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Author Topic: What was your first rig?  (Read 104347 times)
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The Slab Bacon
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« Reply #125 on: December 16, 2009, 12:43:26 PM »

Got it as a kit , and wired the tube sockets backwards...
Got Norm, k2klv, to fix her up for me...

klc

I had one of those, still got it! !
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W2PFY
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« Reply #126 on: December 16, 2009, 12:54:33 PM »

My fist rig was a Heathkit AT-1. I didn't have a hamboner license then in 1957. I used it on the CB band running obscene power* I found a plug in unit for screen modulation. Not knowing much about RF, I decided to make a linear using a single 807. It somehow worked. I don't know what I did with that gear. It is lost through the passage of time.


* Obscene power. A W2VJZ Ism for high power.   
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KB3RRX
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« Reply #127 on: December 16, 2009, 02:34:37 PM »

My first real ham rig was a Kenwood ts 130s (I know not AM)

My First glowing AM rig was and is my gonset g 50.

Dont crucify me im new at this Grin

KB3RRX
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WBear2GCR
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Brrrr- it's cold in the shack! Fire up the BIG RIG


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« Reply #128 on: December 16, 2009, 03:14:03 PM »


First rig was a 100% homebrew 6146 from the 1965 ARRL Handbook. (Blue cover).

Still have it.

Not sure what my first receiver was, I was handicapped, but I nagged my father to buy an "expensive" SB-301 after a while, like several years...

Novices had reduced power restrictions and were supposed to use xtals, iirc.

Looking back, I was too much into "following the rules" and should have "gone for it" a bit more - but at the time SSB was making a big push, so large plate modulated things were no longer very popular.

This is ca. ~1967 or so... maybe 68.

                                _-_-bear
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_-_- bear WB2GCR                   http://www.bearlabs.com
K5UJ
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« Reply #129 on: December 17, 2009, 12:01:08 AM »

Well, I don't know about the rest of ya but back when I got licensed we feared the FCC man.  When I was a novice if I'd had one of those DX60s ("90 watts for when you upgrade to General") I would have dutifully run it at the novice limit.  VFO?  No way--the FCC man might catch me!  $10,000 fine! (or some huge amount)  Then you went to the Post Office or Fed. Building to upgrade and see the Man in person.  They always very solemn.  No small talk with them, let me tell you.  Yikes!   You'd hand in your test sheet and stand there like it is the Judgement Day.  In Memphis we always got this guy from Atlanta who acted like Dennis Weaver in that cowboy tv show.  Only two things would come out of his mouth: "Pass."  or, "Failed to pass."  Everyone waiting in the hallway..."Did you pass?  Did you?  ...  I always thought this was another reason why not having FCC give the tests was a big mistake.  Now hams probably don't believe the FCC exists.  When you got out of there you wanted to obey Part 97.     
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WA2TTP Steve
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« Reply #130 on: December 17, 2009, 01:54:23 AM »

My first station consisted of a Heathkit AT-1 and the companion antenna tuner with the little neon bulb on the front. The AT-1 was the property of the Wantagh HS radio club which would lend them to novices to help them get on air. The receiver was a Heathkit AR-3 that I picked up for few bucks used. A real POS! I took the train into NYC’s radio row and picked up some Command set gear. I got a BC 454 receiver and BC T-19 transmitter for when I passed my general. I had fun with the AT-1/BC-454 combo into zepp antenna. I got my general a few months later and got the T-19 on the air…great to have a VFO. Parts from the Command sets were recycled for years in various HB projects including a 80-10 m transmitter with 6146 finals and modulators. Also a triple conversion receiver which was about the ugliest thing I ever built but it worked pretty good. Used it for 6 years!

Steve
WA2TTP
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WZ1M
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« Reply #131 on: December 17, 2009, 05:18:07 AM »

Two oatmeal boxes and 30 feet of string.
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Rob K2CU
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« Reply #132 on: December 17, 2009, 09:23:09 AM »

Fox hole radio made with a razor blade and pencil lead and the coil made from the magnet wire from an old model RR switch machine donated by my dad. Made BC band AM transmitter out of an AA5 receiver....grade 5.

 
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W2PFY
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« Reply #133 on: December 17, 2009, 10:42:56 AM »

Quote
Fox hole radio made with a razor blade

I just saw an ad on eBay the other day about the razor blades. Apparently the early razors were coated with silicon as a preservative. This was a request by the war department to meet spec. So that's why they worked as a diode.

Not sure if this is true, just what I read. 
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Ed - N3LHB
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« Reply #134 on: December 17, 2009, 05:52:11 PM »

First rig here was an ARC-2 transceiver runnning 30 or so watts AM and a Rat Shack DX150 for the RX, as the receive on the ARC-2 was 20 khz wide... 

Worked the Tim Tron that night... not sure ifin he was my first contact or not...
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K9TR
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« Reply #135 on: December 17, 2009, 06:19:05 PM »

Quote
Fox hole radio made with a razor blade

I just saw an ad on eBay the other day about the razor blades. Apparently the early razors were coated with silicon as a preservative. This was a request by the war department to meet spec. So that's why they worked as a diode.


Well.. my first AM receiver back in Detroit (age 9ish?) used the traditional Oatmeal box coil and a razor blade as part of the rectifier.  I can't remember if the Gillette "Blue Blades" were the ones that did or did not (coated?) work properly as rectifiers.  At any rate, the other half of my diode was a pencil lead wire-wrapped to the pointy end of a safety pin.  With a 30 foot wire out the 2nd floor window I had no problems picking up big-gun WJR and the Detroit Tigers games after probing around the razor blade with the lead-tipped pin.  Fun times.

I experienced an incredible improvement in performance after substituting a 1N34 later that summer  Smiley

Mark K9TR
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W3RSW
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Rick & "Roosevelt"


« Reply #136 on: December 17, 2009, 08:10:01 PM »

My dad bought me a Knight crystal set with the genuine 1N34, var. cap, phenolic coil form and fahnstock clips.  That's when I learned to run the coil wire through my knees for proper tension while winding.

I got one station daytime and two nightime.  I was so proud.
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RICK  *W3RSW*
k3sqp
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« Reply #137 on: December 18, 2009, 01:17:30 PM »

March 1962...6AG7/1625, 2 crapstals on 40 and no receiver. Oh yeah, I had a
Heathkit AR3..Again no receiver. Worked 38 states and 14 countries on 40.
3months late upgrade and shove a cathode modulator into the keyjack of the 1625...
Ah AM...
K3SQP
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hAM radio, The future is in the past...
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