The AM Forum

Hi:

I am giving a talk at the Boxboro ARRL New England Division Convention (http://boxboro.org) in early September. My subject this year is "The Lure of Vintage Radio", and while my experience is with AM, I will also mention vintage SSB and CW. This is not a technical talk, but more of a feel-good presentation.

My question is: Why do you enjoy vintage radio? If so, what gear or setup for your experience?

If you enjoy vintage CW or SSB, I especially would enjoy your comments.

Thank you!

73,
Dan W1DAN

My lure to vintage radio equipment was the simplicity, especially with building a CW rig.  One or two tubes and you're there.  You can easily mix the glow-bug, QRP and CW interests.

Bob Heil tapped into that with his AM rig that was recently published.  It can be made for CW or AM, and many people have made one.  I talked with George from Tucson while he was using his. 

Tubes don't go BANG! like mosfets do... He was still on the air and I was ready to haul out the fire extinguisher.  Anyway, all fun stuff!

Jon

  I got my license in early 1983, found out my father could do CW, he had been on B-24 bombers in WWII and never spoke of it, he died a month later. About 10 years ago I got to wondering what equipment he might have used and did some searching on the web. That put me in contact with a number of hams in the West Coast Military Radio Collectors Group which exposed me to vintage equipment form the WWII era.

  I now have several ART-13 transmitters, BC-348 receivers, GRC-9 sets, 51J4 receiver,  and some more modern stuff such as a PRC-515. Later I got involved with the Vintage SSB Roundtable Net here on the West Coast and have a number of vintage SSB rigs too.

   There is a technical attraction in that this equipment is more user repairable than any of the modern surface mount LSI based gear. It has been an enjoyable experience getting some of this equipment back to functionality and then using it as it might have been back in the day.

    The history is also a fascination too especially the WWII sets.

Let's face the facts, we are all getting older. Vintage equipment reminds us of our younger days in the hobby, and now being able to afford that equipment that we weren't able to. Being more acquainted with the vintage equipment, it gives us the opportunity to teach the youngsters some history and have them marvel at the smell of some hot tubes!

Dan,

I enjoy learning about vacuum tube circuits, and I like the physical appearance of tube CW, AM, and SSB/CW gear.  A lot of the old gear was still in regular use on air when I was making my first CW and SSB contacts, which fueled my interest in it.

My vintage SSB/CW station includes Swan and Heathkit gear, and the AM/CW station includes Heathkit & WRL transmitters and National & Hammarlund receivers.

Good luck with your talk.

73,
Brad K4RT

Folks:

Thank you VERY much for your input. I used your comments in the talk, which was well received.

Now I will sell all my old gear and buy an SDR... ;-)

Dan

Did anyone record it? I'd like to hear it.

Sorry, no recordings this year.

Someone was selling bootleg copies on cassette. I meant to pick one up.