons and elegant calligraphed callsigns dominated the day.

I miss the club meetings, where you could ask a question about how to tune a gamma match, and at least half the room knew the answer - because nobody in those days would consider paying money for a store-bought antenna.

Heck, I miss the club meetings where the first order of business was beer.

I miss the club meetings where repeaters, coordination, and debates had no place.

I miss the ability to identify an old friend on the air by the rhythm of his fist. With keyboard-sent CW, everybody sounds the same, right down to the absence of spaces between words.

Hint: If I were in charge of the CW exam, you would not be able to pass unless you could successfully demonstrate sending with a Cootie Key. Not many even know what that is!

Come to think of it, I miss my Cootie Key. It got misplaced in a move somewhere....

I miss the zeal that everybody had about actually being on the air - these days it seems to be replaced by the goal of having more rigs.

I miss quiet bands. I don't mean unused bands - I mean bands that do not have scratchy, brappy noise between the intended signals. Todays rigs, or the way people use them, are garbage. And instead of legitimate radio technicians, we now have hackers, trying to increase the power of stock radios, generating all kinds of junk on the bands as a result.

I miss the pure artisanship that used to be ham radio. It was a craft when you watched the meters, fabricated your own carbon microphone (talk about having REAL control over your audio!http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif.

Radios. They come and they go. The first radios I owned would not be very useful today. I had a TRF receiver and a spark transmitter. That TX wouldn't even be legal. Had to build my first regen RX as they weren't commercially sold, later built my own superhet, not because they weren't commercially available, but because building my own rigs was now a habit. My biggest thrill was the quartz crystal - to have a frequency so stable that you could reliably tell your buddies where to find you was a dream come true. I am not one who rotates between rigs. I have still never owned an Icom HF rig, nor a Yaesu, although I have no issue with those brands. They just weren't the ones that showed up at the right time and price. But I work a lot of contests, and thereby get to use a lot of radios. Even if I built it myself, or designed it myself, I never had the emotional attachment that many seem to get these days - it just seemed that the guys I spoke with on the air were so much more important than the radios I was using.

Sorry if I'm being melancholy, guys. Most of the time, no matter where I am, I am the oldest person in the room, in the stadium, etc. I don't know many people older than me. Even at Dayton last year, I met only a few older. I lose a friend every few weeks. It makes you really sit back and think about what is important. And what is important isn't resistors and wires. I do not criticize the one who began this thread, but I encourage all of you to think very hard about the human side of this hobby. The next time you get on the air, and have a QSO with someone you've never talked to before, try to picture him. What do his children look like? What does his office look like? When he is working, is he using his hands, his mind, or both? What does he do his work with? Is he an engineer who molds the future out of today's physics? Is he a teacher who molds the future out of youth? Is he a musician who molds rapture from vibrating strings?

I love technology; it has been the means to my ends. But it is nothing without the human side to drive it.

::*DONE* *SOLILOQUY OVER*::

Thank you for tolerating this...

Doc

[ky5u]

Very well put, Doc. Although I have spent the last 35+ years in the communications buisiness, I joined the ham ranks recently to meet great people. So far, it has been all I hoped it would be.

At 52, I am just sorry I waited this long. I envy you the years you have spent with your friends enjoying the hobby.

[KC5JSR]

Very well said Doc, You have a way with words.
I haven't a clue about the keyer you're referring to, I'm running a home built straight key, that I built. Wasn't that hard. Into a 20 plus year old Ten-Tec, still works like a charm. And all of that goes into My homebrew dipole antenna.
Come to think of it, that was fun to build, all of it was. This dumb old/young country boy made somtin werk!
73' My friend
John C.

[K5CEY]

Say, Doc,
# #What a wonderful soliloquy!
I really do miss the local radio meetings when I was a kid. Especially the swap nights. An abundance of WWII surplus gear in those days. I still have my membership card, but it expired in 1961. Dues were $2.50 per year.
# #If the &quot;Cootie key&quot; that you refer to was also known as a &quot;Sideswiper&quot;, I know what you're talking about. I made a home made one once. Yuk! Made me sound like I was QLF.
# #As far as noise on the bands, I must admit that I actually miss hearing some of the buckshot and splatter from some of the home brewed and surplus rigs. A good friend of mine across town had a BC 459 on 40 CW and I could hear his clicks across the band. When I did tune him in, I'll never forget that &quot; yoop,yoop&quot; sound with a backwave that wandered in frequency.
# #Doc, you must really be an O.T. if you had a spark rig. Weren't they outlawed in the mid twenties?
# #I remember my father talking about his 1st crystal rig in the late twenties. Crystals were expensive, like 8 or 10 bucks even back then.
# #Ham Radio sure has changed, but I'm personally pleased that I got started when radio was still magic.
# # # # # # # # #John #K5CEY

At 73, there is a piece of equipment that I miss, but this would not be the proper place to mention it. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

TOM K8ERV

[ve3jev]

if i had my way i would like my hw8 back and the same age i was then,i still qrpping on the bands cw and ssb with a ten-tec argonaut 509,this is bringing some fun back my way with 2 watts output,now just for age to come back hi hi http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif de ve3jev/i have a picture on qrz.com of my 509 i hope soon.

[DocRF]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K8ERV @ Dec. 14 2003,06:07)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">At 73, there is a piece of equipment that I miss, but this would not be the proper place to mention it. # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

TOM K8ERV[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Haven't had that problem yet ERV, and I'm 16 years your senior.

Probably because every time the doctor tells me to take pills, I say &quot;yes, sir&quot; and promptly toss them. Come to think of it, anytime I meet someone my age or older, it turns out they do the same thing.

Drugs are bad for you. Especially the ones the doctor encourages you to take!

Doc