You are NOT going to believe what just happened to me!

[AF9J]

Hi Everybody,

I just had the craziest thing happen to me!  I was getting ready to eat brunch (one of my gabby friends called me on the phone, keeping me from eating breakfast), when I heard a knock on my apartment door.  It was Bill, one of the other tenants in my building.  He told me that he had heard I had an Amateur Radio License (It turns out that when I told Carol my landlady about my radio stuff, she told Jeff, the onsite maintenance guy about it, and he told Bill).  I immediately had visions of being complained at about interfering with his TV, stereo, computer, etc.  It turned out to be nothing of the sort, and actually turned out to be what was for me, a rather stunning thing.

Bill works as an electronics tech (mainly computers and industrial controllers).  His apartment is being remodeled, and he has to get it cleared out, so that they can put in new carpeting.  To minimize the amount of stuff he has to lug into storage, it sounds like he's giving away things that are just collecting dust.  He just gave me a bunch of radio gear!  Bill's uncle used to be a Ham.  A few years back Bill dabbled with getting a ham license (he studied the code, and the regs), but he never got a license, and it sounds like he has no real interest in Amateur Radio anymore.  But, Bill did get some gear.  The gear is what he gave me.  Here's what I got from him:

1.  Hitachi Model V-209, 20 MHz, semi-portable oscilliscope - Bill used to use it for field repair work.  It's in working condition, with the manual.  Cool!  I can finally look at my Scout's signal.

2,  Yaesu FRG-7 receiver - in working condition.  Not sure how much use I'll get out of it. Still, an interesting piece.

3.  ICOM IC-740 - this one needs work.  Bill bought it used from AES about 8 or 9 years ago, and used it as a receiver.  It died on him one day. Hopefully, it's just the memory battery dying (a simple fix).

4. An old Amcomm, sythesized 2m FM rig -  not sure how much use this will see, since I doubt it has the tone board in it for CTCSS access to repeaters.  Besides, I don't do much 2m FM anyway, and my HT is plenty for my 2m FM needs.

5.  An old 2m 10W in 70W out amp - hmmm, maybe when I get another old 2m all mode. 

6. Some old SWR/wattmeters - Heathkit and Vanco

I know the FRG-7 and IC-740 aren't exactly kick-ass gear, but nevertheless,  I'm stunned.  Bill just wanted to give the stuff to me.  I have to run some errands.  I think I'll give him at least $20 as a token of my appreciation (besides, it's all I can afford).

73,
Ellen - AF9J     

[W4RON]

Great story.
One of my rules is to NEVER turn down free food, free radios or free.....
humm, there was something else but right now I can't remember what it was, Hi

Just got back from the CC-AWA Fall Swap meet at  Jamestown NC.
KD4HSH and I rode up with Ralph W4ZO.
We had a great time, as we were pulling in to park I spotted a nice battery
super-het in the back of a car, I almost jumped out of the truck before
Ralph could get parked.
It was a really nice Madison-Moore super in really nice shape.
I already have several battery supers so I let Ralph buy it since he didn't have one
yet. I bought a really nice Eimac 4-1000 from WA4IAM, the glass is not dark at all
looks like it just might be good.
Ralph also picked up a NC-303 I think from Gary too. We missed a nice Zenith
9S263 shutter dial.
A great time and we got to stop at Lexington BBQ for lunch.

73 all, W4RON

[WQ9E]

Congratulations Ellen!  As one of the annoying car dealer commercials in the area says (in a twangy accent), "sumthin good gonna happen to you today" and it sounds like it was your day.  The little "Frog 7" is actually a fun and decent little receiver, compare it to what most of us had to use as novices and we would have killed for something that had the calibration and tuning mechanism of the FRG-7.  If the 740 needs a memory board you are probably aware of the internet site that sells these, I replaced the boards in my R-71A and R-7000 with these and they both work great.

I saw your post on the Globe and I hope you get the final tamed soon.  I would check the solder joints in the output circuit, do you know if your's was a kit built unit?

73, Rodger WQ9E

[AF9J]

Hi Rodger & Ron,

Ron, thanks for the kind words.  It sounds like you're having fun at the hamfest.  Me - I have to go buy a microwave oven now!  Mine blew up on Monday night.  They put fasteners on the back panel that prevent you from opening it up without a special tool (they're basically torx head screws with a stud in the middle that keep the torx driver from seating in the screw).  So trying to repair it was a lost cause.

Rodger, I'm not sure if the Scout is kitbuilt.  I may have to look at the solder joints,  I know Uncle Leo sold them as kits, but offered them wired complete for only 10 or 20 dollars more, to encourage people to buy the factory wired radios (he really wasn't wild about kit radios, since they had the highly increased probability of suffering from wiring & soldering errors).

As for the IC-740 - I'm not sure it has a memory board.  Checking the manual, schematic, and online info, seems to indicate it doesn't.  Therefore, so much for that avenue of attack.  I'm just hoping that the whistling Bill heard, wasn't the microprocessor going bye-bye.  If it was, I may be out of luck, since like most Japanese rigs of the 80s & 90s, that stuff is pure unobtanium.  It turns out the IC-740, was ICOM's last non-General Coverage receive rig made.  It was only sold for a couple of years (1982-84).  Still, it is very highly regarded, and is considered to have a hot, and quiet receiver.  The one I have has dual 250 Hz CW filters installed, that can be cascaded for even tighter bandwidth.  So, it may be worth getting back to life (besides I need a replacement for the FT-897D, for a  'testing rig [SS is coming up]).  Well, I'd better run now, it's time to shop for replacement microwaves.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[WQ9E]

Ellen,

For future reference, a grinding point in a dremel tool makes that annoying point in the center of security screws go away.

Happy shopping!
Rodger WQ9E

[K3ZS]

Ellen,

Our stars must be in the same alignment.   A friend who I have helped with electronic problems and ham radio over the years gave me a Ranger II, I gave a nominal fee for it in appreciation.   I have been looking for something like it for years but not willing to pay ebay prices.   Good luck with your prizes.

Bob

[Ed-VA3ES]

Ellen, we have a  tools store here in Canada, called Princess Auto, that sells security screw  bits. I bought a set, and in fact bought a second set for a friend. Harbor Freight, in the U.S. is  the equivalent retailer.  You might try them.  The whole kit costs about $15.00 , and comes in a nice metal box.

[Ed-VA3ES]

Well, since we're all swapping ribald tales... here's mine.

About a month ago, this guy calls me up on the phone outta the blue.  No idea where he got my name.   Says he has a pile of "radio junk" to get rid of. Belonged to his dad. 

So I drive over  and gaze at the "pile".  Turns out his dad was an SWL and a CB'er. The pile consisted of an RCA CR91, a current Radio Shack 40 channel SSB/AM  rig, and an old Hallicrafters CB-3A.  All functional. As well there was a pole-changer key and  a couple of decent SWR bridges and a pile of microphones.  All the manuals were included (except for the CR91 of course).

"Take it away", he says.  "Distribute it among your radio buddies!"

I sure will!   

[K7NCR]

  Your local NAPA auto parts store should have a set of security torx bits for a magnetic srewdriver. Your former NAPA employee,,
Norm

[VO1GXG]

Great!

i had a similar story , except it involved 2 O-scopes a Zenith radio and a Morse sounder. and a SK'ed ham.

[AF9J]

It is always so cool, when stuff like this happens.  I finally have an o-scope for monitoring the Scout's signal - for free!!  Hey cheapskate boss at work, who wanted me to pay for a bigger one that was going to jsut get thrown in the dumptster!  You can keep it!

A friend of mine (the gabby one who worked as an RF tech for a defense industry contractor, before her eyesite worsened to the point that she had to quit working as an RF tech), called me today. She no longer has a ham license (but is thinking of getting one again), but used to have an ICOM IC-745, and repaired a couple of IC-740s in the past.  She talked me through trouble shooting it on the phone.  It looks like the voltage control board has some bad parts (I found a cooked resistor on that board, and I'm going to take some voltage measurements tomorrow or later in the week on of the voltage control board's points).  The rig will power up, and does tune (and show frequency on the digital display), but has no audio or RF output.  But it looks fixable.  So far, it doesn't like like the typical ricebox, "the parts that are bad are unobtanuim" situation.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[AF9J]

Ellen,

Our stars must be in the same alignment.   A friend who I have helped with electronic problems and ham radio over the years gave me a Ranger II, I gave a nominal fee for it in appreciation.   I have been looking for something like it for years but not willing to pay ebay prices.   Good luck with your prizes.

Bob

Hi Bob,

Getting a Ranger II for free - that IS beyond cool!!  Those things go for even more, than the Ranger I does. I think the last one I saw on ePay (a few months ago), went for well over $400.  Have fun with it.

73,
Ellen - AF9J