Hammy Hambone slaughters and butchers a nice KW Matchbox

[N3DRB The Derb]

Johnny 3JN lent me a KW matchbox to get me on the air as I didnt have a tuna. After some use, I could'nt tune the right hand side cap as it was slipping around inside. I asked and was granted permission to open her up.

The following butchery is what I found. Why do the Hammy Hambones of this world insist on ruining perfectly good gear?

[w3jn]

The Junkston Matchbox is about as perfect a design as there ever was for the purpose intended.  Looks like someone wanted 160 capability.

So that top switch selects the taps on the input link, the two other switches lower down would be the bandswitches (prolly after Hammy blew it while hot-switching a 1KW carrier), and that variable cap in the upper left is in series with the input link?

God what a mess.  Well it was only $20 or 30 bux....

[N3DRB The Derb]

more KW MB roadkill pix.

[N3DRB The Derb]

Hey Johnny, why don't ya let me adopt her? I gotz the raging urge to de-hambone and make her purty again. The extra components wood sure be good for a pi-net output on a 160 meter HB rig. 

I'll throw down with some dollar bills as a finder's fee.

If ya want to keep thats OK fine too.  I'll button her back up as is and hook her back in line.

[W1UJR]

That's a lot of work to get it on 160, esp considering Bowie Bill's nice article a few years back in ER.
He had a most elegant way to make the Matchboxes play on 160.

I agree with John, the Matchbox is "THEE" commercially made antenna tuner.
The only thing I wish for, is 160 meter coverage.

Looks like this is your chance to do it up right Derb.

If you need copies of the ER article, I can send to you via email.

Cheers,
Bruce

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

The MB is not perfect by any stretch. The capacitive voltage divider approach does little to increase the tuning range and actually makes the tuning adjustment more critical. It was a cheesy attempt to avoid installing a good switch for changing taps on the coil.

Then there are the "never tight" set screws on the tuning knobs......

[W1UJR]

The MB is not perfect by any stretch. The capacitive voltage divider approach does little to increase the tuning range and actually makes the tuning adjustment more critical. It was a cheesy attempt to avoide installing a good switch for changing taps on the coil.

Then there are the "never tight" set screws on the tuning knobs......

Details, details, details.

Kurt Sterba says its good, so it must be so! :-)

Sure better than those balun boxes from MS.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Of course it's about the details - perfection always is.

I'd say it's better than most or all of the commercial tuners out there when used to feed a balanced feedline. But perfect? No.

[W1UJR]

Ok, I'll settle for that. 

[k4kyv]

But it's very hard to find a piece of pre-WW2 gear that he hasn't had his hands on to "improve", usually includes adding a few 1/4" holes drilled right through the black wrinkle front panel.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

So about that Flashbox: reasonably good tuners for use with old gear and balanced line. Most OTs I know who have used one complained about them arcing, and being too narrow or limited in their tuning. Certainly not ideal. No doubt why many ended up being 'improved' or parted out. At the time and for most AM purposes, they work pretty well. The 'JJ and similar solutions are better choices for the serious signal.

Here's some info sent to me and many others over the years by Dee Almquist W4PNT, for adding 160 to the Flashbox:

Seems a long time ago someone @ Johnson factory did an addendum on this
but it never got in print. This I found in a manual I got from a friend &
he drew out by hand what he had seen & done to his matchbox.

The modif consists of two large RF caps (I used mica) of 400pf @ 3kv, 5 rf
amps, one on one side if C-1 to ground & the other on other side to
ground, switched in by a quality, beefy relay while on 80m position.

Thats a all there is to it. I can tune 160m no problem just as if I were
on any other band. Of coarse, I switched the relay via outboard switching
so as not to drill a hole the nice panel.



Sounds simple enough, and offers the user some latitude in choosing parts.

Put some lipstick on that pig, Derb!   

[WA1GFZ]

my 4X3 flashed over the coax connector so I put a plate over the hole. It took all I could give it. It produced the same feeder current as the GFZ fugly tuner. I had 2 once and one went to DUQ the other I've had since toh 70s and paid $178 for it new. 

[k4kyv]

The 1930's broadcast transmitter remains that I used to house my big homebrew rig had many small holes drilled in the front panel to accommodate the homebrew guts the previous ham owner had installed inside.  He worked for the phone company, so he was able to acquire a supply of paint, and painted over the entire black wrinkle cabinet in telephone co. grey.

I stripped the sheet metal steel panels down to bare metal, and "leaded up" the holes, by filling them with solder, using a torch and acid core.  The solder filled in the holes very nicely, leaving a slight bulge, which I was able to smooth down using files and sandpaper.  I repainted the cabinet with new black wrinkle, and you can't tell where any of the small holes used to be.

Unfortunately, there is a stripe down the middle where the paint didn't wrinkle properly, even though I illuminated the whole thing with an array of heat lamps after appying the new paint.  After more  than 30 years I still have never had the ambition to re-do it, even though it's kind of like feeling a rock in my shoe every time I look at it.

[N4JOY]

I've "de-hamboned" countless pieces of equipment.  My latest projects are a NC-57 receiver and a Johnson Ranger.  The NC-57 had globs of solder and flux everywhere.  The tube sockets have scorch marks from what appears to be a 250 watts soldering gun.  Anytime I purchase a boatanchor, I expect to use miles of desoldering braid and a bottle of isopropyl to remover splattered flux.  Let me repeat, thou shall not use propane torches and lead bars to solder electronic equipment!  Fortunately, my Ranger was spared... except for a few holes drilled into the cabinet that serve no obvious purpose.  Did I mention someone repainted the cabinet flat black?!  Yuk!

[N3DRB The Derb]

caps for yaesu #1 did not show up today. arrgh. ack ack

I freakin love bench work, but I like to OPERATE too! 

At least when I get it all done it'll last and I can just rap away fresh on the mic.

[WA1HZK]

It hurts to look upon those pictures....

[N3DRB The Derb]

The Bird DL I got offa ebay is so ugly, I might strip it down and black crackle it. I got a full can of Harley Davidson ready to go. That thing would look ultra hip wrinkled up against the silver plated resistor tapered front.

ummmm..... can you guys tell I'm having too much fun? 

[WA1GFZ]

Gee The TR relay inside the flash box would be perfect for switching in the extra c to get on 160 and you don't have to drill anything.

[W1IA]

Johnny 3JN lent me a KW matchbox to get me on the air as I didnt have a tuna. After some use, I could'nt tune the right hand side cap as it was slipping around inside. I asked and was granted permission to open her up.

The following butchery is what I found. Why do the Hammy Hambones of this world insist on ruining perfectly good gear?

If you call it DAVE MADE and put it on a red Velvet backdrop you could get 300.00 bucks on e-Pay

[N3DRB The Derb]

hammy also liked to write all over his gear in addition to drilling holes in it. He wrote on the knobs, wrote on he front panel, wrote on the back, anywhere was good to go for hammy. He didnt care. Pencil, pen, sharpie, whatever.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Gee The TR relay inside the flash box would be perfect for switching in the extra c to get on 160 and you don't have to drill anything.

That's one approach I've seen, Frank. Some say it's not stout enough or of good enough quality not to arc over, can't comment since I've yet to open mine to see what's inside.

But it does present a pretty simple approach to adding 160 to the existing 80m position.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Replace it with a nice vacuum unit.

[k4kyv]

I see both extremes, one where Hammy Hambone butchers a piece of equipment like that Matchbox, and t'other where the owner insists on keeping everything exactly stock, down to the  last resistor and capacitor.

I don't mind changing out capacitors, resistors and other components, and  making wiring changes to correct design flaws and improve performance.  If it is something that I even think might some day become scarce with any value, I try not to make irreversible mods, and do everything possible to avoid the dreaded holes in the front panel and cabinet.

I ran into someone a few weeks ago with a T-368 that sounded like a tin can telephone.  He wasn't using the stock carbon mike but might just as well have.  He wanted to keep the rig "stock" and was not interested in making any modifications to give it decent audio, even though the T-3  is capable of near-broadcast quality with only minor changes.

If I do make any major, irreversible modifications to a piece of vintage gear, I make it a point to think through them thoroughly beforehand, and usually "prototype" the mods by JS'ing them in place to try out first, before drilling any holes.  If I convince myself that a permanent mod would be worthwhile I try to use period components that would have been available when the unit was made, and if possible, make it a plausible factory modification at the time of manufacture. 

Sometimes it can be a blurry line between homebrewed and modified surplus or commercial.  The matchbox mods might not have been so bad if Hammy had used quality components of adequate rating, quality construction, and made well-engineered modifications in the design.  Certainly the Junkston Matchbox is not a rare antique collectors item in the category of a 1933 Collins transmitter, and the circuit design has room for improvement, so he could have converted it to a quality semi-homebrew piece that would work better than the original design, and it wouldn't have given me any pain looking at it.

I have never felt there was anything magic about stock design.  One thing I like about older equipment vs modern high-tech stuff is that it is easy to get inside and get your hands on the individual components. But I would never take a handsaw, auger bit and 12 penny nails to a fine piece of antique furniture.

[N3DRB The Derb]

I'll say one thing about Hammy - he used some decent parts to screw up that flashbox with. I have a perfect pi net for 160 nowz.

His soldering technique was Neanderthal. Looks like a solder splash orgy inside. Screams 300watt iron!

.....quality construction, and made well-engineered modifications in the design.

he did use good components, but he didn't think anything through, didnt know what quality construction is, and didn't engineer a damn thing. Gotta give him credit, he used first rate parts, which I will put to work in a pi net 160 meter monoband amp.

[Ed-VA3ES]

One way I built up my stock of high-quality parts over the years is by buying used, home-brew  linears.   Most of them were built by  Hammy Hambone himself, or his twin. The construction was  appalling, but these guys  sure did use good parts!   I stripped them all out.   Pi-dux,  B&W 850's,  big RF switches, you name it.    Many were built on old mil-surplus chassis  that looked like Swiss cheese.  Mis-matched meters, you name it.   

However, the best (literally) was an unfinished 4-400 amp that was beautifully built, and had a custom pi-wound RF choke, and two huge doorknobs, big bread-slicers and a nice RF switch and two beautiful  vacuum relays..  The tank was  a toroid.    I still have that chassis, and will eventually recycle the parts.