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Author Topic: Did anyone see the plywood box antenna at Nearfest?  (Read 28595 times)
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K5UJ
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« Reply #50 on: December 03, 2010, 03:51:31 PM »

Where could I find a ready comparison with inside pics of the original GK and the 'repro'? Just so as not to make a dreadful mistake. I found the three original manuals on BAMA mirror. Have not found the repro's manual yet.

I went to eHam to find and post here, the link to the review but it was gone.  I found the vintage radio review eHam page listing it in the internet archive (Wayback) server (www.archive.org IIRC) but the review itself has vanished.  Evidently eHam flushes out reviews occasionally based on some unknown (to me) criteria which I did not know about until now.   How about that.  

Well, anyway, the company making the so-called Globe KIng which I think they audaciously called the 500D was called VRL as I recall.  I don't know what VRL stood for (VooDoo Radio Labs?).  I remember that some of it such as the VFO was supposed to have been all solid state.   If you get a GK and the interior looks all vintage it's probably the real deal.  If it is all messed up inside looking hacked up with PC boards beware.  Actually I was under the impression only one or two were made.  I think the guy who wrote the review had a shop in Calif. somewhere and the VRL thing he got was serial no. 1.   Then another serial no. 1 surfaced somewhere else.   The whole thing was extremely fishy and smelly.  
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Patrick J. / KD5OEI
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« Reply #51 on: December 04, 2010, 01:56:29 AM »

wow. If I ever find a "D", I'll keep in mind I am looking at parts not a TX. There are stories by a couple guys on the www but those are second hand.
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« Reply #52 on: December 04, 2010, 03:02:19 AM »

My guess would be its the GK pictured on this site?

http://www.angelfire.com/alt/myvintageradio/
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« Reply #53 on: December 04, 2010, 07:35:33 AM »

Patrick,

There were a couple of very interesting reviews of the reborn Globe King and none were positive.  The front panel does not look exactly like the old and a quick view of the inside will clearly identify the counterfeit unit.  Or an even faster method would be to check if it actually works then it is a real one in good condition Smiley  I think I had already dropped my ARRL membership by then because I don't remember seeing the ad in QST.  In the olden days I think the league was fairly strict about not advertising sham/poor products. 

Another shady area in amateur radio involved the Signal One brand.  I came across a lot of interesting stories about the many iterations of Signal One when I was collecting information to restore my CX-7A last year.  Towards the end Icom IC-781 units were being modified into something labeled Signal One at high cost and it seems that in several cases both the owner's radio and funds went to never never land.  After installing all of the updates the CX-7A is a pretty good performer and I will soon be working on another Nixie readout wonder, the SBE-36.

I don't think you will have any trouble distinguishing the new from the old but I still have a problem with copies like the GK.  I made a counterfeit SPC-10 to go with my SP-600, I just need to paint and apply the decals to the front panel.  Just to make sure there is never a question I plan to engrave replica on the back of the panel and on the chassis.  Mine was made from a parts unit HQ-170 and a new rack panel.
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« Reply #54 on: December 04, 2010, 09:35:45 AM »

The "new" Globe King power supply, not hard to tell from the original, WRL never used Home Depot pipe hanging strap to mount their xformers! Classy... Wink



* gkpowersupply.gif (130.91 KB, 640x480 - viewed 608 times.)
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« Reply #55 on: December 04, 2010, 09:56:04 AM »

huh. Thanks for pointing out the pictures. I don't know what to say. It's a mess, no expense spared in one place and no time or money spent in another.
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« Reply #56 on: December 04, 2010, 11:16:44 AM »

From that picture, the first thing I'd add to that power supply would be some panel to chassis struts. Just imagine your toes if you lifted that thing up by the front panel as-is (held with sheet metal screws I'm told) ... Grin

T
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« Reply #57 on: December 04, 2010, 11:29:34 AM »

From that picture, the first thing I'd add to that power supply would be some panel to chassis struts. Just imagine your toes if you lifted that thing up by the front panel as-is (held with sheet metal screws I'm told) ... Grin

T

But that cheap lightweight chassis will provide a safety crumple zone just like modern cars in a crash Smiley 

First we get "free bander" rigs using the Galaxy name and then this bad WRL knockoff.  Neither are anything like the originals coming out of Council Bluffs.  There were some shortcuts and odd design choices in some of the originals but they were good usable rigs.  I have a much abused Globe Scout 40 that will be resurrected one day.
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« Reply #58 on: December 04, 2010, 11:37:30 AM »

I hate to state the obvious, but anyone that sent 4000 dollars to someone advertising on a free webhosting service, with an email that goes to ANOTHER free service, seriously needs their head examined.

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« Reply #59 on: December 04, 2010, 12:39:42 PM »

I hate to state the obvious, but anyone that sent 4000 dollars to someone advertising on a free webhosting service, with an email that goes to ANOTHER free service, seriously needs their head examined.

--Shane
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They advertised a number of times in CQ Magazine, back around ~2002/2003 or thereabouts. Don't recall if they did any Electric Radio or QST ads.
There actually had a "demo" unit at Dayton one year at some outside spaces several aisles down from the PUB side entrance. Saw both guys later in the evening at the Saturday night CQ party.
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« Reply #60 on: December 04, 2010, 02:22:20 PM »

I had a good chat with Barry of ER about this while out there picking up the 300G in 2003. He said these guys had paid for a bunch of ads and he ran them and had planned to keep doing so. Then the complaints started trickling in. Then it became a torrent. Wasn't just the Globe King junk, more of it was related to used gear they bought and sold, apparently ripping people off regularly. Barry said at that point, he gave them the axe. They squawked and threatened, he said hit the road.

I've talked with a number of people over the years who had first hand experience with them, virtually all the same: bad. The only good thing I ever heard was from Joe Walsh, WB6ACU who purchased a Collins 30K from them which was delivered and set up without issue.

From memory, there were two of them: one was the money and brains(?), the other was the tech. The names escape me now, but I think "Doc" was the money behind it all.

The fellow who did the eham review is Larry Rau W6WUH of Occidental Radio. Known him for years, he's a good guy who knows his stuff  but doesn't suffer fools well (reminds me a lot of you, Carl  Grin ). The review he did was basically the rebuild job he performed on the 500D for the Long Island owner who sent it to him at great expense after VRL (Vintage Radio Labs, IIRC) refused to help. Larry documented everything that was needed to make the transmitter actually work. He even mentioned the flimsy aluminum chassis flexing under the weight of the iron. In the end, the guy had another $1-$2K into it above and beyond the original purchase price of $2-$2.5K I *think*. Could be wrong, it's been a few years. He probably ended up wishing he'd just cut his losses and used it as a parts rig.

At one point someone (pretty sure it was Larry) let me know that they were either traveling to Paris TX or being deposed as an expert witness for a case against at least one of the guys, perhaps both. I didn't keep up with it, but if you mention the radio crooks from Paris TX at hamfests around here, a good number of the folks know immediately who you're referring to. They even had an ebay account for a while with feedback that made radio-mart look angelic.

The old adage still applies: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Wink

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« Reply #61 on: December 04, 2010, 03:07:35 PM »

As for the Glob 500 replica, (not their other used radio dealings) I'll bet they started out with good intentions as almost all ventures do. They soon realized they had bitten off way more than they could chew for the money and later tried to severely cut costs to pull it off.  In today's dollars, especially if you need to go to Peter Dahl for iron, that rig could cost $5K or more to make, after adding in labor and a profit. It might fly if built by the Chinese, but how many could they sell, 100 at most?  Grin

I don't think anybody would intentionally waste all that time with Leo, go thru the trouble of securing the parts suppliers, building, testing, etc just to have a failure and screw people. It was a venture that went broke and took some people with it, basically.

Even highly mass produced Asian riceboxes cost thousands. Imagine trying to build one of those in the USA.

The best way is to homebrew your own. Since we almost never get our time and money back out of a hobby project, might as well do it up right and go for the gusto. If nobody wants it after you die, have your heirs send it to the landfill or eBay the parts.

T

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Use an "AM Courtesy Filter" to limit transmit audio bandwidth  +-4.5 KHz, +-6.0 KHz or +-8.0 KHz when needed.  Easily done in DSP.

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« Reply #62 on: December 04, 2010, 04:03:31 PM »

If they called that rig something other then a 500D and did not try to pass it off as a King, He might have sold a few more. Looks like good intentions, Big iron, SS PS and audio input ect.

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