The AM Forum

Over the last 30+ years I have sold off something on the order of 70 restored BA receivers and maybe 30+ restored transmitters.  I have taken great care and pride in doing what I thought was excellent work and making sure that (unless they were sold as "unrestored") the radios were in prime condition when I sold them. The problem is,  I am not a great paper work mogul, so don't know where most of them went.

If you have any recollection of purchasing a radio from me I would love to hear from you if you still have it, sold it off, of just passed it on because I did a lousy job (I'm certainly open to criticism) :-). Hell, I might even buy it back if you have one,  particularly an HQ-180A with a plastic tag at the center top of the front panel that read "Unit #1".

I regret selling them all, and miss them, because they were all labors of love and hard work in some cases  ….  and very good and well used old friends before I passed them on.

I guess I'm really feeling really old (because I am) and nostalgic tonight  ;D

Grant  NQ5T

Hi Grant...I never got one of your radios but I have the same nostalgic feelings about things I have rebuilt....enjoy those feelings ,you deserve it, you had a good time working on those radios and your'e having good memories thinking about them now..  good stuff...merry christmas...Steve

If I still had all of the radios that went across my workbench and into my shack for a while, my XYL would have left me long ago, since I would have ruined her living room, too   ;D

But I enjoyed restoring and borrowing (for a while) each and every one of them.  So many great hollow-state ( and some silicon) radios, so little time, and so little space to keep them all.

Out of all of the radios that passed through, I only have 3 left.  A GPR-90/GSB-1/GSP-1, a 51J4 (with some adds), and a Drake 2B — a sampling of my all time favorites.  Those will eventually have to go, too.  I already regret that day.  There are so many incredible radios out there that, I fear, the next generations may just toss to the curb as old rusty useless garbage ..  maybe because you can't play games on them when the bands are quiet, they require those funky "glass things", they don't appear at the top of Sherwood's list if at all, or no belt clip is available …  :'(

Grant, I never had the ability or inclination,(as Dirty Harry would say, "A man's got to know his limitations!"), to restore equipment. My mind sees but my hands can't apply if you can understand that. So I relegate myself to repairing 'hamfest deals/finds' and take satisfaction in that. But like I'm sure you have found, each individual piece has it's signature 'nuance' that becomes a symbol of personality. For that, I don't like to let anything go. My good friend Joe, N3IBX(SK) was like that and would grab anything he could find with his ultimate goal of getting around to making it 'sing for its supper'. Unfortunately he was never able to accomplish this goal and many of his pieces sat in disrepair. As I approach my sunset years, I have a lot of items sitting patiently, waiting for me to dedicate time to them. It is hoped that when I finally go SK, my son will discharge them and be able to say that he knew for sure that they functioned properly.