Who sez there are no bargains at hamfests anymore?

[w3jn]

At the Manasses, VA hamfest yesterday:

T-195/R-392 combo with cables, very nice condition, sold for $75
Rare Hammarlund HC-10 SSB converter $50(?)
Nice NC-2-40 with speaker - $100
Almost mint HQ-129 - $150

I scored a nice TMC PAL-350 linear (pair 4CX250s) - $30
Couple thousand NOS NTE and SK semiconductors - $5
A thousand or so pots - $5
Military loudspeaker (matches BC-348) - free
Nice new cast zinc chassis - $7 each
Pair TV-7 tube testers - $50

Git on out to them hamfests, boys, the bargains are still out there.  Also fun is meeting other AMers - saw Dave K2DK, Terry N4RQ amongst others.

[WA1GFZ]

John,
I need some 20K pots with 1/8 inch shaft. Straight leads out the back.
I'll make your money back if you have some.  fc

[w3jn]

If I got 'em they're yours, how long a shaft you need?

[WA1GFZ]

these need to mount in a 1/4 panel hole and shaft needs to be long enough for a knob. What at least 1/2 to 3/4 inch.  The three leads need to come out the back so they can be soldered into a PC board. TNX John. I will cover shipping and glad to throw in a buck each. fc

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

You're absolutely right, John. I've been saying the same thing for years. Folks seem to be a little too used to surfing epay and online stuff, forgetting that with minimal effort you can go to a hamfest and find stuff that you can actually see, touch, look inside of, even power up and test sometimes. And for less money!

Of course, the choice isn't always as extensive as online, but like epay or any other place, you never know what will show up. And it's a lot more fun to see friends and swap war stories, too!

[WA1GFZ]

Heck I've sold about 10 RA6830s without needing ebay.

[w3jn]

Frank - no joy on the pots.  Would pots of that size but with a screwdriver adjust work?  Shaft's not long enough to attach a knob.

[K1JJ]

John,
I need some 20K pots with 1/8 inch shaft.  fc

1/8" shafts?  A reeeeal man (gorilla) would snap em' off the first time he got excited...

T

[WA1GFZ]

No John I need them for RA6830 front panels when I convert them from DF to a normal radio. TNX for looking.

Tom Vu, you don't need to man handle a real radio out of flustration it just works without the need of 12 knobs. I hope you had the chance to use Bill's RF590 at Hostraders.  fc

[K1JJ]

Tom Vu, you don't need to man handle a real radio out of flustration it just works without the need of 12 knobs. I hope you had the chance to use Bill's RF590 at Hostraders.  fc

Yeah, I wud agree Franz. The less knobs the better. When using my older '89 FT-1000D for DX, I use only the VFO, volume and rarely the selectivity. No kidding. The rest are useless bells and whistles as far as I'm concerned. IF shift, notching, IF width, clarifier,etc ,etc - what a waste. Don't need no stinkin DSP either. And, I can hear as well and sometimes better than the best using the newest $10K rigs in the 75M DX window, caw mawn. The 1000D is a great RX with no need for RX bells and whistles.

I didn't get a chance to play with Bill's RX at HossTraders - just left it alone and it worked FB. Maybe that's a testimonial in itself, cuz in the other operating position with that Hammarlund?? RX I was constantly twisting knobs trying to pull stuff thru. I found myself apologizing to stations that I couldn't hear very well. Unless condix are good and stations strong, I always defer to a hi-tech RX for AM use.

T

[WA1GFZ]

Yup,
I lasted about 5 minutes at the other position. The FT1000D is an OK radio BTW.
I have been playing with the SDR / DSP stuff and find a slight advantage when there is a lot of noise. The coolest thing is the FFT spectrum display.
I think the best combination is a kick butt Analog Rf section with a DSP demodulator.
I'm setting up a dual receiver position to track 1 channel dsp and the other stock to really ring it out. It will also have a racal preselector ahead of it on both receivers.
Then I will compare both to the hot rod. 

[KE1GF]

Yep, I think I'll stick with my R390A and my RF590. Once you become a Prem-RX junkie there's no turning back.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

That Harris gear is still frontline stuff at our Office of Emergency Management, used for their FNARS station. I got a 'talking to' once by the director because I tuned one of the receivers off its guard frequency to listen to SW broadcasts during the blizzard of '93. Big double-rack unit, always seems to have one piece missing for servicing (usually one of the two receivers). It replaced a URC-32 which now resides at 'KAQ Radio, spared from the scrap heap.

Frank, did you have any of the Harris rigs at Hosstraders? I've never seen one up close, only pitchers.

[WA1GFZ]

Todd,
Bill owns one maybe he will send you a picture.
Yup Bill the R390 still holds its own at the big dance. It doesn't have great dynamic range but the clean LO and tuned preselector help a lot.
I almost hot rodded one but got a 6830 and lost interest. fc

[K1JJ]

75M has always been my favorite band for both AM local/DX and SSB DX window work.

I think the best receiving improvement I've made in the last decade was adding the dual diversity on the FT-1000D. Two completely separate internal receivers, antennas and stereo headphones. One system for each ear with one sync'd VFO tuning.  It's set up for West coast AM, South America or Europe.

Taking it a step further, last March I added a second beverage (phased) alongside the first, optimized for 75M NE. The two bevs are 175' apart, parallel, and fed in phase, 600' long, pointing NE. The side rejection leaped another 15db and the beamwidth narrowed down. The result is even less noise and a better signal to noise. You can't buy that in receiver design for any price.

So now, using the 2el quad in one ear and the phased beverages in the other, it's like hearing Europe in stereo, with lower noise. It was difficult to get my old single bev to perform as well as the 2 el quad. On 75M, many have tried to get their single bev to work as well as their Yagi in the past, and gave up. This second phased bev pair was just enuff to do it. We'll see what happens this season. With diversity, it's important to have the two antennas working close to equal. Otherwise, one is favored and it's almost better to go back to mono.

There's a lot of receiver pecker matching going on down there lately - a great place to prove out hot rod RX systems against real competitors. The USA guys sometimes get in a group and then work the weak Russians. After a while, it's clear who can hear the PW lower layers and who cannot. I've found that those $10K DSP rigs are not what they are advertised to be. Someday the DSP software will be more advanced and give a noticable edge, but for now, they seem to barely help. I'm talking about guys using full blown 4-square vertical systems and high Yagis down there. The old FT-1000D performs as well as those rigs - it just depends upon the antenna lash-up and location after that.  It like drag racing. There's super stock, alcohol - and then there's nitro...

It would be interesting to see the results if we hooked up some of these hot rod Racals in dual diversity over here.  One thing I should mention... QRM is almost never a problem in the 75M DX window. So I run my 1000D at full 2.8kc selectivity most of the time. ( a f-b helps a lot) The rare occassion is when there is a splattering US station, but most of the time it is dead quiet.  So aside from QRM/overload/selectivity, where would the Racal shine?

T

[WA1GFZ]

The problem with many of those $10K rigs is the analog BAs were removed and replaced with DSP functions. The blowby of the chaep analog sections screws up the DSP function.
The FT1000D is a good radio but the first and second IF are on the same board. no real isolation.
Say you claim to have a 100 dB dynamic range radio. Well who cares if your IF filter ultimate rejection is only 60 or 70 dB. Crap just blows around the filter.
Take the Harris RF590 and a 6830. Dual filters in the first IF really provide a brick wall for the second mixer. You ought to see what 8 KHz wide filters do.
Then there is the 455 kHz. IF filters. I found if you cascade them you can get 100 db of ultimate rejection but that takes shielding and isolation. My hot rod has 2 cascaded on the front of the IF and one at the output ahead of the detector. This also makes the skirts more vertical. I think my performance limit is the double shielded minature coax Racal uses. 100 dB is about all it will do. But then what do you do next run it through copper pipe.
Yup the DX window is usually quiet but in traffic you need the performance. K1MAN never hurt me with his rant on 90 and his signal was not that wide. You would think he was running FM for all the guys complaining about him.  Heck I could operate on 90 with the cubic R2307 and he didn't bother it.
I have found DSP functions are very cool in their place, the demodulator but don't replace the gate keeper...brick wall analog. 
yup I'm crazy
 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

After a while, it's clear who can hear the PW lower layers and who cannot.

JJ said that.

You've shown very clearly that the antenna system determines the received SNR. Doesn't matter what RX you put after a so-so antenna, you aren't gonna hear below the SNR. The guys spending $10k on a RX would have been better off spending that on their antenna system(s).

You got it all bro!

[KE1GF]

The problem with many of those $10K rigs is the analog BAs were removed and replaced with DSP functions. The blowby of the chaep analog sections screws up the DSP function.
The FT1000D is a good radio but the first and second IF are on the same board. no real isolation.
Say you claim to have a 100 dB dynamic range radio. Well who cares if your IF filter ultimate rejection is only 60 or 70 dB. Crap just blows around the filter.
Take the Harris RF590 and a 6830. Dual filters in the first IF really provide a brick wall for the second mixer. You ought to see what 8 KHz wide filters do.

Yep frank all true, here at the lab I've observed people complaining about intermod from adjacent channels, I hear nothing until I tune the offending station in the passband. I guess they're called roofing filters?, 16KC wide and there's two of them, the size of hockey pucks... too bad they're in the same module. Having a clean synth helps and so does the tracking pre-selector.

I'm hooked, never going back.

-Bill 'GF

[WA1GFZ]

Steve,
QRO also helps but yup you can't hear them if they are under the noise.
a good ant is key

Bill
It is interesting to listen to people complain about the wrong thing....
I don't know if HF350 roofing filters fit in your radio but they are 12.8 KHz wide.
I have a pair I going to use for a H mode mixer project.

Then there are the Cubic 10 KHz
or
Racal or WJ, 8 KHz units.
I have tried them all in various Racals I have built.
The 8s and 10s really tighten it up if you don't mind the AM high end clipped off.